Beaddictive

Reviewed by:	Edel McMorrow (contact)
Title:	London Feis
Category:	Festivals
Rating:

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I flew over to London for this, yeah I wanted to do the London touristy thing and visit relatives, but I also wanted to go to the London Feis. This was it’s 21st year. The name feis implies it was going to be all diddley eye music, but this wasn’t the case, not that there is anything wrong with diddley eye music by-the-by! When I told people I was going to the ‘London Feis’ they’d say, “Are ya playing in it?” No, no I’m not but Bob Dylan is. This was Bob Dylan’s only UK gig. And it showed. Weekend and day tickets were sold, but not only that, there was Bob Dylan only tickets as well, and while I had made my own little arse groove on a hill waves of Bob fans came in and gathered, and didn’t have any regard on us poor fools who had been there since 11 in the morning!

I have a soft spot for Shane MacGowan, I don’t whether it’s because I’m Irish, or the first gig I went to was The Pogues. Lets face facts his singing wasn’t exactly coherent, and the band he had playing was good, but the tempo was just the tiniest bit to fast for the man himself. ‘Rainy night in Soho’ went past a little too fast for my liking.

Yes there was great acts, but begorrah timing was a big issue. Even though there was three tents, there were gaps when no music would be played in any of them. And saying that stage three, was barely a stage and far too close to the main stage and often the acts had to try and play over the music. Can you imagine trying to boom over Van Morrison? No easy task granted but Declan O’ Rourke did an amazing job and played a brilliant gig.

Honorable mentions of great shows were Christy Moore, Imelda May, The Undertones, Thin Lizzy, Horslips, The Cranberries, and Jimmy Cliff. The two days were filled with great music, just more could have been done for a better timetable…Oh and as always more port-a-loos should be available!