Showing posts with label mumford. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mumford. Show all posts

Thursday 30 April 2015

Scottish summer festivals 2015


 - Party at the Palace, Linlithgow -  8th to 9th August. Headliners - Travis, Nile Rodgers, Julie Fowlis, Justin Currie, The Feeling, 

- The Stopover Festival, Rothiemurchus Cairngorms (NEW) - 31st July and 1st August.  Headlined by Mumford & Sons and their new album. Also with Primal Scream, The Maccabees, Ben Howard, Lianne La Havas and Honeyblood will also be performing at the 25,000-ticket event.  http://www.gentlemenoftheroad.com/stopovers/aviemore/

Boswell Book Festival -  the World's Only Festival of Biography and Memoir. May 10th at Dumfries house  Ayrshire. Jung Chang, author of international bestseller Wild Swans (yet to be published in China) will talk about her remarkable life, family and works. Plus many more authors.
'Moa ordered the flowers pulled up from the ground; Empress Cixi wore them in her hair.'

- Mugstock Festival (new), at Mugdock country park north of Milngavie - 7th to 9th August.  Orkestra del Sol, Preston Reid, Siohban Wilson.   http://www.mugstock.org/

- Pittenweem Arts festival, 1st to 19th August.  http://www.pittenweemartsfestival.co.uk/

 

Other festivals include  -  Belladrum Tartan heart festival 6th - 8th August west of Inverness.  Kaiser Chiefs, Manic Street Preacher, Proclaimers.  http://www.tartanheartfestival.co.uk/

 Wickerman in Ayrshire with the Waterboys. Sadly no Rockness in 2015. 

T In The Park, the biggest weekend Scottish summer festival, has now moved to a new site at Strathallan Castle, while there are problems with ospreys nests.  http://www.tinthepark.com/

 

Monday 23 February 2015

Posh Culture

Eddie Redmayne in The Theory of Everything
Once the regenerating resurgence of the 60s and 70s social mobility meant a vibrant and energizing arts creativity. There was a wealth of working class musicians who listened to American blues artists and realized that anyone might aspire to pick up a guitar and play rock and roll. 

Sadly this is not so today. I wondered a few years back over more recent UK bands that hailed from middle class and upper middle class backgrounds - such as Mumford, Coldplay and others - have been squeezing out those young people not so favoured.  

It appears I am not alone thinking these thoughts. Scottish actress Elaine C Smith writing in the Sunday Herald, “Does it matter if UK culture is increasingly dominated by a privately educated elite? You bet it does.”
‘there is no doubt that the old guard are back in charge, with a wealthy, privileged, white, male, privately educated elite dominating our arts, film and TV. The big problem is that for young people today there are few opportunities if you attend a state school

I lived in the US for ten years where I noticed that the tv soaps were never about any divisive 'them and us' class system. Today in the UK we have either posh TV soaps such as Downton Abbey  -  or working class soaps like Eastenders. 

Notably recently several of the new younger actors are from privileged backgrounds, such as - 
Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddi Redmayne, Domimic West.

We have Oxbridge graduates coming up to Scotland to run The Scottish National theatre and Creative Scotland, as well as other major cultural events here, who don’t have grounding in what Scotland is about. In fact a Scot has never run these major Scottish creative bodies (to my great surprise!). I don’t suspect that France would wish to have Germans or Americans running their culture!

Question remains – who is in charge of our arts – universities, galleries, theatre companies, festivals, opera, ballet and so on. And do we need outsiders telling us they know better how to develop our culture?

And no, this is not about the politics of envy, as James Blunt suggested, but rather that this stifles and misrepresents culture. This is also about providing for cultural diversity.

Scottish actor James McAvoy expresses his concern: "As soon as you get one tiny pocket of society creating all the arts, or culture starts to become representative not of everybody, but of one tiny part, and that's not fair to begin with, but it's also damaging for society."
Mumford
Benedict Cumberbatch attended boarding school Brambletye School
Eddi Redmayne attended Eton.
Domimic West also attended Eton and Trinity college. 
Chris Martin boarded at Sherborne School, a boys' independent school Dorset where he met future Coldplay manager Phil Harvey.
Mumford attended private school King’s College School Wimbledon.
James Blunt was educated at private school Harrow.

