We lost our son Andrew James Millward on 27thApril 2017 aged 33 when he took his own life. He had suffered bouts of depression brought on we think from his time serving with the Warwickshire Fusiliers in Iraq in 2007. He was a serving Police Officer with the Civil Nuclear Constabulary working at Harwell in Oxfordshire commuting there daily from his home in Birmingham.
His colleagues from Harwell and in particular those from his unit have been of tremendous help and support over the last year to both his wife and two daughters and ourselves. His sister also ran the Birmingham Marathon in his place and memory last year.
l wanted to do something special to say ‘thank You’ to his close friends on his unit, rather like cavers they have to rely on each other in difficult moments. As a proud member of Dudley Caving Club, yes us lot, what better way than to organise an ‘Adventure Fund Day’ caving in south Wales.
Our guide for the day 6thMay would be non-other than ‘Caver Keith Edwards’ himself, ably assisted by Jessica Burkey and Kayleigh Wood.
We met in Abergavenny at our usual breakfast haunt of Luigi’s before moving on to South Wales Caving Club to allocate caving gear, change and make our way up the hill to OFD2. The five from Harwell had become four as one could not face his gremlins of going underground, but to be fair he did travel with his colleagues in order to support them and saw them off from nearly the entrance.
There was much nervous laughter and banter from our visitors as we made our way in and to their surprise it was, as we know, much larger in that entrance area than they had imagined. We pointed out land marks on the way such as Gnome Passage and the Wedding Cake and the Corkscrew certainly racked up the excitement. We made our way down to Salubrious and crossed the steamway and headed for the Columns where Clark Friend was able to give our visitors an interesting talk on how this part of the system had evolved.
Time was pressing now so we took the quickest route back which involved an interesting slide down a rift, exiting to the left part way aided by a safety line to avoid the continuing drop. We emerged to brilliant sunshine, amid exhilaration and relief to pose for pictures before making our way back to SWCC where my wife and other family members had prepared a BBQ.
Viewing the survey on wall in the long common room our visitors were amazed at the size of the OFD system and thrilled to plot their route in and out.
Following our meal and a short speech the final cherry on the cake was the presentation as a memento of the day of ‘UK Caving .com’ mugs to our visitors kindly and generously supplied by Jane Allen. All in all a great day out full of happy memories and possibly a couple of new members for D.C.C.
My sincere thanks to everyone who helped out that day.
A product review from Caver Keith Videos. We've always struggled to get good video in large cave passages so we tried out some 3800 lumen FD65 focusing torches from Fenix. The torches were able to light up some of the largest passages and they are absolutely brilliant for video. The range of light settings and the fact that at flood setting there isn't a trace of a hotspot make them ideal caving video lights.
Filmed in Agen Allwedd, South Wales on Sunday 11th March 2018.
Following on from the Birmingham Mail article and my not so modest success on social media I was invited to appear on the Danny Kelly Show (which was being hosted by Rachel New) on BBC WM 95.6FM to talk about my caving adventures on Thursday 15th February.
After the interview I was walking down the steps from The Mailbox when I received a comment on one of my YouTube videos from a researcher for The One Show:
"Hi Keith, I work on The One Show and we are working on a Sport Relief challenge for the show. We'd love to use some of your amazing caving footage."
To illustrate the caving part of Sport Relief 2018's 'Mother of All Challenges' she was looking for caving clips and really wanted clips from Porth Yr Ogof - a South Wales cave that I've never videoed! I was planning a trip to Craig A Ffynnon on Sunday 18th to try out some new Fenix FD65 3800 lumen torches I've acquired to use as video lights.
5 seconds of fame
The team were easily persuaded to divert to Porth Yr Ogof and about 5 seconds of the video we took on the day appeared on The One Show on Wednesday 21st February.
The torches performed very well and proved to be excellent for video with a very white light, no hotspots and of course very, very bright. Oh, and Brendan tested out the waterproofing of the torches when he accidentally dropped one in the underground river. It survived a 10-minute dunking at a depth of 60cm while we frantically searched for it.
Back in October I received an email from an intern working for Extreme on Facebook asking if he could use clips from Caving Claustrophobia Kill or Cure.
Extreme
I said yes and a shorter edit was uploaded to the Extreme Facebook page on 24th October last year under the title Claustrophobia Level 9000! To date it has been watched over 7 million times, shared 59,000 times, has had 35,000 post reactions and has attracted 33,000 comments.
