CONCERT PREVIEW: Afro Celt Sound System @ The Apex 26/10/16
July 1997, my first visit to the Cambridge Folk Festival, on the bill that Saturday evening Afro Celt Sound System. Cue diehard folkies heading to the bar to steady their nerves and refill their pewter tankards, the few remaining whirl like mad things, dervishes possessed, to this thunderous groove machine and file the memory into the not to be forgotten section.
July 2016, another trip to the Cambridge Folk Festival, on the bill that Saturday evening Afro Celt Sound System. Introduced by Mark Radcliffe, filmed by Sky Arts, this thunderous groove machine play to a marquee so full that not another Amoeba could squeeze in, huge applause and compere roundly booed at refusal for encore.
I’m sure there’ll be encores a plenty at The Apex when this madcap idea for a band turn up to rock the place. If you like Celtic music, fiddles and pipes, West African music, kora and talking drum, dance music, electronic gizmos, or any one of the three, then bring your dancing shoes and make a mental note to buy a new pair the morning after!
Amongst all the dancing and joyous things there are moments of individual brilliance – pipe, fiddle, kora solos all brilliant, lullabies, gorgeous vocals and even rap, in Bulgarian!
So get your tickets and tickets for your friends and their friends as well, if further enticement is required check out “The Source” the new cd – its fab. See you there and mine’s a coffee.
