"Happy St George's Day, it's about bloody time!"

[lonelybrit]

Saturday was a full day but a bloody brilliant one.

First stop was rolling into London to meet-up with rivier for a tasty brunch of croissants and tea (though she was mildly seething after her first-choice cafe turned out to be 'Closed for refurbishment'). We alternated between food, cocktails, gratuitous talk of Merlin and more music, along the way picking up princess_s. A special mention has to go to The Weather, which excelled itself, defying the forecasts by remaining bright and sunny throughout, amazing!

As for the bands themselves, well we didn't catch all of them, but of those we did see:

Eliza Carthy - awesome. I need to see this lady again, she plays with real gusto and just seems to so honestly to be having a great time that it's hard not to be caught up in her enthusiasm. Her voice is amazing, not just in being brilliant but in being so similar to her mother's (legend Norma Waterson). She got the crowd into the spirit, being unashamedly happy that at last there was a celebration for St George and England, and got everyone clapping along for a final song that was incredibly bouncy and catchy as it mourned a Britain left to gather dust when the masses have all relocated to Spain.

Demon Barbers - also incredible fun. Very rocky, complete with the tattoos and hairstyles but with voices that were pure, pure folk. Along with the usual fiddles and other instruments, they brought with them a trio of clog/tap-dances who made me tired just looking at them as they jumped and drilled throughout the songs.

Kathryn and Peter Tickell - sadly we only caught the last song from these two, but suffice to say there was an electric bagpipe. *hands* Good stuff, I'll definitely be trying to catch more of their tunes.

Netsayi - brilliant, amazing voice. Unfortunate choice of songs. They only got 3 or 4 tunes out before they were off again, I don't know if that was all they had planned or if it was related to the brief spout of whispering going on between the lead singer and a materialised man from off-stage just after the penultimate song. Anyway, as I said, the lead singer has an amazing voice, and certainly all the tunes kept with the general folk theme of misery and bitterness, much of which was aimed at London and a 'f**king bitch' of an almost!mother-in-law (cue materialising man from off-stage). Very entertaining :)

Seth Lakeman - as always, he and the band were brilliant. Of all the acts, he's the only one I've seen a couple of times before. I don't know if it was down to my, for once, being quite close to the stage and thus able to see his face clearly, or whether there was a genuine difference, but I thought he seemed exceptionally happy this gig; grinning, smiling and getting the crowd to bounce along with a gusto. They rocked out with my favourite (Riflemen of War) and proceeded to play all of princess_s's favourite songs (including an impressive 'Race to be King') before wowing everyone with 'Kitty Jay'. I do agree with the mother, Seth is capable of a far greater range than what he's currently doing, but I can't really complain because what he does play is always phenomenal live and brilliantly fun.

Post the gig we bid farewell to rivier and trundled down to South Bank to meet-up with another mate and her sister. The weather continued to hold in spectacular fashion, although the wind was cold and I got soundly mocked by all for my wrapping up in coat and woolly hat. We briefly watched some dude playing pretty flamenco guitar before dipping into Waga-mamma's for supper. I haven't been for a while and I have to say I'd forgotten how tasty and how reasonably priced that place is, I feel we shall be visiting again if possible! :)

By this point the sun had set, the woolly hat was out again as I proceeded to drag everyone round Leicester Square in search of a cinema showing In The Loop, a film I've been itching to see ever since I heard it was being made. I adored the series In The Thick of It, in particular Malcolm Tucker and his psychotic second-in-command Jamie as they terrified Whitehall. Thankfully the search was successful, and I know I'm incredibly biased, but I thought the film was excellent :)

This is definitely a film I need to watch again. It's funny, oh yes but it is tear-inducingly funny at times, but there is also serious plot going on. I found myself struggling to keep up with all the individual vendettas and papers and political intrigues. I was also slightly taken by surprise by just how, well, dark the last part of the film actually gets.

The general premise is the run-up to what will eventually be war with some unnamed middle-Eastern country. The first two-thirds of the film are funny as we laugh at the bumbling minister who keeps on digging himself into a hole, the absurdity of a US general working out troop statistics on a child's chunky pink calculator, the 'angriest man in Scotland' AKA Jamie being released into the department... and then suddenly it hits home that at the end of it all, we are talking about a potential real war.

The last few hours before the crucial vote at the UN are still darkly comic, but I found it also a bit chilling. For one thing, for the first time ever, Malcolm and Jamie were genuinely scary, in particular Jamie as he reduced the aides to borderline tears and actual cowering as he hunted down the person responsible for leaking a paper. And at the other end of the scale was seeing some of the other character's reactions to the realisation that war was pretty much inevitable. "Hey hey... don't cry." Malcolm Tucker and co. may live to fight another day, but there will be many who will not, in both the political/career sense and of course the literal one.

ETA: Empire has 4 'webisodes' from In The Loop featuring Jamie. 2 of them are from the actual film, the remaining 2 are deleted scenes. There are implied spoilers, but these generally make more sense if you watch them after having seen the film.

And thus ended my Saturday. Thanks to all for making it such fun, and closing with a few pics :)

Eliza Carthy Eliza Carthy rocking out folk-style at the St George's Day concert in Trafalgar Square, London	Carthy
Carthy again The guitar again. Apparently it's red especially in honour of St George's Day.	Carthy mid-song
A calmer moment Bringing an excellent set to a close, she left us with a cheery "Happy St Georges day, it's about bloody time!"	The Lakeman brothers
Lakeman and guitar	Seth It was around this point that princess_s noted 'He has one hell of a neck, doesn't he?'
Seth and guitar again A rare moment where the crowds parted and lo! there was a brief, clear view of the stage.	Bassist I'm terrible at names, but this is the chap who provided the bass, particularly important for the rocking out of 'Riflemen of War'.
Lakeman Again, I'm terrible at names, but here is Seth's brother with the second guitar, though he did switch for different songs, most importantly for 'Poor Man's Heaven' where I think he was on something like a banjo(?)	Drummer The man responsible so often for keeping the beat going, most obvious moment being the introduction to 'Poor Man's Heaven' and not missing a beat in the unrelenting 'Race to be King'.
Seth and violin Just to prove it can be done. I think most folks would agree that Seth is at his most impressive when he's going hell for leather on his fiddle whilst simultaneously belting out songs like 'Kitty Jay'.

Comments

[princess-s.livejournal.com]

Fabulous pics!!

Thanks so much for getting me out of the house and going along to this, it was one of the best weekends I've had in a long time *hugs*

Be glad it was just his neck I commented on ;)

[lonelybrit]

*grin* You took a bundle of them, so hats off to you!

He's older than us. After the trauma of Expo you could have commented on much more than the neck and still left me feeling more angelic than during that London trip *ahem* :)

p.s. Did you see this Australian TV Guide? Bradley admitting he's a Buffy fan is still not old for me :)