Fairport Convention: Press Release

Fairport Convention celebrates forty-fifth
anniversary in Ivybridge

Folkrock legends Fairport Convention will be celebrating their forty-fifth anniversary in Ivybridge when the band visits The Watermark on Saturday 26 May.

Formed in 1967′s ‘summer of love’, Fairport Convention has been delighting audiences for 45 years making them one of the most enduring bands to emerge from the fertile 60s music scene. Hailed as the originators of British folk-rock music, the band is still as vibrant and inventive as ever.

The 2012 anniversary tour will feature songs from the band’s recent studio album, the critically-acclaimed Festival Bell. However, with such a long history  the band has a vast repertoire to draw on so this year the tour concerts will also include a selection of favourite songs and tunes specially chosen in a poll of the band’s fans.

“Forty-five years is a milestone,” says Simon Nicol who co-founded the band in 1967, “but we don’t intend to rest on our laurels or hark back to the past – Fairport is a band that always looks to the future. All five of us are looking forward to getting back on the road – in fact, we’re raring to go – because our first love is live performance.”

“We’ve played in Devon many tims before and this will be our second visit to The Watermark,“ Mr Nicol adds. ” The venue has a very welcoming audience so we are looking forward to meeting them again on Saturday evening. This year, the concert will be rather different – not only have we got the new material from  Festival Bell but this will be the first time we’ve invited our audiences to help us select the repertoire for a concert tour.”

As well as Simon Nicol on guitar and lead vocals, Fairport Convention features Dave Pegg on bass and backing vocals, Chris Leslie on fiddle, mandolin, bouzouki and lead vocals, Ric Sanders on violin and Gerry Conway on drums and percussion.

Fairport Convention has won a coveted BBC Lifetime Achievement Award and Radio 2 listeners voted Fairport’s groundbreaking album Liege & Lief  ’The Most Influential Folkrock Album of All Time’.

Fairport Convention’s concert at The Watermark starts at 8pm. Tickets and booking information from 01752 892220 or online ivybridgewatermark.co.uk

Posted in >Day to Day Goings On, Live Performances, Special Events
No Comments »

The Ivybridge Christmas Lights

Its that time of year again folks! Time for the Christmas Lights. 

The Watermark was open late last night as the christmas lights were switched on, a parade marched through the town centre (with local groups & some not so local (a galaxy far far away anyone?) and of course Santa himself (well….).

In the Watermark we currently have Santa’s Watermark Grotto! Children (of any age) were invited to visit Santa at the Watermark and everyone got free sweets! Check out our gallery from the evening for all the pictures! www.ivybridgewatermark.co.uk/the-christmas-lights-2011

Santa will also be at The Watermark on Saturday 3rd, 10th & 17th, you can find more information on the Town Council’s website (www.ivybridge.gov.uk) and also in The Information Centre at The Watermark.

Did you attend the Christmas Light Switch On? Let us know what you thought by posting below!

(more…)

Posted in >Info Centre, Special Events
No Comments »

Ivybridge Has Got Talent!

Believe it or not, its true!

This evening The Watermark played host to ‘Ivybridge Showcase’ or ‘Ivybridge’s Got Talent’. The event was fairly well supported, the more the merrier as they say, however, a great night of entertainment was had by all! Some of the acts included, The Ivybridge Choir, Ivybridge Musical Theatre Group (From Ivybridge Community College), 2 Local Bands! , A fantastic Classical Duo, a guitarist, gymnasts and Compering from Morag (Beaconville Nursing Home) and our very own Ex-Mayor, Frances Reeves.

We’ve put together a short (2 minute) video so you can experience at least some of the event, the video is on our YouTube Channel you can view it by clicking the link below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGoHWrASj-I

We also had the trusty camera handy so we were snapping away all night, here are some of the best pictures from the night! Click to read more….

(more…)

Posted in >General, Live Performances, Special Events
2 Comments »

Children In Need at The Watermark

On Friday 18th November we did our bit for Children in Need! As you see from the pictures on our gallery (http://ivybridgewatermark.co.uk/children-in-need-2011), the staff were all dressed up in Pudsey neck ties and Pudsey ears (they loved it really). We had a raffle for tickets to see the Mike Westbrook big band and we had a spotty cake sale (Nicky made some delicious cupcakes for the event)

The biggest event of the day however was a visit from Simon Weston ( http://www.simonweston.com/ ), as you can see from the picture above, there was a huge turnout on the day, Simon talked about a number of things including his recent (and third) children’s book “NELSON AT SEA” and many people who came away from the event were inspired by his talks. 

Thank you to everyone who supported the event, leave your comments below and let us know what you thought of the day!

Posted in >Day to Day Goings On, General, Special Events
No Comments »

Website Update – 11/11/11

Good Morning! 

If you had tried to access the site yesterday (Thursday) evening, you may not have been able to view the site, that’s because we have been working away, improving the site, for Friday (Today) Morning! We apologise for any inconvenience, but we think you will like the improvements to the site. 

First of all, this won’t be the last update, we are constantly working on ways to interact with our customers and improve the site and the way you can use it. Some of the updates in this ‘Version’ there have been quite a few changes to the home page, we have tried to develop it to make it easier to find out what is happening at The Watermark from day to day, and more importantly, what there is for you to do at  The Watermark from day to day. 

A few more feature updates, we now have galleries on the site! You will be seeing these very soon, and over the christmas period we will be using them very frequently to document our various events, and yes, you will all be able to download the pictures from any of the events you attend! One of the things we hope this site will provide is a place to talk! We have comment sections on all our posts and we love to hear from you. 

After a very long evening, welcome to The Watermark Website, Version 2. Enjoy and feel free to send us any ideas you think might improve the site!

Posted in >Day to Day Goings On, General, Info Centre, Special Events
2 Comments »

This is the Masterplan

Over the past few weeks you should have received, through your front door, a small leaflet called ‘Which way for Ivybridge?’ Well the past few weeks have been pretty manic for The Watermark, we’ve had the Princes Trust in this week, discussing the plans for Ivybridge, lots of meetings between different people, but the most important two meetings that affect most people in Ivybridge have been the two public meetings. One happened on Monday 7th November and one is happening on Tuesday 10th November.

Monday 7th November

The first of two meetings. Members of the public (the residents of Ivybridge) were invited to the Watermark to put forward their ideas for Ivybridge, over the course of the night, people were invited to write down an idea on a post it note, and having seen the response, it’s pretty incredible. Almost an entire wall has been filled with neon coloured postit notes with all of your ideas on it.

If you haven’t seen these leaflets, pop down to the watermark and we’ve got some here at the front desk!

Thursday 10th November

Today is the day of the second public meeting, it’s official name is: The Presentation of the two masterplans. The princes trust has been working on producing the masterplans with the input of the Ivybridge Community at The Watermark for the past few days and tonight you will be able to see the results and the current progression of the masterplans.

It all starts at 7pm and it is only an hour long.

We look forward to seeing you there!

  (more…)

Posted in >Day to Day Goings On, General, Info Centre, Special Events
No Comments »