THE MIDDLEWICH SONG by Dom Collins

The exciting story of how this brilliant Manchester comedian and singer/songwriter got to play at the Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival.
Song written and perfomed by Dom, photos (mostly) by Cliff Astles, video compiled and produced by Dave Roberts. A SALT TOWN PRODUCTION

Since this video was produced Dom has gone on to even greater heights, having turned professional in 2014.

WATCH ON YOUTUBE

DOM COLLINS WEBSITE

First published 8th April 2012
Re-published 5th June 2014
and 8th April 2018

MIDDLEWICH'S MILLENNIUM DOME 2000

The 2000 Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival Committee:

Back row, l to r: Ian Murfitt, Mike Parsons, Dave Roberts, Dave Thompson, Mike Hough, Lynne Hardy

Front row, l to r: Richard Devaney, Peter Cox, Rita O'Hare, Julie Bickerton, Alison Roylance-White

by Dave Roberts

In June 2000 the Middlewich Folk & Boat Festival celebrated its eleventh birthday (it doesn't sound right, but it is) with a special 'Millennium Festival' to welcome a new century (and, yes, we did know that, officially, the new century didn't start until 2001, but sometimes you just have to go with the flow...) and to add our town's sixpenn'orth to the nation's celebration of the 21st Century.

Tony Blair's labour government was, at the time, desperately trying to convince the populace of the merits of its  Millennium Dome in Greenwich, London, and failing miserably.
The widespread view was that the whole thing was 'a waste of money'. 
The exhibition, housed inside the 'Dome' itself and showing, among other things, notable British achievements, was always doomed to failure; not because of what it contained, but because of what it missed out.
The list of British inventions, ideas and institutions unrepresented was as long as your arm.
There was, for instance, and quite disgracefully, not a single mention of the railways, despite the country being the birthplace of this most civilised form of transport.
The Greenwich Millennium exhibition was open throughout the year and attendances diminished and diminished until the whole project ended in financial failure and ignominy.
Middlewich's own dome fared better.
If it looks a bit like a circus tent, that's because that's what it was.
Shrewdly, Dave Thompson  the festival's director, did a deal with a travelling circus which wanted to come to Middlewich anyway, and was able to extend the F&B Festival to include circus performances in the days running up to the weekend.
An added bonus was that the circus performers  could provide circus skills workshops for local children.
Over the  weekend the circus tent was used as the festival's main performance venue and dubbed 'The Middlewich Millennium Dome'.
I MC'd the first concert of the weekend on the Friday and the very first round of applause was for the marquee itself.
The only drawback was for photographers who, in those (mostly) pre-digital days found that every photo they took came out with either a red or yellow cast to it (wider shots, I suppose, featured a fetching mixture of the two) but all in all it was a resounding success.

The idea of a circus marquee standing in for the 'dome' is not so far away from the original concept.

The Greenwich Millennium Dome is itself supposed to represent a large marquee covering the actual exhibition hall inside. The twelve yellow supports represent the twelve hours of the day* - a reference to Greenwich's role in international time-keeping (the meridian runs very close to the structure). The Millenium Dome was also intended to remind people of the 'Dome of Discovery' at the 1951 Festival of Britain.

In the present day the dome is part of the 02 Arena, and the white surface of the dome itself has really come into its own as a giant 'screen' on which all kind of light and laser shows can be presented.

*there are those who say that they represent, not the hours of the day, but the months of the year. Take your choice...

FOLK & BOAT FESTIVAL TEAM HELP OUT, MAY 1996

by Dave Roberts
Today is the birthday of our erstwhile colleague Mike Appleton, now living overseas, and we thought it would be nice to dig out this newspaper photograph from our archives (actually the Folk & Boat Festival Archives) as it shows not only Mike but also other members of the then Folk & Boat Festival Committee (or 'team' as we liked to call ourselves in those days) including, very unusually, me (that's me front left, pretending to know one end of a bodhran from another).
The occasion was a photocall for the Middlewich Chronicle's 'Stacey Pushchair Appeal' and the pub in the background is the King's Lock.
 The F&B Committee were planning a special concert for the appeal which was raising money to help purchase a new state-of-the-art pushchair to make life easier for 19 month old toddler Stacey Preston and her parents who lived in Whitley Close.
Quite why the photographer should have chosen Mike and me to head the photograph, leaving lesser team members seething in the background is not clear (although Mike really did play the guitar and, presumably, still does).
For myself, whenever I look  in the mirror these days and note with alarm the  thinning hair and expanding waistline, I can console myself with the thought that at least I don't look like I did then.
Mike, of course, hasn't changed one iota.
Happy Birthday Mike!