Next month, the Mediaeval Baebes’ will be performing a fundrasing concert for the benefit of the The Julia Margaret Cameron Trust.

Taking place at All Saints Church in Ryde, according to The Express, the ‘Babes’ will take you “As close to heaven as you can get.”

The Mediaeval Baebes’ exquisite storybook opened its pages in 1996, when a group of friends broke into a North London cemetery and sang together, clad in flowing white gowns and crowns of ivy.

Pulling lyrics from medieval texts and setting them to original scores using mediaeval and classical instruments, whilst singing in an impressive array of long forgotten languages, the Baebes offered a unique musical beauty and outstanding talent.

Their choice of mediaeval texts were dramatic, obscure and dark in topic and remarked upon the inevitability of death, the pointlessness of material possessions, the horror of unrequited love or the dangers of imbibing too much alcohol. Some themes are timeless!

Twelve years later, these fair maidens have placed three albums into the top of the classical charts and performed before enthusiastic audiences in the UK, United States, Canada and Europe in venues ranging from castles and caves to nightclubs and Renaissance Fayres.

The Baebes’ contribution to the BBC production of The Virgin Queen (composed by Martin Phipps) resulted in a deserved Ivor Novello award 2007 for best television soundtrack.

This concert is a fundraising event for the Julia Margaret Cameron Trust which Islanders will know is the charitable trust that maintains Dimbola Lodge Museum in Freshwater as an art and photography gallery and a photographic museum, which is home to the largest public exhibition in the UK by the eminent Victorian portrait photographer Julia Margaret Cameron, who lived at Dimbola Lodge from 1860 to 1875.

This concert coincides with an exhibition by the internationally renowned Graham Ovenden, a major retrospective containing paintings, photographs and poetry. Pastoral Visions runs at Dimbola Lodge Museum, Freshwater until 18 October 2009.

Bits and Bobs:
Saturday 22nd August 2009 – 8:00pm
Tickets £15.00 available from:
Dimbola Lodge Museum – 01983 756814
Waterstones Bookshop, Newport – 01983 527927
Record Mania, Ryde – 01983 615571

Check out Mediaeval Baebes

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