The Plastic Bag Awards 2014

The annual awards season kicks off with the Plastic Bag Awards 2014. Some years feature one form of art more than others and this year has seen a deluge of theatrical experiences and very little new music or gigs - that's just how it goes sometimes. The judging panel has had some heated discussions  and has decided on the following awards.

Ladies and gentlemen and readers of all ages, I give you the Baggies 2014!

Best Theatre - Shakespeare Production

This is a new category to celebrate Shakespeare and the new productions of his plays put on last year. There was a great series of his Roman plays staged at The Globe over the summer, none of which I'd previously seen, and all are nominated. The nominations are:

'Henry V' at the Noel Coward Theatre
'King Lear' at the National Theatre
'Titus Andronicus' at Shakespeare's Globe
'Anthony & Cleopatra' at Shakespeare's Globe
'Julius Caesar' at Shakespeare's Globe.

Jude Law was my king in 'Henry V' with his stirring speeches and Simon Russell-Beale was suitably grumpy and despondent as Lear but it was the Roman plays at the Globe that really gripped me. The violence and blood of 'Titus' and the faded grandeur of Cleopatra but the glory belongs to 'Julius Caesar' with a great production matching that magnificent play with poetry to make you gasp and weep at its power and beauty.

Best Theatre - Drama

Taking Shakespeare out of this category makes it look, at first glance, a bit lightweight but here we have three revivals and two brand new plays being staged for the first time, both at the National Theatre. No-one can call 'Medea' lightweight. The nominations are:

'Skylight' at Wyndham's Theatre
'Medea' at the National Theatre
'My Night With Reg' at the Donmar Warehouse
'Behind The Beautiful Forevers' at the National Theatre
'Treasure Island' at the National Theatre

'Skylight' was a trip back to the '80s with Bill Nighy being Bill Nighy and we went back to another '80s with 'My Night With Reg'. 'Medea' is a millenia-old desolate play of extremes and can't help but be powerful. 'Behind The Beautiful Forevers' took us to an India few of us will ever see and 'Treasure Island' took us on a rollicking adventure to the Caribbean to find pirate treasure. They're all excellent plays but the Baggie must go to 'My Night With Reg' for evoking those lost days of the '80s when HIV first reared its ugly head and changed lives, and this play gently and evocatively illustrates the horror and pain so many people lived and died with back then.

Best Theatre - Musical

It's been a grand year for musicals, old and new. I saw lots of musicals last year and could so easily have nominated 'Amadeus' at Chichester, '20th Century Boy' at Wimbledon or the lovely Guildhall production of 'Grand Hotel' at the Barbican. But I must stick by the rules and nominate no more than five for the judges to assess and these are:

'Sunny Afternoon' at Hampstead Theatre
'Fings Ain't Wot They Used T'Be' at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East
'Guys & Dolls' at Chichester Festival Theatre
'Gypsy' at Chichester Festival Theatre
'Here Lies Love' at the National Theatre

This is a very difficult category and all five nominees deserve to be in the last five - they all have different qualities that bring them alive but the judges have awarded the Baggie to 'Sunny Afternoon' for being a joyous recreation of the music of the Kinks. It's currently running in the West End and raises the roof every night. Well done people!

Best Entertainment

An 'entertainment' in my book is something that is performed on stage short of it being a play or a musical, so can include readings, cabaret, circus and just about anything else.

'Ellen Terry With Eileen Atkins' at the Sam Wanamaker Theatre
'La Soiree' at the Southbank Spielgeltent
'Shakespeare's Sonnets' at the Royal Festival Hall
'Lord of the Flies' at Sadler's Wells
'A Christmas Carol' at Queen Elizabeth Hall

I loved the acrobatic rudeness of 'La Soiree' and the mammoth reading of all of Shakespeare's sonnets one after another by a set of actors. I loved 'Lord of the Flies', the new Matthew Bourne production, and listening to an ensemble reading of 'A Christmas Carol' just a couple of weeks before Christmas is magical. But the Baggie goes to Eileen Atkins for her one-woman show of 'Ellen Terry With Eileen Atkins'. Eileen turned into different people in front of our eyes as she played some of Ellen Terry's big roles, giving us a glimpse into what true acting can be like. Most impressive.

