Womad 2012

[Andrewq]

Womad has arrived so it’s difficult to believe there is no mention of it on this forum.
Has everyone retired to their armchairs?
I for one will be shaking out my tent, wasting an hour trying to remember how it goes together and then heading for the first of the many bands I want to see which will probably be the Owiny Sigoma Band (Kenya).
Since I’m unfamiliar with a number of the bands and musicians, it will be a weekend of discovery, which is what this music festival should be about, especially as we have had well known artists in London over the past month.
Now would’nt you rather experience it that read about it?

[Philellinas]

I have not yet retired to my armchair as I am right out of armchairs at the moment but I am planning to go to Womad for the first time on Saturday if only so that I can say I have been. I am only really interested in Sephardic/Levantine music and this field is usually poorly represented. However, this year She'koyokh and Apsilies are going and so am I. I really rate Apsilies and am looking forward to seeing them live. I saw Theodora Athanasiou live earlier this year and she is a rising star. Needless to say, I shall not be loitering within tent so I am not partaking fully of the experience. After Womad there's Womex in Thessaloniki. In between there are three festivals I would like to attend in Greece but worldly concerns will restrict my gallivanting. Apsilies means "being broke" or words to that effect...
(With apologies to Adam but Corner Shop clash with She'koyokh. C'est la vie)

[Adam Blake]

I will be rocking Womad on Saturday night, man. Even as we speak, teams of musclebound roadies are erecting my wall of Marshalls, at least three tech's are arguing over the correct sequencing of my 29 different effects pedals, brown M&M's are being fumigated from the backstage area and my PA has made it clear to the world's press that they mustn't expect more than one word answers to their questions.

(I have no idea why Cornershop are playing. They are an English pop group with a Marc Bolan fixation. Oh hang on, the lead singer's Indian via Wolverhampton. Silly me...!)

[Philellinas]

Would it be imprudent of me to mention that Cornershop only got the gig because another far less worthy outfit had to withdraw? I'll accept a one-word answer. Maybe two...

[Adam Blake]

um...

[garth cartwright]

I'll be there for Friday and Saturday. It's not the music that interests me - I'm Adam's stalker. Once he has finished his last sitar solo on the main stage I will follow him to Brixton...

[Ted]

The first year in ages when I could actually afford to go.
But I'm just too tired.
Pathetic I know.

[Ian A.]

(I have no idea why Cornershop are playing. They are an English pop group with a Marc Bolan fixation. Oh hang on, the lead singer's Indian via Wolverhampton. Silly me...!)

Give me an English pop group with a Marc Bolan fixation over a M.O.R. singer songwriter guitarist who ticks every PC box going but is about as deadly dull, worthy and boring as it's possible to be without being either a) Nick Drake or b) dead. There, I said it . . .

There's lots of lesser known stuff to like this year, mostly if you get away from the open air stage. Yes, Apsilies are top of my list too - appropriately on the Charlie Gillett stage. But then I would say that since I think Paula booked them to keep me quiet! I reckon Chet Nuneta should be good value too (ditto).

Right, where did I put my sunscreen (Sat) and umbrella (Sun)? . . . anything to get away from sports day.

[Nigel w]

Are Chet Nuneta any good?

I checked them out on You Tube and found this, which I thought was utter tedium:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vGTsGIRXcyg

Can anyone suggest a better introduction to them?

[Chris P]

Only got to Saturday this year:

Apsilies - Apsiloutely brilliant. One of those exceptional & memorable Womad moments that come along every few years

DakhaBrakha - certainly not musical bric-a-brac-ers. Compelling, vivid and original workshop performance, received much love & appreciation from us the audience. Would like to investigate their recordings on the strength of this

Justin Vali & Paddy Bush - Into the valiha! (possibly not 'betrothed and divine' as a certain band would have it). Justin's a musical hero, the sound's bliss in strong sunshine, Paddy an engaging enthusiast.

(tired - was up for a 24 hour marathon stretch yesterday)

[Graham G]

It's part of Womad-lore that the acts that knock one for six are the unfamiliar or utterly unknown. This year it was Kimmo Pohjonen, Jusso Hannukainen & DakhaBrakha. The programme notes could not do justice to what I chanced upon in the Siam Tent on Friday night. I can't do justice in words either. It was unlike anything I'd ever heard: extraordinary, and moving (but hard to explain why). Consequently, I had to re-arrange my Saturday 'must-sees'. DakhaBrakha did a workshop on Saturday afternoon. Ukrainian trad songs with subtle jazzy piano, African perc, funky cello and poppy elements underscoring the female voices. One fusion too many? No; it was fantastic and I got the impression the workshop was busy because of what people had seen in the Siam the night before. Later on Saturday Kimmo Pohjonen did a solo set in the Siam. He's a Finnish accordianist, using effects pedals to push the instrument into the 21st C......, yeah, but it's much, much more entertaining than that sounds. He looks somthing like a Japanese Berserker (what?) struggling with a mad snake and sounds like Kraftwerk. And yet, the music was melodic, haunting and appeared to tap into some unspecific but very European classical cum traditional source (yes, like Kraftwerk). Extraordinary.

