As already mentioned here and elsewhere the Danny Thompson left us last week. Danny was a man of both quality and quantity. Discogs lists over 750 credits - and that isn't all of them - and he is possibly on more records in my collection than any other musician. He shines on every one.
I was lucky enough to see Danny live in various combinations over the years. The standouts include a duo of him and Richard 'No Relation' Thompson at Cropredy some time back in the Days of the Ancients and what turned out to be Pentangle's last ever gig (at the Royal Festival Hall in 2011).
Swiss Adam has written a very nice tribute over at Bagging Area - he is much more eloquent than what I is - in which he highlights Danny's work with Pentangle, Nick Drake and John Martyn. If you wade through to the end of my post on the Incredible String Band last week you'll find Danny there as well.
I have avoided all those artists in the selection below. These tracks are all taken from records I happen to have lying around and hopefully give you some idea of Danny's range and quality. They are in chronological order, from 1969 to 2012. I have included a track from "Industry" (2003), an album jointly credited to Richard and Danny,
I couldn't find any decent quality clips of the 2011 Pentangle concert but have shared a performance of "I've Got A Feeling" from three years earlier on 'Later'. Danny lets loose at about the two minute mark. The second clip is him and Richard in 1996, also on 'Later', and we finish in the same year with Kathy Mattea joining him and his old mucker at the Transatlantic Sessions.
Last Saturday afternoon I was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London's fashionable South Bank for a celebration of the Incredible String Band. I have been a massive fan of the band for over 40 years so I wasn't going to miss the party.
As you can see from the photo there were a lot of celebrants. I counted 18 in total over the course of the concert. Most were from the current generation of what sometimes get called 'freak folk'. I recognised some like Milkweed and Junior Brother but there were no introductions so I'm still none the wiser as to who many of them were.
There were one or two moments that did not quite work but overall the kids did a great job of putting the show on right here. One of the stand-out performers was Mary Hampton, of whom I had not previously heard. She did lovely renditions of "Seasons They Change" and "God Dog", the song Robin Williamson wrote for Shirley Collins (and the only non String Band song of the show).
However, as good as they were, most of us were there for Mike Heron. I have been lucky enough to see him many times over the years, both solo and in a couple of String Band reunions way back around the turn of the century, but he is in his eighties now and has had health issues so there are unlikely to be many more chances.
Mike joined the gang for the last stretch of the show. He was pretty frail physically and initially vocally, but being on stage doing what he loves with a room full of people who love him had a rejuvenating effect on his voice. By the time he led the ensemble in a moving rendition of "Air" he was sounding great. I'm sure I wasn't the only old fart who was slightly damp around the eyes when that ended.
Here are the originals of "Air" and "God Dog" plus something by Mary Hampton from her 2011 album "Folly" (available on Bandcamp with a revised running order). I have also added "First Girl I Loved", one of my favourite records of all time. It features on double bass the great Danny Thompson who sadly left us a few days ago. I will try to do a proper tribute to Mr Thompson next week; consider this a down payment.
The videos feature some of the other fine (freak) folks who were on the bill, plus of course the golden boys (and girls) themselves.
Yesterday I visited Mannakin Hall near Grantham with the King of Cool himself, Mr John Medd. Why? To quote Gob Geldof, "what reason do you need?".
Here are some of the residents, including a group apparently attempting to recreate Manet's 'Le Déjeuner sur l'herbe' (but not very successfully) There are loads more photos over on Flickr if you are so inclined.
The back room of the Shacklewell Arms in London's trendy Dalston has become a bit of a regular haunt of mine in recent years. With a capacity of about 200 if you all breathe in and squeeze together, it hosts more than its fair share of great gigs. Even better, quite a number of them are free thanks to the generosity of assorted labels and PR outfits.
Mr F and I toddled along to one such gig last Tuesday. Yalla Miku are a Geneva based group that define their sound as: "blending post-kraut grooves, mutant folklore and electronic trance, and sparking dialogue between traditions from the Horn of Africa and the most unrestrained experiments of Geneva’s underground". So now you know.
