WOMAD 2007

1 August 2007

The WOMAD world music festival prides itself on remaining largely sponsor-free but this year you could have been forgiven for thinking a deal had been done with Dunlop - at least in terms of product placement: if there was anyone present not wearing wellingtons it was impossible to tell what, if anything, they did have on their feet, such was the amount of deep, liquid, mud covering the festival site! The unfortunate coincidence of the wettest summer on record combined with WOMAD's move to a new home at Charlton Park near Malmesbury in Wiltshire (after many years in Reading) made for a frustratingly difficult festival experience. First there were horrendous traffic problems on the small country roads around the park: it took me two and a half hours to travel the few miles from the motorway junction when I arrived on Friday afternoon. Then there was the mud: wellingtons were a necessity and walking was very difficult - though standing still had its problems too as you soon found yourself sinking! And just when you decided to give up and call it day there was chaos in the car park: on Saturday evening it took me two hours to get out as tractors towed cars one-by-one up an increasingly muddy slope to the road. By Saturday night I had had enough and opted to head home rather than struggle through Sunday. And I was fortunate not to have been camping: it was a great relief to get back to a comfortable hotel bed each night. I know many people went home before the festival even began and there has been much anger and vitriol on the message boards at www.womad.org - though it was good to see Viscount Andover (whose father owns the Charlton Park estate) going online to respond to comments. Nevertheless, as always, there was some great music. An obvious highlight was the first festival appearance for many years of WOMAD founder Peter Gabriel who played a great set on Friday evening with a host of guest stars. I also enjoyed the desert bagpipes of exuberant Algerian band Marzoug, the beautiful, other-worldly vocals of Norwegian Sami singer Mari Boine and the amazing virtuosity of Malian ngoni player Bassekou Kouyate. It is always nice to see the artists appreciating each other's work: it was lovely to see the mature gentlemen of El Tanbura (Egypt's answer to the Buena Vista Social Club) dancing in front of the stage during a performance by the Palestinian singer Reem Kelani. The Warsaw Village Band were late - a year and 45 minutes late: I had been looking forward to seeing them play at last year's festival when they didn't make it at all - and on Saturday (like many other bands this year) they got stuck in the traffic and the mud and arrived on stage three quarters of an hour later than scheduled. But I did enjoy their 'hardcore Polish folk' - particularly the strident three-part female vocal harmonies which emphasise their musical and geographic positioning somewhere between Bulgaria and Finland. As the rain started to fall on Saturday evening we were cheered up by an upbeat session from English folk star Seth Lakeman and the most energetic performance of the weekend from Asian Dub Foundation. I finished by watching the launch of Simon Emmerson's new project 'The Imagined Village' - a re-imagining of the English folk tradition for the 21st century featuring an all star cast including Martin Carthy, Eliza Carthy, Billy Bragg, Benjamin Zephaniah, Johny Kalsi of the Dhol Foundation, Sheema Mukherjee of Transglobal Underground and British Asian singer Sheila Chandra. Fascinating to hear Billy Bragg talking about how it took two Jewish guys from Queens to make him feel English - when hearing Simon & Garfunkel's 'Scarborough Fair' for the first time - and then to realise he was telling us this while standing next to Martin Carthy - the man who taught Paul Simon the tune. There were some great performances at Charlton Park but it was hard work getting from one stage to another and it will be difficult not to remember this year's WOMAD festival primarily for the mud.

'Much Ado About Nothing' by William Shakespeare

25 July 2007

When your neighbours have got a troupe of travelling players performing Shakespeare in their back garden it would seem churlish not to support them – so on Sunday we made our way through the deer park to Woburn Abbey to watch the outdoor production of 'Much Ado About Nothing' by Chapterhouse theatre company. In this period of 'extreme weather' we expected the worst but, amazingly, the clouds cleared, the sun came out and we enjoyed a beautiful evening. There are quite a few companies touring open-air Shakespeare productions each summer and it always appears to be a very testing proving ground for young actors. Apart from coping with the full range of weather conditions, your projection has got to be very strong to reach the back of the audience and you have to be able to ignore numerous potential distractions – such as the flock of geese that flew across the Woburn Abbey gardens on Sunday, closely followed by a lone heron. The Chapterhouse cast coped well and gave a solid, engaging performance. Not quite as inventive in their use of the available space as the 'Romeo and Juliet' we saw last year but extremely enjoyable nonetheless – with particularly strong performances by Nicola Weeks and Simon Michael Morgan as Beatrice and Benedick. Their tour of England continues to the end of August - details at www.chapterhouse.org.

The Blockheads

23 July 2007

It's Easter 1992 and we're in the Swan Theatre in Stratford watching a great Royal Shakespeare Company production of John Gay's 'A Jovial Crew'. But we're distracted from the action by a small, stooped figure wandering around the back of the auditorium, selecting a series of vantage points. As he passes the back of our seats, Jeannie turns round and pointedly asks him to be quiet. We reach the interval and the lights go up and suddenly a queue is forming to shake hands with the small, restless man. If I had stopped to write a list of all the people he might have been (which I obviously didn't as I was in a hurry to get an ice cream) the list would have had to have been many pages long before it would have occurred to me that we were being disturbed by rock star and poet of punk, Ian Dury. (Though had I just spent the interval reading the programme I would have discovered that he and Mickey Gallagher had written the songs for this production of 'A Jovial Crew'.)

Fifteen years later Dury is sadly no longer with us but his band, The Blockheads, are celebrating their thirtieth anniversary. So, on Saturday evening, we made our way to The Pitz in Milton Keynes for an evening of 'Sex and Drugs and Rock 'n' Roll'. The remaining original Blockheads may have aged but showed no signs of losing their enthusiasm, musical skill or drive. Augmented by a couple of younger recruits they played a high-energy two hour set and were obviously really enjoying themselves. The Blockheads were one of those punk bands who weren't really punks - mixing a variety of musical styles including reggae (as did The Clash), Latin rhythms and funk. Their strolling bass lines sound a lot like their contemporaries Squeeze. The presence of the amazing saxophonist Gilad Atzmon took a lot of the numbers into the realms of jazz funk – at times The Blockheads sounded remarkably like Weather Report – not really my kind of thing but very impressive. Their unique selling point is still Ian Dury’s wonderful lyrics – witty, playful, hard-hitting, brutal and very funny. It was great to see a packed audience singing along to every word. Also interesting to reflect on Dury’s gentle, natural, rhythmic spoken delivery: he was rapping in 1977 – well before Mike Skinner of The Streets was born. On Saturday the Blockheads were joined for the last few numbers by the comedian Phil Jupitus. Almost unrecognisable (if it were not for his distinctive body shape!), clean-shaven and dressed in a giant red checked jacket and bowler hat (“sponsored by Home Pride”), Jupitus delivered the lead vocals with due reverence to his legendary colleagues – and was clearly a big fan. He is due to join The Blockheads for a full thirtieth anniversary tour later this year – well worth catching. And as we pogo-ed into the night shouting “hit me with your rhythm stick – hit me – hit me” I’m sure there was someone looking on from the back of the auditorium and smiling.

Boban Markovic Orkestar

17 July 2007

Since I first discovered the peerless Serbian brass band - the Boban Markovic Orkestar – after reading a review in Songlines magazine at the beginning of 2003 they have only played one UK date – in May 2003 which I missed as I was flying back from Italy at the time. So when I heard Boban was to play another one-off concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London last weekend I leapt at the chance to see the band live for the first time. They didn't disappoint. Dressed in white shoes, white trousers and round-necked, long-sleeved white t-shirts the 11 members of the Boban Markovic Orkestar looked like an unlikely collection of male nurses preparing to assist in complicated surgery on our eardrums. In front of the band, Boban and his son Marko were the epitome of cool on a sweltering evening. Marko – now in his early twenties – is a rock star with a trumpet. He stands with his feet firmly planted to the floor, his head bent forward to ensure his trumpet gets as close as possible to the microphone, his long black hair tied tightly back in a ponytail and his hips gyrating to the groove. His father constantly prowls the stage – directing the band, instructing the sound engineer and casually slipping into bursts of virtuoso trumpet solos. Boban's medium-length hair is tousled as if an elderly relative has playfully ruffled it. The back of his light blue shirt is soon drenched in sweat. His shoulders are permanently raised in a perpetual shrugging 'whatever' and a satisfied smile plays around his lips.

For me, the Boban Markovic Orkestar are the classiest, slickest, funkiest exponents of the Balkan Gypsy brass sound. They avoid the tendency of many similar bands to demonstrate their virtuosity by making everything extremely fast and frantic – preferring to vary their programme with stunning, unexpected changes of tempo and rhythm. And their rhythms are amazing – complex syncopations supported by five tuba players and three percussionists. There are no clarinets or saxophones here – just tubas (of varying sizes) and trumpets. The sound is absolutely deafening – and even louder when Boban and Marko come out from behind the microphones and play directly without amplification from the front of stage.

There is clearly a great mutual respect within the band. At the end of each number every player acknowledges the audience's acclaim by raising an arm to gesture across the stage towards one of their colleagues to suggest, modestly, where the applause ought to be directed. When the gesture is reciprocated each player turns to honour another member of the band, creating a series of white-clad musical statue tableaus with arms outstretched.

Balkan Gypsy brass is party music but with the Boban Markovic Orkestar it is a serious party. By the time they left the stage of the Queen Elizabeth Hall – having over-run the scheduled finish by an hour! – everyone was on their feet: an unforgettable experience.

