Alice Cooper

The Theatre of Death Tour 2009

Hammersmith Apollo

6^th December 2009

A couple of years ago I did an interview with Alice Cooper when he was touring the UK promoting an autobiographical volume “Golf Monster” which taught me more about that game with the stick, the little ball and the hole than I’ll ever need to know. As a consequence, I was invited to write a little promotional material for his SPV release “Along Came A Spider” which is for my money the best album he has made for several years and one of the best of his career. After that there was talk of touring the album which came to nothing and in its place, Alice has been touring a show called “Theatre of Death” which finally reached London this weekend.

“Theatre of Death” is essentially a Greatest Hits show with the added visual attraction that Alice dies five times during the course of the show. Support for the tour is Manraze. Manraze feature Phil Collen from Def Leppard and Paul Cook from the Sex Pistols and certainly have the fire and panache to carry off a great visual show but on this evidence, they just don’t have the songs. If you were going to return home after the show with memories of any of the choruses, they were certainly going to come from Alice’s portion of the night and not from Manraze.

Alice’s set was being filmed for a prospective future DVD release and he showed that, like him or hate him, he is still the consummate showman. Tonight he was given a lethal injection from a huge comedy syringe, he was hung by the neck until dead, he was executed by guillotine and died in a magician’s sword trick or two but still came back to thrill the audience with a full-blooded encore of “Schools Out”.

The songs ran the whole gamut of his career from his first group of albums through his commercial rebirth with “Poison” to “Vengeance is Mine” from the recent “Along Came A Spider” record I mentioned.

However, that song aside the set was light on songs from his most recent albums and this is the downside of playing the hits. The commercial market for singles from someone like Alice is dead and so while the albums continue to sell well you’re unlikely to see him locking horns with Lady GaGa in the UK Top 40 singles chart anytime soon. If I was selecting Alice’s set I would choose more material from the new album, from “Last Temptation”, from “Brutal Planet” but it is a small complaint when we have just a rich smorgasbord in front of us.

And it is the visuals with Alice that will keep you coming back for more. He goes through more costume changes than anyone in the rock world this side of Stevie Nicks. He waves a sabre at the crowd, unloads “Alice” dollars in their direction and throws out necklaces of “Dirty Diamonds”. That he manages to do all this without hardly missing a beat is truly a feat of energy and stagecraft. Alice is not going to see 50 again but he is lean and has enough momentum to carry him for the beginning of the show to the end and then some.

Vincent Furnier with his golf club and his Bible has, thankfully, cleaned up his act, but Alice is still the reprobate villain of the stage we know and love and long may he run.

Steely Dan stopped touring in 1974. Halfway through a UK tour, vocalist Donald Fagen was taken ill and the tour was going to be reorganised but it never was. For the next six years, Dan became the consummate studio band …… but they never returned to the stage. After 1980s “Gaucho”, they called it a day and Donald Fagen’s solo career was launched with the very successful “The Nightfly”.

Fast forward to 2009. Steely Dan playing live in Hammersmith, London. These days they spend far more time on the road than they do in the studio. Since Walter Becker and Donald Fagen decided to do it again, they’ve made only 3 albums – 2 studio, 1 live. And tonight, they will feature only 1 song written since the aforementioned Gaucho album. The difference is that now that Becker finds long periods spent in the studio finding the right note a little tedious and both principals are now very comfortable on the stage. And so you go back, Jack,……..

The band minus Becker and Fagen open the show with a mellow reading of Oliver Nelson’s “Teenie’s Blues”. The crowd react as Walter and Donald enter. They’re an ungainly presence. Walter now quite portly. You wouldn’t notice him if you passed him in the street. Donald with that “skeevy look” in his eye. They lead the band into a blues which turns out to be a massively overhauled version of “Reelin’ in the years”. Memories of the recent Dylan tour where the words were the same but the melodies were a distant memory. This one works quite well but it is a very different sound than the original.

Much more faithful to the album is “Time Out of Mind” from the 1980 set. Becker and Fagen have managed to coax their audience into responses which match a jazz performance than a rock show. Solos are politely applauded and professionalism is very much the order of the day.

The live Steely Dan experience depends on a full band to make these songs come alive. Lead guitar duties are shared by Jon Herington and Becker with Herington taking the lion’s share. Keith Carlock has been handling drumming duties with the band for 10 years and he is a crowd favourite. Bass is Freddie Washington. Hidden away from sight on a second keyboard is Jim Beard. In addition, we have a four piece horn section and three backing vocalists. Fagen describes them as the “Left Bank Orchestra” (Left Bank being the chosen name of the tour) and he is not far wrong.

Another reshaped early hit follows with “Showbiz Kids”, driven by a slinky bassline by Washington and a remodelled chorus which is led by the vocals of Tawatha Agee, Janice Pendarvis and Catherine Russell.

1973 is the flavour of the day and we move on to “My Old School” with the horns making a powerful presence. Jim Pugh is on trombone, Roger Rosenberg is on baritone sax with Walt Weiskopf on alto and tenor. Marvin Stamm completes the quartet of wind instruments with his trumpet.

“Bad Sneakers” originally appeared on 1975’s Katy Lied and its jaundiced worldview suit Fagen’s voice well. He looks and sounds world weary. He resembles that Uncle who knows better than we do but is too polite to mention that our optimism and enthusiasm will soon be crushed by the weight of the world we live in.

Carlock’s rhythmic sense is called upon in a vigorous reading of “Two Against Nature” which reminds us that there has been life since “Gaucho”. The album that this was the title track of was lauded by their peers back at the turn of the millennium but the boys mean to pay little regard to it or to its less successful follow-up “Everything Must Go”, this evening. Tonight, we’re stood squarely in the past.

