“From spring to autumn I travelled through Britain with a portable recording device called a Zoom. The goal was to capture the spirit of the land and its people through its music, to delve deep into the mysteries of folklore. Along the way I danced with gypsies in a wood in Sussex, drank tea with Jarvis Cocker and Richard Hawley in Sheffield, met bicycle-powered buskers in Peckham and listened to Pete Townshend explain how suburbia created 60s pop in Richmond. I was also attacked by a large woman in Kent and almost killed a promising young singer in Wales, although not deliberately. Throughout the trip, I discovered that all we need in life is right there in front of us. This is the story of that journey…”

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

“The Ballad of Britain is an enthusiast’s jaunt, frothy armchair ethnomusicology, but Hodgkinson understands what very few music writers seem to: simply that music is about flesh and blood.”
– The Times

 

“A brilliant travelogue” – The London Paper

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