Oswestry Hillfort ancestors inspire Mike to produce new CD
When you go into the Rowanthorn shop in Oswestry you can't help but notice the calming music playing in the store.
So many people commented on the sounds that shop owner and former music producer Mike Coppock decided to make a CD.
The result was Hillfort, Spirit of Place, a 60-minute, 11-track compilation of "ambient, meditative and uplifting music" based on the lives of the people who lived around Oswestry hillfort 2,000 years ago.
It is a very different genre to Mike's main claim to musical fame, as a DJ and dance track producer in the 1990s. However, he is also a lover of classical and sacred music.
The Hillfort CD came about after Mike received a bill out of the blue from the Performing Rights Society for playing music in Rowanthorn without a licence.
"I would play the music of local groups and singers to try to get them recognised. I am sure they would not have received any of the money from a PRS licence or get any royalties," he said.
"After having to pay out £430 I decided that the only thing I could do was produce my own music. I invested in new equipment, with help from a local computer specialist and there was lots of learning for me."
Theme
"I put some tracks together and started playing them and then people started asking me if it they could buy the music.
"I needed a theme to base the music around and wanted it to be relevant to Oswestry. Rather than use mythology, I wanted it to be based on real people and so decided to look at the lives of the people who lived on the hillfort."
He said the music was a mix of pensive and uplifting.
"Although living very different lives they would have had felt the same emotions as us and would have had the same family issues. They would also have had the same problems as many people are facing today, struggling to get by and find food."
The link to finding food was the reason Mike decided that for every CD sold he would donated £1 to the Oswestry Food Bank.
The CD cover uses photographs taken by Graham Mitchell.
Such has been the success of Hillfort, Spirit of Place, that Mike is now planning a new CD and is looking for inspiration for another local topic.
Looking further ahead to next year he is also starting to put together ideas for a CD to make the saint's day of St Oswald, from whom Oswestry gets its name. A special festival is being planned for the town on the day in August.