Best Film

A strange mix of nominations this year - a music documentary, a tale of gay solidarity with the miners strike in the '80s, a silent movie masterpiece with Buster Keaton and a strange American take on a Noel Coward play. The nominees are:

'20 Feet From Stardom'
'Pride'
'The General'
'Design For Living'

The judges picked the winner with little discussion - the Baggie goes to 'Pride' for being the best film in many years. The tale of those brave souls behind Lesbians and Gays Support the Miners (LGSM) and the miners they supported in South Wales during the 1985 miners strike. The miners might not have won but this film has winner written all over it from the touching and funny acting, a great soundtrack and jumpers tucked into jeans for added reality. Well done!

Best Gig

I didn't go to many gigs last year, mainly because artists I want to see didn't seem to be on tour, but there were still sufficient to make a top five. The nominees are:

Suzanne Vega at the Barbican
McAlmont & Butler at Islington Assembly Hall
Kate Bush at Hammersmith Apollo
Marianne Faithfull at the Royal Festival Hall
The Human League at Hammersmith Apollo

Suzanne Vega gave us songs from her latest album ('Queen of Pentacles') and McAlmont & Butler got together for a two-night reunion for charity while Marianne and the Human League, old troupers both, gave us solid professional shows, giving us exactly what we wanted. But the Baggie must go to Kate Bush for her return to the stage after 35 years and me being in the fourth row from the stage. That was a thrill and a half and you could feel the excitement grow in the crowd as starting time approached. And then there she was...

Best Live Performance

This category is for the individual performance of a song on stage, a performance that rips you out of the audience and transcends all barriers to take you to a different place. There are only three monitions this year:

'Running Up That Hill' by Kate Bush
'Everything's Coming Up Roses' by Imelda Staunton ('Gypsy')
'Mother Wolf' by Marianne Faithfull

Imelda's performance of one of the big songs from 'Gypsy' was astonishing in it's intensity as was the ferocity of Marianne's 'Mother Wolf' in which she spits out the words and despises the modern world. But It's Kate's song from the '80s, 'Running Up That Hill' that stays with me for the sheer majesty of the performance making me think we could, indeed, do a deal with God. Well done Kate!

Best Exhibition

I've been to quite a few exhibitions this year, mainly courtesy of membership of the Tate and the British Museum but I found it quite easy to narrow down the nominees, which are:

'Heaven In A Hell Of War' - Stanley Spencer at Somerset House
'Making Visible' - Paul Klee at the Tate Modern
'The Cut-Outs' - Henri Matisse at the Tate Modern
'Revolutionary of Russian Art' - Kazimir Malevitch at the Tate Modern
'Virginia Woolf - Art, Life & Vision' at the National Portrait Gallery

The Stanley Spencer exhibition was marvellous and, astonishingly, free to get in, and it reproduced his sequence of large paintings about his experience of the First World War and after. The colours, textures and patterns Paul Klee explored were delightful and uplifting by turns and the cut-outs of the Old Magician, Matisse, were joyful. Malevitch was more intellectual and hard to take in fully and the assembled objects at the Virginia Woolf exhibition were touching, particularly the little black book kept by the Nazi's with her name in for immediate arrest following a Nazi invasion. I learnt something from all these exhibitions (as one should) and left them wiser and with a greater understanding of their work. It was very difficult for the judges who eventually decided to award the Baggie to M. Matisse for his glorious and joyful cut-outs that got bigger and bigger as he got older. *Bows*.

Best Book

There isn't usually a book category in the Baggies so this is another new one simply because I read four great rock books over the summer and all deserve to be mentioned.

