BLF 3 - Reflection on Romany Story & Song and Somewhere in Between

So Tuesday saw me pop back down to the Studio Theatre in the Library of Birmingham for another night of lit, making use of the Literature Festival Pass I had purchased. On this occasion it was music and words - firstly from Sam Lee and Richard O’Neill with Romany Song and Story and then from Lauren Kinsella with Somewhere in Between. I came home with a head buzzing with thoughts, trying to make sense of the evening where I had very much felt both the insider and the outsider. As a result this piece is longer than a review would be and is much more of a reflection. Some of it will be descriptive of the event too because I want to distil the key things I heard.

To put my reactions to the Lee and O’Neill event in context I am not Romany but I am the child of a story teller. Over the years I have spent time at various festivals both as a child and adult listening to others chat and tell stories around campfires and tables; over morning coffee and late night whiskey and wine. Therefore this event which was chaired by Pete Lawrence who is co-founder of The Big Chill festival was one I was naturally attracted to.

Looking round it was noticeable the audience was smaller than on previous evenings and that there was a slightly different mix to it. It was more exclusively white and less clearly middle class whilst not being visibly working class. I suspect this may be in part because the evening’s events at the Library clashed with Cooked Up at the Ikon Gallery where a new short story collection was being discussed.

There was a palpably different tone to the evening. This event was not sponsored in the same way. When introducing and outlining the way the evening would work the chair didn’t seek to give their own mini-lecture rather he simply explained and then settled into the background. There was also not the shadow of the academy hanging over this event as there had been previous ones I’d been to. That is not to criticise the academic and intellectual nature of the other events, which I have really enjoyed, but it is to say this one was different. There was not that feeling of the academy and arts establishment seeking to maintain dominance either through coming in as “the experts” or using the event to seek to incorporate the activists.

During the event we were told something of the lives of Sam and Richard. Richard who is 53 talked about the changes he had witnessed within Romany life as a result of wider changes in society. As he spoke it made me think about things I had not thought about before including the impact of the 60’s building programmes on traditional ways of life.

Richard talked about the way in which stories were passed down whilst his family were making things. He also talked about the power of storytelling to bring people together. Within this section he referred to “Squegs” his word for all of those who feel like square pegs and who don’t quite fit in and how stories can help them. He then went on to tell a family story about how his great uncle had faced prejudice but not responded with the same kind of response and the impact of that. Within this he was showing how stories help pass down basic principles which do not change from age to age.

Sam then spoke about his own growing up life as a song collector and folk singer. He had grown up to a Jewish family in London and had his own story of separation as a result. He came from an green perspective talking about the relationship between story and song and the natural world.

Within his discussion of the folk collecting he said he was attracted not by the folk revival but rather by hearing the recordings of the original songs and he wanted to talk to those who had recorded them to find their stories. As part of this he has set up the Song Collectors Collective. His aim, he said, was to help a silenced community have the opportunity to be heard.

Richard then went on to paraphrase Bruce Springsteen when he said we live in a world where there are 200 channels but nothing on and stories are still relevant because they have something to speak into a society where this is real struggle for survival going on.

Pete moved the discussion on by talking about the Kerrville Festival in Texas and the power of the campfire. This led on to a really interesting discussion of the campfire and self-made entertainment. As they reflected on this I thought of the scene before me and the role of discussion as performance. It can sometimes be a competition and at other times it can be a clearly be a discussion of mutual respect. This was very much the latter and respect was extended to the audience as well. We were not considered the other in this setting.

The discussion then moved on to the passing down of tradition, which it was argued everybody has a duty to do. Richard then spoke about the way older people declutter and how in the travelling community generally people only travel with what they need. The most valuable thing in the world is your memories and they are what travel with you everywhere. They help you connect with people.

Respect for elders and for their stories was central to this event and what was being said. This related to the handing down too. The evening ended with Sam, who regards himself as an interpreter, singing The Moon Shone on My Bed Last Night which had been passed on to him. His performance of this song which he just leaned forward and sung was beautiful, haunting and wonderful.

This event hit me somewhere deep inside emotionally which art occasionally can. It also made me reflect anew on what it means to be a Methodist Local Preacher and part of a church community made up primarily of our elders. Is part of our role to gather their stories and pass them on as well as continuing to pass down the stories of the bible? It also made me reflect on my role within a faith community when Richard said, quoting somebody I didn’t catch, “tradition is tending the flame not worshipping the ashes”.

