April ended up being a busy month culturally, with two concerts, a film and a visit to two galleries.
The first of these was on Saturday 13th when I was off to Manchester with J as we had tickets to see Olivia Chaney at the Stoller Hall. We went in early so we could have a meal in a Thai restaurant in Spiningfields.
Olivia Chaney is probably best described as a contemporary folk singer, who mainly, but not exclusively, performs self-penned material. She studied at the Royal Academy and before that Chetham’s School of Music, to which the Stoller Hall belongs and is next door to. She’s collaborated with the Kronos Quartet and the Decemberists (as Offa Rex).
I’d first come across her when she appeared in an episode of the podcast Folk on Foot when she was living alone in an isolated cottage without electricity or mains water up on the North Yorkshire Moors where she was composing songs for her second solo album.
She’d just released her third album Circus of Desire and during the concert performed songs from both this and her earlier releases.
She was born in Florence and is multilingual, and has released an EP of French songs, as well as singing in French with the Kronos Quartet.
The next week in, due to intense work commitments, I was back in Manchester for four days, stopping over at the Premier Inn. I was going to be stuck in the hotel on my own on the Thursday night so decided I’d check what was on at the cinema at Home (the arts venue, that is, not my home). One of the options was Io capitano ( ’Me Captain’ in Italian) a film I’d fancied seeing. Home, as well as having a decent restaurant, sells good, original, bar meals, which woulod make a nice change from eating at the Premier Inn, so I wandered across a little early and ordered myself a chicken souvlaki and a pint of their local draft non-alcoholic beer.
Io capitano, directed by Matteo Garrone, is an Italian, Belgian, French co-production about two young men, only teenagers, really, Seydou and Moussa, who were cousins, from Senegal who, looking for a better life, decide to make their way to Europe, a journey that included crossing the Sahara desert. The story was inspired by the real experiences of African migrants.
The cousins had no idea of the difficulties they would encounter, including being cheated by people traffickers, corrupt police, being forced to cross the Sahara on foot, imprisoned and tortured and sold into slavery. Eventually they manage to get themselves on a wreck of a boat, overflowing with refugees, to cross the Mediterranean. As they didn’t have enough money to pay the people smuggler, Seydou agrees to sail the boat, even though he has no knowledge or experience. It’s a perilous journey, but Seydou, showing determination and leadership qualities, manages to get the boat and its passengers across the sea to Sicily where they celebrate as a coastguard helicopter hovers above them. It ended on a note of hope and elation, but with no hint of what would happen next. It probably wouldn’t be as good an experience as they hoped.
Despite its theme and the harrowing scenes of exploitation, cruelly and desperation, the film also included so moments of hope and humanity. It’s beautifully shot with natural, convincing performances. I think it would be a cold hearted person who wouldn’t be moved and sympathetic to the desperate refugees whose stories would probably not be a lot different to those who cross the Channel on “small boats”. Would those over here who are so keen to send refugees to Rwanda, perhaps, become more empathetic if they saw this film? Sadly, I doubt it.
The last Saturday of the month we had tickets for another concert, this time at the brewery Arts Centre in Kendal. We decided to make a day of it, visiting Blackwell and Abbot Hall.
Blackwell first. We hadn’t been there for a while but there was an exhibition on of ceramic works by William de Morgan we wanted to see. He was a Victorian Arts and Crafts ceramicist, married to the painter Evelyn de Morgan and a friend of William Morris.
I never tire of looking around the house and gardens – the White Drawing Room and taking in the view of the Coniston Fells beyond Windermere. We were lucky today, there was some sunshine on the fells and they weren’t shrouded by cloud.
As usual at Blackwell, it was a relatively small exhibition but there were still 60 pots, tiles and vases displayed around the house as well as in a room upstairs. His work was very colourful, with intricate, detailed, mathematical and symmetrical designs. He was influenced by Islamic art, several of the works on display showed this, and developed expertise in lustrewear, a difficult overglazing technique where metallic oxides are used to create a luminescent finish during firing.
After looking around the exhibition we had a brew and then drove over to Kendal and Abbot Hall. The downstairs galleries were displaying works from the Gallery’s own collection with one room devoted to flower paintings, including two works by Winifred Nicholson,
while the other two rooms contained portraits, including by a favourite of mine by Winifred’s ex, Ben, of his second wife, Barbara Hepworth.
There were some works I hadn’t seen including a portrait of a Wiganer! – Lilian Fairhurst – painted in her house in the town by her then boyfriend, the artist Tom Dearden, who hailed from Ulverston.
Upstairs there were two small exhibition, one of photographs by the surrealist, Claude Cahun and the second of paintings by Gilbert Spencer, the brother of the more well known Stanley.
He was teaching at the Royal College of Art when the Second World War broke out and he was evacuated with other staff and students to Ambleside. While he was there he joined the local Home Guard and a number of affectionate and humorous paintings and drawings of his fellow members of the guard were included in the exhibition.
We spent an hour or so looking around the Gallery and then, after a little shopping, as we had another hour before our slot at a local tapas bar, we decided to wander up the hill to the Castle.
We’d booked a table at Comida, a really nice, small tapas restaurant on the main street, not far from Brewery Arts. We’d eaten here last year during the Mountain Festival and once again we weren’t disappointed with a delicious selection.
After the meal it was time to make our way to the Brewery Arts for a pre concert drink, and then it was time to take our sets ready for the concert.
Lau are a Scottish contemporary folk trio (although one of them is English!) , named after an Orcadian word meaning “natural light”., who provide a modern twist to traditional music including electronic effects in their performance to supplement their predominantly acoustic sound. The trio is comprised of Kris Drever (guitar, vocals), Martin Green (accordion, piano, electronics – the English one, although he does live in the Hebrides) and Aidan O’Rourke (fiddle).
I like their music and I like their political stance and commitment too.
I first came across them – as a combo as I knew of Kris Drever – when Radcliffe and Maconie played their song Ghosts – a pro refugee song – on their Sunday show a few years ago. I’ve been a fan ever since. They don’t seem to stray south of the border too often so I was keen to see them.
So, what about the concert? Was I disappointed? Hell, no! With all due respect to Olivia Chaney from two weeks before, it was the best concert I’d been to a for a long time
Down by the Dougie 
There’s a coincidence, my partner was Olivia Chaney’s sound engineer.
Sadly not my type of music but I’m glad you enjoyed the concerts. Great shots of the castle, I love the moody grey clouds 🙂
What an interesting month! I’m glad you managed to find Abbot Hall open this time.
Yes, actually our second visit since we stood outside longingly with you and John. 😂
We were just very unlucky then!
We were as it was supposed to be open that day. I suspect somebody hadn’t turned in. But we had a good afternoon nevertheless, I think.
Like most arts venues Abbot Hall are struggling from funding cuts and have reduced their hours, but it should have been open.
We had a better time probably just chatting over tea!