There are around 2,500 independent schools in the UK, which educate around 615,000 children, being some 7 per cent of all British children and 18 per cent of pupils over the age of 16. yet those from independent schools dominate at Oxford, Cambridge, government, and other leading roles. A big part of this is confidence and networking.


Monday 25 February 2013

Brits 2013

Muse opened the show with a big production behind them of attractive ladies paying violins. Considering Mumford are the big thing, it might have been cooler to have them open and have Muse playing a more real band set later in the show. Mumford's dance vibes mixed with folk offer a real fun energetic set. I saw Mumford in Glasgow in April 2010 and they certainly got the crowd dancing and singing. The sets were spot on though and a lot of thought had gone into Robbie Williams chequered backdrop!
American artists Justin Timberlake and Taylor Swift performed, as did the pop boy band One Direction who have taken the teenage pop market by storm and have had several number ones worldwide – hugely successful and X factor graduates no less.

*The Critics Choice award this year went to Tom Odell – a guy for a change - and another piano playing singer songwriter.  He sounded promising when he sang acoustically at the after program, although perhaps sounding a little bit too much like Mumford or Bright Eyes. I am not sure at all where the great male singers are these days - except in bands...None of them have anything new to say to me, I have heard it all before.  

*Ben Howard won – Best Male and Breakthrough.  
*Lana Del Rey won Best International Female. Frank Ocean (who my son has been raving about) won Best International Male.

*The highlight of the night was Emeli Sande who won Best Female and the MasterCard Award for Best Album.  
Emeli Sande is the genuine article and she commented after winning the album of the year award, that she was 'an unlikely popstar.' I was very happy for her as I have been following her career since I first heard her sing in 2007 at her cd launch gig here at the Oran Mor Glasgow. 

The music business makes little sense though I must admit!?  Look at the guys - Ed Sheeran, the new James Blunt? or Robbie Williams even who has won the most Brits ever!!??  Oh well at least One Direction are out there!  The problem is the mainstream is not really where the best music is.    

The BRIT awards began in 1977 as part of the commemoration of the Queen’s Silver Jubilee and as an annual event in 1982 under the auspices of the British record industry's trade association, the BPI. The 2011 Brit Awards were held at The O2 Arena in London for the first time in its history, moving from the original venue of Earls Court.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

Kris Drever and Lau on Jools Holland

Kris Drever, Aidan O'Rourke and Lau on Jools Holland this week - it is good to see folk and indie music is alive and well! Folk/Blues Chart  - Mumford No 1. - plus Kate Rusby, Bellowhead, Paul Simon, Laura Marling, Chieftains, Neil Young. Good chart! : ))   http://www.bbc.co.uk/lau/
http://www.bbc.co.uk/joolsholland

Lau - http://pkimage.co.uk/Lau
Kris Drever PHOTOS - http://pkimage.co.uk/krisdrever 

Friday 23 April 2010

Mumford & Sons ABC Glasgow 3rd March 2010


Mumford & Sons, an indie folk band from London, warmed the winter chills as they took to the ABC stage amid red and atmospheric lighting and a cheering sold out venue. They play with soaring keys, pumping banjo, and pristine vocal harmonies. Their lead singer Marcus has dark good looks and a glint in his eye, along with a voice that aches and moves with energetic passions. The band consists of Marcus Mumford (guitar, drums, mandolin), Country Winston ( banjo, dobro), Ben Lovett (keyboards, organ), Ted Dwane (double bass). They formed in late 2007 out of London's folk scene, along with other artists such as Laura Marling, and Noah and the Whale, and they have supported Marling at concerts. Mumford and Lovett met while attending King's College School alongside Noah and the Whale bassist Matt Owens, whilst Marshall attended St Paul's School along with Charlie Fink, lead singer of Noah and the Whale. The band are signed to Island Records and their debut album, Sigh No More, was released in the UK in October 2009, and in February 2010 in the US. The band has achieved success in Australia, and also played live on CBS Late Show with David Letterman.