Last Night's Fun - Playhouse 2, Shaw, Oldham - 6/10/2006

Regular readers (I believe there are a few!) will not be surprised to know that Last Night's Fun have been added to FolkingAbout's list of bands with that special "must see" rune, and so it was that we organised ourselves to get over to Shaw (an undertaking not considered without some gravity as it involves getting around Manchester in the rush hour and the rain) to see the lads play their second gig of this Autumn's UK tour. The Playhouse 2 in Shaw is a lovely venue, small and friendly with a good size bar with comfy seats, cheap beer and a singing barman. We found ourselves on the very front row, which, for some reason the locals seem to shun and sit a few rows back, but it meant that we were literally on the stage and close enough to catch Denny's cold should he sneeze too much. LNF were very ably supported by local duo "Better Late" who warrant a separate report which will follow later, but it was with keen anticipation that we cheered Denny, Nick and Scott onto stage and wondered what the night might bring.

Chris was on form with his introductions and banter, merciless to Nick who remains the butt of so many comments, the audience taking some stick tonight s well, but once the first notes of a piece are played, the laughter is put aside and their 3 faces become intent, their eyes sometimes closed, their fingers and elbows and lungs and minds all become part of one entity, that of Last Night's Fun, whose sum exceeds that of Sherburn, Bartley and Scott as individuals. It was a joy to be so close to the band - it meant that all the usual distractions of movement and other peoples' heads being in the way were gone, and we could concentrate fully on what was unfolding in front of us:

A trio of instrumentals to start, then Denny's voice came to life for "The Moving On Song", thankfully not showing any ill effects from his cold, and his fingers working their stuff on his strings, visibly bending the notes, his strumming hand a blur. Nick's piping gained a genuine and warm compliment from Chris (it's not all banter, see) following another set of 3, including "The Tempest" , all of which had Nick to the fore, then it was back to Denny for "Next Market Day". I reckon Denny must have one of the most talented little fingers anywhere having watched it reach across the fretboard and pin down a string seemingly miles away from any of his other fingers, and his use of the lower strings as a bass while the strumming the higher strings plays the rhythm is quite remarkable. Meantime Chris was lovingly drawing out long notes from his concertina, barely moving at times, and we could see him mouthing the words as he was drawn into the song.

This song progressed into a sort of jazz guitar/concertina instrumental, slowly raising the ante, then, with a snatched word from Chris, they change up a gear, Nick's pipes start to soar and Denny slides his capo up 2 frets mid-strum and they're off into another fabulous tune! In "Roseville Fair" we find Chris playing a flute-like part on his concertina during the singing, the band joining together to end the first half with a cracking instrumental. Many of these are un-announced so I'm not able to tell you what they're called.

The second half started as the first with a few un-announced tunes before we were treated to the more subtle side of the band's output, Denny singing "Sammy's Bar" with Nick providing bass drones on his pipes and Chris using his concertina very gently to play those long quiet notes over the drones. In "Doxford Hall" things were much more up-tempo and I swear Denny was producing some bass notes without touching the strings! It was fantastic, no other word.

Mal had buttonholed Chris early on and requested a song, so at this stage we got "May Morning Dew", sung by Denny, no guitar, eyes closed, hands reaching out imploringly at times, simply accompanied by a pipe done and a few concertina notes, Denny's voice has a power that does more than justice to the songs he sings, and this was a major highlight, such control and passion in his voice - and all done without notice or rehearsal - just sublime. The song was actually preceeded by Nick playing a solo "I am asleep, please don't wake me" which gave us a chance to concentrate on his playing, and watching his fingers it seemed that they have evolved into pipe playing fingers, somewhat more agile than most and able to quiver and shake under control to wrest the magical sound out of the instument.

Then a dose of what Chris called "Double Garage Music" - "The Cliffs of Moher" in which his concertina seemed to develop into something much bigger and produced a huge sound, and suddenly the half was over.

For an encore they started with "Autumn Child", Nick managing to on his pipes slide between the notes on his pipes in a beautiful and haunting manner, a "top in" from Chris - he was locked into this piece now, you could see it on his face, and as they progressed the tunes featured call and response between Nick and Chris, the atmosphere was incredible, the players were rapt, Denny with his cheek on top of the guitar listening hard as he played, eyes closed, Nick too, eyes closed, head back, feet pounding the floor and Chris was bouncing on his seat, side to side and rocking as his feet too joined the rhythm - the sound was almost orchestral, "so much energy here" I wrote and the air must have been crackling as they drove on to a climatic ending.

It was a huge cheer they got at the end, and the band were buzzing after that, they had it seems, reached that extra level where everything was just en pointe and all three minds, souls and bodies moved in absolute union to produce something so special - an experiment Chris said later, and one that worked!

FolkingAbout are scheduled to become LNF groupies over the coming weeks as the tour regulary comes in range - join us and catch them if you can - three men in the rare altitudes of ability - one top group.

Tour dates etc at http://www.lastnightsfun.com/index.html where you will also find details of the new live album "Live from the Mac"

Rachel Unthank and the Winter Set - Shrewsbury Folk Festival - 27/8/2006

It was a bit of a suprise to find that Rachel Unthank & The Winter Set were going to be on first, it was after all the main reason we were at Shrewsbury - Gilly had picked up on them beforehand and marked their name with a special rune that allows no obstacles to our attendance! The running order for the afternoon had been re-arranged because somebody was absent, or late, so we had to settle down quick and concentrate hard. "Quick! They're on." Rachel Unthank sang solo and unaccompanied "A Man Like Johnie" and the other 3 members of the Winter Set stood or sat slightly self consciously while we all tuned into Rachel's voice. No standing around for the next number though, Cyril Tawney's "Monday Morning" used 3 voices and the piano - and yes Belinda was deliberately sitting on that metal case as a cushion on the chair while she played piano, they must have left the stool at home! The two Unthank sisters and viola player Jackie Oates sang a verse each of this weekend drinker's lament - the harmonies different each time, sometimes two part, latterly in three and always beautiful.

Instantly noticeable was the rapt attention that pianist Belinda O'Hooley pays to the other artistes, her eyes wide and steeley as she immerses herself into the song and places her notes just right, her playing is skilled and sensitive and is a major feature in the band's sound, often more like another voice than a backing instrument. O'Hooley's other assett to the Winter Set is her dry humour, whithering put-downs and acerbic asides keep the audience happy between songs, the band's close friendship's showing through well - they are all clearly close and comfortable in each other's company, on and off stage.









A few numbers into the set saw the sisters change into clogs and dancing, and then Rachel (back in her wellies) switched to cello for "My Donald" - whaling from the wife's point of view. This song brought out Becky Unthank's breathy vocals and then the band became almost a chamber orchestra during a dramatic instrumental break. The effect was spoilt slightly by the intrusion of some loud drumming going on nearby - a complaint I heard metioned several times from various sources - something for "the committee" to sort out for next year.

Later on, Becky would appear mid-piece, and, all clogged up, dance a brief impetuous dance like a child vieing for the attention of grownups, too usy with something else to appreciate her moves. A swift, low bow and she was off again to shed he clogs before re-appearing for the next piece.

Further highlights included "For Today I Am A Boy" sung by Becky and accompanied by Belinda, followed by Alex Glasgow's poignant "Twenty Long Weeks" - again Belinda's sparse piana comlementing rather than backing the vocals. A rowdy "Away from Hexhamshire" concluded the afternoon set, an interesting and exciting first view of the band, and certainly enough to ensure that we would see them again later in the day.....

..... in the smaller marquee in the evening in fact, where we managed to get front row seats in a fairly well attended concert. "Thanks for coming to see us rather than Eliza Carthy" they quipped, but not without the hint of self-doubt as somebody added "or couldn't you get in there?" Well we were there by choice, and I suspect a fair few of the others were too.

Rachel sang "Cruel Sister" with just piano accompaniment and then the marvelous "Monday Morning". I have one small complaint of the Winter Set, they have tendancy, and it noticeable here, to abandon the last note of a number just a tiny bit too soon - I'm sure it's just a nervous thing, but it grates a little - they need to just savour that last note a little longer, let the audience hang on it before downing tools or stepping back from the mike. (Incidently the same is true of the CD, where the tracks have next to no silence between them.)

The sisters' father is no mean musician either and his "Tar Barrell in Dale" was a good highlight (and currently available as a free download on the band's website) The evening atmosphere seemed to suit the set - Beck's "My Donald" was hauntingly good tonight, with Rachel's cello adding to the instrumental section. "I wish" was fantastic - featuring Jackie playing a Sanuté purchased from eBay - a complex piece of light and dark with some excellent vocal harmonies, and then Becky delivered the coup de gras with Nick Drakes' "Riverman". Becky sings this lovely song with such a fragile vocal that you want to treat it like precious porcelain, breathy and once again with the ever attentive Belinda providing the piano part - this was just brilliant and will be one of the top songs of my year for certain. Again there was sound, particularly deep beats leaking over from the main marquee that slightly marred this fraglile performance.

