EID AL ADHA OR TOBASKI 2013 PART TWELVE: A SCHOOL COMPETITION AND A MALIAN INTERLUDE

It was now nearly time to leave.

For three weeks of seeing the family and friends and getting a few things sorted out it had certainly been an eventful break.

And we HAD actually managed to get a few things sorted out and had a little bit of fun along the way and you can’t really ask more from life than that.

But all good things eventually come to an end and ours was rapidly approaching because we were in our last week and the two youngest had gone back to school, but before we left I had one more job to do.

Before we’d arrived in The Gambia we’d got Mariama and Jalika to go and see their headmistress at Gola Fortunate and ask if she minded running a little competition between all the children who had contributed toward the Rhythms of The World backdrop that they had created for us, and she had been happy to do so.

One of the things Rhythms does on a regular basis is sell out of children’s sized t-shirts and we’d managed to get hold of five of them before they had done so.

Two were going to Mariama and Jalika, but the other three would be going to the school as prizes.

There was going to be one question only and the best three answers in the Headmistresses opinion would be the three winners.

The competition was held while we were in The Gambia, the three winners had been adjudged, and now it was time to present the prizes.

The question that we’d asked the children was ‘Why do you think it is important that music brings the world together ?’

And so early in the morning of our second to last day we were walking up to Gola Fortunate once again.

This time we’d given them the first hour and so we’d see the headmistress first and ask her how she wanted to do it. Whether in the classrooms or in her office ?

The Headmistress decided on her office, and sent a runner to fetch the first winner.

When she turned up the poor lass thought she’d done something wrong, but seeing us there as well hopefully put her mind at rest ?

Our second winner was unfortunately not at school that day, but our third winner was, and so we praised her also and said thank you very much for being part of the whole Rhythms of The World thing.

Their contribution would be gracing the stage again next year so long as we had a festival and although they were only rumours, it did look like it was actually going to happen again as a proper festival and not the three gigs we had this year.

We took a few pictures with everybody’s permission and the Headmistress got us copies of the winning entries and I have to admit I was impressed with their efforts.

Ok, I’m writing this after the event from notes I took at the time, but you have to admit they came pretty close to what it’s all about.

Here’s Ida Secka’s winning entry:

Here’s Amie Camara’s winning entry:

And here’s Amie Ceesay’s winning entry:

Do you notice anything strange ?

The winners were all girls.

I’m guessing that had the question been asked in the UK or the USA or Japan, or most of Europe even, then we’d have had at least one boy or possibly two among them ?

The whole music thing is definitely predominantly male based in the UK although the women do come through occasionally.

It’s more prevalent in the USA because a. The country is a lot larger, and b. The genres are authentic to the differing regions and so girls growing up learning their family’s instruments are a lot more common.  

And before we get into arguments on the subject, I’m talking about musicians, and NOT winners of television talent shows.

When did a real group or a real singer/songwriter ever win one of those ?

You could probably count them on the fingers of one hand after you’ve had an industrial accident !

Too cynical ?

I don’t think so.

So what I was so pleased about is that our three winners had obviously thought about the question that we had posed.

Out in The Gambia, being a musician was definitely a male preserve.

There were some outstanding female musicians, but they were very few and most of those were from griot families.

We’d had one at Rhythms a year ago.

Sona Jobarteh.

Probably the world’s foremost female kora player.

But Sona comes from a griot family and so it will be in her genetic makeup.

Her Father and Uncles are all musicians too.

So having three little girls win our competition was a definite eye-opener.

The times are definitely a’changing because young girls are still expected to defer to the male members of their families.

I’d like to see Amadou try that on with his sisters.

The results could be quite entertaining…

And music was not even part of the Gambian school curriculum.

But with the internet revolution it was now available to all.

No… Things are changing.

I can’t speak for any of the other countries in the African continent but Gambian kids listen, and they know what they like.

And it’s not just Madonna or Rhiannon or the big hitters either, they listen to things that we might take for granted, and it’s not like they have adventurous radio stations, they don’t.

The one that does play western music is from 9am until 12.00midday and I’m guessing it’s a sop for the tourist industry ?

The rest is rap, hip-hop and reggae with a smattering of African music.

So do the math’.

The Gambia is just one small country in Africa but the kids know who Bruce Springsteen is, and they know who Dolly Parton is, and I’m not just talking about our family either.

