Did you know that our 300 seater auditorium is pitch-perfect, world-class, and used for more than concerts and gigs? It's also available for hire for a range of related services, like music and video recording. This is exactly how emerging artists, fiddle player Owen Spafford and guitarist Louis Campbell, used the space on 2nd May 2025, before performing in the town later that day.
Described by their label, Real World Records, as ‘twenty-something mould-breakers and conservatoire-trained virtuosos’, the folk-feel pair used the auditorium as the video backdrop to their latest work, MacGill. This track, taken from their album Tomorrow Held, pays homage to the famed creative partnership of American singer/songwriters Jimmy Webb and Glen Campbell: “It’s slightly more jazz-influenced in terms of harmony and sound than the other stuff on the record,” says Spafford. “We’re going to that sweet spot at the folky end of jazz.”
Watch MacGill by Spafford Campbell, recorded at Wiltshire Music Centre
Filming took place over five hours, with the assistance of our Tech Manager, Tim Walker, who provided lighting. Spafford Campbell wanted an intimate atmosphere to align with their music, and Tim worked with the filmographer Jake Duncan to achieve this, using a mixture of lights belonging to Real World Records and Wiltshire Music Centre (WMC). Says Tim “It was a really good collab, and we created what was required – a mellow atmosphere that was soft, warm and focussed, with intimate close-up shots.” Tim also provided playback of the track over PA so the players could synchronise with it. Asked why he thinks that the WMC space worked so well for this project, Tim says: “One of the big advantages of recording here is that the space is open, unlike a theatre which has wings and lots of material surroundings. The openness of our space meant that we could use the height of our ceiling for dramatic lighting, as well as close- up lights on the stage. For the in-and-out effect in the video, we used 4 of our Chauvet R2X lights.”
Once the filming was complete, Spafford Campbell were onto their next project with us, their first gig in Bradford on Avon’s coolest coffee (and plant) shop, Little Rituals, the ideal setting for such an up-close-and-personal gig. There they played their beguiling mix of folky jazz to a small, but sold-out crowd – ‘simply capturing the essence of the duo’s live performance which exhibits an in-the-moment, intimate musical conversation’. (Real World Records).
Spafford Campbell at Little Rituals
To find out about recording services, contact tim.walker@wiltshiremusic.org.uk. To learn more about Spafford Campbell, see here
Photography by Daniel Clark
