WOMAD 2008
29 July 2008
The weather was the star at this year's WOMAD Festival at Charlton Park in Wiltshire. After the rain and mud of last year we enjoyed a very hot weekend of almost unbroken sunshine. At first the positioning of the BBC Radio 3 stage in the arboretum, with a tree directly in front of part of the stage, seemed bizarre. But by Saturday afternoon, as the temperature soared, this leafy shade was much appreciated. Everything seemed to work effectively this year and it became apparent how much more room there is at Charlton Park compared to the previous festival site in Reading - a much more pleasant experience all round.
Pacing myself more carefully than in some previous years (it was hot!) I still saw 12 full performances and dipped in and out of many more – seeing a total of 28 bands in 3 days! Highlights included the wonderful Israeli Ladino singer Mor Karbasi, Malian diva Mamani Keita, the mighty Bassekou Kouyate & Ngoni Ba (reviewed here in December 2007) and the legendary Orchestra Baobab. It was a great nostalgic thrill to see recently reunited Squeeze singing 'Up the Junction', 'Cool for Cats', 'Pulling Mussels (From The Shell)' etc. And Martha Wainwright gave an amazing performance on Saturday evening: very much the rock star, looking like Debbie Harry and sounding like The Pretenders - I'm really enjoying her new album, 'I know you're married but I've got feelings too'. But my pick of the festival were the six-piece male polyphonic vocal group from Marseille, Lo Cor de la Plana - unaccompanied singing (except for a collection of hand drums, foot stomps and hand claps) in the Occitan language of southern France. Their close harmony singing and solos with drone-like accompaniment are reminiscent of the singing shepherds of Sardinia (reviewed here in June 2007). Lo Cor de la Plana are incredibly rhythmic and exciting, weaving a trance-like quality into songs that build ever more frantically to thrilling conclusions. Labels: Albums, Concerts, Festivals, Music
BBC Proms Folk Day
21 July 2008
The last time I saw Bella Hardy she was performing to an audience of 18 people in the bar at the Queen's Theatre in Barnstaple (reviewed here in March 2008): on Sunday she was standing in the middle of the Royal Albert Hall singing, unaccompanied, to an audience of thousands. We were in London for the BBC Proms Folk Day - an enjoyable and varied innovation in the Proms calendar. Firstly we joined the crowds in Kensington Gardens to see live music on the bandstand, dancing round the maypole and much more, culminating in an electrifying performance from the wonderful Bellowhead (reviewed here in October 2006). Bellowhead went on to conquer the Albert Hall in the Sunday evening Prom (broadcast live on BBC Four and available on iPlayer) but being part of the crowd dancing in the sunshine in front of the bandstand to 'London Town' was very special. We then crossed the road to the Albert Hall for the free afternoon Prom which featured a huge cast of performers including Bella Hardy, the Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra, the London Sinfonietta conducted by Martyn Brabbins, the mezzo-soprano Monica Bacelli and the amazing Hungarian folk group Muzsikas. The concert compared and contrasted traditional performances of folk melodies (by Bella Hardy and Muzsikas) with classical settings of the same tunes by Vaughan Williams, Grainger, Berio and Bartok. I particularly enjoyed Monica Bacelli's theatrical approach to Berio's hauntingly sparse 'Folk Songs' and the perfect joins between the Muzsikas insertions in the London Sinfonietta's performance of Bartok's 'Romanian Dances' (with the orchestra augmented by young musicians aged 14 - 18 from the Camden and Hertfordshire Music Services). Muzsikas were fantastic - amazingly precise and polished performers of a very rough village folk band sound. But the show was stolen by the young players of Folkestra - an ensemble of 13 - 19 year olds based at the Sage, Gateshead. Their set was the most exciting thing on the programme - toe-tapping, virtuosic and fascinating to watch - with wonderful clarsach playing by Emily Hoile and a thrilling moment when Sarah Norris put down her whistle and, amid the frenzied playing of her colleagues, walked slowly to the small dance square at the front of the stage to add her clogs to the frantic rhythm of the piece - magical. The concert finished with the premiere of 'Confluence' - a work for the joint forces of the London Sinfonietta, Muzsikas and Folkestra by Folkestra's Musical Director, Kathryn Tickell. It was a super day.
Labels: Concerts, Music
'The Damned Utd' by David Peace
21 July 2008
David Peace's novel 'The Damned Utd' is an unusual book: it tells the tale of Brian Clough's ill-fated 44 days in charge of Leeds United Football Club in 1974, reimagining events through Clough's eyes in a first person narration that reads like a very candid diary or autobiography. This narrative is interspersed with Clough's back story (bizarrely told in the second person) taking us from his playing days, through his early managerial experience, forward to meet the main story in 1974. Peace brings the familiar character of Clough back to life so vividly it is often difficult to remember you are reading fiction. The short alternating sections gripped my attention and whipped me through the book in two sittings. There is an enormous amount of swearing, drinking and smoking and anyone who is not interested in football might find it hard-going but, for me, it was completely compelling. Read alongside Gary Imlach's wonderful 'My Father and Other Working-Class Football Heroes' (reviewed here in January 2007) and Nick Hornby's 'Fever Pitch', 'The Damned Utd' completes a detailed social history of football in England. In Brian Clough, David Peace creates (or re-creates) that most fascinating of characters - someone who is unredeemably unpleasant and unlikeable but for whom you find yourself totally rooting. Early 1970s football is just beyond my childhood memories and though I had a vague idea of the sequence of events in Brian Clough's career there was much for me to fill in. The structure of the book made for a very satisfying experience as the pieces gradually began to fall into place as I raced towards the bitter-sweet conclusion. An amazing book.
