Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds @ Dahalla Sweden.

On hearing about this gig in a disused quarry in Sweden, we planned a whole holiday around it, starting in Stravanger, Norway and ending up in Stockholm, Sweden.
It is nearly in the middle of nowhere, a few houses, plenty of trees and lakes, although we stayed in Rattvik some seven miles away on the shores of Lake Siljan.
So this is being written some six weeks after the event with a need for reflection to describe what we saw. We were lucky to get down the front when the auditorium was opened up so managed to stand 3 or 4 from the crash barrier in the middle and right in front of the walkway that linked the stage to Cave's walkway that ran across the front and ontop of the crash barrier.

Jesus Alone (VID)

Magneto

Do You Love Me? (VID)

From Her to Eternity (VID)

Loverman (VID)

Into My Arms (VID)

God Is in the House (VID)

Red Right Hand (VID)

The Ship Song

Love Letter

Girl in Amber

Tupelo

Jubilee Street (VID)

The Weeping Song (VID) (VID2)

Stagger Lee  (VID 1) (VID2)

Push the Sky Away (VID)

City of Refuge (VID)

Rings of Saturn (VID)

Frankie Vah (by Luke Wright) @ Soho Theatre, London

Mid week (again), 'lets go out tonight' conversation, but a quick check at our local Clapham Picturehouse, did not spring up anything interesting as we seen the decent ones already. So quick look at the Soho Theatre and up jumped this.
As usual, never heard of it, but looked interesting, and tickets quickly secured.
Top floor theatre, three floors up, with Clash/Cure pumping out, about 40 patrons.
What followed over the next hour was Luke Wright through poetry, verse, dialogue, and words, words, words, telling the story of Frankie Vah in the years of 1981- 87
By himself, a couple of props and at least 20,000 words. (an amazing achievement in itself)
Couple of nice coincidences, saw John Cooper Clarke two months earlier, a neighbour was on the Greenham Common women's defence, and I was wearing my Doc Martins (and a blue suit).
It was visceral, it was emotional, and such great and convincing delivery.

After seeing the great Bryan Cranston's performance at the National Theatre a few weeks ago, this was up with it but even better.
Top marks Luke, I was glad I shook your hands afterwards.

Isle of Dogs

Just see it. Guarantee that you would not have seen anything else like it. Then the biggest surprise of all, filmed in 3 Mills Studios in London's east end (Between Stratford and Canning Town) in a converted brewery. Top marks for the animators.

Great Tracks No13. Adore by Savages

Cant help but think that this track taken from their Adore Life album of 2016 is more operatic than a good majority of operatic arias. Just play it full blast!
You just could not concede that a post punk all female group could produce a song of this magnitude. Saw them at the El Ray Theatre in LA for the first time to be followed up at a magnificent performance at the 2016 EOTR with Jehnny Beth literally walking onto top of the audience rather than crowd surf. A great group.

Great Tracks No12, I'm the Slime, by Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention

Released in 1973, three years before Paddy Chayefsky's Network film was aired that deals with the same subject, this is almost pantomime like in its production but even back then a reminder of that little box (then) that has found its place in everybody's home. Network makes reference to 21" screens, nowdays more like 55".
Also worth noting the final line before the repeat chorus, "Until the rights to you are sold", is now echoed in several episodes of the great Charlie Brooker written Black Mirror series that is available on Netflix.

I am gross and perverted

I'm obsessed 'n deranged

I have existed for years

But very little has changed

I'm the tool of the Government

And industry too

For I am destined to rule

And regulate you

I may be vile and pernicious

But you can't look away

I make you think I'm delicious

With the stuff that I say

I'm the best you can get

Have you guessed me yet?

I'm the slime oozin' out

From your TV set

You will obey me while I lead you

And eat the garbage that I feed you

Until the day that we don't need you

Don't go for help . . . no one will heed you

Your mind is totally controlled

It has been stuffed into my mold

And you will do as you are told

Until the rights to you are sold

That's right, folks

Don't touch that dial

Well, I am the slime from your video

Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video

Can't stop the slime, people, look at me go

I am the slime from your video

Oozin' along on your livin' room floor

I am the slime from your video

Can't stop the slime, people, look at me go

Network @ The National Theatre, London

This adaption of Paddy Chayefsky film Network which won four Academy Awards back in 1976 is simply the best thing I have ever seen staged at a theatre. Gobsmackingly so.