'Clothes Clothes Clothes, Music Music Music, Boys Boys Boys' - Viv Albertine
'Buffy Sainte-Marie: It's My Way' - Blair Stonechild
'Look Wot I Dun: My Life In SLADE' - Don Powell & Lise Lyng Falkenberg
'Bedsit Disco Queen' - Tracey Thorn

Blair's book about Buffy successfully pulls together existing material about Buffy, Don's books sheds new light on his time with SLADE and Tracey's book was doubly entertaining and illuminating since it's the tale of the growth of a contemporary into a pop star so I could recognise and relive many of the allusions she makes. Great and as entertaining as these books are, it's hats off to Viv Albertine for her astonishingly honest memoir, 'Clothes…Music…Boys'. Books are too often called "brutally honest" but none so honest as Viv's book where she holds nothing back. It's intensity and honesty are painful and that's the mark of great writing and great story-telling. She discovered her own narrative voice while writing this book and I'm sure that'll provide dividends for future songs as well as books. Well done Viv!

And there you have them, the Baggies 2014! Let's see what 2015 brings, shall we?

Kate Bush - The Second Sighting

I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Kate Bush's penultimate concert at Hammersmith on 30 September. I saw Kate at the start of September and had tickets in the fourth row from the stage so I was quite happy to have tickets in the fourth row from the back this time, still central and with a great view. I liked being able to see the whole stage without having to move my head to follow Kate across the stage. It's quite a spectacle and it's great to be able to relax into the show and drink it in since I know what to expect.

Kate played the same set as the earlier show but she seemed even more smiley and 'up' if that's possible - whether it's the 'up' of being familiar with the adulation or the 'up' of knowing she only had one more show, I don't know. But she seemed to be having a ball! And still barefoot! (I shall have to have a word about that).

The show was made up of the 'hits' to open the show followed by 'The Ninth Wave' and then, after a half-time break, the 'Aerial' sequence. Even though I knew what was happening next I couldn't help but be attracted to the details I hadn't noticed previously, to the subtle activities of the backing singers/actors doing stuff just out of sight of Kate, the musicians getting into it again and giving it some heavy welly.

What were my favourite moments? O, I don't know… Opening with 'Lily' is transcendent, a song about magic opening a magical concert, followed by 'Hounds of Love' with the backing singers imitating the yelps and barks of hounds and the sublime 'Running Up That Hill' that had my eyes moist. Then the 'King of the Mountain' that built and built until the bull-roarer took over to welcome the storm and the thunder of the cannon shooting Tennyson's words into the audience to herald 'The Ninth Wave' suite. O wow!

It started me thinking about how much rehearsal time went into this show, to perform songs Kate's never tried to re-create live before without the studio wizardry. Of course, 'Hounds of Love' was released 29 years ago and technology has come a long way since then. But what a brave artistic vision, wanting to re-create song cycles with visuals that she laid down a long time ago, and the second half of the show creating the second part of 'Aerial' with birdsong, magic and wonder centre stage. It's the vision that's astonishing, thinking 'I can do this' and pulling it off and making us all go 'wow'.

Listening to the songs Kate's chosen for her first shows in 35 years highlights some themes and for me it was how often she sings about being up high - up on the roof, on a hill, on the angel's shoulders. There's something here to think about, particularly with all the bird imagery in 'Aerial: A Sky of Honey'. What is it about being up high that Kate likes? Is it the freedom? The security of being able to see people approaching? I don't know.

The final song of the show proper is 'Aerial' in which Kate sings that she wants to be up on the roof and in the performance she transforms into a blackbird and duels with the lead guitarist in bird-form, challenging and teasing as the song mounts to a crescendo, trees crashing down onto the stage and through the piano and the stage blacks out. And then, for a split second, the lights focus on where Kate is about to be and we see her fly! But, of course, Kate Bush can fly! Why would anyone doubt that?