Extreme Adventure
I was then asked if it was OK to upload it to the Facebook page Extreme Adventure. This was uploaded on 14th November under the title Claustrophobia over level 9000! This version has been watched 600,000 times with 2,700 shares, 1,300 comments and 1,200 post reactions.
More Extreme
Extreme obviously recognised a good thing and re-posted the video on 20th December. This time the statistics are:
20 million views
200,000 shares
62,000 comments
85,000 post reactions
LADBible
On 12th February I received the following message via the Dudley Caving Club Facebook page:
On 30th January I got an email from Newsflare who thought they might be able to sell one of my videos - Caver Stuck in The Lobster Pot, Sidcot Swallet. It sold twice, to Right This Minute and MSM. The videos did the rounds of social media and then on 5th February this message arrived via the Dudley Caving Club Facebook page.
"Hi there, I'm a reporter at the Birmingham Mail, would love to run a story about what you guys do and the amazing footage you have inside the caves, would that be at all possible? Thank you, Stephanie"
Several messages and a phone interview later this article appeared in the Birmingham Mail.
I had uploaded 16 videos to YouTube this year, 17 if you include this one. Six of the videos uploaded this year were filmed in 2016 or earlier but only got edited this year. Another four of the videos are compilations of old clips combined with some new original footage recorded in 2017.
With a scarcity of new stuff it seemed that making the customary annual highlights video wasn't going to happen.
However it has been a very successful year for my YouTube channel, in fact the most successful year to date with caving video views exceeding 1.6 million, so it would have been a shame not to celebrate with a highlights video. Also this year I won the Hidden Earth Video Salon, got a plaque for the best art work produced digitally in the Hidden Earth Video Salon and got a commission to produce the opening video for A Golden Age of Cave Exploration and Science.
In the years 2012 to 2014 an American caver, or should I say Spelunker?, by the name of Rob Spangler uploaded videos entitled Best Extreme Caving Video Moments on YouTube 2012, 2013 and 2014. The videos featured short clips of dramatic caving scenes set to equally dramatic music. Now there's an idea. So here's this year's annual highlights video with apologies to Rob Spangler.
It seems that my opening video for Hidden Earth this year was quite well received as I was approached by Andy Eavis during the conference to make an opening video for A Golden Age of Cave Exploration, an event organised to celebrate 50 years of pioneering British cave exploration and scientific research which took place on 1st - 4th Dec 2017 at the Royal Geographical Society, London.
“Something similar to the first part of the video,” was the brief, “I like Hey Hey We’re The Dudley but I suspect that few people in London will know what The Dudley is.” I was flattered, obviously, but a little noncommittal as I’m in the middle having my house extensively renovated and extended, and didn’t know if I would be rendered homeless sometime during the two months I’d got to make the video, and two months to come up with a concept, storyboard it, film it and edit it seemed like a bit of a tall order anyway.
It seemed that another video based on a song was what was being asked for but I had no idea what song or who I might be able to get to sing it, not to mention getting it recorded. At Hidden Earth I had been introduced to Rostam Namaghi and his Anthology of Speleomusic. I fired off an email to him and he very kindly send me his songbook which contains a number of brilliant songs. They are all great but a couple of my personal favourites are ‘Doline’ a plagiarised version of the Dolly Parton classic ‘Jolene’ and Glen Campbell’s ‘Limestone Cowboy’. Unfortunately neither seemed to fit the bill of being an introduction to 50 years of British caving. One other song in the anthology that caught my eye was Paul Simon's ‘The Sound of Silence’ but Rostam had only written the first two lines, “Hello darkness my old friend, I’ve come to crawl in you again.” A week had gone by since Hidden Earth and in spite of some serious head scratching I still had no real idea for the video.
Seven Weeks To Make A Video
It seemed that all of my head scratching might have been in vain as the days were flying past and Andy hadn’t contacted me, and I must admit to feeling a sense of relief. Then on 11th October with only 7 weeks to the event the email arrived. With luck on the previous day Jess had sent her re-write of the lyrics of ‘The Sound of Silence’ and they were very good and fitted the bill perfectly. However my problems were far from over as I now needed a suitable backing track, a singer and a recording studio.
