Repton to Candleford

It seems the merest blink of an eyelid since Blair Dunlop was singing and playing to Charity Cabaret audiences earlier this year in Repton, and starring in the school play, Brecht’s “The Caucasian Chalk Circle”, last Michaelmas . Blair left Repton just a couple of months ago after A levels, but is already carving out a name for himself as a professional musician.

He is currently on a nationwide tour with Bill Kenwright’s revival of the 1978 National Theatre dramatisation of Flora Thompson’s “Lark Rise to Candleford”, in the part of Musician, coincidentally a similar role to the guitar-playing singer-narrator Blair played in Guy Levesley’s Brecht production at Repton. A further coincidence is that the music for ”Lark Rise” was originally written by Blair’s father Ashley Hutchings, founder member of the legendary folk-rock group Fairport Convention, as well as of Steeleye Span and The Albion Band. Three decades later, the son now performs the father’s music.

Blair’s career is also developing rapidly in other directions. In his final year at Repton he was one of the first musicians to use the new purpose-built recording studio in the Music School, and the songs that he recorded there have just been issued as a six-track CD on the Talking Elephant label (TECD EP 101). Entitled “An E.P.”, the disc was engineered and produced by Director of Popular Music at Repton Richard Fairbrother, and is the first example of a recording originally made in the school studio to be released professionally. Initial reception of the disc has been highly encouraging, with one of its tracks gaining recent airplay on Radio Two’s popular Mike Harding Show.

For further details on Blair’s activities you can visit his website at http://www.blairdunlop.com/Blair_Dunlop/Welcome.html, where soundclips of his music can be sampled.

For information on “Lark Rise to Candleford” and tour dates go to http://www.kenwright.com/default.asp?contentID=1122, where tickets are also bookable.