Join Machynlleth for a day of music and performance celebrating the town’s high street.

Caneuan Siop/ Shop Songs is a community-made album launching this month, made up of 16 songs created by town residents about their beloved shops and businesses.

The launch event on Saturday 17 January will see the town come alive with performances in the shops and streets.

During the evening, different venues will be hosting poetry, music, magic, and performance starting at the Wynstay from 6.30pm.

Phil Wheeler, who is running the project as part of the voluntary organisation Mach Fringe, said: “Our town is full of independent shops with an adventurous community spirit.

“To celebrate Machynlleth, we are launching a community project called Caneuon Siop - Shop Songs - a series of performances, songs and poetry written about our town by local artists, musicians, and poets.”

The songs include a story about Royal House (now a delicatessen), where David Gam is rumoured to have been imprisoned for trying to assassinate Owain Glyndŵr, songs about the charity shops and market, El Diablo the tattoo shop, a chip shop song by the mayor, bike shop Seiclo Dyfi and more.

The album will also be released with a poetry book made of 20 poems written by year seven students and residents about the kebab shop, Spar, Co-op, and CCF.

The project is a whole community collaboration, with the CD cover art donated by local artist Daniel Roberson and the poetry book artwork donated by Liz Fenwick.

Phil said the idea for the album began 17 years ago, when he created a film with his daughter called Phoney Philjacker, featuring “hoax calls to our butcher asking him if he would like to buy kangaroo steaks, our fish and chip shop to buy frog's legs and Bethan Roberts if she had an armour-plated taxi.”