Acknowledgements and Thanks
collated by Marion Hill
… to all who have enabled the continuation of
the Milton Keynes Song Book project:
The Living Archive MK (LAMK) Board of Trustees led by Roger Kitchen, with LAMK Vice-Chair David Bruce and General Manager Mel Jeavons. They have continued to give significant personal backing and unbridled access to the wealth of material in their archive for the expansion of the project. Poppy Hollman, erstwhile LAMK Vice-Chair and now LAMK’s Creative Coordinator, has throughout provided her support to LA Band performances.
The Living Archive Band (LAB) started up as a collection of musicians and singers for the earliest of LAMK’s community musical drama-documentaries. Throughout four decades, on stage or in clubs, LAB has performed more than 100 songs from the shows. The recordings of these, many of them on cassette tape, have been a priceless source for the Song Book:
All Change! (show performed in 1977, 1988, 1999)
Your Loving Brother Albert (1978, 1984, 1998)
Days of Pride (1981, 1993)
Sheltered Lives (1983)
Nellie (1984)
The Jovial Priest (1986)
Worker By Name (1991-2)
The Fabric of Milton Keynes (1994)
Bigger Brighter Better (1996)
In 2000, the LAB’s first CD album of songs from the shows was produced, Real Lives; the latest was created in 2019 A Bob a Bloody Day, focussing on the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
Five CD albums are now stored, at the British Library’s request, in the BL Sound Archive:
The Works (1994, Radio Ballad co-produced by BBC Three Counties Radio and LAMK)
All That’s Changed Vol 1 (2009, LAB recording of 14 LAMK songs)
All That’s Changed Vol 2 (2009, LAB recording of a further 14 LAMK songs)
The Horse and The Tractor (2015 LAMK Radio Ballad)
Calverton, the Songs (LAB 2015)
Throughout the 40 years of LAMK’s work, the LAB has continued to perform at events throughout Milton Keynes. This includes an annual MK Rose event on June 15th at where the life and death of a local teenage soldier of the Great War is commemorated, and the LAMK songs about him are performed.
Other events since the start of the MK Song Book project have included combined choir concerts – such as with the MK Community Choir’s 10th Anniversary Christmas Concert in 2018; and Turvey History Society’s concert ‘Words and Music for Remembrance’ with Jack in the Barrel in 2019 and 2022.
The Composers of LAMK songs
The songs were mostly created by performing members of the LA Band (LAB).
Three of the LAB’s mainstays in composition, performance, musicianship and production have died, but they live on in their wonderful songs:
Kevin Adams (1954 – 2020)
Brad Bradstock (1959 – 2023)
Paul Clark (1941 – 2015)
They were all key members of the LAB both as singers and accomplished instrumentalists:
‘I feel enormously privileged to have been able to perform with them all throughout the band’s development, a period covering nearly half a century. They all taught me beautiful music and harmonies and the wonderful poetry of lyrics.’ Marion Hill
There have been further significant composers who have created Living Archive music:
In the first community shows, J Cunningham was a lead singer and guitarist; and Rod Hall was an orchestral conductor. John Close, Rib Davis and Eileen Rafferty were all key creators of songs for the burgeoning LAB during the last two decades of the 20th century.
In later years, Craig McLeish, Director of MK Community Choir and MK Youth Choir, performed with the LAB as well as including them in concerts with his choirs; and Godfrey Yeomans has also added a new dimension to the LAB’s repertoire in his compositions and performances with the band over a number of years. Sue Malleson has been a stalwart LAB performer throughout half a century, since the opening show for MK Theatre in 1999 to the present set-up; she has also created song modifications often in collaboration with others.
Neil Mercer was the LAB’s original Musical Director and major composer for LAMK’s earlier shows. He has rejoined the current LA Band (2024) whose other members, along with Sue Malleson and Marion Hill :
Dave Crawford (singer and guitarist; performed in Kobold, and solo)
Vicky Holton (singer; jazz performer, and creative artist and designer)
Shahnaz Hussain-Hall (singer; Musical Director for Peppers’ Ghost Theatre Co)
Chris Mitchell (singer and guitarist; solo performer and Guernsey Stones architect)
Tom Hill (key board and guitar; composer/sound designer for Phase Music TV)
Mike Bedwell (bass guitar; performer with The Vagabond Kings
Other participants in the songs from stage and recordings include: members of the cast in the early All Change! (1977); musicians for the album Real Lives (2000); the Choirs of Loughton Manor First and Middle Schools, directed by Lizzie Bancroft, also a member of the LAB for some years; and Kevin Adams’ fellow musicians, Sheena Masson and Peter Tales.
Sometimes, a cassette tape has been all that was left of a song, but it is primarily the recorded performances that have been crucial to the Song Book Music Team in compiling the musical data that became the Milton Keynes Song Book.
Performances of songs from all these cassettes and CDs have been digitised with their links included in both the published and digitised Milton Keynes Song Book. By this means, they can continue to be used and enjoyed ad infinitum.