Amadou had asked for a cd of an Irish folkie type band that I’d never even heard of.

Why ?

Because he knew somebody who had mentioned they liked them, looked them up himself and decided that yes, they were a band for him.

At least I’d heard of the singer that Hassanatou had asked for, even though I hadn’t a clue what she sounded like ?

(New Country should you want the genre ?)

Now multiply that by the amount of children in Africa with access to the internet.

You can see what I’m getting at here…

The times are a’changing because they are not cut off any more.

So yeah, I’m pleased with our winning entries, pleased that the girls came out on top, and even more pleased that they felt that they could compete as equals.

Because in my wife’s time that would not have occurred.

After the presentations the Headmistress told us about our pair.

Apparently Mariama’s name has been put forward for Head Girl ?

This is a bit of a worry because our little drum monster knows all the dodges, and so the Headmistress thinks that she’d be better off as Assistant Head Girl helping out the Head Girl.

She has a valid point, and when I said (and explained) ‘You mean set a poacher to catch a poacher’ ?

She said ‘Exactly that’.

Haddy and I just looked at each other and laughed…

Yep.

That sounds like the Mariama we know and love.

She’d also not gone in for the competition.

When she was asked why, she’d replied that she already had that t-shirt and she didn’t think it fair that she might get another one if she’d won it, and so she’d ruled herself out.

Haddy and I just looked at each other…

That definitely sounded like Mariama.

Her sense of what is right and what is wrong does sometimes put a few adults we could name to shame. 

As for Jalika, she was getting more confident in joining in everything.

She was still quiet.

(Very quiet compared to Mariama)

But her quietness was deceptive.

She took things in and thought about them before she committed herself.

And her French was amazing.

She’d really taken to it, pleasing her teacher immensely.

It had been a slow haul but she was beginning to get the hang of this learning business.

AND…

She hadn’t thumped anybody for ages, so they were all hoping that her earlier ripostes to those she felt threatened by were behind her ?

I’m not sure that’s entirely accurate, bearing in mind what had occurred in the last week, but I’m happy to go along with it. 

So, a quick trip to see the pair of them in their classes and a few more photographs and that was it.

Mariama as Head Girl or Assistant Head Girl ?

Oh well, it’s her last year at Gola Fortunate.

She will be going to a Senior School next September and that will be an interesting time…

The fact that the Headmistress trusted her enough to consider her nomination would hold her in good stead when she changed.

I think Haddy and I need to have a chat about her future because I don’t know enough about the Gambian school system.

The only thing I do know is that St Theresa’s is regarded as one of the best if not the best in the country ?

But like everything else, times change…

Now let’s try and have a relaxing time for the rest of the day, shall we ?

We walked slowly home and discussed the children.

Haddy wasn’t sure about St Theresa’s any more.

She thought maybe St Peter’s was a better bet for Mariama ?

I suppose we’ll have to find out nearer the event ?

When she told me where St Peter’s was, I didn’t believe her.

It’s a two taxi ride, and it’s a good few miles away off the main road leading to the airport.

Still, nothing we can do about it now and so it’s home to a cup of tea, I reckon ?

We spent the rest of the morning and early afternoon shelling even more peanuts.

Thankfully it had been a bumper crop this year and it seemed every family we knew had loads of them.

There certainly seemed to be enough to go round.

And then round about two in the afternoon, Haddy went inside, and left me to change the music on the computer.

I did, and stuck Rokia Traore on.

Rockia is a Malian singer/songwriter and plays guitar a bit.

She’s a striking looking woman with her man style short hair and looks like she could have been a top model in another life.

Anyway, Google her up and play something if you’ve never heard of her before, I think you might find it worth it ?

Screw it !

Just click on the link below to a one hour forty minute gig and it’s done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FrDL6cOXsvw 

The album I was playing was entitled ‘Tchamantche’, and now try and picture this…

I’m sitting on a mat in the middle of the compound.

Hassanatou is over by the kitchen sorting out some food, and Haddy is sitting inside the house when this old lady (probably about sixty to seventy but it’s sometimes difficult to work out, out there) came in through our front gates and made straight for me.

I stood up and motioned her to take one of the chairs scattered about, but before she sat she started talking…

And I didn’t recognise the language.

