Metamatic Forums Socialising The Green Room Gigs - News and reviews

Ulrich Schnauss, Electric Circus, Edinburgh 23rd August.

Having missed Ulrich’s previous show in 2008, I was looking forward to hearing some of his classic pieces, experiencing the live impact of the blisteringly anthemic Stars, and losing myself in a shoegaze haze with On My Own, or Blumenthal, and surely the spine-tingling Goodbye would appear like a glorious burst of radiant sunlight, its gently penetrating music caressing the listener in a warm embrace – ideal for underscoring that feeling of an unbreakable bond existing forever between the mysteries of nature and the human soul - fanciful stuff indeed..!
But, as it turned out none of these tracks were featured, nor was I entirely familiar with what appeared in the setlist, maybe he’d adapted his work for the set, either that or I’m too dumb to recognize something I should know - I usually have this type of problem with the Cocteau Twins, I know the music, I’ve seen them play, but I often struggle to put the correct name to the tune, or perhaps Ulrich took an entirely different path that evening. I think it’s the latter, having read afterwards about a new album in the making.

The Electric Circus is a compact venue, during the support acts the place filled up, as I stood at the back of the performance area it occurred to me that a stranger next to my elbow had more than a passing resemblance to comedian Frank Skinner, so much so that he could probably make a living being a ‘celebrity Lookie-Likie’. A brief moment of fanboy, or more accurately, fangirl worship occurred later when it was confirmed that the stranger was indeed the man who’d once been the TV & radio fantasy football host and had sang about Three Lions back in 1996, a woman came past me to tell Frank enthusiastically that she’d spotted him. Well, the gig was taking place during the height of Edinburgh’s annual Arts & Comedy festival, so it’s fortunate there was no sudden rush of paparazzi to spill anybody’s beer. I was more interested in checking out Ulrich when he appeared. As he waited patiently for the stage to be ready he didn’t conform to the fantasy image I’d had of him. I’d expected a younger man with longer hair, an indies jeans and tee-shirt wearing kind of guy existing in some endless state of summer, a cool secret place where the evening sun never goes down - like those adverts you see in the pages of hip music and lifestyle mag’s aimed at people who never age beyond their twenty-ninth year. Instead, he was dressed in an informal jacket and trousers, his hair was short, and he looked more like an office worker, and although he didn’t speak to the audience there was something about his manner that gave me the impression that he was a nice guy.

Just as Ulrich's set was about to start, Frank the comedian moved forward into a good spot I’d already targeted for myself, causing me to unexpectedly spend the rest of the evening standing shoulder to shoulder with the only man who’d ever made me willingly watch and enjoy a telly show about football. Meanwhile, Ulrich sat down at a small desk with the left side of his body positioned towards the audience. He checked to see that he was able to turn his head slightly to his right from where he could view the screens that covered the entire back wall of the modest stage. Set out before him was a small keyboard, together with an open laptop and mouse.

I was slightly thrown by this sight, I wasn’t expecting this, didn’t foresee him sitting with a MacBook in front of him as if about to compose an email, particularly as we’d just had two support acts that hadn’t broken with any old-school convention when it came to a live show - Miaoux Miaoux, a guy who’d played guitar and keyboard and seemed to need to perform from beneath his synthesizer as he lay down on the floor to twiddle knobs on an effects peddle, or Jonnie Common, a duo whose drummer was relying on painkillers to fight a mountain bike accident he’d had that morning while he bashed his drums for good. I wouldn’t say I’m a traditionalist, but this was my first ‘laptop performance’, and for a moment I felt my enthusiasm begin to falter.

As the first number began, Ulrich played the keyboard before him and I felt a sense of relief, this was the kind of activity that got my attention. As he continued into the second piece I made a compromise in my mind, okay, he’s sitting motionless at a desk and not engaging directly with the audience but at least he’s actually playing an instrument, and a laptop is hardly an instrument, it’s a tool. But suddenly the keyboard was abandoned completely after the second number, and as Ulrich stared intently at his laptop screen his reliance for the remainder of the evening was on that mouse clutched in one hand, and a knob on a box being turned continually with his other hand. This was the gig.

Throughout the show an endless panorama of images flowed across the screens behind Ulrich. Buildings, cityscapes, and rural areas unfurled, glimpses of travel as seen through the window of a moving car or train, passing by in a collage of ceaseless motion sometimes changing rapidly, sometimes slowly.

