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Lewes Guitar Festival
- Von Trolley Quartet and Pa Bobo Jobarteh
The Lewes Guitar Festival comes to a close this afternoon
with a free concert in the Grange Gardens featuring two rather
different bands. First up is the Von Trolley Quartet, a comedy
busking act featuring three Australians and a Norwegian, who
you might have caught at a festival somewhere in the world
sometime in the last four years. The defining feature of the
Von Trolleys is that their two founding members, guitarist
Trent Arkleysmith and drummer The Almost Amazing Robert play
miniature instruments at high tempo. The sound is filled out
by the electric bass of the dreadlocked Grahame Thompson,
whilst visual antics are provided by the most recent band
member Gareth Bjaaland (aka Donkbert Von Trolley Junior),
who also plays the banjo while balancing a chair on his head.
You probably get the picture. They’re meant to be a
scream.
Afterwards, something completely different, and rather more
serious. Pa Bobo Jobarteh are a Gambian threesome featuring
two kora masters (including Pa, whose name is given to the
band) and a percussionist. The kora is a Western African harp,
which has 21 strings, played in two parallel rows using the
fingers and thumb of both hands. Pa is the son of Malamini
Jobarteh, one of the Gambia’s foremost musicians and
a ‘Jali’ of the Mandinka people. Pa has inherited
his gifts and know-how. AL
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