The Rest Is Noise Festival - My weekend in the 1960s

This post will give you a general overview on the talks I've attended during the past weekend, I have many notes to go through and I unfortunately got ill, so the posts on each event will be a little bit delayed, but I promise I'll try to write them as soon as I can!
This said here are the fantastic events I attended, (desctriptions taken from the event's booklet).

Saturday 26

Richard Weight - The Sixties, For Now

Richard Weight discusses the social liberalism of Britain in the 1960s, the country's relations with the USA and Europe and the founding of the modern, largely secular country we live in today. This is followed by a discussion with Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre, before questions are taken from the audience. Richard is the author of Patriots: National Identity in Britain 1940-2000 and Modern British History: The Essential A-Z Guide. Richard also taught history at UCL, King's College London and Boston University.

Psychiatry and the 1960s

The writing and teaching of R D Laing caused a dramatic shift in attitudes towards mental health in the 1960s. Heavily influenced by existential philosophy, Laing tore up the rule book and became a huge influence on successive generations of psychiatrists, writers, and philosophers. In this event, his son Adrian Laing, a lawyer and writer, discusses his influence with chair Anthony David.

Double Bill: John Cage & Roland Kirk's Sound & What the Future Sounded Like

Dick Fontaine's experimental 1966 film Sound brings together two very different musical iconoclasts - Rahsaan Roland Kirk and John Cage - who shared a similar vision of the boundless possibilities of music. In What the Future Sounded Like, the fascinating story of British electronic music is revealed.

The Noise of Third Cinema: 1968 and Film

Bev Zalcock, filmmaker and teacher, and Helen de Witt from the BFI explore the relationship between radical film practices and politics, including the emerging influence of feminism. Taking Fernando Solanas and Octavio Getino's revolutionary film, The Hour of the Furnaces, and their manifesto, 'Towards a Third Cinema', as the starting point, this discussion, which included extracts, will look at the films of the anti-Vietnam War protests, the May '68 uprisings, the Black Panther Party and other activist movements.

Sunday 27

The Beat Generation

Iain Sinclair has long been recognized as a great writer of the marginal and the esoteric, and his latest book American Smoke is a journey in the footsteps of the Beat writers and the landscapes rhey inhabited. He discusses the lasting impact of figures such as Charles Olson, Jack Kerouac and William Borroughs with chair Garth Cartwright, author of More Miles Than Money: Journeys Through American Music.

Zappa on Zappa

Gail Zappa, Frank Zappa's widow, in conversation about her life, the 1960s in the US and the UK, and being a rock and roll wife. 

Noise Bites

A whistle-stop tour of the key artists, movements and political breakthroughs of the era. With 15 minutes per topic, the need-to-know subjects include the cult film Performance, The New Hollywood, Computers and Artistic Experiment, and Feminist Performance Art.

Roger McGough & Brian Patten

The cultural melting pot of 1960s Liverpool gave rise to the most significant poetry movement of the era, when Adrian Henri, Roger McGough and Brian Patten fused pop sensibility and a zest for performance to create The Mersey Sound. At this very special event, McGough and Patten read poems and discuss Liverpool during that heady decade, before taking questions from the audience.

Angela Davis

Angela Davis is an iconic figure of the Civil Rights Movement in the United States. She emerged as a nationally prominent activist and radical in the 1960s as a leader of the Communist Party USA and had close relations with the Black Panther Party. At this event, Angela Davis looks back at the enormous social gains made during a decade of revolution, and their resonance for the present day. Chaired by Jude Kelly, Artistic Director of Southbank Centre.

The Rest is Noise Festival - Southbank Centre

"I wanted to tell the story of the 20th century through  it music." 

Alex Ross, author of The Rest Is Noise

As mentioned in my previous post I want to talk about The Rest Is Noise Festival inspired by Alex Ross' book and hosted by the Southbank Centre.

The Festival has been going on since January 2013 and here is a little recap of the past events:

"The first half of 2013 has seen us take a fascinating journey through the music of the 20th century. We started at 1900, when the world was on the brink of imploding into the First World War, and travelled through the end of the Second World War, just as America's star was on the rise and the Iron Curtain drew an impenetrable barrier across a shattered Europe.