After that momentary wander for perhaps the best performance of the night, it’s back to ’75 for “Black Friday” for a very bluesy version of that track. After that we push forward just a little for 1977’s “Aja”. This is a song with lots of space for the soloists to excel and spread out. Fagen’s Yamaha Melodica leads the melody for the first section before Weiskopf on tenor is spot-lit with accompaniment from the full drums of Keith Carlock. The doubting lilt on Mr Fagen’s voice on “they think I’m okay, or so they s-a-y” is just wonderful before a Carlock solo takes over. All of this adds up to a wonderful moment in time.

“Hey Nineteen” is one of the a large number of songs in the Dan repertoire which features the story of an older man hitting on a younger girl. Becker’s guitar work is always clearly thought-out and never uses one note where nine will do. His rap about the wonders of the “Cuervo Gold” in the midst of this song, however, is one he has been perhaps doing for just a few too many years and its perhaps time to give it a rest. Great trombone solo here from Jim Pugh.

The lady vocalists take over the lead in a reading of “Parker’s Band” from Pretzel Logic before the song becomes a work out for the horns. They are more than equal to the task.

A pair from “Gaucho” is next. Prior to the show I’d said to a companion that tonight I would settle for the inclusion of “Glamour Profession” and the exclusion of “Bodhisattva” (perhaps one of the more over-worked Dan live choices). After a perfunctory “Babylon Sisters”, the opening chords of “Glamour Profession” are struck and I’m a happy man. This tale of how extra curricular activities threatens to derail a  West Coast basketball team is well-handled with great keyboards from Fagen and Beard.

Every Steely Dan show features at least one lead vocal from Mr Becker. On his latest solo effort, Circus Money, his voice sounds more confident but singing live still doesn’t seem a comfortable fit. He gives us a passable run through of “Daddy Don’t Live in That New York City No More” before stepping back to his comfort zone.

Then its back to the Aja album for three tracks: “Deacon Blues”, “Josie” and “Peg” which provide the fullest audience reaction of the night so far. These are divided by the old Supremes hit “Love is like an itching in my heart” which provides the backdrop to the introduction of the various members of the band.

After “Peg” the band leave the stage to tumultuous applause only to return moments later with an extra member. Elliot Randall played the original lead on “Reelin’ in the Years” and because they are in the guy’s hometown and even though it means it’s the second performance of the number tonight, it’s time to revisit that song like it used to sound in 1972. The performance brings the house down.

During the encore, it all became too much for one old gent who leapt to the stage and led Security a merry dance as he sprinted ‘round the band. And the band played on…..

Final encore was “Kid Charlemagne”. Elliot remained on stage but left the major work to Jon Herington who rounded a sterling night for him.

This performance at the Hammersmith Apollo (nee Odeon) recalled some great days gone by. It remains to be seen whether the Dan can grasp the difficult nettle and produce a new album which they can embrace with the same enthusiasm that their audience brings to their old material.

For a band with such a long tenure in music history, the public profile of Spinal Tap is a strange one. They straddle the major eras of rock music like a huge Viking warrior straddling a ….er……. Viking wench, I suppose….. and a huge Viking wench at that……… but they go mostly unacknowledged. When the discussion turns to the greatest bands of the last forty years, the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are always mentioned whilst the Tap are overlooked. Cruel.

You’ll remember how they started out in the Sixties in the now almost forgotten London borough of Squatney as the Originals. A name dispute led to them being renamed The New Originals. As they tried to tap in to the Merseybeat boom and overcome coming from the wrong town, they became “The Thamesmen”. Eventually as flower power spread to the British shores, they changed their name to Spinal Tap, once again just a little behind the wave of history. After this they became one of the bands at the forefront of the Original Wave of British Heavy Metal, as it is almost never referred to.

Despite all this activity, it is almost impossible to find in the stores, on ebay or on various collectors websites any of their albums prior to 1984. 1984 is a year that will live in every Tap fan’s mind as a date of infamy. This is not because it is the date that George Orwell chose for his apocalyptic vision of Britain’s future – not many Tap fans are that well read. But rather because it is the date that Marty DiBergi chose to film his infamous Rockumentary, This is Spinal Tap, a film which since its release has haunted the band and which they have found hard to live down.

It is ironic then that because of the curious and continuing unavailability of any of their albums prior to their period with Polymer records, they are left not to celebrate the 45^th anniversary of the collapse of the New Originals or some imaginative early highpoint in the musical synthesis of two of the band’s principals, Nigel Tufnel and David St Hubbins, but rather the twenty-fifth anniversary of the movie. An ill run of fate indeed.

Even their great album of that year “Smell the Glove” seems to have been renamed “This is Spinal Tap” and re-released on Polydor records as the film’s soundtrack. Oh, the irony.

Spinal Tap hate the film with a venom, of course. Try not to mention to them the name of their former manager, Ian Faith, who led them into the debacle and allowed cameras on tour. Avoid reference to Jeanine Pettibone (later Jeanine Pettibone-St. Hubbins according to some sources)-  the New Age wanderings of  that lady is something that David still finds hard to live down. The trappings of the film that led to their ridicule have been cast aside. There will be no “pods” on stage in future performances of “Rock ‘n’ Roll Creation”. Foam models of Stonehenge’s  triptychs have been eschewed in favour of more reliable inflatable versions.