'The Magic Numbers' by The Magic Numbers

12 July 2007

Last weekend, our friends Jan and Dave suggested we go to see a band in a pub. Regular readers may have noticed that this is not something we do very often but the novelty of a smoke-free pub was quite appealing and Jan and Dave had seen the band before and recommended them. So on Saturday night we made for the Prince Albert in Bradwell Village, Milton Keynes, to see '1 Nite Stand'. Discovering that they were a 'covers band' eroded my enthusiasm as I anticipated an evening of the same old 1960s and 70s standards. When they started, however, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that their choice of covers was much more interesting and inventive. '1 Nite Stand' (www.1nitestand.co.uk) were really good. Most of their repertoire was from the 1990s (including songs by the likes of James and The Wonderstuff) or more recent (such as The Kaiser Chiefs and Nerina Pallot). I was particularly struck by a number of songs that were new to me, including one by The Magic Numbers. When I wrote here (in February 2006) of my enthusiasm for Arctic Monkeys, Sioned suggested I try The Magic Numbers but I'm sorry to say I hadn't got round to them. So this week I picked up a copy of their eponymous 2005 album (for just £6 - sometimes delaying your purchase pays off!). It's a 1960s West Coast sound (and I don't mean Aberystwyth!) - cheerful, toe-tapping, catchy tunes with strummed guitars and backing vocal harmonies - a soundtrack for summer.

Sardinia

28 June 2007

We had a great couple of weeks in Sardinia. It was very hot and we were staying in a fairly isolated hotel set in the middle of a pine forest near Arborea on the West coast – which allowed for plenty of relaxing days by the pool or on the beach. We also managed to explore quite a bit of the island including the main cities – Cagliari, Nuoro and Sassari – the picturesque towns of Bosa and Alghero (the only Catalan-speaking community outside Spain – Sardinia having been Spanish for three centuries), and several Roman and prehistoric (‘Nuraghi’) archeological sites. My highlight was the day we drove up a narrow winding road to the mountain village of Bitti, home to the famous singing shepherds, Tenores de Bitti. The Sardinian canto a tenore tradition is an amazing sound. For centuries shepherds have gathered in mountain huts at the end of the working day to sing to each other (and drink!) through the night. Standing in a circle facing each other, this is very much participatory music – not designed for an audience. The four-part unaccompanied close-harmony singing imitates natural sounds: the bass (‘bassu’) is the sound of a cow, the ‘contra’ is the sound of a sheep and the ‘mesu ‘oche’ is the sound of the wind. Above these the soloist (‘voche’ – the human voice) leads the song and carries the text. The result is harmonically scrunchy, with a very low growlly bass – hypnotically repetitive and remarkably catchy. After a lengthy search around the streets of Bitti we eventually found the tiny Museo Canto e Tenore and came away clutching heaps of CDs.

'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' by Bill Bryson

25 June 2007

About 15 years ago, my cynical friend Tony was uncharacteristically enthusiastic about a travel book he was reading by a then little-known American author called Bill Bryson. This guy, said Tony, had taken a road-trip across America and had written a hilarious account of the small towns he had encountered and their peculiar inhabitants. Bill Bryson was the American who understood irony - he was more cynical than my cynical friend Tony. I didn't actually read 'The Lost Continent' until years later. Tony couldn't let me read his copy because, typically, he had borrowed it from a girl he had been seeing but was no longer seeing but hoped he might see again in which case he would need to be able to return her book. When I finally got to read 'The Lost Continent' I loved it too - everybody loves Bill Bryson don't they? He has a great knack of capturing the absurdities of the places he visits and marveling at the ridiculousness of the people he meets without ever ridiculing them, and maintaining his own likeable persona through a healthy dollop of self-deprecation. I've read quite a few Bill Bryson books now and they are all extremely entertaining. I think his style works best when his descriptions of places are sprinkled with chance encounters with the strangest of strangers - for me his least successful book was 'Neither Here Nor There', his European journey where language barriers restricted those chance conversations. He also has a tendency to wear his research on his sleeve - sometimes bombarding you with too many interesting facts and statistics. I found his science book 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' a little hard-going - not because it wasn't constantly fascinating but there just seemed to be too much to take in. You do feel, though, that this is because Bryson is himself utterly fascinated and dying to tell you - and it is this raw enthusiasm that makes him so appealing. I've just finished reading his childhood reminiscences 'The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid' which tells us what it was like growing up in Des Moines, Iowa, in the 1950s and thereby provides a comprehensive picture of fifties America. Extremely enjoyable and incredibly funny this was Bryson at his best - perhaps because this journey into the past covered a much longer period than his geographical journeys so there were many more bizarre encounters from which to cull his anecdotes - plus a highly entertaining new central character: the young Bill Bryson. Despite his familiarity with the territory, the usual Brysonic thoroughness of research is evident - with some great quotations from newspapers and magazines of the period opening each chapter. But above all you get a great sense of the affection Bryson feels for his family, friends and the place he grew up - despite, or perhaps because of, their baffling oddities.

'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini

25 June 2007

My knowledge of the recent history of Afghanistan was fairly limited before reading 'The Kite Runner' by Khaled Hosseini - but I knew it hadn't been a good few decades. In Hosseini's impressive novel, the narrator looks back to his childhood in 1970s Kabul from the vantage point of present-day San Francisco. The early chapters, dealing with his privileged upbringing and his close friendship with his father's servant's son, have the same end-of-an-era feel as the Shanghai of JG Ballard's 'Empire of the Sun' or Kazuo Ishiguro's 'When We Were Orphans'. But here the comfortable childhood is shattered by the Russians rather than the Japanese and then things just get worse as the Russians are followed by the Northern Alliance and then the Taliban. 'The Kite Runner' is an old-fashioned epic novel - a family saga cataloguing dark years, tragedy and violence. It is a gripping, if sometimes disturbing, read - extremely well-written and intricately plotted with some great iconic characters. Occasionally Hosseini overdoes the neat little links - almost every significantly described item seems bound to make a crucial reappearance later in the story - but this is a minor criticism for a stunning debut novel which is crying out to be filmed.

'A Spot of Bother' by Mark Haddon

25 June 2007

It wasn't to everyone's liking and was sometimes painfully honest to read but, for me, one of the best novels of recent years was 'The Corrections' by Jonathan Franzen. This tale of two aging parents and their grown-up children impressively showed you the irresolvably opposing points of view of each of the main characters in a way that made you simultaneously sympathise with all of them - painfully demonstrating the irreconcilable tensions within families. Mark Haddon's new novel 'A Spot of Bother' pulls off a similar trick in a much lighter vein. Haddon was, rightly, much praised for his previous novel 'The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time' - a highly distinctive, wonderful book - if you haven't read it please do so now! It was always going to be difficult for him to follow this success and 'A Spot of Bother' had mixed reviews but I really enjoyed it. Inevitably, it is a very different - and much more conventional, novel, but it is extremely enjoyable and very funny. Like 'The Corrections', 'A Spot of Bother' deals with aging parents and their grown-up children. It is written in the third person but each chapter takes the point of view of one of the four principal characters - often showing us the same events from a different angle. But this is 'The Corrections' as it might have been written by Nick Hornby - an entertaining, page-turning, easy read in an English middle-class setting with some great comic set-pieces. Like Hornby or David Lodge, Mark Haddon has the ability to address difficult and complex subjects through deceptively 'lightweight' prose - never feeling the need to show-off its cleverness and dealing with dark subjects without making them unbearably bleak. And on top of all this the book is set in what is, for me, familiar territory. With Marina Lewycka's 'A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainian', are we seeing the beginning of a new genre of 'Peterborough fiction'?

Charles Hazlewood on BBC Radio 2

7 June 2007

I recently discovered the Charles Hazlewood show on BBC Radio 2 which is broadcast on Wednesday evenings at 10 pm. Hazlewood is a conductor and enthusiastic advocate of classical music. In his Radio 3 Saturday afternoon programme ‘Discovering Music’ he performs a fascinating and accessible dissection and analysis of popular orchestral works, finishing by conducting a full live performance of the work in question. Earlier this year his TV drama/documentaries on Tchaikowsky demonstrated his excitement and infectious enthusiasm in front of the camera. His weekly Radio 2 show is a wonderful example of breaking down genre barriers and appreciating good music without worrying about how it is labeled. From the barn at his home in Somerset he plays a variety of recordings from pop to country to contemporary classical to early music and discusses them with a guest musician. His guest then performs a couple of live numbers (often with Hazlewood accompanying or adding some percussion etc) before they improvise something completely new together. The result is intriguing, enjoyable and accessible whilst still resolutely musically serious – without a hint of ‘dumbing down’. Last week’s guest was Fyfe Dangerfield from The Guillemots – a band I’ve not listened to, but having heard his performances from Hazelwood’s barn I am keen to seek them out.

Fanfare Ciocarlia

31 May 2007

Regular readers will know about my enthusiasm for Balkan Gypsy brass music. 2007 looks like being a vintage year for British fans of Balkan brass with Kocani Orkestar, the Boban Markovic Orkestar and Fanfare Ciocarlia all visiting the UK. On Wednesday I was at the Barbican in London to see the award-winning Romanian Gypsy brass band, Fanfare Ciocarlia. Fanfare won a BBC Radio 3 Award for World Music last year (reported here in April 2006) and are great friends of my former colleague at Making Music, Jackie Grant. Thankfully they had not brought a goat with them on this occasion but they did bring a host of guest performers that resembled a 'Who's Who' of Balkan Gypsy music.

In 2000 the Barbican held its first '1000 Year Journey' festival of Gypsy music and Fanfare Ciocarlia made their mark with an amazing performance on the free stage in the Barbican foyer that went on into the small hours of the following morning. Seven years later they were back - this time in the sold-out main Barbican Hall. There was a buzz around the building well before the performance started: this felt like a major 'event'. There was wonderful support from American duo 'A Hawk and a Hacksaw' creating their own blend of traditional Hungarian Gypsy music with their collaborators, Hungary's Hun Hangar Ensemble. Then Fanfare Ciocarlia and their guests commanded the stage for more than two hours. Wow! Never before have eleven mostly balding, middle-aged men, wearing their bright-coloured short-sleeved shirts outside their sensible slacks to disguise their widening midriffs, played so energetically, so frantically, so furiously and so loudly! Fanfare Ciocarlia play fast - very fast - no, really very fast! Fanfare Ciocarlia are 'The Flight of the Bumble Bee' on speed - going down a very steep hill - in a runaway train - with a strong tailwind. When they pause between pieces to gather their breath you wonder for a second whether the next tune might be a contrasting slow one - then the percussionist looks at his colleagues, raises his sticks and rapidly beats 'tap tap tap tap' and they're off again at breakneck speed. Exciting as this is it can get a little monotonous and I was grateful for the variety provided by a galaxy of co-stars.

