Summer Sundae 2012 Saturday

So, up early to have breakfast at the hotel with (well, on the next table to) Asian Dub Foundation.

Okay, so we only realised that AFTERWARDS, but hey.

I had to dash off early as I had Choir practice from 10-12 noon: would have been good if the staff on the gates hadn't looked at me like I'd landed from Mars when I went to go in, but hey!

Finally we got set up on the floor of the Indoor stage, weren't allowed to bring chairs in to sit on, the crew doing soundchecks for bands not due on stage til 12.35pm, and us trying to hear ourselves think!

Bit hairy, but we managed.

The choir then went over to the Leicester College pop-up tent studio where we recorded one of the tracks we would sing on stage on the Sunday: after some negotiation with the nearby volleyball/energy drink company stand, we got enough quiet to do the recording.  Hopefully will follow!

I then went over to join Neil in the HOT 'Into the Wild' tent to see the end of Hip-Hop Shakespeare.  Akala is great ambassador and performer of Shakespeare inspired material. And he always has great female vocalists with him too.




We probably should have gone to see Savages or even Tim Edey and Brendon Power, but instead we drank tea in the sun.  Well it hasn't often happened this year!

We listened to a bit of Dog is Dead from the main stage in the background of food, but 'twas nothing special.  Molotov Jukebox however were great - very lively fun!



We then skipped indoors to catch the wonderful Agnes Obel with accompanying strings - mmmm, spotting a pattern yet! - again, some technical difficulties getting the monitors right for everyone on stage, but really lovely stuff.   We did a bit of Friends in the background and then saw Micachu and the Shapes ---- this time without them having to wait for an age for some crazy Isrealis to stop tearing the indoor stage apart!

We then saw a bit of Speech Debelle - laughing like seals as she called out to the seats in the back of the tent "are you all okay in Seaworld?" and generally pleading with the lighting guys to keep the very bright lights off as "we're rotisserie!"

We then went back indoors to see the incomparable Jonathan  Richman.



He may prone to ignoring his extensive back catalogue (and who could blame him not wanting to drag back 30+ years to old material) but he had the audience in the palm of his hand.  Mad lyrics, crazy dancing, a brief flirtation with Egyptian Reggae for the fans, and just general FUN.  A great experience.

We then scampered back to the tent for most of Akala's own set (after he fronted the Hip-Hop Shakespeare session). Always brilliant and LOVE joining in on the 'conducting strings' on "Comedy Tragedy History' which he did with a fuller backing band here.  AWESOME reaction to 'absolute power' as well: "Absolute power corrupts absolutely, but absolute powerlessness does the same."

We then took in a bit of Adama Ant et al - "Prince Charming" is still awesome! - and the headed indoors for something I was really looking forward to seeing: the amazing voice and style of Merrill Garbus, aka tUnE-yArDs

Garbus is an incredible performer - again with pedals and loops and stuff.


Sorry - links etc to follow.

Summer Sundae 2012 - Friday

Well the day started early with me getting my hair done!

Neil then contacted me to say he could come to town to have lunch with me before I got the train to Leicester for Summer Sundae 2012.

We had a lovely meal at French Living in Nottingham, and then it was back to work for Neil and off to festival land for Lisa.

After a wander - and discovering my beloved 'summer burrito' stall wasn't there this year! *boo-hoo* - I strolled off to catch Bowerbirds.  I especially liked their new song which included the line "I still believe in a brighter day".



I then headed from 'Into the Wild' (the tent stage) to the Indoor stage (this year known as the Crocodile Lagoon) to see Loney Dear because I really like a bit of multi-instrument and multi-vocal pedal-created performance.

Emil Svanangen (for it is he) is Swedish - part of a significant Scandi contingent for the festival.  Very lovely and spooky.  I caught a bit of Clock Opera, but wasn't taken enough to loiter so headed to see Francois and the Atlas Mountains --- only, the French Atlas Mountains were on holiday, so we got instead a different set of fine musicians to accompany Francois including the brilliant drummer from Camera Obscura!  Neil joined me in the HOT tent - hurrah!




We then headed to the (even hotter) 'Watering Hole' tent - the main bar - where we were to watch the lovely Tiny Ruins.  Hampered by APPALLING sound engineering (seriously one of the downsides of too many of the acts) they nevertheless were utterly charming and it was only the need to attend the Summer Sundae choir rehearsal that stopped me staying to meet them afterwards.  Delightful stuff.  I'll try and add a pic later!


