This weekend I had the pleasure of attending the second Byline Festival held in the beautiful pine-tree-lined (and has to be said superbly drained, given the weather) surroundings of Pippingford Park, Sussex. What a joyous, stimulating and thought provoking experience it proved to be (despite the largely depressing headline subject matter of the news!).
Byline bring together the bold and courageous, the truth seekers, the clear voices in the darkest of times and those that stand up and speak out for injustice.
Selena Godden
Fundamentally a current affairs/literary/journalists gathering the Festival had something for all including circus, workshops, poetry, comedy, film and theatre, and an array of interesting music, which is mainly where I come in of course.
Pussy Riot
Chief headliners were Pussy Riot. I had no idea what to expect - rubbish or brilliant? Performance art or punk band?They turned out to be brilliant. Three stage performers in lime green balaclavas and someone behind a deck controlling fast techno punk beats - a sort of Kraftwerk on heat. The main singer removed her mask at one stage but it was too dark to see her face. Someone told me there are up to 12 members in total that rotate depending on who's in jail! The omnipresent and charming event organisers promised at various times that 7, 8 or 9 Pussy Rioters would be back next year. We shall see.
The visuals were excellent - so many times I've seen bands with irrelevant backdrops carelessly thrown together apparently randomly - not here with the Pussys - the political messages were displayed on screen as were the lyrics or translations (where sung in Russian). This aided some great crowd singalongs to songs... about vaginas and pimples. The crowd lapped it up and one over excited reveller climbed the marquee rigging.
Would I buy one of their records? No, not really. It's all in the live experience and the visuals.
An amusing aside - a friend went back to her off site cottage earlier in the day for a lie down only to find Pussy Riot next door practising their routines.
Badly Drawn Boy
Friday's headliner was a very different affair - the talented and prize winning (although I get the impression the feted Mercury Prize* may have come too soon for this recipient) singer Damon Gough, aka Badly Drawn Boy.* Wasn't the prize once considered something of a poisoned chalice? Ed.
Not so much since the Arctic Monkeys won it.
His intimate solo gig was well received by the expectant crowd but unfortunately, although the voice was strong, the guitar fingers were live rusty and unwilling on the abandonned All Possibilities. His big hit, the wonderful You Were Right reached No. 9 in 2002 which he told the crowd was a disappointment at the time but he'd give anything to repeat that success now. I wished he'd had a band behind him.
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| Badly Drawn Boy: married to the Queen with Madonna next door |
BDB was followed by The Jam Tarts Choir who sing an intriguing set of songs by Arcade Fire, Tom Waits, Radiohead, Nick Cave and Lambchop. Come again? Yes, a choir singing Tom Waits and Lambchop? Whoever heard such a thing? Opener was Waits' brilliant Telephone Call From Istanbul, and the usually very sleepy Lambchop's most upbeat song Up With People was turned into a marquee filling anthem. Much kudos to their musical director for the repertoire choices.
During last number Nick Cave's There She Goes My Beautiful World the choir overlapped with the beginnings of some daring acrobatics and trapeze work from the Fly Circus of New Orleans who combined death defying stunts and inhuman strength with hilarious silliness involving balloons, hoops and err... spaghetti (you had to be there).
The Blow Monkeys
I knew absolutely nothing about the Blow Monkeys before this weekend but what another lovely surprise. They were superb - funky and bluesy. Leader Dr. Robert was in fine voice and displayed impressive Nile Rodgers / David Gilmour chops on his Fender, the band even sounding a bit Pink Floyd in places especially when the keyboardist switched to sax.Alexi, where the hell are you?
Hopes of a rumoured cameo from Alexi Sayle never materialised. But no worry - I'd seen him earlier at the beautiful Forest Forum stage...
...And Now For Something Completely Different
Both comedy headliners Alexi Sayle and John Cleese were effortlessly hilarious. Sayle (the self proclaimed inventor of alternative comedy) was philishopical about his start stop (mostly stop) Hollywood career:...when one door shut, another would open - I used to have a Vauxhall Astra like that.
