Marianne Faithfull - the Royal Festival Hall

Last night we went to see Marianne Faithfull at the Royal Festival Hall on her 50th anniversary tour. She's broken her left hip and thigh and came on with a walking stick and had a big, sturdy chair to sit on to sing a song and ease the pain every couple of songs. Every movement made me wince in sympathy but she still gave us a two hour set of classic Faithfull songs. This is Marianne's 50th anniversary tour and a mere couple of breakages isn't going to stop her.

I've seen Marianne in many modes over the years. I first saw her in, I think, 2002 when she was in rock chick mode at the Astoria (of sticky carpet fame, now demolished) with a heavy band belting out loud guitar music. The last time I saw her was just her and a guitarist giving a very different take on some of those well known songs.

The first album I bought of Marianne was 'Broken English' bought on musi-cassette in the early '80s. Marianne thought she might be dying while recording that album and wanted to leave a legacy behind her and that's the album that revitalised her career and her art. In the '90s I bought her Island Records anthology but it was after seeing her that first time that I started to properly explore her works. And that included seeing her live whenever possible.

When she first came on she came to the front of the stage and out of the blue gave us her Richard III impression using her walking stick before stepping back to the microphone and opening with a raunchy 'Give My Love To London', singing about Kensington and dancing under the moon in Piccadilly and Pirate Jenny. 'Broken English' was introduced early in the set followed by 'Witches' Song' and the explanation that she was doing a mix of her big songs and the lesser known, lesser performed songs because she thought they were worth listening to. They are indeed.

We were given a '60s Corner' with a lovely version of 'As Tears Go by' (obv) and a 'Junkies Corner'  kicked off with 'Sister Morphine' that morphed into 'Late Victorian Holocaust' from the latest album.  In between the corners we had a rocky version of 'The Price Of Love' because she liked the Everly Brothers and a thumping 'Marathon Kiss' that she explained was written for Emmy Lou Harris but given to her to sing (I always like the refrain of 'Fearless when I'm with you').

I've never understood why people think it's okay to shout out at Marianne during her concerts, especially when she'd said at the start that she only hears through one ear these days, but that didn't stop the shouters. I was emphatically pleased when she put down a shouter who shouted out 'name-dropping again' when she named someone who co-wrote one of her songs and she basically said she couldn't make out what was said and please don't do that since it puts her off. That shut people up for a while but then they started again with random shout-outs.

She took her time explaining the background to 'Mother Wolf' from the new album, which is basically based around a book she read while bed-ridden about women and transposed that to Kipling's 'Jungle Book' where she takes the role of the wolf who fights for and brings up Mowgli. She made it clear in the introduction that she didn't have much time for the modern world, hence for the refrain using  the word 'despise'.

Marianne is always worth seeing live if you can and especially on Saturday night. She is a true artist - doesn't necessarily always get it spot on but always worth a listen. And she's lived the life that gives the right to comment on the rock life. I loved 'Broken English' and 'Ballad of Lucy Jordan', 'Sister Morphine', 'Marathon Kiss' and the fearsome 'Mother Wolf.

After a standing ovation and lots of bows Marianne obliged one last song - she was standing centre-stage with her stick while the band marched off stage so it didn't take a genius to realise they'd come back while she stood there. And it was 'Last Song' written with Damon Albarn, with the refrain 'We saw the green fields turn into homes' which is close to my heart since I've seen it myself. More bows from her and the band and then she was gone, slowly and watching her feet, from the stage.

That was Marianne Faithfull y'know, the original rock chick that became an artist and demonstrated a new way for a woman to be a rockster. She's still creating and we should all be grateful for that. I am.

Yoko Ono's Meltdown 2013

The annual Meltdown festival takes place on the Southbank in London every summer, between June and August, and each year is curated by one of the great and good. Previous Meltdown's have been curated by David Bowie, Morrissey, Anthony Hegarty, Ray Davies, Patti Smith, Richard Thompson and a range of other artists over the years. 2013 was the turn of Yoko Ono.

Yoko was a guest at Patti Smith's and Ornette Coleman's Meltdown festivals so it was about time she had her own festival and what a festival! She, of course, had to include political activism and brought over two members of Pussy Riot from Russia and Peter Tatchell to do a talk, she gave us the Silent Disco (DJs played music into wireless headphones for the dancers to groove along to while we looked on puzzled and guessing what songs were being played), Peaches re-created Yoko's 'Cut Piece', the John Lennon Educational Bus was there and a host of other events and performances as well as the big shows. The other morning Yoko tweeted us to join her on the roof of the Queen Elizabeth Hall at sunrise to enjoy the birds singing.

This year I attended more shows than in previous years. I saw the Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band open the festival (and I treasure my Onochord), saw Siouxsie and Viv Albertine twice, saw the powerful 'Battleship Potemkin' with a soundtrack by Pet Shop Boys, Patti Smith give us an evening of words and music, and Marianne Faithfull and Boy George both did gorgeous singing and talking. Ten days and nights of art in all it's various forms, all down to Yoko.

