I'm in Slough Motherf$@ker!

Yesterday I was taken to the Charlbury street music festival. Charlbury is a small Cotswolds village not to far away from Oxford. Unfortunately this year they were hit quite heavily by the floods that have been ripping through the UK this summer but have managed to get that behind them and host a rather awesome free music and crafts festival. The height of the celebrations revolved around an Irish ban who brought dancy folk country music to the masses, and everyone jigged till the early hours! This brought me to ponder the use of Irish music in popular music and I remembered two of my favorite tunes from years ago!

East of Eden were a progressive rock band hailing from several areas of England, mostly Leicester and Bristol, in the days when prog rock was the only way to go! They were most noted for their use of jazz and folk licks/riffs in their music, creating a raw fusion of sound (so I am told). Jig-a-jig was one of the most famous works that East of Eden released and actually got them into the top ten. Using the regular prog rock build up they bash out fiddle licks on an electric violin (if thats not prog rock I don't know what is!) and back it up with some fabby beats!

East of Eden - Jig-a-jig

Kate Bush, who if you need introducing to you cant go much wrong with this track, was an odd lady, and really hated the limelight! This was a shame given that she is possibly the best female songwriter that the world has ever seen, and thankfully she is still going! Jig of Life was her homage to her Irish routes and had some rather bizarre poetry that she wrote at the end!

Kate Bush - Jig of Life