Alela Diane at The Luminaire

I went to see the rather marvellous Alela Diane at The Luminaire in Kilburn tonight. The Luminaire is a new venue for me but I'd thoroughly recommend it. I'd also recommend Alela.

I found Alela Diane on MySpace following a rather convoluted search for Buffy Sainte-Marie which eventually led me to Mariee Sioux and then to Alela. I listened to her tracks on MySpace and downloaded a couple to enjoy and when I saw that she was coming to London I thought, 'why not...?'

The evening kicked off with Madam, a duo who were rather dirgey and made me think of 'goth-folk', followed by Simone White who had a nice voice that seemed to have some of the vocal mannerisms of Suzanne Vega. I quite liked some of the songs (especially the new single) but why do folkies have to mumble when they talk to the audience? She was clear enough while singing.

Then came Alela, accompanied by partner (?) Tom on bass guitar for most of the set. For some reason Alela stood in shade while Tom was in the spotlight which was odd. As soon as Alela started singing I knew I'd made the right choice in trekking up to Kilburn.

Alela has a wonderful clear, powerful and expressive singing voice and a lovely guitar picking style that made it sound like there were several people up there playing. She played the few songs I knew and a lot more. My favourites were 'Dry Grass And Shadows' and the encore song, 'The Rifle'. Her lyrics are intriguing, painting strange and sometimes disturbing pictures, other times witty or joyful, with the simple backing of two guitars. She played for about an hour (or just under) after which I headed straight for the merch booth to invest in her album and was also given an A4 tour poster as a bonus.

I'm pleased I went to see her. It's nice to discover new music and just goes to show that you shouldn't miss opportunities to see live music. I had a nice evening and now have a new musician to enjoy.

Beginnings and Endings and Some Things Go On Forever

I started my spinal conditioning class with the physios at St George’s in Tooting this morning. All the exercises were familiar from previous gym or physio sessions so they weren’t a shock but they still stretched me a bit, even though I was doing the ‘starter’ easy versions of the exercises. It’s nice to finally start that phase of my long and boring recuperation.

After the phsyio class I headed into town to see my surgeon at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital for my follow-up consultation. I got there a bit early so had a little wander round, re-visiting the Holy Flying Mackerel outside my previous ward and the operating theatre on the fifth floor to say goodbye since I didn’t expect to be back.

When my time came I had a short chat with the surgeon about the bits of disc still in my back which, he said, would be eaten up like Pacman over the next 18 months. The rest of it is just a case of getting over the operation and back to normal. So much disc was removed that I’m always going to have back problems so I need to do what I can to prevent further problems, losing more weight, possibly taking up pilates and staying fit.

While we were talking my SLADE badge fell onto the floor which I effortlessly bent over to pick up, something I wouldn’t have been able to do a few weeks back. That reminded the surgeon that ‘Cum On Feel The Noize’ was the first single he ever bought when he was 7 years old. So. It seems the Lords of Noize were watching over me all along...

I thanked him for his help while I needed treatment and, as he said, the rest is up to me. And I left the hospital for the last time. It was a strange departure in a way and a bit emotional which is odd since I have no ties there at all and, with the exception of the surgeon, my treatment there was very poor. Walking back to the tube I decided I'd send the surgeon a thank you present - I'll burn 'Cum On Feel The Noize' along with 'I'm Mee, I'm Now And That's Orl' (the 'B' side of the single) and send it to him. He's given me the gift of a normalish life again so the least I can do is give him the gift of Noize.

After that I decided I deserved a treat so got the tube along to the National Portrait Gallery to see the 'Devotional' exhibition, all contained within one small room. And there was the portrait of Poly Styrene by Pennie Smith right beside the door, next to Millie Small and underneath Linda Lewis. I saw the portrait last November in the NPG archives since it wasn't on public display so it was nice to see it on the walls, all proper-like.

