When Le Weekend’s festival of left-field music started up at Stirling’s Tolbooth centre in 1998, it was in a very different climate to that which exists today. While there were pockets of experimental activity from such sources as the Edinburgh Festival Fringe music strand, Flux, and Labradford’s Festival of Drifting, the idea of sustained umbrella events rather than isolated gigs to give niche musical forms both credence and weight had yet to be fully explored both in Scotland and in the wider UK scene.
Sure, there were ambitious one-offs such as Quebecois string-led apocalypsists Godspeed You Black Emperor’s debut UK show playing to a handful of people in Edinburgh’s Stills gallery, but the reinvention of festival promoter as a more legitimised curator figure had yet to take hold. All that, however, was about to change, and without Le Weekend, the landscape for the likes of Instal in Glasgow, Kill Your Timid Notion in Dundee and Dialogues in Edinburgh to succeed in the way they have done arguably wouldn’t have been as fertile. The idea of running a festival that featured everything from European free jazz and German electronica to Japanese noise terrorism and skewed pop was adventurous enough in 1998. Hosting it in Stirling, hardly known as a bed-rock of off-the-wall artistic activity, was unthinkable.
After a very lucky thirteen years, however, this year’s epic four-day edition of Le Weekend will also be its last. When veteran sonic adventurers Faust serve up their final blast of free-associative musical mayhem after a weekend of sets from the likes of Tarwater and saxophonist John Butcher alongside ambitious off-site events featuring a welter of improvisers joining forces at the Church of the Holy Rude, it will put a gloriously messy cap on a pioneering spirit that has changed Scotland’s musical landscape forever.
“I think it’s good to end on a high,” enthuses current Tolbooth artistic director and Le weekend programmer Alasdair Campbell of his festival’s demise, which is due in part to the Tolbooth being one of the first victims of funding cuts by creative Scotland. “It’s sad as well, and after thirteen years I can’t help but feel that it’s the people of Stirling who are losing out, but we’ve really pushed the boat out for this programme. I think Le weekend really started something in Scotland, and we should be proud of that.”
Le Weekend was founded by then Tolbooth director Jackie Shearer, now in charge of Platform in Easterhouse, a venue intent on developing its own brand of music programme. Shearer was initially advised by Ed Baxter, now programming director of online radio station Resonance FM, itself an arbiter of all things weird and wonderful.
Le Weekend’s first year marked out its territory from the off, with appearances by veteran saxophonist Evan Parker, English avant-pop eccentric Peter Blegvad and Japanese turntablist Otomo Yoshide, who would return to the festival on more than one occasion. Also on the bill was Glasgow’s sonic explorer Sushil Dade in his Future Pilot AKA guise, Edinburgh jazz punks Badgewearer, and, at the nearby Changing Room gallery, work by the Dog Faced Hermans vocalist Marion Coutts.
It’s this mixing of the international with riches on our own doorstep that has made Le Weekend even more eclectic. This is far from tokenism, however, as long term relationships with the likes of the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra and pianist Bill Wells testify to. This year finds GIO stalwart Raymond MacDonald playing sax with pianist Marilyn Crispell, while Wells is paired with To Rococo Rot’s Stefan Schneider.
“It’s amazing to think that GIO’s existed for ten years now,” Campbell points out, “and putting them and other artists from Scotland on at Le Weekend shows that, rather than being patronising, that the level of activity going on here is as important on an international as anyone else who’s appeared.”
Campbell worked alongside Shearer for some time before taking over as Tolbooth director, with writer David Keenan coming on board to programme much of the festival. These years also saw a major re-development of the Tolbooth, with a local community hall being the unlikely venue for Pere Ubu vocalist David Thomas and his Pale Orchestra’s performance of Thomas’ alt.rock opera, Mirror Man, and other delights.
