twilightdawning

Reviewing John Foxx, I have to declare a bias. There are very few musicians I would travel from London to Leeds to see whether I was writing a review or not. With Mr Foxx, I would comfortably travel twice that distance just for my own enjoyment.

Thursday night was not a concert but rather a film show with music. A few years ago, John began to develop a movie called "Tiny Colour Movies" from a selection of old Super8 films that he had gathered together from markets and attics. He added an evocative soundtrack and it became an hours fascinating experience. He has been playing it occasionally around the UK whilst tweaking it slightly before each showing to make it closer to the artistic vision that he had in mind.

Film of skyscrapers in New York, old Hollywood actors using keys to open doors, a naked 19 year old swimming around a car dumped at the bottom of a lake, members of families waving to their relatives…… it’s all here. It is not the stuff of today’s Hollywood Blockbusters and it is all the better for it. I suspect that the back story that Foxx has created of the various film makers and collectors is a lot of hokum but it creates a modern fiction from old inconsequential factual footage which is quite, quite charming.

After a twenty minute break, we return to the audiotorium to hear a section of the recent spoken word album "The Quiet Man". Foxx plays piano whilst the voice of an actor pre-recorded for radio is heard reading Foxx’s short story. We’re told a story of London gone wild for unknown reasons where the buildings are empty but intact except for the trees and flowers growing up the walls and through the carpets. The music is thoughtful and sparse, the accompanying film is provocative and interesting and the RP reading of the story keeps your attention.

Finally, VJ Karborn is invited to the stage to mix and sample images whilst John Foxx improvises a piano piece full of echo and resonance. The music is interesting but needs to be developed. It is difficult to see the theme in the images and no real narrative is established and this is the least satisfying of tonight’s performance.

The affable Mr Foxx then fields questions for twenty minutes talking about his inspirations, his plans for the future, slightly nerdy questions about synthesisers used 30 years ago and the sci-fi film Robot Monster.

A relaxed and thoughtful and quite beautiful evening’s activities. I’d travel to Leeds again for more of the same.

I Hear You Are Singing A Song of the Past……. I See No Tears

Posted on July 9, 2009 by twilightdawning

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.

Walter Becker

Freddie Washington and Donald Fagen

Jon Herington

Donald Fagen

Tap into Tap!

Posted on July 4, 2009 by twilightdawning

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!"

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

Carry on Camping!

Posted on May 9, 2009 by twilightdawning

A Camp
6th of May 2009
King’s College, London

I always thought that the weak strand in Nina Persson’s previous attempt for world domination by music was the band’s name. The Cardigans. I mean the Cardigans! It’s not a name to set the world alight. Their first couple of albums had an unusual pop pastiche going on which made them huge in Japan but meant some corners of the rock world viewed them with suspicion. This part of their career came to climax and crescendo with the worldwide hit "Lovefool" but Persson and her fellow Cardigans wanted more than a reputation for perfect pop. Ironically, the album (Gran Turismo) which gave them their best known rock anthem "My Favourite Game" was mainly dominated by synthesiser sounds. Acoustic guitars were more to the fore on the best of their later albums, "Long Gone Before Daylight" (2003) but by this time their commercial, if not their creative peak had passed and the album was largely bypassed in the U.S. and the U.K..

In 2001, having decided that she perhaps need an outlet other than the Cardigans, Nina had finished off an album which she had begun with a loose collaboration of her musical friends. Because it was going to be a one-off and because it was intended to be a ragged gathering of musicians who by chance found themselves under the same roof, she called it "A Camp". It wasn’t meant to be a serious longterm commitment, more a holiday from The Cardigans. So a camp it was and "A Camp" would do.

Persson’s musical mainstay on the album was Nathan Larson, bass player and multi-instrumentalist. Another guy who played on some of the tracks was Niclas Frisk. After that it was back to the Cardigans for two more studio albums including the aforementioned "Long Gone Before Daylight" and a "Best of" which seems to have finally drawn the curtain down on the band. At least for now.

When she decided to work again with Larson and Frisk, this time in a proper band with a long term future, the name "A Camp" was resurrected. Perhaps, band names just aren’t Nina’s strong suit. It must be a nightmare to market.

On Wednesday, A Camp brought their first fullscale European tour to its conclusion before heading out to the States. The second album "Colonia" has been well-received by the press but has perhaps not created the same underground frisson as the first. But how do they fare live?

Well, tonight is a triple-bill with Leona Naess performing an off-beat and charming acoustic set to open. Second up is Kristofer Astrom who doesn’t really have the voice to match his obvious guitar skills.

The main content though is definitely "A Camp". They eschew any Cardigans material opting for a set which is 8-parts new album, 6-parts first album and two covers. The opener "The Crowning" is ideal territory for Persson’s vocals and her dramatic Hollywood-style poses. There is something about the way that the Scandinavian voices the English language on lines like "Let’s raise our glasses to murderous asses like you" which is totally charming and so chic.

Both Larson and Frisk cut dramatic figures in perpetual motion, their guitars pointed skyward. There is indeed a point in the evening when the stage movements and shape-striking does become a little repetitive but this is no major problem. The show continues cutting its way through ballads that emphasise Nina’s vocal qualities and striking lyrical sarcasm to more upbeat songs with great hooks like "Frequent Flyer" and "My America".

Low point? As on the new album, the male vocal on "Golden Teeth and Silver Medals" doesn’t quite cut it. Tonight, Astrom, the support act, handles the duties and he is no better than Nicolai Dunger on the record. The song is perhaps, anyway, a little too Eurovision.

The two covers were well-chosen. First, Grace Jones’ "Done it Again" led by the bass and tightly performed. As an encore, we were given David Bowie’s "Boys Keep Swinging". By this time it was a moment for the band to rock out and the sound became a little bit of a mush, something that Persson’s guidance for the sound guys had carefully avoided the rest of night. But this was fun and the audience sang a long and a great time was had by all.

A great time was had by all. That might just sum up the night. But that name……. A Camp. A Camp! Now that might just halt the next attempt at world domination.