The Barleycorn Music Club will be holding its annual music festival on Saturday 21st March 2009.

The original date was February 28 2009 but was moved due to a double booking at the venue.

Date: Saturday March 21 2009 14h30 – 22h00

Venue: Maynardville Amphitheatre
Alternate venue in case of rain: Rygersdal Sports Club Main Hall, Erin Road, Rondebosch

Lineup:

• Albireo
• Backyard Broken Blues Bros Band
• Bill Knight
• Boulevard Blues
• Dave Ferguson
• Feedback
• Julia Conradie
• Julia Jakobsen Band
• Louise Day Band
• Ripcord
• Wayne Pauli

Food and drink available or bring a picnic.

Cost:
Adults R60
Barleycorn Club Members R50
Couples R100
Children R10 (under 12 free)

Contact:
Martin on cell 082 493 1564

Tickets available through Computicket.

Origins of the Barleycorn Club

It all started in 1975, when a bunch of musicians found it agreeable to meet regularly to jam together, learn from one another and consume beer. Over these past 34 years, the Barleycorn has met almost every week to make what is now a Cape Town tradition and valuable musical resource

In the early years the music was mostly “traditional folk”, with a smattering of Blues, Bluegrass, Country music and Olde English and Irish material containing toxic levels of screeching fiddles. Yes, Bob Dylan covers and political protest songs did appear fairly often, but the Club rapidly developed a reputation as a place where home-grown original material by local composers and performers found a receptive audience, and it is these who have gradually formed the focus of the Club.

By 1977, the Barleycorn had become formalised, with a Constitution, paid membership, a member-elected committee and the commitment that whatever funds were accumulated would be held in trust for the furtherance and promotion of local musical talent. And what better way to achieve this than by staging a Festival. The Club would carry all expenses and all income would be split amongst those performing!

I’m reminded by the program that our first Festival was held on 12th April 1980, at the Maynardville Open-Air Theatre, packed to capacity to hear 20 acts perform over 9 hours. The undoubted star of that, our first venture, was the then unknown David Kramer, whose songs, red veldskoen and pork-pie hat captivated absolutely everyone, including members of the press who gave his career a massive kick-start!

And thus has the Barleycorn Festival become an annual event (well, almost; we missed a year in the mid 1990′s and two in the early 2000′s) and despite testing several alternatives, Maynardville is easily our preferred venue. Large enough for a decent-sized audience to feel comfortable (900+ being the record number of tickets sold!) yet small enough for both audience and musicians to recreate the rapport and ambience of the Club on regular Monday nights.

Long is the list of eminent musicians who’ve graced the Barleycorn Festival stage, including Flat Stanley, Freshly Ground, Disu Plaatjies and Amapondo, Steve Newman, Tony Cox … but this is not the forum for a history of SA performing talent, this is to let you know that all these years later, the magic will be repeated on Saturday 21st March 2009! And at our best-ever venue, nogal!

Thus far, confirmed acts include Ripcord, Bill Knight and Julia Conradie, Albireo, Boulevard Blues, Wayne Pauli, the Julia Jakobsen Band, Dave Ferguson, the Backyard Broken Back Blues Bros Band, the Louise Day Band, the Broken Back Blues Band and Feedback … ten of what the Barleycorn committee consider to be the cream of the best acts to appear at the Club in this past year!

It will be a hoot and a blast! It’s home-grown and truly lekker! Bring a picnic basket and a blanket (although food and bevies will be available) and join us for another episode in the ongoing saga of what is excellent in local music.

Tickets at Computicket R60 per adult, R50 per Barleycorn paid-up member; R100 per couple, R10 for kids 12 to 18, kids under 12 free; limited numbers so book early to avoid disappointment

This haunting balad is a tribute to Che Guevara written in 1965 by Cuban composer Carlos Puebla, and performed by Nathalie Cardone, a French / Spanish actress and singer.

Spanish Lyrics to Hasta Siempre!

Apprendimos a quererte
Desde la histórica altura
Donde el sol de tu bravura
Le puso cerco a la muerte

Aqui se queda la clara
La entrañable transparencia
De tu querida presencia
Comandante Che Guevara

Vienes quemando la brisa
Con soles de primavera
Para plantar la bandera
Con la luz de tu sonrisa

Refrain

Tu amor revolucionario
Te conduce a nueva empresa
Donde esperan la firmeza
De tu brazo libertario

Refrain

Seguiremos adelante
Como junto a ti seguimos
Y con Fidel te decimos
“Hasta Siempre Comandante”

English Lyrics to Hasta Siempre!

