Saturday, 8 September 2012

Well, it's a tough call, but if I was asked to rate them......

We have been living in UK/Europe now for some six plus months and by my calculations we have spent something like four months of that time living in London. 
Over that period we have attended in excess of forty concerts.
Some of the performing artists have been fairly ordinary, however most of them have been class acts.
The low light would had to have been a performance by John Renbourne at the Union Chapel. This chap used to be a halfway decent singer/guitarist way-back in the  late sixties and early seventies when performing in the group Pentangle. Then John was a whippet thin Hippie with attitude, a man who was a pretty mean guitarist and one who could hold a key
Roll on forty years and what we were confronted with in that April concert was a burnt out Burl Ives look-a-like whose skills set had departed him many moons back. Frankly it was a pathetic spectacle. No amount of energy generated by his backing group could save this guy. John was just a dead man walking. God, the things some people do for fame and/or a buck.
Another guy who gave us a bit of a scare was the ex rock groups Cream's base guitarist Jack Bruce. We caught up with Jack at Ronnie Scott's back in March. When Jack appeared on stage I actually thought he was in the process of having a small heart attack. However, after downing a couple of stiff ones Jack suddenly fired up , pretty impressive stuff.
As an aside we have "history" when it comes to witnessing rock stars taking a turn for the worse whilst performing on stage. Back in 2000 we were present at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne  when singer Meat Loaf crumpled to the deck  mid way through his performance. The band kept playing and maybe twenty seconds on , still laying inert on stage, Meat  started squawking out the remainder of the song. On stage rushed a medic, dragging a chair behind him. A quick inspection, a drink of whatever, and then we hear the medic whisper into Meats head mike "Meat, you're good to go, its just a small murmur". And with that Meat was unceremoniously plonked into the chair where he remained as he hauled his way through the next few numbers. I don't know what that medic injected into Meat during the interval however whatever it was it sure as hell did the trick. Meats second half performance was fairly explosive.
Where was I?....that's right, the ratings war. If I had to rate to this point three artists who have really left their mark on us they would be as follows.
THIRD PLACE
Who : The lead female violinist performing with eight other string performers plus  harpsichord 
Where :  St Martin in the Fields last Saturday evening . 
We  happened  to be sitting in the front pews at this concert and were seated exactly one metre away from the this woman. Her performance was stunning however it was her mannerisms and breathing that got my attention. For starters she looked like she was performing in some kind of personal dream. During the entire performance she was living in an entirely different space from the rest of her fellow performers and we , the audience .
But what really got me was this woman's breathing. We had only just started to get into the first number when (I have pretty good hearing) I started to hear someone breathing heavily through their nostrils. At first I thought these sounds were coming from the guy sitting directly to my left or possibly someone seated right behind me. Bingo! , suddenly it dawned on me that this really disconcerting noise was actually  emanating from the nostril area of this first violinist. Then this very weird thing started happening in my brain. I slowly and unconsciously stopped listening to the actual music and starting zoning in on this woman's breathing. I became obsessed by her nasal activity and starting closely tracking the slight visible vibrations of the violinists nostril as she dragged in oxygen. And let me tell you this woman sucked in truck loads of air.
At the break I told Julia I could not face another hour of this unexpected windfall bonus so we snuck off round the corner to The Harp for a drink.
Trust me, when listening to the noise generated by the nasal intake of a stranger who happens to be playing a violin becomes more of interest than her musical performance then  you have to accept you have a problem that can only be rectified with a stiff drink.
That said, that evening was one weird  and highly enjoyable experience.
RUNNER UP
Who : Cameron Carpenter
Where : The Royal Albert Hall a week or so back
In an attempt to get us into the ballot for seats at the final night of The Proms I had to book a minimum number of regular concerts, including this organ recital performed late Sunday afternoon.
A couple of years back we attended a similar recital. On that occasion the organist of the hour was a the middle aged (most correct and very much respected) head of music at Durham University. I always recall that guy appearing in a full black tail outfit, which was kind of  "over the top " for a late afternoon performance