The encore is Kate on piano playing 'Among Angels' and the sing-a-long version of 'Cloudbusting'. She knows what we've been waiting for! I loved it, being an *official* backing singer for Ms Bush. I must also include a shout-out to Jacqui Dubois as one of Ms Bush's backing singers/ actresses who played the role of Miss Brown in 'The Harder They Come' a few years ago ('international styles, local prices').  I mean, 'wow' (again).
 
What happens next? After a month of live shows after 35 years this can't be the end. There'll be the DVD of course, and, I hope, a live album. But what else? We'll just have to wait patiently and see what Kate decides to do…

Kate Bush - Before The Dawn

Some things you just don't expect to happen. Like Kate Bush playing live again or managing to nab tickets in the fourth row from the stage. Things like that just don't happen. Except sometimes they do and you need to embrace them.

I remember hearing that odd song, 'Wuthering Heights', on the radio in 1978 and then seeing its singer on 'Top Of The Pops', that strange creature that danced around while singing. I didn't buy singles back then - except for punk singles and eps - so I didn't buy the single but I did buy the album, 'The Kick Inside' when it was released. The magic had worked on me. And I bought successive album releases on vinyl, then on cassette and then on CD. In a sense I've grown up listening to Kate Bush, just a couple of years younger than Kate, but she was always so much older than me and took me to places I didn't know existed.

So, when the announcement was made that she would be playing at Hammersmith Apollo I could hardly believe it. And image my surprise when I was sent a fan pre-sale code to buy tickets before they went on general release. So I did, with seats in row H for Friday 5 September. The eighth row? I was ecstatic. My ecstasy rose when I heard that the stage had been extended over the first few rows which meant I was now in the fourth row.

But September is so far away…

And then I read a review of the first show in August and knew what would happen and then avoided any other reviews.

Friday finally arrived and I wore the Most beautiful Shirt in the World (only worn to see Buffy Sainte-Marie and Amanda Palmer - and now Kate Bush).  The afternoon dragged and I whinged at work wanting the clock to hit 5 o'clock and then it did and I was off. Missed a District Line train and had to wait six minutes for the next  - will I be late? No, of course I won't, it's only six minutes! I got on the train and sat down and then two stops later Chris got on wearing his irritable commuter face - what are the chances of that? He'd got a bus to Sloane Square from Battersea and just happened to get on, not only the same train as me, but the same carriage and the same part of the carriage. Weird.

Having arrived hideously early we got chips at the chip shop round the corner from the Apollo and did the long circuit walk down to the river and back while we ate them and then joined the snaking queue. At 6:15pm the doors opened and we slowly entered the building to my amazed mutterings of 'it's gone green' and, indeed, the decor is now peppermint and pistachio following it's refurbishment. Straight up to the balcony merch stand to get show books and tee shirts with a mere 25 minutes queuing to get served and then to the bar. The old curtain has been removed form the back of the bar and you can see the lovely art deco windows and Hammersmith flyover (which was a very odd experience). Then downstairs and into the stalls to find our seats… in the fourth row.

And then more weirdness - Clive and Angus on the other side of the aisle. Last time I'd seen them was at the ICA a couple of years ago when we were all dripping from an unexpected downpour to see a documentary about Elaine Stritch. Stress-relieving gossip ensued. Then we took our seats and waited.

At 7:45pm the band walked on and took their places on the raised platforms and then on came Kate Bush followed by five backing singers/actors, doing a slow shuffle onto the stage wreathed in smiles. Sorry, did I just say that? Kate Bush came on stage? Really?  Yes, really.

And there she was, this strange creature of legend, right in front of me. Long hair, long tassels on the sleeves of her black coat and barefoot (I winced slightly at the feet - what if there was a stray pin on the stage?). And then I heard Lily's voice talking of salt and magic and Kate launched into (the 'Director's Cut' version of) 'Lily', only one of my favourite songs! That was Kate Bush up there y'know, singing to me, smiling at me and having the time of her life being worshipped by all these people from all over the globe coming to see her show in west London. And me, of course.

