Glastonbury!

Had a great Glastonbury playing with RSVP. Here's a crowd shot from the Avalon Cafe gig on Thursday night. They're having the time of their lives!
No-one went crazy and we only lost our bassist for a day.

Wild Garlic

An old hedgerow favourite, this. Find in shady woodland. Smells strongly of garlic and onions.

Pirate Utopias

This is an excellent article on piracy (the historic version, rather than the Somalis with AK47s version), which illuminates the inspiration for the roaming outcast sailing raiders, and finds their political motivation in the radical movements of the 1600s.

http://www.eco-action.org/dod/no8/pirate.html

Kennet and Avon Boating Community Under Threat!

Kennet and Avon Boating Community Under Threat!

Just a reminder to you all. The boating community is under threat from a handful of bigots wielding undue power. Time to fight back!

http://kanda.boatingcommunity.org.uk/wordpress/

Dark Eyes - The Truth

Incredibly, I've only just discovered this source material for the classic "Russian trad" number "Dark Eyes". The lyrics aren't traditional, the tune is German, and the two weren't even composed together.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Eyes_(song)

Season's Greetings!

Now I know this looks set-up. It was - see the breadcrumbs. It is however a real robin. Robins are very easily tamed, and this one from Bathampton has had more than its share of breadcrumbs.

Shantel - another thieving musician.

Shantel, the German dj turned "Balkan Beats" star, seems to be shaping up to be a Goran Bregovic for the noughties and beyond - as if we needed another one.

Bregovic, for those of you with short memories, stands convicted of stealing other artists' copyrighted material, claiming it as traditional or asserting his own authorship in the face of the facts, and riding roughshod over the rights of the original composer. Artists as notable as Saban Bajramovic, Esma Redzepova and Llilijana Petrovic (Butler) have all accused him of theft and plagiarism.

Now Shantel on his new Planet Paprika album stands guilty of the same crime, claiming he wrote the lot, when clearly much of it is traditional. I've been playing "Sura kai mastoura" for over ten years, so to learn it, I must have had access to a time machine.

What a cretin!