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The Saints Come Marching in at O2 jazz festival
By
Jack Massarik
27 Oct 2008
Thanks to its subdivision into pie-chart quadrants, the Millennium Dome has a stroll-about ambience which proved ideal for this two-day festival of all things New Orleans.
Swampland stars including Dr John, Allen Toussaint and Buckwheat Zydeco drew sightseers young and old, many dancing as marching bands entertained them in the perimeter corridors of restaurants and bars.
Bourbon and juleps were raised to Quint Davis of New Orleans Festivals and Philip Anschutz, CEO of AEG (in other words, head of O2), who put the £100,000 event together at no charge to the public.
“Why? Because before Katrina, N’awlins was the number one tourist destination for Londoners,” Davis explained.
“We wanned to show people that the music’s still there and everythin’s getting back to like before.”
The stars responded to the crowds, cranking up their amps to fill the tall arenas with sound. The beats were more distinct than the lyrics as Toussaint’s group belted out hits like Shoo Ra, Mother-in-Law and Working Down a Coal Mine.
Buckwheat’s men did better with characterful breaks for washboard-vest and the leader’s pearly-white piano accordion.
Biggest novelty was in the Matter disco space, where singer-pianist Marcia Ball’s band proved that some of Lousiana’s white folks do a fair Crescent City strut themselves.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
Reader views (5)
The 02 venue was anything ideal for what should have been a fantastic opportunity for everyone to enjoy New Orleans music. Unfortunately, it was a big let down as it was so badly organised. On entering the 02 venue, we walked down a narrow walkway called "Bourbon St" which became more and more crowded as people were queuing for the Body Works exhibition! When we eventually got into the Matter venue we were disappointed as the acoustics were simply dreadful and so we left only to get into another long queue to get back to where we started from. It reminded me of Heathrow Airport on a bad day and at one point the police had to block off this walkway and redirect people outside the Arena for safety reasons. Eventually managed to get to the Louisiana stage but again disappointed with dreadful acoustics. The whole thing seemed muddled and confused. The food delicacies were nowhere to be seen as they were around the other side of the 02 arena. I felt sorry for the artists performing as they had come all that way and must have felt very let down as we were!
- Wendy Hill, Woodford Green, U.K., 29/10/2008 12:46
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What a great idea. Invite some of the best musicians to London, do a spot of PR and get some reciprocal tourism to assist in the regeneration of New Orleans. Ticks all the right boxes. Except one - the venue itself. Well two actually, as you have to include the idiot sound engineers.
The venue really is truly awful. Never again will I go to the 02 stadium. To be channelled into such a small space offered by the perimeter hugging walkways cluttered up with hordes of parents and assorted kids in push chairs who'd come for the cinemas, restaurants and other venues being run in tandem to the New Orleans Festival was a nightmare. And dangerous at that. Any panic or sudden rush could have been a disaster. Toilet facilities? A complete joke.
Who booked the sound engineers and where did they come from? Great selection of bands, seasoned veterans for the most part, playing some seriously good stuff. Only to be ruined by people who should never be allowed near a mixing or sound desk - ever. Over amplified sounds went crashing around the ceiling and walls reverberating half a second out of sync and making the end result for 85% of the crowd a nightmare.
And to add insult to injury, trying to leave and get a tube reminded me of the really bad old days of the Northern Line. Such a shame they didn't pull the Dome down and have done with it when they had the chance.
I sincerely hope the Festival does return, but this time at a venue able to do it justice over a weekend.
- Jim Avis, london, england, 28/10/2008 14:20
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Good sound at the Louisiana stage if you were straight in front, anything to the side was truly terrible. Rebirth Brass Band, Buckwheat Zydeco and Marcia Ball all fantastic. Do it again!
- Chris D, Hertford UK, 27/10/2008 16:35
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I had the mis-fortune to attend this event and was struck by what a complete shambles it was. The "festival" appeared to consist of hordes of people all crammed it into a narrow walkway (comically named Bourbon Street in a truly rubbish Disney-style attempt to make you think that you were in New Orleans) all aimlessly walking up and down trying to figure out what they were supposed to do.
Eventually I found that I had accidentally joined the queue for Nandos 
- along with lots of other people who didn't seem to relaise what they were queuing for. I could hear some live music somewhere but failed to see any until coming across a more open area with a stage where the acoustics were simply atrocious.
After continuing to be pushed and shoved about by the increasingly frustrated crowds, I made the best decision of the day and decided to leave the O2 immediately. It was a relief to get out.
- Luciano Payne, Streatham Common, 27/10/2008 14:12
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Huge cheers to those who staged this. Marcia Ball (in Indigo2, not Matter, and a novelty???) was terrific and John Mooney in Matter was great. If they do something similar again they should do something about the sound /acoustics at the Louisiana stage in the concourse.
- Gareth James, London UK, 27/10/2008 11:34
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