As all the reviews tell you, the first half hour is traditional gig territory with 'Hounds of Love', 'Running Up That Hill', 'Top Of The City', 'Joanni' and 'King of the Mountain'. 'King' ended with a massive cannon explosion shoving lots of pieces of paper into the air with the words from Tennyson that inspired the Ninth Wave on the second side of Kate's 'Hounds of Love' album. Now the theatre would commence!

And it did, with a video of a man ringing the coast guard about a sinking ship and then we had the video of Kate in a floatation tank singing 'And Dream of Sheep' and the Ninth Wave began. Fish People all over, shipwreck, a whale's ribcage, a life-buoy and a helicopter strafing the audience with search lights - it's all in there as we hear and see the tale of a woman drowning. It was very spectacular and brought the song cycle to life by seeing what Kate meant it to be. Rising from the ice dead to be replaced by a raven image, struggling to reach the life-buoy and then being carried off stage and into the audience by the Fish People. Big wow. And then a curtain dropping from the ceiling with a feather motif as we're allowed an interval and the stage is re-set.

Phew!

The second half opens with a big door opening and it's snowing inside as a mannequin walks out (with his handler dressed in black). This is the Aerial suite, 'A Sky of Honey', in which Kate's son plays the Painter character.  This is all about birdsong on a sunny afternoon leading into evening and the full moon. I liked the inquisitive mannequin who visited the musicians and Kate playing the piano (again barefoot) but didn't like it when Kate's son told him to 'piss off'. That's not nice.

Birdsong saturated the sound for the second half, lots of bird images sweeping and diving, lots of laughter and lots of soundscapes. And then trees came crashing out of the heavens onto the stage (and one went right through the grand piano) and the crescendo approached in 'Aerial', building and building, with Kate turning partially into a bird and, in the final scene, taking off to fly! Wow, that was spectacular! Just a flash of her taking off and then lights out! Astonishing!

The lights came back up for bows and then all left the stage. And Kate came back on stage to sing 'Among Angels' at the piano, alone, before the band joined her for 'Cloudbusting'. She encouraged us to sing along to the chorus so I am now *officially* a Kate Bush backing singer! That was amazing and she left the stage covered in smiles. And I clapped and clapped. And then that was it, it was all over. I'd seen this legendary being and sang with her and smiled at her and clapped at her.

I've seen Kate Bush!

Kate Bush Night on BBC4

That woman. Yes, I watched the programmes about Kate Bush on BBC4 on Friday as the prelude to her live shows in London and yes, I'm astonished all over again. I remember her first single, 'Wuthering Heights' in 1978 and bought her first album, 'The Kick Inside'. And every album since then. Well, it's the law isn't it?

I loved that the program started with Viv Albertine and John Lydon talking about Kate, two punk heroes talking about this strange creature who wasn't punk but wasn't, well, anything really. Kate was and is her own brand. Bat for Lashes and St Vincent, Neil Gaiman and Tori Amos all talking about Kate was great and not a single word from Kate herself. Her live shows started at Hammersmith last night and that makes all the difference. I've got tickets to see her on 5 September and I can't wait.

The reviews have been fabulous and the show sounds spectacular. She graced the front pages of all the nationals this morning and was in the TV and radio news on the hour. All of her albums are in the download charts. There's a lot of excitement around Kate and I can't wait to see her next week. The witch has woken!

Kate Bush - Before The Dawn

If you've been living in a box on the far side of the Moon then you might not have heard that Kate Bush is returning to the stage for live shows at Hammersmith Apollo (or the Eventim Apollo as it now seems to be called) between August and October this year. Hammersmith was the site of Kate's last live gig in 1979 so it's fitting that she returns there for this residency of 22 shows.

Kate is doing what she can to ensure that tickets aren't simply hovered up by ticket agencies and touts by limiting the number of tickets anyone can buy to four, all of which will have the buyers name printed on them and the buyer will have to provide photo-ID to get into the venue. It'll be interesting to see if this works or if it just leads to huge queues getting in but well done to Kate for trying.

