ENJOY a night of musical storytelling that has kept sold-out venues ‘spellbound’ across the North West as ‘Peterloo in Rock’ comes to Delph.
Millgate Arts Centre welcomes The Reformers of Peterloo to perform their show on Saturday, June 27, bringing a fusion of progressive folk rock, classic rock, indie and blues.
The Peterloo Massacre took place at St Peter’s Field, Manchester, in 1819 when 18 people were killed and 700 were reported injured when the cavalry of the Manchester and Salford Yeomanry charged into a crowd of about 60,000 people who had gathered to hear famed radical orator Henry Hunt speak about the need to reform parliamentary representation.
The show begins in the immediate aftermath of the massacre, guiding the audience through the pivotal reforms of the 19th and 20th centuries and culminating in the present day.
Writer and narrator Robert Carter hopes the show both entertains and educates audiences about the injustice and atrocity of the event as well as subsequent struggles for fairness.
He said: “I don’t think the Peterloo Massacre is as well known as it should be.
“I never learned about it in school and many people from this area and further afield have never heard of it.
“The central theme of the show runs through to the present day – the rich keep getting richer and the poor still can’t pay.”
The Reformers of Peterloo, an eight-piece comprising musicians from Ashton-under-Lyne, Stockport and Leigh, were brought together by Robert only 18 months ago and performed their first gig last August.
Since then, they have enjoyed an Autumn tour to sell-out audiences across Manchester, Wigan, Ashton and more to standing ovations and great acclaim.
Robert explained: “I was in a band called Parkbridge and was working on our second album and this story kept coming to me.
“Initially it ended with the hope of reform through the Great Reform Act of 1832 but there were lots of things going on at the time, including Covid and the start of the Ukraine, so I felt I couldn’t end the song on a high.
“The song, simply called Peterloo, was then developed and I wrote a few more to go with it and realised it was turning into a play.
“My initial idea was to do a full-blown production with actors and stage sets but it became too complicated. So, I contacted the best musicians I could find and formed The Reformers of Peterloo.
“We realised it would take three to four years for a full stage production so we turned it into a concept album instead. The narration develops the story that the songs are telling.”
Feedback so far has included comments as such ‘speechless, the musicianship is terrific’ and ‘The music made me want to dance, the story made me want to listen, in the end I sat there spellbound’.
The musical, written by Robert and originally arranged with his cousin Steve Andrews, is in three acts but a shortened version has been written for time constrained performances such as music festivals.
The line up consists of Robert and Steve alongside: Mandolin and Acoustic Guitarist John Bradley; vocalist and acoustic guitarist Mary Moden; lead guitarist Julian Homer; Mat Horton on drums and percussion, Ste Critchley on keyboards and Kevin Farrell on fiddle and harmonica. The sound is produced by famed Tameside sound engineer, Keith Smitheman who is the ninth member of the band.
- See ‘Peterloo in Rock’ at The Millgate Arts Centre in Delph on Saturday, June 27. Doors openat6.30pm, and the show starts at 7.30pm. Tickets cost £15 each and are available online: Peterloo in Rock at Millgate Arts Centre event tickets from TicketSource
The show continues The Millgate’s theme in June of struggles to deliver reform from Blue Stockings (13-20 June), the fight to graduate in 1896, to A Regular Terror by Alan Stockdill on June 24, a true story of a remarkable woman Laura Annie Willson.
Find out more about The Reformers of Peterloo on their website https://peterloo-in-rock.com or Youtube channel or Facebook page.
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