New album, video and album launch

Our new album, ‘A sudden rain’, is now available. After a long songwriting drought, spending time in Nepal in 2019 reawakened my creativity and all but one of the songs emerged over the following year and a half. However, lockdowns restricted our opportunities to rehearse, play and record the songs. They have only reached their current form thanks to Lucinda Fudge and Matt Kelly, whose beautiful string arrangements brought them to life, and to Rhys Wilson, who in addition to his own musical contributions gave patient advice and help with recording and production, and mastered the album. Hedy Boland played kora on ‘Boulevard de Strasbourg’ and the choir Mnatobi joined me for a re-recording of Thessalonika. You can listen to, order or download the album here.

I’ve prepared a video for the first song on the album, ‘Panauti’. Panauti is a small rural town a two-hour bus ride east of Kathmandu, and we stayed there with the family of Biju and her daughters Aayusha and Nirusha. The welcome they gave us was beyond compare – it was a privilege to meet them and our stay was most memorable. The video includes pictures of the town, surrounding countryside and the family. There is more about our stay in Panauti here and you can watch the video below:

Lucinda, Matt, Rhys and I will be launching the album at Cambridge Folk Club on March 22nd, in partnership with The Battered Case (Mark Gamon and friends). The concert will start at 8pm and takes place in the Golden Hind, 355 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1SP. Tickets are available here.

We will also be playing songs from the album in Rock Road Library on May 24th, and will play a short set in support of Angeline Morrison at the Black Fen Folk Club on March 17th.

Press release for ‘A sudden rain’

Consumate storyteller explores new musical territory with addition of evocative string arrangements.

Release date and album launch at Cambridge Folk Club: 22nd March 2022.

On his ninth album ‘A Sudden Rain’ Cambridge-based lyrical storytelling songwriter John Meed explores new musical ideas and territory with the addition of evocative and emotive string arrangements and a choir. ‘The songs only reached their current form thanks to Lucinda Fudge and Matt Kelly, whose beautiful string arrangements brought them to life, and to Rhys Wilson, who gave patient advice and help with recording and production, and who mastered the album’ says John. Equally the choir Mnatobi joined him on Thessalonika, and Hedy Boland played kora on Strasbourg.

Regarding the songs John states that ‘After a long songwriting drought, spending time in Nepal in 2019 reawakened my creativity and all but one of these songs emerged over the following year and a half.’ Four songs on the album: Panauti, Real life, Summer rain and Progress, were directly inspired by the Nepal experience. John adds: ‘In Panauti we had the great privilege to stay with a local family, whose hospitality was remarkable. And across the country, we were time and again touched by the warmth of the welcome we received.’

Real life stories have always inspired John and this is certainly the case with three of the album’s songs. On Le boulevard du Strasbourg John states that: ‘Les 18 du 57 boulevard du Strasbourg’ – workers without papers – went on strike against their appalling working conditions, and won the right to regularisation after occupying their workplace. Many of the words for the song come from the workers themselves in a film produced by the Collectif des Cinéastes pour les sans-papiers’. Cotton famine road tells the story of how the American civil war cut off supplies of cotton to the Lancashire mills. Rochdale mill workers, aware that their cotton had been picked by slaves, supported the struggle for freedom, despite the resulting ‘cotton famine’. Public funding paid them to build the road across Rooley Moor, an area where John used to walk during his childhood.

Thessalonika is an older song that John had always wanted to re-record with strings and a choir. ‘It’s about Zoe Kaltaki, a remarkable Greek woman who fought the Nazis in her native Greece, and then fought for the communists against the Greek army, before fleeing to exile in Czechoslovakia’ he states. ‘When she finally returned home she was asked where she felt more at home and she replied, rather ambiguously, ‘I feel at home where I can be myself’. John comments: ‘I felt her story somehow summed up the turbulent twentieth century.’