I'd have liked to have seen Ghostpoet but the clash of the choir rehearsal put pay to that concept.  Grr.  Nevertheless, we did see about half of Asian Dub Foundation (who we then found in the breakfast room of the hotel we were staying in!) and we then headed inside for Patrick Wolf.

Oh. My. Life.

Wolf was just astonishing.  Beautiful, accompanied by three wonderful string-instrument players (violins, cello, harp - plus a saw) he swept away the audience.  Just breathtaking.



Nothing could beat that so it was back to the ranch to freshen up and sleep.  I had another early start the next day.

Striking tone: The Comedy of Errors, RST, Stratford-upon-Avon - Saturday matinee 4 August 2012

I had made a promise to a former student of mine when she finished her English degree last year that I would go with her to Stratford to see a Shakespeare play, along with her daughter.

On Saturday, after a few bumpy organisational moments on my part, we finally managed it - and despite some tremendous showers of rain, nothing dampened our spirits.

The Comedy of Errors is one of the shorter plays (slightly, depending on the production) and has at its core a good bit of farce: two lots of mistaken identity twins.  High-larious, and potentially perfect fare for a first-time full-length Shakespeare experience for a young person.

So the rather brutal opening, even if undercut by involving a fish-tank with plastic fishes, was slightly alarming.   I didn't envy what Nicholas Day underwent as Egeon.  He seems to have got the short-straw presently for being the brutalised actor.  All this after Marat/Sade!

I shouldn't have worried though, despite the occasionally varied tone: the basic gist of the story - the wrong husband, the wrong servant - was charmingly portrayed and ultimately easy to follow.  There were plenty of laugh aloud moments, and the two Dromios were wonderful (Bruce Mackinnon as Dromio of Syracuse and Felix Hayes as Dromio of Ephesus).

And actually, there was an underlying sense to the violence of certain scenes: the text makes clear that Ephesus is state in terror, with the Duke executing anyone from Syracuse who lands on the shores.  And unlike others I had no problem with Sandy Grierson's Scottish accent in playing the Duke/Solinus - well, you probably could expect that.  Making the docks a place to import bodies and goods, at great risk to all concerned, underpins this interpretation and heightens the risk that Antipholus and Dromio of Syracuse take in smuggling themselves to Ephesus in pursuit of Antipholus's lost sibling.

Overall then, a joyful production with plenty of staging amusement - I especially liked how Adriana and Luciana's room 'flies' in as a box to the stage.  (Indeed, both sisters were great:  a mix of steel and confusion - and a piercing scream - from Kirsty Bushell as Adriana, and prim little-sister-ness from Emily Taaffe).

And it was hard not to be charmed by Amie Burns Walker as the Courtesan, an ostensibly small role which she absolutely utilised to the maximum, not least in her reactions to confused wife Adriana pulling down the Courtesan's dress to a moderately more decent length. She was suitably flirty and utterly ran rings around the men who encountered her.

Overall, it was an enjoyable way to spend an afternoon, especially in good company.  Doctor Pinch - a very scary cameo role from Jonathan Slinger - was excellent, and there was much hilarity to be gained from rapping, singing, and general inability to actually be cool and 'hip'.  Plenty of out-of-their-depth attempts at being cool fell flat in the most comedic ways possible.

I hope that the experience - combined with having seen the Open Stages taster events last month - will have given another youngster a taste for Shakespeare.  It's certainly a good way to spend your days.

The deserving men: well done to the 2012 Olympians

I'll admit I was pretty cynical about how well the Olympics would go - the focus on not just medals (or to use the new and gross parlance "medalling") but the importance of GOLD medals above everything else was a turn off.  The level of media attention was pretty insane.  Some coped better than others, but a sense of perspective was always needed.  Well done to everyone who has taken part, whatever they managed to achieve.