The music for the set was presented as a continuous piece without interruption, or it would have had it not been for one moment of real drama, for a few seconds it all suddenly came crashing down and there was nothing. It was as if Ulrich had accidentally closed or forgotten to open a file on his laptop and the music stopped completely like someone had pulled the plug. He winced, half-smiled, and quickly recovered continuing the momentum away from human error or the betrayal of pre-programmed co-ordinates tripping up a good plan. From within the audience I also hurried on from dwelling about the artificiality or fragility of the situation, lest the illusion of performance remained broken in my mind.

I swayed along from time to time to what Ulrich was producing, I can’t fault his professionalism, and there were quite a few musical highlights, but mostly I lost myself in the visuals that added so much depth to the set, and in truth when it was over I felt disconnected from what I’d heard. The pictures on the screens left more of an impression in my mind than any emotional appreciation of the music. I couldn’t shake this thought that if I’d had a venue quality sound system at home then I could have saved myself a trip out, inviting Ulrich to my place to sit in front of the computer and cut and paste his work through itunes. Something had been missing for me, and despite the activity on those screens behind Ulrich the show had lacked animation, it was as if I’d been hearing beautiful sounds from afar, heard through the window of a vehicle as I sat there within, passing by the distant sight of something I could see, but couldn’t reach.

Marc Almond - Bristol St George's 7/10/11

My first time at a Marc Almond gig. Can't quite think why it has taken so long - he has been with me since I was 7 or 8. "Bedsitter" was one of my favourite songs at that age, and so it remains. Years passed, vague memories of "Torch", and I remember liking "Tears Run Rings" (one week at number 40, was it?). The Gene Pitney duet was of course unavoidable at the time. Purchase of the Soft Cell Singles collection. More years passed. "Tenement Symphony" (which has survived the passage of time incredibly well). More years. "A Virgin's Tale Volume 2". "Child Star". A couple more years until "Absinthe" became another slow excursion backwards. Then "Cruelty Without Beauty", then finally by the time of "Orpheus in Exile" I am buying them as they come out and simultaneously venturing back to the likes of "Mother Fist" and "Stranger Things". There are still a number of gaps in my collection which may explain why I didn't recognise some of the selections played. You won't hear the likes of "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" on this tour but Marc suggested we come along next year for them so that's my first plan of 2012 right there. Backed often by just piano and sometimes just guitar and sometimes just harp, Marc was on tremendous form tonight, amusing, chatty, and in superb voice (often deciding to forsake the microphone altogether for a few bars). If you have read the flyer you will be able to guess some of the songs he performed (and I believe it is the same setlist all tour), but a few particular highlights: "Big Louise" followed by an "In My Room" underpinned intriguingly by the "Moonlight Sonata", a few songs from "Variete", a brace from "Absinthe", "I'm Coming" (in which you could see the stage actor he has (recently?) become), and "I Have Lived" from "Stardom Road". The second half was naturally a bit less "gloomy" than the first half (I overheard someone mentioning wrist-slashing as we filed out at the end) and was pretty celebratory and communal at times. The acoustic nature of the gig made for a really intimate atmosphere and at many times I was taken back down the years, but realising once again, afresh, like the rest of the audience, that this is NOW, this is still the present, pregnant with possibilities. Marc mentioned seeing both Charles Aznavour and Juliette Greco recently, both of whom are in their eighties, not least because he felt he could still learn from older performers. And it made me think, wouldn't it be wonderful to have another 30 years of Marc Almond?

Excellent Mark, thanks for sharing! I read this the night before I caught up with Almond for the tenth time on Wednesday evening.

He was better than I've ever seen him before, which must put this among my most memorable gigs.

Triumphs, tantrums and tears
Marc Almond at The Brook, Southampton – October 19th 2011

Almond at the top of his form is easily one of the best performers around, not to mention affirming his place among the UK’s most consistently gifted songwriters of the past 30 years.
Belittled by a lack of confidence in his own abilities, Almond has always insisted that his own songwriting is vastly inferior to those of his influences, and that he prefers singing other people’s songs. And no-one does this better than he – but I doubt that anyone unfamiliar with this opinion would ever be able to tell where he ends and the likes of Jacques Brel, Sandy Denny, Charles Aznavour, Julie Driscoll etc begin.
During a ninety minute set – curtailed by problems with his mic at the beginning and a suitably diva-esque tantrum in response – Almond mixes, matches and surpasses songs from all over his own catalogue, punctuated with ‘versions’ of eclectic and unfamiliar gypsy, torch and romance pieces from across the world’s stage that he's never recorded. From Jobriath to Piaf and Bowie, he makes them his own, utterly absorbed in the songs, passionate and honest beyond compare, milking every drop of theatre from the words with practised and perfected gestures, glances and intonation. Is it fair to say that only the Sandy Denny penned "North Star And The Ravens" didn't quite flow freely??
All this matters so much to Marc and his audience, and builds a relationship enhanced by this packed and intimate venue. And because it matters, the hissy fit that followed his microphone breaking during only the third song prompting a stomp off the stage, is quickly understood and easily forgiven.
He came back with a spiteful vengeance, tearing Chrysanthemums from a vase and spitting the lyrics to Brel's "J'Arrive" to clear his head. The perfect antidote to the crisis.