… to all who have enabled the continuation of
the Milton Keynes Song Book project:
The Living Archive MK (LAMK) Board of Trustees led by Roger Kitchen, with LAMK Vice-Chair David Bruce and General Manager Mel Jeavons. They have continued to give significant personal backing and unbridled access to the wealth of material in their archive for the expansion of the project. Poppy Hollman, erstwhile LAMK Vice-Chair and now LAMK’s Creative Coordinator, has throughout provided her support to LA Band performances.
The Living Archive Band (LAB) started up as a collection of musicians and singers for the earliest of LAMK’s community musical drama-documentaries. Throughout four decades, on stage or in clubs, LAB has performed more than 100 songs from the shows. The recordings of these, many of them on cassette tape, have been a priceless source for the Song Book:
All Change! (show performed in 1977, 1988, 1999)
Your Loving Brother Albert (1978, 1984, 1998)
Days of Pride (1981, 1993)
Sheltered Lives (1983)
Nellie (1984)
The Jovial Priest (1986)
Worker By Name (1991-2)
The Fabric of Milton Keynes (1994)
Bigger Brighter Better (1996)
In 2000, the LAB’s first CD album of songs from the shows was produced, Real Lives; the latest was created in 2019 A Bob a Bloody Day, focussing on the 1st and 2nd World Wars.
Five CD albums are now stored, at the British Library’s request, in the BL Sound Archive:
The Works (1994, Radio Ballad co-produced by BBC Three Counties Radio and LAMK)
All That’s Changed Vol 1 (2009, LAB recording of 14 LAMK songs)
All That’s Changed Vol 2 (2009, LAB recording of a further 14 LAMK songs)
The Horse and The Tractor (2015 LAMK Radio Ballad)
Calverton, the Songs (LAB 2015)
Throughout the 40 years of LAMK’s work, the LAB has continued to perform at events throughout Milton Keynes. This includes an annual MK Rose event on June 15th at where the life and death of a local teenage soldier of the Great War is commemorated, and the LAMK songs about him are performed.
Other events since the start of the MK Song Book project have included combined choir concerts – such as with the MK Community Choir’s 10th Anniversary Christmas Concert in 2018; and Turvey History Society’s concert ‘Words and Music for Remembrance’ with Jack in the Barrel in 2019 and 2022.
The Composers of LAMK songs
The songs were mostly created by performing members of the LA Band (LAB).
Three of the LAB’s mainstays in composition, performance, musicianship and production have died, but they live on in their wonderful songs:
Kevin Adams (1954 – 2020)
Brad Bradstock (1959 – 2023)
Paul Clark (1941 – 2015)
They were all key members of the LAB both as singers and accomplished instrumentalists:
‘I feel enormously privileged to have been able to perform with them all throughout the band’s development, a period covering nearly half a century. They all taught me beautiful music and harmonies and the wonderful poetry of lyrics.’ Marion Hill
There have been further significant composers who have created Living Archive music:
In the first community shows, J Cunningham was a lead singer and guitarist; and Rod Hall was an orchestral conductor. John Close, Rib Davis and Eileen Rafferty were all key creators of songs for the burgeoning LAB during the last two decades of the 20th century.
In later years, Craig McLeish, Director of MK Community Choir and MK Youth Choir, performed with the LAB as well as including them in concerts with his choirs; and Godfrey Yeomans has also added a new dimension to the LAB’s repertoire in his compositions and performances with the band over a number of years. Sue Malleson has been a stalwart LAB performer throughout half a century, since the opening show for MK Theatre in 1999 to the present set-up; she has also created song modifications often in collaboration with others.
Neil Mercer was the LAB’s original Musical Director and major composer for LAMK’s earlier shows. He has rejoined the current LA Band (2024) whose other members, along with Sue Malleson and Marion Hill :
Dave Crawford (singer and guitarist; performed in Kobold, and solo)
Vicky Holton (singer; jazz performer, and creative artist and designer)
Shahnaz Hussain-Hall (singer; Musical Director for Peppers’ Ghost Theatre Co)
Chris Mitchell (singer and guitarist; solo performer and Guernsey Stones architect)
Tom Hill (key board and guitar; composer/sound designer for Phase Music TV)
Mike Bedwell (bass guitar; performer with The Vagabond Kings
Other participants in the songs from stage and recordings include: members of the cast in the early All Change! (1977); musicians for the album Real Lives (2000); the Choirs of Loughton Manor First and Middle Schools, directed by Lizzie Bancroft, also a member of the LAB for some years; and Kevin Adams’ fellow musicians, Sheena Masson and Peter Tales.
Sometimes, a cassette tape has been all that was left of a song, but it is primarily the recorded performances that have been crucial to the Song Book Music Team in compiling the musical data that became the Milton Keynes Song Book.
Performances of songs from all these cassettes and CDs have been digitised with their links included in both the published and digitised Milton Keynes Song Book. By this means, they can continue to be used and enjoyed ad infinitum.