Eastern Angles

East Anglia doesn't exactly have a very full hand when it comes to folk festivals, especially the further east you go. In 2012 however a new festival arrived way over in Suffolk, Folk East, this is a festival that harks back to a tradition of East An...more

09/04/2013

A plea for protest

Once upon a time folk music was the voice of the people, specifically it gave a voice to protest. The folk revival of the 1950s and 60s in England was as rooted in the function of getting a message, often political, across as it was in making good mu...more

27/06/2012

Piracy, apathy & the rise of vinyl - part 1

Rejoice, UK record industry in first quarter of growth for a decade - Not because more people are buying CD's mind you, it's all down to downloads and streaming. Physical sales actually carried on their decline, but in the first quarter of 2012 digit...more

21/06/2012

Piracy, apathy & the rise of vinyl - part 2

This seems really nuts, but vinyl is back and selling more now than in the past decade. That mouldering format that we were told was ancient history with all it's inherent limitations of playing length and problems with getting scratched and knackere...more

21/06/2012

Festivals wa-hey!

Bristol Folk Festival has got our festival season off to a fine start this year. In its second year they have cemented their excellent programming and obviously listened to feedback from the first year. Free entertainment in the foyer and a much larg...more

16/05/2012

Let's get social

We've been agonising for some time trying to find a way we can involve the public in the site more, existing ways of doing it are frustrating - forums end up being dominated by a handful of regulars, comment boxes at the end of every story are a have...more

09/02/2012

Folk sucks the big one

There, that title got you reading didn't it? Well, this weeks subject is Controversy, we all secretly love a bit of it, opposing opinions brought out for battle and the chance to get worked up and hot under the collar. The music business is a perfect...more

20/01/2012

Roll up, roll up, it's Awards Season!

It's awards season again, as I write this Mike Harding is running through the nominations for the BBC's awards. The Scots Trad awards have been nominated and the public are voting on them, we have our nominations in the pipeline for the Spirals. It d...more

16/11/2011

Not bloody Coldplay again...

You might have read an interview with Michael Eavis in last weeks Times. In it he said that the festival may only have 'three or four' years left as he believes music fans are getting tired of festivals, despite the 700 events that take place in the ...more

29/07/2011

No sleep at Heb Celt 2011

Travelling into up to the Hebrides from England really is like stepping into another land. Through the eerily empty miles of Dumfries and Galloway your mind adjusts to the scale of the landscape as the miles are effortlessly eaten up. Then Glasgow, E...more

18/07/2011

YOUR EMAIL:

About Iain Hazlewood:

Iain started Spiral Earth in 2005 as a reaction against the apathy with which the mainstream media dealt with roots music in the UK.

Since then he has overseen its growth and watched it develop into one of the UK's most comprehensive and popular sources for all things folk and roots, with a constantly increasing readership.