Once back in the Tolbooth, Le Weekend also played host to the likes of heavy duty sax duo Borbetomagus, the late guitar instrumentalist Jack Rose and Sonic Youth mainstay Thurston Moore’s collaboration with sax player Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano as Dream/Aktion Unit. Unlike most experimental music festivals, however, Le weekend has never lost sight of the power of pop, as was proven when a couple of years ago The Pastels played a rare show augmented by members of Teenage Fanclub and To Rococo Rot.
“Pop has as much legitimacy at the festival as any other type of music,” Campbell asserts. “Pop can be as experimental as anything that’s considered avant-garde, sometimes even more so. I’m a music fan first and foremost, so pop was never going to be something Le Weekend shied away from.”
As befits such a terminal fan-boy, Campbell’s personal highlights of Le Weekend are many. He cites appearances by sax and percussion duo William Parker and Hamid Drake, who spent the week before their gig simply hanging out in Stirling. Campbell also points to the furious maelstrom made by Peter Brotzmann’s Chicago Tentet, whose performance was released on CD as American Landscapes 1. Zeena Parkins and Ikue Morie’s duet also warrants a mention, as does Kaffe Matthews’ collaboration with two champion pipers on her Sonic Bed project. One of the best things as far as Campbell was concerned, however, wasn’t on the Tolbooth’s main stage at all.
“When Keiji Haino played with the Tolbooth Sound Orchestra, who are a community orchestra of young people,” Campbell recalls, ‘that really made my day. To have this mysterious Japanese guitarist playing with a bunch of twelve year olds, and really reveling in the experience, for me that was what Le Weekend was about.”
While the final Le Weekend’s funereal coloured programme cover bears the legend, ‘All Things Must Pass,’ one suspects this isn’t quite the festival’s final fling. Campbell expresses a desire for one-off events in the future on a scale that the Tolbooth might not allow for. Not that he’s putting to one side the event’s unique pulling power at all.
“I would love to see some kind of expansion of what’s been achieved through Le Weekend,” Campbell admits, “and hopefully something like that will happen. But what made Le Weekend so special is that it didn’t happen in the big cities like Edinburgh or Glasgow, but in Stirling, and we have to remember that.”
Le Weekend, Tolbooth, Stirling and associated venues, October 14th-17th.
www.leweekendfestival.com
The Herald, October 8th 2010
ends
Sure, there were ambitious one-offs such as Quebecois string-led apocalypsists Godspeed You Black Emperor’s debut UK show playing to a handful of people in Edinburgh’s Stills gallery, but the reinvention of festival promoter as a more legitimised curator figure had yet to take hold. All that, however, was about to change, and without Le Weekend, the landscape for the likes of Instal in Glasgow, Kill Your Timid Notion in Dundee and Dialogues in Edinburgh to succeed in the way they have done arguably wouldn’t have been as fertile. The idea of running a festival that featured everything from European free jazz and German electronica to Japanese noise terrorism and skewed pop was adventurous enough in 1998. Hosting it in Stirling, hardly known as a bed-rock of off-the-wall artistic activity, was unthinkable.
After a very lucky thirteen years, however, this year’s epic four-day edition of Le Weekend will also be its last. When veteran sonic adventurers Faust serve up their final blast of free-associative musical mayhem after a weekend of sets from the likes of Tarwater and saxophonist John Butcher alongside ambitious off-site events featuring a welter of improvisers joining forces at the Church of the Holy Rude, it will put a gloriously messy cap on a pioneering spirit that has changed Scotland’s musical landscape forever.
“I think it’s good to end on a high,” enthuses current Tolbooth artistic director and Le weekend programmer Alasdair Campbell of his festival’s demise, which is due in part to the Tolbooth being one of the first victims of funding cuts by creative Scotland. “It’s sad as well, and after thirteen years I can’t help but feel that it’s the people of Stirling who are losing out, but we’ve really pushed the boat out for this programme. I think Le weekend really started something in Scotland, and we should be proud of that.”
Le Weekend was founded by then Tolbooth director Jackie Shearer, now in charge of Platform in Easterhouse, a venue intent on developing its own brand of music programme. Shearer was initially advised by Ed Baxter, now programming director of online radio station Resonance FM, itself an arbiter of all things weird and wonderful.
