Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Gigs - News and reviews

Anyone going to see Yazoo? chances in the UK are a bit better :p
I'll combine it with a Berlin visit

No I'm not Fons. I've got one Greatest Hits album from Yazoo, and that's enough for me. If it was Heaven 17 ...
Boerruh!

Laurie Anderson - Salisbury City Hall, UK May 23rd

"The thing about stories, especially true stories - and let's face it, there's really no such thing... as fiction - is that every time you tell a particular story, you tell it differently. You remember different parts, and you relate them in a slightly different order. And you forget other parts. And every time an audience hears a story, they hear it differently. And every person in that audience hears it differently... at the same... time."
So she's telling this story, and there's this music playing, and I'm listening to this story and watching the bed of sound it's lying in moving around like water in the wind, and everyone around me is listening to the same story. Except it isn't the same story. It's a different story to each person, and none of them has ever heard it before. Even those that have.
And that's a lot of stories. Kinda like stars. Stories are like stars - you never quite know if they're real or not. Or how old they are. Or where they came from and how many there are. But you know it would be really, really dark if they weren't there.
And you'd get lost more easily.
You know how it is. You get up one day, for no particular reason, and you start to travel. Backwards, towards the future. And you look over your shoulder, or out of the window, and you're looking around for signs, for memory triggers, for something to tell you which way you need to go. To remind you that you've been here before. But today you can feel there's something wrong. Something is missing, and all the things around you, the pictures and the words you see every day are suddenly unfamiliar. It's too, too dark, and it's too quiet.
There's an emptiness you can feel. Are you moving through time - or space? Anyway, you look around, out of the car window, or the spacecraft, or the kitchen table you're sitting around with your friends and old relatives you haven't seen for years, and no-one is saying... anything. No-one has any idea where they are, or who you are, or why they are there. They are all lost, and broken, and silent. Like old photographs.
And then you realise what's missing. There are no stars. The stars just...aren't.. there. And it's quiet, and it's because there are no stories.
A discordant violin thunders past, like the only truck that's passed you on the highway for like, the last seven hours. The air around you stumbles for a moment and then recovers itself, swaying again, notes moving within it like a kelp forest.

And then a voice says "Hi", like as if you've just woken up after a post-operative, impenetrable sleep. Like as if you've just arrived somewhere.
"It's really good to see you. Y'know, I was kind of expecting you. But it's been a long, long time..."

And this is the time.
And this is my record of that time

© Birdsong, May 2008

Absolutely brilliant, Martin. Incredible review!

You've just raised the 'review bar' to another new level!!!

You sure you can't make Durham?

It's a wonderful review Martin. Absolutely outstanding.



All the best,

EG

Cant add anything to that really, great as always Martin.

http://www.chriswatson.net/

Founder of Cabaret Voltaire and sound recordist extraordinaire presents a two-day sound workshop in London next week

Finally got round to posting something about last Monday's Ladyhawke gig at the Rainbow 444 Club Digbeth,Birmingham

The place was a very darkly coloured pub with a kind of pre-fab shed out the back for the actual venue.

It was well attended but mostly by students.

Night didn't get started till afer 8 with the first of 3 support bands.All were Electro Rock.

The 3rd & final support band,Deluka were from Birmingham.

They were a great find.

http://www.myspace.com/deluka

Finally getting towards 10 the Lady arrived.



She performed quite a few tracks off her new album along with a B-side.

All were very good but all of the guitars were much louder than they sound on the CD.

Here is a clip of Paris is burning from the night:-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-K4cPJWq7MU

And another short clip of Professional Suicide with the synth drowned out:-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XgfUpNJrikg



I can highly recommend going to see her if you get the chance.

Was also a really cheap night 6-7 quid for an advance ticket & some Ladyhawke freebies to boot.

Brian

Great stuff brian, thanks for that!