During this time we provided a map for audiences that included talks, films, debates and concerts to help explain the relationship between classical music and the social and political changes of the last century. This approach, inspired by Alex Ross' book The Rest Is Noise, has allowed us to see the music of that period 'in the round' - bringing in the history of science, technology, philosophical and political movements."

Jude Kelly, Artistic Director, Southbank Centre

On the last weekend of this October the time will go back to 1960s and for only £15 for the day pass or £25 for the weekend pass, these are all the things you can see:

Saturday 26 

Film Screenings: Heimat 2 and much more besides

Tariq Ali. In this keynote talk the author and activist discusses a radical decade and key figures such as Henry Kissinger and Malcolm X

Stephen Montague. Listen to This Get to know the music of the 1960s

Pop Art. An overview of the transatlantic movement which dominated the 1960s art world

Marina Frolova Walker. Director of Studies in Music, Cambridge, discusses Shostakovich in the 1960s

May '68. The students protests that turned into one of the most powerful moments of the 1960s

Sunday 27

The Beat Generation. Explore the words and music of the 1960s underground

Zappa on Zappa. Gail Zappa speaks about her husband Frank

The Beatles. Discussion on the early years of the legendary band, based on new biographical material

Joe Boyd. The producer and writer in conversation about the 1960s

Roger McGough & Brian Patten. The legendary Mersey poets read poems and celebrate Liverpool in the 1960s

Angela Davis. Legendary civil rights activist looks back on a decade of revolution

Yellow Submarine

These are only some of the exciting activities going on during that weekend, and among the November ones I will just mention a couple such as: 

Hanif Kureishi about tensions in Thatcherite Britain

Layla Alexander-Garrat, Tarkovsky's on-set-translator, speaks about the legendary film director

Film Music of the 1970s: the great film scores from John Williams to Bernard Herrman

"What do two world wars, votes for women and a moon landing sound like?

Here comes the 20th century."

2001: A Space Odyssey Featuring Philarmonia Orchestra and Chorus

Yesterday night I probably attended the most emotional event of my life so far. Since I am obsessed with Kubrick's work I just couldn't miss the occasion of rewatching his masterpiece with live orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

The event was presented in association with BFI with support from Warner Bros.

A Word from Christiane Kubrick about Stanley Kubrick

"Stanley was very happy when he came across Richard Strauss' Thus Spoke Zarathustra. For him it expressed the overwhelming thoughts and longings we all feel when we as children look at the sun and the moon and the stars. How wonderful it would be if we could know more, understand more and be a million times smarter. That's what I feel today when I am looking at the latest Hubble telescope-wonders. Last time he was at Royal Festival Hall Stanley heard Verdi's Requiem; he could never have imagined that his film 2001: A Space Odyssey would years later be projected in this very hall over a live orchestra performance. Stanley was interested in the politics of power and his film expresses a deep wish for humanity to survive and to escape self-destruction. Is there outside help? Can we count on it? Stanley was not religious, but, like most of us, speculated in the face of the unknowable, hidden in an endless universe in which our little planet may not play any role at all. But it's all we have - it is a world to us."

Music and films are for me the most powerful combination of arts. As the amazing conductor, Benjamin Wallfisch, started preparing for the big opening sequence, my heart was pounding, I was feeling the whole range of emotions that the film text, the immensity of the universe, and the glorious Strauss' music, could possibly suscitate. 

The most impressive thing was that the conductor standing in front of the screen and his orchestra, directing all the elements, checking the timing and emotional impact of the musical language, was like Kubrick. In that moment he became the director, feeling, suffering, for his work of art. And entering someone else's feeling and their intensity is not something everyone can do.

I want to thank the Philarmonia Orchestra, whose work is of immense importance. Thank you for giving me a new and different way of looking at one of my favourite films of all time.

Don't miss out my next post in which I will talk about the The Rest is Noise Festival, and about the great events you can attend during the next three months.