The new Kunstrasen season got underway last Thursday with a visit from US band The National in perfect weather. Perhaps sunshine and smiles don’t quite fit the melancholy mood of singer Matt Berninger’s generally sombre texts, but given the heat, it was probably best that we didn’t have a lively dance band in front of us. Even so, there was a break for medical attention midway through the band’s set. Join me if you will, down by the Rhine with a plastic cup of Veltins in one hand and a pretzel in the other as The National take the stage to the strains of Talking Heads ‘Slippery People’
Nine years, a few unremarkable albums, two pregnancies and one divorce after she last performed in Cologne, Paloma Faith was back in town to strut her stuff at Bürgerhaus Stollwerk. And she still has it all: the heels, the wit – and that voice, as Jürgen Padberg reports…
Murray Kinsley certainly knows what it’s like to have the blues. He flew into Cologne/Bonn this very morning to discover his guitar and clothes were both somewhere back at London Heathrow. Typically for a bluesman, it was all down to whiskey of course as my INTERVIEW reveals (and maybe some ‘bad’ woman at luggage control was also to blame?) They ‘done him wrong’ in London for sure. Possibly worst of all was that his CD box was also somewhere far away – and as most touring musicians will know, these days, that’s their main moneymaker along with the ticket sales. Yes, indeed, people of Bonn – Kleines Theater in Bad Godesberg is tonight a place for the Blues – and for the first time as far as I know inside and not under the Cedar Trees. Maybe there’s a song in there somewhere for the next CD? Join me for an evening with Murray Kinsley’s Wicked Grin
This year’s Over the Border boasts 14 concerts with musicians from 29 Nations, all of which will have a high bar to come up to after this first show at Bonn Harmonie with South African band B.C.U.C. and aided by duos from the forthcoming Irish and African nights.
Over the Border has now established itself with Bonn music fans as a place to hear something just a little bit different, but still guaranteed to be the best of its style. B.C.U.C. (Bantu Continua Uhuru Consciousness) have been around for twenty years now, and are a lot more musically interesting than their somewhat wieldy name might suggest. Indeed, during the course of the evening it becomes clear why they are worthy winners of this year’s Womex Award which is given to musicians for “musical excellence, social importance, commercial success and political impact” The seven-piece band from South Africa do all of these things almost by musical hypnosis.
With one bass guitar and two bass drums, theirs is a very resonant ‘rolling thunder’ soundscape built around the vocals of Nkosi ‘Jovi’ Zithulele. The music itself is difficult to describe. Somewhere I read it described as ‘Afrofuturistic Punk’ which is; I suspect, what AI might come up with after being fed the band’s latest disc. I guess that makes Zithulele a South African Shane MacGowan? One thing that Zithulele shares with the late Irishman is certainly charisma by the bucketful.
The music is very much a soundscape over which Zithulele delivers thoughtful commentary that might be better termed ‘food for the soul’. At one point that music is a rhythm to remember loved ones around us and particularly those no longer around us. At another point The deterioration of South Africa is a theme set to equally entrancing drum beats: “The wonderful new World that Nelson Mendela brought to us is no longer alive” he bemoans. In its place is a World of men in suits with no thoughts other than to line their own pockets. All the time he speaks the drums are beating, and people around me are dancing. The words seeming to soak into them audience via Zithulele’s evaporating sweat – and if Zithulele is part-prophet he must also be part-athlete because the man is constantly running from side to side of the stage, jumping in the air, and at one point even doing press-ups.
A real firework show to open this year’s Festival then, but there will be more great music to come in the coming weeks. How do I know this? The two duos who opened this evening’s concert .will also be a part of those forthcoming concerts in Bonn. The festival’s two Irish evenings got a taster in the form of Cork duo Joe Philpott and Anthony Cotter. The latter delivering a stunning acapella version of the classic ‘Song for Ireland’. There was something wonderfully un-contrived about the duo’s onstage presence which is maybe down to their roots. There’s a picture of a young Joe Philpott on Facebook with a certain other Irish gentleman named Rory Gallagher. Need I say more? At any rate, two Irishmen with just acoustic guitars and a few songs to sing – gets me every time. Lovely stuff indeed.
There were two gentlemen also onstage to promote the African Night (13 March) but that’s where the similarities end. Mbye Ebrima on Kora and Cologne-based Pape Samory Seck with percussion created a gentle and melodic bridge between the two acoustic guitars and the heavy-duty rhythmic vibes of B.C.U.C. Variety is not only the spice of life – it’s also the life-blood of ‘Over The Border’
In the early days of Bonn Folk Club‘Singers Night’ was usually a euphemism for “No one booked to play in advance”. Thankfully, that circumstance has long since ceased to be of concern. The opposite is now true – everyone wants to play! That made for a rather ponderous-looking list on paper – but, to (mis)quote football legend Brian Cough after his highly regarded team had a bad result – “we weren’t playing on paper”. And our result was a good deal better than Mr Clough’s.
