Our comprehensive review of the music at Cheltenham's arts festival GREENBELT concludes. A total of 17 reviewers filed 70 reviews. Read and be amazed.
Continued from page 5
ONE NATION - Stage 2 - 7.15pm
Having discovered
the superb One Nation on the Sunday in an overflowing YMCA 24hr Café
I decided that seeing them on the Monday was a must. Stage 2 was
equally packed and many people had to wait for others to exit before
they could gain admittance to the building. The set was fantastic.
They started their dynamic show with a couple of instrumental pieces,
which left the audience stunned by the group's musical brilliance and
begging for more. More was duly delivered with the arrival of the
stunningly sublime vocals of Emma. Her amazing vocal skills were
particularly noticeable in the band's rendition of "Ain't No
Sunshine", which highlighted the group's individuality as they
thoroughly made the song their own. One Nation's enthusiasm and
enjoyment was evident throughout their set and they soon got the
entire audience dancing to their toe-tapping melodies and catchy
beats. On one occasion they took the well known melody of a J Lo
number and the riff from Beyonce Knowles' "Crazy In Love" and set
powerful lyrics to it expressing their love of and need for God. For
me it was the performance of the weekend.
Sarah Lawrence
ATLUM SCHEMA - Christian Aid Performance Café -
7.30pm
On the opening night of Greenbelt 2005, Atlum Schema
(Southampton/Leamington based Andy Mort and musical companion Ben
Munday) caught the attention of an unsuspecting Performance Cafe crowd
and left them wondering what they had just witnessed. What started as
Andy's solo experiments now warranted the full band treatment, hence,
Munday is now a permanent addition (adding bass, guitar and backing
vocals), while drummer Luke Roberts does good trade in driving beats
and epic samples. Suits, style and sophisticated songwriting were all
that was needed to grab the attention and imagination of a tired
Monday night crowd. The set began with the jaw-dropping "End Of A
City" - one bloke, a guitar, beat-boxing and a loop pedal lost us in
another world for an enticing six minutes. From there on Andy located
himself firmly behind the piano, twisting his neck like a
contortionist, practically eating the microphone, blasting out
fearless falsetto before ending songs with barely a whisper. The
audience increased as new tracks "Truckstop" and "Local Weather
Report" were played. The highlights were "Weedkiller" and "Counterfeit
Love" (the track Andy played to keep spirits high when Kevin Max went
AWOL for his acoustic set). If anything marred the performance it was
poor sound levels - as Andy mauled the keys we sometimes struggled to
hear what was coming out). If I've done a bad job of describing the
Atlum Schema sound, that's because it's a near impossible task. It's
epic, beautiful, scary, memorable and technically interesting music.
With future gigs including a support slot for Cathy Burton, these guys
are going from strength to strength. With any luck I'll be able to
circle them in my GB2007 programme.
Ewan Jones
CANDI STATON - Main Stage - 8.05pm
It was only a
matter of time before Candi Staton came to Greenbelt. After singing gospel as a child,
a string of R&B hits in the '60s and disco hits in the '70s,
violent marriages and alcoholism, this diva from the deep south
switched her focus back to her roots - gospel. Since then she has won
several Dove awards and has a thriving television ministry. That
didn't stop her having a British dance hit in 1991 after The Source
remixed her song "You Got The Love" to chart topping appeal. This is,
of course, what most of the muddied masses would have known her for as
they flocked around the main stage on the final night of Greenbelt 06. She came
with a large band including brass and backing vocalists, all looking
ready to hit the crowd up with some soul. It was a weak start however.
The opening cover of Elvis' "Caught In A Trap" was no more than any
competent covers band could do. "I'm Just A Prisoner", one of her
early hits, rolled by, followed by a new song of old school
blues-brothers R&B that was played well enough, but you felt the
band itching for more freedom. With Candi's cover of Gladys Night's
"Nights On Broadway" they got it. The brass stabbed, the bass slapped
and Candi and the crowd came alive. This was more like it. After
taking a moment to thank God, then the press and her fans (in that
order), for support, her old R&B hit "I'd Rather Be An Old Man's
Sweetheart (Than Be A Young Man's Fool)" and her cover of Tammy
Wynette's "Stand By Your Man" seemed a tad incongruous, but it didn't
matter. She had the crowd, and still had the mojo, though mellowed by
age. After Rick Walker's "In The Ghetto" the audience finally got what
they came for. As the heavens opened the band stormed into "Young
Hearts Run Free" and as the crowd grooved (and the umbrellas bounced)
a muddy Cheltenham became Las Vegas sizzling in the summer heat of
'76. After many extended solos the final cut of the night could only
be "You've Got The Love". From a purely critical point of view this
sounded like a blues band who didn't really know what to do with a
club dance tune, and repeating the mistake by doing the same tune as
an encore seemed asking for trouble. But what does a critic know! As
the familiar bassline pumped out the ebullient crowd were ecstatic and
the veteran diva ended the night in triumph. Candi had served us well
with a plate of nostalgia on what was a Greenbelt night to remember.
Paul Baker
MICHAEL FRANTI & SPEARHEAD - Main Stage -
9.45pm
Franti supported U2 on the Achtung Baby tour, recorded
with the legendary beat poet William Burrows and is well known for his
protest rants against racism, militarism and globalisation. So despite
being cold, muddy, wet and at the end of the weekend the crowd turned
out and I went open minded. Michael opened with an intro about freedom
and being open minded and the lyrics certainly weren't middle of the
road. They were thought provoking and challenging. In truth, the
lyrics seemed more important than the repetitive riffs and though the
fusion of reggae, rock and funk got the crowd jumping the repetition
of Michael's "revolutionary" hectoring and such highly dubious
proclamations as "God is too big for just one religion" and "tell me
lies, lies, when I cannot bear the truth" made this a set that might
have suited liberal political agendas but left many Christians in the
crowd uneasy.
Rachel Nixon
KATO - Christian Aid Performance Café - 10pm
This was billed in the programme as a solo appearance by Keith
Ayling, but the rest of the band seemed to have come along as well so
what we actually got was Kato unplugged. Despite this being Kato's
only live appearance this year (as Keith is taking a year's sabbatical
to do charity work and learn how to preach - yes, really!), this was a
relaxed and confident performance which included some favourites from
'Songs To Help You Survive' (2002) and 'Welcome To My World' (2001).
The set also featured Keith reading us a couple of extracts from two
of his favourite books. For the penultimate song, the band recruited
two drummers from the audience to join them on stage to play bongos -
a potentially disastrous move but one which actually worked
surprisingly well! Finishing the evening - and, for most of the
audience present, the festival - with a worship song was an inspired
touch which made this evening's memories into something special.
Mark Goodge
wow you did good and have you listened to LZ7 they are respectful xx
Kerry xx