Fanfare Ciocarlia's patriarch, Ioan Ivancea died late last year and their new CD 'Queens & Kings' is a tribute to him, featuring legendary Gypsy musicians from across Europe. At the Barbican this week Fanfare Ciocarlia were joined by the gorgeous Romanian singer Florentina Sandu, French trio Kaloome, Romanian dancers Aurelia and Tantzica and Bulgarian rocker Jony Iliev (who had hurt his back and had to be helped to hobble across the stage to take his place on a chair with microphone in hand - at which point he came alive and gave a lively, soulful performance). Also appearing was the amazing Hungarian Gypsy singer with the bizarre squeaky voice Mitsou (whose band Mitsoura were one of my highlights at last year's WOMAD festival - reviewed here in August 2006).

But the star of the show was undoubtedly the 'Queen of the Gypsies', the legendary Macedonian singer Esma Redzepova. Esma has had an amazing life - performing across the globe in front of adoring crowds and heads of state including Nehru and Tito, adopting 46 children from the streets of Macedonia, campaigning against poverty, and being nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize - twice! She still has a wonderful voice and led a rousing finale with all the performers (and several members of the audience) returning to the stage to hop and spin to the frenetic beat. Fanfare Ciocarlia's CD 'Queens and Kings' is out now on Asphalt Tango Records - go on, you know you want to ...

'Romeo & Juliet' by Northern Ballet Theatre

29 May 2007

We've been meaning to get around to watching some ballet for ages. We finally took the plunge at Milton Keynes Theatre last Saturday where we saw Northern Ballet Theatre's 'Romeo & Juliet' and it was great! I think it helped that we had chosen a story we knew well, set to familiar music (by Prokofiev). Having played the concert suites I was intrigued to see how sections of the music were repeated throughout the ballet as 'motifs' for particular characters etc. It was also interesting to see how interpreting the plot through dance (choreography by Massimo Moricone and original direction by Christopher Gable) stretched time in different directions. Complex plot development scenes which are quite substantial in the Shakespeare play were over in the blink of an eye in the ballet, while the dance lingered understandably much longer on expressions of feelings between the characters. I am not convinced that I would have been able to follow all the intricacies of the plot without knowing the play well (I don't see how you could dance/mime Friar Laurence's explanation that the potion will only induce a death-like sleep - if you didn't already know this you would probably get quite a surprise when Juliet wakes up!). And I still think some of the 'silent movie' exaggerated mime moments sit uneasily within the seriousness of the story and the dance - there were too many 'silent scream' moments with dancers waving their hands in mock surprise! But the dancing was lovely and very moving. I particularly liked Pippa Moore's child-like Juliet and Hironao Takahashi's swaggering Mercutio. 'Romeo & Juliet' was definitely a hit and I think more ballet beckons ...

'Frankenstein or The Modern Prometheus' by Mary Shelley

22 May 2007

'Frankenstein' seems such a familiar story but it's been fascinating to read Mary Shelley's original 1818 novel for the first time. I knew that most of the film versions took great liberties with the plot but it was interesting to discover how, in doing so, they really lost the point of the story. Mary Shelley wrote 'Frankenstein' (famously inspired by a 'waking dream' while staying with her husband and Byron at Lake Geneva) while pregnant and its main themes are to do with birth, creation and death. It is heavily influenced by Milton's 'Paradise Lost' (quoted on the title page) - the source of inspiration, more recently, for Philip Pulman's 'His Dark Materials' trilogy. The science of 'Frankenstein' is pretty shaky and largely glossed over. Mary Shelley is much more interested in the social interactions between the monster, his creator and other people. Much of the plot is, even within the fantastical world of the novel, remarkably implausible - teaching himself to talk, the monster becomes unbelievably articulate in a very short space of time - and Victor Frankenstein seems to come very much from the naive "hiding under the duvet should protect me from anything nasty" school of thought! Nevertheless the story's premise is powerful enough to allow you to overlook some of these imperfections. The narrative structure is quite complex, consisting of several 'nested narratives' - at one point we are reading the monster's story as told by the monster to Victor Frankenstein as told by Victor to Captain Walton as told by the Captain to his sister! But even this is symbolic - Captain Walton's sister is Margaret Walton Saville and it is no coincidence that she shares her initials with Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, suggesting that the whole story is a found narrative discovered by Mary Shelley rather than her own creation. The edition of the novel I read included as an appendix an 1823 dramatisation called 'Presumption or The Fate of Frankenstein' by Richard Brinsley Peake which radically simplified the story, making the monster mute and removing all the complexities of his arguments with his creator. This play seems to have been the source for many of the later treatments including the Universal films that now form our main reference for the 'Frankenstein' story. The original novel, while not a great work, is much more thoughtful and thought-provoking than much that it inspired - and truly scary!

'Little Shop of Horrors' by Howard Ashman and Alan Menken

14 May 2007

Last Saturday we were in London to see the Menier Chocolate Factory production of 'Little Shop of Horrors' which is now at the Duke of York's Theatre in the West End. It was an incredibly enjoyable evening - great music in an all-girl-group early rock and roll style, some wonderful comedy, fantastic 'skid-row' set design and a giant man-eating plant (realised here through the amazing puppetry of Andy Heath). I was a big fan of the 1986 film but had never seen the original stage musical (which itself was based on the classic 1959 Roger Corman B-movie). I hadn't realised that the happy ending of the 1986 film was a Hollywood-imposed change - the musical has a much more satisfyingly macabre finale! It was written for a small off-Broadway theatre and works well on the intimate stage at the Duke of York's. Alistair McGowan was great in the show-stopping part of Audrey's sadistic boyfriend (played by Steve Martin in the film) as was Mike McShane as the voice of the plant. His biography in the programme says that McShane "has never played a vegetable, although he's been known to party with them upon occasion." 'Little Shop of Horrors' is a very silly show from which you come out smiling. But remember, "whatever they offer you, don't feed the plants!"

'A Matter of Life and Death' adapted by Emma Rice and Tom Morris

8 May 2007

On Monday we were at the National Theatre in London to see 'A Matter of Life and Death' - a joint production with Kneehigh Theatre adapted by Emma Rice and Tom Morris from the 1946 Powell & Pressberger film starring David Niven.

It's a long time since I saw the film but the stage version definitely felt like a more realist, modern approach to the story. We still saw our hero fall to earth (as his plane is destroyed by German fire while returning from a wartime bombing raid) and then emerge seemingly unscathed to meet and fall in love with the radio operator he thought he had spoken his last words to. But now it is clearly suggested that the 'explanation' that he survived because the 'conductor' who was supposed to escort him to 'the other world' missed him in the fog exists only within our hero's damaged brain. And when he prepares to appeal to the heavenly court to be allowed to carry on living we can see that this is his internalisation of the fight to defeat the brain tumor for which he is undergoing a crucial operation back in the real world. This all seemed remarkably like John Simm's plight in 'Life on Mars' - indeed, here too the surgeon performing the operation makes a decisive appearance in the 'dream world'. But this is probably because both these dramas were actually referencing 'The Wizard of Oz' (how many times did Gene Hunt call Sam Tyler 'Dorothy'?).

There were a couple of places where the tone felt a bit wrong - the pathos of the many personal stories or wartime deaths was strangely missing when a wounded airman's suicide was presented as a comic incident. But nevertheless 'A Matter of Life and Death' was an amazing spectacle - making full use of the Olivier's enormous stage. While not quite a musical, it featured some great song and dance routines as well as aerial movement, burning beds, back projection and table tennis!

At times it felt like there was too much being thrown together - all that what lacking from the stage was the proverbial kitchen sink - but I was happy to excuse the production's excesses as it drew itself together towards a moving conclusion. And the amazing mix of elements was great fun: how many plays have you seen recently that feature two ukuleles, a camera obscura, a team of hand-bell ringers, an acrobatic Norwegian magician, a square tango and seven nurses on bicycles?!

Definitely worth £10 - I'm actually tempted to see it again ...

Northampton Symphony Orchestra Concert

4 May 2007

It was a watery programme for our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert last Saturday - including Respighi's 'Fountains of Rome' and 'La Mer' by Debussy. I must admit I thought I didn't like Debussy but having worked on 'La Mer' for the past few weeks I am a convert. It is a wonderful piece on a symphonic scale which really gets under your skin. And the moment when the slow triplet brass chorale re-enters towards the end of the last movement is just gorgeous. I think we gave a pretty good account of it on Saturday and I've really enjoyed the rehearsals leading to this concert. I've also been enjoying a new recording of 'La Mer' by the Hallé Orchestra and Mark Elder which got a five star review in The Guardian in March.

'Favourite Worst Nightmare' by Arctic Monkeys

26 April 2007

Stung by your criticism that it took me so long to get around to seeing 'Hot Fuzz', this week, in a desperate attempt to regain some street-cred, I've been listening to the new Arctic Monkeys album 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' (which only came out on Monday!). You may remember I was bowled over by the Arctic Monkeys' debut 'Whatever People Say I Am, That's What I'm Not' (reviewed here in February 2006) and I had been eagerly anticipating the follow-up: I wasn't disappointed. With material this creative, inventive and varied, more of the same proves to be the perfect recipe. Loud, fast, catchy, songs that do not outstay their welcome, get-up-and-dance rhythms and the cleverest, funniest lyrics delivered in a strong Sheffield accent: everything rock music should be. Top!

