horsemouth back from the leigh folk festival 2018

it was a bright sunny sunday horsemouth and his posse (myk and john clarkson) arrived slightly after mid-day to the meet up point with jo and nick (a later meet with dave and lara and their friends was planned also).

almost immediately they saw the hoy shanty crew - who ended out with horsemouth’s favourite rolling down the river - a song on the pleasures and possibilities of working the container boats between southend and tillbury. then a walk to the end and some chips and then back up to the fisherman’s chapel (horsemouth is advised this is the correct punctuation) for the meet up with dave and lara. the band (masal) were a therminist/ harpist and a dude playing effect and doing the mixing - the box by orbital looms large over this sort of thing but horsemouth was pleased to hear the harp (he’s recently taken up dorothy ashby).

then back do the estuary side to get a beer and then some abortive queuing to get into stick in the wheel - some people got in but horsemouth, john and myk were away to alisdair roberts, a violinist/ guitarist neil McDermott and three french singers tartine de clous (geoffroy dudouit, thomas georget and guillaume maupin from the charente region) in a crammed fisherman’s chapel.

Tartine de clous - Les enfants sans soucy from Moving Animal Pictures on Vimeo.


this was horsemouth’s favourite gig of the day - early music style french singing with alasdair’s distinctly scottish voice on top - a great cover of anne briggs’ you go your way my love (with one of the french dudes playing the guitar and singing the ground and everybody else harmonising, awesome dudes awesome).

then away back down the hill for a restitutive coffee before attempting to get in to see diamond family archive (once again failure) - leading to an excellent surprise in the men diamler set... and thence to the beach to round it off (while listening to bob collum and the welfare mothers).

horsemouth regrets... er... not seeing more music (and not coming up on the saturday) sorry people - next time.

thank you very much all the people who helped put it on -horsemouth bought the t-shirt (he’s not sure if it is an effective means of donation but at least he’ll look good while doing it).

‘achtung habibi!’ (in the shadow of the shard)

yesterday horsemouth went out for a tour of south london with the visiting john clarkson.

first off a booksale in a bar cafe in peckham (strange attractor were there, and jamie reid - horsemouth was very tempted by their books but he’s a pov so he kept his hands in his pockets). they had a pint each (horsemouth some pale ale thing, john a pelican pilsner).

they then made their way to in the shadow of the shard a film about community organising in bermondsey. this was -as far as horsemouth could see - a success story for TMOs and similar bodies - the tenants had used the opt-out legislation to gain control of their estates and were now creating more social housing (at a time when housing associations have basically been driven onto the back foot by recent government legislation). before it there was a film made with local kids by two engaging young geordie (or thereabouts) actresses (who also sorted out the sound on the film).

next a bus ride down the old kent road to the closing down of vinyl deptford and to see gardyloo spew play - good tight bass and drums (ok ok the snare died halfway but that didn’t seriously inconvenience them), gardyoo’s sung/ spoken word thing, cos chapman’s most excellent gang of four type guitar/ micro-synth playing. horsemouth was reminded of slave dance or pil.

immediately afterward the drummer Djed a set of early electropop 7"s- tainted love (soft cell), I feel love (donna summer), cars (gary numan), nice set dude - this persuaded john and horsemouth to stay, there was then a set of techno (but not the acid-techno as advertised).


... and thence docklands light tramway home and the watching of the third part of arabian nights - a parable of austerity in portugal - here chaffinches were being taught to sing (horsemouth may have fallen asleep).

the day before yesterday horsemouth and john clarkson wandered up through the salt marshes to the wetlands (what the difference is horsemouth  couldn’t tell you) for a coffee - bumping into demetra and her boyfriend on the way out - and then on to the william morris museum and then back via the charity shops on the market. john then went off to see laura cannel and horsemouth stayed in to rest his aching feet and watch tv (a fleetwood mac documentary and big trouble in little china).

this morning horsemouth worked - later a visit to a cave of temptation (skoob - a secondhand bookshop).

danger: horsemouth

so horsemouth watched danger: diabolik last night - a kind of fantomas/ swinging sixties spy caper movie - part of the fumetti negri school of italian comics. mario bava directing, ennio morricone soundtrack (mostly twanging sixties guitar, a sitar interlude, but once again some great sub-miles trumpet playing). diabolical bank robberies, an underground lair, jaguar sports cars, a beautiful accomplice, the anti-hero in black latex bondage gear (when he’s driving it kind of looks like death race 2000). they do a robbery (and then roll around in the money).

yesterday horsemouth mostly read and farted about (magris mentions robert graves and his belief that lussino was the original island of circe). horsemouth needs a beach (it was sunny in the morning),

later towards dusk he went for a wander in the salt marshes in search of new vistas - today he goes to work then he goes to meet an old friend.

horsemouth was listening to musicians of bremen volume one - but an earlier mix with a different track order - two tracks that didn't make the cut - first a slightly-rearranged version of bright phoebus as a sixties pop song, second a song about a couple having an argument in the car (as a kind of gypsy jazz thing) that howard wrote. funnily enough both feature horsemouth playing bass. for the first horsemouth’s voice isn’t strong enough for (it’s too high and in the wrong key for him really), the second is a great lost pop song.