After such a pearl we were brought firmly back to earth by the next song "Til I'm Cold and Stiff", introduced by Belinda and her Irish Auntie and including a fair chunk of "Abide with Me" before the Winter Set left us again with "Away from Hexhamshire".

What can I say then? Gilly was right, they were terrific and left us eager for more. It's been a great year already and this was one of the highest of the highlights, the Unthank sisters and their friends will be a bright star in the folk firmament for some years.

Here's one we prepared earlier....

This is no gig, this is Gilly on MySpace with her first recorded song, recorded in our bedroom, mixed by Mally and available for you to listen at :
www.myspace.com/gillyfarrie

Congratulations Gilly!!!!!

I'm surrounded on all sides now by Farries playing music, with Gilly and Mike here, Mally over in Wheelock and Peter down in Exeter - not to mention Thomas and Katie coming up in the next generation - look out the Wilsons and the Coppers, the Farries are coming!

Update:

There are some new reports nearly ready to post, I've been really busy of late, (recording this song for instance) and there are some exciting irons in the fire for later in the year.

I'm delighted to see that Folk North West magazine have printed my report on the Kate Rusby gig at New Brighton in the autumn edition. This is the first time in print for FolkingAbout!

Keep it live!

John

YouTube - Fun with Treadmills

Yes I know there's been a drought on this blog - I have a couple of major reports part done, I promise to get on with them and get them here before the autumn tour madness starts.....

Meantime, enjoy this:
YouTube - Fun with Treadmills

dance with a new element - made me laugh and it's very well done indeed.

Thanks to Gilly for finding it for me.

WOMAD - Rivermead, Reading - 27-30/7/2006

Thursday July 27th and we cover the 200 miles to Reading without any major problems, despite the intense heat, arriving on site at about 19:45 to find that the 2nd dedicated campervan field is already full. We just about manage to fit in a corner with some help from a steward and pretty soon we are configured and cooking up a fine meal. We decide to crash out early to prepare for the rigours of the following day.


Friday July 28th. Another very hot day, Gilly is rather unwell so we sit around listening to the cricket on Test Match Special before setting off to the arena at lunchtime. Its a long walk but we soon have our festival wristbands (no queue to speak of here thank goodness) and find ourselves drinking green tea in the Tiny Tea Tent and talking to Dave and Jude from the Tannat Valley who told us all about the Workhouse Festival. After that we sat ourselves down in the already dusty field and listened to Verba Buena from New York who delivered salsa with a twist of what used to be called fusion. I made special note to look for a track called "Sunshine" (Solar?) which was heavier than the rest. Anyway they went down well with the crowd. Straight from there across to the big blue Siam Tent that was already packed out for Salsa Celtica - with a small band of hardcore fans stood up at the front and several thousand others sat in anticipation of the start, we managed to find a slightly shaded spot. The set seemed to be more Salsa than Celtica at first, then there was a sudden change in direction, the pipes firing up and the sound becoming guitar and accordian led. We couldn't see very much at all being sat down and surrounded by a constant flux of people at the edge of the tent, but you could tell that the band were going down well, and I felt the applause was stronger for the more celtic pieces. A huge cheer for a guest appearence by Eliza Carthy to sing on Grey Gallito - a beautiful and heartfelt performance. The band gave a brilliant encore which really had the crowd moving and they were rewarded with well deserved massive applause.

The arena is already very busy, people bustling around constantly, the car parks outside heaving, its really hot and dusty, but the good news is that there are real toilets here and so far they seem to be working well.














Back soon later to the Siam tent for one of our top picks for the weekend:Värttinä

Lined up at the back of the wide stage, 6 men dressed in black, playing violin, accordion, bpuzouki, bass, drums and guitar, whilst up front, three women dressed in all white with a touch of colour in the form of reddish woven belts. There is instant high octane singing and backing music, being familiar with the latest album, "Miero" we knew what to expect and we weren't dissapointed! Despite singer Mari Kaasinen being away to have a baby, there was no compromise in vocal performance because producer Aija Puurtinen had stepped in to provide the middle voice.













Using the close and distinctive harmonies that come out of Finland, the 3 singers roam around the stage and the movement is often theatrical with gestures between themselves and out to the audience, with plenty of facial expression to further the effect.












For the song "Maaria" the 3 women were joined by fiddle player Lassi Logren in a beguiling a'capella, his voice almost wailing above their harmonies like a distant voice echoing in the hills. Truly beautiful. Earlier Logren was to be seen playing single notes on just one string of his instrument, but he was bringing the bow in from being arms length outstreched away from him and almost whipping the string. Bassist Hannu Rantanen provided super bass, but seemed to me to be dissatisfied with his back row status and was constantly goating about and trying to be noticed more.
Drummer Jaakko Lukkarinen was a different matter though, his beats in order and without histrionics, In "Maaria" (I think) I caught him pushing the head of drumstick across a cymbal, resulting in a dreadful screeching noise, bad enough for him to grimace across to the stage sound crew then smile, but later he became a one man earthquake as he switched to brushes but beat every skin and cymbal he had for all he was worth, the podium and all upon it shaking fearfully.
Later we were taught the Finnish equivalent of "La La La" which predictably enough seemed to have at least 12 syllables!











The encore to this super set included both saxaphone and a lovely instrumental section with the accordian and violin sounding well together. A very well received performance from a great band. Definately a highlight!

After a meal from Leon's, accompanied by Bellowhead on the outdoor stage, a concept which works a little better in this large arena, but still sounds unwieldy to me despite it's ability to put a spring in people's steps, we sampled a few shops and an ice cream before returning to the outdoor stage for Los de Abajo - a 10 piece band from Mexico who seemed to have blended Cuban music with Madness. We heard them play "The Lunatics have taken over the asylum" before we could see them and when we did there was somebody on stage with a huge bass drum, making me smile and think -"They'll hear the bugger now....!" The crowd up front were going manic and towards the end we realised that none other than Dennis Rollins was playing trombone with them. Wish we'd been up front for all that really.

Back over at the Siam tent, The Gotan Project had draped the stage in white and were dressed up to the nines and stood in front of back projected images and movies playing subtle and interesting music that demanded a conentrated listen. Sadly the area outside the tent was already 20 people deep all trying to get a glimpse, so we filed that one away for a future date.

This crowdedness was becoming really noticable, with a great deal of mobile phone traffic "I'm by the 4th flag on the left" and so many people - I'm sure there are more than last year. My feet are filthy with the dust, there are still golf balls in the ground and there is a constant smell of food, most of it really tempting! The general atmosphere though is wonderful - you can dress up as anything (and many do!) and everyone is laid back and friendly, all out to have a good time and enjoy good music.

Salif Keita was so much easier to listen to, his bluesy African style cutting through the night, and later we would find oursleves, as ever, attracted to the tent selling lamps next to the far side of the Siam tent, a magical place at night, made more so tonight because of the fitting atmospheric music of Anoushka Shankar next door, playing her own amazing compositions to a mainly seated and rapt audience, her Sitar being accompanied by various percussion and vocals providing a good musical end to the first day before we set off on the long trek back to the van.....


Saturday July 29th

We walk in through the tent city that makes up the camp site, and then past the rows of stalls with all sorts of things on sale, then through the steam fair (more on that story later!) and on into the main arena where there are yet more stalls.... The retail therapy oportunities are really immense at WOMAD and nearly every stall has it's own music - the colours are vibrant and there are really some pleasant smells eminating from some of them - eg The Soap Gallery - where you can buy soap that looks and smells good enough to eat!


















It's really hot again and we are dressed for the weather and seek out the shade of a flag near the mainstage to see "Think of One" from Belgium. A funky rhythm section with brass and vocalists with big drums and dancers. In fact there was mayhem on the stage - at least 9 people at any one time - but they produce a great heavy band sound, accompanied by the host of WOMAD flags rasping in the stiff breeze. Now a tenth member appears, a large black mama singing to a crazy brass section playing fast with a barrage of percussion behind, a small energetic crowd was bouncing at the front, while many others were enjoying lunch in the sun to this frenetic music.

At the end of the set all 12 members were just either singing and/or playing percussion in an African manner, then a Ram like trumpet sound came over, and a strange Magic Roundabout style trolley came on, bearing a pole with 4 loudspeakers on the top - no idea why, or anything, but it was just one more mad thing from a band with a good show and energetic music.















After the set, the crowd ups and moves to the next venue like the Israelites moving in the desert with all their chattels! For us it's back to the Siam Tent for "Etran Finatawa" and more desert blues. Here though we have the Niger version - with amazing costumes and face paint. The 6 members are arranged with 3 of them sat cross legged on the stage playing assorted drums, including gourd and water filled gourd I think - the standing members consist of one electric guitar and vocals, electric bass and one vocalist (who had a tambourine like device strapped to his ankle).