Himself part Exhibitionist, part Cabaret Clown, Almond has certainly lived the life he sings about in his sin songs. He’s always been an artist, not a saint…
And it’s this artistic quality that prevails tonight, as at every show he performs, shared with a band that includes the ever-present Martin Watkins on piano, Neal X on guitars (the rock that Almond winds his string around) and the delicious and bizarre circus that is Baby Dee on Harp and Accordion. All these musicians have artistry in bucket loads, and it’s this quality that magnetises them and draws us in. No-one talks over the songs, and hardly between them – on stage he is the master, the one in complete control, with the crowd hanging off his every word.
He plays this well too, engaging with grins, waves and anecdotes at every opportunity, not afraid to sigh, to smirk and to give in to the inevitable forgetfulness that now too trademarks his more personalised shows.
Among the earliest songs in his repertoire, we were treated to Terrapin (Syd Barrett) and his own composition, the esoteric ‘Indigo Blue’ (Marc and the Mambas) brilliantly mixed with Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, thought he forgot the words to both a couple of times. But we love him for that as he shrugs, smiles and with a nod to the ever-supportive Neal requests they ‘go again’ as he determines to get it right. This was Reed's second appearance in the set - earlier Marc brought the author to tears with his presentation of The Bed, which (followed with Terrapin) was so beautiful it hurt to hear.
Marc closed the set with one of his finest songs, the wonderful I Have Lived from Stardom Road, and you really feel that he has, and very much still is. For the beautiful losers, broken people and brilliant creatures that make up his audience this song brings everything together in a moment of pure triumph – arms aloft, ever the showman, squeezing the breath from the chorus.
Emotionally, it’s exhausting to watch, taking us on a journey though life, love, despair, frustration, grit and glamour – drawing it all together for a storming encore of three songs including a gospel gem echoing I Have Lived ('The Life I Sing About In My Songs') with Dee bashing out the piano, a never-ending rendition of Sleaze, and the finale -
a rapturous singalong of Bolan’s Hot Love.

Magical, flashy, tragic and trashy – a boy with soul on fire and desire in his skin – giving so much in every show, and each time better than ever.

SET LIST
The Exhibitionist (from Varieté)
Be Still (Jobraith)
Sebastian (Steve Harley)
??? (abandoned during first verse)
Chrysanthemums (J'Arrive by Jacques Brel, retitled by Almond)
The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (Sandy Denny)
The Devil, OK (Jacques Brel)
If he Swing By The String (John Addison, for Marlene Dietrich)
Indigo Blue (Marc And the Mambas)
John, I'm Only Dancing (Bowie)
The Bed (Lou Reed)
Death's Diary
The Sea Still Sings
The Season Of The Witch (Julie Driscoll)
Terrapin (Syd Barrett)
Cabaret Clown
I Have Lived

*****
I'm Gonna Live the Life I Sing About In My songs (Mahalia Jackson)
Sleaze / Walk On the Wild Side
Hot Love (Marc Bolan)

Hi folks....long time no post!!

I'm now lucky enough to be able to shoot gigs on a regular basis and managed to shoot the opening night of the Interplay tour at Leamington.

If you want to see my review please follow this link

http://www.brumlive.com/john-foxx-and-the-maths-leamington-assembly-13th-october-2011/

If you wish to see more photos, please follow this link

http://www.kdharrison.co.uk/gallery_456233.html

All the best

H

Superb reviews Mark, and Martin both. Enjoyed reading them. Your love of the artist really shines through.

So I had better go and see him in two weeks when he is out here?

Human League - Tokyo, 2011/10/17 (first session)

I hadn't bought a ticket. Various reasons, mainly domestic, but nevertheless I hadn't bought a ticket. Slip back 30 years, and I recall filtering through the albums in Rag Records, and Reproduction staring out at me. Had heard on the grapevine that the Human League were a great synth band, but hadn't heard any of their stuff yet. Whe I did hear, I instantly fell in love. It was the synthesized sound I loved with such an originality that it really did take my breath away. Thinking back to that era, The variety of music available to us all was quite amazing.

