Manchester Folk Festival 2027: Jon Wilks & Rich Lines: Strange Heavens

Jon Wilks and Rich Lines perform Strange Heavens, a song cycle inspired by Stanley Spencer's Sandham Memorial Chapel paintings, as part of Manchester Folk Festival 2027.

Strange Heavens is an original song cycle by folk guitarist Jon Wilks and journalist and songwriter Rich Lines, created in response to Sir Stanley Spencer's murals at Sandham Memorial Chapel, which depict his experiences as a medical orderly and soldier on the Salonika front during the First World War. Given rare time alone inside the chapel, the pair developed what began as a single song into a full musical work honouring the 'forgotten dead'. The performance forms part of Manchester Folk Festival 2027, which marks its tenth year across city venues from 10 to 13 March 2027.