The remaining 3 songs tell differing tales. Rooted is a song of belonging or seeking to belong, Arden, with its nod to Shakespeare, is an emotive tale, while the album concludes with Don’t Look Back urging us to learn from the past, but to look to the future. John’s writing has been compared to Al Stewart, Leonard Cohen, Christy Moore, Jacques Brel and Richard Thompson, widely reviewed and played on many BBC and community radio shows and stations across the UK and beyond.

‘A sublime singer-songwriter, whose beautiful songs are thoughtful, emotional and political.’ Strummers, Cambridge

Listen/buy on Bandcamp.

The value of arable weeds: a case study

I tread carefully over a carpet of field pansies and scarlet pimpernel. A host of bees and other pollinators buzz around me. Overhead fly linnets and a family of corn buntings. The nearby grassy margin is alive with grasshoppers and moths. And I am reminded once more of the value of arable weeds to the threatened farmland birds that do so well in the fields I study just south of Cambridge.

Weeds provide food for the birds in the form of leaves, shoots and seeds. They are host plants for the invertebrates that grey partridge chicks and other young birds depend on in their early days. As I describe in A haven for farmland birds, the intensification of farming and in particular the increased use of pesticides are among the main reasons for the shocking declines of farmland birds.

During the spring and summer of 2023, three of the fields – owned by Cambridgeshire County Council and farmed by Peter Wombwell – were planted with beans. As May progressed, a variety of weeds grew between the bean plants, including on the right fumitory, a plant whose flowers provide nectar for pollinators, whose leaves are eaten by a range of invertebrates, and whose seeds provide food for finches and buntings.

As the beans ripened in late July, grasses and flowering plants came into their own:

By early August I was recording good numbers of butterflies, notably small heaths and gatekeepers, but also the stunning brown argus butterflies (right, a female), which already have a small colony elsewhere on the site. Might they be establishing a colony here as well?

Once the crop was harvested around August 17th, the potential benefits to wildlife became even clearer. As well as the pansies and scarlet pimpernel, there was a riot of other flowering plants, including poppies, thistles, yarrow, and mayweed. Many of the flowers were going to seed, attracting finches and buntings. One grassy corner had been left uncut, providing potential cover for the grey partridge that have hopefully been able to raise their young here.

The fields were cultivated a week after harvest, bringing the weed bonanza to an end, but they had nonetheless provided valuable additional food through a crucial time of the year. I checked with the landowner whether herbicide had been applied and although the farmer did spray early, the weather and the type of herbicide used combined to reduce the impact on weeds. I also checked whether the weeds may have had a negative impact on the crop. In practice, yield was down by a quarter to a third, but this was principally due to the frosty weather which knocked back some of the bean plants and left the crop a bit more gappy than usual (which also benefited the weeds and butterflies).

One of the most interesting things about the area of land I study is that such a good level of biodiversity is able to coexist with intensive and profitable agriculture. Several factors contribute to this, of which the variety of habitats (particularly margins) is key, but reduced pesticide use like this is clearly also important.

And on September 11th I recorded a group of 17 grey partridge by one of the fields – a remarkable number which suggested that the young birds had received a good diet in the crucial early weeks.

BTO review of ‘A haven for farmland birds’

A while ago I sent a review copy of my book ‘A haven for farmland birds’ to the BTO (British Trust for Ornithology) and the review is now available via this link.

It’s a lovely review, written by the BTO’s Wader Project Officer, Paul Noyes, who concludes:

‘We are lucky to have people like John, who will spend long hours peering over hedgerows and creeping through ditches, watching for the great British natural capital we are all too often oblivious of (as the book’s final two pages may sadly indicate), and this lovely book is well worth the 144 whistle-stop pages.’

The cold spell around Nine Wells

December 5th 2022 saw the start of a very cold fortnight in Cambridge. Temperatures rarely rose above zero, and fell to -11.3C early in the morning of the 15th; 10+cm of snow fell in the night of the 11th and stayed until the 19th. Ponds and lakes froze, and even the Cam had started to ice up by the 18th.

