Last Sunday we went to London Mela an annual festival celebrating Asian culture with food, music and performances. It was a nice day to spend in a park with delicious food and happy people.
Lucie in London has some great pictures of some of the performers.
A night of folk music and Guinness – not the worst way to start of a week 🙂
Monday night we headed to The London Irish Centre in Camden. A festival called The Return to Camden Town celebrating Irish culture is currently going on in Camden and Jamie Smith (who we saw last year as well) was playing with his new band Smith: Byrnes: O’Sullivan and this was the release concert of their first CD.
There were two bands playing that night, the first one with was a guy playing different a instrument for almost every song with his band. This was a bit more traditional I guess and then there were Jamie and his friends playing a bit more upbeat with a drummer and guitar. I really enjoyed the music, it reminded me of my days back in high school when the folk festival was in town there.
I shot a video of the first song they played; Exotic Snowball. The sound in the video is not good so if you want to hear what it really sounds like go to their myspace profile and hear the song there.
Last night Ann and I went to see Tina Dickow (or Tina Dico as she goes by outside Denmark). I’ve been a fan of her for a couple of years and in February when I saw she would be playing in London shortly after I moved here I was quick to buy tickets for it. So we got great seats at Shepard’s Bush Empire just a few rows from the stage.
The warm up act was Norwegian Thomas Dybdahl who has had some airtime on radio in Denmark and has made a couple of great songs. It was just him and his guitar on stage for the most part and I thought he played very well.
Dico’s concert followed and it was great. She has been living in London for the past 8 years and are leaving now so as she was explaining it playing at Shepherd’s Bush was both her biggest dream and a way to say goodbye to London. She played songs from all her albums with two guys backing her.
I’ve seen her perform a number of times before but this time the latest being at Roskilde Festival last year and in a bookshop in Ann Arbor three years ago.
I think it was my first sit-down concert for this kind of music and I was both good and bad. Good because we had an excellent view and room but bad in the sense that part of the intensity of being at a concert is lost when you sit down. However I thought the concert was really intimate and enjoyed Tina’s personality matching the songs. But the best part was to see the concert with Ann, it was really great to experience it with her and to show her some of the music I love.
I’m writing this as I’m looking out over The North Sea. This morning I jumped on a bus and headed out of London for the first time since I moved here. This weekend I’m geeking out with 52 other Rails developers in a hostel in Margate where we are having a “conference” called RailsCamp.
Last weekend was my first living in London and if it is any sort of indication of what life in London will be like, I’m excited 🙂
We started off the weekend Friday evening meeting at the Tower of London after work for The Tower Festival. Ann had managed to get us tickets for two days at the festival and Friday it was The British Philharmonic Orchestra playing Classic Extravaganza. Before the concert we met up with a couple of local CouchSurfers at a pub and went to the venue with them afterwards. The concert was good and it was quite amazing sitting outside in central London listening to classical music. Here are two short video clips of the concert.
Saturday we went to The Barbican Centre which is a huge modern complex in the middle of London. It is a maze to figure out and although some call it The Ugliest Building in London I kind of like the place especially the inside has a very clean design in a 70s way with wood and concrete.
We went to hear a special concert to commemorate the 250th anniversary of Händel’s death called Handel Remixed. For that celebration they had asked a couple of composers to reinterpret some of Händel’s works. The composers were at the concert as well taking applause after their piece had been played. I wasn’t really expecting much before the concert but was blown away once it started. Compared to the day before the sound was so crisp and clean. The music was also very captivating and I really enjoyed it even though I don’t know much about Händel or classical music.
Sunday we went back to The Tower of London for a day of World Music at The Tower Festival where five bands were playing. It started in the afternoon and they had encouraged people to bring a picnic, so that was what we did.
The bands we saw were Siyaya from Zimbabwe, Abdullah Chhadeh from Syria, Justin Adams and Juldeh Camara from UK/Gambia and Tony Allen from Nigeria. They were all good in their own ways but the one I enjoyed the most was Adams on electric guitar and Camara on a one stringed ritti playing “Afro-Blues”. It doesn’t get more worldly than that 🙂 Here is a short video of them playing.
