LLAIS 2024: FANTASTIC RACKET
Millennium Centre, Cardiff - 13th October 2024
I've thought about whether this actually qualifies as a "gig" in the context of all the others here, as it was so much more than music. In the end though, I mainly went for the music, even if MrsRobster went mainly for the poetry.
Llais used to be called the Festival Of Voice (Llais is voice in Welsh) and is "an annual, international arts festival focusing on the human voice through music, performance, and storytelling", and forms part of the wider Cardiff Music City Festival. It's been running for some years but we'd not been before, for various reasons (though we'd come close).
Fantastic Racket was the name given to the eclectic final event and the reason we chose it was because it was curated by two of MrsRobster's favourite contemporary poets, Michael Pederson and Hollie McNish, who both performed on the night. Also on the bill were Norman Blake of Teenage Fanclub and Nadine Shah. That's what sold it to me!
I shall concentrate on the music for the purposes of this article, but with one very notable exception. After a somewhat odd and rather uncomfortably corny opening by Welsh actress, comedian and presenter Carys Eleri, Norman Blake took the stage and gave us an acoustic offering of three songs, two from the latest Teenage Fanclub album, and the classic The Concept, which was great to hear played as a solo acoustic number, but I'm not sure it needed that extended coda.
Nadine Shah performed with fellow singer-songwriter Callum Easter. The pair played a selection of each other's songs, stripped back to just guitar and voice. Nadine is one of my very most favourite artists and hearing her songs in this context was interesting, but I didn't count on the highlight. Their version of Nadine's Topless Mother was breathtaking. The original is loud and uncompromising, but this one was performed acapella with just hand-claps as accompaniment. Hard to imagine if you haven't heard it, but believe me, it was incredibly powerful and one of the most amazing things I've ever heard performed live - which is really saying something, but I'm not overstating it. It floored me, and I'm so glad I was there to experience it.
To be fair, there was nothing that could follow that, or so I thought. We took in drag act Le Gateau Chocolat, Welsh national treasure and Earth mother Charlotte Church and a host of writers and poets (including comedian Sarah Pascoe, and Irvine Welsh reading lesser-known passages from Trainspotting). I didn't expect to be affected by anyone as much as Nadine, but from out of nowhere, Joelle Taylor whooped my soul's sorry arse. Joelle is a poet who, among other things, writes about her experiences of the butch lesbian scene in London during the 1980s. She read extracts from her book C+nto And Othered Poems. It's pretty dramatic stuff, but aside from her words, it's her performance that completely blew me away. She lives every sound, every syllable, every breath. Her voice, her arms, her stance, all expressing the tales of the joys, the friendships, the camaraderie, and the pain, the suffering and the sheer tragedy of living through those times as a gay person.
A middle-aged straight man who grew up in a rather sheltered semi-rural market town in Devon really shouldn't have been able to connect with someone like Joelle, but dear me, she almost had me in tears, such was her power, passion and energy. I know I said I'd just talk about the music at this show, but this was the real exception I had to make. Seriously, if you get the chance, go see her.
The show closed with a performance from Brummie rapper Lady Leshurr. It wasn't for me, but she had her fans in the audience. I'm not convinced she appealed to the vast majority of the crowd there that night though.
Having convinced me to go to this, MrsRobster was delighted I'd enjoyed a lot more of it than I initially thought I would. We shared much the same likes and dislikes (Nadine and Joelle were perhaps her two faves of the night also) so we decided to pay more attention to what Llais holds in the future.
(There's no footage of any part of this show online, sadly.)
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