I'm a scribbler - that means someone who writes notes all the time -
- my diary got somehow lame recently - because I have to much ideas for entries in my head, make some notes in my editor here & there - but still unfinished I save them for later use - next day I have other things to tell & in most cases I don't have time to write them down & sometimes scribble them down somewhere, anywhere & some time much later, when I find these notes again, I even can't decipher anymore what they were about - it's like you wrote a telephone number on a paper without a name (it could be the registration number of your vacuum cleaner)- - Did that ever happen to you? -
So my entry of today is not up-to-date - it was about 5 weeks ago when there was the "Bardentreffen" - so 3 days Woodstock in Nuremberg (in Woodstock there were about 500.000 - here on the Bardentreffen there were about 200.000 - oohm that's a lot too of visitors just for folklore (no apparently also for eating, feasting & drinking - maybe they major reason for the most visitors)!) - no - it was not Woodstock , not the worldwide synonym for peace & love festival & it'was no Rock'n'Roll event - it's just the "Bardentreffen" (meeting of Bards) here - since 30 years every summer in the the festival of Bardentreffen with a lot of bands & international folklore groups meet here in Nuremberg & play at all available places, like on the marketplace on the places in front of 2 churches, on 2 different nice places at the river Pegnitz, in an old bombed out church ruin called 'Katharinenkloster' etc. - There are about 60 official staging groups this year, but on every street corner in the 'Altstadt' (the inner old circle of town inside the old dark aged townwalls) you'll find single musicians or little groups of all kind of musical
on the first day a terrible storm made the festival to stop very early - that was the day when I wasn't there, standing on a lonesome station far away on the country side - I told about it in an older entry..
See the programm & bands that played there within these 3 days here in www.bardentreffen.de - it probably gets changed next spring, when the next festival of 'Bardentreffen' gets planned -
On the second day I just went there on the late afternoon - & visited only one place there: 'the Insel Sch�tt', one of the nicest places on all that festival, on a big park like meadow near the river 'Pegnitz', the stage just in front of the river.
There where an Scottish maiden band from Glasgow playing scottish folk music with violin, guitar, flute & voices of course - they were nice to listen - their homepage is www.the-midden.com
Later in the evening there was another Glasgow folk music band (I forgot their name) - they also played with 'Dudelsack' (bagpipes) etc. - but by then that was too much of Scottish music - because the melodies & the schemes & patterns of these melodies seem to be very similar to my ear..
So next day I didn't wanted to hear another Scottish group - I heard enough of Scottish tunes for a half year - which was playing this day on the market place - so I went 'by surprise' again to 'Insel Sch�tt' (Insel = isle) - there was a young band from France with about 9 members - the typical rhythm section of guitar, base & drums was completed by the wind, an arcordeon player etc. - - their name was 'Babylon Circus' - & they played such a witty, quick, insanic kind of driving music - a mixture of chanson, reggae, balkan music, jazz samples & exalted crazyness of style & attitude - a mixture of amusing Circurs band show & good music - with a slight touch of 'Wahnwitz'(over'-crazy) - maybe you can get a feeling about them if you visit their website: www.babyloncircus.com - somewhere there you find also some samples of their music - I really can recommand them - highly!
Yes they were the last official band to play on this Sunday evening in Nuremberg. On Sunday they closed much earlier than on Saturday, the day before. About 11 p.m. all bands on all places had finished - yes all, but a single illegal little band, playing on a little place in the old town center of Nuremberg with coffeehouse & an old church around - they played with 3 guitars & someone drumming on some undefined stuff & only one little street amplifier on on one of the guitar some good old blues - looking all dressed in black in an old style like the 'Blues Brothers', the singer who played the main guitar singing in his hoarse & raucious voice really good old original Louisiana blues -
a small community of people had gathered round them, sitting in a circle to inhale the last late night secret happening of the Bardentreffen' -
Of course some songs later the police (2 of them - one female & one male - they alway walk in couples f. + m. since some years) came, but they reacted very cautious - they stood helpless in the background for a while talking with cellphones apparently to their boss, unsure how to react - After the actual song was over they went to the Singer & talked with him - While they left the place, the singer told us (still over microphone) that they could play on for a while, but without using the amplifier. - He put the amplifier off. Some minutes later, when the 2 police people where out of sight, he switched it on again. & they played on until the certain moment when they where too tired to play on anymore & we audience were satisfied & well-fed of good music..
aah by the way - they called themselves 'The Rock'n'Roll Lafayette' or something like that
next day, while researching the internet about the bands who had played on the Bardentreffen, so informations about the Babylon Circus etc. - I detected also, that another french group had played before Babylons Circurs- called 'Hurlement de Leo', thats 'Gebr�ll des Leoparden' in German & in English probablement: 'the shouting (or cry) of the lepard'. - their internet site is http://hurlements.dleo.free.fr
- you can hear a lot of their songs in that site & I think the sound interesting too - maybe interesting enough to me, that may I order a CD or 2 by them -
but definetely Babylon Circus was the highlight of the Bardentreffen - so huite, huite visit their site & you'll understand:
www.babyloncircus.com
in the flash intro you'll get the real right impression about them - they were behaving just like that cartoon gang shown there - my fave of them looked just like a mixture of Groucho Marx & Frank Zappa - & behaved like that - they're still pretty young - but if they don't get quarreld up with each other, they might gonna have a big fortune.
In one of my next fortunes I will tell you about the hot spots of last years Bardentreffen. - I found by then 2 of my most favourite music & have order & bought all of their CD's - but that's another story, because both of them are worth a single entry in my diary!