The tracks that stand out for me in their early period were Only After Dark, Crow and a Baby, Path of Least Resistance, Almost Medieval, Touchables, Marianne, and so on. But I never got to see them live. Then Dare came out and they transformed into a very fine pop band. I don't dislike Dare, and the original version (non Linn Drum) is superb, but it just sounded non-raw and over produced. I remained a fan, but less fanatic!

So, I hadn't bought a ticket. I knew the old stuff was consigned to history and being in Japan, I hadn't even caught on to the fact that they had just released a new album!

The venue is odd. It is a live-house with a difference. It has tables in chairs where most places have a mosh pit. People eat food shortly before the show and are asked politely but firmly not to stand so as not to disturb others views! I arrived and despite the venue only holding a few hundred people, I can still buy a ticket at the door. I make my way to my seat (!) on the 5th floor, and wait patiently. I'm wondering what I'm doing here.

Lights off, band walk out, Joanne and Susan strut out to a back beat, and then Phil walks on stage and grabs everybody's attention. He is clearly a star. Full of charisma, and wearing the most incredible hooded leather coat I've ever seen. Voice as clear and distinctive as it was in the seventies, he and susan belt out a song I've never heard before, "Never Let Me Go". It's a great opener, from the new album Credo. I'm now deep into the show. I'm having fun.

Later we have Sound of the Crowd with live drummer (thought it was impossible, but he did a great job), Lebanon, then back to the old days (ladies exit left) for Empire State Human. Not the choice I'd have made, but the crowd loved it. More new stuff with Night People, then Human, Love Action, Don't You Want Me, and a later rounding off the main set with Mirror Man. Phil had gone through several changes of clothes by now, the ladies too, and seemed to be lapping up the atmosphere - what did he think of this venue?

It was slightly embarrasing to realise I was the only person on the 5th floor standing up (against the rules) and dancing. I didn't really care because I was genuinely having a lot of fun.

The rather small crowd couldn't seem to generate much clapping and I got concerned that an encore may not happen. Luckily it did, and a good choice too. The Human Leagues first ever song, Being Boiled. Fine version, slightly updated to suit new instruments, but the original (?) Travelogue sound was there. Enormously lifted by this, I began whopping and shouting, which again, seemed to be against the rules! Final song of the evening? Well, not exactly the Human League anthem I was expecting - Electric Dreams. I sat down (not out of disappointment, but my enthusiasm was dampened slightly, however the rest of the crowd all stood up!!! Very odd experience being the complete opposite to everyone else at a gig! I decided to join them - it wasn't a bad rendition, and had pace and energy.

I left with a smile on my face. I had waited thirty years to see them, and I went armed with the wrong setlist in my head. I have a new respect for Phil Oakey. He certainly has an aura. I didn't get to hear what I wanted, but deep down I knew I wouldn't, and that is why I hadn't bought a ticket until the last moment. I only decided to go about an hour before the gig, my workplace is just around the corner (10 minute walk) - otherwise I may have missed it completely, and looking back, that would have been a pity.

7.5 out of 10 - Great pop show, and human dynamics came over very strong. Venue detracted from complete enjoyment, and at the end of the day, it was a pop show, and I went to see something else!

Great review Sols! It's great that you just turned up like that and did everything by chance.
I'd also have felt disappointed about closing with Electric Dreams (hate it!..not even a Human League song!) especially after a stomping Being Boiled. Never mind.
It's a good mix of old and new though, not unlike what Foxx is doing now in a way.
Thanks.

Erasure, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton Sunday 23rd October.

I attended the Wolverhampton leg of the Tomorrow's World tour last Sunday. It was a packed-to-the-rafters night and a fantastic atompshere. The guys had a gothic themed stage set complete with gargoyle keyboard arrangement for Vince Clarke. The stage show was one of the best I have seen and quite original.

Andy Bell looked something else, entering the stage in a sequinned jacket and matching Roman helmet. The years seem to have been kind to Andy and he managed to maintain a frenetic pace throughtout - loads of pirouetting and jumping about in virtually every song.

New material from the Tomorrow's World album was mixed with the old classics, finishing with an encore of Oh L'amour and Stop!

They were always going to have a difficult time pleasing me as I am not a hard core fan - but they succeeeded handsomely and I have to say Andy's voice is as good as I have heard in a long time.

