We travelled the world (musically) at WOMAD this year at the start of our summer hols, heading down to Looe in Cornwall afterwards. There’d been so much sunshine in the weeks leading up to it that we didn’t even pack any wet weather gear…..a schoolboy error as rain and gale force winds hit on the Saturday night…. Thursday was blisteringly hot though and perfect for a Jamaican trip with some old school reggae….

….then a late night beer at Molly’s Bar….

Subduction

Thursday started with a 5ft long, one stringed bass thing from the Republic of Malawi, played with a drumstick and beer bottle – reminded me of the Ramones in it’s simplicity…

Gasper Nali

Next to Mongolia for a Pogues-like party band “This is drinking song. Let’s party!” – they even threw in a little throat singing……great fun

Hanggai

Next to Cuba to learn some salsa steps…

Then to Nairobi next for some top class African chiming guitar sounds – infectious stuff…

Orchestra Les Mangelepa

infectious dancing

Extraordinary singing from Syria…

Omar Souleyman

…and down to Sheffield for a funky dub dance…

K.O.G.& the Zongo Brigade

Traditional Irish music doesn’t come much better than when played by County Clare’s Sharon Shannon. Each of the musicians were outstanding with the fiddle player doing an amazing human beatbox section which brought the house down!

Sharon Shannon

Think Spanish guitars and you may think ‘Gipsy Kings’ (althogh they can’t call themselves that I’m guessing for legal reasons) – especially with 9 of them on stage – one of the legends!

The Original Gypsies of Camargue

Cuba next for a wild set that ended with (an invited) stage invasion that summed up the energy of this fabulous woman with family links to the Buena Vista Social Club

La Dame Blance

Fridays main stage finale brought us back to the UK with Leftfield performing their ‘Leftism’ album in full….and what a delight to the ears and eyes it was. Full of 50-something blokes (me included) jumping up and down like there was no tomorrow. No Johnny Lydon but the video made up for it – great stuff

Leftfield

Saturday started with a lecture on reverb in the D&B tent which had 30+ speakrs around the tent, each with it’s own reverb – the effect was crystal clear sound like the band were in the room.

Boffins explaining Reverb

They also showed this vid which looked and sounded amazing….

Next up Were Mattys faves – Whiskey Shivers from Austin, Texas. Great bluegrass with a sense of humour. All playing barefoot, lead man Bobbie had the best mullet haircut I’ve seen in years. They even did a cover of the Cure’s Friday I’m In Love – Fab!

Whiskey Shivers

Off to india for some cheesey Bollywood muvies with a live soundtrack – these went from swash-buckling 1950’s films to more modern dance oriented entertainment….

Bollywood Brass Band & Jyotsna Srikanth

Now to Norwich for, not quite the pick of the week, but for some lovely jazz tinged sounds that were rather glorious….

Mammal Hands

The most moving performance of the weekend was on a trip to Syria where piano player Aeham told awful stories of a small girl being shot dead by snipers whilst singing with him (he played a piano on the street to defy the Taliban – it was later destroyed) – he then played the lovely ditty the’d been singing and got us all to join in – heart felt and heart breaking…

Aeham Ahmad

Back to the UK for some Reaggae which consisted of old school Jamaican tunes with new lyrics…

Macka B

Then off to Paris for one of the highlights of the week-end – What can you say about Camille!?@?! She was gloriously bonkers and tuneful and fun and seemed to try and undress one of her male band during the set – she didn’t want to come off stage –  improvising a song about WOMAD after everyone else had left the stage and then doing another after that – I could have watched her all night

Camille

Up to Scotland for some furious and fast folk music…

Talisk

We’d enjoyed them so much that Matty and I went back to Texas to the Whiskey Shivers ‘Workshop’ where they answered questions with great humour and played a party set.

Whiskey Shivers

They let a guy from the audience jam with them on banjo and did a little ho-down for us to dance to…..

Mali took centre stage for the main stage finale with blind married couple ‘Amadou & Mariam’ doing a wonderful set full of energy and power – a great set.

Amadou & Mariam

Our final trip for Saturday was to Finland for vocal gymnastics of a unique variety…

Tuuletar

Saturday night saw the tent nearly blow down in a storm – wet got in and we decided to head for Cornwall rather than have a damp night and set of early Monday – so most of the day was packing up……We did manage a lovely trip to Chile to see 2 old timers who wooed the crowd with a twinkle in their eyes….