Then it was over and I was left with my enjoyment of the event. Seeing one of the people running the BLF I went over to enquire about something which had been bothering me since the night before when my ticket had been queried by somebody on the door – should I have some kind of lanyard type pass rather than my dog-eared ticket which was getting more worn by the day? The answer was yes and I discovered it was waiting for me at the box office. I realised that what I had taken to be an email advertising the festival, and so deleted without reading before the start was actually something which had been vital information. Due to deleting an email and emptying the trash so it was not retrievable I was not getting the full experience of the festival, which as a pass holder I was able to. For example I have no knowledge of extra events for pass holders which I guess related to that email.

Again this made me reflect. How much these days depends upon expecting and trusting emails? Do we dismiss too much by looking at the subject line of emails we don’t expect and making assumptions as to their use or otherwise?

Then we got to the second event Somewhere in Between with singer and composer Lauren Kinsella. First off I want to say that the quality of this was absolutely top class and the musicianship and acting was wonderful. However, art is a matter of taste and subjectivity. There is also a certain level of being able to fit in with the norms of the audience.

The evening began with a poem read by Peter Campion who had a wonderful Irish lilt and a suitably nonchalant manner in the telling of An Accommodation by Simon Armitage.

Then began the music. Now I have to say I like the more commercial end of jazz rather than the avant-garde. The first set of music was at the intersection between jazz, hippy and prog rock. This is probably as far away from my personal taste as you can get without veering into classical which I really struggle with. There were also unintelligible noises being made whilst clouds went across the back of the screen making it incredibly hippy trippy.

Now as I say the musicianship was wonderful and of the highest standard but Kinsella’s singing reminded me of the stranger bits of Bagpuss, a programme which had freaked me a bit as a child. I could imagine her as Emily.

The seriousness of the audience during a really funny poem was something I struggled with too. I wanted to laugh at this poem because it was clearly intended to be enjoyed and giggled at, but I couldn’t because I was in a very serious audience where it was clear this was not the done thing. On the basis of the above I decided to leave in the interval not because I felt as alien in this performance as I had felt at home in the first of the evening.

Greenbelt Preview

Having downloaded the Daily Diary for Greenbelt here is my pick of the festival from Saturday to Monday, for some reason Friday evening appears to be missing from the document, which is a bit disappointing.

I’ll start with music and the Glade Stage on Saturday – Martyn Joseph is hosting The Rising there on Saturday afternoon. For those who aren’t familiar with this it’s where this talented and very established member of the folk community talks with other musicians about their work and influences. Both Martyn and the performers he is talking with play a bit too.

One of those Martyn will be talking to is Scott Matthews who has a smooth yet fairly melancholy voice. If you like Gaz Combes album Matador my guess is you’ll like to hear this this act.

Later on MOBO award winner Zara MacFarlane takes the stage with her haunting and beautiful jazz voice. For those who might not have heard of her if you enjoy the work of people like Leanne Le Havas you’ll love this.

Then the tempo changes for King Porter Stomp with their ska based mix of reggae and brass. This is good dancing music made for a festie stage and will be well worth going along to. These are my musical pick of the day.

There is a blast from the past when The Polyphonic Spree return to Greenbelt and the Glade on Saturday evening. They bring their weird and wonderful sound to the countryside and I suspect that will work well.

If you are looking for a bit of late night folkie weirdness then go no further than the Playhouse where The Revolutionary Army of theInfant Jesus will be playing some of their dark, haunting tunes. If you like Jaqui McShee and Pentangle then this will be your sort of thing.

The Canopy is a great stage for just discovering stuff if you sit there long enough. The only name from Saturday I am familiar with is Shlomo, the human beat box, who is doing a solo set which will be taking you back to the eighties.  

Best name of the day on that stage are Project JamSandwich. They are a crazy percussion and strings group who mix it up with influences from all over the place.

Duo Lew-Rey are playing this stage too on the Saturday evening. The duo play some chilled out modern electronic pop which is pleasant and will be good to sit and relax with if it’s fine weather.

Generally it appears that a lot of the music on Saturday will be quite hippy trippy stuff  Boat toRow on earlier on Saturday afternoon are another example of the circa 1970 revisited sound which will be coming from a number of the acts. Digitonal headlining the canopy stage on the Saturday evening keep this theme but take it in a different direction and if one listens to the sampler for their Beautifully Broken album you can hear how the chill out ambient sounds have a link back to the folk movement.

