About Glass Ceiling PR

Glass Ceiling PR is a highly effective, very small and very independent folk music PR company, run by Harriet Simms. Sometimes based in London but most often, by the seaside, Glass Ceiling PR has been in operation for more than 20 years, during which time, it has helped to generate significant publicity for a wide range of music-related clients, whether venues, arts organisations, record companies or, most especially, musicians. Glass Ceiling PR has built excellent relationships with press, radio and TV contacts, national and regional, specialist or mainstream.
In addition to generating PR coverage, Harriet also acts as a specialist music consultant to radio producers, theatre programmers and festival promoters. From time to time, Harriet also produces special live events (Glass Ceiling PRoductions).
​
Though Glass Ceiling PR is perhaps best known for work helping to resurrect interest in British Folk and Acoustic music, especially representing Topic Records for 23 years, Harriet has also been proud to work with artists from around the globe and across a range of genres.

Harriet has had four Mercury Music Prize nominees on her books, as well as Paul Hamlyn, Arts Foundation and innumerable BBC Radio 2 Folk Award winners too.

Much of Glass Ceiling PR's interests and client base is now concentrated on performance and recording with an environmental emphasis.

Recent/current clients of Glass Ceiling PR include : 'The Lost Words:Spell Songs', a cd and UK tour (inspired by Robert Macfarlane & Jackie Morris' book, The Lost Words), musician and environmental activist, Sam Lee and Matthew Banniester's Folk on Foot podcast series. Then there's the grandparent of them all, the English Folk Dance & Song Society, based at the iconic, world-class arts centre, Cecil Sharp House.



​
 
Contact us here

'The Lost Words : Spell Songs' ensemble - photo by Elly Lucas
​

For New for 2020...

The British Podcast Award winning series 'Folk on Foot' is now a much loved institution with a wonderful array of different artists exploring locations around the UK which mean the most to them in the company of host, broadcasting legend, Matthew Bannister. Matthew set up the 'Front Room Festival in 2020 to try and support some of the folk musicians whose touring careers had been destroyed by Covid19. Folk on Foot's Front Room Festival set out to raise £5k for the 15 participating musicians and for Help Musicians UK charity - and ended up with a staggering £110k ! For more info or to make a donation : www.folkonfoot.com/festival

The Nest Collective run imaginative and brilliant live events around the UK, London in particular. Due to the current Covid19 Lockdown', they have taken their rightly acclaimed 'Singing with Nightingales' season online and in some ways, are providing something just as magical as the 'live' version. Check out their special launch event for Earth Day (22nd April) - feat. host Sam Lee and an amazing array of special guests from the worlds of art, theatre, poetry and music - not least, appearances from the Nightingale itself ! https://thenestcollective.co.uk/events/singing-with-nightingales-earth-day/

Georgia Ruth is a musician from Aberystwyth. Her debut album, Week of Pines, won the Welsh Music Award in 2013 and was also nominated for 2 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. She's perhaps one of the few Harpists to have collaborated with the Manic Street Preachers and appeared on their 2014 album, Futurology, before releasing her own 2nd album, Fossil Scale in 2016. Georgia's exquisite new album, Mai, is due out in March 2020, via indie label, Bubblewrap. www.georgiaruth.co.uk

To call Sam Lee simply a musician seems ​not to do him justice, though he is one of our very finest contemporary folk singers. 

Sam is also the founder of The Nest Collective, is a serious and well travelled collector of traditional song and perhaps most of all, is also a passionate and effective environment campaigner who has done a lot to highlight the plight of the Nightingale and Turtle Dove and with the help of the RSPB, managed to get 3 minutes of pure birdsong into the Top 20 with 'Let Nature Sing'. Sam's next album is called 'Old Wow'. It will be released on 31st January 2020 and is his first for Cooking Vinyl. It's produced by Bernard Butler and features a very special and rare guest vocal appearance by Elizabeth Fraser (Cocteau Twins).