Unfortunately, Spinal Tap’s bad luck is not able to be isolated to the period of the film. Nor is it entirely in the past – their long history of past bad luck (if that is the word) is perhaps best located in the long list of drummers who have lost their lives in service of the band. Who can forget John "Stumpy" Pepys (bizarre gardening accident), Eric “Stumpy Joe” Childs (choked on someone else’s vomit), Peter “James” Bond (spontaneously combusted), Mick Shrimpton (exploded on stage) or  Joe “Mama” Besser (disappeared in mysterious circumstances)? Many have. No, the run of ill luck has followed them to this date. The enthusiasm for their “Unstoppable” World Tour was sapped when three U.S. actors, Michael McKean, Christopher Guest and Harry Shearer (sometimes Simpsons voiceover artist) who have apparently a long association with the band, headed out on a tour which featured many of Tap’s songs. As a result the Unstoppable tour was, um, stopped. The band instead played their world tour on one night in one city. Returning to their beloved London, they took over Wembley Arena (only a stones throw from Squatney if you have a good arm and a bad eye) to celebrate the release of the new album “Back From The Dead” even whilst promoters insisted on linking the gig to THAT film. What else could possibly go wrong?

Last time the band made a new album, 1992’s “Break Like The Wind”, Ric Shrimpton (ill-fated brother of ill-fated Mick Shrimpton) (see above on drummers) sat on the stool. Caucasian Jeffrey Vanston was on keyboards. Shrimpton (the younger) has had to pass his stool (not surprisingly) to Gregg Bissonette (for the album) and Skippy Scuffleton (for live performances). Vanston has survived (he is a keyboard player, after all) but prefers to go by simply CJ in these economically-reduced days. More importantly the band’s heart and mainstays, David St Hubbins, Nigel Tufnel and Derek Smalls are all present although curiously their names have been omitted from the booklet that accompanies their new album – although their signatures are present. Lack of creativity has been a big problem in the band’s current work – most of the tracks on the new album are outtakes from earlier recording sessions or reworkings of their classic hits. How would they fare in the live arena?

Well, things did not begin well. After a laidback if prematurely concluded set from The Folksmen (themselves victims of a music documentary – “A Mighty Wind” – which made light of bassist Shubb’s sexual reorientation, he prefers to be called Martha these days),  - a band who despite their very different musical style seem to spend an awful lot of time with the Tap – if they’re not careful they’ll begin to resemble each other, Spinal Tap were late to the stage. To add to the difficulty a badly placed green room camera was clearly showing that the band were playing video games back stage rather than heading for the stage. Fortunately, the technical team were able to show a video of “Majesty of Rock” to fill the absence. It reminded us that the Majesty of Rock promo clip, was perhaps the cleverest and subtle video ever to be seen on the MTV channel.

When eventually our errant metallers make it to the stage, the entire audience rises to their feet as a man (or as a woman if you prefer, there will be no sexism tonight). The crowd-pleasing “Tonight, I’m gonna rock you tonight” is the opener followed by that hymn to Dog Handling , “Bitch School”. The band are tight and on great form. David St Hubbins in great voice, “Bitch School” brought an excellent solo from Nigel Tufnel. It may seem that Derek Smalls strikes his one fist in the air pose a little too often but to those schooled in Tap, the subtle nuances and meaning of each salute are obvious.

Tufnel changes guitar for the thoughtful “Back From the Dead” which is the title track of the new disc:

“We’re back from the dead

Climbing from the coffin,

We don’t come here often

Or so it is said”

(Guest, Shearer, McKean, Vanston, 2009)

Tap have a way of breathing stale old life into even the most timeworn clichés.  It is on this track that Vanston really begins to make his presence felt.

Spinal Tap are a band with a great musical heritage and it would be a waste of an evening to dwell only on the new album (which is after all mainly reworked old songs – there is continuity here). So next they turn to a song from their late sixties debut (which is coincidentally also on the new record in a reggae version) – “(Listen to the) Flower People”. Marvellous harmonies and the spirit of an era captured perfectly.

On the album “Break Like the Wind” the vocal work of Timothy B. Schmit (of the Eagles) and Tommy Funderburk (of Zoe) were featured on the track "Cash on Delivery". No such luminaries are available tonight for the performance of that song but Skippy Scuffleton’s drum intro and a fiery guitar solo from Tufnel raise this above the average.

The age old question of balancing friends and wealth is addressed in the social commentary that is “Hell Hole”. The technical glitch of the early evening doesn’t make the band any more reluctant to revisit “Majesty of Rock” which we have already seen on the video screen, It is only now that we really begin to understand the profundity of this band:

“When we die, do we haunt the sky?

Do we lurk in the murk of the seas?

What then? Are we born again?

Just to sit asking questions like these?

I know, for I told me so,

And I’m sure each of you quite agrees:

The more it stays the same, the less it changes!"

(Smalls, St Hubbins, Tufnel © 1992)

The barber takes a pole, indeed! In half an hour, we have visited the late Sixties, the Eighties,  the Nineties, and the new album. But what were Tap before they were Tap? They were The Thamesmen. And it is time for “Gimme Some Money” that band’s first single. Is it not clear where the Beatles found their early sound?

During downtime in Tap’s recording history they have often thought of composing a musical about the life of Jack the Ripper. Finally after 28 years the first song of this important concept is complete. This song will be the title track of the whole musical, if it is ever finished! “Saucy Jack” transports us back to a golden age of variety, music hall and late night murder.

New track, “Rock ‘n’ Roll Nightmare" is so vivid an experience that you begin to feel that you’re caught up in a whole evening of such trauma. Surely, they cannot continue at this pace…….?

“Cups And Cakes” is a welcome relaxed moment amongst the lyrical and musical activity, as we take a leisurely walk through an English country teatime, led by Vanston’s keyboards. But the aural assault is only momentary. “Sex Farm” has been transformed, on their new album, into a funk number with a little rap thrown in for good measure. If I hadn’t already mentioned the subtle lyrical imagery in this review now would be a good time to do so.

