Oysterband at the Borderline
Alison Scott
on Thursday, at the Borderline (which is behind Break for the Border near
Tottenham Court Road tube) in London. The venue is small and mostly
seat-free; as one of our group likes to sit outside venues for hours we got
bar stools to sit on, at the edge of the raised bar about 6 foot from the
stage.
It was really very good. The Oysterband started life as a ceilidh band, and
this is always very evident in their live performances (though they have
moved on from there). All of their albums have been a little disappointing
to me, because they never seem to bottle the energy that they project playing
live. (Not even the live album I have.) They played a good mix of the new
album and old favourites, and people would have been dancing in the aisles
if there were any aisles to dance in or any room to dance. (They were
hopping up and down instead).
And the gig cost four pounds. Four pounds! Wouldn't buy a paperback book.
Amazing. Of course the food and drink in the Borderline wasn't cheap. But
there you go.
I would strongly recommend that you seek out shows by the Oysterband -they're
supposedly touring this autumn, but I don't know if that is just the UK. The
last time I saw them was touring with June Tabor for the excellent _Freedom
and Rain_. (That album doesn't really give a good impression of what they're
like; the exuberance is muted and they're mostly doing other people's songs.
--
Alison Scott [Ali...@moose.demon.co.uk]
Chester, England
Confabulation is the 1995 British National SF convention (Eastercon).
For more details email Confabulation at Con...@moose.demon.co.uk