Would you believe it, but Cecil Sharp House; home of the English Folk Dance & Song Society and a world-class arts centre, celebrates 90 years in 2020! A dazzling array of gigs, concerts, dances, folklore and visual arts events are now on sale for what promises to be a very special year..Check www.cecilsharphouse.org for more info.

The Lost Words : Spell Songs project continues on its acclaimed path with a UK tour in April 2020. 'A brave and magical creation' - The Observer, 'A delightful homage to nature' The Times and 'Complex and beautiful and an absolute joy from start to finish' RnR Magazine. www.thelostwords.org./live/

Look out for news of the next series of the award-winning podcast, Folk on Foot, hosted by broadcaster Matthew Bannister - starting weekly from 5th July 2019 - ideal for anyone interested in music, landscape and good conversation! Previous episodes have included Eliza Carthy in Robin Hood's Bay, Julie Fowlis on the shores of Loch Lomand and Kerry Andrews in Brockwell Lido, South London.

​
'The Lost Words : Spell Songs' is an exceptional cd/book, featuring songs by Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Jim Molyneux, Rachel Newton and Beth Porter - inspired by The Lost Words book by author Robert Macfarlane and illustrator Jackie Morris. Out on 12th July !

Listen out for new albums and tours in 2019 by Kathryn Tickell & The Darkening and Sam Lee, amongst others and more performances by the wonderful National Youth Folk Ensemble!

​
Glass Ceiling PR couldn't be more thrilled to be working with Folk by Oak on their 'Spell Songs' multi-artist live dates and album in 2019! 'Spell Songs' is a music project inspired by the acclaimed book The Lost Words, written by Robert MacFarlane and illustrated by Jackie Morris. The live dates (February 2019) feature a truly stellar cast of musicians, 'singing nature' back to life ; Karine Polwart, Julie Fowlis, Seckou Keita, Kris Drever, Kerry Andrew, Rachel Newton, Beth Porter & Jim Molyneux. A 'Spell Songs' album will be released in summer 2019.

2018

After more than 20 years, the Grammy Award winning Afro Celt Sound System are not only still going strong, but about to release 'Flight' (ECC Records - 23rd Nov) their latest and perhaps strongest album and embark on a UK tour (14th - 24th November 2018). Exploring both avian and human migration and featuring contributions from 3 major choirs with refugee backgrounds, expect 'bigger, better and bolder than ever' - Songlines Magazine.www.afroceltsoundsystem.org.uk

'Legendary' is a word used a lot and sometimes doesn't mean all that much. Where the great Norma Waterson is concerned though, it's entirely apt. Following the release of 'Gift' in 2010 (Topic) with daughter Eliza Carthy and subsequent tour, Norma fell seriously ill and was in a coma in hospital for months, with husband, Martin Carthy by her side. It's been a long road for the whole family since then. Eight years later, we are therefore especially thrilled to be able to announce that Norma and Eliza have recently recorded a second duo album together. 'Anchor' includes contemporary as well as traditional material and will be released by Topic on 1st June 2018. It was produced by Neill MacColl and Kate St. John.

Glass Ceiling PR is delighted to now represent the English Folk Dance & Song Society. The society supports and leads a dazzling range of folk arts projects around the UK from their base at Cecil Sharp House in North London. The venue hosts a frankly, mind-boggling range of gigs, exhibitions, dances and special events as well as the recently refurbed Vaughan Williams library and a rare Ivon Hitchens wall mural. Check out their busy diary and visit their delightful cafe or bar and, when it finally stops snowing, why not have a picnic in their pretty, permacultured garden...? Nearest tube; Camden Town. www.efdss.org.

ECC Records release 'Self Preservation Society' vinyl in February; a personal selection of favourite songs, recorded by favourite artists of Mark Constantine, CEO of Lush. Mojo Magazine make it their album of the month.

Topic Records continue their new cd series exploring the label's archive with 'An Introduction to...' and latest releases featuring the peerless June Tabor, Anne Briggs and The Watersons. Albums by Martin Simpson and John Tams to follow in the spring/summer!

