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!

Boy George at Meltdown 2013

Boy George played at the Queen Elizabeth Hall as part of Yoko's Meltdown 2013 festival. His was the penultimate show with Yoko's 'Double Fantasy' show at the Royal Festival Hall closing the festival (just as she'd opened it ten days earlier with her Plastic Ono Band) in which he was also planning to sing (which explained the early start to the show).

I've seen George a few times over the past decade when he invariably wears his BeRude clothes, almost always a black suit with giant scarabs crawling over it or shiny skulls. It's nice to see he's moved on and great to see the new slimmed down George with his cheeky little beard and he looks much younger too. He's a great advert for a healthy lifestyle.

With a five-piece backing band and three backing singers, George strode on stage, the very picture of confidence, an artist who knows what he's doing and can do it with consummate ease. Instead of the greatest hits show I, and probably everyone else there, was expecting, he launched into a series of new songs, of three minute pop songs, and they sounded good. They're from his new album that will be released in, I think, November 2013 and what a great way to hear them first. The two that stick in the memory after a first listen are 'My God Is Bigger Than Your God' and 'Death of Samantha' (his cover of Yoko's song).

We did, of course, get some of the hits as well, including 'Do You Really Want To Hurt Me' and 'Karma Chameleon' (will he ever be allowed to stop playing those two?) along with 'Victims', 'Church of the Poisoned Mind', 'Everything I Own' and 'Satan's Butterfly Ball'. His voice was on top form and he moved about the stage with such ease, laughing and joking with the audience. It was a delight to see him happy and enjoying himself, telling us about the new album and a tour to be announced in the next day or so. I'm looking forward to both.

I don't know how George knows Yoko but it's great that she invited him to do Meltdown and it was lovely to see Yoko tweet him today commenting that he looks much younger and asks if he's in love? I smiled at that.

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.

Patti Smith at Meltdown 2013

Patti Smith returned to the Meltdown festival this week at the invitation of Yoko Ono (who was in the audience). Patti played in the Purcell Room in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, a small, intimate gig of words, music, chat and giggling. Patti's band were her daughter on piano and son on guitar and she played guitar and food-tapping (a much under-rated form of percussion). The signs outside said 'no photography' so I didn't but lots of other people ignored the signs. I sometimes do as I'm told.

We were treated to Patti reading some of her poems and extracts from 'Just Kids', her book about her friendship with Robert Mapplethorpe. She read a few passages from the book, including the letter she wrote to him that he died before reading. My favourite passage was Christmas night in 1969 when they walked up to Times Square to see the big poster saying, 'War Is Over if you want it, Happy Christmas from John and Yoko' since Yoko was in the audience sitting a few rows in front of me. Patti ended by saying they knew the 70s would be their decade and it was.

Patti sung some of her songs as well, with the stripped back sound of just piano and guitar which made them sound quite different to the driving rock sound we're used to hearing from her. She sang, 'Beneath The Southern Cross', 'Pissing in a River', 'My Blakean Year' and others. Before singing the mandatory 'Because The Night' (as her son said, it's her 'hit') she told us the story of waiting for her boyfriend - Fred, before they married - to ring her long distance and while waiting, she listened to the tape given her by Bruce Springsteen and wrote the lyrics to what became 'Because The Night' ("waiting for the telephone" makes sense now!).

We had a big sing along to 'People Have The Power' and to 'Banga' but my favourite was 'Ghost Dance' seeing Patti shake her hands as she shook out the ghost dance. It was eerie and almost shamanic seeing her put herself into the song and live it as she sang.

We also had her chatting to her children, reminding them that she would always have the upper hand since she changed their diapers. There was a short question and answer session and, when someone asked whether there was anything left that she wanted to do she replied by saying have you ever been in a library? There are millions of things she still wants to do, books to read, smiles to see, even shopping... and then she stopped and said, 'well, maybe not shopping' which brought out laughter from around the room. She's a really funny and giggly thing when she's given the space and it was lovely to see Patti in that mood.

Thank you Patti - until next time!

And here's *my* photo of Patti, taken three years ago at her signing of 'Just Kids' in Foyles on the Southbank. She was very gracious and patient that day with the hoards standing in line for a few seconds to be with her. And yes, I did ask if I could take the photo.

Siouxsie & Viv Part II - The Return - Meltdown 2013

On Monday I returned to the Royal Festival Hall to see the second gig from Siouxsie who, once again, was supported by Viv Albertine.

Viv played the same set as when she played on Saturday, including the two new songs only available on her double vinyl version of the 'The Vermillion Border'. She played:

Don't Believe
If Love
Becalmed
The False Heart
In Vitro
Still England (short version)
Life's Too Short To Be Shy
Couples Are Creepy
I Want More
Confessions Of A MILF

Viv had the same band as on Saturday with the addition of a violinist whose name I didn't catch. Laura (aka She Makes War) was still bouncing around on bass. They make a great sound and it's lovely to hear Viv live with a five-piece band around her. I loved her introducing the opening love songs with a reference to the New York Dolls, 'when I say I'm in love you better believe I'm in love L.U.V.'.

After the gig ended and everyone was leaving I saw Viv in the bar and headed straight over to say 'hello' - how could I not? I mentioned that I'd seen her at the 12 Bar gig in January and that I'd bought the vinyl LP on Saturday. She was a bit surprised at that since she didn't know it was out and asked me if it was on red vinyl, to which I replied yes. I prefer to think of it as vermillion coloured vinyl. I then left her to enjoy her night out with friends but it was great to meet her. She's a lovely person.

After Viv it was time for the majesty that is Siouxsie. Siouxsie also played the same set as on Saturday - the whole of 'Kaleidoscope' and a hits section - but with the addition of a second encore with 'Spellbound'. Siouxsie played:

Happy House
Tenant
Trophy
Hybrid
Clockface
Lunar Camel
Christine
Desert Kisses
Red Light
Paradise Place
Skin
Eve White/Eve Black
Israel
Arabian Knights
Dear Prudence
Cities In Dust
Loveless
Face to Face
Careless Love
Here Comes That Day
Into A Swan
Spellbound

It was great to see Siouxsie again, strutting round that stage and pulling shapes, once again dressed in white vinyl. Some pathetic people down the front kept launching balloons at her for some reason and she ignored them but during 'Dessert Kisses' she leaned down to shout 'fuck off' at them and, when someone tried to climb on stage she simply kicked them off and kept on singing. That's Siouxsie! After the song she said, 'why do people always have to piss me off during a slow dreamy ballad?' adding that it was probably one of her family who were in to see her tonight. At the start of 'Skin' she said that this was the kind of song in which to piss her off!

She again picked up her guitar to play 'Paradise Place' and again took up her bells to add percussion to 'Israel'. During 'Careless Love' she picked up one of the hats that had been thrown on stage and wore it during the song. After an intense 'Into A Swan' Siouxsie and the band left the stage and the lights stayed down. This didn't happen on Saturday so what was happening? Siouxsie then came back out to give us an exhilarating 'Spellbound', thats what! What an exhausting evening that was!

Thank you Siouxsie and thank you Viv!