MOPOMOSO - Concert Round Up 20082008 was quite a year for Mopomoso. January saw our last concert at The Red Rose, which had been our home for nearly 20 years, after the lease was sold and the new owners decided to turn it into a snooker hall. This was despite a public campaign and many behind the scenes negotiations, including an offer to buy the lease from them. In February we put together a free concert at The Vortex in Dalston to introduce the audience to our new venue and the support was heartwarming, with the musicians playing to a packed and enthusiastic audience. The new venue also brought a new, younger, more mixed audience to Mopomoso concerts. The March concert was a return to our regular third Sunday of the month spot and really tested the venue´s possibilities, with dancers and computer generated sounds alongside more conventional groupings. In the past all our concerts had been recorded on audio by Tim Fletcher or Martin Davidson and the March concert introduced video documentation as well, from Helen Petts, Chris Cooper and Paul Martin. Helen has put most of her video footage onto Youtube which has resulted in Mopomoso reaching a much larger international audience. From April through July we maintained the impetus with a strong programme of fine musicians mostly playing in pre-existing groups with occasional first performances. Mopomoso, acting as a partner, also put together an evening performance in Paris as part of the Roc de Choc festival. Helen Petts took over our mailing list and press release duties and also fund raising. We received a grant from PRS of £1000 towards our running costs. August was for my own ‘Fête Quaqua’, which is now establishing itself as an annual event. I see this as an in depth chance for a specially invited group of improvisors to really stretch out and explore together over three days and for the audience to get a little closer to the unfolding excitement of free improvisation. We were helped in this by a grant from Culture Ireland to enable the participation of Dublin based pianist Paul G Smyth. Bill Hsu came from San Fransisco. Back to regular concerts for September and October, again with mostly pre-existing groups and a couple of debut / first time in the UK performances. The Vortex management asked us to put something special together to coincide with The London Jazz Festival in November so, ever obliging, we not only put together a great line-up in an extended concert, but also an afternoon participatory workshop. Both were a great success the venue was packed out and we intend to host more workshops in 2009. Finally in December, ‘It´s that time again!’, we held our annual celebration of all things improvised ‘A Galaxy of Stars’ which brought together over fifty musicians playing in different permutations in a more casual setting than the usual concert format. A great time was had by all and once again it was a sell-out! Thank YouAt the start of the year we were ably assisted on sound and light duties by Ashley Wales. Ashley has taken time out for personal reasons and Richard Barrett took up his duties for a couple of concerts before Will Connors volunteered for the post and Will has proved himself a great asset as sound engineer. Throughout the whole thing George Coote has continued to handle the box office, room organisation, distribution of fliers and countless other tasks with skill and dedication. On the documentation front thanks are due to Helen Petts, Tim Fletcher, Chris Cooper, Paul Martin and Martin Davidson. Thanks are also due to Michael R Lorek for his help with the website. Helen Petts has also proved invaluable, overseeing and extending our mailing list, sending out press releases and fundraising, and generally helping to increase our profile and that of improvised music in general. I´d also like to thank the Vortex management for having us and to all the volunteers at the Vortex who make it all happen. Grateful acknowledgement also to PRS and Culture Ireland for their financial assistance. Thanks are also due to the musicians themselves for the support they have given to Mopomoso over the years. Finally a big thanks to our audience, who´s unstinting support and appreciation really make the whole thing meaningful. |