The Kings of the South Seas launched their masterful new sea-faring album, 'Lord Franklin' on Hudson Records in February 2018 with a gig inside the hull of the Cutty Sark in Greenwich. They were accompanied onstage by polar naturalist, Peter Wilson. www.kingsofthesouthseas.net), African/Europeon festival favourites; Afro Celt Sound System (www.afroceltsoundsystem.org.uk)and the incomparable Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band (eliza-carthy.com).

The venerable Topic Records is still going strong, now in it's 78 year. A new ongoing cd series exploring some of their vast archive of folk song is due to start shortly. To set things off, an overview of the label; 'Topic Records - The Real Sound of Folk Music' is being released in October 2017, alongside 'An Introduction to....Shirley Collins'. An exciting selection of other 'An Introduction to....' cds is scheduled for 2018/19. Watch this space - and theirs..www.topicrecords.co.uk

The Unthanks release a heart-breakingly tender new album: Diversions Vol 4: Songs and Poems of Molly Drake (RabbleRouser) The sister's fourth side-project in the Unthanks’ intriguing parallel career. This album features their interpretations of rarely heard poems and songs by Nick Drake's mother, Molly. 

Lisa Knapp’s latest album, 'Till April is Dead' (Ear to the Ground) continues her exploration of May themed traditional song. The album has recieved high praise including 5 * reviews in The Guardian and Mojo. A strikingly original artist, Knapp's stature these days means that she can call on some heavyweight collaborators, this time, Graham Coxon and Current 93’s David Tibet – all of which adds a further delightful layer of wonderful weirdness to her work.

​Idiosyncratic, uncompromising and compelling, STICK IN THE WHEEL release their latest album 'From Here; English Folk Field Recordings' on From Here Records on 17th April. The band host a weekend long live event at Café Oto in London's Hackney featuring many of the stellar names on the album on 18th & 19th April. Coverage on Radio 2, BBC 6Music and XFM amongst others.

If there is one musician who embodies the dynamism and vitality of the current English folk revival, it’s Eliza Carthy. Admired by traditionalists and modernists alike, Eliza’s trailblazing contribution has influenced a whole generation of young musicians & earnt her an MBE for services to music. And now she's got a brand new band, The Wayward Band - all 12 of them. Their debut album, 'Big Machine' will be released by Topic Records on 3rd Feb 2017.

Jon Boden - 'One of the most venerated of the younger Brit folk generation' - The Guardian. Navigator Records recently reissued Jon's debut album, 'Painted Lady' (2006) before Jon embarked on his first ever solo tour to rapturous audiences around the UK in Nov 2016. After 12 years with Bellowhead, 'It was a fantastic way to get back in the touring saddle'. He'll be doing a lot more of that in 2017 - check www.jonboden.com for tours, festival appearances & other exciting news..

'The Source' - by the mighty Afro Celt Sound System, marks 20 ground-breaking years - out now on ECC Records - “A COLOSSUS OF AN ALBUM” fRoots 5*/ “A TRIUMPH”Songlines 5* | 4* Observer | 4* i | 4* Daily Mirror | 4* Financial Times

Topic Records are proud to announce the release of 'Finale' by Pentangle, a remarkable 2 CD set recorded during the band's triumphant reunion tour in 2008 where the original members of this folk-jazz ‘supergroup’ toured for the first time since 1973. Feat. guitarists Bert Jansch and John Renbourn, singer Jacqui McShee, bassist Danny Thompson and drummer/percussionist Terry Cox

Catch press/radio/social media for info about major UK tours this Autumn by the mighty Eliza Carthy & The Wayward Band, Songs of Separation, Afro Celt Sound System, Jon Boden (solo), Peggy Seeger and Sam Lee.


Proudly associated with the glorious Norma Waterson, Eliza Carthy, Sam Lee, Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman and The Unthanks - all winners, one way or another, at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2016. Congratulations to all!


