Friday night we settled for whatever the main stage had to offer, namely The Badgers, The Witches of Elswick and then Derrin Nauendorf. Lets stop there - I don't think we saw The Badgers, the Witches were not memorable, but Derrin Nauendorf was the first of several acts that Bridgnorth put on and completely blew us away with the quality and intensity of their music. Derrin hails from Australia and he has developed a guitar technique that requires two pickups - one for the strings and one for the body/neck - and which, according to the program, takes the instrument to the very edge of the possible. Using the body precusively and the strings playing through what I assume are an assortment of effects boxes, Derrin produces a noise that is almost primeval - similar to a didgeridoo, but electronic, and involving a rather risky looking warping of the guitar neck. That woke up our listening appetite and we were ready for more...
I should add that all of this is being written without recourse to any notes, because I didn't make any, so if I remember things now, several months on, they have really stuck!
So bring on Bellowhead and round of the first night - Bellowhead are a much-hyped (by folk standards) big band, led by the energetic Spiers & Boden and featuring far too many other people. I was hoping for great things, but the we only got grey sound - there is just far, far too much going on with so many people playing, seemingly, several different styles at once, and the traditional English folk songs loose out to the cacophony coming from behind. Never mind, it wasn't bad, just not as good as I'd hoped, and as Mal has said, it is helping get some younger people involved.
So a mixed bag for the first day, but our heads were full of the possibilities that must exist - just think that somebody as good and as different as Derrin Nauendorf can almost pass you by, and reflect on how much other excellent music there must be "out there", just waiting to be found.
Day 2, Saturday and the enormity that is Bridgnorth is beginning to dawn on us. There is soooo much to choose from, and a lot of it is scattered across the town, never mind the site. We settled for trying to get to see The Wilsons - a famous North Eastern family unit who were singing in the "Bell and Talbot" - we were a little late and ende dup cramming into the semi-tropical conservatory at the back were we heard some of the act, but not much. We fared better with Joe Stead back in the school (the main site) where we perched on a table and enjoyed an illustrated voyage of song using sea shanties from Liverpool's sailing fleet of the 1860's: "Valparaiso Around the Horn" It was a lovely hot day and the room was hot and stuffy, but we were treated to an authoritive and sometimes moving account of life under sail, interspersed with songs from Joe's 2 companions. One of the highlights of this was the incredible story and song relating the loss of the Penlee Lifeboat near Lamorna Cove in Cornwall, a place we know and love, and hardly seems able to cause such sorrow.
The evening had only one decision - Eric Bibb or the Folk Train? Eric Bibb - no competition really - though we've seen Eric several times this year even, he is such a consumate performer that we decided to get in early and we queued for front row seats, bagging the very middle and settling down for a full programme.
Starting up tonight Imbongi -with Albert Nyathi - once seen, never forgotten, Imbongi are a Zimbabwean song and dance troupe, with expert assistance from their South African lead guitarist, their act laced with Zulu stories, dances and folksongs. I'm sure we've seen them before - probably at Africa Oye! and we did just what they ask of their audiences - just have fun.
From I
mbongi's fun, fun, fun to one of the most moving occasions I've witnessed on stage - "The Old Rope String Band" paying tribute to their much missed Joe Scurfield. Surviving members Tim & Peter were joined by Joe's long term partner in music and life, Rianne from Holland, in a sometimes funny, sometimes heart wrenching celebration of a man they all clearly loved and missed in their own different ways. Most of the audience were familiar with the Band and it was very touching that there were so many present to honour Joe's memory. The highlight of the thing for Gill and I was the way that Pete and Tim retired to the back of the stage when "not in this bit" and picked up their knitting (to greater or lesser degrees of success!) - a common thread in our lives too. Joe is very much missed and it is doubly sad that such a bright star was extinguished by one thoughtless act.Kieran Halpin kept his date with Bridgenorth despite the very recent birth of a son and was well received, but the memory has faded somewhat in amongst all this high emotion! I will definately look out for him in the future.
