Cultural Dessert

But the best gig of the festival was definitely The Correspondents: WOMAD doesn’t feature many British groups and those who make it onto the programme are usually something special. The Correspondents mix swing-era big band records with contemporary electronic beats. The result is cool, serious and ridiculous. Their sound reminded me a lot of the French group Caravan Palace (reviewed here in July 2009) who play the gypsy jazz swing of Django Reinhardt and Stephane Grappelli to pounding high-tempo electronic beats and the Greek duo Imam Baildi (reviewed here in May 2009) who take old Greek tunes from the 40's, 50's and 60's (from their father's collection of 78s) and add modern instruments and beats. The Correspondents gave an incredible performance with some of the most energetic and eccentric dancing I have ever seen (try to imagine Doctor Who impersonating Michael Jackson). Frontman Mr Bruce is a fascinating and slightly disturbing performer – see http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NGebmvnR158 – and his set included the first crowd-surfing I can remember seeing at WOMAD, an experience he recovered from by having a nice cup of tea!