Friday review

The first event wasn’t due to start until 1pm in the glorious old wooden beamed and floored Spiegeltent which was my undoing as the pleasant weather meant I find a spot in the arena in front of the main/open air stage under the fluttering flags and drank real ale until the arrival of the first act and then ended up not moving from there and missing most of the performances on offer on other stages. I’m a bit of a World Music novice to be honest but WOMAD suits me as it means there’s no one on the bill I particularly have to see.

Ravibandhu Vidyapathy and Ensemble – open air stage
Opening events on the main stage the drummers draw a crowd and sound a fairly decent opener but aren’t energetic enough it seemed to me and not quite bassy enough, but it’s a nice start and for many it provides a lovely backdrop to catching up on old festival friends.

Kala Chethena Kathkali Company – Siam tent
If only I’d have moved! For many of my friends the highlight of the weekend was this theatre group from India and so I feel I should mention them. Their lurid painted faces and sumptuous costumes were joined by amazing music to make a real treat many people won’t forget in a hurry. If they come back I intend to see them and all those who saw it couldn’t stop raving about it.

Les Yeux Noirs – open air stage
Now for me this is much more lively, with fiddle players and some particularly ‘French’ dress sense with a pink shirt and bright green trousers. The tunes were part folk or gypsy mixed with Eastern rhythms and worked very well in front of a World music audience.

Renegades of Steel Orchestra – open air stage
The oldest and most famous steel band they are fantastic and both the crowd and the band clearly love the performance. At one point they play the ‘Can Can’ at another classical music, it’s terrific they seem to be able to take any genre of music and convert it to their own steel drum sounds. The highlights have to be ‘No Woman No Cry’ and ‘In the Mood’ and the open air stage crowd applauds the performance loudly.

Culture
Reggae comes at last to the main stage and the crowd swells as those who have watched Kiki Dee or Bajofondo Tango Club join us for some roots reggae in the evening. The band certainly provide a great beat to dance to and provide some classic tunes but the sound where we are dancing is a little muted and the performance seems a little off possibly because of it.

Robert Plant and Strange Sensation
The once lead singer of the greatest rock band of all time - Led Zeppelin seems not to have aged to badly at all. He still has his long curly hair and he still has that awesome voice. The band may have changed but most of us judging by the crowd’s reaction are here to hear Led Zep tunes. ‘No Quarter’ gets him off to a great start but again the sound appears really washed out where we are stood. Percy also plays stuff from his new album ‘Mighty Re-Arranger’ and certainly it appears he has reworked many tracks to give them more of an Eastern flavour. ‘Shine it all Around’ from Dreamland is terrifically beefed up and as Robert sways the psychedelic dancing is starting and ‘Black Dog’ sure does make us sweat and groove. Then ‘Four Sticks’ has me dancing like a loon, while at the same time wishing Page was still on guitar with them as the Strange Sensation guitarist doesn’t even attempt to match Page’s energy. ‘Gallow’s Pole’ and ‘Levee Breaks’ mingles with newer songs of these ‘The Enchanter’ is by far the best on the night. It takes until the encore for ‘Whole Lotta Love’ to lift us all into the night. A fantastic performer, although the sound could have been larger he mightily impressed on the night.

The arena remains open for a few hours, there’s more music on offer in Club Womad, but we’re happy to find some seating outside a café and enjoy the warm night. Once again the toilets were half closed and the warm cider all too tasty (if a little too sweet this year) and we returned to our tent to listen to our neighbours play gentle acoustic guitar until the early hours.

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