​The Living Archive Band

The Songs

 

Since the early days of the mid 1970s at least one hundred songs have been written for all sorts of projects. The band works around a repertoire of about thirty of those - and of course, new songs are added from year to year as new projects come to fruition.

 

The material in the Band’s songs reflects the thoughts and words of many real individuals, and has been culled from  hours of taped interviews as well printed sources such as newspapers and letters.
Nine songs are explored on this page. They were all performed by the band live on BBC Three Counties Radio, in conversation with presenter Luke Ashmead

The songs were divided three each between Bletchley, Stony Stratford and Wolverton, and the band reveal some of the background to their creation, at the same time displaying their passion for the work along with a sense of fun and musicianship.

 

Wolverton

Wolverton has probably featured the most in Living Archive productions. These three songs all come from different projects, and were all written by Paul Clark

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Bletchley

 

Three songs taken from ‘Bigger, Brighter, Better. The play was based on the memories of bombed-out Londoners who moved to the new town which was being super-imposed on the sleepy Buckinghamshire town- and of the local inhabitants, their new neighbours.

‘Settling In’ and ‘What do they Think...’ by Kevin Adams; ‘Wanting More...’  Neil Mercer.

Stony Stratford

Tom Worker’s reminiscences of life in Stony as he grew up in the early part of the 20h century. The Great War, the General Strike, The Depression- big themes that are the background to daily life in a country town. Neil Mercer wrote ‘A Few Coppers’; ‘The Bunny Run’ and ‘Little By Little’ was written

by Kevin Adams.