I have been a little remiss lately with blog postings. This is mainly because I wanted to use this blog as a journal of my adventures here in Bristol and the number of adventures seems to have lessened slightly over the past couple of weeks. But fear not readers I am still alive, if not kicking and I am still functioning on the basic level of human ability.
My most recent adventure was bar work at WOMAD festival. I had no idea festivals had become such grown-up, middle class ventures. To be fair the festival is currently situated in the grounds of Charlton Park in Wiltshire (though sources tell me this will change next year- thoughts?) so I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of organic cafés run not by hopped but by farmer's wife matrons, purveyors of Gloucester Old Spot sausage sandwiches, pigs so thoughroughly pleased with their good breeding and care they happily signed their own death warrant in the foyer of the organic abattoir simultaneously agreeing to a press release fronted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall demonstrating their humane demise and subsequent deliciousness. I had one. It was alright.
As I was behind a bar for 30 of the 60 festival hours I didn't catch a great deal of music but there was a tremendous highlight on Thursday: The Bays and the Heritage Orchestra with Simon Hale and John Metcalfe. Yes it sounds nerdy but trust me on this. If the Bays come to your town/city/festival venue then you must see them and I will tell you why. These guys do not make recordings; they do not write songs. In a word where downloads are free and production levels often outweigh music quality The Bays are the embracing the live performance, making a niche of the you-had-to-be-there aspect of a real gig with real musicians. With a drummer, bassist, and two DJs they turn a gig into a full length set without any prior discussion. Add to that the Heritage Orchestra, a genius conductor and two composers (Hale and Metcalfe) writing music as they go, sending it straight to the ereader/music stands of the orchestra and throwing in film footage while they're at it and you've got a fontal lobe-meltingly wonderful 90 minutes. I have not seen this much talent showed off this skillfully in my short life. It's nearly two weeks since I saw them at the Big Red Tent out of curiosity, only now do I even know the name of the band but the music has stayed with me and image is indelible. The shining star of the set for me was conductor Jules Buckley at the core of this performance, taking newly written music, assigning parts and sending them to the orchestra members instantly and unthinkably conducting two DJs and a band.
This is young music talent at its best and, to my mind, exactly what contemporary music should be doing. The decline of interest in so-called classical music has nothing to do with the music or musicians: the listeners are at fault. They want their music safe, tame, believeing that somehow Beethoven would be horrified by Pink Floyd or that Mozart would loathe modern DJ equipment. This is simply not true, music has always embraced new technology and techniques. The Heritage Orchestra looked like they were having the time of their lives, relishing the chance to show an iTunes-hardened crowd just how clever classically trained musicians are. The crowd went through all manner of confusion, amusement, frustration and joy and even the most English among them (me) was jumping up and down like a maniac after 20 minutes of sheer musical excitement and did not stop till the end.
Don't look them up on YouTube, you won't get half the feel or experience of them live. Just go see them, and keep an eye out for Jules Buckely; if he's not a big name in music by 2020 I'll buy a straw hat and eat it. Live.
My most recent adventure was bar work at WOMAD festival. I had no idea festivals had become such grown-up, middle class ventures. To be fair the festival is currently situated in the grounds of Charlton Park in Wiltshire (though sources tell me this will change next year- thoughts?) so I shouldn't have been surprised at the number of organic cafés run not by hopped but by farmer's wife matrons, purveyors of Gloucester Old Spot sausage sandwiches, pigs so thoughroughly pleased with their good breeding and care they happily signed their own death warrant in the foyer of the organic abattoir simultaneously agreeing to a press release fronted by Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall demonstrating their humane demise and subsequent deliciousness. I had one. It was alright.
As I was behind a bar for 30 of the 60 festival hours I didn't catch a great deal of music but there was a tremendous highlight on Thursday: The Bays and the Heritage Orchestra with Simon Hale and John Metcalfe. Yes it sounds nerdy but trust me on this. If the Bays come to your town/city/festival venue then you must see them and I will tell you why. These guys do not make recordings; they do not write songs. In a word where downloads are free and production levels often outweigh music quality The Bays are the embracing the live performance, making a niche of the you-had-to-be-there aspect of a real gig with real musicians. With a drummer, bassist, and two DJs they turn a gig into a full length set without any prior discussion. Add to that the Heritage Orchestra, a genius conductor and two composers (Hale and Metcalfe) writing music as they go, sending it straight to the ereader/music stands of the orchestra and throwing in film footage while they're at it and you've got a fontal lobe-meltingly wonderful 90 minutes. I have not seen this much talent showed off this skillfully in my short life. It's nearly two weeks since I saw them at the Big Red Tent out of curiosity, only now do I even know the name of the band but the music has stayed with me and image is indelible. The shining star of the set for me was conductor Jules Buckley at the core of this performance, taking newly written music, assigning parts and sending them to the orchestra members instantly and unthinkably conducting two DJs and a band.
This is young music talent at its best and, to my mind, exactly what contemporary music should be doing. The decline of interest in so-called classical music has nothing to do with the music or musicians: the listeners are at fault. They want their music safe, tame, believeing that somehow Beethoven would be horrified by Pink Floyd or that Mozart would loathe modern DJ equipment. This is simply not true, music has always embraced new technology and techniques. The Heritage Orchestra looked like they were having the time of their lives, relishing the chance to show an iTunes-hardened crowd just how clever classically trained musicians are. The crowd went through all manner of confusion, amusement, frustration and joy and even the most English among them (me) was jumping up and down like a maniac after 20 minutes of sheer musical excitement and did not stop till the end.
Don't look them up on YouTube, you won't get half the feel or experience of them live. Just go see them, and keep an eye out for Jules Buckely; if he's not a big name in music by 2020 I'll buy a straw hat and eat it. Live.