The music is trance inducing - not unlike Tinariwen in some ways, slow, steady, relentless, the vocals being enhanced by a much higher, almost wailing kind of singing from the central vocalist, who also manages to move around the stage as if on castors, he is so upright and smooth in his movements.

Sometimes the guitar sounds just like Neil Young bashing away on "Down By the River", but strangely transposed to this African scene. The set is very well received by the large crowd, then it's off again to.....

"Emmanuel Jal and band" on the main outdoor stage ... you get the drift - 20-odd thousand people on the move every hour - we've seen Emmanuel before, but this band has a nice sound, quite Fugees-like and of course his great message of peace and hope "I have lots to say about war in my country and everything", he says, "but in the end I believe we are going to party!" His strong message is forcefully delivered in the modern style, lots of rap and samples and so on alongside the great music. Emmanuel gets stronger and more confident each time we see him, look out world, he's coming!

Our next choice was one "Billy Bragg" - The Progressive Patriot as he styles himself these days, but not to sing, no, we sat down, and listened to an hour of high quality oratory by the man concerning the basic human rights, on why his home town voted in the BNP in the local council elections, and on child torture. This was part of one of WOMAD's other faces, there were many speakers, many petitions and lots of issue based groups with information, books, t-shirts and so on, and some free peanuts too!

Following this I trekked off to Cavensham to find a cash point, despite what it says in the program there were none on site that I could see, and none of the marshals I asked knew of any either. This is a major oversight in an otherwise well run festival, especially one were you can spend so much money so easily! Got back just in time to catch the end of a very loud and lively set from the great "Kanda Bongo Man" on the mainstage.

"Toumani Diabaté and his Symetric Orchestra" - in the Siam Tent. Incessant - like the festival, it feels like you are always missing a lot if you just sit down. We ARE sat down for this - the tent is full, we can't see a thing but it sounded great. There at least 9 people on the stage, the music was very much kora driven and as you'd expect - many tracks from the latest album, but most interesting was the beginner's guide to the kora given by Toumani himself, in broken English, explaining how each finger played which part and then he put them all together and left us in no doubt that a) he is a master of his craft, and b) the kora is a complex but wonderful instrument.









After this we enjoyed coffee at the One World Tent getting some more serious stuff in, before returning to the Siam Tent to hear "Nancy Griffith" who delighted us by singing "Gulf Coast Highway" just as we arrived wondering if she might, going on with "From a Distance" and "Listen to the Radio". 

https://youtu.be/6wN59CxE9_g?si=oTr2X3C1Fc1MeNsF 

Her band had the standard lineup - bass, drums, piano and guitar, but they were a good band, and Nancy's voice was terrific. Here songs were all strong too, no froth here, just time for a dance then before....

Back to the mainstage for "Ska Cubano" - "This is like a musical trolley dash" said Gilly as we once again tromped from stage to stage with countless others, meeting countless others making the opposite journey... take the Buena Vista Social Club and cross them with Madness and you will understand how this band sounded.... but by now we were suffering from music fatigue and decide to wander around a bit - to Carter's Steam Fair where we had a go on the gallopers - powered by an 1890 steam engine with a steam organ and everything. Talking to the man at the firebox door, I discovered that there was a very similar device still extant, built only a few weeks apart from this one, and both had recently suffered the same problem with a broken main crank - built in obselescence after a century of work? Sadly the weather turns rather wet and we return to the arena to seek shelter and to see "Femi Kuti" on the mainstage. Femi is a powerhouse in the Afropop scene, and he was sounding great, but this fatigue had really set hold of us, and we just felt inclined to wander - ending up almost inevitably at the lamp tent and catching a little of Indian superstar "Trilok Gurtu" next door in the Siam Tent - again wonderfully atmospheric and calming after a hectic day.

Sunday July 30th

Another right sunny day - and a day that was to become Floppy's - you can read all about that here - Floppy's WOMAD blog - but first we enjoyed listening to the neighbour's comments about The Archers omnibus - and then the other neighbour put on some great music - a good way of selling it - which was exactly why he was doing it - sold 1 CD for a pound!

Amazingly we discover a whole area of the site that we' managed to completely miss during the first 2 days - plenty of new retail oportunities in a sea of noise and colour, but it's so hot and I'm feeling rather under the weather myself, so it's hard to be too keen! Floppy manages to wade through it all and makes lots of new friends and we struggle through to the Siam tent just in time for Mali's Djelimady Tounkara - a very hypnotic and colourful band with a slow, wandering, rythmic sound, all dressed in very colourful get ups and a female vocalist in shiny pink. There is some dueling going on between the musicians, some of it with really long phrases, sometimes reminiscent of Habib Koite, sometimes with convoluted vocals, but nearly always over a nice slow rhythm, just right for the heat of the day.

https://youtu.be/rUpFxcTRJDw?si=1T3q2-43avhe-7ts

Japan provided one of the musical highlights of the festival in the form of the Pascals who managed to go from that famous opening few bars of the theme to Jaws into a streetband style dance tune , then they had a violin piece in the manner of Ed Alleyne, then somebody playing the saw and melodica - as Gilly said - a really good soundtrack to the setting that is WOMAD. Top notch stuff.














The blurb for Laura Veirs suggested we find a quiet corner to take in her act - some hope! We managed to squeeze in on the edge of the huge crowd around the village stage - but it was worth it - she plays a lazy Niel Young style electric guitar and sings a bit like Suzanne Vega at times. Her band of piano, bass and drums is augmented with a trombone on some of her older songs, an interesting effect. A bit of a nod towards country and western too at times, but the sound suffered from a bit too much arpeggio keyboards. Otherwise a good set.

Konono No. 1 were the last band to get any notes - and sadly they were not up to expectations - it frankly sounded like a tinny a.m. radio on too loud and was a bit repetitive and far too grating for me today! I know it's supposed to sound like that via the homemade gear, but it didn't do it for me - maybe I was just too tired and hot! Having said that they had some magic rhythms and Floppy seemed to enjoy it!














Festival fatigue was now firmly established and we had had enough of all this dashing around so we chilled out (shopping and eating!) before settling down at the now cooler and slightly damp Radio 3 stage for the last act of the weekend - Moussu T e Lei Jovents from Marsailles - now you should soon be able to hear this set for yourselves on the Radio 3 WOMAD page - but it's not there yet. It was interesting, the band's CD player kept breaking down, exposing that backing tracks were in use, and letting the set slowly descend into anarchy - the damp crowd didn't seem to mind much, and the bird puppets got a few laughs, but we felt that they didn't live up to the promise of the billing as "Andy Kershaw's favourite live act" or indeed up to what we could remember of them playing on the radio, but it was quite good really - not too taxing!

After that we took one more round of the site and discovered a few stalls selling off stock very cheap so that they didn't have to pack it all away, spent the last of our cash there and set off back along the path to the van for the last time on this event.

Totally worn out but content, we discovered the day after that we couldn't leave for a while because the queue to get off the site was just solid until mid-afternoon, no problem, we enjoyed chilling, our neighbour sold us another CD and before long we were heading home, or at least until Oxford where the traffic jams began, but Floppy kept the blues at bay, entertaining the other motorway users and gaining many new friends in the process!

So that was WOMAD 2006 - so much music, so little time, so many people, so little peace, so much food, so few meal times, so many shops, no cash machines. Would we do it again - oh yes! Maybe we would approach things differently, and hopefully in better health, but we'll be back (unless we get tickets for the Cambridge Folk Festival....!)

John Martyn and his Band - Fairport's Cropredy Convention 2006 - 11/8/2006

Just had to do this straight away, the rest of Cropredy and WOMAD will follow soon, but....

There some names who have inexplicably remained in a distant orbit around my life for all of it's 45 years to date - Bill Bruford, Wishbone Ash, Steeleye Span and, until now, John Martyn. Up until very recently, had you asked me about John Martyn, I would have conjured up a mental image of a bloke in a beard (circa 1975) who plays guitar and sings with a bit of a reedy, high voice, and that would have been it. Advance notice of an impending celestial shift came a few weeks back when John Martyn appeared on Mark Radcliffe's evening show on BBC Radio 2, which provided an updated image of an older, rather cantankerous bloke in a beard, and a wheelchair, who still sings with his distinctive voice and plays guitar, but that he does it all rather well and with a good band.

On Friday 11th August 2006, the distant comet that is John Martyn was torn out of his far orbit and flung Johnwise to within a few yards of me, an event of such gravity and magnitude that I am still reeling from it.

Start at the end - John Martyn has just finished his set, with a wave and Tommy Cooperesque ha-ha-ha, he is wheeled offstage to deafening applause - there is no encore, he leaves us there ruthlessly, stunned, to bleed slowly, to stand with many others uttering expletives, immobile, shattered and knowing that life can never be the same again, that tomorrow morning, there would be a new star to consider and to gaze at, to listen to, and maybe even to worship......

