Lancaster Arts is delighted to be partnering again with Lancaster Litfest to welcome legendary record producer Joe Boyd ‘In Conversation’ with vinyl maestro Andrew Barker.
Joe has spent a lifetime travelling the globe, immersing himself in music. He has witnessed first-hand the growing popularity of music from Africa, India, Latin America, the Caribbean and Eastern Europe since the 1960s and was one of the leading protagonists of the ‘world music’ movement of the 1980s.
In his latest book, And the Roots of Rhythm Remain Joe explores the fascinating backstories to these sounds and documents a series of encounters with the extraordinary musicians and producers who have altered the course of music for us all. In addition to his role as Library Director at Lancaster University, Andrew Barker is a life-long vinyl obsessive with a collection of over 4,000 LPs, covering every style of music - many of which involved Joe Boyd!
We invite audience members to request a story of their favourite artist or song in advance. On the night, Joe and Andrew will draw some out of a musical hat and we can hear more!
Joe Boyd is a record producer and writer, known for his memoir, White Bicycles: Making Music in the 1960s. Artists he has produced include Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, R.E.M., Fairport Convention, ¡Cubanismo!, Toots and the Maytals, Toumani Diabaté and Taj Mahal among many over the course of a nearly sixty-year career. As a film producer, his credits include the Aretha Franklin documentary Amazing Grace, Scandal and Jimi Hendrix.
Joe produced Fairport Convention’s iconic album Liege & Lief. The band toured the album to Lancaster University’s Great Hall in 1969, in what was the first of many rock concerts held there over the next 15 years.
‘I doubt I’ll ever read a better account of the history and sociology of popular music than this one'
Brian Eno
“Love this book. Joe gives us the wider and deeper contexts that shaped music. And, in many cases, he was there. It’s big, but it’s a page turner!”
David Byrne
Image of George Harrison and Ravi Shankar. Credit: Associated Press / Alamy Stock Photo.
