As requested by Dave, here?s my highlights of Whitby Musicport Saturday. Appearing early afternoon was local lass Eliza Carthy, with the Ratcatchers. As one might expect from the daughter of Martin Carthy and Norma Waterson, this was English folk at its best. Unfortunately, the early time slot meant the musicians were more animated than most of the audience (how people remained seated during their jigs and reels I do not know! I certainly did not) but this didn?t affect the band?s exuberance. A band well worth seeing, even if folk is not your cup of tea. Golem Sound System were the second last band of the evening.
Most of this band are from Argentina, though they live in Spain. They really had the crowd jumping by this time with their eclectic style of dub reggae with Spanish lyrics. Their cover of Eleanor Rigby was superb. They certainly set a high standard for Apache Indian and the Reggae Revolution, the last band of the night. This standard was raised as soon as Apache Indian and the Reggae revolution took to the stage. What a hot reggae band! Jazzyvee?s Alembic sure sounded sweet; my daughter noticed the difference!
The only non-standard feature was the Indian drummer. He mostly played tablas, but in the middle of the set, he switched to a dhol. This is a large, double-ended drum played with sticks. This part of the set was like a brief bhangra interlude: Jazzyvee played some hot stuff here.
The tribute to Desmond Dekker was a treat (he was booked to play Musicport before his untimely death earlier this year) with a stunning rendition of ?The Israelites?, with the whole audience joining in for the ?woh - oh - the Israelites?. The set closing ?Boom-Shack-a-Lack? was superb; again the audience joining in. At the end of this, the entire band suddenly switched from the reggae backing to conventional rock-and-roll. Absolutely stunning set; shame they didn?t realise they would?ve been allowed an encore. Despite ten minutes of thunderous applause, we couldn?t get them back. Live music is the one! Mark (Message edited by grateful on October 22, 2006)