JM and Juanin: Los Crack del Puerto

We also got to hear a bit of irish fiddle (Caoimhin O Raghallaigh) and some Rwandan Pygmy singing (Abatwa) whilst chatting and saying goodbye to friends. Another fun-packed year – thank you WOMAD

Bob the Chiropodist

My boy Matty is 15 now and the first time Lee and I went to see Low was at Leeds Church when she was pregnant with him……no wonder he likes music with a booming bass……

First up tonight was Nadine Khouri who did slow intricate stuff in an early Cat Power style. Finished with a Nick Drake cover as it would’ve been his 70th birthday which was a nice touch.

LOW were simply stunning – I know, I say that every time I see them but it’s true! Bumped into Cartoonist Tony Husband who’s a big fan “Is Paul (his son) doing the photos tonight?” “No, he’s off to do some official picturs with them in London tomorrow”. I was so mesmerised I only remembered to take a couple…..

They did some new tunes from the soon to be released album – Alans guitar sometimes seeming to go backwards (a new pedal effect….or was time really doing odd things?). Steves bass was so loud that the tiles in the roof rattled. Mimis voice was crystal clear through it all……….Chatting with Mark afterwards he said “How many bands can you go and see, making a list of your favourite 10 or 15 songs of theirs, they don’t play them and it’s still one of the best gigs you’ve to?” – Not many Mark, not many……They did finish with ‘What part of me’ which would have been on my list….

Bob the Chiropodist

Our good friends Claire and Guy got us a pair of tickets for this as a 50th birthday present for Lee. We used the excuse to get away on our own on the Saturday night (the first time we’ve been away just on our own without kids or friends or family sine we got married 13 years ago!) then headed to London for this on the Sunday. Lee hadn’t seen Nick Cave before so was most excited…

Jade Bird – very chilled

It was a gloriously sunny day – perfect for mooching around, catching bands on the 3 stages, bumping into friends (even our neighbours were there). I made a point of telling everyone who’s T-Shirt I liked, that I liked it – a guy with a “Blinders” one on, was from Donny and said he’d taught one of them guitar….a guy with a “Bob” T-Shirt knew one of the band….

Bo Ningen

Bo Ningen rocked out the mainstage with a high energy set that made me want to see them in a small venue – they’d be wild! Their throbbing finale was fantastic with lead singer/bassist leaping off his amp….ace!

Oh Brother – Gentle sounds for a sunny afternoon

Shame – shouty indie with attitude

Nadine Shah

Nadine Shah was the first act to officially pull out of the Great Exhibition of the North (beating Commoners Choir by minutes) when she found out BAE Systems were one of the sponsors. BAE systems pulled out soon after due to the bad publicity and both acts are back playing the festival later this month…..Title track of her new LP ‘Holiday Destination’ talks about the lives of locals there and has the line “How you gonna sleep tonight”

Baxter Dury

Courtney Barnett

I loved Courtney Barnetts first couple of EPs and LP – haven’t got into the new one yet so it was the older tunes that got me going in her set – lovely loud thrashy guitar – what’s not to love?

Psychedelic Furs

Had a very quick look at the Furs but they didn’t grab me and anyway – had to get to…

Brix Smith and the Extricated

Brix Smith and the Extricated played the small outdoor stage and were great – SOOOOOO good to hear Steve Hanley’s bass playing again – he can make anything sound good. Brix was lead out with a blindfold on and went on to give a passionate performance “That one was about Hollywood, this one’s about Blow Jobs”. They played mainly a set of their own stuff with a couple of Fall covers thrown in (Dead Beat Descendant and Totally Wired) – loved it!

Patti Smith

I’m not sure how old Patti Smith is (over 70 I believe) but she puts in a performance that would be impressive at any age – full of passion and fire with a message to get out there and be the change and not take any shit from those in power……Her band are fantastic too! The ‘Horses/Gloria’ finale brought the house down.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were on terrific form with Cave commanding the crowd right from the off. He’s such a compelling prescence that you sometimes (fantastic as they are) forget that there’s a band behind him – he owns the stage – screaming blue murder one minute and the next you can hear a pin drop. He stalks the stage like a caged animal with outstretched hands trying to touch him whenever he stepped out onto the extended stage. During ‘Deanna’ he disapeared into the crowd….the band kept playing…and playing…still no show….eventually he freed himself from the crowd “Well, that was intense!”. It was ironic that the biggest cheer of the night was when he introduce Kylie Minogue to the stage….you could hardly hear her as the crowd sang along. Other unlikely singalongs were ‘Into my arms’ (couples hugging and cry all around us) and ‘Push the sky away’

