John Tilbury at Free Range

Veg Box Cafe, Canterbury
December 6th, 2012

The 33rd Free Range event and the last one of the year. Much respect to Sam Bailey for bringing us all of this good stuff. John Tilbury was part of the legendary free improv group AMM and is apparently something of an authority on the music of Morton Feldman. He played one long set of prepared piano (I was sitting nearby, and it looked like he'd stuck a load of knitting needles in between the strings). He played from sheet music, and didn't say a word, so I left none the wiser as to what he was actually playing, but felt grateful to have been present.

John Tilbury and his knitting needles, elsewhere, fairly recently

It was horribly cold and wet out in the Canterbury night when I left, so I headed over to the Canterbury Tales pub to sit by the fire (with real logs!) and listen to the last of the weekly Irish folk session there — just Andy Renshaw (bodhrán and whistles), Ben from Arlet (guitar) and a very funny young Irishwoman playing fiddle. They didn't know "The Old Copperplate" or "Buttermilk Mary", but I'll forgive them this time...