LAMK Projects sourced for this collection:
In 1975, Roy Nevitt and the Stantonbury Campus Drama Group (SCDG) gave to Milton Keynes their first-ever experience of a large-scale musical documentary play with The Burston School Strike, written and directed by Roy. But in 1977 came Milton Keynes’ first home-based documentary musical, about the railway transforming the area 140 years before: Roy again wrote and produced the play, All Change! with research by Margaret Broadhurst. It was enriched by the creativity of SCDG members and articulated in song by local musicians who were given a selection of documentary source materials with a specific request for a song to meet a specific need within the context of the developing script. They produced 17 songs for this play, recorded on an LP during one busy weekend! Although only one survives from the original production for this collection, the die was cast for creating further original songs from local sources. Your Loving Brother Albert came next in 1980, which Roy wrote alone for a conference at Stantonbury using the letters from a boy-soldier of Wolverton that fellow LAMK co-founder Roger Kitchen had lent him. From then on Roger became more involved and became co-writer/deviser of Days of Pride, The Jovial Priest, Sheltered Lives and Nellie, which was Roy’s last documentary (1984). Rib Davis continued the tradition of documentary plays in Milton Keynes for several more years: his productions included Worker by Name and, co-produced with Roger, Bigger Brighter Better.
The projects that generated the songs for this collection are:
• Your Loving Brother Albert (1980): the story of Albert French of Wolverton (1898-1915)
• Days of Pride (1981, revised 1994): Hawtin Mundy’s war and life on the Home Front 1914-18
• The Jovial Priest (1982): the story of Reverend Newman Guest of New Bradwell (1862-1946)
• Sheltered Lives (1983): life for the Wolverton community on the Home Front 1940s
• Nellie (1984): the story of Nellie Abbott née Smith of New Bradwell (1895-1982)
• Worker By Name (1992): the story of a Stony Stratford resident in the first part of the 20th century
• Fabric of MK (1994): the inter-weaving of the different communities in Milton Keynes New City
• The Works (1994): the story of Wolverton Works as it faced decline in the 1980s
• Bigger Brighter Better (1996): the story of Bletchley 1944-66
• All Change! (revised 1999): the story of the coming of the railway to the Milton Keynes area from 1838
• Calverton Manor Farm (2015): the story of a farming community 1930-1950s
The projects that generated the songs for this collection are:
• Your Loving Brother Albert (1980): the story of Albert French of Wolverton (1898-1915)
• Days of Pride (1981, revised 1994): Hawtin Mundy’s war and life on the Home Front 1914-18
• The Jovial Priest (1982): the story of Reverend Newman Guest of New Bradwell (1862-1946)
• Sheltered Lives (1983): life for the Wolverton community on the Home Front 1940s
• Nellie (1984): the story of Nellie Abbott née Smith of New Bradwell (1895-1982)
• Worker By Name (1992): the story of a Stony Stratford resident in the first part of the 20th century
• Fabric of MK (1994): the inter-weaving of the different communities in Milton Keynes New City
• The Works (1994): the story of Wolverton Works as it faced decline in the 1980s
• Bigger Brighter Better (1996): the story of Bletchley 1944-66
• All Change! (revised 1999): the story of the coming of the railway to the Milton Keynes area from 1838
• Calverton Manor Farm (2015): the story of a farming community 1930-1950s