A few months ago, I flicked the telly on to find our man on breakfast tv, desperately attempting to get a word in. The topic of conversation was the alleged erosion of "Britishness" at the Proms. Nitin's was an argument doomed to fail, not that he stood a cat in hell's chance of voicing it. Unsurprisingly, those prattling daytime presenters could not even grasp the very simple point that Nitin was attempting to make - that, contrary to their fears, if the Proms continued to include an increasingly diverse selection of artists and composers, it would actually BEGIN to reflect British Society. Not wanting to overwhelm them, he tried to put his point across as simply as he could by mentioning how pleased he was when the Shankars were invited to participate. It whistled right over their heads or at least, if anything, reaffirmed their conviction that the Proms was less British than it has ever been! Undeterred, he simplified his argument further, exclaiming, "BUT I'M BRITISH!!!" and was promptly ignored... a week later, they were obsessing over sweaters knitted out of doghair....
Another great event in Britain's cultural calendar is taking place this Sunday, in East London.
It's the Love Music Hate Racism Carnival and, unlike the Proms, it's free, it's accessable(!) and certainly more representative of the British populous (although, it does look to be on par with the Proms when it comes to female representation!!!). What's more, the line up includes just a few names that might sound familiar to Sawhney camp followers... Nathan 'Flutebox' Lee, Natascha Eleonore and...Get Cape.Wear Cape.Fly!!!! Check out the whole event on the website link below and maybe I will see you there...
http://www.lmhrcarnival.com/
*******LONDON LIVE DATE!!!!!!******* http://www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms/
Walk that walk! http://www.oxfam.org.uk/get_involved/fundraise/sunset/