“Clam Caravan” began life as a Tufnel solo track but again the original recording is difficult (if not impossible) to find. The casual listener can hear the band’s version on “Break like the Wind”. The song was going to be called “Calm Caravan” until a spelling mistake saved it from this trite fate. Tufnel’s didgeridoo solo is a high point which would make Rolf Harris blush.

“All the Way Home” is the first song that Tufnel and St Hubbins ever wrote together and this skiffle-blues deserves to be performed again for that reason only. A young talent which has not yet fully developed can be heard.

The Live Earth concerts a few years ago are well remembered for saving the world and transforming our culture completely. Where would we be without Al Gore? Perhaps more significantly they are to be remembered for the live debut of “Hotter Than Hell” which brought the nightmare of rising temperatures home for the first time to so many. Tonight, in sweat-soaked, summertime, London, it all seems so pertinent.

“Diva Fever” is another tribute to the female on a night which is short on that kind of thing. But the band are not only interested in carnal matters but like to dwell on the spiritual too. Cue Stonehenge, suitably accompanied by an inflatable model of part of the historic site and the obligatory small people that are so associated with the Drudic culture. Unfortunately, the inflatable deflates on top of the tiny people – but no concert can be expected to go ahead without the occasional technical hitch.

Festival culture is commemorated in “Stinkin’ Up the Great Outdoors” before we are reminded what the world was like before we screwed it up with “Rock And Roll Creation” and indeed, it was good.

To the delight of the guy at the front of the stage in the ELP t-shirt, Keith Emerson joined the band for “Short and Sweet”. Never try to upstage these guys again, Mr Emerson, it doesn’t work.

More guests for “Big Bottom” but they knew their place. Justin Hawkins, Andy Scott (from Sweet), Freddie Washington (from the current Steely Dan touring band). Oh and about 30 girls hired to wave their posteriors at the audience. They wind up the set with “Heavy Duty” which aptly summarises the content of tonight’s show.

But there is no stopping a good thing and back they come for an encore of “Break Like the Wind”, rich in atmosphere.

So, Spinal Tap. What can you say? Will anybody ever top them? Will anybody’s legacy so accurately sum up the behemoth that is rock music? Only time will tell, but I doubt it!

Nigel Tufnel - Lead Guitar

David St. Hubbins - lead vocals



Derek Smalls - bass



Andy Scott of the Sweet with Spinal Tap

Date: 25 & 26 April 2009
Artist: Bob Dylan
Venue(s): The O2, Greenwich, London & The Roundhouse, Camden, London



Immediately following Bob Dylan's shows in London this weekend I read droves of reviews complaining. Now I would have expected them to complain about some things - the engineering works that meant there was no tube service heading in or out of North Greenwich on Saturday, the hours of queuing outside of the Roundhouse on Sunday and the insensitivity of the door staff in closing off the toilets, hours before the concert, to those who were having to wait outside, perhaps. But whilst these matters got their own fair share of deserved criticism, it was the artist's performance which took the lion's share of negativity - a verdict which left me rather bemused.
One member of the public posted on a messageboard that it was a good thing that Dylan insisted on not using the large screens at the o2 and that he couldn't work out which one of the distant figures on the stage was Mr Dylan - because if he couldn't have figured that out, he would have marched down the front and punched poor Bob on the nose.
Now I've been a Dylan fan for over thirty years and I know all about the variable quality of his live shows and his periodic apparent disinterest in what the show amounts to and all the rest - but these shows were Dylan at his idiosyncratic best. Sunday night the O2 was the host to that other giant of popular music "Girls Aloud" and if you want to hear crystal clear versions of all the hits just as they were originally recorded, bright colours and dance routines then perhaps that was the show you should have been at. But if you're going to see Bob Dylan at least judge him on his ability to reach his apparent goals. He will trawl through all his catalogue of songwriting and redesign the melodies on a whim. He won't talk to the audience much if at all (let's be fair when he has done this - for example, at his gospel shows in the early 80s, nobody wanted to listen). He won't pick up his guitar and pretend this is 1962 just because you want him to. But if you want to hear an artist recreating songs from his best known to his most obscure, then perhaps this is the place for you.
The fans are apparently quite happy with his current tour. The band isn't the most adventurous. He changes the bulk of his setlist most every night - although some of those who watch closest tell me that they can guess what he is going to play according to what night of the week it is. The opener changes each night - The Wicked Messenger, Rainy Day Women, Maggie's Farm, Gotta Serve Somebody but often according to which day the calendar shows. For example, Sunday night seems most likely to be gospel night. One audience was recently treated to Gotta Serve Somebody, I Believe in You, Every Grain of Sand and Tryin' to Get to Heaven. Monday night had none of these. There is a kind of perverse logic to all this.

The two nights, then, were very different affairs with the Roundhouse proving the better show partially because of the increased intimacy and better atmosphere of the smaller venue.

Highlights? Saturday had an excellent version of "Things Have Changed" with Donnie Herron echoing the riff on violin. "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll" was all bent out of shape but still has power to make you think about humanity's inability to treat all of society like human beings. There was a powerful and echo-ey version of "The Ballad of Hollis Brown" which was driven by Tony Garnier on double bass. "Po' Boy" and "When the Deal Goes Down" were full of all that is best about Dylan's current work and were drawn close to the versions that you would be familiar with from the albums. For me, the best was "Workingman's Blues #2" with Dylan cherishing each line and obviously enjoying himself. Saturday also produced indistinct, poor versions of "Rollin' and Tumblin'" and "Honest with Me" so this was far from a flawless show - but it was good.

