« Mo Mowlam's Life Support Switched Off | Main | The one where she wonders if she is destined to write about guinea pigs for the rest of her life... »
August 23, 2005
Who needs Glastonbury?
It’s official, you should all be the first to know, Purple Elephant is no longer bitter about missing Glastonbury 2005. I can almost hear that collective sigh of relief as you are all safe in the knowledge that I shall no longer be boring you with that subject anymore.
Don’t relax too much for I have a new obsession with which to bore you.
We camped with some very good friends of ours, who unfortunately due to the distance between us we only get to see about once a year. This would have been great in itself, if something had gone horribly wrong and all the stages had sunk into the mud and there had been no music, I think I would have barely noticed. But this didn’t happen at all and in fact the weather held out until just as the Levellers finished at 11pm Sunday night. So if it sank after that I guess it really didn’t matter.
I probably should be providing a review of the Levellers set and some of the other music that was going on but it was all pale in comparison to the live performance of Rev Hammer’s concept album Freeborn John. Yes I want to go on and on for days and days about the real Levellers.
Now for those who don’t know, a good few years ago Rev Hammer recorded a concept album of the life of John Lilburne, the radical reformer of the 17th century and ‘leader’ of the Levellers. It has a great line up with Rev himself playing the part of Lilburne and the great Maddy Prior playing his wife Elizabeth, oh and OK the imitation Levellers playing the Leveller Mutineers (Ha!) This has been one of my favourite albums for a long time, don’t get me wrong I usually shudder at the thought of a ‘concept’ album, it makes me think of Pink Floyd and The Who and all that pretentious nonsense. Maybe I like this one because it concerns real people and a subject I’m interested in personally.
Anyway this weekend was the first time the whole album has been performed live from start to finish and much to my total contentment, it was performed a grand total of three times. It even had it’s own stage (the ‘Freeborn John Stage‘) so as you can imagine at 8.30 every evening my backside was parked on that hill, my eyes gaped wide with wonderment and nothing, absolutely nothing (not even the Oysterband or Billy Bragg) stood a hope in hell of moving me from the spot.
Predictably my favourite tune is Bonny Besses sung by Mary Overton (wife of Richard) played by Eddie Reader on the album, who obliviously had other commitments as at the weekend as the part was played by a Canadian singer with a great voice called Romney Getty.
‘We are the Bonny Besses in the sea-green dresses, And we spit on your abuse of this power. And we say Free Honest John from the tower.’
To steal a cliche I don’t think there was a dry eye on the hill when Maddy Prior ripped our already weakened heart stings with ‘Seventeen Years of Sorrow Pierce my Heart’ Oh and any woman who has ever been chatted up by a drunken slobbering moron in some dive of a pub, will appreciate ‘Elizabeth’s Great Gallop’ where she gets the better of a drunken Cavalier. We must all recognise the lines ’Come sit awhile with a Cavalier / we’ll take it nice and slow.’ and ‘only a man in prison chains / Could let such beauty pass.’ Needless to say after several polite refusals he gets rather nasty (The 17th Century equivalent of the ‘You must be a fucking dyke then’ point) To which she has the perfect comeback
‘Ah! Sir I will return, Back along this road And lay you down in clovergrass My tenderness I’ll show. For it’s been awhile, it’s been awhile It’s been awhile and oh! Since I cut the throat of a Cavalier We’ll take it nice and slow.’
Note to self; remember this one in future.*
The whole thing went down marvellously with the festival goers, the hill was packed most nights and it received an enthusiastic standing ovation every time. I can’t make up my mind if I was disappointed or encouraged by the number of people coming out with such lines as ‘I had no idea who this John Lilburne bloke was but I must go and find out more.’ I feel rather dumbfounded that people who listen to the Levellers had until now not even bothered to investigate where the name came from (and let’s face it the band make no secret of their origins) but encouraged that people are at least now inspired to find out more.
As for me I must read Pauline Gregg’s Free-Born John, which I got months ago and was planning to save until I finished my exam because it’s something I really want to concentrate on, I’m not sure if I can wait now though. I also want to find out more about Elizabeth Lilburne, Mary Overton and Katherine Chidley or any of the so called ‘Bonny Besses.’ I’ve found a tantalising amount dipping into here, any pointers in the right direction would be much appreciated.
*I realise I have made it sound as if this happens to me all the time but really it has been many years since I have been chatted up by a drunken fool, except of course my husband when he gets in on a Friday night, but even that doesn’t happen anymore.
Posted by purple elephant at August 23, 2005 09:58 AM