Here are some of the performances we've enjoyed:

• Bradley Wiggins in cycling - it cannot get better than winning the Tour de France and then Olympic Gold within 2 weeks

• Sir Chris Hoy in cycling - adding further triumph to an astonishing career

• Alan Campbell in rowing - striving against the very best in the world to get an amazing medal

• The British male gymnast team - Daniel Purvis, Max Whitlock, Louis Smith, Kristian Thomas, Sam Oldham: first medal in 100 years

• Greg Rutherford in long jump - leaping beyond expectations

• Peter Wilson in double-trap shooting - modestly acknowledging that not many in Dorset may have been watching

• Mo Farah in 10,000 metres - dominating the final lap in a somewhat tetchy race, crossing the line ahead of his US training partner, Galen Rupp

• Ben Ainslie in sailing - managing the seas off the British coast

• Michael Jamieson in swimming - beaten into Silver only by a world record

• Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott - plus David Florence and Richard Hounslow (all Nottingham alumni) - in the canoe slalom ---- racing against the rapids

• Andy Murray getting the tennis gold medal against Federer - a small vengeance on Wimbledon, and the first win in over 100 Olympic years (there have been several of these this year)

And beyond the British team:

• Michael Phelps in swimming - just brilliant to watch: 22 medals in his Olympic career

• Chad le Clos in swimming - tears falling in triumph after the shock of beating his hero Phelps in the butterfly 200 metres, and not forgetting Bert le Clos, his dad

Well done to everyone again - and there is still a week to go!

Olympics 2012 - pleasures so far: let's hear it for the women

In no particular order, here have been some of my pleasures so far from the Olympics in 2012.  I know there have been others who have done everything they could --- cyclists, rowers, judo and more, whether on the podiums or not (I loved insomniac Lizzie Simmonds in the swimming) --- but these have been some of my favourite bits from watching the women Olympians.

• Gemma Gibbons in the judo - looking upwards an saying 'love you mum'

• Katherine Grainger and Anna Watkins in the rowing - and good luck to them both for their PhD studies!

• Heather Stanning and Helen Glover: the first British Gold medals of 2012

• Victoria Pendleton in the cycling - proving to everyone that she could it

• Rebecca Adlington - the most successful British swimmer in 100 years

• Sophie Hosking and Katherine Copeland in the rowing - against expectations

• Jessica Ennis in the heptathlon - who really only needed to get around the 800m track, but stormed home first anyway

Well done everyone, including Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who glowed throughout her own heptathlon success in breaking the British junior record points scored.  

And beyond the British women:

• Lee Wai Sze in cycling - the biggest smile imaginable

• Missy Franklin in swimming - a storming physique for the future: the USA's female Michael Phelps

• Ruta Meilutyte in swimming - Lithuanian, training in Britain, looking so astonished by her own success

• Katie Ledecky and Ye Shiwen also in swimming - phenomenal achievements by young swimmers

• Tirunesh Dibaba in the 10,000 metres - running a brilliant race to retain her title

Congratulations to all the women from all the nations taking part in the London 2012 Olympics.  Taking part, competing: it is all part of the journey to full status in society for women.

Bonkers - what an apt word for the London Olympics Opening Ceremony

Bloody hell Danny Boyle!  What dirt have you got on the Queen that she'd be prepared to spoof herself with James Bond for international humour?  What has she been doing with the corgis?!

We started the evening listening to Barenboim conducting the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra doing Beethoven's 9th symphony - whacking up the volume as we approach the final part and the glorious choral excesses of the European Union anthem.  It was heart-soaring stuff.  It wasn't even the last appearance that Barenboim put in yesterday.

When we tuned into the TV coverage, there was the already surreal sight of Frank Turner, Eton scholarship boy turned rebellious protest singer, belting out folk-heroic rock 'n' roll to the masses from a recreation of the Glastonbury Tor.  This wasn't even the start of the event proper.  It would get more weird.

With Mark Rylance doing Richard III, we had the sight of Kenneth Branagh donning a tall hat and playing Isambard Kingdom Brunel saying the lines of Shakespeare's Caliban.  Heralding the end of twee greenery, wandering farm animals, scarecrows, cricket matches, songs from around the UK, the route of the Thames across England, a solo child sang up Blake's Jerusalem and the dark satanic mills were cue-d up, rising with fiery fearsomeness from the ground, uprooting the trees, pouring out worker bee human from the unlit caverns of the soil.  Heat and fire, welding and orange glow: the Olympic rings were forged from human toil.

Pandemonium indeed.

A potted history lesson ran through this early section, encompassing the Suffragettes and the arrival of the Windrush: heck, I half expected there to be a re-creation of last year's riots.  Instead there was a pause in the proceedings at one point to recall the low after the high of being awarded the Olympics - the murders of so many in the 7/7 bombings commemorated and remembered through silence, and then colour and dance as choreographed by Akram Khan to accompany Emili Sande singing "Abide with Me".  It was oddly moving.