'Hot Fuzz'

19 April 2007

I hadn't been to the cinema for ages: perhaps I'm showing my age but our local multiplex doesn't appeal to me - it always seems very loud and littered with popcorn and teenagers. I've missed a few films I fancied seeing recently when the lure of the movie didn't quite overcome the drawbacks of the venue. It would be great if we had a nice little independent cinema nearby but we do have the recently refurbished Library Theatre in Leighton Buzzard which shows a limited programme of films once or twice a week. Last Friday we made the effort and ventured to Leighton Buzzard to see 'Hot Fuzz' - the British comedy by Simon Pegg and Edgar Wright. It was brilliant! Simon Pegg plays a super-efficient police officer from the Met who is transferred to a sleepy Gloucestershire village and brings big city policing to the country. His new partner, played by Nick Frost, is fascinated by American cop movies and wants to know all about Pegg's exciting London experiences - particularly the guns! What follows is a wonderful parody of movie genres including westerns, cop movies and all manner of action thrillers. It is incredibly violent (with plenty of blood and 'look away' moments) but carries this off because much of the violence is hysterically ridiculous. And there is loads of fun to be had in trying to spot the enormous number of well-known British actors and comedians making (often very fleeting) appearances. (There is even a very hard to spot uncredited cameo by Cate Blanchett.) But it is a massively enjoyable film primarily because it is extremely funny and exquisitely plotted. Every casual remark and every seemingly insignificant feature in the background in the early scenes comes back to play a significant part later in the story. And the brooding sense of evil lurking beneath the surface of apparently innocent village society is truly scary. It was quite disconcerting to glance around the middle-aged middle-class audience in Leighton Buzzard Library Theatre and realise how closely we resembled the slightly sinister Neighbourhood Watch Alliance in the film!

'Cuilidh' by Julie Fowlis

13 April 2007

I'm very much enjoying 'Cuilidh' - the second album by Julie Fowlis, the young Gaelic singer and pipes player from North Uist. (You may remember my discovery of her first solo album in February 2006 - you heard about her here first!) The faster numbers feature some amazing high-speed percussive vocals but it is the ballads that are truly outstanding. She has a beautiful, pure voice and creates peaceful, inspiring music. For a taster you can 'listen again' to her session on this week's Andy Kershaw show at www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/andykershaw

'The Big Over Easy' by Jasper Fforde

10 April 2007

Read this book! - I loved it. Humpty Dumpty is dead but did he fall off the wall or was he pushed? This is a case for Detective Inspector Jack Spratt of the Nursery Crime Division - and the start of an elaborate double parody incorporating more nursery rhymes than you realised you remembered and a wonderful send-up of detective fiction. The tone is set early on when the smarmy rival DI Friedland Chymes is giving a press conference to explain how he solved his latest case - correctly identifying the killer as Miss Celia Mangersen, the victim's neice. A journalist asks him what the significance was of the traces of custard found on the colonel's sock suspender and Chymes explains:

"Mortally wounded and with only seconds to live, he had somehow to leave a clue to his assailant's identity. A note? Of course not - the killer would find and destroy it. Guessing correctly that a murder of this magnitude would be placed in my hands, he decided to leave behind a clue that only I could solve. Knowing the colonel's penchant for anagrams, it was but a swift move to deduce his reasoning. The sock suspender was made in France. 'Custard' in French is 'creme anglaise' - and an anagram of this is 'Celia Mangerse-", which not only correctly identified the killer, but also told me the colonel died before he was able to finish the anagram."

Jack Spratt and his new Detective Sergeant, Mary Mary ("Her name was Mary. Mary Mary") pursue an elaborate convoluted plot involving Wee Willie Winkie, Rapunzel, aliens, immortals from Ancient Greece and some magic beans. 'The Big Over Easy' is very silly but incredibly clever and tremendously enjoyable. There is perhaps too much crammed into it - including an enormous number of characters it is quite difficult to keep track of - but if you just give up trying to make sense of it all and just go along for the ride it's a wonderful journey. It's also very well written and cleverly plotted - however silly the story is it has to work as a proper whodunnit, which it does. There are so many fantastic ideas ('Oysters one step closer to vote') but I won't spoil it for you by citing any more here. I couldn't put the book down and read most of it with a big smile on my face. Now I can't wait for the publication of the sequel 'The Fourth Bear' in June 2007.

Pembrokeshire

5 April 2007

We had a lovely break in Wales last week. We were staying in a cottage near Carmarthen with wonderful views of the Towy estuary but spent most of our time walking parts of the Pembrokeshire coastal path. We particularly enjoyed the walk round Stackpole Head and Barafundle bay. We had some great weather and had numerous picnics on beaches. We visited Pembroke, St David's, Narberth and Fishguard but my memories will mainly be of the stunning coastal scenery.

Yasmin Levy

4 April 2007

Last Thursday we were at the Queen's Hall in Narberth to see the Israeli singer Yasmin Levy. It was great to find a familiar name from the world music circuit touring small venues across Wales and Narberth provided a packed and attentive audience. Yasmin Levy sings songs from the Sephardic culture: in 1492 the Jews were expelled from Spain and many settled in North Africa establishing a musical tradition that combines Spanish flamenco with Arabic, Jewish and Christian influences. Yasmin Levy's father (who died when she was just one year old) was the leading collector of these traditional Sephardic songs - sung in the hybrid Ladino language - and she has reinvigorated the tradition. Her band, featuring two percussionists, guitar and clarinet/flute/duduk were exceptional and there was some breathtaking playing (literally in the case of the circular-breathing flautist!). Levy's vocal style is impressive but sometimes a bit strident for me - these were serious songs sung seriously - though she also gave us plenty of fascinating detail about the music and translations of the lyrics. An enthralling and entertaining performance.

'The Third Policeman' by Flann O'Brien

2 April 2007

I should both thank and blame David Lack for introducing me to 'The Third Policeman' by Flann O'Brien - a novel written in 1940 but only published posthumously in 1967. I hadn't come across it before but it seems to have had a cult following which has grown recently after references to it in the TV series 'Lost'. Not knowing what to expect I started to read and soon found myself totally bewildered, amused, confused and irritated. After a quirky start the novel soon launches into bizarre realms of surrealism. Our narrator stumbles around a strange world with its own rules and logic, helped and hindered by three policemen with an obsessive interest in dentists, bicycles and the county council. Like Alice through the looking glass everything is recognisable but different. Much of the writing is very funny - I particularly enjoyed the ongoing references to the theologian and mad scientist, de Selby, which appear in a series of footnotes throughout the novel (O'Brien later gave de Selby a book of his own - 'The Dalkey Archive', 1964). But as the dreamlike wandering (which reminded me of Kazuo Ishiguro's novel 'The Unconsoled') continued I grew increasingly restless. It was all very clever and often very funny but what was the point? Then there is an extremely satisfying final twist which made me want to go straight back and read the whole book again! 'The Third Policeman' is a bizarre, indescribable book - funny, puzzling, frustrating and very clever. "Is it about a bicycle?"

'Soap' by Sarah Woods

2 April 2007

The latest home-grown production in the Northampton Royal Theatre's 'Love and Madness' season was 'Soap' - a new play by Sarah Woods. In the first act (Episode 1) we were introduced to two very familiar TV soap operas. In a pub in the East End of London everyone keeps going on about the importance of 'family' before heading off to the cash and carry. Meanwhile on an Australian beach a few beers are being opened and the surf is up. But all is not entirely what it seems: some characters are beginning to question why their ages don't quite add up and why they only ever drink coffee (black with one sugar) and never anything else. Then a barrel needs changing in the East End pub and Lorna goes through the previously unused cellar door and finds herself on an Australian beach. Queue the theme music ... But then we were faced with a real-life soap opera cliffhanger as the curtain failed to rise for Episode 2 and we were told that the revolving stage had failed and the rest of the performance would have to be canceled! Nearly a week later we returned to Northampton to try again and I'm glad we did. As the two soap operas became increasingly intertwined and confused, 'Soap' became a very enjoyable farce in the vein of Michael Frayn's 'Noises Off' with echoes of other works where the protagonists begin to realise they are just characters in a work of fiction such as Pirandello's 'Six Characters in Search of an Author'. I also found myself thinking of 'The Wizard of Oz' as all the actors other than the two leads doubled as characters in both soaps - so when Lorna turns up in 'Oz' she sees a lot of strangely familiar faces. The cast looked like they were having a wonderful time sending up the soap genres and there was some great (over)acting. Authenticity was added by the presence of former Eastender Lucy Speed as Lorna and several other actors who had appeared in Eastenders, Coronation Street and Emmerdale. But the temperamental star of the show was undoubtedly the revolving stage!

‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee

16 March 2007

'To Kill a Mockingbird' by Harper Lee always seems to rank highly in polls of essential books to read but I had never quite got around to it. I hadn't even seen the film and only had a rather vague idea of what it was about. Having now read it I'm glad I came to it with few preconceptions so I won't say much about the plot to allow you to do the same if you're not familiar with it. It is a great book - thoughtful, moving and very cleverly plotted. As it is narrated by a nine-year-old girl the naïve switches of attention in the plot seem quite natural but wrong-foot you several times to create very satisfying resolutions. I was certainly expecting a courtroom scene well before page 179 but leaving it so late means you feel you really know the protagonists and can read so much more into their actions in court. It reminded me a lot of one of my favourite American novels of recent years, 'The Little Friend' by Donna Tartt - or rather I realised how much of a homage to 'To Kill a Mockingbird' Tartt's book is. The contrast between the condemnation of anti-semitism in Europe and the casual racism towards the local black community also reminded me of Philip Roth's 'The Plot Against America'. And the sympathetic depiction of a whole small-town community made me think of 'Cannery Row' by John Steinbeck. 'To Kill a Mockingbird' won the Pulitzer prize in 1961 and still feels like a true classic.

