Cardiff Review is created, designed edited and published by Jeff Baxter. Please e-mail cardiffreview@yahoo.co.uk for submissions,criticisms, ideas and general abuse.
Oxfam Oxjam Luverly
Oxfam has always been a progressive and forward thinking charity and has hit upon a winner with Oxjam, a series of musical events designed to raise awareness as well as much needed funds. Cardiff seems to have been blessed wth with an explosion of events. Oxjam itself takes place throughout October.
But Oxjam is not just a series of worthy events for you to attend, and you should attend, but also an opportunity to get involved, to learn, to help organise, to meet new people with the same concerns and enthusiasm to get off their butts and do something. As opposed to just moaning about the state of the world.
Things kick off with a bus-kathon outsde Cardiff Castle on October 1st. It involves a bus! Prizes! Music! Lovely stuff. Plenty of things large and small go on all month with something for everyone, including all muscal tastes and in many different venues. Stuff at The Point, The Gate, Chapter Arts Centre and all over means a venue and time convenient for everyone. 34 events across Wales in all illustrates how this month long event is taking off.
Also the local Cardiff Oxfam Group is starting to meet again every two weeks. This takes place in The Gatekeeper and anybody interested in getting involved in Oxjam or any future campaigns is welcome to attend.Details for these meetings and other things can be found on their facebook group. UK wide and Wales stuff can found on Oxfams main site.
Compere rage - like 28 Days Later but more violent
I seemed to have a developed a downer on comperes recently following on from the old/new laddishness of the host of Cardiff Bites. I now come to the wellspring of all this pent up rage and unreasonable bile: the regular compere of the Open Mic Night (held every Thursday night at The Gate). Its hard to explain the hatred that I have developed for this hyperactive gurning loon, but I suspect that it is the glaring contrast with the many jewels that the open mic night produces. Genuine high octane talent that reminds us just how much musical ability there is outside the stuff you'll hear on the radio of a normal sunny day.
But no matter how great a particular act maybe the amount of suffering i have to go through to get there brings me to the brink of leaving everytime. Why the need for endless wittering banter always accompanied by a "I dont usually do this", why the need for looning about in that godawful look at me crap that would shame a 7 year old child, why the need to ruin what is a great voice and playing ability with really, really bad attempts to improvise. Look into the harsh face of truth my friend: you are not funny, you talk far, far to much and you get in the way of the other acts. Calm yourself down. You have a great voice and great musical ability. Lets hear more of that and less of the pre-pubescent crap. Thankyou.
IF you can get past the meadering nonsense of a deluded fool (much like my writing I suspect) then the open mic night provides a rich, varied and impressive hot pot of musical and spoken word goodness.The venue as ever is perfect, the crowd mostly if not always attentive and the beer comes in those tall glasses that everybody likes. Just the most recent night had Siobhan - an amazing and fragile yet somehow strong vibrato voice, singing tales of hurt and betrayal. Wonderful and the only act I saw to shut the 12 year olds sitting at the back the fuck up. Shutting the fuck up is the theme of this piece you may have noticed.
Then we had stuart the storyteller nervous, fearful yet he delivered a short but affecting tale left hanging in the air. He chose the perfect length for this kind of night and should have more confdence in himself. Clever if unsure talent.
I was especially glad to see for the second time Gito and his squeezebox. Perfect playing and a strong confident voice with which he played with in a disciplined and alluring way. A very valuable reminder to our irritating host: less is more.
Unfortunately my nerves couldnt take it when the gibbon decided to turn things into bad joke night and I left. But even this small taste gives you a great idea of the highs the night hits on a regular basis. The good news is that the first Thursday of the month is hosted by Julia Harris http://www.myspace.com/juliaharrismusic a very talented musician in her own right who shows how a compere should run this lovely thing. Also from this month there is a new monthly bi-lingual open mic night on the fourth Thursday with a new compere called Stacey. So , if like me, you like your sanity to be stil in place at the end of it all, there is the chance to enjoy this wonderful event at least twice a month without suffering compere rage. Grrr. Open Mic night every Thursday night starting roughly at 8:30 - 9pm at the redoubtable The Gate. Jeff Baxter
September 2007