This morning there was a pre-sale for fans on the mailing list and, luckily, that included me so I managed to bag two excellent tickets near the front and centre of the stalls. Excited? I should co-co! Then I thought 'what if the show is even more fabulous than I expect it to be and need to see it again' so went searching again and found great tickets in the balcony for a different night... and sat on them.... for five minutes... until it timed out. By buying more tickets means that someone else probably won't see Kate at all whereas I'd already bought excellent tickets. Is that foolish? Does anyone actually care?

I care. I usually feel guilty getting into gigs and show in advance of a general sale - well, I do after I've bought tickets, obviously - but that's the way these things are done these days. That's why I maintain my Southbank membership for things like Meltdown that go on sale to members a few days before general sale, just like this pre-sale. But it can mean that lifelong fans don't get into shows because they weren't on the right mailing list or something. I'm not sure what else can be done and that's partly why it'll be interesting to see whether the ticket restrictions for Kate's gigs will work and whether others will follow her approach.

Tickets go on general sale on Friday morning at 9:30am and you just know the Internet will be burning with people chasing tickets. At least, after selling out the pre-sale in half an hour this morning, another seven shows were added so there's more of a chance for people getting tickets. I might throw my hat in the ring again in the general free-for-all.

Good luck people and thank you Kate.

"... She's Not Working on The Checkout"

This afternoon my boss noticed my 'Poly Styrene' signature metal badge on my jacket, except she read it as 'polystyrene' with a puzzled face. I then had to explain who Poly was in increasing detail as she backed away realising that asking about my badge had opened the floodgates. Luckily this meant that my new, much younger, colleague could state that he knew about X-Ray Spex, had some songs by them and liked the current bunch of punk bands. Punk isn't a musical genre to me, it's part of my personal history.

That started me thinking about punk on the train home (and I've blogged about it before). Coincidentally, I was listening to Viv Albertine at the time.

As I left the train I remembered Chumbawamba's 'Girlsong' about Poly that includes the line, "She didn't understand why only boys were allowed to be in bands". She was brave. Poly started a band after seeing The Sex Pistols and started gigging. There weren't many women in bands and especially not fronting bands. Most women singers back then wore fancy frocks and sang ballads, playing the sex symbol and adding a bit of sparkle. They weren't rockers although there were always exceptions like the leather-clad bass player Suzi Quatro. Suzi opened doors and the punks kicked them wide open.

There was Poly and Siouxsie and The Slits all finding their own way, writing and performing their own music and creating the way for more women. There was Patti Smith, Debbie Harry, Chrissie Hynde and Pauline Murray and, a little later, Pauline Black and The Selecter. Kate Bush was, of course, her own creation. They were powerful women and they probably didn't know the impact they would have. They just wanted to get up there and sing and play their songs.

Poly dressed in her own creations and sometimes dressed like her mum while Siouxsie wore stockings and underwear making it clear that it was her choice and you couldn't touch her. That was empowering and a powerful lesson. They dressed and acted as they wanted to, not because they fit in with a certain role. They were their own templates and role models because no-one had travelled there before. They did it for the first time.

I can't help but wonder where it went wrong, where women became objects again. Where Beyonce bounces her bum and Gaga wears a dress of steaks and Miley "twerks'. That's balanced, I suppose, by Amanda Palmer, Theoretical Girl and She Makes War.

The women of yesteryear did so much to carve a new path for women musicians and it's sad to see that restricted again. I was listening to Viv Albertine today (centre top in the photo below) and one of her songs, 'Confessions Of A MILF' includes the great line, "I chose being an artist over being a wife, I will have a lovely life".

This photo from 1980 shows Debbie Harry, Viv Albertine, Siouxsie and, in the front row, Chrissie Hynde, Poly Styrene and Pauline Black. Great heroes indeed!

The message of punk was always 'be yourself'. I always try to be me.