Goldie's Fab Four #26

Highlights, Recommendations, Observations

The Lilac Time - Dance Till All The Stars Come Down

This is a stunning new album by Stephen Duffy, his wife Clare and their compadres in The Lilac Time - the band’s best recording yet. Bass and drums are dispensed with, leaving the focus on Duffy’s voice - an instrument that has acquired a wonderful depth with age. The delicate country/folk arrangements, illuminated by Ben Peeler’s lap steel guitar belie a serrated lyrical edge, Duffy skewering the politicians (and their supporters) who vote “for kindness to be destroyed”. By turns angry, wistful and melancholic this is quite simply a beautiful record.

David Harewood on Blackface (BBC I Player)

Throughout my childhood, the ‘Black and White Minstrel Show’ was one of the best watched programmes on telly. I thought it was odd then; now, in the light of this deep dive into the ‘blackface’ tradition, I know it was monstrous. Twenty million people could be wrong - and in this case, they were.

Harewood, with historian David Olusoga doing much of the heavy lifting, discovers the racist roots of a minstrelsy, a practice which stereotyped black people as happy go luck simpletons, while at the same time stealing their music, style and culture. There are those who still argue that blacking up is just ‘‘simple, harmless fun’. If you want to know why it isn’t, watch this

(Pic: David Harewood with Adrian Lester; BBC)

After This Plane Has Landed (Old Joint Stock, Birmingham).

Adrian Kimberlin is doing his best to to single-handedly turn Birmingham into Broadway.

‘After This Plane Has Landed’ is his second self-penned, independently produced musical, following ‘The Stars That Remain’ which premiered in 2018. That was an impressive debut, but hopes of a sustained run were crushed by the pandemic.

‘Plane…’ is even better, and I reckon Kimberlin might just have a hit on his hands when this ‘musical dramedy’ arrives in Edinburgh next month.

It tells story of John McCarthy, a British journalist held hostage in Beirut in the late 1980s, and his then girlfriend Jill Morrell who campaigned tirelessly for his release.

In the original script there were apparently another 40 minutes worth of action but this Fringe-friendly script squeezes comedy from the compression, as we race across years of action in exactly one hour.

Benedict Powell and Claire Russell are perfect foils as McCarthy and Morrell, their sensitive delivery ideally attuned to the bittersweet taste of Kimberlin’s songs - part Sondheim, part Smiths. Director Alan Magor manages impressive shifts of time and location on a tiny stage, too.

An #EdFringe must see.

Ben Toury (The Wellington, Birmingham)

If I’d been quicker off the mark, I’d have snapped French boogie woogie piano player Ben Toury tinkling the ivories whilst doing a backwards handstand, but you’ll have to make do with this rather dull headshot I’m afraid. Suffice to say, Toury is well worth seeing even if without the gymnastics, coaxing a warm response out of a well-oiled Saturday night crowd at Birmingham’s #1 real ale joint.

Toury mashes classic jazz and blues tunes with his own compositions and plays a mean harmonica too. A high point in another excellent Birmingham Jazz and Blues Festival, which also encompasses neighbouring Solihul and Sandwell, splattering the West Midlands with excellent, mostly free gigs.

What, you still want to see Toury doing that backwards handstand??? Plebs.