In association with Bath Film Festival and in promotion of the F-Rating – a rating awarded to films either directed or written by a woman – the orchestra played a pair of gigs, both at Colston Hall’s Lantern and in Stroud’s Goods Shed.
The music performed was written entirely by women and included works by Joni Mitchell, The Roches, Connie Converse, Ivor Cutler (close enough!), Beyonce, and P. J. Harvey. The orchestra was also joined by special guests Rita Lynch and Djanan Turnan performing arrangements of their own songs.
On 8 February 2018 we did Len again, this time to a sold-out Colston Lantern.
Our evening showcasing the songs of Leonard Cohen featured vocal guests including Jimmy Goodrich, Lady Nade, Billie Bottle, Nuala Honan and Emily Breeze.
The Fantasy Youth Orchestra Workshop “Rhythms Of The World”
age range – 10-18yrs
location – The Trinity Centre
dates – 30th July – 3rd Aug 2018
concert 1 – 5th august Trinity Centre
concert 2 – 18 august Colston Hall
Fresh from a month traveling in India, the Fantasy Orchestra present a week of music workshops aimed at young people who play instruments and can read music to a basic standard.
The repertoire will bring together music from all over the world including African, Indian, Turkish, American and European pieces with an emphasis on different cultures.
The workshops take place Mon 30 July – Fri 3 August, 2-4pm
The cost will be ÂŁ15 for the week or ÂŁ3 per 2 hour session (with concessions available – please ask).
On Sunday the 5th august workshop participants will be joined by regular members of the
Fantasy Orchestra for a performance celebrating Rhythms Of The World. There will be a 2nd performance at The Colston Halls Hoo Haa event on Sat 18th August
To mark the 50th anniversary of the Summer of Love, we premiered a new set of arrangements of tunes from ’67, including music by the Velvet Underground, Buffalo Springfield, the Doors and The Association.
With the help of several friends from our Paris chapter, we took over Kings Weston House on 17 June for our big summer event, featuring oil projectors, floral outfits and several different mini-ensembles.
Besides our main outdoor set, there were plenty of mellow happenings within. It all came to a storming climax around midnight from prog rock maestros Asteroid Deluxe.
Fantasy Orchestra leader and guiding light, Jesse D Vernon, writes:
As committed-for-life fans of Ursula Le Guin, my wife Kate and I decided to start running appreciation days when we discovered some amazing music, composed by Todd Barton, to accompany one of her  books, Always Coming Home. Published in 1985, about a cultural group of humans—the Kesh—who “might be going to have lived a long, long time from now in Northern California.” (p. i) Part novel, part textbook, part anthropologist’s record, Always Coming Home describes the life and culture of the Kesh people.
Todd Barton wrote a selection of folk songs and music which the Kesh might have been going to sing and they make wonderful listening and a great subject for a singing workshop and performance.
5pm we watched the film “The Lathe Of Heaven” followed by a discussion lead by Sheryl Robinson and the Bristol Utopian Book Collective.
7pm We were treated to a talk by Helena Hoyle-King about maps featured in the novels of Ursula Le Guin. This was followed by a map making workshop  lead by . Helena.
Here are some of the maps made:
8pm “Mothers Of The Terrible Glow” performed some of their sci-fi inspired instrumentals with excellent introductions, explanations and insights from Daniel Potter.
Kent was our oyster in late August 2016, as we bicycled merrily from Graveney to Deal, with stops (and gigs) in Canterbury, Margate, Ramsgate and Broadstairs.
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We rendezvoused with the Orchestra’s newly hatched Kent chapter…
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and pedalled on to the Smugglers Festival in Little Mongeham near Deal. If we get a good pic of the show, we’ll chuck it here!
We celebrated the World’s Most Famous Unknown People at the Cube on 2 April, with a set including music by Connie Converse, Judee Sill and – in person – Andy Skellam and (below) Rita Lynch:
we popped along the M4 for a set at the Ivy House in Nunhead on 23 April;
we donned appropriate cossies for an Apes Alliance benefit at the University of Bristol on 28 April;
and we played two sets at the Big Love Festival in Hay-on-Wye on 30 April/1 May.
We then split ourselves in two on the weekend of 7 May: while most of our number played at the Park Row Sustrans Festival in Bristol, several of us hopped on Eurostar to join our friends in the Paris Fantasy Orchestra’s for their Bowie Party.
We beguiled the long dark evenings with a few gigs and polished up some new material, which we unveiled at Bristol I Beseech You, our contribution to the Fringe events supported by the BBC6 Music Festival in Bristol.
Having besought Bristol, we celebrated Bowie on 5 March at a show hosted by Backwell Festival — a fond and full-throated tribute delivered with support from The Ambling Band and Invisible Circus. Joining us were old FO friends and guest singers Chris Apthomas (also keyboards) and Jimmy Goodrich:
 
 
