Hull Uproot Festival 6-8 April

[french frank]

BBC Radio 3 to broadcast from Hull Truck Theatre from 6-8 April for Uproot, a folk and roots festival as part the BBC’s commitment to Hull UK City of Culture 2017. All details here.

[Lat-Literal]

BBC Radio 3 to broadcast from Hull Truck Theatre from 6-8 April for Uproot, a folk and roots festival as part the BBC’s commitment to Hull UK City of Culture 2017. All details here.

Thank you french frank for these details of events in and around the Land of Green Ginger. One of the difficult tasks for programme makers - especially in radio - will be to convey Hull's unique atmosphere. My memories are, among other things, of the cream telephone boxes which they are bringing back for the occasion and some spectacularly wide roads.

The line up seems ok to me. The increasingly present Kathryn Tickell - and Eliza Carthy - each has claims to being from that part of the coast, that's if Hull is considered to be on the stretch that includes Whitby and Tyneside. Actually, that is exactly how I think of it. North/East Yorks are North East to me. I hope on the pop/acoustic boundary that Tracey Thorn and Ben Watt will be featured too - originally the group "Everything But The Girl" which emanated from the city's university and was named after one of its eighties' shops.

[Flay]

Funny you should mention Tracey Thorn, Lats. She composed the evocative music for the film The Falling which had impressed me recently. I didn’t know she emanated from Hull.

The Flays were in Hull on Saturday to soak in the atmosphere. It's on the up.

[Globaltruth]

BBC Radio 3 to broadcast from Hull Truck Theatre from 6-8 April for Uproot, a folk and roots festival as part the BBC’s commitment to Hull UK City of Culture 2017. All details here.

Probably worth a thread of its own, although I did post details here

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?2317-A-quick-glance-around-the-schedules/page123

On Feb. 28.

Late Junction are covering the events, in particular Max Reinhardt.

[french frank]

Probably worth a thread of its own, although I did post details here

Should have known it - though I did take a quick glance around the board to see if it had been noted. You had more details:

r3 are up at Hull City of Culture for 3 days in early April doing a series of recordings
Eliza Carthy and friends

http://www.hulltruck.co.uk/whats-on/music/eliza-carthy-with-arms-wide-orchestra/

the Watersons:

http://www.hulltruck.co.uk/whats-on/music/the-first-family-of-english-folk/

Tickets nearly all gone for that one, then
Highlighting Hull's connections elsewhere in the world:-
Polish Connections

http://www.hulltruck.co.uk/whats-on/music/polish-connections/

and
Freetown Connections
http://www.hulltruck.co.uk/whats-on/...n-connections/

[Globaltruth]

Should have known it - though I did take a quick glance around the board to see if it had been noted. You had more details:

If this only persuades ONE extra person to visit Hull during this year ... the atmosphere in the City is excellent, swarming with volunteers and the Hull 2017 team are putting on some adventurous events generally, not just in this small sphere... Gavin Bryars ( actually only on for two 15 minute sessions ) as part of a PRS programme in July, Chris Watson (sound wizard) with a piece, much more.
My big criticism is the hull2017.co.uk website is not too easy to navigate, they're releasing notice of events by season ( 3 monthly chunks) whereas I like to book months in advance rather than engage in a mad scrabble at release time.

https://www.hull2017.co.uk/whatson/events/prs-foundations-new-music-biennial/

https://soundenvironment.net

other fascinating ideas too, for example

http://www.hulldailymail.co.uk/neon-lights-will-beam-out-of-great-thornton-street-flat-windows-for-hull-2017/story-30064822-detail/story.html

Anyway, don't want to duplicate what's probably on another thread somewhere....

[Lat-Literal]

Funny you should mention Tracey Thorn, Lats. She composed the evocative music for the film The Falling which had impressed me recently. I didn’t know she emanated from Hull.

The Flays were in Hull on Saturday to soak in the atmosphere. It's on the up.

She is a southerner, Flay, but met Ben Watt when at Hull University. Apparently, she attained a first class degree in English there. At the time, there was a sense of affinity. I was in York and had friends at Hull University who I visited. I feel we were lucky time-wise. A reasonable amount of my experience of the North between 1982 and 1985 was through the lens of what I suppose would be termed sensitive or literate singer-songwriters, nearly all of whom seemed to be north of Watford and south of John O'Groats. I would very much like to hear the music from "The Falling". Ben Watt has recently returned to his musical roots too but it is his early references to Marine Drive, Box Hill etc that have most appeal.

(I was a bit wrong about the shop - it wasn't called Everything But The Girl but that was the sign in its window - the shop was called Turner's Furniture and it was on Beverley Road)

[Globaltruth]

A warm, friendly and emotional concert last night from the 'first family of folk'. Was it good r3 material? Could someone else answer that please?
The first half featured a set of traditional Watersons unaccompanied singing, as usual led by Eliza. Personnel listing on the r3 website being incorrect - no Marry W nor Joe W. Jim Causley not there... none of this mattered because it was wonderful to see and hear a frail but determined Norma Waterson. Her lengthy rambling stories were charming - suffered from the constraints of a live radio show though. Bright Phoebus closed the first half, a remarkable rendition of a remarkable song. That'll be my abiding memory, a song that encapsulates everything traditional music should be.