The set, in The National Theatre's Lyttelton Theatre is a set to wonder, containing among other things, a TV station control room, a fully functioning restaurant and bar serving a three-course meal with drinks to ticket paying patrons, (could not get a ticket for there), a Kitchen serving the restaurant, changing/makeup room. a huge screen centre stage rear and behind the glassed-in control area another bank of TV screens. And finally, the large central area where some but not all of the action takes place.

Then on top of that, there are at least four camera people recording the whole action which we can see on the various screens especially the large central one. At one point, two actors are filmed walking outside live between the NT and BFI as they talk and in the same movement walk out on stage.

To put it colloquially, Un-Fucking-Believable.

And then there is Bryan Cranston, taking on the Peter Finch role as Howard Beale which won him the Oscar in 1977. Perfectly cast, perfectly performed, with some brilliant set pieces, not only to the audience in the theatre, but to the camera which was only feet away from him and which we saw everything in minute detail. Loved his venture out into the audience where he sat between two young men and his grimaces to their somewhat inane (hardly surprising) replies to his questions that was relayed to the rest of us via the huge screen.

Standing ovations at the end, with a huge cheer going up for Cranston himself when he took the second bow alone.

Only eight performances left for this Sold Out season, returns only and a limited amount for Wednesday 21st March but you have to queue for them. If the NT revives the play again, no doubt with another lead actor, it does not matter as it will be someone equally as well suited and capable as Cranston, 

JUST GET TICKETS!

BRILLIANT!

The actors leave the stage, the house lights come up, but it is not finished. On the big screen, from I think Gerald Ford, the presidential acceptance ceremony is relayed, just the formal acceptance words. The audience hold back because they can see where this is going, all quiet from the viewers until Obama when a huge cheer goes up. And then Trump with the acceptance played out in full. Absolute derision and boos etc before someone to the left of us and above the cacophony shouts FUCK YOU. Applause and laughter all round and we all leave.
Except, a number of the issues espoused by Howard Beale and his I'M AS MAD AS HELL, AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE THIS ANYMORE! speech is exactly what bought Trump to the White House. Food for thought.

Great Track No 11. Essence by Lucinda Williams

I first heard this in 2007 whilst driving on Oxford's Eastern bypass between the Heyford Hill and Abingdon Road roundabouts. Johnnie Walker was playing it on the radio, I had heard her name mentioned a few times before but never had knowingly heard anything. This track certainly made me sit up, making that mental note to find out more.
Some five or so months later we managed to see her for the first time at the Empire, Shepherds Bush. She played Essence then and every other time we have seen her perform (but not when I bumped into her in LA)
The voice has changed somewhat, that can be heard even between the original recording in 2001 to the live performance in 2005 but the song is just as strong as ever.
The track in on the eponymously titled Essence and there are so many other strong songs on it, including, Blue, Out of Touch (great version on the live album), Are You Down, Reason to Cry and Bus to Baton Rouge.
Essence comes in a very rich vein of albums from Sweet Old World, Car Wheels on a Gravel Road, Essence, World Without Tears, and West. Just dont forget the various ones either side.

Great Tracks No 10: September Fields by Frazey Ford from Indian Ocean

Just love this album. The stand out track is September Fields, which incidentally was when I missed seeing her perform at EOTR due to being elsewhere at the festival.
A unique voice with tremendous support from Al Green's backing band Hi Rhythm Section, a lush production recorded in Memphis. This is not a soul record but a laid back anthem to those lazy days by the gentle lapping of the Ocean itself.
Two every notable tracks are Natural Law and the title track Indian Ocean.

Lady Bird

 A lovely film, reminded me of Boyhood (which was better and should have won the Oscar that year) but nevertheless, an extremely enjoyable watch.
What is the world coming to? Three very decent American films on the bounce.
One thing to note, the use of the word c**t by the leading actress, that is three occasions in recent weeks that I have heard it on the media, becoming more acceptable as the ultimate swear word?

Anyway, see it.

Three Billboards Outside Ebbing Missouri

We saw this film in the back row of the very cosy, Minema screen at the Curzon Bloomsbury. This is now my smallest auditorium I have ever been in with only 30 seats. One large screen though. Another first was sitting in a sofa seat.
The film, bloody excellent with such strong central performances from the cast and not surprising that Frances McDormand got the BAFTA. Although Sally Hawkins from Shape of Water must have pushed her hard.
Also the director Martin McDonagh, from Camberwell, London deserves praise too, also director of one of my other favourite films In Bruges.

