Garyswordz

This was my third Legends of Rock, but their fifteenth , hopefully I am getting the hang of it now as are they. Firstly I should point out that this is a festival of some sixty bands over four days. It is impossible to see everybody, with two stages physically impossible . Equally the bill is intended to cover divergent tastes- you are not expected to like every band- and are allowed to go to the toilet, have something to eat , chat to your friends, visit some local sights as well as taking in the music. And part of the joy is warming to acts and music that would not have been on your priority list normally- but they appeared on stage while you were there and couldn’t be bothered to move!

With attendances at live venues under pressure many bands use this event as a showcase for an audience drawn nationwide and beyond. Over a thousand people a night is worth having. The order of appearance has nothing to do with merit with some of my favourite performances appearing at unexpected times.

The opening night was inauspicious. Blackfoot, a rock covers band were strong to open proceedings but I found the ELO Experience a bit of an insipid experience, as I found the original ELO live. The crowd loved them though. The Darkniss were, like the Darkness, ridiculous and preposterous. But my biggest disappointment was Slade UK who closed the night with fantastic material, poor presentation and a ramshackle performance.

Fortunately Friday started with a lunchtime bang. The Doobie experience were sensational. Expert musicianship, crisp sound, committed performance and a stonking set list, my favourite set of the weekend. Ian Dury and the Blackheads picked up where the Doobies left off with a delightful music hall style set and a welcome break from conventional rock. Motorkill did nothing other than great classic rock as did WhitesnakeUK later in the evening.

Saturday was a mainstream blast with Blax Abbath excelling, legends of AOR imperious, but with Derick and the Dynamos stealing the evening, super Mario on bass, and one of the best renditions of “Let it Rain” I have heard

The last day is always sad, and a challenge to the constitution of a four day rock assault.

Too Petty opened Sunday with a ridiculously short 55 minute slot. They should have closed the evening and had ninety minutes, delivering an outstanding set, they were one of the big successes of the weekend.

I room hopped between A little More Gilmour and Telegram Sam. The somnambulant solos of Dave are not ideal for a Sunday afternoon. I have seen Telegram Sam Before and they are not as good as tribute rivals T Rexstacy, the music was fine, the performance and delivery a little lacklustre, but there is only so much you can draw from a fairly limited back catalogue.

One artist who does not suffer from a limited back catalogue is Bruce Springsteen, Forever Springsteen were superb, but again had a criminally short one hour set time. Rainbow in Rock completed the best of the evening trio, established favourites who delivered once again.

All my opinions are entirely subjective and may change tomorrow. If you don’t like them- I have others!

Another wonderful weekend. I shall be back next year, thanks to organisers Eddie and Justin Yates.

I am a keen amateur student of the history of World War Two. I have long felt that the commercial behemoth which is Holllywood and the artistic excellene of British cinema have combined to offer an incomplete record of the conflict

This wonderful two parter, of which this is the second half rightly reappraises the French role, retracing the battle of Free France .It is a  film brave enough to make Roosevelt the antagonist, not the hero.-

Baudry does something cinema rarely risks: he puts Washington, and the Americans in the villain’s chair. Campbell Scott’s Roosevelt treats France as a defeated country to be administered rather than an ally to be consulted, and behaves accordingly. He embodies the pragmatic, almost colonial ambitions of Washington. American viewers will find this uncomfortable, and the film’s reception outside France will turn on how much of it they are willing to accept.

What makes the film stand out is its willingness to cast the Americans as near-villains in the struggle for French sovereignty – an angle that feels both brave and genuinely refreshing. This version of events, with its clear-eyed view of Allied power politics and de Gaulle’s fierce defense of national independence, is rarely given such prominence in mainstream Western storytelling. Baudry leans into the political intrigue and diplomatic brinkmanship without soft-pedaling the tensions, resulting in a historical drama that feels purposeful rather than merely celebratory.

The occupation currency was printed, officers were trained to run French departments, and Roosevelt did float carving a state called Wallonia out of northern France. Jackson’s biography, which Baudry adapts records it all.

Abkarian carries both the awkwardness and the mystique of De Gaulle, without sliding into impersonation. The Churchill exchanges keep the dry needling from part one, still the most enjoyable double act in either film, and the score was beautifully cinematic. The liberation sequence, set against Éluard’s 1942 poem Liberté, was my personal high point of the whole diptych. The film is titled J’écris ton nom for a reason, and it delivers on it.

The African soldiers fighting under Leclerc across the entire film never get a line between them. For a picture that alert to those who get written out of history, it is a rather strange blind spot.

Baudry has admitted compressing and inventing at the level of individual scenes but the spine of the story is sound, and it is a spine most audiences have never been shown.Handsomely shot, well-acted, and driven by a clear-eyed sense of national destiny, De Gaulle: Liberté is a confident, intelligent war film that trusts its audience with a less sanitized chapter of the Allied victory. One scene in particular – a moving montage near the end of the movie that combines archival footage of the Paris insurrection with Paul Éluard’s iconic WWII resistance poem “Liberté” embodies the class and care that has been taken with the entire presentation of these two films.

Viva la liberation!