Andy Kershaw on 'Desert Island Discs'

13 March 2007

I am a relative newcomer to Andy Kershaw's loyal band of listeners but, like many people, I have quickly become somewhat obsessive! I don't think I have a missed a single edition of his weekly Radio 3 show since I started listening in November 2002 - and many weeks I've listened to it at least twice (it's those tracks that stick after two or three hearings that are the really interesting ones!). Favourites that I first discovered through the Kershaw programme include Monica Vasconcelos, Rokia Traore, Kamel Nitrate, Jim Moray, Jim Halstain, Athena Andreadis, Horace X, K'Naan and many others. To use the word 'eclectic' would be an understatement - when Andy was banished from Radio 1, Roger Wright famously tempted him to join Radio 3 by saying the thing he liked about Andy's show was that he never knew what to expect next - almost exactly the reason the Radio 1 Controller had given for sacking him! A few weeks ago Andy told his listeners that he had been invited to be a guest on 'Desert Island Discs' and was agonising about how he would choose just 8 records - at that stage he said he had narrowed it down to about 1000. Somehow he managed it and his appearance on 'Desert Island Discs' was broadcast on Radio 4 this week. He came over as honest, passionate, shy, emotional, incredibly enthusiastic and with an encyclopedic knowledge of world politics and music. His idiosyncratic brand of journalism is always fascinating and compelling - particularly when he is reporting from one of the more troubed parts of the world. I was very chuffed having correctly guessed 4 of his 8 choices - you can see the full list at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/factual/desertislanddiscs.shtml#discs. But I was also intrigued to realise that I'm not particularly keen on many of his personal musical favourites. In fact we have very little in common - I don't share any of his passions for motorcycles, fishing or boxing. Yet I could not contemplate missing the Andy Kershaw show because what we do share is an insatiable appetite for music that is new and different. One listener suggested he might alleviate the pain of selecting just 8 records by devoting this week's edition of his regular Radio 3 show (now on Monday nights at 11.15 pm - see http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/andykershaw/) to all those tracks that didn't quite make it. You can hear the results at: http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio/aod/networks/radio3/aod.shtml?radio3/andykershaw

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

12 March 2007

I played in a very enjoyable concert with Milton Keynes Sinfonia last weekend at the Church of Christ the Cornerstone in Milton Keynes. Regular conductor, David Knight, directed pieces by Rossini and Dvorak, before picking up his 'cello to perform as one of the soloists in the Brahms 'Double Concerto' with violinist Jan Kaznowski. David's place on the podium was taken, for the second half of the concert, by Ian Smith. The Double Concerto is a lovely piece - one that I know well but had never performed before. And there is always a special magic in a performance where the orchestra has a real affection for the soloist. But I particularly enjoyed the experience of being conducted by two different people in the same concert. Every conductor brings different qualities and insights and, however good the regular conductor is, I think it is good for an orchestra to be occasionally challenged by someone less familiar. The players seem to sit up a bit straighter and pay more attention than usual. Perhaps more groups should bring in a 'guest conductor' from time to time.

Sarah Kendal

9 March 2007

Comedy’s a funny thing – haha! No, but seriously, forget the Comedy Store or the Edinburgh Fringe, the real test of a stand-up comedian’s skill is playing a small-town arts centre on a weekday evening. Many years ago we saw a young female comedian at the arts centre in Grantham. She had been getting good reviews and had just got her first TV show but she was no match for Grantham! She started by pointing at a man in the front row and saying how fantastic it was to see someone wearing a tie at one of her gigs and she thought he looked like her Dad. Only then did she look around the room to see it was full of men wearing ties who could have been her father! Further demonstrating how little she knew her audience she started to tell a joke set in a nightclub and asked us to name the best nightclub in Grantham. After several minutes of discussion the audience concluded it didn’t know of any nightclubs in Grantham and, somewhat reluctantly, the comedian agreed, as a compromise, to set her joke in a nightclub in nearby Nottingham. On another occasion, while on holiday in Suffolk, we were surprised to see the enormous old seaside theatre in Lowestoft advertising an evening with Jeremy Hardy. This theatre, which had Ken Dodd the previous week and Jimmy Tarbuck the following week – seemed an odd setting for a left-wing political alternative comedian. We booked our tickets and, on the night, found ourselves lost in a sea of empty seats with only about a dozen other people but Jeremy Hardy dealt with a potentially embarrassing situation extremely impressively. Quickly abandoning his prepared material he probably worked harder than ever that night and completely won his tiny audience over – one of the most impressive comedy performances I’ve seen. Last night we were at the Library Theatre in Luton to see the Australian comedian Sarah Kendal and she was great. I’ve realised over the years that to really enjoy a comedian’s performance I need to feel I like the person. Some picking on the audience is fine but it has to be done gently and in good spirit and to be balanced with a good dose of self-deprecation. Sarah Kendal had the balance about right – she has a good line in carefully constructed observational stories and is a good improviser and ad-libber. But above all she charmed Luton by getting to know her audience and treating them with respect. Watch out for her.

'Bottoms of Barrels' by Tilly and the Wall

8 March 2007

My discovery of the week is Tilly and the Wall – a lively, young, five-piece pop band from Omaha, Nebraska. They write light, cheerful, catchy songs but what grabs your attention is the fact that instead of a conventional drummer their rhythms are provided by a tap dancer. The amplified tap shoes of Jamie Williams give their songs a unique flavour. Sometimes this sounds a bit like flamenco – it’s a compelling, pulsating sound. Coupled with unusual syncopations, sing-along vocal harmonies, uncompromising lyrics and an upbeat, sunny disposition, it’s a winning formula. Only a couple of days after trying the second Tilly and the Wall album, ‘Bottoms of Barrels’, I was so hooked I had to get a copy of their first album, ‘Wild Like Children’. I was fascinated by what it would be like to see them perform live with the tap dancer centre stage. There are numerous clips of them on YouTube – try: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZgA-dJ9imVk. But the highest praise I can give is to say that their songs make me feel happy and make me want to get up and dance: I want to be that tap dancer!

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

5 March 2007

On Saturday I played in the first Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert of the year. This was an 'Opera Evening' at Spinney Hill Theatre in Northampton with a mixed programme including instrumental music from operas by Wagner, Verdi, Bizet and Tchaikovsky, three arias sung by the bass, Ian Spencer, and two pieces for ladies' chorus. I'm not a big fan of opera, nor of concert programmes made up of many short pieces, but I found it a very enjoyable evening. As always, it was good to get to know music I might not have otherwise chosen to discover and I particularly enjoyed the aria 'Ella giammai mamo' from Verdi's 'Don Carlos'. It was also good to play some Wagner - the overture 'Rienzi' and the 'Entry of the Gods into Valhalla' from 'Das Rheingold' - particularly rewarding for a brass player, if somewhat exhausting!

'Vertigo' by Red Shift

26 February 2007

Last weekend we were at the Royal Theatre, Northampton, to see a new stage production of the psychological thriller 'Vertigo' by the Red Shift Theatre Company. This was adapted and directed by Jonathan Holloway from the story by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac that inspired the famous Hitchcock film. Set in a French sanatorium in 1947, the play tells the story in flashback - a framing device that creates a logic to actors playing multiple characters as the Doctor helps his patient, Roger Flaviere, to remember the events that led to his current state of mind by acting them out. I wonder, however, whether this framing of the story removed some of the tension by making it clear where Roger was headed. Nevertheless the play nicely captured the feeling of increasing bewilderment, paranoia and panic common to so many Hitchcock leading men. It reminded me of the Kazuo Ishiguro novel 'When We Were Orphans' where we are similarly asked to sympathise with a protagonist who becomes gradually more and more desperate and hysterical to the point where we begin to wonder how reliable his narration is. 'Vertigo' was well acted and directed and enjoyably dark though it requires you to go along with the dated gender politics and the familiar obsession with the 'Hitchcock blonde'. And if you are not familiar with the film don't let anyone spoil it by telling you the twist!

'Guys and Dolls' by Frank Loesser, Jo Swerling and Abe Burrows

26 February 2007

I still treasure the memory of seeing the National Theatre production of 'Guys and Dolls' in the early 1980s (with Lulu as Miss Adelaide) and I'd been really looking forward to the Donmar production which we saw at Milton Keynes Theatre last Friday. Inevitably, coming to it with raised expectations, I was a bit disappointed. There was little to fault in the production and there was some fine singing (particularly from Louise Dearman as Sarah Brown - a great performance of 'If I Were A Bell') but it lacked the special sparkle I'd been hoping for. Having said that I still think 'Guys and Dolls' has some of the best songs of any musical and my head has been filled with the tunes all week. And the evening was substantially redeemed by a fantastic rendition of the show stopper 'Sit Down You're Rocking the Boat' by understudy 'Neil Clench' - very nicely done!

‘The Last Laugh’ adapted by Richard Harris from a play by Koki Mitani

23 February 2007

I’ve always liked the idea of setting a story in a non-specific location and time without the baggage of current local cultural references – giving it a universality and avoiding the danger of it quickly becoming dated. In practice, however, I have to admit that this approach can make the resulting play, novel etc. feel a bit flat and lifeless. We were at Milton Keynes Theatre last Friday to see ‘The Last Laugh’, a two-hander with Martin Freeman and Roger Lloyd Pack adapted by Richard Harris from a play by Koki Mitani. In an undetermined country during an unspecified war a writer is trying to persuade the military censor to approve his new comedy for performance. The censor is preoccupied with the seriousness of war and cannot understand what role comedy could possibly play at such a time. This sets the scene for a dissection of what comedy is, how it works and why it is important – particularly during such difficult times. There are some lovely set-ups where the two protagonists are discussing an aspect of comedy while inadvertently simultaneously demonstrating it. (I particularly liked the censor’s incredulity at the comedy of catch-phrases: “So you are telling me that people find it funny when a character keeps repeating the same phrase for no apparent reason? I don’t believe it! I do not believe it!”.) But this is essentially a serious play about comedy and I think it suffered a little from the expectations created by its title, cast and venue. The sombre, poignant nature of the story seemed to surprise many in the audience and some of the subtle, clever comic moments fell a bit flat. I wonder whether it would have worked more effectively in a smaller theatre with less well-known actors – or whether the neutrality of the story’s setting made it less accessible than it might have been. Nevertheless it was a thoughtful and interesting work.