On Sunday the folk becomes popular as well as traditional as The Unthanks headline. Expect nothing but the best from them in terms of musicianship and look out for an interesting song about pigeons. (See my Cambridge Folk Festival Review)

Personally I would say if you want something with a bit more rhythm and far more exciting and a bit more messy stay up late on Sunday and go and see Ella and the Blisters who will be following the Unthanks with high voltage bluegrass. This lot seem like they’ll be much more fun and good to dance to. These I think are my musical pick of the festival.

Another act well worth catching across the festival is Tom Butler who is playing the Canopy on Saturday and the glade on Sunday. The lyrics of this guy are well worth listening to in numbers like Freedom.

Again there is lots more music on across at the Canopy including Greenbelt regular Iain Archer who is always worth a listen.

Moving on to the music on Monday there is what could be called a gathering of Greenbelt’s own on the Glade stage as the wonderful young urban folk singer Grace Petrie preceeds Martyn Joseph. Hopefully there will be a lot more of the political stuff in her set and a little less of the chat than last year. Having caught a little of Whatever's Left by Grace and the Benefits Culture, her fourth album, I think we'll hear some great things.

If you have never caught either of these two but you like the music and lyrics of people like Billy Bragg you must get yourself to listen to them. Yes, they do the odd “love song” in between but they both kick ass as political song writers.

It seems that if Saturday is the hippy trippy day then Monday is the day of the Greenbelt Family protest singer because in addition to the two mentioned above Garth Hewitt, (who I described back in the early 1990’s as sounding like a Christian Morrisey he was so miserable whilst being quite talented), kicks of the Canopy. For those unaware he has been a campaigner and member of the Greenbelt team one way or another for many years.

On the subject of the Greenbelt Family there has been a tradition of going into the pub for a sing-a-long every so often. I believe this may be happening on Monday evening about 7pm.

Moving away from the more familiar Coco and theButterfields who have a really good pop sound are worth a look. Their recent video for Hello was quite beautiful. They’re also on the Glade stage on Monday.

This is just a pick of some of the music, there is a lot to choose from. But Greenbelt is so much more than music in fact many people go and listen to the talks without ever getting to the music.

As I said previously my Daily Diary appeared to be missing Friday. I think, if I have it correct from Social Media, this is the evening Gemma Dunning will be doing a talk. Not sure which of the many topics she could be covering she’ll be talking about but it will include missional activity of one kind or another. She’ll be well worth a listen.

Greenbelt tends to get turbulent priests speaking and this year appears to be no different. Guardian Readers and others will be familiar with the work of Giles Fraser. He is a good, if somewhat polemic speaker and love it or loathe it you’ll not be board with what he says.

If you want a gentler yet at times just as radical voice from another well spoken Anglican priest Lucy Winkett who is talking on Reading the Bible With Your Feet will be worth a listen.

Both of them are on the Glade stage in the morning. Carrying on the theme of high profile Anglican clergy the points value goes up when Kate Bottley joins up with Giles Fraser and pop star turned priest Richard Coles for a panel on Twitter Vicars and the Sacrament of Social Media in the Pagoda. I suspect this will actually be worth listening to, if nothing more than for the fact Kate Bottley is a great woman who says it like it really is and doesn’t do pretention at all. She has her own slot on the Glade Stage on Monday morning talking about being the Goggle Box Vicar.

One great thing about Greenbelt is they are never afraid of dealing with issues which might be considered as too hot to handle by other conferences and festivals which have a high number of Christians attending. This year is no different as amongst the events on Saturday in the Treehouse are Thou Shall Not be Overcome: LGBT People, Our Allies and the Christian Church which has Ruth Hunt who is the Chief Exec of Stonewall speaking. Her talk is followed by three people talking about The Real Benefits Street and that in turn is followed by a talk on Primania: How’s Paying for your clothes with Katherine Maxwell-Cook.

Sunday provides a couple of interesting talks following each other in the Pagoda as Katherine Welby Roberts and Matt Haig discuss reasons to Stay Alive before theologian Marika Rose discusses Angels and Cyborgs.

Katherine Welby Roberts is also in the Treehouse talking about Life Doesn’t Come with A Bow. Again it is one of a range of interesting talks which will be occurring in there facing the issues the church doesn’t always want to. Asylum and Exile: Voices of Refugees is one of the other talks in there.

