Today, months of speculation end with the announcement that Richard Thompson is to curate the Meltdown 2010 festival at the Southbank Centre.
Thompson, considered a national treasure in some circles, and an old folkie in others, frequently tours a repertoire of cover songs stretching a thousand years - from "Summer is Icumen in" to Britney's "Oops! I Did it Again." He’s a Sufi Muslim living in LA and writing about the everyday dramas of the Home Counties. He’s been in Fairport Convention, played as a husband and wife folk act, been acclaimed as an acoustic balladeer and rocked festivals as an electric guitar hero. He’s been covered himself by everyone from the Corrs to the Blind Boys of Alabama. But does any of this qualify him to take the helm of one of the most innovative and diverse musical festivals in the British musical calandar?
Meltdown takes place every June. A musical icon is invited to take over the South Bank to direct a month long music and arts festival. What we can expect from Thompson seems to be anyone’s guess. Previous curators such as Bowie, and Jarvis Cocker, and even Massive Attack and Ornette Coleman have had a personality, style or even a collection of friends that gave a number of clues. Thompson is a much darker horse. On the one hand, despite having had multiple careers, they have all been based on the same theme (even his son, Teddy, now ploughs much the same furrow). On the other hand Thompson is fiercely intelligent, unnaturally gifted, and unswervingly independent of mind. One question has been dividing theartsdesk: will we get a refreshing and surprising line up of unexpected delights, or will we get real ale, Danny Thompson, and the line up of the last five years’ Cambridge Folk Festivals?
This is what Thompson himself said this morning: "I am very excited to be hosting this year's Meltdown at Southbank Centre. The wide-ranging programme reflects many of my interests and influences across many musical, visual and literary styles, and should provide some unique moments, unusual collaborations and juxtapositions. All this in the place where I saw my first concert in 1961 - such an honour!"
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