There was humour throughout: some intentional, not all of the same degree.  Mr Bean with Sir Simon Rattle conducting the theme from 'Chariots of Fire'; the Queen exchanging lines with Daniel Craig as James Bond (and then her 'parachuting down' into the stadium).

Mostly, it was pretty funny that whenever the cameras hit a shot of Queenie during the ceremony that she looked decidedly unamused, picking her fingernails rather than watching Sir Chris Hoy: I'm standing by Boyle having evidence of Fifty Shades of Corgi to get QE2 to play ball on letting the crews film her and the palace, let alone stay up til 12:45am.  Looks like they had the required music license agreed since it matters less about annoying this part of London than Mayfair.

But across the ceremony there was weird and wonderful in bucketloads: a coming together of children's fiction (with JK Rowling no less) and the NHS complete with spectral Voldemort, child-catcher and Mary Poppins. The internet and music were celebrated with a hyperactive run-through of popular music from the Beatles, through Mud's Tiger Feet, po-go-ing puppet punks, Underworld, and into Dizzee Rascal's Bonkers.

Well, quite. A full list of the Olympics medley music is at the NME site.

After that, finding the Arctic Monkeys, complete with Beatles in Hamburg quiff, doing a barn-storming version of "I bet that she looks good on the dancefloor" followed by cycling winged monkeys doves accompanying a version of "Come Together", seemed positively obvious.

What was less obvious was having ginger-mopped Alex Trimble of Two Door Cinema Club doing a lovely specially commissioned song by Underworld called "Caliban's Dream" (sound only link, with percussion from a witchy and brilliant Dame Evelyn Glennie, Only Men Aloud, Dockhead Choir, and soprano Elizabeth Roberts).

We had a selection of interesting luminaries carrying in the Olympic flag - including Barenboim (God knows how he got from South Ken to the stadium in time). And there was a touching, if painful, moment of human frailty as the once powerful Muhammad Ali was assisted to hold the Olympic flag before it was taken to the flagpole.

The torch was taken along the River Thames by David Beckham (though I felt more for the lass at the front of the speedboat, hair horizontal from the speed) and he passed the torch on to Sir Steven Redgrave.  But it wasn't he who would light the eventual cauldron.  Instead, the torch flame was passed to young Olympic hopefuls for the future selected by the greats of the past, and with other greats there too watching the past hand over to the future.  The copper petals that each nation had carried in with them in the competitors arrival to the stadium formed a beautiful flower which was then lit by the seven flames and rose to become the Olympic cauldron flame.  Stunning.

There was inevitably an appearance by Macca - although hearing "The End" was nice, I did wonder if he may launch into the quirky and equally quick "Her Majesty" - and then there was (an initially sound-fluffed) version of "Hey Jude" complete with crowd sing-along.

Fireworks all the way of course.  You know what, it was kinda pretty good.  Barking mad. But rather good.

The copper petals come together beautifully to create the Olympic cauldron, lit not by past glories but a forthcoming generation of sporting hopefuls

A weird old week: life and death

What a strange week it has been: last weekend was singing on stage, partway through the week there were new arrivals for my boss (a granddaughter) and the lovely George and Sonia added a new son Max to the family to keep big brother Xavi company.

Then Thursday - in the midst of a temporary burst of summer - we had the long drive down past Abingdon to go to a friend's funeral: "the first of the gang to die" so to speak.  It was both wonderfully moving and utterly heartbreaking: seeing someone your own age being buried (albeit in one of the most bucolic and beautiful settings one could imagine) is a harsh reality check to our sense of immortality.

But as Andy would say: "hey ho".  Life goes on, so beautifully proved by new life arriving.

Surviving stage lights: BeVox at the Nottingham Variety Show

Well, it was an experience for sure.

Saturday was a frantic day: I was up relatively early for a weekend and in town by 10am.  The BeVox choir had to be at the Nottingham Arts Theatre by 10.45am to gather for a soundcheck at about 11.30am for the Nottingham Variety Show.

Packing around 60 people onto a small stage was no mean feat and I was glad I opted to trust my memory as I don't think there would have been room to have my music folder out as well! 

I met Helen and Neil for lunch at Edins and then we headed back to the theatre, and eventually I headed in to sit with other choir members at the back of the theatre (one way to pad out the audience!)

A variety show in this day and age is a tricky thing to do: should you go for nostalgia or for a mix of acts that all bring a contemporary feel to the proceedings?  How diverse should you go?

