The Village Gets A By-Pass

To the Cheese & Grain last night for The Imagined Village.

Organisational whinge out of the way first. Cabaret-style seating (nice) around the edge of the hall, standing room in the centre (daft). Sightlines - terrible. At the Folk Festival, the seating was at the front, standing room at the back. Sightlines - good. Is it that difficult to get right?

Anyway, onto the music. The IV is a multi-cultural, folk fusion supergroup (!). They first brought English folk music kicking and screaming into the 21st Century a few years back by adding electronica, dance beats and ethnic elements to traditional songs. Sometimes it worked brilliantly, sometimes it was embarrassing, but it was always bold and never less than interesting. On the evidence of last night's show though, they are moving away from this into predominantly original compositions that hint at the tradition, but never quite set the goosebumps, er, a-bumping.

The evening took off in fits and starts - whenever Johnny Kalsi was released from behind his array of percussion to take centre stage with the dhol, the temperature in the hall rose appreciably. And when Martin Carthy took the vocals in Billy Bragg re-jig of Hard Times of Old England, the original, imaginative purpose of the band shone through. Carthy fille, Eliza, was full of vim and vigour, bouncing around the stage like Tigger-meets-a-rock-chick. Sometimes when a musician is demonstrably enjoying him or herself, this can actually alienate an audience - the party's going on up there and we're not invited. But Eliza's enthusiasm was endearing and infectious.

Eliza Carthy in a rare moment of a calm at the C & G

There was one truly bizarre moment. Carthy Senior sang Slade's "Cum On Feel The Noize" in a dirge-like arrangement. What was the point of performing this as if it was some gloomy 18th Century murder ballad? Was it an example of the Louis Armstrong Philosophy? (He once said ALL music is folk music). Frankly, it was just odd.

So an uneven evening with the Villagers. Where will they go next - back to their roots or further into folk-pop territory? I fear for the latter.


www.imaginedvillage.com