Search The Line of Best Fit
Search The Line of Best Fit

SHIFT FESTIVAL: Robyn Hitchcock presents a Maritime Evening

05 February 2010, 09:03 | Written by Ro Cemm
(Live)

Cape Farewell is a charitable organisation bringing together scientists and artists to create an informed artistic response to climate change. During the last weekend of January they took over London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall for the SHIFT Festival, a multi-arts programme raising awareness of climate change. In 2008, Robyn Hitchcock was part of a Cape Farewell party that voyaged to the Disko Bay area of Greenland. A mysterious, powerful force, the mystery of the sea has inspired creative minds for centuries. Hitchcock’s Maritime evening then, combined his experiences with Cape Farewell with a collection of traditional and not so traditional sea songs and shanties, taking in everything from Martin Carthy and the Byrds to Mates of State, with a few other choice moments in between. All of the evenings songs, Hitchcock observed, were “written near, about, or with the aid of liquid.”

Split into two halves, the show followed the progression of so many of these “…and friends” affairs, Hitchcock taking centre stage to open before gradually introducing his guests for a few songs at a time. In keeping with the nautical theme of the evening, Hitchcock called them up from “below decks”. The first guest to join Hitchcock was the heavily pregnant Katherine Williams, who gamely confessed to attempting to “smuggle someone on board”. Long gone are the days where Williams was crippled with nerves at the prospect of live performance, and she joked with ease about having to play guitar “sidesaddle”, asking the audience to forgive any impromptu percussion cased by the baby kicking. The pair covered ‘The Grey Funnel Line’ and ‘The Balled of Easy Rider’ before Williams debuted a beautiful new song from her forthcoming album. While the covers were certainly pleasant, the original material was what really stood out, William’s voice and observational writing as sharp as ever.

Later Graham Coxon joined Hitchcock for a pretty fingerpicked acoustic number before strapping on his trademark tele for “Caspian Sea” from last years The Spinning Top. With it’s psychedelic overtones, it was ideal fare for Hitchcock, a master of such things, and both men clearly enjoyed the opportunity to wig out while saying “CASPIAN SEA”. A Lot. Helpfully, the projectionist for the evening assisted with a map of said body of water.

To bring the evening to a close, Hitchcock was joined by his fellow Disko Bay traveller KT Tunstall, back that day from finishing her new album in Berlin. After debuting a track from the new album inspired by the Disko Bay expedition to Uumannaq, she appeared visibly moved by her experience. While that song is a logical progression from Tunstall’s previous records, it was the unaccompanied “Whale Shanty”, a stark and haunting folk song, that was the highlight of the evening.

Although the new material from Tunstall and Williams were undoubtedly highlights, the show suffered, as so many of these collaborations seem to, from a lack of consistency: the lack of rehearsal time was all too apparent, giving the proceedings a shambolic quality, which, while not unwelcome, was a little disappointing given the collective talents of the ensemble. In the end however, Hitchcock’s charm, charisma and forays into the absurd ( including the imminent arrival of Stalin’s giant crabs, how rope is made, snake mating rituals and the “shoulder padded, beats per minute tyranny of the eighties”) pulled the show together. Rather than preaching to the converted on the subject of climate change, the show was a celebratory love note to water, the environment and the sea.

Photos courtesy of crazybobbles

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