Re: WOMAD

[Richard Bensam <rabensam@earthlink.net>]

Mike Wade wrote:

>Anyone going to WOMAD this year? Not specifically a Kate event,  but
>would be great to meet up with some other Kate fans there. If you don't
>know WOMAD, it stand for World of Music Arts and Dance - usually there
>are three stages with bands/singers/performers from all over the world
>(mostly not standard rock/pop, more a focus on traditional music forms
>from diffent cultures) . Free camping on fields alongside the Thames is
>thrown in, along with hundreds of craft stalls and some of the best food
>money can buy (not forgetting the beer tents). Peter Gabriel was
>involved with setting up the festival, although he doesn't usually
>perform these days as it would divert attention from the other
>performers.

And let us not forget the Bush family connection to WOMAD.  In 1982, the
organization released a benefit double-album set called "Music And Rhythm"
which served as a fund-raising vehicle for the very first WOMAD Festival.
Lots of great music on this collection, including unavailable-anywhere-else
performances by Pete Townshend and and Peter Gabriel -- both of whom have
of course worked with Kate -- and a track called "Marrakesh" composed by a
fellow named Morris Pert, a name which should also ring a few bells for
Love-Hounds.  But the most relevant is a Balinese number recorded by Vic
Coppersmith-Heaven called "Pengosekan" which features Preston Heyman on
percussion and Gamelan, and none other than Paddy Bush  on Gengong.
Finding this album was the first time I'd ever seen a member of the Bush
family credited on a record by someone other than Kate, and in spite of all
the other wonderful music it includes, that's the main thing I associate
with this record.

For people without a vinyl- playing turntable, I don't think the full
collection was ever released on CD -- though I would be VERY happy to learn
I am mistaken about this! -- but a single-disc "Best Of Music And Rhythm"
was released a while back.  It includes the Gabriel, Townshend, and Pert
tracks -- as well as songs by XTC, Mighty Sparrow, David Byrne, and many
other commercially desirable artists -- but sadly NOT the Vic
Coppersmith-Heaven track.


RAB

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