WOMAD 2010: Rated!

Charlton Park, Wiltshire - 23-25 July

United Kingdom | by Phil Petty | 27 July 2010

Overall - 8/10
For 28 years, WOMAD has eschewed passing fashions to do exactly what it says on the tin: to spotlight an ethnically diverse World Of Music And Dance that’s seldom given more than a walk-on role in the mainstream music scene. Going to WOMAD feels like being invited to a fantastic party by an old, well-travelled, slightly eccentric friend, just knowing you’re going to be regaled with fascinating tales from around the globe.   

Getting there and back – 8/10
Three years ago, WOMAD quit its pokey pad in grimy Reading for a bigger place in the Wiltshire countryside, settling in a location with both rural charm and good transport connections: the event is well signposted off the M4 and near to two rail stations just over an hour out of London Paddington, Chippenham and Kemble. The latter offer shuttle buses to the site, where years of organisational nous mean few queues to get in and out.

The site – 8/10
A spacious, tree-lined site, overlooked by the stately Charlton House, now gives WOMAD that ‘getting away from it all in the country’ vibe it lacked a bit in Reading. In the main arena, decorated with its famous array of fluttering flags, you can stroll around the four main stages in about the time it takes to finish a pint from one of the many easy-to-reach bars, without ever feeling hemmed in by crowds. An aptly global range of food choices lie in between, although hippy chic and dressing-up-box fashion seem to be edging out a former diversity of arts and crafts stalls in the market areas. The site’s real haven, however, is the arboretum, a wooded area providing plenty of shady spots to pause between campsite and main arena.    

Atmosphere – 8/10
WOMAD is one of the most relaxed, family-friendly events going, with a multitude of kids’ workshops, plus numerous green areas for toddlers, teens and aging hippies alike to play in. Many here are seasoned festival-goers who’ve been there, done it, bought the tie-died T-shirt and returned to introduce their offspring to the ways of WOMAD. All of which makes for a totally chilled-out and safe environment – perhaps a little too safe; at times it feels a bit like being at a giant garden party thrown by Guardian-reading parents. But with the sun shining on one and all, and no repeat of earlier Womud horrors, such gripes are massively outweighed by a sense of being part of one big festival family, the generations united in their pursuit of music and culture from beyond the mainstream.

Music – 9/10
Africa is in the ascendant at this year’s WOMAD, from Friday’s thunderous opening by Drummers of Burundi to a joyously bouncy Sunday-night closing set from Kanda Bongo Man. But the weekend provides a whistle-stop tour not just of a single continent, but the whole damn world. Where else in one place could you meet Mongolia’s answer to the Pogues (Hanggai); be uplifted by the soaring, intensely spiritual voices of traditional Pakistani trance (Rizwan-Muazzam Qawwali); take in twisted English anarcho folk (Chumbawamba); or hear classical tunes reworked in lightning Hungarian-gipsy style (Sentimento Gipsy Paganini)?

If all that sounds a touch obscure, there are also plenty of artists whose aim is to simply move your feet, whether it be all-conquering WOMAD favourites Afro Celt Sound System, the infectious Caribbean infusion of Ska Cubano, or Saturday night’s pumping reggae party hosted by dub/punk godfather Don Letts.

Uppers

LaBrassaBanda/Kormac’s Big Band – 9/10
While other WOMAD performers reverently preserve different musical traditions, these two bands grab ‘em by the scruff of the neck and smash ‘em together to produce miraculous new creations. In some unlikely Dr Who scenario, Kormac’s mob are an Irish barbershop quartet and 1920s speakeasy band, thrown forward in time to riff over the heavy beats of a hip-hop DJ. LaBrassBranda are a Bavarian-brass ensemble who swap traditional Oom-Pah music for techno freak-outs, dub workouts and a crazily effective cover of Reel 2 Reel’s ‘I Like To Move It’. Both shouldn’t work, yet patently do, and with verve and humour, converting half-empty tents of bystanders to masses of dancing, arm-waving converts.  

Staff Benda Bilili – 8/10
The power of their Congolese rumba and energetic funk sound has lifted these disabled musicians from living rough on the streets of Kinshasa to wowing festival-goers in the UK. They take to the stage in wheelchairs and on crutches, but the last two words of their name mean ‘beyond appearances’ and it’s their sheer musical ability that makes them such a winning force with the Friday evening audience. If you can’t catch them live, try to catch the movie; their life-affirming musical story has been made into a documentary, recently lauded at Cannes.

Cerys Mathews - 8/10
The phrase ‘acoustic welsh folksongs’ is enough to strike terror into the heart of any festy goer seeking a storming end to their Saturday night. But the former Catatonia front-woman’s beautifully husky Welsh voice and charismatic hold over the crowd soon have everyone singing along. The highlight of her totally captivating set is Catatonia fave ‘Mulder and Scully’, dusted off and made to sparkle for the first time in nearly a decade. With a voice like that she should still be selling millions, but tonight the charts’ loss is WOMAD’s gain.

Ozomatli – 7/10
If this band didn’t exist, WOMAD would be forced to invent them, so perfectly do they sum up its melting-pot ethic. This seven-strong LA collective blend soul, funk, Latino rock and rap, seasoning it with a hint of Middle Eastern spice. The result is a gloriously upbeat party where it’s impossible not to join in. So there’s a whiff of gorgonzola to their ‘love n peace’ patter, but they really do take the party to the people, closing Friday night by jumping down into the crowd with trumpets and drums for a rousing samba jam.  

Downers

Nouvelle Vague – 5/10
Imagine if some Gallic musos, fronted by two sexy chanteuse, took classic New Wave tunes and swapped all the passion, power and anarchy for bland cabaret stylings. Imagine the finest moments of the Buzzcocks, Depeche Mode and The Clash rendered Radio 2-friendly for the ironic pleasure of aging hipsters. Not funny or clever – just plain wrong.     

Random events
It’s WOMAD’s year of the bizarre cover version, some surprisingly better than the original – see LaBrassBanda above, plus The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain’s witty reinterpretation of Isaac Hayes’ ‘Shaft’ and strangely moving take on Wheatus’ ‘Teenage Dirtbag’ – others not so welcome (Nouvelle Vague).

It’s also the year of the feral kid, from the young ‘uns hovering to add your beer cup to their collection and earn all those 10ps for returning it to the bar (WOMAD have thus sorted that litter problem), to the adolescent packs roaming the campsite after Mum and Dad have gone to bed, delighting the sleeping masses with such wittily shouted repartee as: "What’s wrong with everybody, it’s a festival, not a sleep over!”

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