OK an old review but a chance to get acquainted with two brilliant female artistes
Please feel free to ignore my inane ramblings and its ledzeppelin 4 -esque title from 3 summers ago which featured on the now defunct whenskiesaregrey site However do not click on the links at your own peril !!

first up arctic bodhran basher MARI BOINE (her trumpeter giving Hugh Masakela a run for his money )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_RuE5Ye_4

The lovely MS Levy "Me in the slammer "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEeof7QtGg


LAPP DANCING TILL LA LEVY BREAKS
“Festa di frontiera” Lavagna


The IB clan spent all July down in Lavagna between Genoa and La Spezia in the heart of Sampdoria country . Fans were jubilant when they reached UEFA proper by means of Intertoto .So was I as I could handle a 50 minute /40 mile train trip to Genoa to see the mighty Blues some time this Autumn . Anyway I digress , the purpose of this article is to give you an insight into “La Festa di Frontiera “ an Andy Kershaw wet dream featuring “World Music” The concerts are sponsored by La Lampara restaurant and take place in a picturesque alleyway with about 300 seats . The first flag flying was an Indian one. The group MUSAFIR AND THE RAJASTHAN GITANES, were both sound and vision A kind of superior Gypsy Kings meet Billy Smarts circus, frenetic Rom/ Bollywoodesque rhythms accompanied by a bloke who ate fire , walked on broken glass and deftly balanced objects on his head whilst whirling like a dervish…sign him Moysey ! Like Owen Hargreaves they gave a solid performance but failed to excite. Not wishing to get stuck in the traffic on the East Lancs ,* I left 10 minutes early . Not so bad so far . . The following week got better and regaled us with SECKOU KEITA QUARTET , the eponymous Senegalese musician playing a kora (Guitar type instrument held like a harp) accompanied by a Gambian percussionist , Egyptian violinist and Italian double bass player. Very infectious “shake yer ass type” music it took me back to watching The Beat all those years ago even if it could not be strictly defined as between ska/2 Tone . The singer was a real gent , his spitting compatriot El Hadj Diouf would do well to go to him for some lessons in good manners .
The following week brought us MARI BOINE A Norwegian flag was fluttering in the alleyway .I was half expecting her to arrive in a redundant open top bus wearing a 6 times champions of Europe hastily modified to 5 Instead we got a shapely woman in her early 40’s like one of the better ones , one’s lustful and desperate teenage self might have tried to get off with at “The She” back in the 70’s now she could be my slightly younger sister (*Cries* Morrisey was right about the passage of time and its crimes)) It turns out she’s a Sami ( Lapp). She has an amazing voice , something her vastly overrated fellow Arctic Circle dwelling consoeur Bjork would sell her soul for and can only dream about .Her vocal range was breathtaking and she was backed by tribal rhythms ( a softer Killing Joke/Adam and The Ants type vibe ) as she danced away occasionally knocking seven shades out of a bodhran type instrument made from reindeer skin . Apparently discovered by Peter Gabriel in 1990 This could account for the incongruous mid -set reworking of the Billy Paul classic “Me and Moribund the Burgermeister** , we’ve got a thing going on “ Each act was better than the previous one and the best came last .On the final night the Star of David was fluttering in the alleyway in honour of YASMIN LEVY from Jerusalem Try and imagine . if you would fellow Blues , a sultry slightly taller dark eyed Mediterranean Kate Bush in her mid 20’s .The voice was even better and deserves just as many if not more superlatives than her Lapp counterpart. :It transpires she is descended from the Sepharic Jews who were chased out of Spain in the late 15th century . She spoke in Spanish throughout and her songs ,so I discovered from the CD which I rushed to purchase at the end , are in 15th century sepharic Spanish. Most of the themes were pretty harrowing or outré , an example being “A kinze anyos” “(Since the age of 15 I’ve been making love to an outlaw)
An eye/ear opening experience which got me through most of the close season , I can now retreat to my electronic ghetto a little richer musically

*Goes of to buy rare CD of two Hippopotami mating in Burkino Faso whilst sister Liz dances round handbag *

*Author apologises for Geographic licence
** for the sake of the non coffin dodgers who frequent the board B side of the incredible Solsbury Hill (1977) Billy Paul was a sleazy sounding mid 70’s medallion type man beloved by the incredibly bland DJ’s on Radio Shitty in ,of course , in the mid 70’s
Mr Paul’s lawyers pleaser take note I said “Sounding” I’m sure he’s a top bloke and does loads of work for charity .