"Homeward Bound – the Farewell Tour", they were calling it. But with a show this strong, nobody would complain if that farewell were to turn out at some point not to be absolutely final.
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Javi Fedrick
Hailing from Canada and born from the ashes of cult indie heroes Women (the band responsible for that chiming Calgary guitar sound), Preoccupations haven’t let up since their first LP Viet Cong was released just three years ago.
Kieron Tyler
Music from Sudan is overshadowed by the country’s recent history. At the end of June 1989, Colonel Omar al-Bashir assumed control and it became a one-party state. Shariah law was introduced. Osama Bin Laden was resident in capital city Khartoum from 1991 to 1996. Tension between the mostly Muslim north and mostly Christian south undermined any facade of stability al-Bashir sought to impose. The south was declared independent in 2011. Conflict in Darfur, in the west of the country, left 300,000 people dead and led to just over 3 million displaced people.
Ellie Porter
“We have come here tonight,” announces Mavis Staples, “to bring you some joy, happiness, inspiration - and positive vibrations!” It’s a declaration that the irrepressible Mavis, celebrating her 79th birthday today, routinely makes at her concerts - and she never fails to deliver.
Tonight is the second of two sold-out nights at Islington’s beautiful Union Chapel, a much-loved venue that’s perfect for Mavis’ brand of joyous, reverent and powerful music and one she clearly adores. She’s played here a few times, including a special show on her 75th birthday in 2014. “It’s my birthday,” she said happily that night, “and I’m in a beautiful church with my friends.” She’s delighted to be back with her friends again, tickled by the audience’s rendition of “Happy Birthday”, brandishing an England football scarf (“England has already told me that they will be winning,” she claims ahead of the World Cup semi-final) and teasing excitable fans who shout out in their “terrible accents”.
After coming on stage to rapturous applause from a thrilled audience already up on its feet, Mavis kicks things off with the Staple Singers’ “If You’re Ready (Come Go With Me)” – which must be bittersweet for her to sing without Yvonne, her older sister and fellow Staple Singer who frequently toured with her and died in April this year. It’s one of only a handful of Staple Singers’ songs tonight, including “What You Gonna Do” and a scorching “Let’s Do It Again” - the Curtis Mayfield track that the Staples covered, causing churchman Pops to balk at its saucy lyrics. “Oh Pops,” Curtis reassured him, according to Mavis, “the Lord won’t mind!”
The bulk of tonight’s set is instead made up of rich pickings from Mavis’ solo albums, featuring amongst others a sublime version of “Far Celestial Shore” from 2013’s One True Vine, a brisk “We’re Gonna Make It” from 2010’s Jeff Tweedy collaboration You Are Not Alone, and the achingly moving title track of the same album.
Most heavily mined, naturally, is Mavis’ current record, If All I Was Was Black. Race relations in today’s America, the Black Lives Matter movement and families being ripped apart at the US border are all touched on in powerful tracks including “Little Bit”, “Who Told You That”, “Build a Bridge” and “No Time for Crying” – the latter featuring Mavis’s intent to “march right up to that big house” and tell “that man to sit down”.
An encore comprising a reprise of “Little Bit” and a rousing rendition of the Staples’ “Touch a Hand, Make a Friend” – with Mavis taking her own advice by shaking the outstretched hands of delighted audience members near the front – brings the show to a close, surprising fans expecting to be sent out dancing to “I’ll Take You There”. But while there might have been a few changes to tradition – there was no sign of the Staples’ version of “The Weight”, either – this was a very special evening in the presence of one of the all-time greats, a tireless performer who shows hardly a sign of slowing down in the pursuit of righteousness, human rights and the bringing of joy, inspiration, happiness and positive vibrations.
“I tell you, there’s just no stopping me!” laughs Mavis at one point, seemingly surprised at herself. But, as she sings in “No Time for Crying”, “we got work to do.” And Mavis is not going to stop while it’s there to be done.
Overleaf: Watch Mavis Staples and Jeff Tweedy perform an acoustioc version of "You Are Not Alone"
Sebastian Scotney
Would we see any of the three guitar-toting rock legends together? Yes, we would. Two of them, if briefly. Carlos Santana came back just before 10pm to join Eric Clapton’s band for the encore of their set, a quick valedictory burn-through of Joe Cocker’s tune “It’s High Time We Went”.
Kieron Tyler
Dress each of the band in the same clothes. Stand them in a line outside the EMI headquarters building on Manchester Square. Get the taller ones with glasses to stand at either end of the row. Put the other taller one in the middle. Have the pair of less tall ones – who could be twins – stand between the taller ones. Symmetry and uniformity duly achieved, take the promotional photograph.
Tim Cumming
Essaouira, on Morocco’s Atlantic coast, is the place of winds. Day or night, hot or cold, year in, year out, the “Alizee” blows, and it blows. In the local folklore it is not from the ocean but a grumbling resident of the medina – perhaps protesting the town’s rapid recent expansion, its port’s modernisation and the loss of legendary Chez Sam, the restaurant once beloved by an Othello-filming Orson Welles.
Kieron Tyler
The most intriguing aspect of the mid-Seventies, Memphis-based band Zuider Zee isn’t that they took their name from a geographic feature of the Netherlands or that they dealt in against-the-grain Anglo-centric pop rock or even that the new compilation Zeenith features top-drawer music which was never released at the time. It’s that their path never crossed that of the similarly minded and perennially lauded local outfit Big Star.
David Kettle
With – unusually – no visiting orchestra at this year’s St Magnus International Festival in far-flung Orkney (the fall-out from delayed funding confirmations, we’re assured), there was a danger that the annual midsummer event might have felt a little – well, quiet.
Guy Oddy
A mere fortnight after the Download Festival, the Midlands was at it again over the weekend, celebrating noisy musical mavericks who have no truck with the mainstream.