I couldn’t ask Nige Atkins again, could I? No. I asked Rostam if he would be the singer but trying to arrange a mutually convenient date proved to be too difficult, and also I’d no idea how I could get it recorded at a quality suitable for such a prestigious event. I phoned round friends, ex-colleagues and relations but drew a blank in either identifying a singer or a means of recording. Meanwhile I couldn’t help changing a couple of lines, including the chorus from The World of Silence to The World of Caving. I toyed with the idea of speaking the lyrics in the style of Peter Sellers when he did ‘A Hard Days Night’ as Richard III. I looked through iTunes for a backing track. Perhaps a string quartet? In my searches for suitable music I came across Disturbed's version of ‘Sound of Silence’ and when I imagined Jess’s lyrics sung in this style I thought we might be on to something, and I was able to download from iTunes 'The Sound of Silence (Originally performed by Disturbed) by Karaoke Pro.
Four Weeks To Make A Video
Eventually I had no alternative but to throw myself on the mercy of Nige, and to my complete amazement he said yes. However he couldn’t get into the studio he used for the Hidden Earth video, but he said that if I could find a studio he would be happy to travel. It was now 28th October - just over 4 weeks to the event and I needed to find a recording studio, book it on a date when Nige could get there, get the song recorded and make the video. I was getting quite desperate. Then lying in bed one night with so much going on in my mind I couldn’t sleep I remembered an ex-work colleague had posted a music video to Facebook which featured a member of her family. I sent a message asking her if she could help in any way and she replied that her brother-in-law owned a recording studio in Birmingham! You could have knocked me over with a feather!
Three Weeks To Make A Video
Nige Atkins at ARC Studio Birmingham
The song was recorded with Nige on vocals at ARC Studio in Edgbaston, Birmingham on 8th November - just 3 weeks before the event. In the days preceding the recording session I had started looking through old video clips to see how much new stuff I would need to record. I’d got enough archive footage to match to about half of the song, and Antonia and Andy Freem were kind enough to agree to me using 3 clips from their excellent Dan Yr Ogof video.
I badgered a few Dudley members and we set off for a trip into OFD on 12th November with a shot list and managed to film 9 clips at various locations around Top Entrance. Also on the previous day I had filmed the ‘bustling world above’ on Bromsgrove High Street. The video then came together quite quickly but I was missing clips to illustrate the lines, “And the caving world expands throughout many foreign lands. Exploration opens up our eyes.”
Caver Keith videoing in Cross Rift,
OFD. Photo by Mark Burkey.
Caver Keith And His Hero
When I started caving back in the late 80s the first club I joined was the West Midlands Cave Exploration Group (WMCEG). WMCEG insisted on everyone having a nickname and I was christened Sid after Sid Perou as even in those days I took a video camera on some of the trips.
So Sid was always a bit of a hero of mine. As both Sid and Gavin Newman (another hero of mine) were involved in the video aspect of the conference I was put in email contact with both of them. Can you imagine it, me, Caver Keith, the chap that makes those silly videos, Mr. nobody, a numpty - chatting by email with caving royalty? Wow!
Two Weeks To Complete A Video
Anyway Sid sent me the video he was preparing for the event and in it there was a 17 second Ghar Parau sequence that fitted perfectly with the lyrics. I asked if I could use it and he said, “Yes!” I added a long fade into and out of Sid’s stuff and the video was complete 2 weeks before the deadline. Then disaster struck, my computer decided to trash my complete video library and the backup failed to restore it. I had got a backup of the backup of 'The World of Caving' so all was not lost, but Andy wanted the credits slowing down. I re-imported the video, chopped off the credits and re-did them. The video was finally finished.
Caver Keith Meets His Hero
Sid and Caver Keith. Photo by Mark Burkey.
The video was played to open the conference on the Friday evening and again on the Sunday morning to introduce Sid's session. It did seem to go down quite well with the audience and I got some good feedback from the delegates as well as great comments on YouTube and UK Caving. However it has had one dislike too.
At the conference I was able to chat to Sid on several occasions. It's always difficult chatting to someone that one holds in such high esteem and I hope I didn't burble too much.
On the Sunday I was privileged to be part of a team that filmed an interview with Sid and he was kind enough to do a short piece to camera about my humble efforts, but that's another story for another day.
Sid's Golden Age of Cave Exploration & Science Video