We had wanted to be in the thick of it, and we managed to get quite near to the stage in what was a big crowd standing at the front of the arena. It all started pretty normally with "Cool Tide", John was sat next to a selection of effects, one of which was clearly defunct as the ever attendant roadie was called in to sort something out before the second song "I couldn't love you more" which featured some of John's famous echo effects.

The band consisted of 5 members, including Gerry Conway guesting on a vast array of percussion instruments. I couldn't tell you who the rest were right now, except that the bassist was Thomson and his work on the fretless electric was magnificent - I wrote it down at least 3 times in two pages! The next song was slower and thoughtful ("Lies?") and while you could see the pain on John's face at times, it was more than apparant that he still has his humour very much intact, the song's lyrics sounded very Dylanesque to me. Ben Harper's "Excuse Me Mr." followed, with Gerry Conway's cowbell sounding throughout.

Things turned more jazz like at this point, with each of the players taking a solo in "BabyFace?" and then another song which seemed to include some chord sounds from a Police number, but it finished on a chord that just took off with such power - "A creature in his natural environment" muttered Gilly astutely - "Rocksalt and Nails" with a great organ sound and then what I now know to have been "Big Muff" - starting a bit funky and leading up to scorching guitar solos over a swirl of hypnotic sound. The comet was approaching! A heckler shouted something and John laughed back, "No, not over the hill, I'm just hard to kill."

The anthemic "May you never" with mostly just John's acoustic guitar over the bass followed, then "Don't want to know" (more great bass!) and the comet arrived - I have just written "OH YES!" across the notebook page - after that its a blank so far as song titles go - there were at least 10 people at the side of the stage by now, all getting their fill from the best vantage point, "I'm going to measure you up" was in there somewhere. The maelstrom took hold, took over and then he was gone - gone! That's it - gone - left us hungry, wretched, delighted, blew all our fuses and left.

Compere Geoff Hughes ("Twiggy","Onslow",Eddie") just couldn't shut up the applause, the cheers and the demands for more went on and on, even when it was clear that we weren't going to get any more. "Always see him at night" I have written down - darkness suits the music well, not that it's dark necessarily, but darkness takes away most of the visual sphere and all you have is the stage lighting with John and band in the centre and the music swirling around you.

That was it then - 10CC who followed had no chance with us - there was no room to take anything else in. The next day was definately overshadowed by what we had just witnessed and music since has had a new standard to match up to. Amazingly, Gilly had managed to have the forethought to order "Live at Leeds and More" on CD a few weeks earlier, so we were able to get JM fixes in the van. So it was that the next day then I heard "Somewhere over the rainbow" for the first time, thankfully we were spared John performing that song on Friday, because I think most of us would have just passed on to another life there and then....

Thanks John and band - I think you can safely say you have us hooked - don't wait too long before giving us another chance - and now over to Amazon for a back catalogue ordering session.......

Postscript: There are, for the time being, some amazing clips of this gig at YouTube!!!

Floppys stolen the laptop - and my WOMAD report

Floppys stolen the laptop is the name of a new blog started, as he has rightly described it in the title, by Floppy when he managed to get hold of the laptop while I wasn't looking!

He has kindly provided a link from his blog to mine, so I am reciprocating! I will add a sidebar link too shortly Floppy. It's full of fun and very popular!

All this means my WOMAD report will be a few days yet, because he insists on having first go of the laptop - after all he's getting more hits than me!

Here HE is in all his glory:

Kristina Olsen at Biddulph Town Hall - 18/7/2006

Remembering our previous attempts at finding gigs in the Potteries, we set out early and managed to arrive a good 2 hours before the start - so we bagged the best seats and went and had dinner!

It was one of the hottest days for about 100 years (really!) and everybody was feeling it, but the hall filled up nicely and lots of people had brought food and drink, so it felt quite festive. First up tonight were "Loud Mouth Women", in what is becoming a regular slot for them at the end of their summer rehearsals period. "Loud Mouth Women" are a local womens' free access singing group and when they came on, they had to line up in front of the stage because there were so many of them - 34 we counted, plus Mary up front leading. We weren't sure what to expect, and to be honest I was dreading the possibility of the worst kind of church choir performance I used to endure, but when they started their a'capella act singing in an African language a song slightly reminiscent of "The Lion Sleeps Tonight", but much better, my hopes were lifted, followed by my spirits and my enjoyment! They sang their hearts out, sometimes in unison, sometimes split into 2, 3 or 4 parts, but always smiling and putting everything into it.
They sang "It ain't what you do, it's the way that you do it" (Fun Boy 3/Bananarama version), "We are one" (most appropriately) and a further selection of African style songs, all sung by heart and a'capella. Great stuff.

Eric Cox then introduced Kristina Olsen - I should declare a bias here - I like Kristina Olsen - we caught her twice at the Bridgnorth Festival last year and she made a big impression, and we said then that we would make a point of catching her again if she came within range. Well here she is, and here we are! Ann and Jim had also made the trip, and another couple had come down from Heswall so obviously there is quite a draw.

Kristina chose "Part Time Love" to open and was instantly in trouble with the guitar pickups which continued to give problems all night, but nothing daunted, switch to a microphone and carry on... The song features some complex guitar work not unlike John O'Connell's solo in the middle of "Moondance", and this is her opener - she hasn't even had time to warm up yet, and from where we were sat we could see and hear the expressions and little sounds Kristina makes as she and her guitar communicate with each other, and they with us. Her guitar playing was really intricate, some notes bent sooo far, and lots of well used harmonics too, the whole song is held together by the constant heartbeat on the bass string. Then, for a few moments the guitar is slung round behind her and "Love Kristina" - a short, light-hearted a'capella song. The instrument is returned to favour for the next "Dangerous" - but it probably wished it hadn't been, because she hammers hell out of the strings at times, no wonder she wears plasters on her right hand fingers! It's a great song though, loud and emotional.

My favourite off her last CD - the exquisite title track from "In Your Darkened Room" came next - a much smoother and darker sound, enhanced by the tiny sighs and occasional tuts from Olsen as she continues to wring that guitar. I can't say enough about this song - it grabbed me right inside when I first heard it at Bridgnorth and it continues to grab and twist and pull at me every time I hear it. I don't recall Kristina ever saying anything by way of introduction, but whatever inspired her to write it certainly exerts a major charge and never fails to niggle away at my emotions. Watching Kristina perform it close up here, and later even closer on her live DVD, I suspect she still feels it deep too.

A few songs later the long suffering acoustic was laid aside in favour of the big red one, playing bottle-neck slide blues on Robert Johnson's "Come on in my kitchen", using the bottleneck to suggest more and more of the lyrics as the song progressed, aided by "knowing looks" towards the audience. All this singing was of course peppered with Kristina's own brand of things to say between songs - some of it biographical, a few jokes, a kind of aural blog, including the recipe for her potent cold- relief - hot chilli tea, which she consumed throughout, all of it somewhat more brash than you usually experience in folk clubs. "Didn't think it would happen tonight" concluded the first set ( time for a second brew?) with a bit of audience participation and a really loud vocal.

Part two of the evening commenced with more joy from the Loud Mouth Women - various "Generic African" call and response songs followed by "Don't worry, be happy", "I'll fly away" and the Crystals' "There's nobody like my baby". Finally they sang "We're going home" by The Mighty Zulu Nation and after a few verses they began to parade slowly off and around the side, still singing their joyous song and waving as they went - just brilliant.

Kristina re-appeared with her hair tied up - quite literally as it turned out - she showed us how after the gig - bluesing about on her acoustic again with "Stop Doing So Well" and then "The Truth of a Woman". The 'tween song chat caused some embarassed giggling from around the room when mentioning finding someone to neck in the carpark, and hoots when it moved on to talk of life classes....

"New Love" was a classic Olsen penned song - sometimes you can just tell - maybe there's a batch from a certain time, or perhaps it's just "her" sound, anyway, the next one, a very new song, "Move On" was rather more unique and as the little blue practice guitar had also failed to work with the sound system, came played on the acoustic for the very first time - "character building" as Kristina said afterwards. There were problems with the sound all night, "poltergeists in the pickups" but it didn't seem to harm the performance any - the mikes worked just fine anyway. Only one song with the concertina tonight - "If I stayed" and that short but sweet.

"The Man with the Red Car", then a lovely instrumental played on the red steel guitar "Phoebe's Iceburg" - written on a train and very beautiful indeed - before ending up with "Big O" featuring those Loud Mouth Women again, who, having had 10 minutes to learn the chorus all crammed into the kitchen, may have been a little surprised at the remainder of the lyrics - certainly there were some interesting expressions when light dawned! Plain speaking songs are what you get here, often with pretty complex instrumentation, but always straight forward.