There are two 'big' exhibitions at the NPG at the moment, one is the annual portrait award and the other is 'Daily Encounters' about photo-journalism. I didn't go to either exhibition but had to chuckle at the poster outside on the railings advertising it - the Sex Pistols! 30 years on and the Pistols are still a draw! I wonder if they know about this exhibition? Needless to say, I bought the card with that photo of the Pistols, all nice and clearly reproduced.

Amanda Palmer - Guitar Hero - 3rd August 2007 - Bush Hall

This is one of Amanda's new songs. The video is a nice reminder of a great night!

Amanda Palmer-I Will Follow You (Live Bush Hall 3-Aug-2007)

I was sitting on the floor mere yards from Amanda as she sang this. The sound isn't too good but it gives an impression of what she was like.

Phone Photos

I *like* my new phone. Mobile phones seem to either go down the route of having music as the secondary characteristic or a camera. I love my iPod and I like the idea of always having a camera with me, so I'm going down the camera route.

My latest phone is a Sony Ericsson that includes a 3.2 megapixel camera. It has lots of functions, a fantastic zoom and a great flash. The main drawback is the delay between pressing the button and the shutter taking the photo, which means it doesn't really capture motion. But I love it anyway and here are some of the photos I've taken in the past week:

Big Ben on my way to work walking over Westminster Bridge (yes, I know I was late... and I know Ben is the bell...). Sometimes I think I'm so lucky to work in the centre of London with the west entrance to Westminster Abbey a mere hundred yards from my building.

Parliament overlooking the Thames. I like the way the focus blurs the further away the building, a nice effect that was a total accident.
The South Bank Lion always looks so sad to me. He's perched at the southern end of Westminster Bridge and looks south-west.
St Paul's Cathedral in the distance from the promenade outside the National Theatre. It's scenes like this that make me love London.

The entrance to St Leonard's Church in the centre of Streatham. There's been a church on this site for over one thousand years and this is just the latest building which has suffered from some rather bad renovations. Within a hundred yards or so of the church is an Islamic Centre, a Catholic church, a synagogue, several pubs, a betting shop, a sauna, two Chinese medicine shops, a Christian bookshop ... all life is here.The grave-yard at St Leonard's. It's surprising how peaceful it is and yet it's merely yards from the hustle of the busy High Road (you can see a red double-decker bus through the screen of trees and bushes at bottom right).The park cafe under the trees on Tooting Common. The Common is a haven of peace surrounded by the bustle of south-west London and it's surprisingly big and spread out. I had a nice stroll round the Common and it was full of mothers and babies enjoying the afternoon sunshine. I liked these pollarded trees along one of the paths on the Common .
This was quite poignant. On several of the paths are various benches with small plaques dedicated to the memory of local people who have died. In the centre of this bench is a small boquet of flowers tied with string under the plaque. It isn't a recent dedication, so someone has a long memory and fondness for the departed.The pond in the middle of the Common. It was renovated a few years ago, the banks shored up and new pathways paved around the water so that people could get closer and walk round it in safety. The ducks were feeding while I was there and the white blob on the left and the paler shape on the right are a pair of swans. The oddity of Westminster Cathedral at Victoria. There was some kind of gathering going on in the plaza at the front. It's quite nice inside and at Christmas you can see huge trees lit with candles from the doorway. The colours haven't quite come out in the photo, but I was struck by the fresh green of the bamboo leaves against the blue of the afternoon sky. The bamboo was peering above the wall of a garden outside my gym and it caught my eye.

A Few Good Women

It's time to promote and praise a few women who have one thing in common - they're all my 'friend' on MySpace. Okay, so most of them probably don't actually *know* that they're my friend, but that's a mere detail.

Amanda Palmer

Amanda is playing at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe at the moment and reading this review in The Scotsman and seeing the wonderful photos of Amanda from the Livejournal blog of Two-Truths (whose photo was also used in The Scotsman) made me want to fly up to Edinburgh at the weekend and see the show for myself. She's sold out. The shows I mean. Drat.

So here are the great photos from Two Truths (who I hope doesn't mind me nicking them and reproducing them here). It looks like the lads from Zen Zen Zo (who performed at the Roundhouse in support of The Dresden Dolls last year) are helping out in the pics.



