Kathryn Williams to complete her solo headline tour in Ipswich
St Peter’s by the Waterfront, the Ipswich based community arts and heritage centre is proud to be the final date on Kathryn Williams’ solo UK tour supported by Astrid Williamson on Friday 27th May 2016.
Kathryn will be performing music from her latest album Hypoxia released in 2015 with songs inspired by The Bell Jar, the only novel written by American writer and poet Sylvia Plath in 1963.
The project’s origins came in 2013 when Kathryn received a call from New Writing North asking if she would accept an open commission to write something about Plath for the Durham Book Festivals celebration of her life and work, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of The Bell Jars publication. Excited, but also somewhat intimidated by the prospect, Kathryn quickly realised that trying to write song lyrics for poems without using the actual poems or referencing them was going to be nigh on impossible, and as time passed what had seemed like a gift of making her own brief, turned to dread and foreboding as she desperately tried to find a way into the material.
Momentarily stuck, Kathryn began what was to be a revelatory rereading of The Bell Jar (which she hadn’t read since her teens): What I wasn’t prepared for was the muscular writing. The shocking, brutal honesty. The modernness. Thinking about a woman writing this 50 years ago was astounding. Struck by the book’s protagonist, and with a note of relief, the brief to write about the characters and themes in the book came into clear focus.
Newcastlebased Kathryn released her first album ‘Dog Leap Stairs’ on her own label Caw in 1999 on a budget of just £80. Her second record ‘Little Black Numbers’ was nominated for the Mercury Music Prize in 2000. She has collaborated and appeared on records by John Martyn, Bombay Bicycle Club, Marry Waterson and Neill Macoll, with whom she released the album ‘Two’ in 2008. She has played live with KT Tunstall, Ray Lamontagne and Martha Wainwright, amongst others.
Kathryn is also a member of The Crayonettes, the band she formed with friend Anna
Spencer. She released her eighth studio album – her first for OLI ‘The Quickening’ in 2010. This was followed up by ‘Crown Electric’ which was released in September 2013 and the single ‘Heart Shaped Stone’ was previewed on Radio 2 Playlisted.
Doors open from 7.30pm with music starting at 8pm. Tickets are £12 - click here to book.