Sunday was better. Nothing here was fumbled just different degrees of high quality. The older songs "Don't Think Twice, It's All Right", "Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat", "Tangled Up in Blue", "Like A Rolling Stone" were straightforward enough renditions and kept the crowd on board when perhaps the attention of the casual visitor might be tempted to drift. "Million Miles" and "High water (for Charley Patton)" were rumbling, threatening and apocalyptic. The peaks were "Ain't Talkin'" and "Tryin' to get to Heaven" where the lyrics were biting and heartfelt.

So Dylan in London wasn't quite a triumph but this was a very good weekend indeed for music . He will always divide opinion (for what it counts for, I think it's probably part of his intention) but for those who get it, these were shows we should be talking about for years to come.

Leyton Orient 2   Leeds United 2
7th April 2009 @ Brisbane Road, London

Leeds United dominated the first half of both halves of this game so completely but managed to undo their chances of a conclusive win by taking their foot off the pedal the longer both sections of the game went on.

Robert Snodgrass was the star for Leeds and he scored a goal in both halves of the game. The second came from a penalty given when Demetriou handled to keep out a shot from Luciano Becchio.

Becchio, as always, worked tirelessly but there was little contribution from his strike partner, Liam Dickinson (currently on loan from Derby County) who was in the team to cover for the injured Jermaine Beckford. Dickinson seemed over-matched and lightweight against opposition that had little to offer until the closing minutes of the second half. He was eventually replaced by Andy Robinson.

Demetriou's handball saw him red-carded and this meant that Orient were functioning with 10 men for the last half hour making it even more embarrassing that Leeds did not press home their advantage.

Fabian Delph showed invention and vigour but Howson and Kilkenny, his midfield partners, were very quiet and Leeds missed having Jonathan Douglas in midfield. Douglas has been slotted into the right back role since injury to Frazer Richardson left a vacancy in that role.

Captain Richard Naylor was forceful in defence and well-partnered by Rui Marques who was restored to the team because of injury to Sam Sodje. Marques was firm and showed real class but along with goalkeeper, Casper Ankergren may have been responsible for the first goal Leeds conceded.

Leyton seldom looked like scoring but somehow scrambled a late equaliser and Leeds were left with only themselves to blame. Church's 85th minute goal sent the Orient fans into surprised ecstasy. They only just out-numbered the visiting fans and it was the home team who had looked like they expected to lose from the beginning - the fans took their lead from the demeanour of the team and were as quiet as a mouse until they crept back in and stole a point against all the odds.
 

Fading Colours
Caught In A Fold
Flowers For Guns
Unoriginal Sin
Simple Ways
Evergreen
Winter Mountain
Dark Before The Dawn
Answer The Question
Last Bright Light
<<Above The Blue >> second night
Half The Mountain
Close My Eyes
Broken Glass
Never The Rainbow
Pocket Watch
Spirit II
Heroes Never Die

<< Carpe Diem>> first night
Turn It On Again

Edward Bennett as Hamlet



In Hamlet, the RSC have, by far, their best production of the year. Last night at the Novello Theatre, an enthusiastic audience rose to their feet in standing ovation to reward the actors on the conclusion of an oustanding performance.

Nothing new in this you might think - the play has met outstanding reviews since it opened in Stratford-Upon-Avon several months ago. But the performance now has to deal with overcoming the loss of its lead actor, David Tennant, to back injury which has caused reshuffling to not one but four of the parts of the play. Consequently, Edward Bennett, Tennent's under-study, has had to pass the role of Laertes to Tom Davey who aside from being Bennett's understudy would have been filling the role of Guildenstern. Guildenstern's role is handed to Ricky Champ who otherwise would have played Lucianus. The part of Lucianus passed to Robert Curtis who had not even under-studied for that role.

All of this could have created chaos in a lesser company but all the evidence is that this group are so adaptable that, from day one, you could not see the join.

Certainly, this was the case last night. This reviewer has seen one too many Shakespeare's this year where the director has tried to add some gloss of meaning by adding stage direction or costume oddities that the script would not bear and could not carry. Director, Gregory Doran's triumph is that he draww out the meaning of the words in such a way that even this experienced Shakespeare watcher and reader found new depths in Hamlet that he had not even glimpsed before - depths that are there on the page as well as on the stage . No mere glosses here.

The achievement of Bennett is obvious. To takeover such an outstanding role in such an outstanding way is a huge achievement and one which should catapult his reputation. He has obviously learnt a lot from Tennent's decisions on how the person of the Prince of Denmark should be handled and developed but this is to take nothing away from him. At the lower end of his spectrum, he was always still solid and insightful.

But he is surrounded by a marvellous cast. The beautiful Penny Downie as Gertrude, Queen of Denmark, and Hamlet's mother is tortured and exquisite, by turns. Mariah Gale, shining much brighter here than she did as the Princess of France in Love's Labour's Lost, manages to capture both the girlishness of Ophelia's enthusiasm for Hamlet's romantic approaches in the early scenes and the off-the-wall insanity her character is driven to in the death of her father. Breadth of ability is obviously the hallmark of this troupe! Likewise, Oliver Ford-Davies who seems to be destined to play slightly confused, wordy old men following his Holofernes in Love's Labour's, brings a sympathetic and realistic portrayal of the doddering but well-meaning Polonius.

Patrick Stewart perhaps carries a little too much of the stoicism he bear as Hamlet's father's ghost to his interpretation of Claudius and perhaps this means we learn too little about his motivations for his crimes. But these are minor quibbles and I might think better of them with another viewing - his work in the prayer and repentance scene is particularly good.