The lake in Hobson’s Park across the railway line was no exception. However the springs in Nine Wells continued to flow, and indeed on the coldest morning a misty steam rose from Hobson’s Brook. The area rapidly attracted the waterbirds that were displaced from the lake.

Snipe have always been occasional visitors but following the snowfall I counted five around Nine Wells and along the brook and nearby hedges. Little egret (right) and grey heron, more regular visitors, also appeared. Two new species to the site were more surprising: a couple of teal in the springs, while a family of five barnacle geese sought food in areas of the stubble field where the snow as less deep.

Other winter visitors flocked to the area – up to 200 redwing (below left and centre) thronged the hedgerows and shrubby areas, growing less timid as the cold spell wore on. This is more than I normally record around the site and more than were present immediately before of after the freeze began – it is possible that they were drawn by the presence of water, which may also have made adjoining areas slightly less cold. Good numbers of fieldfare (below right) were also present.

And one more treat lay in store on the 15th: another new species for the area, lesser redpoll, which called from one of the bushes along the brook.

For more about my study of the wildlife in the fields around Nine Wells, see my book A haven for farmland birds.

Reactions to ‘A haven for farmland birds’

I’ve been receiving some nice reactions to A haven for farmland birds. Mark Avery, former Conservation Director at the RSPB, wrote in his Sunday Book Review that:

‘The book is about farmland birds, that bunch of declining species whose overall numbers have more than halved in my lifetime and focuses on the author’s counts and observations in a small but rich area of the Cambridge green belt… One can’t help but like the author through reading his words – I did anyway. He is an enthusiast and part of the charm of the book is his growing knowledge, understanding and enthusiasm for the location and its wildlife. All field biologists tend to fall in love with their chosen study areas and species of interest – and quite right too!’

Duncan Grey, writing in Shelford Village News, commented:

‘Meed is a wise companion in a walk around the fields, showing us what we might otherwise have missed, explaining the changes of the influences of the seasons on bird feeding and migration and providing asides on everything from the history and geography to the migration of the albatross.’

I’ve also received encouraging feedback from readers, including ‘What a fascinating book’, ‘I never had imagined I could get so interested in grey partridges’ and ‘marvellous book’, while a former farmer commented that he ‘could not put it down’. Chris in Harrogate adds:

‘I have just finished reading your book – what an excellent achievement. I’m immensely impressed with your commitment, knowledge and expertise. I enjoyed the relating of your experiences as well as gaining a lot of knowledge about the birds and wildlife.’

I will be giving some talks about the book over the coming months: Friday, February 24th from 7pm in Rock Road Library, and September 25th to the Cambridge Local Wildlife Group. I have also prepared a video to accompany the book:

A haven for farmland birds is available from NHBS or my Bandcamp page.

New book and album

With the complications associated with Covid over the least 2+ years I’ve had very little news to share with you. But, rather like London buses (or possibly the last bus to Leeds), you wait for ever for an item of news, and then three come along at once.

Firstly, many of you will know that I am also a writer and researcher. I conduct ecological surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology (BTO), the RSPB, and the UK Butterfly Monitoring Scheme. Over the last ten years I have been surveying the wildlife in a group of arable fields in the green belt just south of Cambridge which provide a home for threatened farmland birds including grey partridge, corn bunting and yellow wagtail. I have learnt much about their ecology, why they are under such threat, why they flourish in the small area I study, and about their fascinating and comples behaviour, relationships and social lives. And I have just published a book, A haven for farmland birds, which describes what I have learnt. You can read more about it here and you can order a copy here.

Secondly, Rhys and I had long harboured the idea of revisiting some of my early songs live – just me with a guitar or piano – to reflect better how I play them now. During the Covid lockdowns a genuinely live album became impossible, so the closest we could get was to record each song in Rhys’s front room in a single take. And in the end we were even able to record The last bus to Leeds live at the Cambridge Folk Club this February. The ten songs are now available on a new album, ‘Almost live’. You can listen, order or download it from my Bandcamp page and I will have copies at my forthcoming gigs.

