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15 Sep 09 - 04:55 AM (#2723958) Subject: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: Hamish I'd been looking forward to seeing the highlights programmes - there are to be four 30-minute shows over this and the next three weeks - and sat down to watch the first one last night. Hmmm... just Booker T. And I see that next week's is just Oumou Sangare. Not sure how they can define the highlights of an expansive bill such as was there as being restricted to just four acts. And on the evidence of the first two acts, perhaps not as hard core "folk" as many other acts. I was down near the front for Oumou Sangare and she and her band were terrific, but, as a licence-payer, I feel short-changed that the highlights seem to be so limited. |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:02 AM (#2724026) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: Dave Hanson It begs the question , what part of the words ' folk festival ' did the BBC not understand. Booker T was very good, but absolutely nowt to do with ' folk ' Dave H |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:15 AM (#2724034) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: GUEST,Fantum Like you Dave it was ok but what it had to do with "Folk" baffled me. I asked the significant other what sort of music she thought it was and the list was long but it did not inc folk Not much hope then for the rest of the series |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:33 AM (#2724045) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: evansakes and there was me hoping there might be some footage of Hamish Currie performing on the club stage. Unfortunately I wasn't able to squeeze in for that one.... |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:41 AM (#2724054) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: MGM·Lion The question of what the Cambridge Festival had to do with folk goes back to the late 60s. I used to ask it, year after year, in the review I would do for The Guardian; till I got exasperated & ended a review "I shan't go again" - & haven't, tho I live there. I remember Fred Woods, editor of Folk Review, running a symposium-feature called "The Cambridge WHAT Festival?" The low point was one year when, as a sop to those of us who seemed to care, they set up a 90-minute "Traditional·Session" on the #2 stage and then seemed surprised that we didn't all have orgasms of delite... |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:45 AM (#2724058) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: GUEST It`s the same old story the Folk at the BBC and Cambridge is not the FOLK MUSIC that everybody else Knows and Enjoys. |
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15 Sep 09 - 08:48 AM (#2724064) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: melodeonboy I thought that Cambridge had stopped being regarded as a folk festival (despite its name!) many years ago. It's heavily influenced by Radio 2, and I think we know their attitude to folk music! Had it not been for Cambridge Folk Festival I would not have the interest that I now have in blues, cajun, zydeco, bluegrass and Americana, and for that I'm eternally grateful. But despite the odd concert I've seen there by Carthy, Swarbrick, Garbutt etc., I can't say that it developed my interest in folk a great deal (that happened elsewhere). I was therefore not the slightest bit surprised to see Booker T as one of the highlights (and bloody good he was too, in my opinion). Booker T as one of the highlights of The Fylde or Tenterden festivals? Now THAT would be surprising! By the way, does Peter-Buckley Hill still do his end of evening stints there? |
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20 Sep 09 - 10:32 AM (#2727281) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: FairEllender I remember having a similar experience last year when settling down to watch some 'highlights', which consisted of a few Seth Lakeman songs and then a set from a pop/rock band. It's a prime example of how the word 'folk' has been appropriated by non-traditionalists to such a degree that it seems to be no longer at all applicable to the traditional music scene. |
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20 Sep 09 - 12:46 PM (#2727387) Subject: RE: Cambridge Folk Fest 09 - BBC4 Highlights From: Paul Davenport Thing is, if festivals elsewhere book acts that approximate more to pop than to folk then you'll see more Cambridges. I spoke to one festival organiser who admitted that, having spent the bit bucks to get a headline act (pop orientated and a darling of BBC2) they completely failed to deliver the host of smaller names that actually do the real work at a folk festival. There are plenty of performance opportunities for pop music but relatively few for folk I hope festival organisers start to get the message in these financially pressured times. |