Ultimately, though this is Doran's triumph. He is the one who has melded together this company to be able to adapt to such a major loss in their midst and the attendant clamour and unease that this might bring to the audience - some of whom might not be here but for Tennant's name on the playbill. It is he that has decided on the inclusion of some speeches from the 2nd quarto which are normally neglected and the crucial positioning of the "To Be or Not to Be......" speech on which he follows the early quarto's leading to great effect. The play has been developed with a stage set which is at times minimal and at time's breathtakingly ostentatious but which in both modes adds to the audience's thoughts about the underlying themes of the play.

This really is a major triumph. A major production.

It's been a quiet year on the live front for John Foxx. That's why it was doubly good to catch him and Louis Gordon and Steve D'Agostino at the Cargo in Shoreditch, London last night.
John dipped deep into his current songwriting and back catalogue last night. A handful of songs from his days with Ultravox! all those years ago including  Young Savage. It's brave to attempt this on synthesizers and I'm not sure it quite works but it sure was fun. As John spat out the lyrics with gusto you could forget that punk was thirty years ago and that Johnny Rotten now advertises butter.
Loudest cheers of the night were reserved for Underpass and No-one Driving from Foxx's debut solo "Metamatic" but musically the high points may have been the rarely-performed "The Garden" and another Ultravox! classic "The Man Who Dies Everyday". Particular credit also goes to encore "Broken Furniture" which debuted on John and Louis' "Crash and Burn" in 2003.
The evening coincided with the release of two new limited edition Foxx / Gordon albums - the studio set "Impossible" and a live document from last years gig at the Luminaire entitled "Neuro Video".

Set List:

WALK THIS WAY
A MILLION CARS
DISLOCATION
THE MAN WHO DIES EVERY DAY
CAMERA
UPTOWN/DOWNTOWN
UNDERPASS
NO-ONE DRIVING
BURNING CAR
SHADOW MAN

THE GARDEN
TRAVEL
BROKEN FURNITURE
YOUNG SAVAGE
MY SEX 1/
MY SEX 2
ENDLESSLY
SHIFTING CITY

Footnote: Foxx is usually pretty considerate of his audience but last night a show that was billed on the website to begin at 7 pm saw John take the stage at 9.15 - a tactic which is perhaps best avoided in future as the natives were getting restless by that time. Interestingly, following Shifting City the house lights were left down for what seemed like an interminably long time given the impression that an encore was coming which never arrived. Wonder what was going on backstage?





Louis Gordon had been kidnapped and replaced by that guy who used to play Nigel in Eastenders...........

It’s been a grim few weeks. But there have been some glittering things in the dross.

First highlight was the Bob Dylan “Drawn Blank” exhibition at Halcyon Art Gallery near Green Park in London. A few years ago, Dylan was a writer and his “Chronicles” book was well-worth the investment. A few months ago, he was given a Pulitzer but I’m not exactly sure what for. This isn’t to imply he doesn’t deserve one. I’m just not sure why then. Now he’s an artist. And somehow he still manages to always be on tour and make the occasional album.

“Drawn Blank” however is a little unusual even by Dylan’s standards. First published in book form in 1994, these drawings were hardly noticed. Then his critical rating was low and nobody cared what he was drawing. Now painted, the “Drawn Blank” exhibition comes at a time when his star is in the ascendancy. Consequently, it is all over the broadsheets (The London Times, no less) and is worthy of an art gallery exhibition on the continent and two here in the London and no doubt some others I’m missing. Then, no-one cared, now the £1250 signed prints are all sold out and the first book is selling for £400 a copy. Strange. Of course, with Dylan, we’ve encountered this before. When he went electric, he was a Judas, until we decided he was a genius. His “Jesus” shows were dire for many, but are now spoken of as amazing feats where an artist like Dylan chose to perform only new songs in a show of passion, energy and commitment. Then few could see past the evangelism and booed his accompanying girl vocalists. I’m waiting for the “Empire Burlesque” reassessment.

I purchased the 1994 book of “Drawn Blank”. I purchased the 2008 book of the same drawings painted. I thought they were okay. Some good, a few very good. However, seeing them extremely well presented at the Halcyon, moved them up a notch in my estimation. Well worth seeing.

Second highlight. John Foxx’s “Tiny Colour Movies” at the Apple Store, Regent Street, London. Musical artist again but this time not paintings but films. Now I’m not much for the world of contemporary commercial films and I hate most cinemas. I do mean hate. So that I have now gone to see “Tiny Colour Movies” three or four times must mean that this set of films has something more going on than simply being the work of one of my favourite musicians and the fact that I have to keep going beacuse despite my persistent requests Mr Foxx will not put it on DVD.

Tiny Colour Movies is a collection of 14 concept pieces assembled from the home movies of a bygone generation. It is moving, thought-provoking, vivid and imaginative. It has a tremendous ambient soundtrack which the artist accompanies his films with, standing alongside, like the pianist adding sound to a silent movie. It is quite, quite wonderful and if it comes to a town near you, I might just follow it there.

Finally, on this smorgasbord of updates, a little baseball. Surprise, surprise. As the trade deadline approaches the Bronx is seeing new faces. First in was Richie Sexson. Now in 2007, Sexson, then at Seattle, hit .205 BA with 21 home runs. Fortunately, he turned this all around by storming to .218 with 11 homers by the first week of July. Not surprisingly, the Mariners released Richmond Lockwood Sexson. I’m not quite so sure why the Yankees decided to sign him later in the month. Perhaps it had something to do with that florid name. At least they didn’t invest in Bonds. I’m not holding my breath for this acquisition to be a great success. Indeed, I’m praying that by the time of my return to the Bronx in September, he will have headed toward waivers. We’ll see.

