Festival Heaven/Festival Hell
An update - a week late - from the team at OneTrackMinds.
Hey friends! First off - an apology; I missed last week’s newsletter. In the chaos of flying back from ‘holiday’, and the ensuing haze of jet lag, last week went by without an update from us here at OneTrackMinds HQ. I’m sorry. It won’t happen again. Or at least, not for a while. I’ll do what I can to make up for it, and hopefully this week’s missive will go some way towards doing so… Let’s get into it.
WOMAD - while I was away, Adam took the show back to Charlton Park for one of our very favourite festival stop offs - and the first visit to WOMAD in three years. Here’s his report:
“Making my way through the woodland, past the Hip-Yak poetry shack, I’m reminded of all the things about WOMAD that makes it such a fantastic festival.The sun dappled trees, the vibrant music floating up from the main stages, the sight of thousands of people enjoying everything from tree climbing and laughter yoga, to beat-boxing and capoeira.
Then a greeting from our old friend Linda Ross a gorgeous introduction from Harriet Beveridge, a rousing cheer from a crowd of familiar faces and we’re ready for a show.
And what a show!After sadly losing Ramy Essam to illness before the show, Physicist and Infinite Monkey Cager Jon Butterworth steps up to the plate with barely an hour notice.
He speaks in such a natural, relaxed and focussed way that at one point I wonder if he’s managed to turn the Large Hadron Collider into a time machine, go back to four months ago, and prep his story like a ringer who’s been to every OTM show in the last six years.
His story is about Depeche Mode’s Stories of Old - about seeing the band at his first ever gig, how that song became a grounding totem of not compromising oneself to achieve your goals.
Then Oliver Bullough, heavyweight financial crime writer, takes the stage. He gives a cinematic, hope inspiring, account of living in Russia (pre-Ukraine invasion), and the festival atmosphere he often experienced on the train from Moscow to Kyiv. Round that off with some footsomping Russian Ska (yes, that’s a thing) courtesy of Marskcheider Kunst and the audience is buzzing.
To finish off, the World of Words tent is treated to a stunning, tear inducing, excerpt from Jude Rogers’ book, The Sound of Being Human. It’s about Amongst Angels by Kate Bush and…because it’s hard not to cry thinking about the story, it might be one that you’ll need to see in person when we invite her back on the MainStage in November.
Kristian and I often talk of how lucky we feel to put on this show and WOMAD is no exception. Thank you to everyone who made it possible and for those of you who missed it, we will try to feature these wonderful stories in future shows.” - Adam ShakinovskyA Film: If WOMAD is the bucolic ideal of what a music festival can be, then Woodstock ‘99 was the polar opposite. Everyone’s been talking about Trainwreck, an excellent three-part documentary on Netflix, and for good reason - it’s compelling viewing. Watching it, I was struck by two things - firstly, how terribly sad it was that the legacy of free-love, peace and harmony of the original Woodstock festival was so soundly turned over by a small group of idiots trying to make a quick buck; and secondly, just how truly awful ‘Nu-Metal’ is as a genre, and how unlucky I was to come of age during its heyday. The boomers had Jimi Hendrix, The Beach Boys, Joni Mitchell. We had Korn, Limp Bizkit, Kid Rock… what a terrible time to be alive.
A Book: last weekend, I started listening to the audiobook of The Islander, the autobiography of Chris Blackwell, a man who has a strong claim to be one of the most influential people in the history of popular music. The founder of Island Records lead an absolutely amazing life - growing up in Jamaica, hanging out with the likes of Noel Coward, Ian Fleming and Erroll Flynn as a young man, then channeling his passion for music into an almost accidental career at the helm of one of the most important record labels of all time. It’s an amazing read (co-authored by music writer Paul Morley), and the audiobook, read with typical louche insouciance by Bill Nighy, is highly entertaining. Strong recommend!
Jazz - here’s an excellent piece in The New York Times about the genius of Duke Ellington.
An Article - and here’s another interesting piece of writing from former Q-magazine editor Ted Kessler, about his relationship with his younger brother Daniel, who is the lead guitarist in one of my favourite bands, Interpol.
More Festival Fun - Adam and I are gearing up for our appearance at the The Times + Life Lessons Festival in King’s Cross in September. We’ll be bringing a three-story version of the show to the festival on the evening of Friday September 9th, which is barely a month away. We’ll be hearing from old friends Rhik Samadder (of whom more in a moment) and Polly Bennett and brand new/yet-to-be friend Owen O’Kane at 7pm on the Discovery Stage. It’s going to be ace!
Another Article - and speaking of Rhik Samadder, here’s his excellent piece in last weekend’s Observer all about ‘getting the ick’.
Writing Advice - finally, if any of you are, like Adam and I, battling away at a long form writing project, I thought I’d share this helpful piece from the team at Freewrite with 3 Tricks for Building a Story Arc.
That’s it! Thanks for reading. We’ll be back next week with some very big news about another upcoming OneTrackMinds event. Watch this space… Until then, stay happy, stay healthy, and we’ll see you soon.
KB.