When the locals speak in any of the local languages they tend to use one predominantly and mix in a few from the others if they want specific meanings but this certainly wasn’t one of them and even I knew that.

It sounded like there was a bit of French in there, but I couldn’t be sure ?

So, stumped, I said ‘wait there’ and went to fetch Haddy.

Haddy came out and asked the old girl inside where she insisted on sitting on the floor rather than a chair and started shelling nuts…

See… Everybody does it.

Anyway, it turns out that this lady has been in The Gambia for just over a year and is a refugee from the Islamic Taliban in Mali.

Things started getting a bit fierce down her way and rather than stay and be terrorised by a different form of Islam than the one she’d grown up with, her family had scattered and she’d found herself in The Gambia.

So imagine her surprise while walking up to the main road from Fajikunda to hear Malian music coming from one of the compounds, and being played by ‘un blanc’ as well ?

She literally thought she was dreaming.

So would we mind if she stayed and listened to the music as she had not heard any of her own country’s music for a long time.

She was happy to help shell nuts while she was doing so if we’d let her  ?

Hey !

What can you say ?

Haddy tried offering her a drink but she only wanted a few sips of water.

I asked her via Haddy if she passed this way often, as the family did have some Malian music in the house, and were somebody to be in, then I’m sure nobody would mind if the kids put it on so that she could listen to a bit more ?

But no…

She didn’t feel able to do that as it would be imposing.

Just as Rokia’s cd was finishing I switched her to Toumani Diabate and that’s when her tears started…

There was nothing wrong, it had just been a very emotional afternoon for her.

This had been the sort of music that she knew throughout her whole body.

About twenty minutes later Mariama and Jalika came back from school and before she went in to change, Mariama stopped to see who was playing.

‘Hmmmph…’

And indoors to change they both went.

Within seconds the pair of them are out again, Mariama holding her Mother’s copy of another Toumani cd, and a copy of Fatoumata Diawara’s as well.

‘Uncle Chris, play these as well…’

‘You know what they are then’ ?

‘Everybody knows who they are…’

I’m not sure that’s particularly true, but within this family it’s a possible if not a probable.

The next thing we know is that the two little one’s are talking to the old lady in French and she’s gabbling away like a good’un.

About ten minutes later she got up to leave us.

Haddy asked her to stay for some food but she wouldn’t, and told her that she had imposed on us long enough and she was leaving now, but thank you for the afternoon as it had meant a lot to her…

And she left.

That wasn’t just odd, that was totally surreal.

I wonder if we’ll ever see her again ?

I’d like to think she might come back again sometime, but who knows.

We’ll have to wait and see ?

What was it our Rhythms winners had written ?

Music brings happiness ?
Music brings people together ?

They’d got that bang on the button !

It had been a good day. 

    

SAINABOU'S WEDDING PART NINE: BACKDROPS, BABIES AND SCHOOLDAYS

We’re going back to school again…

It’s our last full day here, and we are going to see what the children have done about a certain

backdrop ?

It’s quite sad really as we will be flying back on Haddy’s birthday

We’re giving the children plenty of time to get in this time and are arriving a bit later, ie 9.15 instead of 9.00.

We’ve got the donation to the school funds, so let’s get it over with.

I still don’t like going to schools…

Certainly not standing outside headmistress/headmaster’s offices.

There’s something about them always makes me feel guilty but blowed if I know what, after all, on this trip I’m innocent ?

Didn’t work though…

The kids were STILL out.

I think some of them seem to be expecting us ?

So we start with the headmistress, who then goes to all the classes involved and asks if the children who designed and painted it could all ‘quietly’ come outside for a ‘photo’ shoot ?

I’ll tell you what, kids being kids, they couldn’t get out fast enough.

This was different.

And there it was…

I nearly cried.

Nearly, but not quite.

It was ‘Gambian’, no doubts about that.

And it was perfect.

It was ‘us’, and it was ‘Arcadeclectic’ to a tee…

We’d wondered, bearing in mind the fabric was a light blue, if the children would choose the colours of the Gambian national flag, and they had done just that without any prompting from us.

Perfect.

Designed by Gambian children in the colours of their national flag as a backdrop to the stage where a Gambian and her husband work ?

I didn’t think it could get better than that, but it did.

The headmistress informs us that because of the interest initially in the project, that the staff have offered the children a ‘singers club’ as an after school activity because there is no music in the curriculum.

