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Category Archives: Dano 2008

News and reviews of the big day in Trafalgar Square, 8 June 2008, and related events (the gig by YB in Kingston)

Official photos from the Dano festival

17-Jul-08

Official photos from the Dano festival

Justina Jang of the Korean Cultural Promotion Agency, the organisers of the Dano Festival in Trafalgar Square, has kindly sent me some of the official photos of the event, which I have now uploaded to Flickr. Some good photos of the very entertaining Noridan (above), some great crowd scenes which really convey the atmosphere of the event, plus one or two of the Yoon Band (below) You can see the slideshow over on the LKL Flickr account here, or look at the thumbnails on LKL here. Links KCPA website Read all LKL articles about the Dano Festival 2008
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Music at the Dano!

15-Jun-08

Music at the Dano!

Saharial wraps up on our coverage of the 2008 Dano Korea Summer Festival, and launches the LKL YouTube Channel with exclusive live video footage from her camera. Its now a week on from the Festival, but the memories still linger very happily. Of course, there was more going on than Noridan, with three musical sets Guy Barker, Tomi Kita and of course Y.B. (Yoon Band). Guy Barker, pictured above, went down well with the crowd, especially on his mention of Kim Duk Soo and his visit to Korea to work with him. It’s a shame that schedule constraints made it impossible for them to play together, but hopefully this can be resolved next year to provide an interesting set. Tomi Kita played the ...
Also filed in Music: K-pop, VoDs, Yoon Band | | Comments (0) »

Imagination at play with Noridan

12-Jun-08

Imagination at play with Noridan

Saharial meets with the members of Noridan, the unexpected stars of the Dano Festival. Before going to the Dano festival in Trafalgar Square this year, the highlight for me was going to see the Yoon Band play again and feel thoroughly spoiled for having the opportunity twice. Much to my surprise, I actually found that the Performance group Noridan was the real highlight for me to the extent that most of my pictures and video clips were of the three sets they did. As the opening act of the festival, they began with a parade around Trafalgar Square pausing in front of the main steps for dance and drumming before continuing back to their start point. Despite the weather being already hot, ...
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Sun, percussion, and yang energy

11-Jun-08

Sun, percussion, and yang energy

Jennifer Barclay celebrates her first anniversary with LKL with her report from the second Dano Korean Summer Festival The sound of percussion crept around Trafalgar Square as a strange vehicle circled the fountains and wheeled into view: a tall Mad Max-style contraption with coloured flags waving from poles, people dressed in black and orange hanging off the sides and beating at bizarre instruments: sheets of metal arranged as a xylophone, black rubber tubes, drums made from steel wheels. It sounds like it should produce an unpleasant cacophony, but the truth was far from it. These energetic people were skilled musicians and created harmonious music that captured everyone’s attention. As the human-powered ‘Sprocket’ came to a halt in the middle of the square, crowds ...
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More photos from the Square

09-Jun-08

More photos from the Square

Here's a selection of Jennifer Barclay's pics. Jennifer's article will be up soon. [gallery]
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The new ambassador’s first outing

09-Jun-08

The new ambassador’s first outing

Peter Corbishley adds to the appreciation of the day, and Noridan gets another vote Congratulations to Justina Jang on this year’s Dano festival, especially, especially the Noridan performance. The festival dropped a generation or two from last year. Tomi Kita was somewhat as his name suggests when pronounced - viz Tommy Guitar. Somewhat less of an imitation, but clearly ever so popular, was YB. The new Korean Ambassador, too, Chun Yung-Woo, only a week old – as he himself said – had his first London outing, and after the six-party talks perhaps one of the bigger audiences of his life. Speech done, jacket and tie off, he clearly soaked up the enthusiasm, as well as the beautiful weather, in Trafalgar Square. ...
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Yesterday in the Square

09-Jun-08

Yesterday in the Square

We’ll be seeing a number of accounts of the Dano Korea Summer Festival yesterday. I could have decided to exercise some executive editorial control and make sure that every aspect was covered once and once only, but instead I’m going with the flow and seeing what comes my way. Things never happen entirely as planned anyway. For example, Saharial was stood up by the Yoon Band on Friday. Their management claimed not to have any knowledge of the interview we’d carefully booked and confirmed with them, which was disappointing given the preparation she’d put into researching the questions. Instead, Saharial has managed to get herself an exclusive interview with Noridan today, which will be coming in due course. Jennifer was out ...
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Photos from Trafalgar Square

