If You Were Curating Meltdown…

Posted bySteve 6 Comments on If You Were Curating Meltdown…

Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown is well underway in London – the one downside of Lo and I heading of to Geneva this weekend was that we missed seeing The Roots at the Festival Hall, as part of the fest. Shame.

But anyway, I was just thinking who I’d book if I was curating it (for those that don’t know, Meltdown is curated by a different person each year – in the past they’ve had David Bowie, Patti Smith, John Peel…)

I’ll give my own some thought, and then come back with it in the comments. Who would you choose? be as elaborate as you like – headline acts, support acts, free-stage, special one-off collaborations… get creative. 🙂

6 replies on “If You Were Curating Meltdown…”

  1. wow, you lot are talkative 😉

    OK, I’ll start with a few collaborations I’d want to facilitate:

    • Joni Mitchell with Paul Buchanan – the band would be The Blue Nile, plus me and Kenny Wheeler 🙂
    • Michael Franti and Lewis Taylor with The Roots.
    • Bill Frisell, Mark Ribot, Bruce Cockburn – just as a trio, playing Cockburn’s tunes.
    • David Sylvian, with me, Theo Travis and BJ Cole. (I’m the only one on the list who hasn’t already played with him!)
    • Meshuggah with David Torn and Gavin Wright’s strings, arranged by Anne Dudley.
    • Cleveland Watkiss, Bobby McFerrin, Beardyman and Imogen Heap. Vocal gorgeousness 🙂

    There you go, that’s a start 🙂

  2. I would choose Marc Ribot too, certainly (though I would prefer him to play his Shrek era stuff).

    I would also book Negativland and Team Brick for humorous weirdness.

    Philip Glass.

    The new Scottish band: Vars of Litchi.

    Scorn – to burst eardrums.

    Wesley Willis.

    Black Moth Super Rainbow.

    And for a headliner, I would like Graeme Revell, Nurse With Wound and DDAA doing their Songs of Adolf Wolfli set (and some of their own stuff).

    1. wow, you’re not expecting a huge crowd, are you? The acts I’ve heard of in your list, I’d go and see. The others, I’d probably check out by association 🙂

  4. Mine would be:

    Gil-Scott Heron, Curtis Mayfield and Stevie Wonder (then I’d leave:) )

    Booker T & the MG’s with Otis and Sam harmonising

    Bob Dylan and Eddie Vedder

    There is tons more so I might have to return to this when I have some spare time!

    1. are we allowing dead people? I dunno, you’re not going to get hired to curate festivals by booking stiffs!

      However, I would book the Hoff to sing with UB40 and Ozzie for a #brummusicmonth special evening 🙂

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