It was also nice to see the return of the cow on a stick (which dispenses vodka through its udders).

[garth cartwright]

http://www.theartsdesk.com/festivals/wo ... k?page=0,1

My and Peter Culshaw's Womad revs are up on The Arts Desk. A very weak line up this year - weakest ever as far as I can recall - I had to leave early Sunday afternoon to return to Brixton for Adam's show (which was much better than Cornershop's Womad performance - Adam had warned me the band leader was very into glam rock and most of his riffs recalled Bolan/Bowie and the Jumpin' Jack Flash one). Thus I missed the Pine Leaf Boys and Bouboucar Traore. I've never been keen on Robert Plant and have seen him with Justin Adams before (at Womad) so probably would have skipped his show. Khaled - who neither Peter nor I review - sang well but the volume was far too quiet for his main stage Saturday night headliner slot. Odd as Hollie Cook - in the Big Red Tent on Friday - was too loud. Khaled is one of my favourite singers and his band are superb but he is more suited to a London gig with lots of north African fans. I did enjoy the Rajasthani band in light boxes - great theatrical spectacle. She'Koyakh played superbly (as ever) but the Radio 3 stage was far too close to the ground which meant you could often only see the heads of musicians playing on it.

There needs to be some kind of shake-up at Womad - its booking policy is very unimaginative and while there are lots of brown and black people performing there are very, very few in the audience. After 30 years you would think the festival organisers had worked out how to reach out to the UK's ethnic minority communities, ay?

[Ian A.]

Arts Desk doesn't seem to want to accept my comments but I was baffled by the statement that there was nothing from La Reunion. So what was the decent Sunday main stage set by maloya outfit Urbain Phileas then?

Allowing for difference in tastes, I also wonder if you saw a different Alaev Family set to the one I did - or perhaps I saw all of it? Apart from the current Womad PA company's tendency to mix drums too loud on everything (even the polyphonic vocal + percussionist line up of Chet Nuneta), I didn't recognise the delightful, virtuoso and enterttaining - very Mustaphic - band I heard from your description.

The single best thing Womad could do (other than removing the crowd barrier they put in front of the BBC stage so everybody stood at it and blocked the view instead of sitting on the grass as in previous years) is get rid of the awful cloth-eared rock festival PA company (Britannia Row?) they're using now and reinstate the brilliant, sensitive, intuitive Dutch PA company who did it internationally for them for many years.

Oh and PS re black & brown people and 'ethnic minorities' - there were a lot more than at most gigs I go to, and I saw a lot of mixed race couples with kids, lots of not-so-stand-out North Africans, and huge numbers of not-brown-or-black people babeling away in French, Spanish and other pan-European tongues. And it is in the wilds of Wiltshire, a long way from urban surroundings. I guess you see what you look for.

[Graham G]

Yes, I guess one of the down-sides of the move to Wiltshire is that the audience is more racially homogenised than at Reading. I recall several sets on the old site where hundreds of 'local' fans of an act would make the trip for the day from London and would interact with the performers in a way that we Southern Brits are loath to do. This adds considerably to the atmosphere and, I assume, lifts the performance. The Pakistani community would be well represented when Nusrat came to play, similarly, a large Spanish contingent would come to shout encouragement to Ojos de Brujo. Add another hour on the M4 and it puts off the day-trippers from London.

I know that Bristol has a rich ethnic mix, but it is nowhere near the size of London.

Re Khaled, I recall seeing him in London about 15 years ago. The audience was mostly expat Algerians. Funnily enough they weren't much in evidence when he on at Reading Womad.....since I'm about to undermine my own point, I'd better shut up!

[Janet M]

Anyone see Frank Yamma supported by David Bridie & Phil Wales perform at WOMAD this year? I was privileged to be their driver at the recent Hebridean Celtic Festival. Stunning performances here - the audience in Harris was moved to tears by the sheer loveliness of some of Frank's songs. They were a delight to know, and now I'm beginning it get my ears round the sounds of Australasia and Melanesia on the Wantok Vol 1 cd. I am shockingly ignorant of the music of that area.
See http://www.wantokmusik.org/artists_Frank_Yamma.htm