It’s hard to pick highlights – the hour and a half set seemed to last about 10 minutes to me. They covered all bases starting with Jesus Alone from ‘Skeleton Tree’ to the title track of ‘From her to Eternity’. He got a lot of punters up on stage at the end commanding them to sit down and they did (apart from one guy who tried to get a selfie – he nonchalantly knocked the phone from the guys hand with a gesture of contempt to huge cheers!).

A great act – a great day – Thanks G+C xx

Bob the Chiropodist

 

 

 

Do we roll? Yes we do! The Brudenell tonight ticked every box for what you’d want from a Social Club. A warm summer(ish) night with folks outside soaking up the sun, we walked passed the old room where ‘Sloth Hammer’ were thrash-metal-grunting away, the European Cup final was on bar area and in the ‘new’ room, top R&B funsters, 9 Below Zero.

First up was Charlie Austin who accompanied herself on guitar and ukulele to great effect – she has a beautiful voice and joined the band for most of their set.

9 Below Zero are one of those bands that I was aware of but had never heard until Gideon Coe played a live session by them a few years ago – I remember listening to it thinking ‘This is ace! Why haven’t I got anything by them?’ – their 1980 ‘Live at the Marquee’ LP captures them in their full glory – right up there with Dr Feelgoods ‘Stupidity’. Tonight they didn’t quite have the same energy (well, it is nearly 40 years later) but there was some amazing musicianship on display – Loved Dennis’ guitar solos, Mark on harmonica was amazing, the sax player did a fantastic solo whilst doing a walkabout in the crowd – everyone was top notch…..made me want to pick up a harmonica and play the blues….

Another great bit of the Brudenell is the games room which was buzzing post gig. Sledge and I sat down with a beer – chatting to folks about this and that – watching this guy play snooker who was beating all comers. He was wearing headphones which I assumed were to cancel out noise so he could concentrate….but there was a blue flashing light on them “He must be listening to something”…..before we left I had to ask him – He grinned at me and put them onto my head – “Watch my phone while I go to the loo” – the LOUDEST Soca music you can imagine was blaring out – what a guy! What a place……God bless the Brudenell xx

Bob the Chiropodist

 

After catching ‘Fresh’ a few weeks ago, we weren’t going to miss them this time round. Supporting New Zealand’s ‘The Beths’ this was another wonderful night of ‘4 bands for a fiver’ down at Wharf Chambers…..as a life time member, I heartily approve!

I was singing with Commoners Choir so missed out on Tom Lee who Sledge said, did a great set. I was in time to catch ‘Danny & Beth’ who are brother and sister and had some great sibling banter with the big sis usually winning out “I’ve been working all day what have you done? Hanging out here with your mates is not work!!”. Their harmonies worked really well together – There was a serious song – Danny: “Our mam died last year and said to me ‘I might see the spring but I won’t see the summer – hey, that’s a good name for a song’ so…” in the lyrics she didn’t even survive winter…..would love to see these guys again….

Fresh did a set full of energy with punky tunes that were high on harmonious guitars and beats per minute. “I’ve just done my last exam this morning” said Kathryn which chimed with most of the folk in the room. If her exams were in fabulous short pop punk songs – she’s gonna get a distinction!

The Beths have come all the way from Auckland and I’m mighty glad they did. Catchy tunes full of riffs and jangly guitars. Got their ‘Warm Blood’ cassette (cassettes are ‘in’ – Sledge got Fresh’s ‘First Two EPs’ one). Another great night at Wharf Chambers, being served beer by one the guitarist of Cowtown to boot!

And whilst waiting at the bar, this guy noticed my Commoners Choir badge and asked if I knew them – Indeed I do – “Do you think they would sing at my boat?” – Turns out Ben has built his own narrow boat out of junk, put a piano on it and is pulling it along as a kind of art project/way of life (article about him here) – He’s staying in Leeds for a bit as he likes it so much – and with nights like tonight, who could argue. Hopefully the Commoners can get down to the canal sometime soon…

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