As BeVox were headlining and so were due at the end of the second half of the show, it was just the first half we could sit through - I'd have liked to see some of the acts that were in the second half (I heard good things about some of them), and inevitably the matinee and evening shows did host a slightly different bill.

Best act of the first half at the matinee: Josh Kemp by a country mile.  Erin Parker is clearly a professional performer as well, but there isn't that much variety in the style of 1940s songs (though it is always good to hear Minnie the Moocher).  Great voice and frock though.

Notes on performers:

• Know the words: I shouldn't know the words better than you
• Don't look at your feet
• This isn't reality TV: we shouldn't like your singing more just because of your biography (though that can be valuable once you're established)
• Know which is the best item to end on
• Don't overstay your welcome

Due to a variety of issues, we ended up not going on stage until about 5pm - cue my nerves!

Once we'd lined up on stage - and Neil had finished being stooge for the compere's jokes (and passing on jokes for the evening performance!), it was time for us.  Behind the curtains, we tried to place ourselves as best possible.  My word, stage lights are intense!  I was frying on there.

Our songs were:

• Take a chance on me (Abba)
• One Voice (Barry Manilow)
• Rosé (The Feeling)
• Amazing Grace
• Qonqgotwane [The Clicking Song]
• West Side Story medley - Jet Song, Maria, Tonight Quintet, Somewhere, America (Leonard Berstein)
• Animal Crackers - The Panther, The Canary, The Kangaroo (based on Ogden Nash's poems, set to music by Eric Whitacre)
• Total Praise (Richard Smallwood, Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir version)
• Do you know the way to Amarillo?! (a mash-up of 'Do you know the way to San Jose?' / 'Is this the way to Amarillo?)
• Lean on me (Bill Withers - the BeVox signature song)

A good experience anyway: here's to the next time!

Talk about belated - Cosmo Jarvis on BBC Radio 4

Jeez, BBC Radio 4: your 'fluff' culture slot at 8.20am is always a bit cringeworthy.  But apparantly today was for 'the latest thing' - Cosmo Jarvis.

Erm: didn't I post about Cosmo Jarvis back in January 2011?

My new tee-shirt: thank you tee-fury for 'The Physician Unknown'

Jerry Bennett designed this t-shirt for tee-fury's tee of the day a couple of weeks ago.  It arrived in the mail last week!  Whee!!!!!  I love this t-shirt so much - steampunk doctor!

Tomorrow - all being well - I will be singing

Ahoy BeVox: it's the Nottingham Variety Show at the Nottingham Arts Theatre.

I will be - all being well - singing with the choir.

Yikes!

(To show how good they can be see here: the promo video from BeVox at Magna)

2900 posts on this blog

Just realised that I've done 2900 posts on this blog.  Admittedly many were done in a very productive blogging period near the start, but it's still (just) going!

I'll definitely aim to get past 3000 before the year is out.  However, it's worth noting that even 'lazy' twitterers can manage more than 3000 tweets - I'm slow....

Claridge's and Bruce Springsteen

Since we were loitering in Mayfair yesterday, looking at the architecture and stuff, I suggested I would like a look at Claridge's.  What a yummy Art Deco building!

There was a small crowd of people outside, nothing too major, about 20 or so.  Eventually we plucked up to ask someone who they were expecting to see.

Bruce Springsteen.

Okay.  THAT is a person I can get why you would want to try and meet.  Is Bruce even going to want to come back after concert organisers switched off the power at his gig last night?  (It was emphatically NOT the Council of Westminster, though presumably a large fine would have had to be paid for the over-run).

Or maybe, since Paul Macca was on stage at the time, the organisers were solid Rolling Stones fans?

Virginia Woolf's service station commemorated

We ended our day in London with a meal at Olivelli - the lovely Pizza Paradiso of old.  Located on Store Street opposite what was reputed to be London's oldest petrol station, the Bloomsbury petrol station has been replaced with... well, some kinda office.  But at least they have a lovely artwork to commemorate Virginia Woolf topping up her car*.

* Woolf may not have done this: I'm just guessing :)

In praise of Elsa Schiaparelli and 1930s dresses

Oooh, I am a sucker for mid 20th century clothing.  1920s through to the 1940s (and shading into the 1950s) I am in my element design-wise.

So it was a real thrill to go to the V&A yesterday: not for the Ballgowns exhibition because that STARTS in the 1950s and I ain't so fussed about modern day ballgowns.  No, I was rather more interested in the new displays for the history of fashion, especially the early 20th century stuff.  Swoon. I feel glamorous just looking at such items.