Saturday review

Billy Bragg is busy this weekend and after watching a couple of episodes of Nick Park’s ‘Shaun the Sheep’ in the outdoor arena, I catch Billy’s seminar on a new Bill of Rights and defining Britishness – he has a book out on the subject called ‘The Progressive Patriot’ and he’s currently campaigning for a new constitution for the UK.

The massive Centaur venue is the place to be at lunchtime on Saturday, Sunday and Monday where ‘The Rising’, a sort of Singer-Songwriters’ Circle, happens. Martyn Joseph hosts and invites three singer-songwriters to play a couple of tunes and to talk about their songwriting process, collaborations, inspirations etc. Billy Bragg appears alongside Amy Wadge, one third of Hummingbird, and Robert Fisher of the Willard Grant Conspiracy. Billy Bragg talks about his songwriting collaboration with a terminal cancer patient and plays us the result – a poignant, lump-in-the-throat song called ‘We Laughed’.

There is a solo set from Michael McDermott in the Centaur during the afternoon. A singer-songwriter based in Chicago, he plays keyboard and guitar and sings intensely personal songs in a husky voice and has been labelled by Rolling Stone magazine as “a very hot prospect”. ‘Mess of Things’ and ‘My Father’s Son’ are autobiographical and give an indication of the demons he wrestles with - he apparently spent time in the same prison as his father and has fought drug and alcohol problems for years. His new album ‘Noise from Words’ has just been released.


After Simon Mayo’s highly amusing “celebrity” quiz ‘I’m Sorry I Haven’t Another Poo’ and a seminar entitled ‘The Devil and Me’ by Cole Moreton, author and lead writer for the Independent on Sunday, I queue unsuccessfully for the Bassline Circus for an hour. I take in an “alternative worship” service instead which is presented by Ikon, a Belfast-based collective whose work has been referred to as “transformance art”. It is more of a performance than a traditional worship service but is designed to be thought-provoking and challenging. Tonight’s “theodrama” of ‘The God Delusion’ combines music with puppetry, film clips and poetry and is about doubting and unravelling – we are asked to “go in pieces” rather than “go in peace” at the end.

This year Christian Aid are running a Cutting the Carbon campaign and a climate change vigil is held at 11 pm. Following that, Last Orders tonight music-wise features Iain Archer, Sarah Masen and Kevin Max (formerly of dc Talk who sings a traditional hymn ‘Run on for a Long Time’ in his vibrato Vedder voice), as well as performance poet Matt Harvey and comedian Jo Enright, who was in Phoenix Nights and is highly commended by Peter Kay.

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