Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Gigs - News and reviews

Thanks for posting the review - I'm seeing him tomorrow night in Sheffield, so I'm trying to avoid looking at the tracks you mention!

What kind of merchandise was on sale?

I only noticed t-shirts at the end, but it was rather crowded and I didn't hang around.

Enjoy the show (I'm sure you will)!

Thanks!

I've really been addicted to Jagged Edge - probably his strongest album in recent years, so with the prospect of him also playing some new stuff, I'm very excited.

I suspect Dead Son Rising - new album of tracks leftover from Exile, Pure and Jagged - has been delayed as it was originally scheduled for April.

Anyway there's something exciting about hearing brand new songs played live

Yeah, have a great time Alex! I'm seeing him in Bristol on June - maybe he'll fill the evening with new songs from Dead Son.. as the album might be out by then :p !

I'll be back with a report tomorrow!

Well, I enjoyed myself. An interesting gig last night. Nothing new to promote, just a tour for the sake of it I think!!

Gary played for 2 hours, a very varied and almost random sounding setlist.

The rough tracklisting (can't quite remember order after the first few)...

Fallen
Jagged
Films
Crazier
I dream of wires
Fold
Metal (very cool version)
Pure
Bleed (new, unrecognisable version, no chorus!)
The fall (new song!)
Absolution
I, Assassin (a personal favourite I never thought I'd hear live!)
Down in the Park
Haunted
Halo
Are 'friends' electric?

We are so Fragile
I die : you die
A prayer for the unborn

John Cale in Venice

Ex Velvet Underground member John Cale will be representing his home country of Wales at the Venice Biennale arts festival this summer.

For Wales at Venice 2009, Cale will produce a new audio-visual work made in Wales, in collaboration with artists, filmmakers and poets. The work has at its heart Cale’s own personal relationship with the Welsh language and the issues surrounding communication. The installation will be gheld in the ex-birreria, a former brewery on the island of Giudecca from June 7th to November 22nd 2009.
Jonathan Jones in The Guardian describes the work as "a wonderful spoken-word recording, like a cross between Dylan Thomas and William S Burroughs played on an old radio".

Will def make an effort to go and see that.
( blogged! )

Betrayal - Pinter @ Nuffield Southampton

Press night - invitation. Studio 2 for pre-show drinks and noodling networks

The Nuffield Theatre Company's presentation is a contemporary interpretation of Pinter's 1978 play exploring the complex mathematics of infidelity and betrayal.
It is set in the present, beginning in 2009, and regresses to 2000 when the relationships began, tracing a web of infidelity, painful truth and deception.

Miranda Colchester presents Emma about as true to Pinter's intention as I would imagine its possible to get - from the bitter, haunted woman who meets her lover in the pub at the beginning of the play (the end of the story) to the fashionable, light and passionate lover she was when the affair began. For their part, Michael Colgan and Simon Wilson cleverly portray a relationship between the two men that seems to be ultimately stronger than either of their feelings about her.

Present throughout, and enhanced by the dark, often threatening score, are the long, motionless pauses that characterise Pinter's minimalist work, during which the audience feels as awkward and uncertain as the characters on stage, witnessing intimately their anxiety and their discomfort with one another, even in the most conventional moments. The forced, often comical and carefully contrived dialogue is delivered clearly and with effective control, and none of the underlying meaning and contrapunctal intent are lost, carried throughout the play as they are by the omnipotent and thick silences, rich with paradox and emotion, expressing all those things we can never find the words to say. We despair at the characters self-justification for the most fundamental of errors, and we hear the unspoken words with painful clarity.

Pinter's drama questions us throughout - Who is the 'victim' here? whose decisions and reaction the most justifiable? whose pain the least deserving?
We empathise with them all, and yet with none.
How did it happen? Where did it all go wrong? What happens now?

The story is presented in reverse, so that our knowledge of the consequences of each scene bears heavy on the following one. Knowing that we know that he knows that he doesn't know adds another layer to the myriad of meanings in this masterful script.

There are some wonderful audiovisual touches that add to the emotional experience too. The upturned furniture stays on set throughout in various non-arrangements serving as a constant reminder of the chaos and upheaval in the 'real' lives of the characters, representing an ever-present displaced awkwardness. I feel now I should have paid more attention to what was in the stack of furniture...
As well as the intense lighting, and Emma's constant fussing with the tablecloth, listen out for surprises in the soundtrack and the invasive, banal yet curiously engaging TV set, especially when its off, and the action on stage is reflected on its all-seeing screen.

A poignant and highly charged night of theatre. Beautifully directed and utterly engaging.

©birdsong, May 2009

On Thursday 30th July international harpist, Robin Ward will be performing in the magnificent Victorian setting of St. Denys Church, Dundee Road, Southampton, as part of his 2009 tour. The programme, entitled ‘From the Golden Age’, contains a wide variety of music from the 16th century to the present day, including pieces by Trabaci, Froberger, Buxtehude, Parry, and Glinka, amongst others.

http://www.earlyharps.com/Robin_Ward_Early_Harps/Home.html