Talking of which, I have a very local gig on September 30th, organised by the friends of Rock Road library. It was originally planned for the library itself, but will now take place in the Friends Meeting House in Hartington Grove. This is a double-header with the String Section, and I will be joined by Lucinda Fudge (viola), Matt Kelly (violin and viola) and Rhys Wilson (guitar). Entry is free.

Back on stage

I hope you have been surviving the strange times we have lived through over the last two years. It’s been a difficult time for all involved in the music scene, but I’m especially conscious of the small clubs who have had to navigate their way through changing and often opaque restrictions while caring for the health and well-being of their audiences and performers. I have many reasons to be grateful for the support of Cambridge Folk Club over the years – they nurtured me through my early years as a performer and even enabled me to share a stage with the legendary Norma Waterson who so sadly passed away last month. And they rose to the challenges presented by the pandemic with their characteristic good humour and great competence, firstly running on-line Zoom concerts (of which a highlight for me was an unexpected star appearance by Boo Hewardine’s cat!!) and then experimenting with a different venue for social distancing purposes. All of this, I know, takes time, energy and commitment.

But they are now back in their usual venue and I’m therefore especially pleased that my first gig of 2022 will be at their showcase on Friday February 18th. Also playing will be two singer-songwriters who I hold in high esteem: Gary Woolley and Belinda Gillett. It takes place in the Golden Hind, 355 Milton Road, Cambridge CB4 1SP; the music starts at 8pm and tickets (£9) are available from the club’s website. Do check out the other gigs they have planned – the club deserves all the support we can give them.

Looking ahead to later in the spring, I have two church concerts planned for May in collaboration with Thursday’s Band: Saturday May 14th in St John the Evangelist, Hills Rd, Cambridge CB2 8RN (https://www.stjohntheevangelistcambridge.org) and Saturday May 28th in St Mary’s Church, High Street, Ware, SG12 9EH at 7.30pm (https://arts.stmarysware.co.uk/upcoming-events/). A third may also happen at the very start of May – you will be the first to hear!
It would be lovely to see you at one or more of these events; but I completely understand anyone who feels it may still be too early to venture out at this stage.
With my best wishes, especially for good health

Goodbye 2020

I don’t think any of us will be too sad to say goodbye to 2020. It has been a difficult year for everyone, and I hope you have been able to survive so far. Here are my annual musical reflections.

I managed a handful of gigs before the lockdowns started, though that all seems a very long time ago now! Thursday’s Band I played a lovely concert to a packed Stotfold Church (Bedfordshire) in February and with Mark Gamon’s help managed to film a new song, ‘Progress’, with Lucinda Fudge on viola and Matt Kelly on violin. You can watch it here:

After that the only scope for live music was Zoom and Facebook Live – not the real thing of course, but it helped to keep us slightly saner. Most of the concerts I have taken part in (and helped organise in the case of Cambridge Acoustic Nights) are still available online – there are links on my gigs page.

Despite all the problems there has been some really good new music this year. Here are some of my favourites:

– Adrianne Lenker’s ‘
– Juliana Barwick’s ‘

– Swedish duo I Break Horses’ ‘

– Harpist Mary Lattimore’s ‘

– Scottish/Lancastrian band Modern Studies’ ‘

– Yorkshire group The Howl and the Hum’s ‘
Hostages
– The sensational ‘Kick‘ from Spanish Love Songs

It’s been a tough year for musicians – the absence of their usual revenue from live concerts leaves music sales as their main source of income. So please consider buying music direct from the artists (I have given Bandcamp addresses where possible), or from independent record shops, rather than streaming via Spotify et al who pay artists virtually nothing.

Away from the music, it’s been a difficult year for us personally, as indeed for so many people. We lost both my sister and Isabelle’s mum in the autumn – indeed the two funerals took place just a week apart. I gave a tribute to my sister which you can read here.