It culminated with a show I didn't see, a live recreation of John and Yoko's 'Double Fantasy' LP with music provided by Sean Ono Lennon and the Plastic Ono Band and guest vocals from Peaches, Patrick Woolf, Lene Lovitch, Patti Smith, Boy George and Siouxsie amongst others. The encore was Yoko and Siouxsie singing 'Walking on Thin Ice'.

All I can say is wow, what a festival! It wore me out so I hope Yoko is going to have a break when she finally gets home. She was tweeting links to videos of the shows this morning so she's still being active. She also tweeted Boy George this morning to say he's looking much younger than she remembered and asked if he was in love. I really love it that Yoko can ask questions like that. She's a treasure.

Thank you, Yoko, for a great Meltdown that brought so many of my favourites to the Southbank to play. I wish I'd met you to say 'thank you' personally. I tied a wish to one of your wish trees at the Serpentine Gallery last year and it came true, for which thank you. You've raised the bar for Meltdown - that's going to be a challenge for whoever does it next year!

Thank you, Yoko!

Marianne Faithfull at Meltdown 2013

Marianne Faithfull, accompanied by Bill Frisell on guitar, played at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night as part of Yoko Ono's Meltdown. Marianne did talking and singing and Bill did guitar playing and miscellaneous guitar fanciness. No band this time.

Marianne had a rapturous welcome and launched in 'Broken English' to open her show. She was on for about 1.5 hours and it was very much a songwriters set with Marianne name checking the writers of the songs and a few words about them or her response to them. It was nice hearing her talk about the songs she sings and mentioned an album due out next year that she's making with Bill and with Steve Earle.

She sang three songs from 'Broken English' and the rest were from the 80s onwards with two exceptions. She sang her first hit from 49 years ago, a song she proudly said was written for her but not who wrote it (although we all know), 'As Tears Go By', and she gave us a touching version, almost of a mature woman looking back at her younger self. I couldn't help but think of her with her hair cut short for the video of 'We Love You' while she sung that song.

She also gave us 'Rich Kid Blues', a song she said she has only recently come to terms with since it reminded her too much of her bleak years as a heroin addict living rough in London. For some obscure reason mentioning being a heroin addict brought cheers from some misguided people at the back of the hall - Marianne certainly wasn't proud of it and looked pained.

At one point she lit up a cigarette on stage (which also brought cheers) because she needed it and then realised she had nowhere to stub it out so dropped it in her glass of water. She said it was due to the emotion of the show and I believe her. She also said that she hates being disapproved of by Yoko for smoking so she pretends she's given up smoking when she's with Yoko. Cat's out of the bag Marianne!

People were shouting out the songs they wanted to hear and that annoyed me. Marianne has probably spent weeks deciding on just the right running order so she's hardly likely to drop all that planning and practicing with Bill to play the song you want. So why do it? And why do people turn up late for gigs with clearly advertised start times? And by late I mean an hour late. What's that about? Get a watch!

Favourite songs were 'Vagabond Ways', 'Crazy Love', 'As Tears Go By', 'Tower of Song' and 'Strange Weather' (which was the encore). I also liked 'Boulevard of Broken Dreams', 'In Germany Before The War' and 'She'.

I will always love the 'Broken English' album which I remember buying on cassette way back when and she sang three songs from it - 'Broken English' opened the show, 'Working Class hero' which she said she'd better get right because it was Yoko's Meltdown, and 'Ballad of Lucy Jordan' which closed the show - her version of the song is perfect, a vision of bleak loveliness, sadness and hopefulness.

By the end of the show she seemed to be more relaxed and welcomed the standing ovation. I look forward to seeing Marianne play live again, hopefully next year to promote the new album.

Yoko Ono's Meltdown 2013

If you've looked at this blog before then you're probably familiar with the annual Meltdown festival on the Southbank in London. Every year someone is chosen to curate a festival of art and music. Past curators have been David Bowie, Morrissey, Patti Smith and Ray Davies. This year it's the turn of Yoko Ono.

I've seen Yoko at past Meltdown festivals, as part of the ensemble at Patti Smith's Meltdown and full (and quite astonishing) Plastic Ono Band gig as part of Ornette Coleman's Meltdown. I went to see a retrospective of Yoko's work at the Serpentine Gallery last year. As soon as she was announced as the 2013 curator I knew we were in for a treat.

I'm a member of the Southbank to hear about and buy tickets to events before they go on general sale. The pre-sale for members was on Tuesday and the tickets go on general sale tomorrow, Thursday. I was lucky enough to get tickets to see Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band open the festival at the Royal Festival Hall, Siouxsie playing her first gig in five years, Patti Smith doing an evening of words and music in the intimate Purcell Room, and Marianne Faithfull and Boy George at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. 

That haul alone justifies the cost of my membership. I'm still mulling over trying for tickets to see Iggy & The Stooges and, of course, more events are still to be announced. I quite like the idea of seeing the film 'Battleship Potemkin' with the Pet Shops Boys soundtrack at the British Film Institute. No doubt, more will be announced in the next few weeks.

Thank you Yoko, I'm looking forward to this. I hope we get another Onochord at your gig!