Monday is the day anybody who didn’t catch his great interview on Radio Two’s Good Morning Sunday a few months ago can hear Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow talk about the Shed which fed a Million Children. This will be well worth a listen.

I realise I could through the whole programme but this gives a flavour and some tips of things I think will be worth catching music and talks wise.

There are a couple of other things I want to signpost too before I finish.

The first is American performance artist, theologian and activist Peterson Toscano who will be bringing his Gender Outlaws in the Bible: A Theatrical, Theological Expose back to Greenbelt. He is also touring round different parts of the UK including London, Liverpool, Birmingham and Belfast and will be well worth seeing if you can, even if you can’t get to Greenbelt. Tenx9 is back on Saturday too. This year people will be invited to tell their own stories, for ten minutes, on the topic of power.

The other is the worship. There is a lot of worship that takes place at Greenbelt. Some of it is aimed at specific groups who often come together as a kind of subset of family at Greenbelt. The Outerspace and Goth Eucharists are both in the Treehouse this year on Saturday evening. I cannot begin to explain what the significance of the former has been in my own life – just to say there is something very moving about coming together and realising you are not alone.

Whilst I know people have various views on the Festival Communion service on the Sunday morning down by the main stage, this year the Glade stage, I have always found it to be moving…although some years conducted in a way which is better than others in terms of being able to worship to.

So those are my recommendations for the weekend. For the first time in about 15 years I (most probably) won’t be there because of other commitments. However, as I’ve written this for you and particularly people who might be first timers or just thinking about going. Greenbelt is a special place and it holds an incredibly special place in my heart. As somebody I know once said to me ‘it’s one of the places as a gender queer, gay, atheist, anarchist I’ve felt most at home and safe’.  That’s not because Greenbelt, despite what the critics sometimes suggest, is a liberal den of non-belief but it is because it is a welcoming festival for all of some belief or none.

Cambridge Folk Festival - Review

It’s always been about new music in addition to well established big names at Cambridge Folk Festival and this, the 51st year, was no exception. Skinny Lister have just released their second album Down on DeptfordBroadway and were the most exciting new group I have seen for years. I do not exaggerate when I say that they are the ultimate festival experience. There set mixes pure English folk and pure English punk with a tinge of indie into an exciting high energy cocktail not quite like anything you’ve experienced before. Yes, there are hints of familiar flavours but this is something different which gets you singing, dancing and asking did they really just go crowd surfing with a double bass?  Last year they were on in the Club Tent and this year it was a mid-afternoon session on Stage Two hopefully next year they will be one of the headlining acts on that stage. If you want to get a flavour of the mix I’d say go over to You Tube and compare their official videos for This is War and What Can I Say? Both tracks are off the new album and show the diversity in style they cover (as well as being great tracks, although I much prefer This is War).

The other great new group I discovered this year were Finch and the Moon who did two sets in the Coldham’s Common late night club tent run by the Milk Maid Folk Club (who are currently looking to set up a folk arts centre in Bury St. Edmunds). It says so much about the group that Terry who runs this open mic style tent gave them two slots. Normally, people only get one set over the weekend. This young duo seem to have modelled themselves a bit on the 60’s Greenwich Village Folk Scene, as depicted in Inside Llewyn Davis and it was fitting one of the songs they did was a spine tingling version of Five Hundred Miles which was in the style of Timberlake and Mulligan’s version but even purer. The thing about this duo is they are understated in many ways but have a great stage presence which can only be achieved when you are being enchanted by the music.

Another fairly new group I enjoyed were The Stray Birds who were playing most stages. I caught them on the main stage on Saturday morning. These were a bluegrass group from Lancaster, Pennsylvania. They stood around one old style mic and with their guitar, double bass and fiddle gave us a taste of the mountains. The harmonies from them were great and I really enjoyed their old style approach to bluegrass although it was not as frenetic and high energy as Old Crow Medicine Show’s style.  New Shoes was a great two stepper which was fun and enabled people to dance if they wanted.

Rhiannon Giddens was another American artist I hadn’t come across before but I really enjoyed her tour of musical history. She had an amazing voice and as she played a range of instruments and sang you realised she was very much the real deal. She was out promoting her debut solo album Tomorrow is My Turn.