And so to t
he moment we had been waiting for - The Eric Bibb Band. Eric Bibb is one cool performer - he stands there with his trademark hat, baggies and a cool shirt, slings any one of several guitars over his head, never knocking his hat off in the process, and plays the blues in his own passionate way. We've seen Eric several times, but this was the first time I've seen him with a regular band and it was very effective indeed, featuring all our favourites -"For You", "In My Father's House","Right On Time". Particularly noteworthy was Eric's drummer who was gentle yet firm where it mattered! I have to confess that I can't seem to find any mention of the band out on the web, but if I do manage to find any, they will get the credit here! Gill was particularly delighted when Eric stood in front of us on the edge of the stage and looked down to see Gill clapping away to the beat: "I hear you clapping sister!" her said with a smile - but nothing like the one that was on Gill's face for the rest of the night!!! Eric feeds on audience reaction and he was certainly getting it at Bridgnorth, and we were rewarded with yet another magnificent performance . Later we managed to shake his hand through the fence before he rushed off.Day 3, Sunday - We managed to miss most of our friends Brass Tacks playing in the Shakespeare Skittle Alley, and found it all a bit too cramped to stay for The Wilsons, so we set off for the High Street where a stage had been set up for some free gigs and witnessed another high energy set from Imbongi, and some of the Dhol Blasters who are an up and coming band of young people playing Asian precussion.
The rest of the afternoon was spent chewing finger nails while we listened to the climax of one of the Ashes Test's, England scraping victory at the close, much to the delight of the small crowd of fans that had gathered around our radio!
We started the evening with Cloudstreet - a rather sacherin (for me) duo from Australia, but followed by Kristina Olsen - a women like no other that stood there in her fantastic red shoes and blew us away with her songs, made us howl at her tales and brought us down again with her mellow "Darkened Rooms"- a major gem amongst a veritable collection of jewels. At the end, we bumbled out and bought one of Kristina's CD's and gained an unexpected but delightful personal message from our new favourite. I have since heard Bob Harris singing Kristina's praises too, and she deserves to be better known.
Across the site then to the main marquee and to one of the defining moments of the festival - arriving several songs into Gjallarhorn's set, we met a tide of folk leaving the marquee, a mixed blessing as it meant we could get right up to the front, and settled down to be enchanted by the most beguiling sound I have heard all year. Gjallarhorn are a Swedish/Finnish outfit consisting of 4 members playing music inpired by traditional Scandanavian music, but given a rather unique twist. Led by diminutive Jenny Wilhelms, whose voice seems to be far bigger than the vessel it appears to eminate from, the band relies heavily on Viola and Hardanger fiddles played by Jenny and Adrian Jones, backed by P
etter Berndalen, percussion and this relatively ordinary lineup is twisted, supplemented and generally stranged-up by Göran Månsson playing what looks like a piece of 3x3 wood, but is in fact an extremely complex wind instrument with built in electronics, known as a sub contrabass recorder! The effect is stunning - we sat transfixed and soaked in this fantastic stuff, wondering at the vocal accrobatics that Jenny performs and delighting in the rythmn and drive. The traditional base is blended with Eastern and Western sounds, rythmns and scales, mixed with "Throat music" and, well you can tell how much we enjoyed it! Amazingly, the place was only one third full at the end, which was a real shame, we really couldn't understand why such good music was rejected by so many - all it needed was an open mind - no matter - we enjoyed it and hope to see much much more of them in the future.Not listed in any programmes were the late night sessions around (in our case) candle-arberas - or camp fires - where folk played music as they always have done - in groups of friends, passing on new songs, remembering old ones and generally chilling out. So it was that we enjoyed 2 or 3 nights of these gatherings, and I was pleased to see that people wandering around the site came and sat in with us , then came back the following night. A great tradition.
Day 4, Monday - The weekend rounded off with an afternoon concert in the Marquee which included a further set from Kristina Olsen, different, but just as good, and as previously, using the duo Cloudstreet to bolster the sound on some songs.The very late news that Shooglenifty could not attend due to one of the members being stranded in Scandanavia led to an extended set by The Doonans whose mix of Irish jigs and polkas is intersperced with humour, including a pair panto style dames taking on the roles of Irish Dance tutors, and a further appearance from Kristina Olsen (hurrah!).
We finished our weekend sat in the sun with Katie and Graham, listening to steam trains in the nearby station and reflecting on an excelent weekend of music - next year the festival moves to Shrewsbury, a move I for one am not entirely happy with having just enjoyed such a fine time in one of my favourite English towns. Special mention to the Cinnamon Coffee and Meeting House whose terrace looks out over the river, and where we met several really nice people - the food is good too!
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