The Maiden City Festival held a review eveing on 5 February 2009. It was an event were we could showcase the variety and diversity of the Festival to many from the community or business sectors who would not be around in August: August is the traditional holiday period in Londonderry much as the first two weeks of July are in Belfast. It was a great night of drama, music and dance.
It is not fair to pick one of the performances for special attention, but as editor I will anyway. The Henry Girls have been a long-standing feature of our lunchtime events at the Verbal Arts Centre each August and they were more than happy to be available for our review night. There are two songs from them up on YouTube from the night. This one silenced Londonderry’s Guildhall. It is available on their latest CD called DAWN, which can be found on their website www.thehenrygirls.com
There are a number of other videos on the website including dance from the Sollus Highland Dancers from Bready and the Victoria Line Dancers. Apologies for the video as the digital struggled to cope with the changing lights: though the result has an impact of its own. More photos of the night on Flickr very soon.
Natty Wailer arrived. Not when it said on the programme, but adding together Jamacian Time and Londonderry Time he was probably right on the button two and a half hours late. Not that anyone seemed to mind as they had the lovely Henry Girls to entertain them until Natty appeared, and it was well worth the wait. Video posts later.
There were other great performances around the Culture Bite trail and more of those once the videos are posted. Don’t forget there is one more day of great lunchtime music around the Walled City. The 13 Rounds is not having a Culture Bite tomorrow, but there is an afternoon of light music from 2pm. Today was also the last of the Tea Dances at the Memorial Hall. For tomorrow there is the fantastic Balkan Alien Sound at Bloom’s Cafe, Skruff at the Cafe Nervosa, Magazine Street, Rodney Cordner at the Cafe Artisan, London Street, and The Flamingo Brothers at Louis’s Cafe, Shipquay Street. It was only today I noticed that the official name of the cafe is CafeLouis, but I have never heard it called anything but Louis’s.
Anyway, following the Culture Bites at lunchtime, there was the unveiling of a plaque in the Fountain to the late William Love. William Love was a composer of music for marching bands: though we have learned he also wrote music for hymns, waltzes for dances and jigs for fun. We were delighted that the Blackskull Flute Band from Glasgow was able to join in our tribute. The plaque is at a location at the top of Wapping Lane that would be roughly where William Love’s home would have been – long since demolished for development. His house would have faced onto Wapping Lane, onto which he would have stepped from his front door.
Music from this afternoon will be posted later on a webspace dedicated to William Love. Also included on that site will be excerpts from a concert by the Blackskull Corps of Fifes and Drums, which I hear in the main hall above me as I type. The Blackskull has long appreciated the music of William Love and has a CD dedicated to his music. In future years the Festival hopes to be able to build on this year’s small appreciation of William Love.
