Support Chesterfield gig in aid of town food bank

WSO (We Shall Overcome) and Spire Writes are proud to present Quiet Loner - the Battle for the Ballot, an event including sets by Kev Titterton and Ichabod.

The Battle for the Ballot is a live show and album, born from a unique collaboration between a museum and a songwriter.

Singer-songwriter Quiet Loner uses original songs inspired from the collection of the People’s History Museum, in a live performance that crosses the centuries to show how the right to vote was won.

Beginning in the Industrial Revolution, the story will take in events like the Peterloo Massacre and introduce the men and women – reformers, revolutionaries, campaigners, chartists, suffragists and suffragettes – who fought for the ideal of ‘Universal Suffrage’, which was finally achieved in 1928.

Working alongside museum curators, Hill took inspiration from physical objects in the collection as well as drawing on historical source materials and first hand testimonies. Whilst there are songs of struggle here, such as the harrowing ‘St Peter’s Field’ (describing the events of the 1819 Peterloo Massacre and based on the testimony of radical Samuel Bamford) there are also songs of joyful solidarity (Banners held high) and shared purpose (Half a dozen demands).

Launched for Manchester Histories Festival in June 2016, The Battle for the Ballot is a show about standing up and speaking out, the importance of knowing your history and how rights are never given, they must be fought for. This educational, entertaining and thought-provoking show is not be missed.

Kev Titterton is well known to audiences at the Chesterfield Labour Club, having previously performed barnstorming sets of uncompromising poetry. He returns to deliver another blistering set of poems about fightback and struggle.

The Labour Club’s resident musical genius Ichabod also returns - a recent set was described by poet Helen Mort as “spine-tingling” and his performances over the past year have drawn favourable comparisons to artists as diverse as Anthony and the Johnsons, Edwyn Collins, Elvis and Tom Waits. The diversity and quality of the comparisons only underlines his uniqueness as an artist.

Doors open at 7.30pm and entry is £5.

Chesterfield Labour Club is based at 113 Saltergate.