Hi there, sorry I haven't posted for a while - have been ill, but am better now ta.
Went to see Battlefield Band and guests from Uzbekistan in Maidenhead - just with Bill this time. Battlefield Band kicked off the evening with a few of their fans' favourite numbers, and a song about Iraq. A couple of young Scottish dancers - John Sikorski & Donal Brown, dressed in black jeans and t-shirts. Wot no kilts - I'm sure the ladies in the front row were disappointed! But the way they whirled each other around at high speed was pretty impressive.
Then the Uzbekistani band came on - ABDULAKHAD ABDURASHIDOV on the Nay (flute type thing), AKHMADJON DADAEV on the Gijak (fiddle type thing) and vocals, ILYAS LUTFULLAEV on Dutar (two string mandolin) and kushkar rubab (guitar type thing) HUSAN NOSIROV on Doyra (bodhran/tambourine type thing). They were wearing traditional Uzbeki robes which were black with gold embroidery, available from their stall for £200! Their music was so exotic sounding, a bit Arabic, a bit Oriental, a bit Eastern European - like nothing else I've else heard. Then came on the Uzbeki dancers, Saida Mansurhodjayeva & Nargiza Khodjakhanova in the most amazing dresses and with very long hair in plaits. They looked like princesses in their brightly coloured, low cut, gold and sequin embroidered, flowing dresses and gold headdresses. One of the dances was very sexy - apparently they'd performed it at Edinburgh Prison where it went down a treat with the inmates.
After the break both the Scottish and Uzbeki musicians played each others' songs and the dancers attempted a Scottish/Uzbeki crossover routine!
The encore was even more impressive with Husan playing 3 Doyra drums at once, the (rather large) fiddle player in a dancing duel and a bagpipe duel!
Fantastic evening - just what the doctor ordered!
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