What a weekend! Three separate events and we had more things planned that we didn’t make it out the door to. I’m looking forward to keep exploring London 🙂 Ann has written a lot more about the event’s of the weekend. Here are here stories for Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Being in a big city like London there is such a multitude of things to do that our biggest problems are finding out what’s going on and choose what we want to do.
We have started an open calendar for the events we would like to do in order to keep track of things. If you are in London feel free to subscribe to it and let us know if you wan to join us for something.
We live 100 meters from the city hall in Zizkov (Prague 3) and Tuesday was Masopust in Czech which means goodbye meat – they last day before lent.
In Zizkov this is celebrated with people dressing up and walking in parade from Jiho z Podebrad to Zizkov city hall where the city provides free food and beer. So we had to check it out.
As in other Christian celebrations, Masopust has elements of much older traditions involving fertility rites and celebrating the coming of spring. In Masopust these elements take form in the masks and costumes traditionally worn by revelers, representing various mythical characters and creatures. Like the guys in this video with wipes and strange face paint and costumes:
Later on the parade made it down to the town hall and the party got an extra lift from the free beers and food that plenty of teenagers and hobos also seemed to enjoy. Here is a cheeky Czech guy who offers Femi a drink of vodka and then later asks him for money:
Because of the cold weather (sigh!) we only stayed for one beer and by then we had seen a lot of the gimmicks. A funny thing was the odd mix of people with old women, students, young school children, expats and tourists – everyone with a big smile on their face.
Wednesday offered more entertainment in our neighborhood as Helge, a Danish friend, had invited us out to Akropolis. An Nigerian artist calledTony Allen was playing afrobeat with his band.
It turned out to be a fantastic concert and Akropolis has great atmosphere much in the same way as Vega in Copenhagen. After the concert we all went to a bar to celebrate Helges birthday, more people joined and the good times continued. We were about 8 or 10 Danish speaking people so it almost felt like being home.
In 10 hours Im on the plane to Stansted. Ann and I are spending a weekend together in Cambridge 
I think this was my 5th or 6th year at Roskilde Festival and this year was definitely one of the better ones. We had awesome weather, there was some great bands and some new discoveries and some well known artists that delivered more than expected.
My favourite concerts this year was probably Veto a fairly new Danish band (or new to me I should say).
The old rock n’roller Neil Young was amazing playing both his slow songs like Heart of Gold as well as the more energetic rock songs where the old man was jumping around on the stage. Rapper LOC on the picture above had a great show and loads of great songs.
Tina Dico and Teitur my two favourite singer/songwriters were both playing on Orange Stage, the biggest stage, which was not really a good choice in my opinion. However I enjoyed both concerts and they are both very skilled performers so they pulled it off in my opinion. Oh, and a reccomendation; Tina Dico has a cool Vlog/Tour Diary on YouTube – honest, funny and down to earth look into the life of an artist, start here.
Radiohead and Gnarls Barkley also had some enjoyable concerts.
I was at the festival for 9 days and lived in a tent which is always an interesting experience since the rest of the year I sleep with a roof over my head. Living outside you notice the clouds, winds, stars and birds a lot more. For the first time this year I stayed in the volunteers camping instead of amongst the commoners . It s a world of a difference. In the regular camping areas people live close, they put a lot of effort into their camps with flags, banners and even portable sound systems. However it also gets very dirty and a lot of places the party goes on all the night and I must admit that I ve gotten a bit older since I visited the festival the first time in 96. The coolest camp I came across this year was the cow camp.
Thanks to cousin Rikke for getting me the job, thanks to the rest of the people in our camp for good times we had and thanks to the people organizing for a great festival in general
This post was written for the international people on the IAESTE Weekly mailing list to tell about Mikael Simpson and Trentemøllers concert at Ungdomshuset December 5th. I figured I might as well post it here so I could include pictures and videos.
As winter sneaks up on us and the sun becomes the friend we see too seldom and too short, the Danes get into a darker, melancholic state of mind for a couple of months until spring finally greets us again. Here is my suggestion of how to embrace yourself for the gloomy winter with some cool Danish music in the middle of Copenhagen history in the making.