08-Jun-08

Photos from Trafalgar Square

I seem to have mislaid my camera, and am therefore dependent on my phone for pictures at the moment. Hence the snaps I took in Trafalgar Square this afternoon are very poor. Please feel free to send in any photos you're particularly proud of (my email address is philip at this website's URL), or upload them to the London Korean Links Facebook group for all to see. All photos shown on this site will be credited to you. For me, as I suspect for many of you, the unexpected stars of the show were Noridan, the wacky percussion group from Seoul. More on them soon. Until I get some better pictures, here's the best my phone could do: [ad#small-horizontal] [gallery]
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Dano: the VIP messages

08-Jun-08
In all the excitement of the day, often the messages from the sponsors, both financial and political, can be overlooked. But it's worth taking a look at the messages to put the day in context and consider it in the bigger picture of UK-Korea relations. "Opening" the Dano Festival was one of the first (if not THE first) official duty of the Republic of Korea's new ambassador to the UK, H.E. Chun Yung-woo, who arrived in London about a week ago, while the welcome message from Mayor Boris is also from a relatively new incumbent. It was good to have international Brit Alan Timblick on the scene as well representing the City of Seoul. So here are the VIP messages in full. First, ...
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Yoon and Tall Lee crowd-surf in Kingston

07-Jun-08

Yoon and Tall Lee crowd-surf in Kingston

Saharial reports from the Yoon Band's gig at The Peel, Kingston, 6 June 2008 Arriving at 5.30pm, Y.B. (Yoon Band) was almost instantly swamped by the dozen or so Korean youngsters that had been lurking for a while, and amiably chatted to them whilst posing for photos and signing autographs. I chatted briefly to Lee from Steranko, one of the support acts, who knew Yoon Do Hyun from the days he had been in Korea. His band had been banned from Korea now since the Couch incident where the singer had stripped entirely during a performance. Lee’s performance is frenetic and involves shirt removal and swearing, probably why they found themselves no longer welcome in a Korea suddenly sensitive to rock ...
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Dano Festival 2008: final programme details

06-Jun-08
Here’s the final schedule for the Dano Festival in Trafalgar Square on Sunday 8 June. Bear in mind that last-minute on-the-ground logistics may lead to adjustments to the timings and running order, but this is as close to final as we’ll get: 1pm – Korean food stalls and workshops open 1:30~ 2:00 Parade – Noridan (an environmental percussion band) 2:00~2:30 Traditional Korean Musical Part 1 - Taroo 2:30~2:40 Traditional Korean Dance - Lee Chul Jin 2:40~3:00 Traditional Korean Musical Part 2 - Taroo 3:00~3:10 Ritual Ceremony - Lee Chul Jin 3:10~3:20 Opening ceremony - Alan Timblick ((As well as being on the board of KCPA, the organizers of this event, Alan Timblick OBE is head of Seoul Global Centre, a publicly-funded organization established to help foreigners in Korea. ...
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The versatile Yoon Band plays London

21-May-08
Saharial introduces the talents of the Yoon Band, which will be performing in Trafalgar Square on 8 June When I heard that the Yoon Band was coming to the UK for two gigs in June, I was almost jumping round my room with excitement. That my room is rather small and I suffered a few blows to the knee, bears testament to the reputable talent heading our way. To many K-pop fans, the band’s founder and lead vocalist Yoon Do Hyun is best known for hosting the KBS music and talk show Yoon Do Hyun’s Love Letter. The show that has a wide and faithful audience, and the format attempts to be diverse and encouraging of singers ranging from ...
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Trafalgar Square Dano Festival 2008: initial details

19-May-08
DANO Korea Summer Festival Trafalgar Square Sunday 8 June 2008 1pm to 7pm FREE EVENT FOR THE WHOLE FAMILY Trafalgar Square will be transformed into a mini Korea for the annual DANO celebrations on Sunday 8 June. The second DANO Korea Summer Festival provides a fascinating insight into the culture and customs of Korea featuring performances by Korean artists, crafts and music workshops, Korean food and a parade. The afternoon will culminate in a two hour musical extravaganza with the Yoon Band from Korea, Tomi Kita from the USA and the Guy Barker Quintet from the UK. Tomi Kita will be performing the North Korean pop song Kim Chi for the first time in Europe,while the leading UK jazz composer and trumpeter Guy Barker has written ...
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Dano Festival - Trafalgar Square

08-May-08
The scheduled Dano Festival 2008 in Trafalgar Square is one month away: Sunday 8 June. To whet the appetite, here's the official video (10 minutes) from last year's event: [flv]http://londonkoreanlinks.net/wp-content/uploads/video/2007_Dano.flv[/flv]
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