Le Weekend’s first year marked out its territory from the off, with appearances by veteran saxophonist Evan Parker, English avant-pop eccentric Peter Blegvad and Japanese turntablist Otomo Yoshide, who would return to the festival on more than one occasion. Also on the bill was Glasgow’s sonic explorer Sushil Dade in his Future Pilot AKA guise, Edinburgh jazz punks Badgewearer, and, at the nearby Changing Room gallery, work by the Dog Faced Hermans vocalist Marion Coutts.
It’s this mixing of the international with riches on our own doorstep that has made Le Weekend even more eclectic. This is far from tokenism, however, as long term relationships with the likes of the Glasgow Improvisors Orchestra and pianist Bill Wells testify to. This year finds GIO stalwart Raymond MacDonald playing sax with pianist Marilyn Crispell, while Wells is paired with To Rococo Rot’s Stefan Schneider.
“It’s amazing to think that GIO’s existed for ten years now,” Campbell points out, “and putting them and other artists from Scotland on at Le Weekend shows that, rather than being patronising, that the level of activity going on here is as important on an international as anyone else who’s appeared.”
Campbell worked alongside Shearer for some time before taking over as Tolbooth director, with writer David Keenan coming on board to programme much of the festival. These years also saw a major re-development of the Tolbooth, with a local community hall being the unlikely venue for Pere Ubu vocalist David Thomas and his Pale Orchestra’s performance of Thomas’ alt.rock opera, Mirror Man, and other delights.
Once back in the Tolbooth, Le Weekend also played host to the likes of heavy duty sax duo Borbetomagus, the late guitar instrumentalist Jack Rose and Sonic Youth mainstay Thurston Moore’s collaboration with sax player Paul Flaherty and drummer Chris Corsano as Dream/Aktion Unit. Unlike most experimental music festivals, however, Le weekend has never lost sight of the power of pop, as was proven when a couple of years ago The Pastels played a rare show augmented by members of Teenage Fanclub and To Rococo Rot.
“Pop has as much legitimacy at the festival as any other type of music,” Campbell asserts. “Pop can be as experimental as anything that’s considered avant-garde, sometimes even more so. I’m a music fan first and foremost, so pop was never going to be something Le Weekend shied away from.”
As befits such a terminal fan-boy, Campbell’s personal highlights of Le Weekend are many. He cites appearances by sax and percussion duo William Parker and Hamid Drake, who spent the week before their gig simply hanging out in Stirling. Campbell also points to the furious maelstrom made by Peter Brotzmann’s Chicago Tentet, whose performance was released on CD as American Landscapes 1. Zeena Parkins and Ikue Morie’s duet also warrants a mention, as does Kaffe Matthews’ collaboration with two champion pipers on her Sonic Bed project. One of the best things as far as Campbell was concerned, however, wasn’t on the Tolbooth’s main stage at all.
“When Keiji Haino played with the Tolbooth Sound Orchestra, who are a community orchestra of young people,” Campbell recalls, ‘that really made my day. To have this mysterious Japanese guitarist playing with a bunch of twelve year olds, and really reveling in the experience, for me that was what Le Weekend was about.”
While the final Le Weekend’s funereal coloured programme cover bears the legend, ‘All Things Must Pass,’ one suspects this isn’t quite the festival’s final fling. Campbell expresses a desire for one-off events in the future on a scale that the Tolbooth might not allow for. Not that he’s putting to one side the event’s unique pulling power at all.
“I would love to see some kind of expansion of what’s been achieved through Le Weekend,” Campbell admits, “and hopefully something like that will happen. But what made Le Weekend so special is that it didn’t happen in the big cities like Edinburgh or Glasgow, but in Stirling, and we have to remember that.”
Le Weekend, Tolbooth, Stirling and associated venues, October 14th-17th.
www.leweekendfestival.com
The Herald, October 8th 2010
ends
Comments