By Clive Davis
THIS was the week’s other big gong show. While the news anchorman Jon Snow doesn’t quite measure up to Catherine Zeta-Jones in the celebrity stakes, the BBC’s world music bash, now in its second year, possessed a vibrancy all of its own. There was even a small outbreak of militancy to match the Tinseltown rantings of Michael Moore.
Where that al fresco summer gala Womad meanders across an entire weekend, this poll winners’ concert crammed an exceptionally varied collection of acts into a neatly organised couple of hours. Bands came and went with smooth efficiency and the audience stoked up as much atmosphere as a cavalcade of Promenaders. If the idea of Radio 3 being the home of the new rock’n’roll still seems a touch incongruous — some of us purists still have trouble adjusting to all the glitz and glamour — the event is clearly gathering momentum.
The musical pickings were richer this year. Anyone who doubts that should sample the superb double album showcasing the nominees and winners. On the night some of the loudest applause went to the Portuguese singer Mariza — winner of the European category — who has achieved the unlikely feat of turning fado into this year’s Buena Vista Social Club. At its core this remains a curiously austere music, yet her innate showmanship somehow draws the audience into the heart of each song.
While I would have preferred to see Peru’s Susana Baca beat off Los de Abajo in the Americas section, there is no question that the Mexican “tropipunks” meet the demand for high-energy, socially conscious entertainment. Baca will in any case have her chance to shine at her South Bank concert in La Línea Festival next month.
Ellika Frisell and Solo Cissokho — winners in the so-called “Boundary Crossing” category — provided a restful interlude with their fiddle and kora duets. France’s Gotan Project — voted Best Newcomers — pushed even further into the unknown with their hypnotic reworkings of the tango tradition laced with dub and dance technology.
As the evening drew to a close, the members of Orchestra Baobab seduced the audience with the minimum of exertion.
What controversy there was surrounded the award chosen by the Radio 3 listeners themselves. Realising that the radical folkies Seize the Day had set out to canvass internet votes as part of a plan to stage an anti-war protest, the organisers handed the prize to the Slovenian band Terra Folk.
Outside the venue Seize the Day sympathisers distributed cleverly doctored leaflets purporting to contain an apology from the BBC. Inside, naked protesters invaded the stage to accuse the corporation of a cover-up. The band might stand a better chance of being taken seriously if they devoted half as much ingenuity to their agit-prop lyrics.
03/26/03 >> 