'The Good, The Bad and The Queen'

15 February 2007

Damon Albarn has, for many years, been the subject of one of my few claims to fame - namely that I know Damon's Auntie. Admittedly this claim has always been slightly let down by the fact that I've never actually listened to anything by Blur. (The 1990s are my popular music blind-spot.) Even Damon's excursion into West Africa, 'Mali Music' came just before my own discovery of, and enthusiasm for, 'world music'. But finally, last year, I got a copy of 'Demon Days', the second album by Damon's 'cartoon band' Gorillaz. I didn't expect this mixture of laid-back dance music and rap to be my kind of thing but I found it incredibly infectious and was quickly hooked. This week I've been listening to Damon's latest project - the eponymous album from his 'supergroup', 'The Good, The Bad and The Queen'. The line-up includes the bass player from The Clash, Paul Simonon, the guitarist from The Verve, Simon Tong, and Fela Kuti's drummer and Nigerian Afrobeat pioneer, Tony Allen. The result is a diverse, eclectic collection of songs. Much of it sounds very like Gorillaz, though without the rapping (or indeed the wrapping of Jamie Hewlett's cartoons). Damon presents a strong anti-Iraq war message in an extremely laid-back, hip and cool way while managing, bizarrely, to include Beach Boys-style falsetto harmonies, violin harmonics and whistling and backing vocals from Harry Christophers' The Sixteen. It's really growing on me. I understand that Damon is now working on a musical at the National Theatre and writing the score for a Chinese circus-opera. I've also been impressed by the good work he has been doing through his record label, Honest Jon's, particularly the archive compilations, 'London is the Place for Me'. Damon has become an extremely interesting, significant and important creative figure in the music world. His Auntie should be proud.

'Twelfth Night' by William Shakespeare

13 February 2007

"If music be the food of love, play on; Give me excess of it ..." In 1884 Shakespeare's 'Twelfth Night' was the first production at the new Royal Theatre in Northampton. 123 years later it is the latest offering from Laurie Sansom in his first season as Artistic Director of the newly refurbished Royal Theatre - now restored to its Victorian splendour. Sansom's 'Twelfth Night' opens the Royal's 'Love & Madness' season, emphasising the fine line between the two by having Malvolio incarcerated in a straitjacket. It is a solid, straightforward production including some well-choreographed physical comedy and movement and some fine performances from the women - Rebecca Grant, Lucy Speed and particularly Natalie Walter as Olivia. But it lacks the stunning innovations we have come to expect from the Royal - especially in the sets and design. "... For the rain it raineth every day."

'Memento' by Christopher Nolan

5 February 2007

Many years ago we went to see the film 'An Awfully Big Adventure' based on the novel by Beryl Bainbridge. After about twenty minutes, what had been a relatively straightforward story became much more intriguing as the plot seemed to suddenly jump forward in time. All was revealed a little later as a character who had just broken his leg walked into the next scene and we realised the cinema had shown two reels in the wrong order! It still amazes me that of all the people in the cinema only four of us stayed behind at the end to get our money back. "Are you sure it wasn't just a flashback?" the manager asked us. We were sure. "Well we've been showing it for a week and you're the first people to complain."

I was reminded of this the other day watching Christopher Nolan's 2000 film 'Memento'. Guy Pearce plays Leonard, an insurance claim investigator who has severe short-term memory loss as the result of the traumatic rape and murder of his wife. His memories before 'the incident' are intact but he has lost the ability to form any new memories since and forgets, within minutes, what people have said to him and even whether he has met them before. Leonard survives by taking Polaroid pictures of significant people and places, which he keeps in his pocket to refer to, and tattooing key facts onto his body. Through these methods he is gradually trying to track down his wife's killer but he is beset by not knowing who he can trust or who might be taking advantage of 'his condition'.

Leonard's story reveals itself to us in reverse, through a series of short scenes with each scene ending at the start of the previous one. As in Pinter's play 'Betrayal' or the reverse recipes of Jack Argener we gradually begin to understand the significance of the earlier (later) scenes but here there is the added complication that the lead character remembers nothing of any of the scenes and could be playing them in any order - the analysis of which could keep film studies students busy for months!

Leonard's sudden 'awakenings' - finding himself in a strange hotel room or being chased down a busy street or in bed with a woman he doesn't remember - reminded me of Henry's similar predicaments in Audrey Niffenegger's 'The Time Traveller's Wife'. Though satisfyingly, in terms of the theme of reverse narratives, Niffenegger's novel was published three years after 'Memento' came out.

The film ends with plenty of ambiguity and many loose ends untied but still manages to create a satisfying final twist. How often can you say that about a film which starts at the end, flashes back to the beginning and finishes in the middle?! A tour-de-force of narrative structure.

'Jarvis' by Jarvis Cocker

2 February 2007

I largely missed 'Britpop' and only discovered Pulp through 'We Love Life', their wonderful 2001 album produced by Scott Walker. A late convert to the cause, I was looking forward to Jarvis Cocker's first solo album, 'Jarvis', and I haven't been disappointed. He seems to have been primarily lauded for his abilities as a wordsmith but I think he writes great tunes - with fantastic choruses. His distinctive resonant baritone voice dominates the album - though there are times when he sounds uncannily like Elvis Costello. Jarvis's lyrics are not as laugh-out-loud funny as Neil Hannon or Jim Halstain but always intelligent and thought-provoking - and, on the gentle ballad 'I will kill again', chillingly menacing. 'Jarvis' is clever, catchy, loveable rock - turn up the volume and enjoy.

'Clare in the Community' by Harry Venning and David Ramsden

25 January 2007

I've really enjoyed the third series of the radio comedy 'Clare in the Community' by Harry Venning and David Ramsden which has just finished on BBC Radio 4. (You can still 'listen again' to the last episode at http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/comedy/clareinthecommunity.shtml.) I've been a fan of Harry Venning's 'Clare in the Community' strip cartoon in the Guardian's Society section (on Wednesdays) for years (see http://society.guardian.co.uk/clare for recent examples). The radio version has been a really effective translation, retaining plenty of the three-frame format gags (set-up, emphasis, twist) while developing the characters, creating neat, rounded sit-com plots for each 30 minute episode as well as broader story arcs across each series, while keeping it light and very funny. Sally Phillips is great as social worker Clare and Alex Lowe wonderfully put-upon as her long-suffering partner Brian but my favourite is Nina Conti as Clare's former student, Megan (who transmuted from Welsh to Scottish in the radio version!). This is great observational humour which manages to create larger-than-life comic characters whose actions, opinions and behaviours are surprisingly recognisable from real life!

’13 Songs’ by Julie Feeney

19 January 2007

I’ve been listening to ’13 Songs’, the debut album from Irish singer-songwriter Julie Feeney who recently won the Irish equivalent of the Mercury Music prize. Classically trained (and a member of the National Chamber Choir), she has a great voice and writes delicate, quirky melodies with sparse accompaniment including good use of overlaid vocals. With harpsichord and recorders on some tracks she strays in pseudo-medieval territory (not unlike Joanna Newsom) but the mood is more contemporary classical than early music. Gentle, poignant, puzzling songs with more than a hint of Bjork or Laurie Anderson.

‘My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes’ by Gary Imlach

12 January 2007

At three o’clock on Saturday afternoon, just as the teams should have been kicking off, Jeannie and I and Alistair Campbell (plus quite a few other Burnley fans) were beginning to make our way back down the steps of the South Stand at the Madjeski Stadium in Reading. Our 3-hour round trip to Reading had been in vain as Burnley’s FA Cup Third Round match was called off at the last minute because of a water-logged pitch, following a torrential downpour as we were making our way towards the ground. Soaked and despondent we consoled ourselves with the thought that at least Burnley would, rather unexpectedly, feature in the draw for the Fourth Round on Monday! And we were in home in time to hear of Macclesfield’s brave exploits at Chelsea and to see Liverpool’s demise at the hands of Arsenal – as well as Henrik Larsson’s inevitable and predictably brilliant debut goal for Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. I love the FA Cup – particularly the Third Round – always one of the cultural highlights of the year for me.

This week I have been reading ‘My Father and other Working-Class Football Heroes’ by Gary Imlach – the story of his father, Stewart Imlach, a professional footballer who played for Scotland in the 1958 World Cup and won the FA Cup with Nottingham Forest in 1959. Shortly after Stewart’s death, Gary decided to try to fill in the gaps in his knowledge of his father’s life. Through interviews with former playing colleagues, managers and friends and analysis of miles of archive newsprint, he reconstructs a fascinating story. This was an era where the players were often earning less than the factory-working fans who came to cheer them on and were very much part of the local working class community – usually combining their playing careers with part-time jobs as plumbers, builders or, as with Stewart Imlach, joiners.

Gary Imlach has produced a brilliant book that is biography, personal memoir, social history and sporting saga. It is wonderfully written – a non-linear narrative dripping with gorgeous phrases. Chapter Three, about Stewart Imlach’s arrival at Bury Football Club in 1952, starts: “Shortly after the residents of Colindale board the Northern Line for their morning commute south into central London, two groups of people set off the other way, into the past. Turn left out of the tube station for the RAF Museum (don’t forget the Airfix shop on the way back), turn right and cross the road for the British Newspaper Library. We had scrapbooks full of cuttings at home, but they were all highlights and headlines, sort of a director’s cut of my father’s career. Here’s where the rushes were stored.”