I enjoyed their debut album very much when it came out in 2023 so was keen to hear them live. I was not disappointed. The line-up has changed a lot since the debut - four out, two in - so the set mainly consisted of songs from their new album. It is due out in November and available for pre-order on Bandcamp now. Judging by the live performance it should be another cracking record.
As well as playing guitar and banjo in the band Cyril Yeterian is also the founder of the Les Disques Bongo Joe label which has just celebrated its 10th anniversary. It has released some amazing records - a mixture of new artists, reissues and compilations from all over the world - many of which have featured here previously. So it was a privilege to chat to him briefly after the gig and thank him for all the pleasure he has brought me over the last decade.
Both the Yalla Wiku tracks below are from the first album and feature the previous line-up. If you want a sneak preview of Mark 2 Bandcamp is sharing the first single from the new album and you can listen to their BBC Radio 6 session for a Bongo Joe special edition of Cerys Matthews' show a couple of days before the gig. The band appear just after two hours in but the whole programme is worth a listen.
All the other acts featured today were or are on the Bongo Joe roster, or in the case of Nourdine Staifi feature on a compilation. If you haven't already bookmarked the Bongo Joe Bandcamp page in preparation for next Bandcamp Friday I suggest you do so.
After a few weeks break we are back on the road, resuming our quest for El Dorado. We have made our way from the wide expanses of Canada to the narrowest country in the world (relative to its length). Welcome to long, skinny Chile.
When covering the music of Chile you really have to start with Vic and Vi - Victor Jara and Violeta Parra. Victor is probably the better known internationally, not least for the manner of his death, but Violeta was the real pioneer. She was pretty much single-handedly responsible for starting the Nueva Canción Chilena movement, a revival of traditional music that became linked to progressive political groups and inspired similar movements elsewhere in Latin America.
Violeta's best known song is "Gracias A La Vida", one of most covered Latin American songs ever and one that has a place in the Latin Grammy Hall of Fame. This is the original from 1966. Sadly Violeta's own life was not as happy as the song suggests and she killed herself the following year.
Victor was one of Violeta's many proteges and an early recruit to the Nueva Canción Chilena movement. After starting his recording career covering traditional songs his music became increasing political, notably with the release in 1969 of "Preguntas Por Puerto Montt", about police violence in the town of that name. He was one of the many thousands associated with the Allende government to be killed by Pinochet's thugs in Estadio Chile this month in 1973.
That is a heavy opening to a feature that I normally try to keep light and fluffy but it was hard to avoid. Now let's reset the tone. Fluffiness ahoy!
In parallel with the Nueva Canción movement Chile also had a vibrant psychedelic scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Among the pioneers were the MacIver brothers from Valparaiso, whose band Los Mac's led the way with the release of the album "Kaleidoscope Men" in 1967. I've chosen the jaunty opening number.
Much less jaunty were Aguaturbia, whose self-titled debut album in 1970 presaged the arrival of heavy rock in Chile and caused a bit of a stir due to the naughty nude people on the cover. Personally I prefer their second album - the innovatively titled "Volumen 2" - from which today's selection comes. Please take time to admire the feisty vocals of Denise Corales and the guitar work of her husband Carlos.
We are going to leap forward a quarter of a century now to catch up with another female-fronted band, Elso Tumbay. They described their music as "medieval rock, a conversation between two goblins about a failed revolution". Those of us who prefer simpler labels might go for pop-prog or something like that. Look out for some fine fiddling on this track from their self-titled debut album released in 1997.
Next up we have Pascuala Ilabaca (or "the accordion-wielding Chilean songstress Pascuala Ilabaca" as Womex would have it). With her group Fauna she has been making jazz-tinged folk music since 2008 and since then has picked up a few awards and appeared at the likes of WOMAD. This is the title track from her 2010 album "Diablo Rojo Diablo Verde".
Chile has nearly 4000 miles of coastline and roughly 900 beaches, so it is perhaps no surprise that there is a surf rock scene. One of the current wave (pun intended) is The Chukukos. Originally from landlocked Santiago they are now based in even more landlocked Switzerland so quite where they picked up the bug I don't know. Anyway, this track is from their 2017 album "Deep Latin Surf Attack".
