Hyde Park Calling and the Buena Vista Social Club

The Feeling
And so to Hyde Park Calling – a festival that happens at the same time as Glastonbury, and so has an “old rocker” feel to it.
Due to a bit of a cock-up on my part, one of the newer singers I wanted to see, Terra Naomi, who’d I heard on the cover CD of this month’s Word magazine, was singing the last lines of the last verse of her last song as I entered her tent. Not a great start then.
The set-up is one big stage and two smallish tents. I was actually quite worried about how small the tents were, because I was planning on seeing the Buena Vista Social Club in one of them later. I made a mental note to make sure that I arrived nice and early to see them.
On the main stage, I watched The Feeling perform essentially the same set as they’d performed at the Isle of Wight Festival a couple of weeks ago. That didn’t bother me too much because I’d enjoyed it before, and they’ve got a few quite decent songs, and I got to hear their cover of Video Killed the Radio Star again. What a great song!
The one worry I had was that the heavens were going to open at any time. Most people were glancing in a worried manner skywards every so often.
Next up was Crowded House, who were pretty good. I say that, but I only stayed for a couple of songs before heading off to the second stage in one of the tents. I wanted to make sure I could get in for the Buena Vista guys.
Member of the Buena Vista Social Club
I needn’t have worried as there was plenty of space when I got there and watched Jason Mraz finish up. He was pretty good from what I saw of him, but his fanbase and that of the next band didn’t seem to overlap and they all left. That afforded me the chance to get right down to the front and stand on the railings at the dead centre of the stage. You really couldn’t get a closer and better view.
And that’s where I stayed for the entire show. The Buena Vista Social Club band was formed for the film of the same name by Wim Wenders back in 1999. Since then, a few of the big stars who came together for that film and the subsequent album and concert performances have died. But Cuba’s an incredibly musical place, and those band members have been replaced. As the Wikipedia entry quotes, the band is “something of an anomaly in music business terms, due to their changing line-up and the fact that they’ve never really had one defining front person … It’s hard to know what to expect from what is more of a brand than a band.”
So today’s version is not at all the same as the band we’ve seen in the film, although several “original” members are still there performing.
Nonetheless, they still play some quality music and a packed tent (made even more packed by the heavens suddenly opening and a much promised dumping of rain finally arriving) is soon dancing and clapping along to the great melodies.
I had a whale of a time.
Afterwards, I wandered out to watch a little of Peter Gabriel before I left to go home. I didn’t hang around long, as one after another unfamiliar song was played. Then Gabriel announced that he’d held a vote on his website where fans had picked some of the lesser played songs for him to perform tonight. Suddenly, even though this was a “festival” where greatest hits sets go down fine, we were to become a fan club only event. I left.
More photos over at Flickr.


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