Two mentions to the soundtack, The Felice Brother's Radio Song has an extensive play during a bar scene early on yet fails to make the official soundtrack. Somewhat strange as other than three other songs the rest are hardly heard. One of the others is the closing song, Buckskin Stallion Blues sung by Amy Annelle and worth further exploration.

So what is the better film, Three Billboards or Shape of Water?
Its a close run thing but Shape of Water gets it by a nose simply because of its scope of imagination. Otherwise they are as good as each other.

STOP BREXIT

Will put out a hi res image if I can lay my hands on to share.

Dr. John Cooper Clarke @ O2 Academy, Cowley Road, Oxford

Some two and a half years after seeing the good doctor at EOTR which due to the rammed full big tent and heat I had to leave after two poems and some banter, finally managed to see a full set.
All seated, downstairs of around 500 middle aged patrons, and not the young crowd that JCC refereed to half way through the set. Maybe it was his dark glasses. And a full 75 minutes long.
His usual scatter gun approach to poetry with words coming out of his mouth at a rate of knots. How does he remember them all.
Well sometimes he didn't, other times reading from his own note books which were stacked up beside him on stage.
Some of the banter went on a bit in a ramble, some bordering into northern club comedian territory, or was that irony.
Anyway, a good laugh all round and listening to the various comments overheard as we emerged into the Cowley Road afterwards, much enjoyed by everybody.

Three poems are memourable, evidently Chickentown, Beasley Street and the updated, Beasley Boulevard.
 And here they are, and reading them through they are special.

EVIDENTLY CHICKENTOWN

The fucking cops are fucking keen

To fucking keep it fucking clean

The fucking chief’s a fucking swine

Who fucking draws a fucking line

At fucking fun and fucking games

The fucking kids he fucking blames

Are nowehere to be fucking found

Anywhere in Chickentown

The fucking scene is fucking sad

The fucking news is fucking bad

The fucking weed is fucking turf

The fucking speed is fucking surf

The fucking folks are fucking daft

Don’t make me fucking laugh

It fucking hurts to look around

Everywhere in Chickentown

The fucking train is fucking late

You fucking wait you fucking wait

You’re fucking lost and fucking found

Stuck in fucking Chickentown

The fucking view is fucking vile

For fucking miles and fucking miles

The fucking babies fucking cry

The fucking flowers fucking die

The fucking food is fucking muck

The fucking drains are fucking fucked

The colour scheme is fucking brown

Everywhere in Chickentown

The fucking pubs are fucking dull

The fucking clubs are fucking full

Of fucking girls and fucking guys

With fucking murder in Their eyes

A fucking bloke is fucking stabbed

Waiting for a fucking cab

You fucking stay at fucking home

The fucking neighbors fucking moan

Keep The fucking racket down

This is fucking Chickentown

The fucking train is fucking late

You fucking wait you fucking wait

You’re fucking lost and fucking found

Stuck in fucking Chickentown

The fucking pies are fucking old

The fucking chips are fucking cold

The fucking beer is fucking flat

The fucking flats have fucking rats

The fucking clocks are fucking wrong

The fucking days are fucking long

It fucking gets you fucking down

Evidently Chickentown


BEASLEY STREET

Far from crazy pavements -
The taste of silver spoons
A clinical arrangement
On a dirty afternoon
Where the fecal germs of Mr Freud
Are rendered obsolete
The legal term is null and void
In the case of Beasley Street

In the cheap seats where murder breeds
Somebody is out of breath
Sleep is a luxury they don't need
- a sneak preview of death
Belladonna is your flower
Manslaughter your meat
Spend a year in a couple of hours
On the edge of Beasley Street

Where the action isn't
That's where it is
State your position
Vacancies exist
In an X-certificate exercise
Ex-servicemen excrete
Keith Joseph smiles and a baby dies
In a box on Beasley Street

From the boarding houses and the bedsits
Full of accidents and fleas
Somebody gets it
Where the missing persons freeze
Wearing dead men's overcoats
You can't see their feet
A riff joint shuts - opens up
Right down on Beasley Street

Cars collide, colours clash
Disaster movie stuff
For a man with a Fu Manchu moustache
Revenge is not enough
There's a dead canary on a swivel seat
There's a rainbow in the road
Meanwhile on Beasley Street
Silence is the code

Hot beneath the collar
An inspector calls
Where the perishing stink of squalor
Impregnates the walls
The rats have all got rickets
They spit through broken teeth
The name of the game is not cricket
Caught out on Beasley Street

