Rewild Things!
In June 2022, Majk released a new single, “Rewild Things”, as a fundraiser in support the Langholm Initiative‘s community woodland buyout project to buy 10,500 acres of woodland in Dumfries and Galloway (South West Scotland) to turn into a nature reserve. It was announced later that year that £2.2 million had been successfully raised and the sale had gone through, creating one of the largest community-owned nature reserves in Scotland. Majk has since been down to visit and helped with the planting of 500 of the first new trees.
Other Events/Projects
Heroes, Revised: In Summer 2021, for the Edinburgh Fringe Majk recorded a show entitled “Heroes” which was available online for the duration of the Fringe, and which raised over £250 for charity. He then updated it and reworked it into a live show, “Heroes, Revised”, which he performed at 4.30-5.30pm on the 6th, 7th, 9th, 10th and 12th of August at The Quaker Meeting House (Venue 40)- because we really need to re-think how we define a hero for the 21st century. In combination with the debut Fringe gig that his wife Beth did, also as a charity fundraiser, these raised a total of £532.79.
Recycled: I was on full or flexible furlough from my day job for rather more than a year, so rather than sitting around and going quietly spare I was writing a lot of new songs and poems, and coming back to a bunch of old ones and brushing the dust off them… and I came up with a reasonable collection of material on the subject of recycling, repurposing, rebooting and re-creating, which to my mind is what the human race needs to start doing rather seriously if it’s going to get through the twenty-first century… anyway, I’ve compiled these new poems into a little booklet, printed on recycled paper (obviously!) and available very soon.
Patreon: I’m still working on setting up a Patreon page, which means people can sponsor me to create more of my interesting stuff, and if you do sponsor me then you get exclusive extra poems and short stories sent to you, and a chance to see and hear the songs I’m currently working on! Search for Majk Stokes in Patreon.com- it’s not up and running quite yet, but it should be by the end of April at the latest!
I have songs online! They were listed on iTunes etc under “Majk” for a while, but having struggled with the fact that there’s a Kosovan musician, also called Majk, who’s way more famous than I am, I re-launched my “Too Much Caffeine” album and my new album “Time to Save the World” on iTunes under “Majk Stokes”. The new album, “Sweets from Strangers“, will be coming out soon.
Potatoes and Broken Hearts: at the end of 2018 I realised I had written not only quite a lot of songs but also enough poems to fill a small book. So I produced a small book! Potatoes and Broken Hearts is available now from Typewronger Books in Edinburgh or you can order it online from this website.
Silent Superheroes: As one of Majk’s new songs explains, saving the world can be a lonely old job if you’re trying to do it all on your own: so he’s starting the “silent superheroes” in roughly equal parts an action group, fan club and support network who those of us who are trying to save the world and may be feeling disheartened by the state of things at the moment.
Past Events/Projects
New album: In Spring 2020, Majk was planning to release his new album, “Time to Save the World”, featuring the title track of the previous year’s little tour, “One More Cup of Coffee, and then we’ll Save the World”– because now he’s had his cup of coffee- plus some of the newer songs he’s been trying out recently, and including one or two tracks which (gasp!) aren’t silly… Of course then Covid happened, and the world changed, and we never quite managed to have a live launch concert, but the album is available online in all the usual places.
Fringe Festivals! In 2019 Majk did a small tour of his show “One more cup of coffee, and then we’ll save the world”, taking it to the Brighton Fringe (19th-22nd May), the Ludlow Fringe (16th June) and the Edinburgh Fringe (3rd, 25th and 26th August)
Because he went off to Australia to visit his sister in early 2018, Majk thought he’d make a go of it and put on a show in the Adelaide Fringe, which is like the Edinburgh Fringe only hot and sunny. His show, “One more cup of coffee, and then we’ll save the world” ran from 21st Feb-4th March at Bas3ment Studios, Adelaide, and was well received, gradually building a bit of a following and decent audiences and getting a rather lovely review from Jude Hines of Stagewhispers
After a pretty successful run in Adelaide, a lovely gig at Smith’s Alternative in Canberra, a good reception on the open mic scene in Melbourne, and a hitch-hiking tour of South-Eastern Australia, Majk reprised his Adelaide show in 2018 at the Edinburgh Fringe, doing a run of gigs at the Quaker Meeting House (Venue 40) running from 14th-18th August and taking in two of his greatest passions, the environment and coffee.
Tree-planting: in April 2018 Majk went off to Cumbria with some old friends to plant some trees in memory of the lovely Stephen Owen. He personally planted 14 trees, and put in stakes and rabbit guards for another couple of dozen, and he will be including them in the total of (at least) 80 trees that he has committed himself to planting this year, to go some small way towards countering the carbon emissions and general environmental damage caused by his flying to and from Australia… and by living in the Western world.
West Port Gardens Festival, 16th and 17th of June 2018
Beetroot Sauvage Vegan Cafe/Restaurant opening weekend, 19th and 20th of June 2018
Beetroot Cafe Raw Burns Night, Friday 26th January 2018: an amazing meal and some rather good music (is there something of a theme going on there?)
Majk’s second CD, Too Much Caffeine, is now available: he held a small launch gig on Friday the 13th of October 2017 at Daylight Robbery on Dublin Street and a small tour of Edinburgh over the Autumn.
Majk had three concerts in the Edinburgh Fringe in 2017, entitled “Make Tea, Not War”, 7-9pm on Saturday the 5th, Sunday the 27th and Monday the 28th of August, featuring special guests handpan drum player Milly Hoddo (5th and 27th) and storyteller Mark Borthwick (28th), at the Quaker Meeting House, 7 Victoria Terrace, EH1 2 JL. Between them they raised £373 (and 50 pence!) for the Meeting House’s designated charities in 2017.
Majk’s first CD, Scratch One, was a short-run fundraiser album for the Akany Avoko orphanage in Madagascar, as part of a year-long national appeal that raised over £20,000.
Majk has also written several songs for comedy cult project “The Enlightened Brethren of the Sacred Truth”