MusicPort Whitby?

Subject: Folklore: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST
Date: 04 Sep 14 - 11:20 PM

Whats musicport like as a festival? All I know is it used to be in Brid wnd has come back to awhitby?

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 04:02 AM

Musicport was started and is still run by husband and wife team Jim & Sue McLoughlin who also own the Porthole Music Shop on Skinner Street in Whitby. The Musicport Festival is a celebration of "roots" music from around the world, quite different from the "folk" festival, very varied and to many people very interesting. There are normally one or two bands or individuals that I enjoy but being an old stick in the mud most of it goes over my head. Nicaraguan Nose Flute players are not really my forte. However that is not to say it is a bad festival merely that I don't appreciate the variety on offer.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 05:17 AM

Celebrates diversity

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 05:22 AM

Nicaraguan Nose Flute players? Bloody love 'em. I'll have to make sure I drop in there the next time I'm in Whitby.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 05:34 AM

I've just had a look at the Musicport site, expecting to find great rafts of obscure and ethnic CDs from every imaginable corner of the globe. You know, all the stuff that makes life bearable; Bulgarian village choirs, Turkestanian shepherds, Peruvian harpists, Sardinian triple reed pipers.

Nothing. Not even a Rough Guide to Martin Carthy.

Why, I wonder, do they not stock CDs?

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 05:49 AM

Cost I would think, the shop retails musical instruments and accessories for the most part. The expense of stocking CD's would possibly be too great?

Fred............ after being a member (lead singer, no less)of the Nicaraguan Over 80's Nudist Leapfrog Troupe back in the 1970's I've had my fill of nose flutes.

It's all true!

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: Les from Hull
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 07:58 AM

Musicport is an excellent festival, we're going again this year, even though we are not dyed in the wool concert goers. I love the diversity of music, and if anything is not to your taste, the fact that the festival is all on the one site means that it's easy to sample something else. In fact it's more likely that you you will be spoilt for choice.

It's not easy to stock vast amounts of CDs from around the world, it's a big place and there's a lot of stuff to cover. The online shopping for CDs is very competitive. I would advise a subscription to Songlines magazine, though. It comes with a covermount CD (sometimes two) containing 15 tracks, 5 of them chosen by a prominent musician or notable 'music industry' person.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 08:16 AM

Hoping it will not be compounded by the parking shenanigans we experienced at the folk festival

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: Vic Smith
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 08:45 AM

Les from Hull wrote -
" In fact it's more likely that you you will be spoilt for choice. "
Totally agree!
When we were tour managers for the tours by the Gambian kora maestro, Jali Sherrifo Konteh, Jim booked him for the MusicPort festival in Whitby and we found everything about the festival enjoyable - the standard of organisation, programming and music was top class and the variety of traditional and roots music from all over the world was a joy.
When Sherrifo had finished his performance on the main stage, he was approached by a Guyanan storyteller called Tuup. He said that he would tell a long story about a kora player if Sherrifo would accompany him playing softly in the background and filling the gaps that Tuup left with some flourishes of solo playing. No time for rehearsal, let's just do it.
"But what will I play?! Sherrifo asked.
"Just listen to the story and play what you think will fit."

The performance was mesmeric and a huge crowd loved it. Every time we return to the Gambia, Sherrifo still talks about it and how hard he had to think to make his playing fit and what a buzz it gave him.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 08:58 AM

Ok. It's time to reveal all. There is no such thing as Nicaraguan nose flute. Parts of Africa and the Phillipines, yes. And a few other places besides. Plus, there's Mongolia, where they don't actually play nose flutes. Instead, Mongolian singers sometimes use the nose cavity to make the voice sound like a wind instrument.

But Nicaraguan nose flutes? Definitely not.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 05 Sep 14 - 03:28 PM

Ah Fred, you cynic, You didn't hear the Nicaraguan Over 80's Nudist Leapfrog Troupe!

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 04:13 AM

The kora player is magnificent.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Fred McCormick
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 06:20 AM

"didn't hear the Nicaraguan Over 80's Nudist Leapfrog Troupe"? What do you mean, didn't hear the Nicaraguan Over 80's Nudist Leapfrog Troupe? I was part of it. I was the one who used to shout out "If only we had a decent nose flute player"!

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Raggytash
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 06:47 AM

Oh ......... were you that strange young man who used to come to all our gigs and dribble on the sound equipment at the side of the stage?

How are you doing? long time no see, that jacket we gave you, you know the one with the sleeves that fastened at the back, do you still have it?

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Joe G
Date: 06 Sep 14 - 11:42 AM

I have been going to Musicport for about 8 years now - its an incredible festival and you often come away with loads of new music enthusiasms - one year a band was billed as 'Possibly the best band in the world' or something similar (Los D'Abajo). I was a bit sceptical but after 2 hours of leaping up and down after midnight I was converted. It is moments like this that make it so special. You won't like everything (I remember Taiko drummers everytime I have a headache!) but you will enjoy most of it if your mind is open to new experiences in music.

The move to Brid didn't work out unfortunately as the venue kept messing with the dates and they couldn't generate the audience numbers they needed for the bigger venue but the atmosphere is better now its back in Whitby anyway.

Give it a try you won't regret it - its really friendly too!

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Paul & Sue
Date: 13 Sep 14 - 05:22 AM

We've been every year since 2002 and travel up from South Lincolnshire, it is more than worth the trip.

Think Womad by the sea, but indoors, B&B not camping and much more intimate.

Like Womad it is largely roots music oriented, but that doesn't mean stuff that is frozen in time, the majority we see is new music, or old music in a very new way. A good local example would be Bellowhead who played here early in their career, or Los D'Anajo from Mexico. Young big bands with lots of energy and enthusiasm.

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST
Date: 14 Sep 14 - 03:40 AM

Thanks for all the comments and info. Hope to see some of you mudcatters up there.

pat

Subject: RE: MusicPort Whitby?
From: GUEST,Rebecca
Date: 25 Sep 14 - 05:16 AM

It's a fantastic festival - attention to detail - a feast for the ears and eyes - and even a bit of folk! People come back every year - well worth a go if you've never been before.