The hipster and his hired hat
Drive a borrowed car
Yellow socks and a pink cravat
Nothing La-di-dah
OAP, mother to be
Watch the three-piece suite
When shit-stoppered drains
And crocodile skis
Are seen on Beasley Street

The kingdom of the blind
A one-eyed man is king
Beauty problems are redefined
The doorbells do not ring
A lightbulb bursts like a blister
The only form of heat
Here a fellow sells his sister
Down the river on Beasley Street

The boys are on the wagon
The girls are on the shelf
Their common problem is
That they're not someone else
The dirt blows out
The dust blows in
You can't keep it neat
It's a fully furnished dustbin,
Sixteen Beasley Street

Vince the ageing savage
Betrays no kind of life
But the smell of yesterday's cabbage
And the ghost of last year's wife
Through a constant haze
Of deodorant sprays
He says retreat
Alsations dog the dirty days
Down the middle of Beasley Street

People turn to poison
Quick as lager turns to piss
Sweethearts are physically sick
Every time they kiss.
It's a sociologist's paradise
Each day repeats
On easy, cheesy, greasy, queasy
Beastly Beasley Street

Eyes dead as vicious fish
Look around for laughs
If I could have just one wish
I would be a photograph
On a permanent Monday morning
Get lost or fall asleep
When the yellow cats are yawning
Around the back of Beasley Street

BEASLEY BOULEVARD

Low-slung shady basement gaffs
Rooms of empty sound
Strip ribbon casements
With venetians halfway down
The Hocksten fin
With a nervous trim
And a fragrant disregard
It's an urban splash-art ghetto gym
Beasley Boulevard

Slates hung glutted and sated
Hunger has no home
Pampered, preened and patinated
In a multi-cultural tone
Looking good but lose the 'hood
Or lose your loyalty card
Here comes the neighbourhood
Beasley Boulevard

Noodle bars and poodle parlours
Studio bronze and ask
A street art tart in slashed pyjamas
And an Alfred E Neuman mask
Anything could happen
But it hardly ever does
There's a pub but the regulars are barred
Nobody there to harsh your buzz
On Beasley Boulevard

The Mall - the Maul - whatever you call it
Serves those glittering hoardes
Split decision spoilt for choice
And, anyway, ignored
You wanna shop where you don't need a cop
And nobody swipes your card
A fair deal and a bit on top it's
Beasley Boulevard

The fat man's grocer
The fop's outfitter
And the drunkard's licensee
And the guy who's giving everyone the jitters
Who's never been on TV.
'Never been on TV,' you say, 'How very avant garde!'
Black and white is pink and grey
Down Beasley Boulevard

A stringent disinfectant
With a most intrusive scent
Wreaking violence on anyone
Of an olfactorial bent
While health and safety
The bete-din
And the guys at Scotland Yard
Keep the area free from sin
Beasley Boulevard

Ring-a-ding-ding regime change
A long way overdue
But the dogs are gone and it's pale and strange
With a whole new kind of you
It's better than Paradise
If you don't look too hard
Made over nice n nice
A B&B you wouldn't be without
The BBC did a DVD about
BB Keys came to see about
BB King did a song in E about
A Garden of Eden in every yard
A phone box cleared of hookers' cards
They've got to promenade
On teasy wheezy easy-peasy

Beasley Boulevard 

The Shape of Water

Valentine's Day
Back row of the cinema.
And a fantastical love story on the screen in front of us.
What a wonderful, extraordinary film.
Could not take my eyes of the screen and although the seats were comfortable and laid back somewhat, I spent most of the film bolt upright.
Guillermo del Toro on form lets hope he gets best director.

I have another favourite film, following on behind his Pan's Labyrinth.

Courtney Marie Andrews @ St Barnabas Church, Oxford.

Just over a year ago I made a note on my phone, Courtney Marie Andrews, Honest Life. Thats all the memo said and so when just before Christmas a friend asked whether I was going to see her in Oxford. Well I wasn't but within an hour of that conversation I was. (also booked to see Nick Cave in Sweden in June at the same time...must have been feeling rather heady.
Looking back at that memo before the gig I tried to remember why I made that note and I genuinely could not recall. However I now know why.
First gig of the new year, and my first ever visit, despite living in Oxford for numerous years, to St Barnabas Church. Well that was one wow factor as we walked in and managed to find some seats just one row back from the front.
Then she came on, I thought she was sixteen singing about the experiences of a woman many years her senior. Great voice, great songs, two standing ovations and now Honest Life purchased.
Need I say more?
Must see her with the full band.