Unfortunately, this has been ‘extremely’ over-subscribed, worse even than the original painting project and so, just as they had done with the backdrop project, the younger classes have had to drop out.

When she told me that, I think I audibly winced ?

She laughed and just said ‘Jalika ?’

‘Yes…’

‘Don’t worry, we’ve had a talk with her, she’ll be in within the next two terms’

At least they knew.

She’s going to be very disappointed though.

As if they hadn’t already got enough on their plates with Mariama ?

And guess what ?

Today is school sports day and two still very tired little girls are not looking forward to it for one minute…

We took photographs on both cameras just to make sure, and then joined the headmistress in her office.

We get the backdrop and the school gets the donation from ‘Rhythms of The World’.

If schools from other countries that have connections with the festival in any way are getting involved, then it only goes to prove that it truly is a rhythms of ‘The World’ event.

Not bad for a bunch of volunteers, is it ?

One of the twenty best festivals in Britain as recommended by the Daily Telegraph, and better yet, one of the ten best world music festivals in the UK according to Songlines magazine (That’s a world music magazine, by the way… Covers pretty much every country on the planet)

And one day, maybe one of those children will play the festival in their own right ?

There were definitely two in the school that had eyes upon it, so why not more ?

This year we’d got two Gambian acts on the main World Music Stage.

This one...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pZiSl6I8RpM

and this one…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kKLWvwaoOIg

We’d had a Senegalese artist last year so we’d been close, now it’s time for the real thing and we’d got a serious couple of class acts in Sona Jobarteh and JuJu this year.

And if you talk to the kids out there, you will find out that they definitely know their music.

I’d mentioned Juldeh Camara to a couple of them who were possibly a year older than Mariama, and was informed he was a ‘Fula’ and he plays a ‘Riti’, (a one stringed violin is the closest way of describing it) and they mimicked him doing it.

They got that right.

They’re proud of their native sons and daughters breaking out and being successful around the world.

It gives them hope that they might do so in the future.

And who is to say that some of them won’t ?

Jalex is now known over most of West Africa, Germany and Scandinavia and he is a success story,

(he’s bloody good too, I’ve played  ‘support’ to him) Jaliba Kuyateh, and there are others also.

Juldeh Camara from JuJu has played with the Afro Manding guys in Sennagambia…

Now he’s in JuJu with Justin Adams AND Robert Plant’s new group, and as any and all readers with even a shred of musical knowledge of popular music over the last three or four decades should know, Robert Plant, ex-Led Zeppelin, is seriously BIG TIME.

It shows you what a small world it really has become.

The Gambia is a small country in the physical sense if you are counting by miles and area, but its heart is big, bigger than some politicians realise…

And its musical time will definitely come.

That afternoon I start preparing the meal.

I’m cheating, because I’ve got a couple of jars of ‘cook in sauce’, but the saag aloo (curried spinach and potato) I made myself.

It seems to go on forever and I know why ?

My helper in all my cooking ventures isn’t here any more.

Sainabou had an abiding passion for cooking and cooking well.

She was and is, damn good at it.

She was quick, and always ready to try new things.

Even digging out a couple of the recipes I’d given her on previous trips when we weren’t there, to cook like Uncle Chris…

Spaghetti Bolognese, Moroccan meatballs in lemon tagine, these were now part of Sainabou’s life and now she’s going to miss out on my first Gambian Indian meal…

Oh well, it can’t be helped.

Mariama and Jalika are willing helpers, however.

Finally, after a lot of stop and start, I managed to get everything ready at the same time.

I’m serving it with boiled rice flavoured with turmeric (so it turns yellow) with four or five crushed cloves and the same of cracked cardommum seeds to give it that authentic Indian’y flavouring,  naan bread and poppadums, and, I’ve managed to get some lime pickle and mango chutney…

Oh well, here we go…

Blimey !

How many people have we got in our family ?

There’s a compound full of them and that’s with the twins and Amadou missing because they’re out at Aliou Bah’s drenching 

(he’s bringing his wife home and the ‘extended family’ have a little surprise for him…)

Word has definitely seeped out.

I hope I’ve made enough ?

Right, get stuck in…

For a time all you can hear are the sounds of masticating molars…

Chewing and eating.