We learned to love you
from the heights of history
with the sun of your bravery
you laid siege to death

Chorus:

The deep (or beloved) transparency of your presence
became clear here
Commandante Che Guevara

Your glorious and strong hand
fires at history
when all of Santa Clara
awakens to see you

Chorus

You come burning the winds
with spring suns
to plant the flag
with the light of your smile

Chorus

Your revolutionary love
leads you to a new undertaking
where they are awaiting the firmness
of your liberating arm

Chorus

We will carry on
as we did along with you
and with Fidel we say to you:
Until Always, Commandante!

Chorus

Lyrics/Music: Carlos Puebla, 1965 (Cuba)

Today, I share with you some retro goodness I found on YouTube last night.

This is Seal’s Crazy, his debut song that almost topped the charts back in 1991 in the UK and US.

Seal is a Nigerian born British soul singer who married German supermodel Heidi Klum in May 2005. They have two young sons together and currently live in Los Angeles, California.

In 2005, Alanis Morissette, did a cover of Seal’s hit song with less success. In my opinion she lacks the powerful vocals that this song demands and which Seal produces in abundance.

Music from the ’70s on a Monday morning. Enjoy!

Just an Illusion – Imagination

Zombie Nation – KernKraft 400

Atomic Kitten – The Tide is High

SuperTramp – Dreamer (Live 1974) – MUST LISTEN!

SuperTramp – Breakfast in America – very light and amusing

Remember Napster? Free music downloads for a brief moment in time back in 1999 / 2000. Until the RIAA got its filthy legal hands on Napster, it was the music site to go to. You could get anything you liked for FREE.

And then the fuckwits shut it down and up popped all the pay music sites all sticking their grubby little paws out for $0.99 a track.

Screw ‘em. I’ve never paid any of ‘em a red cent.

Back in the early 90s when I worked in the centre of Cape Town, I’d spend many a lunch break rushing from one music shelf to another in all the competing stores trying to find the cheapest price for the CD I wanted.

I’d end up spending about R150 per CD, which was waaay more than I ever wanted to spend. I would have been a lot more comfortable with a price tag of R50, even more so with R30 or R20. Yeah, R20 is what I am / was prepared to spend for one album of music. That’s what I consider a music album is worth to me – R20. That’s about three US dollars.

Over the course of about four years, I must have spent easily over R2000 on music. Money that could have been much better employed on whores, rent boys and drugs, the fuckers!

Meet Aza Raskin, the brilliant and absolutely gorgeous looking young man behind songza.com, where you can listen to (but not download) any music you like on demand.

Last.fm is cool, but you cannot decide precisely what you want to listen to at any one time, so to me, it’s a useless and frustrating experience.

If I want to listen to Midnight Oil’s Beds Are Burnin, then dammit, I want to listen to Beds Are Burnin’ and not some suitable substitute that last.fm will inevitably throw up.

Well, accept no substitute, bitches, fucking get your arses over to songza.com and listen to whatever you like whenever you like.

To me, it doesn’t really matter that I can’t download it, because I’m on DSL. I guess if you’re on dialup, you’re pretty much screwed because the bandwidth demands alone make this application beyond your reach. Upgrade fool!

But, sweet Mary and Joseph, is this guy Aza gorgeous or what!?

Dreamer, you’re nothing but a dreamer!

Come and tell us your stories and watch them be transformed into theatre on the spot!

Theatre and healing in action: building community and breaking down divides between people.

Where: Kalk Bay Theatre, Main Road, Kalk Bay
When: Sunday, June 10 2007
Time: 18h00 – 19h30
Cost: R50 (block bookings of 10 or more – R45 per person)

To book:
Cell: 073 393 2060
email: info at bonfiretheatre dot co dot za
web site: www.bonfiretheatre.co.za

Public Workshop – Saturday, June 16 2007

Come and play with us, learn some improv skills and get an insight into the form.

If you are an actor interested in getting involved in our company this is a great way to introduce yourself to us.

If you have a company or an organisation and would like to use us at your work, come and find out what workshops are all about.

Please contact us for further details of this workshop.