Stage craft

Later this year I'll beginning working on a new project. This is all thanks to a grant from Arts Council England. The grant is called Developing Your Creative Practice and the purpose is to help artists try something different and…

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Getting my monk on

I'm currently finishing up a 17 track song cycle called The Book of Ours. It's all based on medieval illuminated manuscripts. Years ago the wealthy used to commission these posh books and songs about themselves and how holy they were…

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A pandemic epic

WHISPER TO ME ALONE

Last year I worked on a project with arts organisation arthur + martha. We worked in partnership with two Manchester homelessness support charities -  The Booth Centre and Back on Track - and created artwork with…

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The printed word

Print magazines are sadly falling away and whilst I use online sources myself - and there are many excellent online music magazines - there is a special place in my heart for the printed word.

So I was delighted to…

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Reflections on my first live stream

On June 28th 2020 I did my first livestream concert to launch my Savage Pilgrims album.  (Just press play above to watch it) Since lockdown began I've seen a lot of people do live-streaming with a really mixed…

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The lost art of listening 

"So you had better do as you are told 
You better listen to the radio"
Radio Radio ELVIS COSTELLO 

In a world where we are constantly assaulted by visual stimulus through adverts, social media and TV I've been pleasantly surprised…

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Bendigo knew my Grandad - a family legend 

For many years now I've been singing a song I wrote based on Arthur Conan Doyle's poem 'Bendy's Sermon'. Last year I appeared on BBC TV's Flog it! to sing the song during a segment they did about Bendigo's life…

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We Shall Overcome Isolation Festival

We Shall Overcome is a movement of musicians and community organisers who are angry about the human costs of austerity policies but who want to do something practical to help those affected. I was one of the people who helped…

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Don of the day : A Don Williams cover project

Inspired by Joe Pernice’s series Barely Manilow these are cover versions of songs by country music's gentle giant Don Williams. 

Don of the day #1 : Come early morning 

Listening to Don can make me feel calm and centred or…

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Goodbye Quiet Loner

To mark my 50th birthday in March I have decided, after almost twenty years, to drop the Quiet Loner name and revert to releasing music and performing under my own name Matt Hill. 

It feels like the right time…

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Quiet Loner : Review of the year 2019

Looking back on 2019 I’ve done fewer gigs than I normally play, but there have been some real highlights. I’ve picked ten things of note that happened this year. Nine were really great, the tenth is not so good, but…

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I need this like a hole in the head.


A musician reflects on living with Semi-circular/Superior Canal Dehiscence Syndrome (SCDS)
(updated Feb 2022)

A few years ago I started to notice a change in my hearing. Weird stuff started happening. One day I realised the strange scratching noise I…

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