Then Aunt Rose said ‘Tres bon’ and something else in French which I didn’t catch because she will speak so fast.

Didn’t matter anyway, because they all started speaking at once after that.

Apparently, they liked it.

Some were most enamoured of the lime pickle and I tried to explain how they could make it, but I think that will be for our next trip whenever that is ?

Others liked the bread folded around bits of saag aloo, or the bread around the small chicken pieces in their Jalfrezi sauce.

But whichever way they liked it, we still had to reserve three portions for the twins and Amadou.

The rest just vanished.

Poor Princess, who has been hovering around for just this moment is going to be out of luck.

It doesn’t faze her however, because she stuck her head in every pot and licked up anything that was stuck to the sides.

A cat that does the washing up ?

If only ?

Later in the evening we are going round ‘Tufa’s girlfriend’s place to congratulate her on their new baby.

It’s way across town, as it were.

There is definitely a party atmosphere happening when we arrive, but ‘Tufa is in the family’s bad books for getting their daughter pregnant.

It happens, and they’ll probably get over it ?

At least he has a ‘professional’ job, being a taxi driver and he’s a good one, too.

So long as he doesn’t prang the car, he’ll be ok.

So we go and sit in the house with the new Mum and the baby girl who makes everybody go all gooey.

She is a pretty little baby, though.

That’ll serve ‘Tufa right when she gets to her teens…

I’ll bet he’ll be the strictest father on the block.

Finally, after a snack and a drink, he takes us back to the compound and we attempt to get an early night…

The best laid plans, eh ?

The children wake us up at midnight and we have to get up because it’s now Mum’s birthday and there are presents…

It’s our last morning here, and we need to be at the airport for one-thirty pm.

There are lots of hugs and a few tears from some members of the family and even a couple of the neighbours.

It’s always hard to say goodbye here.

It’s not just family, it’s everybody.

Sainabou has now gone to be part of Djibbi’s family and everybody is going to miss her, so it’s even more difficult this time.

Apparently Aunt Rose is going to stay on and look after the girls for a bit.

Her husband, Sebastian, will be going back to Senegal.

We’ve still got several ‘guests’ who have not gone back home yet since the wedding and apparently are waiting for us to give them money for their trip ?

They’re going to have a very long wait and they won’t be scrounging food for much longer either, and if Aunt Rose is in charge, they definitely won’t be.

Saying goodbye is always hard, but we’d sooner be at the airport where we can just relax at Luigi’s prior to take-off, get an overpriced snack and an overpriced drink and just wait until the flight is called…

We’ll be back in the UK in about six hours…

It’s a different world.

Back at Gatwick it’s the usual half mile walk before we have to queue in two different queue’s for immigration, with only the one officer checking those without E.U passports, and about seven doing E.U’s..

It’s ridiculous but what can you do ?

It means that I just sit behind the now two officers checking the non-EU arrivals and wait.

And wait…

And wait…

And occasionally, one of the officers will ask why I’m there ?

‘I’m waiting for my wife…’

‘Ah…’

And then I’m ignored until the next one see’s what looks like a derelect sitting on a chair behind him.

Hey, I may look like a derelect but at least I’m comfortable.

Looking at some of the other passengers who have insisted upon ‘dressing up’ for a flight does make you wonder about their common sense quotient ?

Be comfortable.

If you aren’t and you are restricted, there is more chance of a DVT…

(Deep Vein Thrombosis)

And you do get a lot of those caused by aeroplane flights, so…

Finally, she’s in.

No problem with documentation, just a cursory look, and a look behind to see ‘her husband who she is travelling with’ and she’s in.

Now we have to hope our luggage hasn’t been half inched by mistake by one of the travelling piss-heads ?

(sorry…  stolen by drunken returning holidaymakers)

Through the red zone, heavily oversubscribed on tobacco, and one bottle of booze over the limit, suitcases opened by bored customs officers and we’re waved through with thanks for actually declaring it.

No problem.

I’m going to get stopped in green anyway, I always have been ever since I started flying, so why give a supercilious prick in a uniform the chance to belittle you, especially when they find fuck all ?

No chance of that in the red zone.

Those guys are just pleased to see someone… And they are a lot more polite.

Besides, when you walk out of the red you get to see all the guilty smugglers with their open suitcases…

Like the woman whose suitcase was full of food ?

