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ondon’s South Bank Centre basks contentedly in the balmy glow of a precociously early spring evening. Insolently cool young men atop whirring and
clacking skateboards throng the Under- croft, their feats of daring followed by the lenses of a hundred camera phone owners, each one eager to capture the kind of injurious pratfall that gets rewarded with £250 by You’ve Been Framed. Nearby, a much older bloke sud- denly has something to declare. “I came up to London twenty-five years ago for fRoots’ tenth anniversary!” Before he can continue, his younger companions (clear- ly lacking the collective stomach for a lengthy reminiscence session) astutely usher me (err, “him”) indoors…
Still, it’s a mighty long way down folk and roll from the subterranean squalor of the 100 Club to the brutalist architecture of a packed Queen Elizabeth Hall, but here we are for “an evening of intriguing col- laborations,” presented by the South Bank Centre, curated by fRoots and admirably supported by Arts Council England.
National treasures Chris Wood and Ben Mandelson are first-up: everyone’s favourite cuddly curmudgeon™ songwriter and everyone’s favourite avuncular eccen- tric instrumentalist, joined by Brazilian per- cussionist Adriano Adewale. Mandelson kicks proceedings off with one of those English dance tunes that he (in Tiger Moth) played at the 100 Club a quarter-century ago, before Wood flexes his fine voice on Oxford City. The trio then spring a couple of splendid cover versions in Smokey Robinson’s I Second That Emotion (bril- liantly sung by Wood) and Ronnie Lane’s The Poacher.Wood gives us a scurrilous anecdote about first encountering fRoots at the home of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson (involving Eliza’s Bruce Willis posters and an Aga), while Mr Ben thanks all the beautiful humans for being out- standing at sitting on the comfortable chairs in the lovely Queens folk club (or something). Adewale just lets his fingers do the talking while establishing his cre- dentials as the most snappily-dressed man in the room by some considerable distance.
The two London-based duos of Lisa
Knapp & Gerry Diver and Mavrika (singer and pianist Katina Kangaris and bouzou- ki player Chris Morphitis) arrive with jus- tifiably considerable reputations for crafting stylish and intelligent original music from traditional materials. Their set (which includes Kangaris’ Cypriot Wedding Song and Knapp’s Shipping Song) blends vocal dexterity and instru- mental firepower, Greek and English lyrics and rembetika and Irish music in a manner that suggests that they do this sort of thing all the time (they don’t but, as our editor & master of ceremonies is quick to point out, they really should!)
Our eardrums are temporarily assault- ed by a howl of accidental feedback as Spiro are setting-up to play. As the band cast sheepishly apologetic looks to the audience they’re joined by a strikingly tall, long-haired man, barefoot and bare-chest- ed... holy freakin’ crap, it’s Iggy Folk! No, wait, that’s not right. It’s Mojmir Novakovic, leader of Croatian left-field roots rockers Kries, who Spiro encountered
Continued on Page 65
Adriano Adewale, Chris Wood & Ben Mandelson
Lisa Knapp, Gerry Diver, Chris Morphitis & Katina Kangaris Catrin Finch & Seckou Keita get their award from Cerys Matthews. An editor lurks…
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