Re: Patti - Meltdown - 24 June 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

US-UK Folk Connections 
Royal Festival Hall, London 

By Robin Denselow
The Guardian, Tuesday, 28 June 2005

Backstage, Bert Jansch was telling Roy Harper that "this is the
biggest folk club I've ever been to", but out in the audience it
seemed more like a potentially brilliant and often frustrating musical
marathon. Patti Smith had handed over Meltdown responsibilities to her
long-time guitarist Lenny Kaye as "curator", and he in turn devised an
event that explored the links between English and American folk
cultures.

It was a fine idea, and he assembled a remarkable cast, that ranged
from every surviving veteran from the 1960s English folk scene through
to Johnny Marr, Gruff Rhys of Super Furry Animals, Neil Finn, John
Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin, Martin Stephenson, Robyn Hitchcock, Spider
Stacey from the Pogues, along with Kaye and Patti Smith themselves.
Even the great Shirley Collins was there, in her role as folk academic
(but, sadly, not as singer). Spread over two nights, this could have
been sensational. Squeezed into one four-hour show it felt like a
glorious experiment that had gone slightly wrong.

It all started well. Robin Williamson, in his shorts and long grey
hair, sounded and acted like the ultimate veteran hippy hero, playing
harp, mandolin and harmonica as he switched from Caribbean to Indian
influences, backed by his wife Bina. He deserved a longer set, and so
did the magnificent Jansch. He was joined for a couple of strong
guitar duets by Marr, who then appeared with his own band to revive
that "Mancunian folk song", Please Please Please Let Me Get What I
Want; but it was urgently in need of the presence of his former
colleague, Morrissey.

It was a good night too for Finn with his unaccompanied treatment of a
McPeake Family classic, and for Stacey, first backing Smith on tin
whistle for an impromptu-sounding The Trees They Do Grow High, and
then tackling the union ballad I Dreamed I Saw Joe Hill Last Night.
That cast alone was more than sufficient. The final more lengthy sets
by the wacky Hitchcock and over-talkative Harper should have been
saved for a separate show.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/arts/reviews/story/0,,1516125,00.html