Well, some would claim it as food, others would curse her as a ‘bush-meat ‘ smuggler.

I’m glad they caught her.

Or the bloke whose wooden carvings seem to have a ‘hollowed out space’ in the centre ?

It makes you wonder how they think the customs service works ?

Dumb and dumber is not an expression I use that often (didn’t think much of the film, either) but those two were definitely dumb and dumber.

Hey, it’s warm…

Admittedly it’s spitting with rain and it's now 1.30 in the morning, but it’s warm.

Come on, let’s queue for the bus to the car park and go home...

A MUSEUM PIECE

I’m not sure how I feel about the ‘Rhythms’ exhibition at the museum ?

On the one hand it’s nice to get a little bit of proper recognition of what people have accomplished over the years, but at the same time it’s organically growing all the time and you can’t just ‘time-capsule’ it and put it in a box.

It looks like I’ll have to write something after all.

The ‘Arcadeclectic Stage’ is otherwise going to be conspicuous by its absence…

Oh well, at least WE’VE got the photo’s to prove it.

That is one of the things I’ve never understood ?

We take photographs of all the acts that grace the stage and we also either record them or film them.

Currently it’s filming, but back in the days of being situated in Hitchin’s arcade, we used to record them, therefore we have a record of what went on, or to be more precise, the actual artists have a record of what they performed in the majority of cases.

Now with the filming being out-sourced I think the system is working even better.

We and the artists have a complete record of the photographs taken while they were there and so reasonable records can be kept and two or possibly three people have access at any time.

None of the other stages do that.

Not even the main stage where the world acts play.

The photographs are split between whatever photographers are there on the day, all of whom are vying with each other, and the artists rarely see any of them and that is the same with the other stages also.

The only chance anybody has of seeing any of them is if they are downloaded onto the Rhythms website.

Personally I think it would be better to have two photographers covering each stage and that’s it.

Then you have the coverage.

Plus, ‘Rhythms’ then has access to all the photographs if they are ‘in house’.

That’s what I think, and I haven’t deviated from that basic idea in years.

Anyway, I cobbled something together, attached a few poems and photos and sent the whole thing off to Olivia at Hitchin Museum who had contacted me in the first place, and this is what it said…

The Arcadeclectic Stage… (Pronounced Arcade Eclectic)

Formed out of the embers of the old Arcade Stage that used to be at the top of the arcade next to the Corn Exchange just off the market square.

Envisioned originally as poetry only, it was never going to work like that in that particular setting owing to spill over noise from the market square Main Stage, and so common sense prevailed…

Well, it did up until the point where I asked for complete autonomy.

But that was granted, and so the Arcade Stage begat The Arcadeclectic Stage when we moved to The Priory site, and has never really looked back from that moment.

Anyone who spends some time in front of the Arcadeclectic will notice something that stands out straight away…

It is not commercial in any way, shape or form, and neither is it ‘Politically Correct’. 

The artists that play it have an attitude in common.

This is what we do… Like it or lump it !

And for some reason the audience likes it ?

There are no egos stroked there.

We have a saying… ‘Please leave your ego at the gate, as we don’t need it…’

The crew do their best for the artists and the artists do their best for the audience and that is really all that matters.

Entertainment is a strange thing…

When you think about it, how far have we actually come from the days of lions vs Christians ?

It’s really not that far, is it ?

If you have the courage of your convictions and you are prepared to face down a crowd to get your particular ‘vision’ across, then you have a chance of playing it, genre’s are not important.

Punk, Folk, Country, Bluegrass, Rock, Blues, Rock’n’Roll, Rockabilly, Jazz, Poetry, Avante-Garde, Rap, Soul, Reggae, Experimental, Classical, Madrigals, Opera, Instrumental, World Music, we’ll take it all, but God help anybody who decides to ‘coast’ through their set because the crowd in front of that stage will never let them get away with that, and they WILL make their displeasure felt in no uncertain terms…

It’s that lions vs Christians thing again.

And if you lose that audience then quite honestly you are nowhere, even if maybe you thought you were somewhere to begin with ?

But please don’t think it’s all attitude and no substance…

Anybody who was there will remember powerhouse sets by Blyth Power which got everybody, including the three year olds, down the front and dancing and moshing to their vision of English folk-rock music.

Or maybe The Fish Brothers and their twisted take on punk rock mixed with Max Miller type music hall ?   