For the Mandatory American Reggae slot we have Sistemo Beat Andino from the heart of the Aconcagua valley in the foothills of the Andes. This dubby take on the local folk music comes from their 2022 album "Territorio Andino" and features a guest spot from the sensibly named Silly Tang. I assume he is the man who says "Irie" a grand total of two times, which hardly seems worthy of a credit to me.
I wanted to kick off the videos with a young lady who rather stole my heart when I first discovered her song "Danny Bastard" a few years ago. But the video has been "disabled for playback on other platforms" so you'll need to head over to YouTube to watch it. Trust me, it is worth the effort.
What appears at first to be frothy pop fun is actually deeply political. Just change 'Danny' to 'Donny' and you have a searing critique of the current US administration: "You think you are a master but you're only just a bastard". Does that make Betania López the new Violeta Parra? Probably not.
This is the second of two posts about the music that I picked up on my recent holiday in Bosnia & Herzegovina. The first post last week covered the modern stuff. For this one we are going traditional.
Sevdah (also known as sevdalinka) is a style of folk music seen as an integral part of Bosnian culture. It is typically slow and melancholic and has been compared with Portuguese fado; indeed, some linguists claim that sevdah and saudade come from the same root word. I have asked George to test the theory by playing today's selections to the goats and recording their response.
While in Mostar I picked up a 6 CD box set called 'Sevdah: 108 Orginalih Hitova'. Hopefully you don't need me to translate that for you. Most of the hitova seem to date from the 1950s and 1960s which I gather was a bit of a golden age.
I have picked a track each from three of the singers who feature most frequently: Zaim Imamović, Himzo Polovina and Beba Selimović. While originally hailing from Travnik, Mostar and Trebinje respectively, all three moved to the capital after the Second World War where they each started their careers performing on Radio Sarajevo, Bosnia's first radio station.
Himzo is just one of many artists to record "Emina", a setting of a poem by Aleksa Šantić, who had the dubious honour of giving his name to the street that formed part of the frontline during the war in Mostar in the 1990s. These days the end where the most severe fighting took place is occupied by newly built apartment blocks with fetching murals, but one ruined building is still standing - perhaps as a reminder.
There is currently a new generation of singers reinvigorating sevdah music, including Zaim's grandson Damir Imamović. Perhaps the most interesting is Božo Vrećo, a non-binary performer who has said that sevdah provides the perfect platform for them to express themselves.
After a stint with the band Halka they released their first solo album "Moj Sevdah" in 2014. Singing unaccompanied throughout its no party album but it is quite affecting if you listen to it in the right mood and environment.
Among the other activities added to the list in 2024 were "Asturian cider culture" and "Cooking and eating traditional mashed potato with barley in the Mulgimaa region, Estonia". I don't know what makes them unique enough to be worthy of listing but I am sure we can all agree that cider and spuds deserve to be celebrated.
I had an action-packed Saturday with a tenuous library link running through the day. It included a visit to the Rock 'n Roll Public Library (RRPL) exhibition, running at the Art Pavilion in Mile End Park in London until 18 September. It is worth popping in if you are in the area or if the mobile library rolls into your town at some point in the future.
The RRPL is an archive of stuff collected over the years by Mick Jones (The Clash one not the Foreigner one). There is some material relating to The Clash and Big Audio Dynamite but the bulk is general pop culture stuff. A lot of it is what might normally be described as tat but as it is in an exhibition I am required to refer to it as 'ephemera'.
It is really more of a curated car boot sale than a library, but to be fair the curator has done a great job. There is a replica of a 1960s sitting room, some themed exhibits and - where the curator presumably got a bit stumped - some colour coded sections, all of which draw you in.
The RRPL was actually the last event of the day. It kicked off (literally) at the football at lunchtime where I was able to cheer my team on to victory. Visiting supporters sometimes sing about our stadium being a library, presumably because they recognise it to be a place of learning and enlightenment.
After the match I strolled over to Dalston to get the bus to Mile End for the RRPL and quite by chance came across a ceremony celebrating pioneering reggae entrepreneurs and entertainers who had links to the legendary Four Aces club, which from 1966 to 1997 stood on the site of what is now the local public library.
