Hi Folks,

Have only just caught up with this thread. Most of my thoughts about this show, and about the JH show in general, have already been voiced by Darowen, Shepherdlass, and others. But nobody has yet mentioned something which impressed me about both the Bellowhead songs last Friday.

The darkly dramatic presentation of the lyrics, and the quirky musical decorations that surrounded them, seemed to me to have distant echoes of Brecht and Weil. I kept expecting them to break into "Mack the Knife", "Surabaya Johnnie" or "Moon of Alabama". Did anybody else get that impression?

Just imagine a production of 'Happy End' or 'Mahagonny' with Bellowhead as the house band! Or even better, imagine BH performing an original 21st century ballad opera, with something of the bite of Brecht, and the craft of Weil. Now that really would be worth hearing.

Wassail!