Or The Astronauts playing the complete ‘Peter Pan Hits The Suburbs’ album for the very first time in the thirty years since its release ?

Or ex Sex Pistol Glen Matlock’s acoustic show ?  

Or Zounds… Playing their one British festival date of 2010 on the Arcadeclectic stage for ‘Rhythms’ ?

Or Northern Frisk, who play ‘pop’ music from the sixteenth century, getting the crowd up to boogie to a bit of John Dowland ?

Or last year’s notoriously hilarious, probably libellous and with more expletives per minute than the poor overworked crew are heard to mutter over the whole weekend, set by our local larrikins, Spandex Ballet ?

Then there were the poets…

The Faction fronted by Chris Bowsher of R.D.F….   Al Damidge… 

Bernie (Maipenrai) Shelton, who was having so much fun we couldn’t get him off the stage…  Local lad Grant Meaby and the rest of the Parnassus crew… 

Rachel Pantechnicon… Project Adorno… and my co-compere, Joy T. Chance, who I’ve worked with for more years than either of us care to remember…

And let us not forget the artists who first graced the Arcadeclectic and went on to perform on bigger stages and at bigger venues…

C.C. Smugglers… Tearing up a storm with their take on rockin’ country blues…

Lika Sharps…  Who are really indescribable, but who I’d recommend to anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see…

It’s the Arcadeclectic Stage and it doesn’t take prisoners…  And we’re proud of it.

Chris Ripple

Arcadeclectic Stage

Rhythms of The World

‘We had something to say, not something to sell…’

Suzie Rotolo

And that was it… Ending with that beautiful quote from Bob Dylan’s ex-girlfriend of their time together in the early 1960’s from her Greenwich Village memoir which sort of sums the stage up with an unerring accuracy beyond anything I could come up with.

Now all I have to do is wait and see what occurs ?

You know that saying ‘honesty is the best policy’ ?

Well sometimes it ruffles feathers because there are egos involved.

I hope I haven’t ruffled any, but if I have then so be it ?

It can’t be helped, and as Van Morrison once put it…

‘It’s too late to stop, now…’

Haddy outside Hitchin Museum

Wahay !  

We’ve been invited to the preview of the exhibition and according to Olivia they’ve used a fair bit of my stuff.

Great !

At least we’re represented.

The worry is always that the main stages take over and the smallest gets left out, but apparently we’ve got our own little section in front of the main section whatever that means, but we’ll find out when we
go ?

When we get there the place is absolutely packed with people.

Old friends, new friends...    

Haddy with the BIG boss...

It seems that the whole Rhythms hierarchy is there, and so we hobnob with the rest of the guests until Ade’ our licensing expert grabs us and says ‘have you seen your bit on the Arcadeclectic, it’s brilliant…’

And there it is…

Our own little space in front of the main space with poems and photos and it’s all there…

'Ebou's Song' and my mate Ebrima Gassama who had the original ideas

Including a copy of ‘Ebou’s Song’ with one of the two photos I have of the guy, and a small explanation of how the thing got written.

Recognition at last, eh mate ?

In The Gambia they thought you wild, drunk and stoned, but here, within an official exhibition at a government funded establishment, your ideas don’t just fit in, they seem to encapsulate everything that the organisation represented in the museum exhibition stands for ?

If you are looking down (or possibly up) mate, you are definitely going to have a smile on your face at this.

Me, Joy T. and Glen Matlock

Olivia, don’t let anybody ever tell you any different darlin’, you are an absolute STAR !

Finally, we have a little bit of recognition of what we do out there on the outskirts and it’s all there.

Not just us, but Bob’s TV interview on repeat video

'

'Rhythms' founder Bob Mardon on right

Old t-shirts, posters, photographs of acts we’d forgotten about.

Q. 'Why do you wear a Confederate bandana' ?  A. 'Because I'm going bald and I burn...'

Everything was there from its first humble beginnings as a fund raising event for Oxfam to the present day.

Twenty years of Rhythms of The World.
Even an old shot of me from the old 'Arcade' days...




And it runs for a complete month until the real thing takes over.

Honest to God, the staff of the museum had done an absolutely wonderful job.

Now all we have to do is get people along to see it and after they’ve seen it maybe they’ll actually want to partake of the real thing ?

Nice one.