Crescent Theatre Folkin' Great Festival Review

Yesterday the Crescent Theatre in Brum had an excellent day festival Folkin’ Good. It was a new festival of folk and acoustic music which had two stages, one in the bar and one in the main stage.

The music kicked off in the bar with a 20 minute set from The Velvet Underarm who are The Crescent’s acoustic house band. They were played a great set which ended with a good cover of Wagon Wheel.

At the end of that set began an afternoon of shuttling between the bar and the theatre. I really liked the system of putting the sets in the bar on to cover the change between acts on the main theatre stage.

The first act on the main stage was The Empty Can an indie folk band who mixed covers by the Verve and Elbow amongst others with their own material. A lot of their own material came from their second album Sonic Boom.

As the bar had limited seating the crowd in the theatre sat on the ends of rows ready to leg it through at the end of the main set. As we entered the bar we heard Ruth, Jimmy and Sue playing. The name was a little confusing as all three were women. They played some excellent Americana and our favourite number was Jilted which was a comedy number which seemed very fitting for three women of a certain age looking like they were rocking three very different looks from M&S. They were probably my favourite act on the bar stage all day.

A programme of music is not something you normally find at a folk gig but it was what Soundboard provided for their mix of instrumental and folky numbers. I have to say I found some of their set a bit pretentious but the music was excellent and the trio were incredibly proficient.

Then it was back to the bar for Ashland. This was a duo which saw Kathryn Marsh and David Sutherland (who is also in Kim Lowings and the Greenwood) playing some excellent numbers. This was my husbands favourite bar group and we bought the EP which says something about how we felt about it.

Part of what this event was doing was showcasing local up and coming acts. One of these was ChrisCleverley. He is a growing name on the national scene but comes from Brum and it was clear that in some ways this event saw him coming home to part of the folk family who had nurtured him. His music was good if generally a bit on the dark side but occasionally there was real humour there. Most of his material was his own but there were some covers in there.

We made our final venture in to the bar for Twenty B& H a duo who are very much new additions to the scene. They played well and were great but by this point the bar area was too small for the crowd and so it seemed like time to stay in the theatre between acts.

The next act on the main stage was my favourite of the evening. Kim Lowings and the Greenwood were an amazing foursome. Kim has an incredible voice and song writing talent as well as being really musically versatile and amongst the instruments she was playing was an Appalachian mountain dulcimer. Among those in the band supporting her was the immensely talented David Sutherland who was on double bass this time. Cuckoo was one of the songs I loved in her set. She reminded me very much of a young Eliza Carthy and I look forward to hearing much more from her.

The penultimate act on the theatre stage was Edwina Hayes who I think can best be described as a northern Joan Baez. She again played a good mix of her own material and covers (including numbers by Richard Thompson and Barbara Dixon). I really liked this singer with a captivating voice and a good stage presence. She would have made a good headliner.

Now, before I go into the real headliner I have to caveat what I am going to say with a few things. Firstly, the sound crew at the Crescent had put in a cracking effort all day and worked really hard. Secondly Francis Mallon who put this together had done an amazing job and the day had all worked really well. Thirdly I had seen Duke Special a couple of times at Greenbelt and he is a good musician who can really take a crowd with him. Unfortunately last night was not his night.

I think there are a few reasons for this. The first is there were some microphone and sound issues as he prepared to go on stage. The second was he didn’t really fit the event. Now, I know this is a difficult balance to get but often (not always) putting something more contemporary on after proper folk without some decent fiddle in it doesn’t work. I remember the same thing happening a few years ago at Cambridge Folk Festival when Divine Comedy played. People left because they just seemed weak in comparison to so much talented musicianship and they were somehow out of place. This is part of what was going on last night.

Also, the Duke is very good act in a festival field or a crowded small venue. This was not how it was working. To his credit he did move the crowd forward and invite them on stage to get some intimacy. I don’t know what then happened because we chose to leave because it was to be honest getting painful to watch. We were both of the feeling we wish we had chosen to leave straight after Edwina Hayes.

A great day though and really good value. We got 7 hours of music and a large number of acts for just £15 each.

There are a few things that I think could have improved it slightly:

1)    More seating in the bar area. This could have been achieved if the stalls had been located elsewhere (perhaps in the foyer of the building)

2)    More food options and something selling more “normal” food

3)    A more folky headliner

 

As I say though we had a wonderful day and heard some amazing music and will certainly be seeking out some of the music again. Looking to returning to The Crescent Theatre in a fortnight to enjoy their free acoustic night when I suspect we may hear some of the voices from the bar again.

                                                                                            

 

 

The Autistic Librarian Mixtape from True Mendous

I didn’t expect to buy True Mendous’s CD The AutisticLibrarian today. In fact this week I had expected to be buying David Bowie’s 25^th album Blackstar when it comes out tomorrow. However heading back to New Street Station today I encountered a busker whose poetry disrupted this week’s purchasing plan.