Topic Records will release 2 new additions to their acclaimed 'Voice of the People' cd series on 18th March. 'It Was Mighty' and 'It Was Great Altogether' explore the early days of Irish Music in London and the communities who kept their music and culture alive from the 1950s to the present.

Join Sam Lee 'Singing with Nightingales'! Join Sam for a nocturnal visit to Sussex woodlands to enjoy songs & stories round the campfire and then journey further into the woods to experience extraordinary musical interaction with Nightingales. More info www.thenestcollective.co.uk

Sam Lee to perform live at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2016! The ceremony will be held at the Royal Albert Hall in London. Joan Armatrading and The Unthanks, amongst the other performers announced so far.

Fay Hield and her band The Hurricane Party tour the UK ahead of the release of 'Old Adam' on 12th Feb on Soundpost Records. Hear Fay on the BBC Radio 3 #Folk Connections weekend and BBC Radio 2 Folk Show with Mark Radcliffe on 10th Feb.


Songs of Separation is a strikiing new collaboration feat. 10 of England and Scotland's most distinguished young folk musicians. Recorded on the Isle of Eigg, this debut album will be launched at Celtic Connections Festival in Glasgow on 24th Jan 2016 (out Navigator Records on 29th Jan 2016)

After 11 dazzling years, Bellowhead announce that they're splitting up. 'Best of album' Pandemonium' out on Navigator Records now & Farewell Tours Part 1 (Nov 2015) and Part 2 (April 2016) are already close to selling out. See them while you still can! www.bellowhead.co.uk

Fay Hield releases the first single 'Green Gravel' from her forthcoming album, 'Old Adam' out on 12th Feb 2016. Fay, who coordinated the acclaimed 'Full English' will also tour with her own band, The Hurricane Party at the start of 2016. www.fayhield.com

'Joy of Living' (Cooking Vinyl) is the stunning double album marking the centenary of folk singer, songwriter, playwright and poet, Ewan MacColl's birth. Featuring contributions by Billy Bragg, Steve Earle, The Unthanks, Martin & Eliza Carthy, Christy Moore, Peggy Seeger and many others from the folk world and beyond it too. There will also be 4 special concerts - 'Blood & Roses' featuring the MacColl family and guests too. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/maxine-peake

Many congratulations to Peggy Seeger and her son Calum MacColl for winning 'Best Original Song' ('Swimming to the Star' from 'Everything Changes') at this year's BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards! Peggy tours the UK in June 2015 to mark her 80th birthday. 
http://www.peggyseeger.com/


Hear Lisa Knapp talk about artist inspiration and the Shipping Forecast on BBC Radio 4 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r401h


Hear Sam Lee talking to BBC Radio 4's Front Row 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b05r40r3

Martin Carthy 'confesses' to smashing up a piano with Bob Dylan in the 60s on Simon Mayo's 'Drivetime' BBC Radio 2

A hard to beat combo of Bellowhead on tour with Kings of the South Seas in April 2015. www.bellowhead.co.uk

Sam Lee's new album, 'The Fade in Time' on The Nest Collective Records, set for 16th March release. Hear Sam & Friends live on BBC 6Music with Tom Robinson on Saturday 7th Feb.

Eliza Carthy performs with Kate Tempest at BBC 6Music Festival in Newcastle on 21st February. Kings of the South Seas do too!

Marking Bob Copper's centenary in January 2015, fRoots & EFDS present Bob Copper Day, with a multitude of players at Cecil Sharp House + Topic/Fledgling Records reissue 'Bob & Ron Copper' album.

After a gap of 4 years, The Unthanks are due to release a new single (8th Dec 2014) and new album (9th Feb 2015) - 'Mount the Air' will be released on their own label, Rabblerouser and will be accompanied by a UK-wide tour in March 2015.

Kathryn Roberts & Sean Lakeman will release their next album 'Tomorrow will follow Today' on IScream Records in Feb 2015. 'An absolute masterclass in how to do it right' - Festivalsforall

Peggy Seeger to be honoured by the music industry when she recieves a Women in Music Award for 'Creative Inspiration' in London in November 2014. Look out for major US and UK tours by Peggy with sons Calum & Neill MacColl in 2015.