Linda Thompson

Linda Thompson has one of those wonderful voices, raw and powerful, delicate and swelling with emotion, but seems to be a niche taste. I like her. One of my favourite albums is 'First Light' by Richard and Linda Thompson which isn't currently available on CD (I got the vinyl back in the day). Well, she has a new album out this week (I think, I've seen different release dates) and it deserves a mention.

While Googling for a photo of the album I came across a torrent site that already has the album available for download. That's sad. I'll wait and buy the real thing. You can catch a preview of some songs on Linda's MySpace site - I love the brass band on the title track! I'm looking forward to hearing the full album.

Siouxsie

A must buy at the earliest opportunity is Siouxsie's new album, 'Mantaray', available in September. The 'Into A Swan' single (I posted the video in July) is released a week or so earlier. Samples of the music are available on the 'Mantaray' site so go and have a listen.

Michelle Shocked

Michelle also has a new album out in September and is playing at Union Chapel in Islington on 6 September. Needless to say I have tickets.

I don't know anything about the album and found out about it by accident but I like Michelle. Her last album was a triple album that was released as a triple and as three single albums so, I suppose, it'll be a relief to only have one new album this time! I'm looking forward to seeing her play and hope she includes some of the oldies (I like the way she updates 'Anchorage' so that the babe in the song is now at college).

Dawn Right Nasty

And I couldn't blog about women without mentioning the new endeavour by her former highness, the RedHairedQueer herself, Dawn Right Nasty. Dawn's new club night is MisterSister (gosh, I wonder what that refers to?) and opens this Friday. Since Amanda Palmer's shows are sold out then we might have to trundle along to Vauxhall, although I doubt I'll be boogying on down at 3am... But you've got to admire someone who has some dreams and ambitions and tries to make 'em happen.

Deborah Harry

Debbie also has a new album out in September and deserves a mention. Debbie is an icon. Enough said.

It must be difficult being Debbie 30 years on. We all know and love the old stuff (I got the re-issue of 'Parallel Lines' only a few months ago) but she wants to go forward and produce new stuff. I'll suspend any judgement until I've heard the full album and I fully expect to like it.

Suzi Quatro

Of course, I can't blog about current and future endeavours of my MySpace women without an honourary mention of Suzi's new autobiography, 'Unzipped', that I blogged about below.



That's not a bad haul is it? Makes it a costly month for me though!

Suzi Quatro 'Unzipped' at Borders

Suzi Quatro's just published her autobiography, 'Unzipped', and is on the promotional trail. This evening was her first stop and I was lucky enough to be there to see her at Borders on Charing Cross Road.

At 6.45pm I was standing outside Borders on the phone to Chris and who should walk past me and go into the shop? Suzi! She actually walks on pavements the same as everyone else (but she has 'people' with her, of course). Wearing jeans and a tailored leather jacket over a tee shirt, she's looking good.

Upstairs in the music section of the shop, a corner is prepared for the talk, with rows of seats and a comfy arm chair at the front for Suzi. I squeeze into a seat just as she comes round to get the ball rolling, maybe 50 or so people seated and standing. She spoke for maybe 15 minutes about why she wrote the book, telling us about her "ego room" of memories in her house, and then took questions for about 25 minutes, including a 5-10 minute monologue about her great hero, Elvis. Then the ritual of signing books.

It was really nice seeing Suzi again so quickly after seeing her at Wimbledon, and I told her I enjoyed seeing her there. She's been at this game a long time but it means a lot to people like me to see a true star from yesteryear and the great thing is that she's still playing live and recording new material and not stuck in nostalgia-ville. I'm looking forward to a good read...

'Rafta, Rafta...' at The National Theatre

Tonight was a joyous and uplifting experience being part of the audience for 'Rafta, Rafta...' at the National Theatre. Why can't all theatre be like this (yes, I'm refering to the run of 'nasty' plays I saw in the spring)? I'm so pleased to have seen this at last, my faith in theatre restored.