We got 2 encores - "Cry you a waterfall" - a happy/sad song for a departed friend, then the fun filled "Better than TV" which rather understates the level of entertainment Kristina Olsen had provided all evening, with help from the Loud Mouth Women - thank you all very much indeed.

Kristina Olsen returns to the UK in October with cellist Peter Greyling (tour dates here) and Folking About WILL be there!

John O'Connell at The Pollards Inn, Willaston - 16/7/06

Just a brief note really to say that John is playing a whole series of local pub gigs at present - The Tap - Eastham on Tuesday 25th July, The Dibbensdale Hotel, Bromborough on Thursday 27th are the next 2, and they are in addition to his regular spots around Liverpool at the weekends.

John was brilliant at The Pollards, maybe a tad too loud for the space, but we were sat at the front! The set was pretty much as usual, but John's repetoire is big enough to allow him to vary the content from night to night, so no Van Morrison tonight, but a lovely rendition of Damien Rice's "Cannonball" stood out for me, amongst others. Gary Hennesey(?) came and played mandolin for a spot, so we got Rod Stewart's "Mandolin Wind" and U2's "Losing My Religion", both with poor Jimmy sat off in a side room, but still playing bass, and then Dylan's "Little Sadie" and "Whiskey In The Jar" a la Thin Lizzy.

Another very good night from John - see him if you can.

Eric Bogle & John Munro - Parkgate Folk Club - 8/6/06

This isn't going to be too easy to write - Eric Bogle is after all a superstar in folk terms - but lets wait a moment and comment on a new rising star that appeared in the Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival - Big Bob - Bassman came on with club organisor Eddie Morris to sing "Kelty Clippy" and play along on "Can't do right", and then this new duo abandoned their instruments to sing "The old pool" a'capella to geat acclaim. We didn't manage to photograph this event, but here's Bob enjoying a quiet moment earlier in the Festival. The duo were joined by another local legend and registered wreck, Don, with his bones for "Making Songs". We look forward to reporting on more gigs by this new act in the near future!

Eric Bogle and John Munro - not one but two superstars that had sold out the Parkgate Folk Club months ago and had poor Eddie's phone ringing day and night for weeks as people became more and more desperate to get tickets. So the upper room at the Boathouse Hotel was jammed tight with expectant folkies from all over, the temperature was high, the air was still and the air conditioning not up to much.... Eric advised us early on that he was suffering with a cold, but he battled on anyway. With Eric on accoustic guitar and John Munro on mandolin, they introduced themselves with a little comic number "My name's Eric" which had us all laughing. After that things seemed to be more serious as the pair worked their way through their set. Eric rumbles away, leaning back a touch, head back, eyes closed when he's singing, whilst John sings higher, seemingly nonchalant. The sound is very crisp and accomplished, and John's mandolin playing got special notice from me several times, particularly during "A good man died today" and "No man's land".

In the second half John sang his own great song "Cross the border" in fine style, then "A reason for it all" found the duo singing alternate verses with some great guitar work, building up to the amazing finale where both men sang separate words in opposition to each other to end this moving and powerful song which had lots tears in lots of eyes, men and women alike. This section was the highlight of the set, which, while I often wrote down things like "nice guitar" and so on, ultimately failed to light my fire. The balance of the songs was heavily towards the protest, miserable and maudlin, the mood between songs similar and the whole thing felt a bit heavy and disappointing. Not bad by any means, but certainly not up to the star billing I'd expected. I said at the start that Eric had a cold, so maybe that was getting him down, and the room was very hot and airless, not a great help in the circumstances, so fair enough, I'd see them again certainly, but I'd hope for something more next time.

The good news is that John is returning to the UK and Parkgate with the great Australian band Colcannon next year, we'll be there!

Doghouse Skiffle Group - Telfords Warehouse, Chester - 30/6/06

A balmy Chester evening saw the Doghouse assemble to entertain the bright young things that frequent this popular night spot. Not being due to start until 10:30pm, there was plenty of time for a few pre-show drinks and socialising while we celebrated Gilly's 50th birthday - I wish I could say this had been specially arranged, but it hadn't so I won't- but it was a good excuse for an impromptu party with our favourite skiffle trio from Hull.

At the appointed hour then we gathered in front of the small stage in a low ceilinged room to the side of a packed but noisy bar, and witnessed the DSG in another mode altogether. Unable to communicate directly with most of the audience, many of whom were still in the bar, Garry was forced to leave out much of the between song banter and let the music do the talking. Reviving the old favourites and applying their own peculiar style of skifflisation to modern classics, the band played their hearts out and pretty soon the room was full, as the crowd came over to see what on earth was going on. At the front meantime, we were dancing the night away in a whirl of bright lights, very loud music and lots of gyrating bodies - and all in a very confined, very hot space! "Sixteen Tons", "Rock Island Line", "Train, Train", "Fulsome Prison" all churned out one after the other, Alan became the local hero for the several young men dancing away in front of him, as the crowd grew, Garry was able to work in a few quipps and got a few laughs. Soon the place was bouncing and "A day in the life" was rolled out, but the crowd was in for yet more treats when they got into the "The Legend of Jesse James", complete with held breath, reverse singing and the amazing "Bohemian Rhapsody" mid-section. "Cigarettes, Whisky and wild wild women" piled on the fun (complete with gigantic drum stick - my favourite bit - "You'll hear the bugger now!") and then ....

It was all over in a flash - the set ending with "Goodnight Irene", the traditional "Tigers!" chant being replaced by a topical "England!" at the end, a gesture which seems to have upset the management, but never mind eh? Once again the Doghouse had triumphed over adversity, a great show under difficult conditions.

Ewen Carruthers - Bromborough Folk Club - 28/6/06

A very welcome return to Bromborough for Ewen (see last year's report here) and he was given the whole second half to entertain us. Ewen only plays his own stuff, and his opener was "Old Dog" - a bluesy number which is all based on one riff repeated many times. In "Mr Anderson" Ewen proved his writing talents by managing to rhyme "great war" and "snore", and played in something of a Mark Knopfler style with a nice delicate touch. His voice, mellow now, but retaining his North Eastern accent at times was pushed to something more hoarse in "Hey Katrina", Ewen's hurricane piece and his guitar style seems to involve wrestling the sound out of the instrument at times, not quite with the venom Neil Young would use, but there was some major effort put into the sound.

"Love Birds" and "One More Story" followed and then, after an explanation that this is about Joni Mitchell, Ewen played "In Your Studio" and there was a very definite gear change, both in lyrical and musical content, a much richer sound which made us sit up and pay even more attention.

Ewen calls himself an easy listening folk artist and many of his songs fall into this category, but his lyrics can be quite deep and deserve to be heard - for example in "Lonely Little White Cloud":

"California living's great,
Until you start to shake"

Marvelous!


Winding up with his well known "Rubenstein Remembers" (as recorded by Allan Taylor) which had everybody going, Ewen was well received and so long as he keeps returning to England, he will be welcome back at Bromborough.

Cream of the Barley et al - Bromborough Folk Club - 7/6/2006

Just how many acts can you squeeze into one night at a folk club? Bromborough's contribution to the Wirral Folk on the Coast Festival was a specially extended version - kicked off early and finished late, packed to the gills and sold out weeks in advance.

It was down to the resident irregulars -"The Illych People" to get things off the ground, and then regular resident Phil Chisnall competed with the bells from next door's campanologists' practice session, sometimes aided by Chris Wilcox on violin, a mixed set of his own work and covers, finishing with a nicely done version of the popular "Caledonia".

Next up - Sally Williamson - this time with an electric bass and percussionist who added an extra dimension to her sound. Five songs, mostly her own compositions, all delivered in Sally's very polished, clean style - her guitar playing is always very accomplished, and sometimes I find myself wanting Sally to go one stage further and whip up a bit of a lather. At one stage during a quiet song, the drummer John Lancashire gave a great heave of his shoulders, paused as if counting down, and I thought "here we go..." But no, he was just having a stretch and while the song built nicely with both the bass and later bongos, the sound stayed on the ground floor.

It's actually harder to write this kind of thing down about folk who you meet quite often (very often in Phil's case) and I trust that everybody takes it in the spirit it is meant - I'm just saying what I think - and you may get your chance to turn the tables one of these days...

Fourth in line was our local Urban Troubadour - John O'Connell - regular readers will have picked up that I like John a lot, and tonight he played a short but well defined set, Gordon Lightfoot, Cat Stevens and Janis Ian covers, his own "What a day..." and then he sat down and played an instrumental "One Time Swing" which had everybody craning their necks to get a glimpse of his technique as he rocked his way through the tune. "Moondance" concluded a set full of passion and confidence, in which he controlled the 'temperature' of the music to perfection. John has developed a fine crack in his voice too and he used it here to great effect over his rich guitar sound.