More significant (hopefully) was the trade made yesterday which has brought Xavier Nady and Damaso Marte over from the Pittsburgh Pirates. Marte, who actually spent a little while in the Yankees system a few years ago but never made it to 161 St. and River Avenue, is that crucial item a left-handed relief pitcher. Occasional promotions for Billy Traber and Kei Igawa have not added such a thing to the roster for very long. Marte with his 3.47 ERA, 4 Wins (no losses), and 5 saves seems a much better prospect.

Nady is a good addition at least because Matsui and Damon are not likely to see much time in the outfield for the remainder of the season. However, there may be more. His contract has another year beyond 2008 and he is 5 years younger than Damon. He is batting .330 with 13 home runs. There might be quite a lot in this for the Bombers.

A slight downside to this came in the final detail of the trade. The original detail suggested that the Yankees were giving up Ross Ohlendorf and three minors who were barely on my radar. Now Ohlendorf  looked good earlier in the year but then his mechanics fell apart and he might not be a huge loss but I was a little more disappointed with today’s update. The news is that the Pirates final list for the trade sees Jeff Karstens heading over to Pittsburgh. Now I’m not sure quite where Karstens' career was headed (he’s been rather injury prone) but I’ve followed his career since seeing his early appearances for the Staten Island Yankees some years ago. I’m disappointed that he will never be established in the Bronx. It was an interesting journey.

The final footnote to this was that the very disappointing LaTroy Hawkins was designated for assignment and that Kei Igawa was removed from the 40-man roster and outrighted to Scranton (AAA). The Yankees are paying him in excess of $5 million – and they finally seem to have given up on him. Now that’s an amazing story.

Harold Pinter does strange things with words.
It's not just the obligatory Pinteresque pause that everyone mentions. He takes them from their normal surroundings and imbues them with a sense of tension which, in his best work, is never resolved. It simply hangs.

A few days ago, I caught the production of his "The Birthday Party" at the Lyric theatre, Hammersmith, London (just down the road from the place I live, which is handy). 
I first read the The Birthday Party a long time ago. This was in the early 1980s. I'd started reading Beckett and Brecht and then I stumbled on Pinter. In the town I grew up in, you didn't get productions of Pinter, Beckett or ANYTHING. It was like living in a cultural vacuum. So if you were young and precocious, you read play scripts and tried to visualise what it would be like. I visualise better than most. I learned earlier. It was about putting a little colour into life - you get so sick of black and white.

So I read everything that Pinter had written that I could lay my hands on. The Homecoming, The Birthday Party, The Caretaker, The Dumb Waiter, Betrayal, A Kind of Alaska (maybe that was later, it seems that way), Old Times, No Man's Land were some of the plays I remember reading back then and always in his best plays it was the tension and the transitions that he captured that got me and kept me reading. There was also a screenplay for "A la recherche du temps perdu" by Proust which I loved and admired greatly.

There are many writers whose best work is in the past and, for myself, I regard Pinter in that way. I can't admire his politics and his recent public pronouncements just simply needed a certain degree of proportion and that is what a writer should have. I think Pinter has lost some of that measure that he had when he was a younger man.

So it was good to see one of his old plays. "The Birthday Party" is, if anything, perhaps a little too early. He is still learning the craft that fired that tension that interested me, at this point. The third act largely exorcises that malevolence that he has spent two acts creating. It resolves some of the issues and if Pinter has a strength it is that he taught the theatre that things don't have to be resolved.

In The Birthday Party, Meg and Petey, a married couple, live with their guest, Stanley Webber. Nothing much changes in their lives. Lulu, apparently a neighbour, flirts with Stanley but nothing much goes on beyond the routine of daily meals, newspapers, a time for bed and a time to rise. All this changes when Meg is told that two visitors are coming. It is then that all of life's possibilities break out and things begin to fall apart.

The words are clever and even some times funny. It is the characters' response to simple words and simple encounters that places them on the rack and stretches them and allows their potentialities to burst open. 

Stanley (advancing): They are coming today.
Meg: Who?
Stanley: They are coming in a van.
Meg: Who?
Stanley: And do you know what they've got in that van?
Meg: What?
Stanley: They've got a wheelbarrow in that van.
Meg (breathlessly): They haven't.
Stanley: Oh yes, they have.
Meg: You're a liar

"The Birthday Party" teaches us that those who are fully awake are changed by encounters. Those who prefer not to change (like Petey in the play) can remain that way but only by sleepwalking through life's experiences.

The play is loaded with possibilities. The fact that McCann and Goldberg (two visitors at what is apparently <perhaps> a coastal boarding house are Irish and Jewish respectively loads their mission <should it exist> with all manner of possibilities -  religious, political, cultural. All we know is that this is the twentieth century and their purpose, should they have one, could be sinister. We're not sure how much of what happens is real or if any of it is dream. The import is not in the action but in the words - what is said and what is not said and how the characters and the audience react to what they hear and what they are not told.

The current production is at a close now. For the record, Nicholas Woodeson and Lloyd Hutchinson as McCann and Goldberg were excellent with the right air of purpose but with so much hidden. Sian Brooke as Lulu had just a little too much class and was a little too pretty (if you're going to come up short, it's not a bad way to do it). Sheila Hancock as Meg was a little too aware of herself and the play and her costume in the first act was just a little too stereotyped. She played for laughs sometimes that the play did not need.

Meg's character is potentially the most mysterious of all in a strange way, if handled well. On the face of it she is almost moronic and easily satisfied. Simple. But she has many layers. She wants to be sexually alluring to the guests (even Stanley). She wants social standing - her dwelling is "on the list" she insists, her guests found her to be the belle of the ball. She wants to mother Stanley. His birthday present from her is a child's drum. She is made more distraught by its brokenness than by anything else. Petey assures it that it can be easily replaced but then he also assures her that Stanley is still upstairs at the conclusion of the play. Is he or is Stanley broken too? She wants the danger but not the threat of change but most of all she wants things just to stay the same.