John Cleese bemoaned fellow Python Michael Palin's "dreadfully boring travel programmes" but gave him credit for throwing him off script one night during a New York show when he replaced the famous non talking dead parrott with a slug that was "muttering slightly today".
Cleese took a call from his daughter during the interview and hatched a plan to turn up to the spoof Fawlty Towers Dining Experience the next night (he bemoaned he had had no royalties from this very successful show). Imagine that. Wouldn't that be delicious to be a fellow diner when the real Basil walks in.
Refreshingly un-PC he asked if anyone could strangle a screaming child in the audience:
Do it humanely, no-one will mind... as long as it's white and middle class.
Exciting moments continued with the very popular Gary Lineker who revealed some interesting insights into his playing and post playing career. In fact he replied to one young fan that he enjoyed his broadcasting career more than playing - the pressure of scoring goals was too intense and only provided one moment of euphoria, on average, every 3 hours! The rest was just being kicked or offside.
A seasoned live anchor of course he held the talk together well considering the tent was showing signs of distracting stress under the wind and the rain.
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| Gary Lineker: "Footballers are not paid too much" |
Most amusing question came from a Cameroonian festival goer who said his family were still traumatised by their team's 3 v 2 loss to England in the 1990 World Cup quarter finals. He asked if some sort of voodoo had been placed on his team's goalkeeper? Lineker didn't know anything about that but told a funny story about practising penalties the day before the game trying to double bluff a Cameroonian spy. It worked, he scored two.
Also Ran
With so much going on across four main stages, and much of it unknown to me beforehand, it was (like all the best festivals) a case of pitching up and taking your chances.So I pitched up and took a chance on Modulus Quartet who channelled Philip Glass and Arvo Part sensibilities with a strong Indian flavour enhanced by Talvin Singh or Nitin Sawhney like backing tracks - lovely footage of Himalayan mountains and the Ganges as a back drop too. I was also mesmerised by their logo which was static apart from when it rotated, occasionally. Their debut album 12 Seconds Of Light is out now.
Arcade Hearts are a young band displaying a remarkable talent and a spot on 80s sound reminiscent of Flock of Seagulls, Talk Talk, Teardrop Explodes... that sort of thing. Plenty of clever changes within songs and very tight. They also have the piece of the jigsaw so hard to find in young bands, in fact any bands, a strong vocalist.
And also a shout out for Cult With No Name - a very assured electronica duo with more than a passing resemblance to the Pet Shop Boys.
Poetry Punk
In keeping with the anti-establishment character of the festival there were appearances from old punk/old new wave legends The Members, Department S and The Vapors (Turning Japanese). Not really my usual cup of tea but they seemed to have aged well and are all apparently riding a bit of a punk revival at the moment. That was just three bands I vaguely recognised but there were literally scores littering the outer stages of the festival until late into the night (not to mention impromptu DJ sets in a smoke filled old London No. 38 bus which was literally bouncing on its suspension).I'm not one, as far as I was previously aware, for listening to (or reading) poetry but late on the very wet Sunday night I was mesmerised by festival poet laureate Salena Godden and her talented crew of young poets. Equally mesmerising was guitar legend Jimmy Page who was in the audience thoroughly enjoying the intimate show (and probably a night out in relative anonymity save for a few old rockers recognising him). I shyly said hello and then skipped off to the Forest Forum for some late night acoustic loveliness from Don Mescall (I wonder if Jimmy hears distant guitar at such an event, and is ever tempted to collect his guitar from the Bentley and throw an impromptu jam - probably not, he seemed a very charming and modest chap).
Whistleblowers Of The World Unite
Headlining panel on the Monday was the Whistleblowers forum featuring the now very famous Cambridge Analytica/Facebook outer Chris Wylie who, as someone with my own digitally obsessed teenage children, left this quote ringing in my ears:There is no distinction between the digital and the so-called real world. The digital world is the real world now.
The panel all seemed traumatised by their experience but spoke eloquently and passionately receiving a standing ovation. Such brave people.
One more Brexit debate and a moving finale from the Citizens of the World Choir and we left the Pippingford bubble but with a renewed determination to go back to our parishes and, in the words of the choir's final song, speak out.
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