The John Dowling Bluegrass Band - John D, Russ Williams (bass) and Ian (accoustic guitar), played a laid back set with the ever modest John Dowling redefining the banjo standards with more than adequate support from his 2 friends. "Gypsy Jazz" highlighted Ian's accoustic guitar, and then, once they had agreed the key, "Red Headed Boy" and "Red Bull Boogie" followed. "Lady Madonna" gave each of them a chance to solo, and the audience was singing along, but there were problems with the sound that marred this set somewhat, and they finished on a bluegrass high with "How Mountain Girls Can Love" before John O'Connell returned to duel with John Dowling in the now standard "dueling Banjos".

And so to the top of the bill - Cream of the Barley - eagerly anticipated by those who caught them at this event last year - and by those who heard what they had missed, the place was crackling when Shay brought them on - now most of the bands I've heard who play this style of Irish music work up to a frenzy and play out with "Irish Rover" - The Cream of the Barley STARTED with this song and took us up from frenzy to whatever's next! There was uproar for "The Leaving of Liverpool" and "Maggie May", there was "Ride On", Shay got invited up to sing along on "Whisky in the Jar" to great applause. When they started to play "The Boxer" in the wrong key, there was a quip - "He wasn't that poor- start again" and off they went, playing the most unsubtle version of this song your likely to hear - it felt like a Sherman tank being used to crush a grape - later the banjo broke a string and the rest of them just carried on while he went off to change it, until he came back - whereupon they hurled abuse at him!

A slight rest while they calmed down for a moment playing "Carrickfergus", and then it was back to uproar for "Nancy Riley", with the sweat pouring off the players, the floor bouncing and some rarely spotted smiles from some of the regulars!! And through all this, Keith the fiddle player stood and smiled his contented smile and played away as if this was all just normal....

They closed with "Holy Ground" and an instrumental I didn't write down the name of, but by now there was dancing too and Peter, the landlord of the Bridge Inn came and finished things off with "Danny Boy"

Wow - I'm worn out re-living this as I type it out - it was another cracker of a night - well done John Coleman and everyone for sorting it out - and it was only Wednesday - half way through the Festival...... That's six acts by the way - not bad at all for under a fiver!

Bromborough Folk Club meet every Wednesday evening at the Bridge Inn, Port Sunlight, Wirral - all are welcome.

Last Night's Fun - Lymm Folk Club - 2/7/2006

Ably but perhaps un-necessarily supported by Bernard Cromarty, Last Night's Fun played 2 short sets in a room which, despite Stuart's emergency air-conditioning, was so hot and airless that one rather wished that the gig had been held in the car park! Bernard Cromarty is one of Lymm's stalwarts and he managed to prove his billing as a multi-instrumentalist by playing a different instrument for nearly every piece - starting with "Dark Island" which he had talked up for us before hand because it showed off the full range of his piano accordion. Sure enough it built from a few quiet notes to a fearsome roar before dying down again, and the last note was beautifully controlled. Bernard went on to cover "Put up a parking lot", and Cyril Tawney's "Sally, free and easy" amongst others, his voice adding it's own particular colour to the performance.

I mentioned earlier that the support was probably unnecessary, and certainly, without taking anything from Bernard, who has his own night later in the week during the Lymm Festival, we could have done with allowing as much time as possible for Last Night's Fun, a band who, as we were soon to find out, need a lot of time to tune and regroup - and a tell a few jokes, and ask a few questions, and pass the time of day, and all of this between each song or tune. Indeed, when Mal was suggesting we made the trip to this gig, I was a bit worried that the "banter" might be a mask for some otherwise dodgy performing. A listen to their album "Dubh" seemed to dispel this thought though, and whilst I have opened my notes with the words "much fun", I would soon be listening to a collective of musicians who have overcome their geographical differences to gel into a marvelous performance unit.

The three piece band have a way of playing that is conventionally built around the rhythm section, but convention ends there because the rhythm section is Chris Sherburn's left leg and Denny Bartley's guitar, with verbal instructions being issued in short bursts by Chris Sherburn which might have been intrusive but for his sensitivity to the mood. Gilly even whispered to me that she thought the way he controlled the music, urging it on, and sometimes emitted soft sighs, was quite sensual. My less feminine thoughts were more of listening to the Red Arrows commander Red 1 giving his split-second cues - "round again - GO!" Denny Bartley, the other half of this section, plays his guitar in so many different ways it's hard to single anything out - certainly his bass strings are used to great effect at certain times, whilst at others he'll be tapping gently on the body to simulate a bodrhan, and then he'll strum hard and fast and then he'll be sounding like Juan Martin for a minute - and that's just the rhythm section folks....

They opened with a tune: "Downham Market?" which was great, then Denny opened his mouth and sang Ewan McColl's "Move Along" and it felt like a storm blowing in across the room - Denny is slight but his voice is something else all together, it's a powerful force with a major emotional crack in it that is not at all sentimental, but sounds like its been hard won from a difficult seam.

So you will appreciate already that this was a good night and I was really "digging" this band. I havn't even mentioned Chris' concertina either. Denny's voice is put to great effect in "Next Market Day", which starts with just his guitar, then Chris adds some very subtle concertina sounds in the background which turn sublime at the end, and then they change gear again, directed by one of Chris' soft commands, Nick Scott powers up his nuclear pipes and Denny starts hammering away at his strings, capo on somewhere around the seventh fret, fingers down around the twelth and strumming it for all he is worth.

The final song of the first half, "The Roseville Fair" sounded to me like a Bruce Spingsteen lyric:

"You were dressed in blue, and you looked so lovely

Just a gentle flower of a small-town girl

You took my hand, and we stepped to the music

With a single smile, you became my world." from "The Roseville Fair" - Bill Staines

Brilliant.


For the second half we decided to stand up - we were sat at the back anyway, so it wouldn't harm, and the better view seemed to improve the sound too! We got "Sammy's Bar", another of Cyril Tawney's songs, then a self penned tune "Doxford Hall" in which we witnessed the band's total immersion in what they are playing - often all 3 have their eye's closed as they play, and certainly the effort they put into their playing is tangible in the sound they produce.

One piece of deft work saw Denny whip his capo off the frets mid tune, place it on the end of the neck and carry on playing without it affecting the flow at all - you wonder how often it ends up on the floor, but I suspect it's one of those things that you can just do after a while when you can play so intently.

The last song - yes they only managed to fit 3 in - was "The Autumn Child", but before this Chris continued to rib Nick and his pipes in his dry, cutting way, ending with an almost whispered, "Play that funky music pipe boy!" This humour is a staple part of the LNF act, it's all well meant and seems to be accepted without any rancour from Nick, who seems to take the butt of most of it. Chris certainly has the quick wit and keen eye that you need to produce the kind of hilarious off-the-cuff quips he deals out, and his long drawn out tale of eating an Opal Fruit was funny enough, before he delivered the coup-de-gras and said that this story was included because they had received a complaint that they didn't give out enough detail between songs!

The all too short set was completed with 2 encores - "30 foot trailer" and a tune called "Akward" I think - "more?" said Chris - "you can tell they've paid ten quid to get in!"

Did I mention Nick's pipes? Well, apart from being the target for much lighthearted abuse from Chris, they are a wonder to behold. Just sat on the floor you would swear that somebody had left a heap of old recorders and bits of trombone laying around. Closer examination would allow you to suspect that a fishing rod might have been included, and that maybe a snake charmer had left his pipe there too. In Nick's hands (and elbows too) though, they turn into a thing of great beauty, the drones working with the chanter, the sound erie and yet melodious. I'm told these things are hard enough to play in tune, never mind play well and in tune. Nick manages to play VERY well and in tune and, despite the fun, he is an equal talent in this rich lineup.

Just one final illustration, the tune "The Autumn Child" starts with a complex and exciting section featuring Nick on the pipes, it drew a round of applause much like a jazz solo, which almost drowned out the silky smooth transition from pipes to concertina - a real highlight for me in a night that felt like one long highlight, and a performance that left Gilly overcome with emotion, so intense was the experience.

There are a some acts that we enjoy, others that we look out for playing locally, and some that we feel we would travel a long way to see again. Last night's fun are very firmly in the latter category and I hope it won't be too long either.


- Addendum - I don't normally do this, but today we listened to "Tempered" - the most recent studio album from the boys and we was robbed not hearing them play this! - "Whiskey in the Jar" on the CD is such a fine rendition - far and away removed from the hurtling fevered version put out by Thin Lizzie, this is a sensative and moving ballad that would have been fantastic to hear live - catch them if you can, and insist that they sing this song when you do!

AFRICA OYE! 2006 - Sefton Park Liverpool - 17-8/6/2006

Hurrah for Africa Oye! You know that summer is due when the brochure appears, usually about a week before the event! This year ours arrived in the post, and their website had been up to date for some time, so things seemed to be looking up! The Saturday dawned sunny and warm and we all packed up our picnics and suntan lotions and went in convoy to Sefton Park - even managing to get a good parking speck this time. Walking across what is known locally as the "old farmers field" towards the stage, it was apparent that there were even more stalls, food shops and so on than last year, although the BBC were noticeably absent. A new feature for this year was the camera crew from the Africa Channel - filming the whole event for the tv channel.