As Julia and I knew nothing whatsoever about this Cameron chap, we anticipated that he would be of similar mould , mid forties with roots in middle England etc.
Just as the clock struck four a guy sidled up to the organ and gave the audience a bit of a rundown. I suddenly came fully alert when I heard the guy tell us that at age sixteen our new friend Cameron had spent a year rewriting a full Mahler symphony for organ. The announcer then advised us that it had then taken Cameron these last fourteen years to get his skill set to the point where he could actually perform what he had written. By this stage I'm thinking, who the hell is this guy?
Well, we didn't have long to wait. Enter from stage left a stick thin American standing something over six foot tall.
Starting at the top.
The guy was sporting a huge jet black Mohawk 
His top was a string black see through tee shirt with cutaway arms
Cameron's bottom half was clothed in stove pipe shiny black jeans covered in sequins 
And as for footwear , what else, black nineteen sixties winkle pickers polished to an impossibly high sheen
What a sight, this guy was the spitting image of the now departed Sid Vicious of ex rock group The Sex Pistols. I have to be honest , one look at this guy and I was converted. 
Without further ado Cameron fired up what is considered to be the second best organ in the universe ( damm those forward thinking music types in Dresden) and commenced to give the audience a master lesson on what one genius can do when let loose on 9,997 organ pipes.
All I can say is that anyone has ever played better Bach on that organ, then the audience on that particular day would have savoured the occasion.
To watch this strange looking dude  as he wove his magic, what an experience .
And let me tell you when this guy pulled out all the stops during the climax of one first half piece, the Albert Hall actually started vibrating , which was an experience that won't be easily forgotten .
During a break between numbers the guy who had initially introduced us to Cameron said " I see you don't use written music scores when you perform" to which Cameron responded " to be honest, I feel my performance becomes cramped if I'm forced to read what I'm about to play. I just basically read the entire score a couple of times in advance of my initial performance of any number, and then that's about it"
Honestly, this guy is a seriously interesting piece of work and one to watch as the years pass. He might be worth checking out on the net
FIRST PLACE ( no doubts on that score)
Who : Lou Reed
Where : The Festival Hall, Southbank
Lou Reed is to USA rock music what Andy Warhol was to American Art.
This seventy year old has spend his entire music career out there......way, way out there.......probably on another planet .
I've always wanted to see Lou live and when the 2012 Alternative Music Festival listed Lou as a lead act, well that was our invitation to whip out the credit card.
You know, I've seen any number of ageing rock artists , and some of then like say Leonard Cohen, are in fine fettle.Even  the Moody Blues still look in pretty good repair .
That cant be said of Lou Reed. One look at this guy and you know in a second that everything that's ever been written about the USA East Coast rock sene back in the late sixties and seventies is probably all true.
Lou appeared on stage as if he was some poorly dressed mannequin being rolled into position for display at some retro black leather fashion show.
This guy was seriously old and was restricted in his movements to the point where he required assistance to take his guitar strap off his shoulders at the end of each number. 
But let's get one thing clear here. Under that human husk beat the heart of a rock lion. Lou just wasn't human, he was a rock legend, and he wasn't about to let down his faithful flock.
The next ninety minutes was simply rock heaven central.
Lou and his group gave a performance that had us alternatively clinging to our seats, or leaping into the air as we applauded wildly at the end of each song.
An hour and a half down the track and Lou stumbles up to the mike and tells us " this has been a great privilege for me (we all go wild) however I'm pretty well stuffed right now. If I could manage the encore routine I would do so but the effort getting off then back onto this stage is tonight a step too far for me. So here it goes, I'm giving this gig one final shot then I'm outa here"
And with that Lou launched  into one of his classics , Sad Song ,and that was that, game over.
A couple of band members stepped forward and gently assisted Lou as he exited the stage, and we trooped off to the Blackfriars  pub for a few drinks and an extensive post  match analysis
Lou  Reed, it was a privilege to hear you live. You were everything we hoped for and more.So much talent , and so little time left on earth. What a  great pity. 

Cheers 

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