Concerts

Rodrigo y Gabriela

The story goes that Rodrigo Sánchez and Gabriela Quintero played in a thrash metal band in their native Mexico. Presumably having failed to thrash the charts the band split, jettisoning our nimble-fingered duo to Dublin, the buskers’ paradise. There they were spotted and snagged by the festival circuit. Massive success followed, with an album produced [...] More about Rodrigo y Gabriela

Omara Portuondo

At the time of writing, the Cuban singer is seventy eight years old and when she wants to, she can still belt them out. There just wasn’t much cause to do so this evening. Before a rather small crowd in Brussels’ crummy Cirque Royale, which these days shares more in common with Morley Con Club than [...] More about Omara Portuondo

Lambchop

Before I saw the band in concert, I would never have called the music of Lambchop romantic. Somehow, within a couple of tracks from their new release OH (Ohio), I found myself feeling the lurve. It could have been the semicute gaucheness of singer/guitarist Kurt Wagner, though he is rather an acquired taste. It could [...] More about Lambchop

Seun Kuti & Africa 80

Seun is the youngest son of the late Fela Kuti, the politically active leading light of Afrobeat. Having grown up in the thick of that scene, Seun now heads Africa 80, the second incarnation of his father’s band, playing the same energetic mix of funk, jazz, rock and highlife that electrified West African music in [...] More about Seun Kuti & Africa 80

Arthur H: L’Abondanse

H, the son and nephew respectively of eccentric singers Jacques Higelin and Brigitte Fontaine, is something of a musical lacuna himself. Throughout the course of thirteen albums, the Frenchman has pinballed between jazz, rock, pop and disco and on L’Homme du Monde his latest effort he’s done all of them. Looking like the bizarre offspring of [...] More about Arthur H: L’Abondanse

Matthew Herbert Big Band

After an awkward warm-up from studenty noodlers Wixel, who might be the Flemish answer to Sigur Rós, the stage of Brussels’ Ancienne Belgique was quickly cleared and rearranged for the main event of the evening. Matthew Herbert, renowned for the idiosyncratic music he records under a schizophrenic array of monikers, led on his jazz band [...] More about Matthew Herbert Big Band

Buena Vista Social Club presents (2008 Tour)

Last year, we managed to get tickets for the Buena Vista Social Club presents date at Sheffield City Hall but we were in the cheap seats. Having long since learned that the band was due to return this year, I was better prepared and booked early! As far as it was possible to tell, the thirteen [...] More about Buena Vista Social Club presents (2008 Tour)

Toumani Diabaté

For over 700 years, the griots have wandered the plains and villages of Mali, as much a part of the landscape as cottonfields and the Harmattan dust clouds. Griots (or “jeli” to give them their local name) are the curators of national history. They tell stories and sing songs drawn from a vast, unwritten repertoire [...] More about Toumani Diabaté

Salsa Celtica

I first heard of Scottish band Salsa Celtica back in 2004, courtesy of WFMU radio’s Doug Schulkind. I was just starting to get interested in latin and world music at the time and I hoovered up Schulkind’s Culture Shock collection. The Give The Drummer Some DJ had put together twenty soundclashes in which Latin would rub [...] More about Salsa Celtica

The Lion roared

Cadillac Jukebox @ The Lion, Castleford The problem with being a covers band is that your audience tends to judge you on the quality of your renditions rather than the quality of your musicianship. Cadillac Jukebox singer Ian McMullen acknowledges this, but for him the enjoyment comes from being able to play a wide, often surprisingly eclectic [...] More about The Lion roared

Elsewhere on MikePadgett.com …

No Country For Old Men

It’s probably fair to say that the Coen brothers had been off their game for a few years. Since 2000’s O Brother Where Art Thou,… More about No Country For Old Men

Cairo and Giza

Giza was fashionable per se with colonials way back when in the days of the stiff upper lip, but today most foreign visitors are heading for… More about Cairo and Giza

Send Me No Flowers

Like Sidney Lumet, Jewison’s career is still going strong today, four decades after his feature debut and the studio star vehicle Send… More about Send Me No Flowers

Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

This is a decorated film - five Goyas and an Oscar nomination - and an international breakthrough for the director, but it didn’t sit… More about Women On The Verge Of A Nervous Breakdown

York

York has been around since Roman times, when it was one of the principal settlements in Britain. Constantine the Great was declared emperor… More about York

Who is that guy?

Portrait photo of Mike Padgett

Bon dia, my name is Mike Padgett. I'm an Information Designer. I work in the technology sector, designing solutions and strategies for the communication of information. Right now, I'm doing this marvellous stuff for clients of Unisys.

At play, I enjoy travel, concerts, films and books.

I'm based in Brussels, Belgium. My current favourite Belgian beer is Cantillon Gueuze.

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DD4D: Data Designed For Decisions - Conference Paris 18-20 June 2009