John Harrison not only got street music in Bonn going again last week-end, he also got to enjoy live music in the City from others. Here is his report on the return of outdoor music and a visit to Folk Club venue Dotty’s where a glimmer of hope for future Folk meetings was suggested by a live appearance on the tennis court by local legends Room-Service.
Along with the recent good news that street music permits are again available comes the welcome news of a new ‘mini’ open-air festival in Bonn centre this Summer. The cultural office (Kulturamt) has organized a varied music program from August through September 2020 titled OpernRasenLIGHT in compliance with the applicable hygiene measures to enliven the open land in front of the Bonn Opera House. Jazz, world music and acoustic folk are on offer. The musical will be playing from 5 to 7 p.m. with two sets of 30 minutes each.
This weekend saw a positive relaxation in the Corona regulations here in the Bonn area. For the first time since lockdown Bonn Council has been allowing permits to entertain in the City streets. Folk Club impresario John Harrison was proudly the first to play Bonn’s shopping streets again, so I joined him for some of his journey as a street musician to see how people would react to hearing a real guitar and a real voice out on the streets again.
Sadly, even Mr Music and Julian Sas have had to bow to the restrictions of Covid-19. Julian’s 19th appearance at Harmonie since 2003 scheduled for November 21, has had to be postponed until 27 November 2021.
All tickets purchased for this years cancelled show (on 21 Nov) will be valid for the big Dutchman’s return next year.
It’s been a while since my interview with Gary Moore’s son Jack. In it Jack Moore admitted that being the son of guitar virtuoso Gary was a hard act to follow. Jack has indeed taken a while to find his own musical direction, The track ‘Fate‘ sees him team up with LA musicians Andrew Smith and Tyler Lyle. Taken from the trios forthcoming debut EP ‘Smith, Lyle & Moore’ which is due for release in September, it shows where Jack Moore is now, and also shows that it’s not a bad place to be at all – just don’t look to it as a gauge of how Jack’s guitar licks stand up against dads, because there aren’t any.
A second highly enjoyable evening of live music outside of the Kleines Theatre in Bad Godesberg with Cynthia Nickschas playing under the Cedar trees at the Kurpark. Whilst Wikipedia tells me that there are many trees that go under the description of ‘Cedar’ there is very definitely only one Cynthia Nickschas.