Johnny Campbell’s appearance at Bonn Folk Club last year was a real breath of fresh air. It’s a long time since I experienced an English folk musician who truly seems to have a mission in his music to rival that of the legendary Ewan MacColl. This is music with a heart and a soul and also a home – True North.
If you’ve never been to the North of England then I recommend purchasing the disc with an extra booklet. In it, you’ll find not just the lyrics, but also discover a background that is as fascinating as the songs themselves. As an example, it’s hard to imagine Leeds as a ‘seaside Town’. For a start, it’s nowhere near the coast (in fact, although it just misses being a part of the Midlands, you can’t get much more ‘mid-land’ than Leeds). Industrialisation though wasn’t to be deterred. To get the woven textiles produced there to the market quickly a canal was built that led west to Liverpool and ultimately to the sea. Not quite a seaside town then – but Nature and Man combined to find the sea. Indeed, it’s this synergy of the two that is behind ‘True North’.
Campbell describes these as ‘Field Recordings’. Which very often, literally they are. Each track is recorded on or around a respective county high point of Northern England. Don’t expect audiophile perfection here. That’s not the aim even. Johnny describes it rather beautifully as “tapping into the psychogeography of northern England”. Traditional songs with music created in the moment and inspired by the often rugged and windswept countryside which itself got swept up in an industrial revolution that changed the people and the landscape forever.
The mood and fears of the time are captured in ‘Four Loom Weaver’, describing the catastrophic outcome that mechanization had on the workforce at the time. “I’m a four loom weaver, as everybody knows. I’ve nowt to eat, and I’ve worn out me clothes. Stockings I’ve none, nor looms to weave on. I’ve woven mesen t’ far end!”.
It’s a lot to aim for – trying to convey the spirits of people and places and history all in one go. Johnny Campbell though has done it on True North with a stunning, simple, honesty. Playing where the history itself took place. armed with just a recorder, a voice, a guitar, and a spirit of defiance. playing this disc makes the listener feel as if they are that check-shirted man on the CD cover enjoying the view with a guitar beside him, surveying the land and the history it has lived. For most people that in itself would be enough. Johnny Campell doesn’t just talk the talk though, he, literally, walks the walk too, recently announcing proudly that he would be taking part in a ‘trespass’ walk on Kinder Scout. For those who don’t know the history: On 24th April 1932, several hundred activists from Manchester, Salford and Sheffield ‘trespassed’ on Derbyshire’s highest point, Kinder Scout, to highlight how walkers have been denied access to the open countryside by wealthy landowners, often using these moorlands for the elite, ecologically damaging, and profitable ‘sport’ of grouse shooting. Things have sadly not got better, and now, in 2024, 92% of land is ‘off-limits’ to walkers.
‘True North’ is not all Industrial Revolution woes though. and visitors to Bonn Folk Club may remember Johnny giving us a shortened version of the old traditional song ‘The Derby Ram’ with its origins in the 18th Century. I wonder when the last verse here was added that refers to: “The manure from the ram sir. It made a great big mound. And now it plays on Saturday, at Derby’s football ground!”
Overall this is much more than an album showcasing old history. It is a wake-up call and reminder that these Cities are as they are because of the land and rivers that themselves decided as much as the people what could be manufactured where and how it could reach its final market. Nature is bigger than any of us, and not a commodity that should be locked away by a privileged few.
A shout out also to Katie Gabriel Allen for creating a stunning artwork cover for the disc. A perfect poster in itself, showing our check-shirted troubador on a hill overlooking many of the famous sights of the area. It all looks so wonderfully tempting to hike through in its chocolate-box romantic splendour. Not a single ‘No Entry’ or ‘Trespassers Will Be Prosecuted’ sign in sight. The real ‘True North’ is to be found in the songs here, the sweat of labour and the clank of machines. Also, in the struggle to maintain entry to the land for the sons and daughters of those who sweated and starved. Obviously, a labour of love for Johnny Campbell, this disc and booklet would make great learning material in schools. Music, history and education – all with just a couple of instruments, a voice, and a breathtaking backdrop. What’s not to like?!
Although Katie Henry and Ally Venable are on this special Blues Caravan bill, the star of the tour is inevitably Bernard Allison. It was Bernard’s father the great Luther Allison, who inspired Thomas Ruf to not only promote Blues music but also to set up a European Record label. So it was that RUF Records, devoted to promoting the best of New Blues, began exactly 30 years ago. Anniversary time then at Bonn Harmonie on Thursday evening and an opportunity to celebrate RUF records, Luther Allison, and of course the Blues.
What better theme to kick off a New Year in our currently war-torn and uncertain World than ‘Hope’? From unrequited lover to pigeon racer – hope comes in myriad shapes and forms as our evening was to prove. In fact, the very first thing to hope for at Dotty’s for Folk Club #142 was refreshments. Bar owner Roland was on holiday, but the charming Natalie came to our rescue with a refrigerator full of drinks and the equally charming Detlef once more stepped up to the mark admirably with baskets of snack food. The evening can begin!