Labels: Books
'Dangerous Obsession' by N J Crisp
21 July 2008
It's Summer Rep time again at the Little Theatre, Sheringham so we made our annual pilgrimage to North Norfolk last week to see 'Dangerous Obsession' - a thriller by N J Crisp. The ingredients suggested familiar territory - a three-hander with comings and goings through the French windows - but this was cleverer and more thought-provoking than it first appeared. Well cast and well acted by Georgina Carey, Richard Sandells and Andrew Castell.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
'Pieces of Light' by Adam Thorpe
21 July 2008
Adam Thorpe first came to my attention when his incredible debut novel 'Ulverton' received glowing praise from the critics. This tale of an imaginary English village over centuries of history through a series of 'discovered' documents is a tour-de-force but I'm afraid the painstaking use of historically accurate dialect made many sections of the book unbearably difficult for this reader to plough through. It was with some trepidation, therefore, that I approached Adam Thorpe's third novel 'Pieces of Light' - but I needn't have worried. 'Pieces of Light' starts as the story of a young boy growing up in a English missionary family in Cameroon in the 1920s. This is an interesting, if fairly unremarkable, tale but when the narrative shifts at the end of the first section you realise you're entering a much more complex and satisfying work. Without the difficult-to-read dialect to wade through I realised how much I had forgotten about the strengths of 'Ulverton': Thorpe is an intricate plotter and can be very funny. In 'Pieces of Light' he continues to use the narrative device of 'found documents' so, while the novel is all told in the first person, you begin to appreciate that it is very important in each section to work out who is telling the story and when they are telling it. It reminded me at times of 'Cloud Atlas' by David Mitchell (which it pre-dates). 'Pieces of Light' is maybe a bit long (nearly 500 pages) and drags a little in the middle but I found it compulsive reading - desperate to try to work out its riddles before being left puzzled by its remaining ambiguities. Now I want to read it all again! In particular Thorpe very cleverly evokes both the confused world-view of a young boy and the adult's less than perfect reinterpretations of mis-remembered childhood events.
Labels: Books
Wimbledon 2008
8 July 2008
We've been extremely lucky in the Wimbledon ballot for the last few years but this year was even better as we landed centre court tickets for the Ladies' Singles Final. Knowing that this chance might not come around again for some time creates a fair amount of anxiety as you scour the weather forecasts to see whether your big day is going to be wiped out by rain. Again we were remarkably lucky and were treated to six and a half hours of continuous tennis. The Ladies' Final between Venus and Serena Williams was high quality, hard-fought and extremely close with Serena initially looking like she would walk it before Venus found her form and began to edge ahead. The Men's Doubles Final was exciting but dominated by strong serving with Daniel Nestor and, particularly, Nenad Zimonjic worthy winners. And as the light started to fail we were treated to the most entertaining match of the day as the Williams sisters returned to claim the Ladies' Doubles title. My centre court debut was a brilliant day - I hope to be back next year.
Labels: Sport
'The Winter's Tale' by William Shakespeare
8 July 2008
The only thing I knew about 'The Winter's Tale' was "exit pursued by a bear" so it was great fun to discover unfamiliar Shakespeare last Friday - and the bear was great fun too! For a second year running we were very fortunate that our visit to the open-air Shakespeare in the gardens of Woburn Abbey benefited from wonderful weather. This year we saw the Globe Touring production of 'The Winter's Tale'. The team at Shakespeare's Globe know a thing or two about acting in the open-air and the there was a high standard of acting throughout and a welcome volume of projection. A very silly plot but a very enjoyable evening.
Labels: Drama, Theatre
Danesborough Chorus concert
1 July 2008
On Saturday we were at Woburn Church for the Danesborough Chorus summer concert. It was a lovely evening and a very enjoyable concert - with an extended interval for a picnic outside the church. I particularly enjoyed the 'Berliner Messe' by Arvo Pärt. Pärt creates a very distinctive, delicate, ethereal sound which must be very difficult for the singers but the effect was hauntingly beautiful. We were on easier ground in the second half with John Rutter's 'Magnificat'. Rutter always looks like great fun to sing and is invariably tuneful, varied and enthusiastically received. Ian Smith and the Danesborough Chorus were joined by the Milton Keynes City Orchestra and the excellent Soprano, Claire Seaton.
Labels: Concerts, Music