Of the more established acts which I caught Wilko Johnson who played the main stage on Friday was perhaps the most heart-warming to see. The story of his overcoming a terminal diagnosis is well known and one can only say he plays with the obvious enthusiasm of one who knows what it truly means to be alive. His was a storming set. There was no chat between numbers but rather he went from one great full energy blues number to another. It can sometimes be easy to forget how Punk had some roots in the pub rock of the mid 1970’s but this set was a useful reminder. BBC 6 Music has recently been posing the question “What is Rock and Roll?” Well, this was the answer in its purest form, particularly Going Back Home which was the forth song of the set. Drums, bass, guitar and vocals going through great songs finishing the main set with Back in the Night and giving an encore of Johnny be Good.

Friday also saw Frank Turner playing his version of urban folk with tunes like “We Can Get Better ‘Cause We’re Not Dead Yet” which kicked the set off. There was the odd drinking song in this set which lived up to the hype around it, although in the coffee queue I heard somebody who’d seen him at Cambridge a couple of years ago saying this was not a patch on that and they were a bit disappointed. For the majority of the set Turner was playing with Matt Nazir who needs to be acknowledged for his part too particularly as the material which the duo played was stronger than the couple of solo numbers Turner gave.

Show of Hands played twice on the Saturday and I caught their early set which could best be described as a sing-a-long set. The depth they get from Miranda Sykes playing with them now (as she has for some years) is clear and the humour of this group can never been failed. They opened with AIG and included Roots, Cousin Jack and Galway Farmer within their set. They also played The Keeper from their World War One commemoration album Centenary, which was a haunting and moving number which used the harmony with Sykes voice to great effect. Sweet Bella was a blues number and whilst clearly one for the crowd to join in with it seemed a bit odd coming from them. It was a bit like ordering a beer and getting one of the Crabbies Strawberry and Lime drinks which was being promoted over the weekend. It was tasty but somehow just seemed wrong. It was more something you would have imagined being in Johnson’s set.

Gretchen Peters has a new album Blackbirds out and her voice had you melting from the beginning. There is a pure poetry in her music be it in a number about an oil spill or one of the love gone wrong numbers. Her country voice as soft, rich and velvety as the scarlet top she wore. It was the sort of music you could enjoy curled up on the sofa with a bottle of wine.

The Skatalites were the ideal Saturday afternoon chill out band. You could dance to them or simply relax, listen and enjoy the this talented group who have been going in one form or another for half a century now.

The Unthanks who are headlining both Folk East and Greenbelt are the current darlings of the English Folk scene and it is not without good reason. They are talented and great to listen to, but having just witnessed the high energy Skinny Lister I realised that I just prefer down and dirty low culture to the more refined stuff. I could appreciate this but I was very much listening rather than engaging with what was happening. By the way if you can get to hear them at either of these festivals do. They are both special festivals who need your support and are organised by people whose hearts and souls are very much the driving force.

Joan Baez played a wonderful set which mixed her own material with covers from her friends (such as Steve Earle, Bob Dylan and more). It was an interesting set to listen to the lyrics of because she has obviously been reflecting on her own mortality. I really liked her version of Steve Earle’s God is God which I wasn’t familiar with and an interpretation of Swing Low which differed in tune from the Rugby version we were all familiar with. The crowd all joined in with House of the Rising Sun and from that point it was v much sing-a-long time including a really moving version of John Lennon’s Imagine.

I have to say that whilst I am used to good festival sets the Saturday set at Cambridge this year was the strongest I have ever come across in terms of a whole days music. There wasn’t any moment in the day when I wasn’t thinking how lucky am I being able to enjoy this stuff. It was really good to see the handover to Cambridge Live had not adversely impacted the festival and it will be exciting to see how it develops in the coming years. They have put a number of great performances up on their You Tube channel if you want a flavour of the weekend and Mark Radcliffe's Radio Two Show from the festival is available until the end of the month on listen again.

Sunday rounded off my trip to the festival year. In addition to listening to the wonderful story teller John Row (who just happens to be my dad and is pictured in the opening shot of Guardian’s Sarah Lee’s photo tour to the festival) and some of the other tellers in the flower garden I enjoyed listening to Bella Hardy’s set which highlighted the contemporary cross over between mainstream culture and trad folk and Joan Armatrading’s set of two halves. The first half was good, because that is what she is a great artist but there seemed to be a certain sense she is dealing with stuff and was taking on the audience as a result. In the second half she just used her guitar and voice to kick butt. Ok I am biased but it was a great end to my festival (I had to leave early and so didn’t catch the final acts).