'Rafta, Rafta...' is based on 'All In Good Time' (as all the posters and programmes make clear) but is set in Bolton and the protagonists are an Indian extended family. This gives the set designers free reign to have a gloriously colourful house (that seemed very '70s to me) as the set, living room and kitchen downstairs and two bedrooms upstairs, just as in any Bolton terraced house. The eldest son has just got married and his wife is coming to live with him in his parents house, and that's where the problems start. The first act is the wedding evening and the second is six weeks later and the couple haven't consumated their marriage, the groom having problems knowing his parents are in the next bedroom. Will they? won't they? Hhhhmmmm....

I thought it was a very well written and wonderfully acted play. The writing was very clever, subtle and blatant by turns, exploring family and marital relationships in quite an insightful way with some occasionally poignant moments. I could certainly recognise myself every now and then in the son's relationship with his father. It touched on a range of 'hidden' family issues - has the marriage not been consumated because the son might be gay? does the bride's father have too close a relationship with his daughter? And overlaid on all this is the experience of immigrant parents leaving their homes for what they think will be a better life and the distance between them and their children. A thoughtful play with an understated sting in the tail.

The chief characters are the parents, the marvellous Meera Syal and Harish Patel. I've admired Meera as a writer, actress and comedian for many years but Harish Patel was an unknown quantity to me but he's a genuine Bollywood star and was excellent in this play. Between them they had the audience laughing and crying by turns, playing well off each other. Harish was the well-meaning father who just can't help himself saying the wrong thing at the wrong time, bumbling through life and the life and soul of the party - everyone likes him. Meera plays the classic mother, smoothing things out, occasionally with a very sharp tongue, protecting her family. I loved her accent, switching from flat Bolton vowels to rapid staccato Hindi-English in a very naturalistic way. I loved the applause at the end of the play which was heart-felt for all the players but exploded for Meera and Harish, and deservedly so.

I laughed, my eyes got moist a couple of times, it made me think, it made me feel warm. I *liked* this play and this performance. Go and see it - you'll regret it if you don't.

Amanda Palmer at Bush Hall

Amanda Palmer played at Bush Hall last night.

~ Start review ~

Amanda was wonderful and gives good hug.

Sigh.

~ End review ~

Oh. You want to know more? But you've already read the most important thing... Oh, OK.

Amanda only announced this gig a couple of weeks or so ago, presumably as a warm up to her season at the Edinburgh Fringe. She has a lovely tendency of promoting other bands and had two support acts that she came on stage to introduce and endorse personally (I liked Christian Silva). And then it was her turn, appearing at first on the balcony in a pink tutu with a ukelele strumming to 'Creep'. She then vanished and ran down stairs to continue singing as she paraded slowly through the crowd to the stage, with the audience joining in the chorus. Up on stage, grinning from ear to ear, off came the tutu and on went a white shirt (forgetting about the flower behind her left ear for the first couple of songs) and on with the show.

Amanda and a piano and that was it. No Brian on drums, no fancy light show, no acrobats or mimes, just the lady herself. She has a really powerful voice and sings from the heart (or the crotch, I'm not sure), just opening her mouth and this amazing sound emerging, unafraid and direct. Bashing away at the keyboard and singing, Amanda treated us to a variety of new songs and covers, some of the new songs destined for the album expected next year. I particularly liked 'Leeds United' and 'Guitar Hero' so I hope they're on the album. It was quite brave of her to sing so many new songs rather than the Dresden Dolls crowd pleasers. She did a lovely version of 'Material Girl' (with friend on violin) that I'd heard via her MySpace site but didn't expect to ever hear live. This led into the wild piano solo that started 'Half Jack', a song with a chorus that sticks in the head and that closed the show. Phew!