Hurrying along I caught the sound of a female rapper and she had my attention. I was ready to go and throw down a few coins when I saw she had a couple of CD’s for sale. I had no idea which to go for but listening to her as I hovered I decided either would make an interesting listen. As it happens I went for the debut mixtape, released in 2014, and left the most recent release the Whormonal Moodswings EP (which is available on i-tunes).

True Mendous is another of the talented young black female rappers I am discovering make up an important part of the Birmingham music scene. The vocals on this mixtape are as beautiful as the lyrics are hard. Her poetry tackles subjects such as the sex trade, child abuse, drug use, same sex relationships, unrequited love and teenage pregnancy in a head on way. Listening to this you realise you are encountering a hard core, urban, twenty-first century, feminist text.  

It’s not an easy listen but at the same time it is one which captures your attention. The story that unfolds within the 17 tracks is shocking and challenging. It has the same power that Eminem’s Stan did in that sense. Thus, in some ways there is a retro feel to this, yet in other ways it is fresh and different.

Now that freshness might be because since coming to Birmingham I have been rediscovering hip hop through artists such as True Mendous and Lady Sanity. However, I think that it is something else breaking through. In a world where there is so much debate about feminism and what it is and in a world where white middle class feminist narratives have tended to dominate this music gives something different. It shows how there is a new wave of young black feminism breaking through. This is the feminism/ womanism which comes not so much from the academy as from the street.  

So do I recommend it? Yes, get hold of her music and be challenged by it.  Oh and if you are wondering about the Bowie CD, I may still get it but not this week. I'm enjoying discovering truly new music too much.

Fathomless Riches by Richard Coles and Beatrice by Fiona Joseph Reviewed

Fathomless Riches by Richard Coles and Beatrice: The Cadbury Heiress Who Gave Away Her Fortune by Fiona Joseph may not sound like the most obvious Advent reading. Yet, they’ve been what I’ve been delving into in recent days.

Why? Well part of it relates to the comments I picked up from one of the Queen’s lecturers whilst I was sitting in college communion (something I tend to do on Tuesday evening). He was talking about Advent being a time to examine our history and look for evidence of God breaking through. It is a time for looking back and looking forward whilst focusing on the difference Christ’s coming makes.

Both books enable you to reflect on the ways in which God’s kingdom breaks through and how this occurs in ways in which you might not expect. They also both, in their own ways, provide challenges for the reader because they show that ethics and actions are not simple.

Beatrice was a book I first heard about when the author gave a talk at Greenbelt a few years ago which I found absolutely fascinating. Somehow, though I never got round to reading the book until this week. It is a biography of Beatrice Boekes (nee Cadbury) whose Quaker roots and understanding of Marxist theory saw her adopt an increasingly radical lifestyle during much of her life. This included outdoors preaching which saw here frequently arrested and at one point giving up the use of money amongst other things. She was also responsible with her husband Kees for setting up a school and helping Jewish children escaping persecution in the Second World War.

This sounds admirable and it might be easy for one to get overly romantic about the world of Beatrice and her family. However, the book veers away from uncritical praise of her actions. Rather it details the difficulties this caused to her family and others who were seeking to ensure the welfare of the family.

Thus it shows that we need to think about our actions. God uses those who are willing to take risks and work beyond the status quo to help build his kingdom but those people have a duty of care towards those around them too.

Before I’d turned my attention to Beatrice and a Brum based book I had read Richard Coles Fathomless Riches or How I Went from Pop to Pulpit. This was a book I had pretty much avoided for a year. I suspect part of it was that I didn’t quite trust what I was going to get from it. I’m not entirely sure why but I didn’t. Then there was the fact the only comments I had heard about it seemed to focus on dogging, (suggesting people had not really gotten past the first few pages).

My view on the book changed in when I went to an event at the Birmingham Literature Festival where Coles was interviewed by Catherine Ogle, a Dean at Birmingham Cathedral. This previous post from my  blog explains something about why that evening changed things.

 

So it was I read the book, a memoir which does what it says on the cover and tells how a former pop star ended up training for ministry.

The book talks of his family and youth and then moves on to his life within the early 80’s gay scene in London before looking at his life post-fame and his involvement with the rave culture. It then moves on to exploring his interest in religion and the tensions he encountered between an Anglican and Catholic identity. Within this sex and drug use are a part but there is far more within this text.

First is one of the most moving accounts of the impact of the Aids crisis on the ‘80’s gay community I have read. This is something in the Literature Festival talk Coles had said he had not found cathartic to write. The pain within what he writes is clear and it is movingly described.

Scattered throughout the book are accounts of how he messed up and the regrets he has. It’s a book which seems scattered with references to repentance and gives some examples of what this might look like in practice.

I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed reading both books. They were both highly readable whilst subtly challenging. They also in their own way did show a real picture of God’s Kingdom breaking in on the margins as well as within the establishment.