Ungdomshuset – Home of the rebels
Ungdomshuset (transl. The Youth House) has been a vibrant institution in Copenhagen for 20-something years but it might be over within the next couple of weeks.
Photo by emo.ware
The history of Ungdomshuset goes back to when it was build by the labour movement in 1897 as a cultural house for the workers of the community. It has been the base of several demonstrations and other events organized by the labour movement in the first half of the 20th century. The place was more or less abandoned in the 1950ies until BZere (transl. squatters) moved in in early 1980.
In 2000 a Christian sect bought the house from the municipality with the use of a front company and since then there has been a legal struggle to evict the young people using the house. It might all end December 14th (or some day close to that) were the authorities will probably use force to get people evicted.
Read more at Wikipedia, about the house or about the trials (More extensive sources in Danish: 1 2 3 4 5)
So take this opportunity to get inside Ungdomshuset December 5th where a couple of the most hip Danish artists are showing their support for the house. See what Copenhagen is also like and meet some interesting people with Mohawks and piercings all over their face – and dont worry they wont eat you, most of them are vegetarians.
Mikael Simpson – The One and Lonely
Photo by Stig Nygaard
Mikael Simpson is a Copenhagen-based artists that catches the restless night spirit of Copenhagen. He makes all his music in his apartment on Nørrebro and here is his latest video that shows you what goes on in his apartment:
He just won the P3 Guld award which is Danish National Radios finest award (backed with a 100,000 kr cheque).
Electric Wonderboy
Trentmøller is a Copenhagen musician/DJ with remixes for Pet Shop Boys, Moby and Röeyksopp to his name. Trentmøller recently released the laid back solo album The Last Resort that has been getting a lot of praise. Here is a performance from last weekend:
Hope to see you there – Mikael Simpson and Trentemøller
Ja, jeg er tilbage i Danmark og er ved at have etableret mig igen, og nu fik jeg så også taget mig sammen til at skrive et indlæg her.
Min postnummer er 2000 og det har indtil videre været en god oplevelse at flytte til hovedstaden. Jeg har meldt mig ledig og skulle gerne få dagpenge fra fra slutningen af denne måned.
Imens jeg har været her i København har musikken især stået på Mikael Simpson, Love Shop og Jokeren – og det passer meget godt til byens stemning, sådan en sær blanding af det afslappede, poetiske og det fanden-i-voldske.
Roskilde var sjovt, men jeg tror jeg er ved at være blive for gammel til at holde festival en hel uge – eller også var det bare fordi jeg var ved at mættet for oplevelser. I hvert fald droppede jeg det meste af søndagens program, for at tage hjem for at sove.
Et par dage efter jeg var flyttet ind kom Alberto og Luiz fra Puerto Rico forbi, så jeg tog dem med rundt i byen og var rigtig turist. Her er lige en samling turistbilleder fra vores tur, I kender nok de fleste steder.
Copenhagen dreaming, Copenhagen time, Copenhagen mine
Hvad er det lige der er med finnere? Jeg fik set 22-Pistepirkko i går og det var en fin koncert, men hvorfor er finnere så sære? Nu kender jeg ikke så mange (ingen) finnere, men det finske kultur jeg lige kan komme i tanken om, Leningrad Cowboys, Aki Kaurismäki og Mummitroldene, det er da sært.
This is a low-fi but cool fi recording.
En Koncert-DVD fra Märkbar fik jeg købt. Lidt spændt på at se hvad den indeholder, og nu bliver jeg helt sikkert nødt til at se
Ind af brevsprækken er i dag væltet en sending rock ‘n’ roll/retro/western – mums 🙂
1. Den nye Raveonettes skive hvor supercoole Sune Wagner og Sharin Foo har gjort det igen! Jeg har været med siden ‘Swell’ og der kommer altid noget nyt og spændende, når Wagner har været i gang. Hans musik har for mig altid haft en nerve og overlegen attitude som få.
2. Efter en rigtig fed koncert på Studenterhuset måtte jeg simpelthen have en Tremolo Beer Gut CD til lidt prærie-surfing.
Der er en anmeldelse og link til en livekoncert hos DR. Fandt også en ftp-server med Raveonettes bootlegs.