An Evening of Political Song

This evening I went to see 'An Evening of Political Song' at the Royal Festival Hall, part of Richard Thompson's Meltdown festival. It's a bit disappointing to say that this is the only show in the Meltdown series that attracted me and even more disappointing to see so many empty seats. I booked a ticket ages ago when I saw that Eliza Carthy was part of the line-up (well, she would be, wouldn't she?) along with Tom Robinson, someone I've never seen live.

The format was one of those shows where people wander on, do a song or two, wander off, then wander on again later with someone else. But the show lasted about three hours so there's no question of not getting our money's worth.

It opened with Jez Lowe doing a couple of songs with Martin and Eliza Carthy supporting, along with the band, and then on came Harry Shearer as a sort of compere to introduce Neil Hannon (Divine Comedy) doing a couple of solo songs, just him on the piano. That set the tone for the evening. As well as songs we had poetry from 86 year old former Chilean refugee Claribel Alegria (who I bet is fascinating to chat to over a cup of tea) who read her political poems and, in the second half, read the same poem in English and in Spanish so we could hear the music when read in the original language, and I could.

Highlights for me were seeing the lovely Eliza Carthy in her peppermint green shoes - whether she's singing about Soho dancers or creating sparks with her fiddle playing, it's always a pleasure to see her live. Her mam and dad were also on the bill, Norma Waterson and Martin Carthy, and as soon as Norma started singing it was obvious where Eliza's voice came from. It was great seeing the three of them together. Martin played his song, 'My Son John' from The Imagined Village's last album ('Empire & Love'), updating an old song to refer to Iran and Afghanistan and legs replaced by carbon-fibre blades, a very touching song.

I enjoyed the song by Camille O'Sullivan in the first half, her version of Jacque Brel's 'Next' which started off quiet and built and built most effectively. Of course, the definitive version for me is by The Sensational Alex Harvey Band which I saw them perform in 1973, but it was nice to see and hear her performance.

Tom Robinson, like all the others, had sessions in both halves of the show. In the first half he played two songs I didn't recognise, one of which was a hip hop song that sounded really interesting. He started by saying that people ask him where are the contemporary protest songs and he usually responds that we simply don't hear them since they're hip hop songs. And that's probably true - the audience was definitely on the folky side of the musical spectrum. I've tweeted to ask Tom what the song was called. But in the second half he played 'Glad To Be Gay' his hit from 1978 (or thereabouts) with the verses updated to reflect the last 30 years. He did point out that his domestic circumstances had changed since writing the song but he stood by every word of the song. And everyone joined in.

We were also treated to Richard Thompson himself, playing a couple of songs to open the second half and then joining some of the other artists on stage. The song that sticks in the mind is 'Dad's Gonna Kill Me' with 'Dad' being short for Baghdad. Political indeed. Just guitar and vocal, it sounded really powerful. I was an admirer of Richard & Linda Thompson back in the late '70s and I still follow Linda, so it was nice to finally see Richard play live.

So there you have it - my Meltdown experience 2010. I still think back to Meltdown 2005 which was curated by Patti Smith and she introduced me to The Dresden Dolls and Amanda Palmer. The rest is history.