WOMAD UK 2009 Reviews
27 July 2009
Having given a workshop on the Saddlespan Stage earlier that afternoon, indigenous Australian performers Shellie Morris and Mark Atkins joined the sprawling supergroup The Black Arm Band in the Siam Tent. There, before a backdrop of powerful and damning archive footage and to backing from strings, horns and piano courtesy of UK-bandleader Alex Wilson, some of Australia's best-loved artists delivered a history of Aboriginal folk protest song.
"This is what it's like to live in the two worlds of Australia,' said narrator Peter Rotumah, introducing a show that spanned country, rock, jazz, reggae and didgeridoo and moved a packed crowd from tears to cheers.
– Jane Cornwell for WOMAD
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As their name suggests, The Black Arm Band had not come to WOMAD just for the fun of it. Described as "part Aboriginal soul revue, part civil rights statement", this 32-piece ensemble is a collective of some of Australia's best indigeous musicians. Backed by the ever-present didgeridoo, their sound ranges from rootsy reggae anthems to sensual Aboriginal spirituals which spread waves of goose pimples through the crowd.
– Solomon Burke for festivals.musicomh.com
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Even this is less memorable than mostly Aboriginal Australians The Black Arm Band's "cultural intervention" against their race's criminal suffering. Mark Atkins' didgeridoo becomes an instrument of deep and ominous breaths.
Veteran Archie Roach takes the place of his wife Ruby Hunter, hospitalised in Bath, and is visibly saddened and distracted. He still leads lyrical protest songs worthy of Dylan, played as honkytonk country swing, soul and jazz. Before Burke has even cleared his throat, Womad has unearthed many riches.
– Nick Hasted for The Independent
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Australia's Black Arm Band, making their Charlton Park debut, were introduced by the actor Pete Postlethwaite, an "honorary elder", in keeping with Aboriginal tradition. Their audio-visual show, fronted by Archie Roach, was grounded in the bittersweet struggle songs of indigenous Australians, accompanied by archive film footage and damning commentary on Britain's imperial past. Naturally, most of us in the impeccably right-on eco-hippie crowd cheered heartily when confronted with our own postcolonial guilt. A very Womad moment.
– Stephen Dalton for The Times Online
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