We were standing near the front of the stage but after a while I just had to move so went to stand near the back. I didn't get such a good view of Amanda but could still hear her fine so enjoyed her and the space to move around. Clapping and cheering after 'Half Jack', looking towards the stage, and this little person in white walked past me towards the back of the stage... um, what? It was Herself going to the (appropriate) Boston grand piano at the back of the hall for an encore and we all crowded round, and Amanda asked us to sit. On that sticky floor? Oh, OK. A moment of panic about how I was going to manage to sit down and then once I was down my first thought was 'o shit, how am I going to get up again?' with one arm across the small of my back to protect it from stray legs, knees and bags. But there she was, a few feet away from me at the piano...

Swigging from a bottle of Corona, she played 'I Will Follow You Into The Dark' (a MySpace favourite) and the glorious 'Me And The Minibar'. Afterwards, as she stepped through the crowd, I put up my hand to shake hers and she grabbed it and held on (I think she was using me to help her balance) as she moved past. What a thrill - I'm never washing that hand again.

Aglow with joy and into the bar to top up on diet coke (the barman tried to give me the wrong change, deliberately) and shortly after, who should appear in a sparkly sequinned turquoise blue cocktail frock? O yes, Herself come to cavort and kiss and sign and have another Corona (well, she's earned it tonight).

When it came to my turn to meet Amanda I took my life in my hands and asked her to sign my copy of 'Yes Virginia' inside which I had a few of the photos I took at the Roundhouse gigs last November and her response was 'O wow!' asking if I'd taken them, saying she hadn't seen any like those before and asking me to send them to her (she wrote the email address on the back of one of the photos). She signed the record for me and one of the photos and then gave me a big hug for a photo, draping herself round me. I'm never going to wash at all now! And I'm not publishing that photo here, it's *mine*.

Chris then had a nice chat with Amanda, pointing out his Patti Smith 'Horses' tee shirt and saying that that's where we first saw the Dresden Dolls two years ago, at Patti's Brecht night and at the free gig afterwards. We sat on the floor for that gig too. Amanda stole my heart back then and she did it again last night.

There you are. My night with Amanda. Now, I'd better find a big e-envelope to put those photos in, stamp 'em and send 'em off through the wires to Miss Palmer.

Until It's Time For You To Go

I bought a Bobby Darin collection today. I don't really know anything about him other than a few songs but was feeling adventurous and, anyway, he once sent Buffy Sainte-Marie 13 yellow roses so he must be okay.

There were a few collections in the record shop but I went for 'Feelin' Good' because it included Buffy's 'Until It's Time For You To Go' and I've never heard his version of the song. It's one of Buffy's early songs from her second album ('Many A Mile' in 1965) and it's one of her songs that seems to have been recorded by virtually everybody that was anybody in the '60s and early '70s. The version that always springs to mind is the one by Elvis which was a hit in 1972 (I have vague memories of seeing him singing it in a video recorded at his show in Vegas).

I think of it as a remarkably adult song (particularly for 1965), not a lovey-dovey 'love will last forever and we'll be happy ever after' type of song. It's also a modern song that addresses life in the 20th Century and beyond, snatching moments of love and closeness in our busy and fleeting lives. Two lines of the song sum it up for me:

Although I'll never in my life see you again

Still I'll stay until it's time for you to go

Buffy's version of the song is a celebration of life and love, resigned but determined to wring the last ounce of love from the situation. It's a beautiful song. Bobby Darin's version seems almost mournful by comparison. It's not a sad song at all.

I'm lucky enough to have a version of Buffy singing the song that's never been released on CD as far as I know. It's a crackly 7" vinyl single recorded with Gershon Kingsley and his Chorus and Orchestra and features an accordion which makes me think of this as the French version of the song (very left bank, if you see what I mean). It's a lovely version of the song and would be perfect for a rarities collection of Buffy's songs. The 'B' side is 'The Flower And The Apple Tree'.

The lyrics and a short note about the song are on Buffy's Creative-Native site. Even better, go to iTunes or your download site of choice and download the song so you can listen to Buffy singing it as it's meant to be sung.

Oh, and the 13 yellow roses? That's not hearsay or gossip, that's a memory that Buffy mentioned when she introduced the song when I had the honour of seeing her in concert in Canada in 2005. Happy memories.