The line up for this year was as eclectic as ever - and just over one hour later than scheduled, Cabruera kicked off for Brazil (and that's the closest I'll be getting to mentioning the football World Cup!) Poor Cabruera had to put with a most dreadfully unready sound system for most of their set, but despite this they managed to attract a good size standing crowd - always a good measure at Oye! - with their mix of Brazilian percussion, folk and rock. The lead singer, Arthur Pessoa often played his heavily fx'd acoustic guitar by rubbing the strings with a ballpoint pen - producing something of a trademark sound, a little reminiscent of The Cure perhaps, at other times they reminded me of early Rush! Once the sound was sorted out they sounded great, always very rhythmic and often very rocky, but sometimes very traditional too. The finale saw all 4 group members hammering away on the bank of percussion. Good stuff.

Actually I will just briefly touch on football again for a minute because it was really noticeable that many of the crowd were wearing football shirts - but from all over the world, making for another colourful aspect of the crowd, which is always a great mix, with a good showing of African style dress as well as the usual festival wear!

Even Floppy made an effort, ditching his usual hoody in favour of this designer Africa Look shirt!

Another positive change this year was the huge increase in the number of bikes - Sefton Park has long been one of the centres of Liverpool's cycling routes, but there were bikes everywhere this year - fab!

Mozambique is the home of Eyuphuro - an eight piece band featuring a very laid back African style electric guitar player and a mass of percussion, with a female lead vocalist. The whole act was very clean and polished and had everybody doing lazy dancing in the hot sun - very pleasant indeed.

Nuru Kane came from all over the place - Medina, France and Mali amongst others, and they got a big crowd dancing to their Tinariwen like tunes (desert rock are we calling it nowadays?). Nuru Kane has more traditional instrumentation than Tinariwen's electric line up and they sported some really colourful costumes and draped the equipment with throws and flags from their various homes. Then Bonga (Angola) kept the dancing going through the scorching heat of the afternoon with accordion tunes played over traditional African guitar rhythm's.

After this, a large crowd gathered - in fact it was by our reckoning one of the biggest crowds we've seen at Africa Oye! 40,000 according to the website - that must be over 2 days surely? - in anticipation of the arrival of Luciano and friends. It was well worth the wait - starting with a short showcase by ace saxophonist Dean Fraser which was sooooooooooo good, followed by Andrew Tosh, son of the late great Peter and following very much in his shoes. Great classic style reggae with real heart. And then, Luciano - in his mock military general uniform (why?) and superstar antics played us out - I've written down "no notes, just lots of great stuff" which is what Africa Oye! is all about - great music from all over the world, great weather, friends and a peaceful, happy time in the field, having a dance or a chill or a veggie special from Quinney's.

Day 2 dawned dull and cooler - we're getting used to this pattern of weather and we went prepared for anything - what we got was Cabruera (again) sounding better today, louder and clearer, though being first up they still suffered for a while from a hollow sound quality. These relatively young lads put on a good show, some chanting, some rapping, both over quite a rocky backing, with more ben/guitar antics as previous. By now it was raining (it's day 2 so it must be!) and they played a suitable song "The Rain it Falls" before ending with raucous Brazilian folk songs, just vocals over percussion.

Afel Bocoum from Mali played next - an older looking group than most of Oye's usual fare, but no less good for that, more colourful costumes and a fine line in hats, the 6 piece band consisted of 1 percussive gourd, 3 guitars and 2 traditional string instruments - one of these sounded like a scratchy violin at first, and is in fact bowed with a tiny little bow, but the sound was great Mali desert rock, layered, hypnotic and well suited to yesterday's weather, by the end it was raining quite hard.

Nothing daunted, Omar Pene and band from Senegal soothed us with his soulful voice and some lovely subtle guitar backing. Two percussionists provided a powerhouse behind this music, one of which looked very much to me like Amadou & Miriam's djembe player who we have seen several times this year already and have been very impressed with his style and energy. Omar himself joined in with a tambourine - and a word here too for Omar's very impressive pink getup. One standout song - "Saturday" during which things got really heavy for a while.

Yet more rain followed and the festival was drawn to a close by "Reggaeman Supreme" Tiken Jah Fakoly from Ivory Close - a great set, characterised by a very laid back bass player providing the backbone and a mysterious lead guitar man (dark shades) who seemed to switch from effortless looking playing to mad, frenzied, exciting, leaping playing, and back again at the flick of a switch. While the set wasn't as exciting as the previous day's closer, it was a good'un and there was a good crowd right to the end - at which point the sun came out for a few minutes. Ah well.....

Another great festival from Paul and the team - really they all deserve some major praise for organising this thing year in year out and to an ever higher standard. Africa Oye! 2007 is going to be even better, and goodness only knows what they'll do for 2008 - Liverpool - European Capital of Culture.

Calico Jack's Annual Music Festival 23-5/6/2006

Calico Jack's is a small jewel in the festival calendar, held somewhere in the rural nether lands of Northwich in Cheshire, it's a nice mix of bluegrass and country music, there's no stalls, one chippie van, real flushing toilets and it's all for charity.

This year the British Heart Foundation will benefit from the takings and the various raffles and auctions that went on during the weekend, which kicked off on Friday night with a line dancing extragavaganza. We didn't arrive until the Saturday afternoon, but thank goodness we did, because we were just in time to catch duo Breeze and Wilson who played a great acoustic set of country and blues, finishing with "our most cheerful song" which was "Papa loves Mama" - in which betrayed trucker husband murders wife and lover by driving his rig into the motel..... A nice touch was the introduction of Toby Wilson's young son for one number, following a Wilson family tradition - long may they run!

Gary and Vera Aspey followed - a husband and wife duo who have been part of the Calico Jack family for years. The act was largely singalongs and lavatorial humour, and featured one particularly fine song "Fat Slag Alice" - a real treat of a take on mining songs.

Scott D Thompson played a nervous solo set that got better as he went along - nervous because he was recording the set to use on a live CD, but he has a powerful voice and made a good fist of the U2 hit "With or without you" amongst his own stuff, which was good enough, but perhaps not my taste. The standard "Summertime" was a highlight, as was his encore Pink Floyd's "Comortably Numb".

Then we got to the "main event" of the evening - Baker's Fabulous Boys in top form - lots of dancing, great music - Russ Williams on vocals on Mandolin - in open neck shirt and taupe suit destroyed his voice while brother Stewart kept things sane on guitar, Lorraine danced about playing her bass and singing, and new recruit (not sure whether this is a permanent arrangement or not) John Dowling joined in with the banjo. The band seem to love playing, they are always full on and tonight was no exception. John Dowling's presence gave them a new dimension and this revealed itself in a fun version of the evergreen (that's code for rapidly becoming the banjo equivalent of "Smoke on the Water", shortly to be banned in all music shops...) "Duelin' Banjos" - fun because the audience became the second banjo, singing in response to John's part (air-banjo's much in evidence) - it went down rather well, as did the rest of the set which included "Caroline" (yes the Quo one), "Ace of Spades" and the grand finale - which may or may not be "Good Morning Captain" - I'm not sure because Russ doesn't so much sing it as try to extract his voice box using sound - I'll try and find out anyway - if you've seen them, you'll know - maybe you can tell me? (Now think it may be Bowie's "Good Morning Girl") - If you havn't seen them - try and find them, it's well worth it.

John Dowling also managed to squeeze in a couple of notes of "Duelin' Banjos) into one of the other tunes which a few us managed to respond to - another tradition starting?

After that we sat down again and festival organiser Ken's band Calico Jack saw the night out with their own mix of country and blue grass, the chill out session!

Sunday was even more laid back as folk drifted home - the weather got damper, the music carried on - it's a lovely little festival and a lot of money was raised - and as the old saying goes "A good time was had by all"

It's a Van Thing

Here's yet another blog for me to keep up to date - its all about VW's, especially our Harry. It's a Van Thing

I've put it together because I've found it really dificult to find certain detailled information, and this is the easiest way to deploy it - and I enjoy doing it to!

As we say on eBay - "Thanks for looking!"

The Family Mahone - Birkenhead Pacific Road Arts Centre - 9/6/2006

Birkenhead Rooooaaaaad! Birkenhead Roooo-oooo-aaaad! The instant adaption of Steve Earle's grinding "Copperhead Road" into the local version introduced us to the live phenomenon that is The Family Mahone. Being more than familiar with Mark Radcliffe's DJ work with BBC Radio 1, and more latterly, Radio 2, we were quite intrigued to see how he would be "in the flesh" as it were.