And when the working-class Nottingham Forest players are training in London ahead of the 1959 Cup Final, “The wives had to face the Savoy on their own. Plates of asparagus were set in front of them like straightened question marks to which they had no answer. The cutlery was a silver-plated trap set to go off if they dismantled it out of sequence. Waiters hell-bent on humiliating them sprinkled cheese on their soup.”

Like his father weaving past mesmerised defenders on the left wing, Gary Imlach negotiates a slalom around the unreliable memories of the remaining survivors of a black-and-white era. And throughout, the book is laced with poignant regret at the masses of questions he never thought to ask his father until it was too late to do so. This is a wonderful book – I urge you to read it even if you have no interest in football.

(On Tuesday evening Burnley lost the rearranged FA Cup match with Reading 3-2. Oh well, there’s always next year … )

‘Caroline or Change’ by Tony Kushner and Jeanine Tesori

5 January 2007

Last week we saw the new musical ‘Caroline or Change’ at the National Theatre in London. Written by Tony Kushner with music by Jeanine Tesori it was much praised by the critics and won the Evening Standard award for best musical. It is set in Louisiana in 1963 and looks at the civil rights movement through the story of a black maid working for a Jewish family on the day Kennedy was assassinated. The music was great – with plenty of numbers in a Tamla Mowtown style plus some klezmer clarinet – and the performances were very strong, particularly the children. But we found the overall experience a little disappointing. The plot was very subtle with little actually happening directly to the characters. There wasn’t much movement on the stage with most of the songs delivered without any element of dance. And few of the songs were given the chance to breathe – with a glimpse of each melody soon giving way to the next before it had had any opportunity to lodge in the memory.

'Merry Wives The Musical' by Gregory Doran, Paul Englishby and Ranjit Bolt, based on the play by William Shakespeare

5 January 2007

On the Saturday before Christmas we were in Stratford to see ‘Merry Wives The Musical’ – Shakespeare’s play adapted and directed for the RSC by Gregory Doran with new music by Paul Englishby and lyrics by Ranjit Bolt. It was good, silly fun – veering very close to pantomime – with Simon Callow as Falstaff and Judi Dench as Mistress Quickly. There were some great performances – particularly from the comedian/impressionist Alistair McGowan who demonstrated some wonderful physical comedy and a fine singing voice and from Alexandra Gilbreath and Haydn Gwynne as the wives, who both looked as if they were thoroughly enjoying themselves! We particularly liked the set with its rotating cottages/haystacks and exaggerated sense of perspective. Overall the show lacked a little spark but it was enjoyable and the three hours flew by.

'Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra' by Kimmo Hakola

21 December 2006

This week I have been listening to the 'Concerto for Clarinet and Orchestra' by the contemporary Finnish composer, Kimmo Hakola (a recording by Kari Kriikku - for whom the work was written - and the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sakari Oramo). This is an amazing piece of music: the first movement is fast, spiky, serious, aggressive, contemporary classical music - fine but unremarkable - but then the work gets progressively stranger and more interesting. The second movement has some lovely gentle tunes and strays towards a film music sound. In the third and fourth movements we get a mixture of klezmer, blues, Balkan gypsy music and sounds from the Middle East as well as the orchestra muttering and mumbling to each other to create the sound of a crowd. When I first started to listen to the recording I soon drifted off to do something else leaving the music playing in the background but after a while found myself rushing back to find out what was going on! It must very exciting to it see performed live - and, I suspect, even more so to play it.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

13 December 2006

Last Sunday I played in the annual Northampton Symphony Orchestra 'Christmas Cracker' concert at Spinney Hill Theatre, Northampton. This is always a really enjoyable afternoon with a wide range of festive and film music (including Star Wars and Harry Potter this year), a narrated piece (Howard Blake's 'The Snowman') and carols for the audience to sing - plus the obligatory mulled wine and mince pies. And each year the orchestra seems to be slightly more festooned with tinsel, reindeer antlers and santa hats! The 'Christmas Cracker' is always a popular concert and this year we had an audience of more than 500 - that's a lot of mince pices! Part of the attraction might have been our compere, local actor Arnold Peters - perhaps better known as 'Jack Woolley' from 'The Archers'. As well as introducing the concert he gave a very creditable performance in conducting the orchestra in Walton's 'Popular Song' from 'Facade'. Our encore, somewhat inevitably was the maypole dance 'Barwick Green' from the suite 'My Native Heath' by Arthur Wood - better known as the theme to a certain long-running radio drama serial ("tum-ti-tum-ti-tum-ti-tum, tum-ti-tum-ti tum tum ..."). Billy Connolly once said that this tune should replace "God Save the Queen" as the national anthem. I notice that Archers Addicts can now download it as a ring tone ...

Buckinghamshire Chamber Orchestra concert

13 December 2006

On Saturday I was playing with Buckinghamshire Chamber Orchestra at a concert in St Peter and Paul's Church in Buckingham. I last played with the orchestra in its inaugural concert in June 2004 and I think they've made impressive progress (from what was actually a pretty good start). The programme this time included Beethoven's 2nd symphony and the Mozart concerto for flute and harp. I rarely play classical repertoire with such a small orchestra but I always find it extremely rewarding - and surprisingly hard work! Every note becomes immensely important and you need great attention detail and an exhausting degree on concentration. We opened the concert with the 'Siegfried Idyll' by Wagner. This piece was a surprise birthday present for Wagner's wife, Cosima - she awoke on her birthday on Christmas Day 1870 to hear the music she thought she had been dreaming wafting into her bedroom from an orchestra positioned on the stairs. It's a gorgeous work which I haven't played for many years and I really enjoyed rediscovering it.

Danesborough Chorus concert

8 December 2006

On Saturday we made the short journey through the deer park to Woburn Church for a carol concert by our local choral society, Danesborough Chorus. The choir was joined by the brass section from the Milton Keynes City Orchestra for a lovely mixture of festive fare. The highlight for me was Monteverdi’s ‘Deus in Adiutorium’, for which the brass were placed behind the audience at the opposite end of the church to the choir – recreating the magnificent effect of 17^th century surround sound!

'Margrave of the Marshes' by John Peel and Sheila Ravenscroft

30 November 2006

John Peel had only completed the first part of his autobiography before he died suddenly in Peru in October 2004. ‘Margrave of the Marshes’ was completed by his wife, Sheila, and is very much ‘a game of two halves’. After reading the introduction by their four children I was worried I was going to find the whole experience too sad and tearful but once you get into the book it is fascinating, entertaining and very funny. You can really hear Peel’s distinctive voice in his writing and his rambling style and constant digressions mean that, although his part of the narrative finishes in 1964 (as he heads towards a Mexican brothel!), he manages to include many more recent anecdotes. It is actually quite refreshing and revealing to then get Sheila’s perspective – embellished with quotes from John’s diary. There are some great ‘Zelig’ moments – with John standing in the background at various historic events. There are also some very familiar old friends – like the story of the Bay City Rollers on an island in a lake in Mallory Park. This is the story of popular music through the second half of the twentieth century. This is the story of the development of music broadcasting. This is the story of the trials and tribulations of Liverpool Football Club. This is the story of a slightly portly, bearded, balding gentleman in a comfortable pullover. But above all this is the story of an enduring, loving marriage.

'Ys' by Joanna Newsom

20 November 2006

There has been a lot of praise in the press for ‘Ys’ – the second album by Joanna Newsom – the 24-year old harpist/singer/songwriter from California. I caught up with her first CD ‘The Milk-Eyed Mender’ earlier this year. It’s a bizarre but strangely uplifting experience. Newsom sings beautiful melodies with incomprehensibly pretentious lyrics with an often squealing, screeching voice, accompanying herself on the harp. Impossible to categorise, she blends elements of folk with the pomposity of prog rock in an atmosphere more like classical chamber music. At first, her music can seem almost completely unlistenable but perseverance opens up a captivating beauty. ‘Ys’ builds on the remarkable experience of ‘The Milk-Eyed Mender’ by lengthening the songs (the CD contains just 5 long tracks) and added gorgeous string arrangements by Van Dyke Parks. The result is hard to describe but the word ‘masterpiece’ springs to mind: Joanna Newsom is an acquired taste – but one well worth acquiring!

Milton Keynes Sinfonia concert

20 November 2006

Another week, another Shostakovich symphony … On Saturday I was playing with Milton Keynes Sinfonia in a concert including Shostakovich’s 9^th Symphony – a shorter, lighter and less angry work than the 10^th – Shostakovich more in music theatre mode – with wonderful solos in the 2^nd and 4^th movements for clarinet and bassoon (wonderfully played on this occasion!). But the concert was dominated by an amazing performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto by Bálint Székely. Bálint was born in 1977 in Marosvásárhely (Tg.-Mures), Transylvania and came to London in 1993 to study at the Purcell School of Music and the Royal College of Music. He is a very quiet, bashful young man but a jaw-droppingly brilliant violinist. At our rehearsal last Thursday he played the virtuoso passages of the concerto with ease, effortlessly improvising and trying a host of different approaches as we tried to raise our game to keep up. I have never known a rehearsal where an orchestra applauded a soloist so often and with such fervour! His performance on Saturday was stunning – particularly a mesmerising cadenza in the 1^st movement. The Sibelius Violin Concerto was already one of my favourite pieces of music but I’ve fallen in love with it all over again in the last week – the slow movement must be one of the most beautiful pieces of music ever written. It was a real privilege to accompany Bálint Székely – note the name and watch out for him!