Where else can you see Eliza Carthy alongside Stevie Wonder, Kylie Minogue & more besides? The BBC launch their Children in Need campaign with 27 key artists - Watch this (& buy the single) http://youtu.be/XqLTe8h0-jo


Bellowhead, those crazy cats, promoting, 'Revival', their most successful release to date, are out on a major 22 date UK tour from 7th November - expect fine ales and after-show live music pub sessions!

'Kings of the South Seas' is a striking new album by a new band, led by Ben Nicolls (Seth Lakeman Band, The Full English) & produced by John Parish (PJ Harvey, Eels, Tracy Chapman). Folk rock songs inspired by the brutal whaling industry & treacherous voyages round the South Seas in the 19th Century. Special launch event on 18th Nov at Cecil Sharp House in London.


''Voice & Vision' gets a 5 star review in The Morning Star : a special 2 cd set of political song out on Topic Records, in cooperation with the GFTU, on 13th October. Featuring tracks by towering international figures (Pete Seeger & Paul Robeson), home-grown legends (Martin Carthy, Norma Waterson, Shirley Collins) and a few new-comers too. 

Legendary folk singer Peggy Seeger to release what may prove her finest album yet, featuring powerful self-penned songs and her sons Callum & Neill MacColl. 'Everything Changes' - out on Red Grape Records, 1st September.

Mercury Prize nominee Sam Lee & Friends release a 4 track ep, 'More For To Rise' ahead of May tour in UK and a new, full length album in early 2015 http://samleesong.co.uk/gigs/

Martin Carthy & daughter Eliza Carthy release their first ever duo album, 'The Moral of the Elephant' on 2nd June. Tour dates and more at http://www.eliza-carthy.com/tour-dates.cfm

Bellowhead sign to Island Records and release a new album, 'Revival' on 23rd June! http://www.bellowhead.co.uk/


Well, fancy that...BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards 2014...Glass Ceiling PR is  very proud to represent 2014 nominees  including Fay Hield, The Full English, Lisa Knapp and Linda Thompson + performers on the night including Bellowhead & Martin Carthy & Eliza Carthy. Winner's announced

Bellowhead's 10th anniversary shows, new albums from Beverley Martyn, Sam Lee, Martin & Eliza Carthy, Peggy Seeger + Topic Records' 75th birthday!

Linda Thompson's 'Won't Be Long Now', Lisa Knapp's 'Hidden Seam' and 'Laylam' (Hem Hem Records) all featured in Mojo Magazine's Top 10 Folk Albums of 2013!

Linda Thompson's latest album, 'Won't Be Long Now' is out now.“It’s apparent how undimmed Thompson’s talent is, especially in the sheer confident power of her vocal performance. Long may she continue.” - Record Collector'

'The Full English' album is out now on Topic Records ; songs inspired by the new English Folk Dance & Song Society digital archive, featuring Fay Hield, Nancy Kerr, Seth Lakeman, Martin Simpson, Rob Habron & Ben Nicholls. 

Lisa Knapp's new album 'Hidden Seam' gets 5 star review in The Observer!

Eliza Carthy and Martin Carthy on BBC Radio 4's Mastertapes. Eliza Carthy's 'Wayward Daughter' cd out now on Topic Records.

Bellowhead to play Kew Gardens with Billy Bragg on 14th July 2013

Bright Phoebus Revisited UK Tour announced. Starts at London's Barbican on 11th October 2013

Topic Records - The Big Digital Download 2013!

Bellowhead, Seth Lakeman & Sam Lee - Songlines Music Award Nominees 2013!

Martin Carthy -  the subject of BBC Radio 4's Desert Island Discs

Bellowhead's 'Broadside' album (out now on Navigator Records) enters the album charts at no 16, the Indie charts at no 1 and is playlisted by BBC Radio 2...