The Cup n Rings ‘Roughtin Linn’: Sacred Places 1 is presented in a double disc box and represents the DIY aesthetic in 2020. Taken from the Tusk Festival Fringe performance at TOPH at The Alphabetti Theatre, Newcastle, England on 12th October 2019 as performed by David Howcroft & Swarm Front.

This live presentation was recorded from the audience on a hand held device and therefore the quality (in particular the visuals) are not as clear as they would be if professionally filmed, however this in no way detracts from the experience and the atmospherics, in fact TQN-aut believes the DIY quality of the images and sounds enhances rather than diminishes the work.

The package comprises a DVD and CDr of the full performance with several handmade inserts;
An original and unique rubbing from Roughtin Linn by David Howcroft housed in a tracing paper sleeve
A postcard unique to this release
A facsimile of the cover art of the album ‘Y’ by The Pop Group
A facsimile of the cover art of the album ‘Cut” by The Slits
A review of the performance which first appeared on the radiomidwich blog by Rob
Hayler
A review of the performance, an interview with David Howcroft and descriptive text about cup and rings of Northumberland and Roughtin Linn which first appeared in TQ26
A flier about rock art and protecting sacred places

David Howcroft; performance creation, waterfall film, ritual, package design.
Swarm Front; Mariam Rezaei, Mark Wardlaw, Adam Denton.
Andy Wood; hand held camera.

100% of sales income will be donated by TQN-aut to The Great North Air Ambulance Service which air lifted David to hospital following a life threatening mountain bike accident in October 2006 in the hills of the Lake District which left him with a smashed skull and broken neck.

“Thinking about Cup n Rings yesterday. Beautiful noise wall created by Swarm Front, extraordinary pagan ritual from quiet hero of the North East scene David Howcroft. Great venue too. Perfect Fringe event – left me in bits”
Tweet from Rob Hayler the day after the performance

“I was still running it through my mind again when I woke up this morning. ‘Astounding’ is still the closest adjective I have to hand at the moment”
Tweet from Jon Lee the day after the performance

“After the 20-min performance was over, the response from the audience was fitting for such an event with 3-waves of impromptu applause as if to signify that one round of loud applause simply wasn’t good enough”
Performance review in TQZine

“I cried during the applause at the end”
Performance review in radiomidwich blog