I attended the Wolverhampton leg of the Steel City Tour last night. Here’s how it panned out: -

First on, (bang on 7:30) were Heaven 17. Martyn Ware on keyboards, Glenn Gregory lead vocals, two female vocalists, one drummer & one on guitars. Always tough to come on first to what was about a 2/3 full venue, they gave a very polished and professional performance. Glenn Gregory was very charismatic in his waistcoat and fedora, gliding around the stage flashing an unbelievably white smile (may have been the ultra-violet light ). The whole performance was full of energy, and the female vocalists were superb. They played eight tracks, and I think I recognised seven of them. Here are the seven, hopefully in the correct order (sorry Martin - no pen and paper!)

1 (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
2 Crushed By the Wheels of Industry
3 Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
4 I 'm Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me
5 Penthouse and Pavement
6 Come Live With Me
7 Temptation

Of course they had to finish with Temptation. This version seemed to go on for about 10 minutes. They got a rousing send-off at the end from the now very full venue. A great start to the evening.

Quite surprised that about half the audience seemed to be women. Unlike my last visit to this venue, I was seated up in the centre of the balcony with a perfect view of the stage. Glad I was seated; I’ve had flu symptoms since Tuesday and a pounding headache had convinced me I was not going to attend the show. Managed to get some extra strong Ibuprofen at the last moment which just about allowed me to make the trip. Thankfully, my wife was driving.

The stage hands (apparently 25 in total) then worked furiously to remove the Heaven 17 gear and wheel out the ABC stuff. About 15 minutes later out they came. Martin Fry vocals, 2 on guitars, two on keyboards (one of these doubling up on saxophone) , one on drums and one lady who seemed to be very overworked: vocals, two sets of hand drums, tambourine, and some chimes, and probably something else that I didn’t recognise. I think they performed 11 songs, including Poison Arrow, How To Be A Millionaire, All Of My Heart, and finishing with When Smokey Sings and The Look Of Love.

The performance was more laid back and subdued than Heaven 17s, but Martin Fry’s voice seemed as strong as ever. Again a rousing send-off.

On with the stage hands again, but this time they cleared absolutely everything, including the stage carpet. On the now bare white stage, they just placed three mike stands.

Heaven 17 & ABC had been operating on the front half of the stage only, so all the preparatory action was going on behind very large curtains on the back half of the stage.

About 30 minutes later the curtains dropped to reveal a two-tier set with blinding neon backdrop. Out comes Phil Oakey in sunglasses and leather coat and opens with Seconds before being joined by Joanne and Susan for Mirror Man. You are immediately left in no doubt that this night belongs to the Human League. Adding to the main three, on the upper tier is a drummer, one on keyboards and one who covers keyboards and guitar. And so they went through a succession of their greatest hits covering most of thier career. Phil was on the move constantly, shifting to every corner of the stage and even climbing on top of some of the upper tier instruments at one stage. The girls exited the stage for Empire State Human (but Martyn Ware did not appear!). Phil did acknowledge the contribution of Martyn and Ian Craig Marsh to this song before commencing.

The back-drop provided superb images for each song. For the Sound Of The Crowd, it was political figures, whose faces would merge into one another, right from Margaret Thatcher to Barrack Obama. I think they did something similar on the Dare! Tour last year. Also, they used shots from the film Scanners as the back-drop to Being Boiled just as on the Dare! Tour. All in all another slick showing from the League.

The main set was completed with Don’t You Want Me Baby. After much cheering and chanting we were treated to a 2 song encore.

Here is the set list, (the middle part is almost certainly not in the correct order): -

1. Seconds
2. Mirror Man
3. Open Your Heart
4. (Keep Feeling) Fascination
5. Empire State Human
6. The Lebanon
7. Louise
8. The Sound Of The Crowd
9. Tell Me When
10. Love Action
11. Don’t You Want Me
Encore
12. Being Boiled (no Martyn Ware here either!)
13. Together In Electric Dreams

Apart from feeling as rough as a piece of sand paper, I had a great night. Thanks Mr Ibuprofen for making it possible.