'Gulag Orkestar' by Beirut

17 November 2006

I am grateful to reviews of the CD 'Gulag Orkestar' by Beirut that caught my attention in both the Observer and the Guardian. Beirut is 20-year-old Zach Condon from Albuquerque, New Mexico. In 'Gulag Orkestar' he has taken the raucous but controlled mayhem of the Balkan brass sound (a particular favourite of mine), added an odd assortment of instruments including ukulele, accordion and primitive Casio keyboard, and created a great album of pop songs. There are traces of the quirky vocals of David Byrne and the swirling repetitive melodies of The Blue Nile - with the omnipresent Balkan mixture of upbeat dance music tinged with melancholic foreboding. But the sum of these parts is like nothing you've heard before. Wonderful.

Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert

14 November 2006

Our latest Northampton Symphony Orchestra concert on Saturday included the Dvorak Cello Concerto - one of the great romantic concertos - and Symphony No. 10 by Shostakovich - a long, dark and angry work which reflects on the reality of living in Stalinist Russia. I suspect some Shotakovich symphonies are much more fun to play than to listen to - the 10th is certainly not easygoing for an audience - but it is an exciting and impressive work and we had a substantial and enthusiastic audience for it on Saturday.

'NewsBiscuit'

10 November 2006

I've just discovered the new British spoof news website, 'Newsbiscuit':

newsbiscuit.com

They add at least one new story each day which means there's some very topical stuff - I liked the piece 'Euphoria fades as British observers unsure what US results actually mean'. You can also see breaking news stories (or even add them yourself if you like). As an Archers enthusiast I was shocked to see that "Fans have been stunned by the revelations that the new plot line will see members of the cast involved in activities such as farming, both agricultural and horticultural, and other countryside issues." Newsbiscuit is not quite the Framley Examiner (still my favourite) but very promising and well worth a look.

'Follies' by Stephen Sondheim

2 November 2006

We’ve been really looking forward to the reopening of our favourite local theatre – the Royal Theatre in Northampton. Just after we moved to the area in 1999 the Royal – a small but lovely Victorian proscenium arch theatre was taken into joint ownership with the Derngate (a large 1970s concert hall/theatre immediately next door). This enabled the company to maintain an eclectic mix of theatrical productions and concerts, with large scale commercial productions subsidising the more experimental. The Royal and Derngate was one of the few places in the country to be able to stage Alan Ayckbourn’s ‘House’ and ‘Garden’ – two interlinked plays performed simultaneously with the same cast – actors running between the two theatres to make sure they made their cues.

We enjoyed the development of a programme of innovative in-house productions at the Royal over the last few years under the guidance of the exciting artistic director Rupert Goold. These included a great ‘Othello’, ‘Paradise Lost’ and an amazing interpretation of ‘Doctor Faustus’ which interwove the Marlowe text with a contemporary story about the Britart enfants terribles, the Chapman brothers, defacing Goya paintings. When the theatre closed for a major refurbishment 18 months ago the final production was ‘Hamlet’ set in a disused theatre – the curtain opening to reveal a set which was the precise mirror image of the actual Royal auditorium. During the closure they were unfortunately unable to hang on to Goold (Northampton’s loss was Oxford’s gain and he recently made his directorial debut at the RSC in Stratford) but his place has been taken by Laurie Sansom (who was previously at the Stephen Joseph Theatre in Scarborough).

After 18 months the Royal and Derngate opened again (on time!) a couple of weeks ago. We made our first visit last Saturday and it’s a fantastic transformation. The public spaces (foyer, bars etc) of the two theatres have been completely combined to create a huge, lofty and open entrance hall with numerous levels and raised walkways. There is a new education/outreach centre (with its own children’s entrance). Both auditoria have been completely refurbished while preserving their distinctly different characters. The Royal has been restored to its 1884 glory – providing a breathtaking contrast when entering from the very modern foyer. It all looks lovely and it was very exciting rediscovering the building after its transformation.

Sansom’s opening production in the Royal is Stephen Sondheim’s ‘Follies’ – a musical about an old theatre about to be demolished. This tale of a reunion of the Follies girls 30 years on was an ambitious undertaking – requiring a huge cast. There are numerous ‘ladies of a certain age’ who revisit the dilapidated theatre and perform their party pieces one last time – shadowed by their younger selves. The masterstroke in this production was to cast local amateurs as the aging Follies girls (with a professional cast playing the leads and the ‘ghosts’). They had a dozen of the stars of the amateur dramatic and operatic societies from Northampton and Kettering – each of whom was fantastic. They each got their moment in the spotlight as the musical gives each ‘girl’ a showpiece number (including ‘Broadway Baby’ and ‘I’m Still Here’). Talking with friends in the interval I was delighted to discover that they had not realised some of the cast were amateurs and could not see the joins.

There were some wonderful song and dance numbers and the choreography where the young ‘ghosts’ shadow the performance of the aging stars was really slick (particularly in the tap routine ‘Mirror, mirror’). I was very pleased to see that the show got a four star review from Michael Billington in The Guardian (on a rare excursion outside London). Overall it was an excellent example of professional/amateur collaboration, a wonderful demonstration of the quality and strength of local amateur theatre and a super way to relaunch the venue. It was great!

'Burlesque' by Bellowhead

24 October 2006

There are exciting things happening in English folk music. My latest enthusiasm is for Bellowhead - the folk 'big band' created by two of the stars of the new wave of folk musicians, John Spiers and Jon Boden. I first encountered Bellowhead through their showstopping performance at the 2005 BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards. I saw them live at WOMAD in July 2006. Now I am enjoying their first album, 'Burlesque'. In Bellowhead the fiddle and accordion of Spiers & Boden are augmented by a host of musicians including a great brass section featuring that quintessential English folk instrument, the sousaphone! Their take on a range of traditional tunes is fast, furious and funky - great stuff.

'Past Half Remembered' by NIE

23 October 2006

We nearly saw the play 'Past Half Remembered' at the Edinburgh Fringe in August where it was well reviewed. Last Saturday we got another chance as its tour reached the Hat Factory in Luton. 'Past Half Remembered' is the tale of a 100-year old Russian woman reflecting on her life - including experiences of the First World War and the 1917 revolution. But the show is more about how the story is told - as 6 actors compete with each other to act out the tale. The company, NIE (New International Encounter), specialises in bringing together actors from across Europe and this production was performed in Czech, French, English, Norwegian and Russian. The multi-lingualism is seemlessly done and extremely entertaining. The playful approach to storytelling - with great slapstick, live music and hilarious crosstalk - is extremely theatrical. A really enjoyable evening - added to by being serenaded into the theatre at the beginning after we had been plied with complementary vodka and Russian tea poured from a samovar. It was just a shame there wasn't a bigger audience: this was very much an Edinburgh fringe show - close, intimate, with a minimal set and lasting just over an hour - but out of the fringe context it seems difficult to draw sufficient audiences for this kind of work. If you have a chance to catch the current tour please do.

'Kafka on the Shore' by Haruki Murakami

19 October 2006

I first discovered the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami through David Mitchell whose novel 'number9dream' (a favourite of mine) was heavily influenced by Murakami's 'The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle'. I've just finished reading Murakami's latest novel 'Kafka on the Shore' (translated by Philip Gabriel). Like most of his books it centres on a young protagonist in contemporary Japan (in this case a 15-year old boy running away from home to try to escape an oedipal prohecy) but the modern, urban, commercial setting is gently invaded by hints of surrealism, magical-realism or maybe the spirit-world. There are many explicit and hidden references to popular and classical music as well as elements of Greek tragedy. Two apparently disconnected plots gradually (and satisfyingly) converge with a strong underlying momentum of fate and destiny. I can see why Murakami is seen as a hip, cool writer but I also find him compelling, immensely entertaining and very funny. He creates some wonderfully quirky comic characters - bits of this novel reminded me of Douglas Adams' 'Dirk Gently' novels. I love Murakami's style, playfulness and mystery - even if I'm not sure I always understand him. 'Kafka on the Shore' is 500 pages long but I would have liked 500 more!

Helsinki

9 October 2006

I've had a really enjoyable few days in Helsinki at the European Forum for the Arts and Heritage conference - my first trip to Finland. Helsinki is a wonderful city - beautiful buildings, a harbour right in the centre of the city, fishing boats selling herring on the quayside, a wide tree-lined esplanade, a mixture of Russian and Scandinavian influences, and polite, helpful people. Culturally, the towering figure of Jean Sibelius (one of my favourite composers) seems omnipresent: as I came up the escaltaor at the Central Railway Station (itself an amazing cultural icon) I gradually became aware of the faint strains of a busker playing something vaguely familar on a recorder - by the time I reached the top I realised it was the slow, gentle Finnish folk tune that Sibelius used in 'Finlandia'. At the conference we were treated to a performance by a local choir representing Kassandra - an organisation that brings together immigrants to Finland from different cultural backgrounds. The choir sang in a wide variety of styles including Bulgarian and South African songs which it had learned from members from those countries. Finally, in Helsinki Airport awaiting my return flight I picked up a DVD of my favourite Finnish folk/rock group, Värttinä. I'm looking forward to returning to Helsinki for a longer visit sometime soon.

'Overtaken' by Alexei Sayle

4 October 2006

I had read and enjoyed Alexei Sayle's first book of short stories, 'Barcelona Plates' and was looking forward to this, his first novel. Having finished it I'm not quite sure what to make of it. The setting (a group of thirtysomething friends in the North West of England in the early years of the 21st century) and the style had me comparing it with Nick Hornby or John O'Farrell but Sayle takes us into darker territory: violence, revenge and grotesque characters. But there is also some really interesting stuff on the power of art, the nature of friendship, addiction, grief and guilt. He also has some great wordplay and running jokes which are subtle and easy to miss. Though there was humour he seems to have backed away from comic set-pieces. I read it very quickly and it held my attention but I felt a little disappointed at the end. I'm not sure whether the ending was a fantastic coup-de-theatre which I haven't yet understood or just a running out of steam. Intriguing, thought-provoking and unpredictable.