The live version was actually rather closer to his radio show than I'd expected - obviously the music was live, loud and, often, wild, but the links were just Mark's usual line of off the cuff repartee - and that's fine by me. The band (there are 6 of them) played a mixture of well known (if mildly adapted) standards, and their home grown stuff which was a little bit weaker, but by no means bad! The music is delivered in a full-on manner and with a huge helping of fun - this is not a band that can be accused of taking itself too seriously - with Mark taking the centre front position standing by his sparse but sufficient drum kit, flanked by Christy and Donal on various guitars, mandolins and banjos (they even had 2 banjos going at once at one point!), with Rusty playing seriously energetic accordion on the far end. Bassist Charlie and banjo/fiddle man Doc make up the back row.

Just about every song was described as another "drinking song!" and many of the band's mike-stands were customised to hold a pint glass, so you get the gist! There was a dance floor in front of the stage that was in danger of becoming a dusty desert until Gilly & Ann took to the floor, then Ann & Jim had a go (and got respect from DJ Mahone for dancing to the most complex song they do) and then we were all up and poor Gilly put herself back a week or two with her hip as we flung ourselves around the floor, joined by Christy Mahone with his mandolin for much of it too! In the end we settled for Gilly standing still while I danced around her, and a few other people managed to get up and dance - the music was wild and mostly now Shane McGowan penned, ending with "The Raggle Taggle Gypsy" and encoring with"Meet me on the Encore, sorry Corner" - it was an all too short set, they were after all in support of the "main event" a caleidh with Arthur Marshall and the Lifeboat Band (plus various Mahones).

This highlights one of my concerns about some of the lineups in this year's festival, with some rather unusual pairings and some really good acts being put on for too early in the running - but otherwise it was a terrific blast and if wasn't already sold out, we might be heading for the Middlewich gig at the weekend....

Afterwards we enjoyed a late session at Rinty Moneghan's with Alison Parker and the Third Man in charge (though I seem to recall the Third Man was absent...!)

Kate Rusby - New Brighton Floral pavilion - 10/6/2006

About 800 people crammed into New Brighton's misnamed theatre in the sticky heat of the evening on one of the hottest days of the year so far - and they closed all the doors and cooked us even more. Consequently there was no atmosphere and a lot of very hot people when Elbow Jane - tonight's support - appeared un-announced onto the stage. I'm doing all this negative stuff now because its mostly down to the venue - tatty, hot, airless and I guess only used because its got the most seats in Wirral? The fact that there was no compere was an opportunity missed - in fact the rather staid recorded message about not taking photographs made this even worse - 800 people and no good word for the local folk scene?

Enough. Elbow Jane - our third chance to see them this year - and the last chance to see them for a while because they are all going to be otherwise engaged for a few months over the summer. Now with the superstar-in-waiting Joe Topping fully integrated into the band, Elbow Jane grasped their chance to impress a new audience with all their energy and produced a short but accomplished set, opening with "Shape of my Heart", sung by Joe Topping with aplomb, and moved on to their own compositions: "Ecclesiasties" and "Soul Survivor". Then we were delighted to have Joe Wright come on to play a few fiddle tunes with the band, and then take up his mandolin for the grand finale - "Lean on Me". Elbow Jane have a wealth of talent and if they continue to explore the possibilities offered by making use not only of Joe Topping's undoubted skills, but also those of Joe Wright, we might have a folk-rock powerhouse in the making - I personally hope so. Short and sweet then the support, then an unexplained gap while they changed the stage over before some new people came on - oh, no, its not the roadies - that must be Kate Rusby then....

Four dull men and Kate Rusby in a bright pink dress - not that the band was dull to listen to, its just that they were all in black and/or grey, so Kate stuck out really well. The audience obviously contained a lot of existing fans, and Kate was soon into her well developed style of banter between songs, encouraged by the laughter and friendly heckling that came her way. This has, apparently developed over time as she used to be so shy on stage that she could hardly announce the songs, and to be honest it felt a little forced at times and I've heard a few people say that they find it a bit tiresome. It might even be argued that this persona is doing her a bit of dis-service and that there is a much stronger "real" Kate Rusby hiding away behind it - then again, it seems that lots of people like it and she certainly made us smile a few times!

Musically (at last!) the experience was quite good - the band are really good - John McCusker (Kate's husband) played fiddle, guitar and Bazooki, Andy Cutting on diatonic accordions, Andy Seward on upright bass and Ian Carr on additional guitars - an interesting total lack of percussion note - although John McCusker managed to find a good sounding board to stamp his right foot on! I was particularly pleased to be able to hear Andy Seward's bass clearly separated from the other instruments - full marks to the sound engineer - and he was well worth listening to. And what did they play? Quite a selection of songs and even a few tunes - highlights for me being Richard Thompson's "Withered and Died", "Fare thee Well" which had a lovely rich bass, and John Mc on a low whistle and "Young Jones" which featured a rather exciting rhythm. Kate has a lovely voice and whilst she only sang two songs I'd heard before - "You Belong to Me" and "Canaan's Land", it was quite a pleasant experience. I have to say that there were a couple of occasions when the band got a bit louder and Kate struggled a bit to match the increase, and I think this is what leads to the accusations that all the songs sound the same - I don't think this is strictly true but it does maybe limit the repetoire a little.

By the time the concert drew to an end I was struggling a bit due to the heat and lack of air which may have clouded my views slightly, but I was impressed by the way they coped with Ian Carr's broken string - turning it into a comedy routine. The vaguely soporific feeling was re-inforced by choosing "Canaan's Land" as a closer, because it fades out rather than reaching a climatic ending to the night, then Kate gave a solo rendition of "Underneath the Stars" as an encore.

I don't want to give the impression that I didn't enjoy this concert, because I did, but the venue didn't help and I'll think twice before going back there in the summer.

So we had a bit of a chat and browsed the stall, then set of en masse for Fort Perch Rock - banged on the door and shouted a bit, only to find a rather bemused resident wondering what this gaggle of folkies wanted so late at night - turns out we had the wrong venue and had to set off back inland to a pub of the same name! Sorry folks. Anyway, the pub was packed and hot, so we set up a fringe meeting outside and had a cracking time - thanks to all for a great session!

Wirral Folk on the Coast - Vale Park - 11/6/2006

A really pleasant Sunday afternoon spent in the sun, listening to live music in the company of many friends.

That would probably do to describe this afternoon's event, but we should make mention of the various artists who took part - we missed Tansky (sorry lads) , but we arrived just in time to hear most of Garva's set, which was a mixed blessing because it meant that being early on, the set would be short, and to my mind (and many others I spoke to), Garva should have had the last and longer slot - it was certainly perfect music for the event, local musicians playing all manner of music, notably their well know version of Ray Davis' "Waterloo Sunset" - with Tony Gibbons (vocals, cittern), Terry Coyne (vocals, flute, whistles, fiddle) and Lesley McGough( keyboard and vocals) and two special guest who's names I didn't right down, but I'll ask Shay later in the week and add them in then! It all ended far too soon, we were still tucking into our picnic lunch!

Next up were Vocal Point - a new band featuring John and Angie Owen, John's sister Sue Farley, and Patricia Ward - as their name suggests, Vocal Point make good use of the 3 voices available to them, with just a small amount of acoustic guitar and occasional percussion from Angie when required. I have always liked John's voice and the group have a good harmonic sound, and how good it is to have the a group where the male sex is for once in the minority. They got an enthusiastic response, and certainly their opener - an African sounding song, delivered a'capella, was really good, and each of the 3 singing members was given a solo spot. Perhaps this venue was a little too wide open for this sound though, certainly we've heard them in more intimate settings sounding great, and the delicate harmonies really do deserve to be heard, but the songs where well chosen and well done. One final observation - they all stood about 6 or more feet apart on the stage - surely a group like this need to be closer together?!

The event was headed up by "The Neil Spiers Band" - a new name to me - even when he explained it wasn't his real name I still hadn't heard of him! "Neil" is a talented multi-instrumentalist who managed to play at least 4 instruments in his set - guitar, banjo, low whistle, and clarinet and he was backed by a further guitarist, bass and keyboards, with Lisa featuring on lead vocals for many of the songs. The band was rather new, in fact they claimed to have only played all together once, yesterday, so there was more than a hint of the act being something new and not yet having found its real identity, and some of the (very) newly written lyrics felt a little repetitive - however there were some really strong points too - an instrumental "Made to Measure" for instance, Lisa's solo "When You Hear a Baby Cry" - a complex and unaccompanied veganic lyric delivered well if still a little raw. Another good song, "Pit Brown Lassie" had a really traditional feel to it, and I enjoyed that, but overall the set lost my attention several times, and there were a lot of people heading home before it finished. As I said earlier, it could have been better if Garva had filled this spot, and let Neil Spiers have a more concise set earlier on, but lets not go on about it, it was a lovely afternoon, and the venue is perfect when the weather co-operates.

Thanks to the organisers and especially to Richie Woods and everyone who did a great job on the sound - a huge improvement on last year and it really made a difference.