The second half was the Gift Band, based on Norma and Eliza's collaboration from 5 years ago with a largely unchanged lineup from then. Unfair to single anyone out - the set simply demonstrated the richness of Waterson musical tastes from General Wolfe to Honolulu Lady via 'I'd rather be dreaming'.

As the timings of the the set list was shot to pieces by more stories proceedings became more pleasantly shambolic and the warmth in the auditorium became more tangible. Finally the Watersons singers came back on stage plus Eliza's free range children for the old favourite Thyme.

Ms Tickell kept us all in order.
Once the mikes were switched off everyone exited stage left apart from Norma who was happy to chat to the departing croWd

[french frank]

If this only persuades ONE extra person to visit Hull during this year ...

A warm, friendly and emotional concert last night from the 'first family of folk'. Was it good r3 material? Could someone else answer that please?

I gather the controller set out for Hull anyway, so it's creating interest in the right quarter

[DracoM]

Re Watersons: first half recalled their absolute golden age with real panache and power.
The second half dawdled half dwindled into an old fashioned pub singalong and for me, an ardent Watersons fan, it was a terribly self-indulgent, fag-chest, lachrymose, sentimental requiem. VERY informal, and that was excellent - BBC usually never ever allows that, so it was a real occasion. But.........?
Still, I've got their vinyls and CDs for when they rode at the very top of their collective game.

[Quarky]

A warm, friendly and emotional concert last night from the 'first family of folk'. Was it good r3 material? Could someone else answer that please?

french frank beat me to it, but you'd better ask 'im, Guv;

https://twitter.com/armslengthal?lang=en

Much preferred today's Lunchtime Concert.

[Globaltruth]

Re Watersons: first half recalled their absolute golden age with real panache and power.
The second half dawdled half dwindled into an old fashioned pub singalong and for me, an ardent Watersons fan, it was a terribly self-indulgent, fag-chest, lachrymose, sentimental requiem. VERY informal, and that was excellent - BBC usually never ever allows that, so it was a real occasion. But.........?
Still, I've got their vinyls and CDs for when they rode at the very top of their collective game.

Thanks Draco, a fair assessment I believe based on my experience of listening to other protracted live shows of a similar ilk on r3. Something I do less and less.
The performance:
There seemed to be r3 friendly concern in both halves... an r3 producer regularly appearing with revised (shortened obv) set lists which littered the stage like dead moths, eventually an edited closing statement for Eliza to make.this versus an audience ( me included) who would have been happy for Norma to ramble in her warm and charming way for the whole evening, which would not have met the needs of the radio audience.
Although as any fule would know this over running was 100% predictable.

What a dilemma r3 made for themselves.

Somewhere in there was an excellent, probably 1 hour, radio programme.
Of course, from an audience perspective the show was delightful especially given the majority were die-hard ( or should that be die-soon) enthusiasts. The demographic was severely 60+ - nothing wrong with that but it's a concern .. (to be continued elsewhere).

My laboured point being that I don't think there would have been any harm in recording the whole thing and editing it.

Given that Norma had to cancel her last planned performance in Jan in Whitby (down the road from Robin Hoods Bay) due to ill health we did feel lucky to see her and do hope the word 'requiem' isn't needed for a while longer.
Is that sentimental?

[Globaltruth]

french frank beat me to it, but you'd better ask 'im, Guv;

https://twitter.com/armslengthal?lang=en

[DracoM]

<< My laboured point being that I don't think there would have been any harm in recording the whole thing and editing it.

Given that Norma had to cancel her last planned performance in Jan in Whitby (down the road from Robin Hoods Bay) due to ill health we did feel lucky to see her and do hope the word 'requiem' isn't needed for a while longer.
Is that sentimental?>>

Not at all - bits of that relay were top, top stuff. Rich in harmony, invention. familiarity made famous, and all that. It was just the way it sort of faltered as an event. The BIG thing was that for the live audience, this was a privilege, whatever Norma was doing - Globaltruth and I agree on that - but her in the R3 audience, I kept getting the sense that the other musicians onstage were just a bit jittery around her? True? not true? And yes, she did not sound in great form health-wise.

And the ongoing anxiety about the timing - mentioned six or more times on air - were a bit worrying. Were they going to cut it before the final two sings that were good stuff. I mean, do you get a studio intern to nip up onto the rostrum to tell Rattle his Mahler 2 is over-running .....I don' think so!!

[Globaltruth]

...but here in the R3 audience, I kept getting the sense that the other musicians onstage were just a bit jittery around her? True? not true? And yes, she did not sound in great form health-wise.

And the ongoing anxiety about the timing - mentioned six or more times on air - were a bit worrying. Were they going to cut it before the final two sings that were good stuff. I mean, do you get a studio intern to nip up onto the rostrum to tell Rattle his Mahler 2 is over-running .....I don' think so!!

NB my italics and bold type see below

As suggested I went on twitter to ask the r3 controller and received a dismissive response, his actual words:

we deal with overruns all the time

I wondered if he was actually there...