I did at least have more time for my ecological survey work. If that interests you, there are more details here.

Here’s hoping that once enough of us are vaccinated (my 94 year-old mum has just had her first one) live music will once again become more feasible and that we’ll perhaps be able to share a real concert before too long. And here’s wishing you as good a festive season as will be possible in this so unusual year, and good health for the year to come.

My sister Catherine

At the start of 2020 my sister Catherine was diagnosed with a return of a cancer that we thought had been cured four years ago. The doctors were not able to find a treatment that could help her, but she bore the pain and discomfort with great patience. She died on October 31st. Here is the text of the tribute I gave at her funeral on November 16th.

My very first memory is of a newborn Catherine coming home from hospital with our mother, Beryl, to the terraced house on the Spotland Road in Rochdale where we lived while the vicarage was being prepared. It was in Rochdale that we learnt that Catherine would go through life with learning disabilities. As I grew older, and after we had moved away from Rochdale, I became conscious of the prejudice that disability could provoke – but as school friends visited our house, Catherine’s gentle kindness and her joyful happiness helped them to see that disability was not something to be feared or laughed at, but something that brought its own love, strengths and specialness.

Catherine has had a profound influence on me. I have learnt much from her and a friend wrote how ‘she seems to have a kind presence’ in me; I hope that is true. I’ve had messages from friends across the country, and even Australia. Catherine loved it when my university friends came to stay and Pam, widow of my best friend Dave, wrote: ‘Cathy was a lovely soul. I remember her singing and happiness when we visited you.’

After moving to the village of Felsham in Suffolk with our parents, Beryl and Harry, Catherine’s influence spread through the community. I have been conscious going through the messages we have received that people in the village clearly loved her and also, to quote Beryl’s friend Elizabeth, her own ‘deep sense of security, knowing she was loved’. The vicar, Sharon Potter, described how ‘it has been a privilege to be involved with Catherine’ while Richard Stainer recalled ‘such fond memories of Catherine’. A special memory for many is caught by the former vicar, Simon: ‘her spontaneous, enthusiastic joy and shrieks as she skipped up and down the aisle before a service’. She also enjoyed theatre visits with Beryl, especially to the opera and above all the ice cream during the break!

Stowmarket Community Hub became a central part of Catherine’s life. Team members there recall ‘Catherine’s beautiful keyboard playing and her willingness to take part in a variety of activities both at the Hub, the local leisure centre and out in the community’. At the time, ‘Catherine was the only learning disabled person ever to be accepted into the Stowmarket Art Club and have four paintings on show at the annual art exhibition at the URC church in Stowmarket. Her landscape of a poppy field was accepted by the Town Council.’ Her remarkable self-portrait is on the right.

Roy, for many years her key worker, describes how her artistic talent stood out: ‘Her ability was always there and, in time, she developed a confidence and style all of her own, enhanced by the transition from working on paper to canvas. She was always happy, choosing whichever subject she wanted to work on, never worried about trying something a little more challenging, applying herself with her usual patience and eye for detail. The results speak for themselves, her legacy, a remaining source of pleasure and amazement, not only for myself but for everyone involved at the time. An inspiration.’

Over 20 years ago a vital new chapter of Catherine’s life opened as she moved to Combs Court. I have become increasingly conscious over recent times of just how much Catherine was loved and valued by everyone at Combs – and also of how much she enriched their lives with her kind, gentle sunshine. When Beryl broke her leg in Cambridge in 2017 it was the ever-helpful and capable Catherine who tidied the hotel room and did the packing – and when we asked her where she wanted to spend the night she made it clear she wanted to return to Combs. So I’d like to close by quoting some moving words from Wendy, who stood close beside her throughout her illness.

‘Catherine was a kind, loving person and her artwork was amazing. She will be a great loss to us all and we will miss her dearly. We are one big family with a hole in our hearts now.’

Beryl requested that one of my songs, ‘Tenderness’ be played at the funeral. Here it is: