Geo Wyeth - Soho Theatre Residency

Geo Wyeth has a short residency at the Soho Theatre in July. You might know Geo better as Novice Theory and it's under that name that he appeared on 'Later... with Jools Holland' back in 2008. I saw Geo a couple of times back then when he was part of Justin Bond's 'Lustre' show at The Soho Theatre when he played a waif with an accordion and sang a mesmerising song.

After seeing him live I downloaded his album, 'At The End We Listen' by Novice Theory. It's a collection of great lyrical songs with simple musical backing. He followed that up with the 'Ordinary Death' EP which was a bit more musically adventurous. He then gave us the 'Blackone' EP by Jive Grave, a band of experimental musicians. And now we have 'Alien Tapes' by Geo Wyeth.

'Alien Tapes' is probably the least accessible of his records - or rather the least immediately accessible of his records, but it grows on you with each listen. It includes an excellent re-interpretation of 'At The End We Listen' from his first record. I hear new lyrical and musical twists and turns each time I listen to the record. I'm really looking forward to seeing Geo perform these songs in July when I see him at the Soho Theatre in July.

When I see him I'll also get hold of the physical copy of the record. I supported Geo's Kickstarter appeal to pre-order the record so he could make it. He's bringing my copy over with him from New York when he comes here in July - he's already sent me a Bandcamp download code so I can enjoy it and I've listened to it a few times.

It's important - as a point of principle - that artists like Geo are enabled to explore their musical, performance and artistic boundaries. Where artists like Geo go today, who knows, but maybe pop music will follow in five years time? I doubt it, to be honest, but it's important that someone pushes the boundaries and who knows what might result from that? Geo is an artist and writes astonishing songs. Give him a listen and maybe go to see his performances at the Soho Theatre or download his music?

Here is Geo's appearance four years ago on 'Later..':

Fashion Statement

Dear readers, I had a surprise today when my uniform for my role as a London Ambassador arrived. And it is pink and purple.

Now, I've known it was going to be pink and purple since I first saw the design back in February on a training day, but it's another thing to hold it in your hand. It's bright but it's not as bad as it could've been. I won't be embarrassed to wear it (I probably should be but I won't be, I'm determined).

I received two polo shirts, a fleece jacket and a rain jacket, all in the same design and colours, plus a cap, a backpack and a water bottle, all themed to match the clothing. I also received the plain black cargo trousers that finish off the uniform. Unfortunately, I was rather aspirational when I gave them my measurements and my aspirations haven't been met. I'll have to get some, ahem, bigger trews.

I'm still waiting for the trilby hat but I'll pick that up nearer the time.

What do you think?

Maxïmo Park - 'The National Health' in Heaven

Maxïmo Park have returned and are firing on full throttle, with gigs and a new album, 'THe National Health'. I went to see the lads at Heaven in London on Friday night and a good time was had by all, including, from the looks of it, the band up on stage.

Heaven is not one of my favourite venues and it turns into a nightclub later in the evening, so bands need to be off and out in good time. In this case, the Maximos said their goodbyes about 10:05pm after playing for a solid 1:20 minutes, playing loud and bouncy music that made me happy. They opened with 'The National Health' and 'Hips and Lips', both from the new album, 'The National Health' and that got us off to a great start. They've been streaming the album on their website but I've studiously avoided listening since I wanted to hear the album for the first time through proper speakers but they brought a smile to my face immediately - this is the Maxïmo Park I fell in love with.

The set was a good mix of songs from the new album as well as favourites from the last three albums. We were given 'Girls Who Play Guitars', 'Questing, Not Coasting', 'Limmasol', 'By The Monument', 'Graffiti', 'The Kids Are Sick Again', 'Parisian Skies' and a whole lot more. The main set ended with 'Our Velocity' and the encore with 'Apply Some Pressure'.

The lads looked really comfortable up there on that small stage and Paul even managed a jump-kick without kicking the others in the head (which was a feat). I felt so proud of them. The sound was good and the lights were excellent, adding punctuation and emphasis to the songs without taking over the set. Naturally, I forgot my camera but here's a photo I found online taken from about where I was standing to give you an idea.

The new album, 'The National Health' is released tomorrow, Monday 11 June, but was available for download from Amazon today so, of course, I downloaded it. It's a great mix of out and out punky-pop songs and pure pop, happily bouncing along with some killer riffs and lyrical turns. It even has a *slow* song. Yes, I said a slow song - 'Unfamiliar Places' - with the refrain of 'Don't be scared of the life you're living... making decisions on your own'. It's lovely and reminded me that the first album was about growing up and leaving home and this has altogether more adult themes, with more darkness invading our lives as we grow older but with space for joy as well.

It's a great selection of songs with something there for everybody. Give it a listen. The deluxe edition includes an additional disc with acoustic versions of songs and videos so I know what I'll be buying tomorrow.

'Taboo' in Brixton

Someone's brave out there. A new venue in Brixton in south west London is going to stage 'Taboo', Boy George's musical about his experiences in the '80s. The Brixton Club House is making it's first foray into theatre by putting on 'Taboo' and you've got to give them credit for that.

I saw it a couple of times at The Venue off Leicester Square on its run over 2002-03 and enjoyed it (even though I cringed into a small, un-noticeable ball for the audience participation bits). Boy George was closely involved in the production and played Leigh Bowery in it. It'll be interesting to see how it's staged without George and with new actors. There are some very lovely songs in the show and it'll be nice to hear them sung again.

This new production is reported to run from 7 September to 23 December 2012 and I will definitely go to see it.

'Shakespeare: Staging The World'

I like this video for the new exhibition about Shakespeare at the British Museum. I like it on lots of levels. A dramatic video showing Shakespeare's characters wandering round London carrying bloody knives and dead bodies, a troop of men of war crossing the Thames, Cleopatra with a snake circling her arm, all moving inexorably towards the British Museum. Moody, solemn and serious, unstoppable mythic characters climbing the steps of the museum and invoking the spirit of Shakespeare.

I have no idea what the exhibition will actually be about or what will be on display but this has intrigued me. I like this still from the video with the characters walking towards the museum. Take a look at the video by doing the clicky thing below.

'Come Dancing - The Concert' - Theatre Royal Stratford East

On Friday evening I went to Stratford to see a concert version of Ray Davies' musical, 'Come Dancing'. I saw the musical a few times on its run at Stratford in 2008 and loved the story and the music. The concert version is part of the Open Stage 2012 season that includes other concert versions of musicals, including 'The Harder They Come' at the end of June.

The stage was set with microphone stands across the front and a couple of risers for the cast to sit at tables when not singing. There was some dialogue to keep the story going inbetween songs but the star of the show was really the songs, some beautiful and some rousing.

I was pleased when the actors started filing the stage to see them coming on in their late '50s costumes and even happier to recognise some of the faces reprising their roles in the original production. That was a bit of a surprise and very welcome.

'Come Dancing' is a tale of change in the late '50s loosely based on Ray's childhood but with lots of invented family details. The local Palais dancehall was the focus of the community and everyone went dancing on a Saturday night. Ray's older sisters and parents go there regularly and that's where most of the action takes place. We're introduced to older sisters Rose and Brenda on the evening of their younger sister Julie's first evening at the Palais. We learn that Julie was disabled by polio, has difficulty dancing and is nervous. As the story progresses we learn more about the family and the community, dead-end jobs and a need to escape, of violence and love. We meet Tosher, the local Borstal boy, Frankie the owner of the Palais and part of the old world of the big bands and Hamilton, recently arrived from Kingston Jamaica.

It's a lovely story with a wistful ending when we learn what happened to the characters over the succeeding 30 years. It's the songs that make it work and they're all original Ray Davies compositions with the addition of 'Tired Of Waiting' and 'You Really Got Me'. In the original production Ray opened the show by strolling on singing 'Tired Of Waiting' but in this version Tosher sings it to Julie on a bomb-site outside the Palais, he's tired of waiting for Julie. 'You Really Got Me' is a new addition and used as Tosher's bands' audition to play at the Palais (it got a rousing cheer).

The songs written for the musical deserve to be recorded - maybe one day. I was mulling them over in my mind on the train home and decided that Julie's songs are personal, written at an individual level looking to the future and yearning for change. The lads songs are more aggressive and about social change and revolution, that things will have to change and they will. From personal to social. I'm not sure I can imaging Ray singing Julie's songs but it's a sign of his skills that he can write convincingly and tenderly for a teenage girl discovering love and freedom for the first time, knowing there's more to the world than her neighbourhood but not knowing how to reach out for it.

I remembered the ending of the play and was ready for it but still got moist eyed when Julie comes on after everyone else has told us what happened to them over the years. Julie went dancing.

Panda Eyes

If you mention 'panda eyes' to me then I think of three things: 1) pandas, 2) Dusty Springfield, and 3) Gaye Advert (Black).

Gaye Black is part of a new art exhibition titled, 'Pandamonium' at the Signal Gallery. It was the Signal that hosted the small but fascinating 'Punk & Beyond' exhibition curated by Gaye Black last year so it's nice to see Gaye involved in another exhibition there.

I've said it before (and will probably say it again) but in the punk late '70s everyone loved Gaye Advert. Before Debbie Harry there was Gaye Advert. I suspect she hated being the poster girl for punk but at least she was never seen in anything other than a tee shirt and leather jacket. And, of course, her panda eyes.

Here's one of the grown-up Gaye Black's artworks in the exhibition - I love the pirate symbolism:

The Jubilee

This weekend celebrates the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II and today is the grand procession down the Thames, the Queen on the Royal Barge surrounded by one thousand other boats of all shapes and sizes. It's a shame about the weather and the grey sky, but London and the Thames is looking very pretty nonetheless.

I can't remember the Silver Jubilee at all. I have no idea what I did that day. I assume I stayed in my room and played records. That's what 17 year olds do, isn't it?

What did I think about back then? What were my hopes and dreams? I can't remember those either but I'm sure I didn't think I'd be sitting on the couch in my home watching a grand river pageant with the same Queen standing on her Barge 35 years later. I remember reading about The Sex Pistols playing a gig on a boat and being boarded and arrested by the police. It would've been a week later that I read about it in the NME. Who would've thought that Johnny Rotten would be a more mature John Lydon issuing his latest album with Public Image Ltd just a week ago and the BBC celebrating the occasion with a Punk Britannia series on BBC FOUR and BBC6 Music. For that matter, who would've thought there would be more than just two BBC telly channels?

I hadn't heard 'God Save The Queen' by The Sex Pistols at the time of the Silver Jubilee. I think I heard it for the first time when I bought 'Never Mind The Bollocks'. The record that turned me on to the Pistols was 'Pretty Vacant' later that summer. I can vividly recall sitting in our kitchen eating cornflakes for a late breakfast with the radio on. Kid Jenson played 'Pretty Vacant' and I was instantly converted. I finished my breakfast, grabbed my pocket money and got the bus into Newcastle to buy the single. I still have it.

Would anyone 35 years ago believe that I could carry a computer around in my pocket? Or that I could watch a Dresden Dolls gig live in Sydney in Australia in the comfort of my own home on a Saturday morning? Or that I would be going to the Olympics and that they would be in London?

There have been so many changes in the last 35 years, so many wonders and horrors. I have grown up and grown older but inside I'm the same. Moments of joy and moments of sorrow, little sadnesses. I can still reach for the ecstatic in the paintings of Fra Angelico and the simplicity of a beautiful flower display at the Chelsea Flower Show. And this afternoon, in the Jubilee pageant on the Thames, a moment of happiness seeing Joey from 'War Horse' canter across the roof of the National Theatre and rear up in salute to the Queen. He's not a puppet, he's a horse and a very brave one.

I'm sort of pleased that I live in a country where some mad people get their boats out and row down the Thames in the rain. That I live in a rather pretty city with a ridiculous number of people living in such a small area but, generally speaking, we all get along ok. I'm looking forward to welcoming the world to London for the Olympics.

Will I remember this Jubilee in a few years time? Probably not. But I will probably still be playing The Sex Pistols and Public Image Ltd. I'm a big kid really...

Amanda Palmer Says Thank You

Amanda Palmer's Kickstarter had 24,883 backers and raised $1,192,793 in pre-orders for her new record, art book and tour. I pre-ordered, of course. And Amanda, as a polite, shy and retiring young lady, who was brought up properly to say 'thank you', has given us all a very sweet and genteel thank you.

Her latest update opens with...

we webcast thursday from around 8 pm until...2 am? later? i dunno, i lost track.

first, let's holy fuck together. 

HOLY FUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

ok, gotta stop that, it'll get old.

to review the people-who've-called list:

rolling stone called, the new york times called, time magazine called, the new yorker called, the wall street journal called, billboard called, and the economist called.

they want their media back.

i might give it to them to borrow, but first i want a picture of 24,883 people holding my naked body aloft on the cover of LIFE. 

then we'll talk.

LET'S DO IT.

She announced the title of the new album yesterday, 'Theater Is Evil' and, shortly afterwards, changed it to 'Theatre Is Evil' when Twitter erupted in a spelling discussion and a poll on the Shadowbox. She's not only genteel and ladylike, she listens to her public.

To coincide with the closing of the Kickstarter on Thursday she threw an open party in Brooklyn, New York and invited everyone. Yes, everyone. She announced the location a few hours before it started on Thursday evening and about 500 people turned up. There was music and dancing and fire-eaters and a belly dancer and names, names, names. And then Amanda got naked by having the balloons that her dress was made of popped. She posted photos (of course). 

Amanda told us:

we had sharpie'd EVERY backer name on single pages of used phone books, filling up DOZENS AND DOZENS of books with the 24,000+ names.

yes, since you asked....it took a lot of people a LOT of time.

we hired a giant fish-tank-like enclosure and towed it to a parking lot in brooklyn. 

we got DJs, played crazy dance music, and threw a BIZARRE impromptu countdown party in which the band was more or less locked in the tank all night.

about 500 people showed up and helped us with the spectacle.

we wore swimsuits of the old fashioned variety.

from inside the empty tank, we SHOWED THE NAMES TO THE PARTY, AND TO THE WEBCAST as we counted down to midnight from 8pm...AND FILLED UP THE TANK WITH  ALL 24,000+ NAMES

My name was in that fish-tank.


And that is why we love Amanda and back her with our hearts and money. She's living her dream and, by extension, our dream, my dream. She talks to us directly, not through a management team, and shares secrets and photos with us, typos and all. She sends us new songs to play. And when we meet, she hugs us. I have a nice collection of hugs from over the years. I am looking forward to more hugs.

The world is a far brighter and braver place for having Amanda Fucking Palmer in it.

 

This Is PiL Ya Know

I bought two new records this week (well, I actually bought three but that spoils the story) by icons fron the '70s. I got 'This Is PiL' by Public Image Limited and '... Ya Know?' by Joey Ramone, both of which are very fab.  

The first song on 'This Is Pil' is called 'This Is PiL' and it's lyrical content is basically, "This is PiL... Public Image Limited... You are now entering a PiL zone... This is PiL..." and so on and so forth. The music builds from a simple drum track to add swirling guitars that gets more hypnotic by the second with John shouting the lyrics in an echo chamber. It's very simple and powerful and I like the sheer hubris of just repeating 'This is PiL' in various combinations for three and a half minutes. A challenge as well as a welcome. This is PiL indeed.  

Joey’s album is all that you’d expect. It seems to be getting mixed reviews which I don’t quite understand since it’s full of three minute pop songs, some with buzzsaw guitar and some not. It closes with ‘Life’s A Gas’, an acoustic song that at first I thought might be a T.Rex cover but it’s not. It finishes with the lines, ‘Life’s a gas, so don’t be sad cos I’ll be there, don’t be sad at all’ which brought a tear to my eye given that Joey was dying when he recorded it.