yesterday horsemouth also got back in touch with shaun (horsemouth thought for a minute he’d lost his number) who has been ill. fuck it, everybody seems to have been getting ill lately. it’s summer - horsemouth’s lungs have cleared up and his anxiety is shifting objects.

today he works (a little) and visits mick (who he hasn’t seen in a while) to drop off musicians of bremen CDs and catch up.

as a point of comparison a friend suggested charlie parr - an american fingerstyle player and singer - he’s a better player and a singer than horsemouth (and of course has no problem sounding american). horsemouth posted a link to the new CD to an american primitive guitar page - three likes (by people in a similar situation to horsemouth - of punting out their take on ‘american primitive’).

barking folk festival

so horsemouth is back from barking folk festival (he’s a little soreheaded this morning and his hearing is still pretty fucked in one ear - earlier wax related incident).


the unthanks - horsemouth liked them this time. he still finds them a bit mannered (a bit later). no starless this time (shipbuilding of course) but lots of new stuff including a song with a tape recording of nick drake’s mum (herself an interesting songwriter). horsemouth particularly liked it when the harmonies expanded beyond the sisters to the rest of the band. they’re writing for theatre (maxine peake etc. -they’re moving in those circles).


stick in the wheel were excellent (but missing fran and the drummer who were in hospital having a baby), - their repertoire is expanding out - they did an early english country dance tune which they claimed everyone should know (horsemouth didn’t know it) and one from bagpuss (horsemouth did not recognise it) - it does sound good. it was nice to hear the songs stripped down (but it made you realize how crucial the clapping, the drumming and the harmonies are). they ended with over again.

take three girls

well three singer-songwriters (some doing some traditional material)

• nancy kerr horsemouth liked the traditional song about the silkie and liked the way she blended it into the next song (one of her own) about a friend transitioning, great voice (joni mitchell esque), he liked the idea of dedicating songs to pieces of legislation, he liked the violin at the end. 
• grace petrie (billy bragg is back among us and this time she’s an angry 30 year old socialist lesbian) horsemouth found it difficult to warm, not his thing (but clearly works for festival crowds). 
• lucy ward - here again horsemouth liked the traditional ballad delivered at speed (king willy), he liked the squeezebox, he liked the doubled voices on dead men (what her songs actually needed remarked howard), but was less enthusiastic about the singer-songwriting stuff. 

hail the suffragettes

two stilt walking ladies walked around being suffragettes (hail tall ladies),

there was a children’s playful protest parade - one kid held a sign saying he loved guinea pigs (respect little one).

if horsemouth has a regret it is that he missed the gathering on the green - various kids dancing things etc.

field day RIP

horsemouth is up early. he was hungry and ate a pizza for breakfast. when he returned home last night he had a filthy headache and so didn’t feel like cooking or eating (and truth be told had little to cook and eat in the house), he chogged some paracetamol and went to bed.

horsemouth and howard (and tony and jacqui and some of their friends) went down to field day in brockwell park. howard was ill (week off work flu) and so was not on tip top form. fortunately horsemouth found 30 quid on the floor which enabled them to afford some whiskey and cokes to perk up. the security were obnoxious, the drink was overpriced and the food was overpriced (honourable exception small beer stall a pint of pale ale for six quid- thank you), the queues were a pain in the arse, the line-up (like last year) was a little thin. on the plus side the youth were beautiful, some of them could really dance, the PAs were large. the sun shone.

so who did horsemouth see? 




oumou sangare (queen of mali) - horsemouth went down early just to catch her - 20 plus years ago (when horsemouth first saw her) there was no drumkit, no stadium rock guitar solos, no tastefully synthesized keyboards - she has added all this to her act and it’s a proper stadium sized affair - true they were mainstage but they were on at 2pm (well 2.10 - malian time) on a sunny afternoon. the set was bookended by recent funky drummered anthems but at its heart were wassoulou songs in 3 time -6/8,12/8, 3/4s - ah ndiya for example. songs that are frankly a bit difficult to dance to with western 4/4 sensibilities (until you lock in). horsemouth overheard a youngster say he thought it would have been just like seeing fela kuti - he’s wrong of course (for various reasons), but hey - at least he’d heard of fela kuti.

... and the rest?

the barn stage horsemouth never managed to get into (such was the crush) so no review of floating points or four tet, bugged out was dull (standing in the way of control is your best track - yet another recycling of your love - sheesh!) , at the crack stage he saw princess nokia (just before howard and the others got in) most enjoyable. at the resident advisor stage horsemouth and howard saw tzusing who played a great tech-breaks set, very harsh, very industrial, for horsemouth the unexpected highlight of the show. there was a dude dancing there who had some great samba type moves and footwork, his girlfriend was very stylish and almost kept up.


later on (and in other mainstage action) horsemouth and howard saw the end of kurupt FM’s set - cod MC’ing over uk apache and shy fx’s jungle classic original nuttah and ray keith’s (is it?) lighter (or was it dj ss lighter tune?). horsemouth and howard jumped up and down like madmen.

later still charlotte gainsbourg’s set - a bit space, a bit french disco, undoubtedly stylish.

on their way out horsemouth and howard checked out cornelius - tasteful, a bit dull. and then they were gone, tube and bus and home.

that’s it for horsemouth and field day - he doesn’t think he will feel the need to go again.