It is a thought-provoking play. I'm glad to be still thinking about it.

So until about 8 months ago, I lived in Greenford (Middlesex, outskirts of London) when I moved to Hammersmith. I have 3 cats all of whom are in good health but occasionally need to go to the vets for their checkups and vaccination boosters. For two of them this was no problem, but for Shadow this was always an unpleasant experience. She was very nervous of the catbox and hated going in the car. This usually meant that by the time the car had left our street, she had begun to vomit and always meant that the catbox arrived at the veterinary clinic in a disgusting state. Consequently, each visit became more and more of a trauma for her with the same difficult results. Imagine for a while sitting in your own sick in a plastic box. Even bringing it down to the level of a cat (or up) this can't have been Shadow's idea of a good time.

Anyway, the date for her jabs has come round for the first time since we moved to Hammersmith. Careful planning required. Cut out the car by making the appointment at that small practise somewhere between my house and Ravenscourt Park (you have no idea how close that is). Then great scheme comes to mind - cut out the catbox by attaching Shadow to a lead. This was a big risk. If she was sick it was probably going to end up on my nice black velvet jacket. Should have thought of this before leaving home and worn something more practical. Too late to stop now!. We make the short journey to the vets. Some of the time, Shadow walks. Some of the time, she prefers to be carried. All the time, she miaows. But she is not sick.

We arrive at the clinic. The gothy receptionist doesn't even blink at the sight of a cat on a lead (Shadows appreciates her colour scheme) and we are handed onto the vet who does his work with Shadow hardly noticing. Shadow is declared in good health although warned she might be overeating.

We begin the journey home. Same routine as before. Lots of miaowing but nothing else. Once inside the gates of home (and they're pretty impressive gates!), Shadow makes a break for it and runs for the door and safety. For the first time ever, Shadow has been to the vet without being sick! She is not hiding from fear of another visit and we are the best of friends. I'm not even phased by the looks I got from those who wondered why a bloke was walking down the street walking a cat.


 

Hooray for Shadow!!

So I searched the broadsheets for an honest review but I found none. I didn't want a good review but just a review that made me feel like the writer had actually been there. But I found none. If a solo artist continues to tour into his dotage, we applaud him (or her) for perseverance and call him the grand old man of rock or blues or some such. If a band does the same, we say that they're only doing it for the money and we trot out the same old lines.
Now the Eagles (there is no question on this one!) are doing it for the money but not only for that. All those reviews that said they phoned in their performance and went through tired old licks are simply not true. Yes, these are the guys who recorded "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and "Take it Easy" on their first album but just writing the word "easy" over and over again doesn't make a review just lazy journalism.
Anyway, I don't think they're going to worry too much about the critics and I really didn't expect any positive write-ups so no-one's truly disappointed.
I'd be the first to admit that when I saw the Eagles in 2006 at Twickenham, I was still impressed by their polish and professionalism and, oh, those harmonies and the manic Joe Walsh but, hey, I felt like I'd seen it all before and I genuinely didn't know whether I'd be back to take it to the limit, one more time..... But these shows in 2008 see a band re-invigorated. Still polished, still a little too professional, still over-priced but with a whole bunch of new songs and new energy. This meant that when the harmonies were spot on, they were just a little more impressive. This meant that when Joe Walsh was manic (when isn't Joe Walsh manic!), he was just a little funnier. This guy is 15 years sober but he's still the funniest drunk in rock and that is some acting.
"Long Road Out of Eden" (the song) is a critique of U.S. overseas policy which you either agree with or you don't but there's no question in my mind that on Saturday it included the most wonderful guitar solo I've heard in a long time. Not over-indulgent, not over-long but just great music. And that's why I came... the music. And on that score the Eagles were convincing. They were de-mob happy playing their last overseas date on this tour and that added just a little more energy, a little more mischief. So it was a good night but even on the lukewarm nights, it is passion I hear in the songwriting and in the delivery. And on that score the Eagles won!

The frustrations first. The venue was a little off the beaten track to say the least which meant that it wasn't going to catch the casual audience. This resulted in a minuscule crowd - which must be discouraging for the band at this stage of their career. I think they're one of the best bands around - both live and in the studio - but I sometimes feel that I'm one of the few who gets this. The actual venue was fine but the stage lighting was poor. Again, it's all very well having a great live show but the set-up provided by the venue didn't really help us appreciate it. They need to address this before future shows especially if this is going to become a successful club night. The performance was short but perfectly formed and I, for one, would have liked an extra song or two particularly as there was no support (aside from the silently-delivered wonderfully bad horror flick that was on the screen before the band took the stage). Finally, given that this was an audience who mostly knew of the band prior to the night, certain sections could have offered a little more encouragement. Some of the reaction between numbers was a little lukewarm and we could have least given Swarf the dilemma of having to consider whether they had an encore ready if they needed one.

The pleasures second. The band are great at what they do. In Liz, the lead vocalist, they have an energetic and winsome front woman who has the best vocal chops you're going to hear this year. Chris and Andrew, the twin keyboardists, offer a great range of sounds, textures, dance beats and exotic rhythms which have been obviously carefully developed prior to the show. The range of sound and atmospheres are unique, going far beyond the built in samples and settings of their synths. They create the varying ambience allowing Liz to take care of the strong melodies which she is more than able to carry. High points of the set include the newer songs "Parlour Tricks" and "Don't Silence" and tracks from their first album "Not Enough" and "Supine".

It seems to be a key time for the band. Careful planning will be needed to take this to a higher level prior to the second album but they are more than capable of delivering.