I had already missed quite a lot of the proceedings but I was able to catch presentations to Louisa Mark's daughter, Jah Shaka's son, members of Black Slate and Sir Lloyd Coxsone (below), who had a thing or two to say about Babylon's influence on the UK reggae industry - in summary, he doesn't approve.
Eagle-eyed viewers may have spotted a Jah Shaka flyer in one of the RRPL photos. I included that photo in a vain attempt to make this all seem vaguely coherent.
Onto the music. We will start with Louisa Mark's debut single from 1975, produced by Sir Lloyd, which is often credited as being the first lovers rock record. We follow it with a cut from the first volume of Jah Shaka's "Commandments of Dub" series in album, released in 1982.
In selecting a Mick Jones tune I went for this track from "London Calling" on the very flimsy grounds that the library in Dalston is next door to a Sainsburys. Mick's other band and Black Slate are in the videos.
It was only when leafing through the obituaries in the latest edition of Uncut at the weekend that I learned Keith Dobson left us back in July.
Keith first hit the scene as drummer with hippie collective Here & Now using the nom de plume Kif-Kif Le Batteur. Fortunately he packed that nonsense in after a while and started making proper music under his own name, most notably as the CEO of World Domination Enterprises, creators of "Asbestos Lead Asbestos" and other hits.
On reading the news I headed straight over to Bandcamp and picked up an expanded edition of their 1988 album "Let's Play Domination". It is a splendid racket as these samples demonstrate.
World Domination Enterprises are of course far from the only example of evil big business trying to persuade the kids to part with their pocket money. Let's name and shame a few of the other culprits. Watch out for DLT speaking German.
My recent holiday was spent in Bosnia and Herzegovina - primarily in Sarajevo and Mostar but with side trips to Jajce, Travnik and Blagaj.
I had a great time and would heartily recommend it as a destination to anyone who enjoys one or more of stunning scenery, history (recent and older), art (street and gallery), burek or beer.
Described (by myself admittedly) as "a dazzling mix of ancient and modern, of urban grit and rural charm", my holiday snaps are on Flickr. You probably won't want to wade through all of them so here is a small selection: a view of Mostar, the 16th century dervish house in Blagaj, and the bobsleigh track for the 1984 Winter Olympics that was part of the frontline during the siege of Sarajevo.
I found a few record shops while I was there but none had bargain bins so I restricted myself to a small number of purchases. Some were of the traditional sevdah music which will feature in a separate post. And then there were these two.
Zoster are a band from Mostar who got their name after the singer had a nasty bout of shingles. They describe their style as rock-reggae but I can detect no signs of any reggae on their 2014 album "Srce Uzavrelo". Maybe it is a more recent direction.
I have selected the opening track "Gavrilo" which may or may not be about Gavrilo Princip, the man who kick-started World War I when he assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. The deed was done just outside the pink building in the photo below.
I was on the look out from music by Laka, a man whose performance with his sister Mirela at the 2008 Eurovision remains one of the most delightfully bonkers things I have ever seen, and managed to find his 2011 album "Stvorenje". It is better than I was expecting to be honest.
From the album I have picked "Pametniji" which Google Translate claims means smarter, although it may just have been the AI boasting.
I'm back from my hols. I had a very good time and will be boring you all with the details later in the week. But first some unfinished business.
In one of my last posts before my break I mentioned that I would be popping along to the Clerkenwell Festival to see P.P. Arnold and The Rockingbirds do their thing. This attracted envious comments from a few of you so I thought I should report back.
Here is my detailed review: They were both great.
One of the fun things to do at the Clerkenwell Festival is spotting the musicians in the crowd who were moderately successful at some point in the late 1970s to late 1980s. No Gaye Advert this year but Spizz was present (and making sure everyone knew it) and we also had a sighting of Helen McCookeryBook. I subsequently learned through social media that Mari Wilson and the bloke from S Express were also there.
Here is a track each from the two headliners, both highlights of their respective sets, plus something from Ms McCookeyBook back in the days when she was the Head Chef. The other celebs have been relegated to the videos.
Links stay up for a month or so. If you are an artist or copyright holder and want me to remove the link, or if you want to get in touch for any other reason, e-mail me on leggies27@hotmail.co.uk.
