Cadgwith and Keynance Coves

A non stop four and a half hour drive down on Thursday afternoon from Oxfordshire, accommodation located and a hour and half rest then down to visit to favourite places last visited some 15 years previous.
Cadgwith unchanged except possibly a little tidier but picturesque in the evening light (what else would it be?). Then over to Keynance. Tide as expected was right in so no chance of getting over to Asparagus Island let alone the beach. Three other young women there who had been swimming (brave) and me. Not as great as it could have been due to the setting sun throwing everything into shadow but peaceful nevertheless.
One hour meeting in Helston Friday morning then a rather gruelling six hour non stop back home.

Purpose of one hour meeting? See below, Half of a continuous self supported spiral staircase. Will Mr Cameron et al be able to walk up it next month though? Rather doubtful.

Chip Taylor @The Bully, Cowley Road, Oxford

Angel of the Morning

This was close to being 'An evening with Chip Taylor' who through his nigh on two hour set supported by John Platania on lead guitar spoke at length between various songs of his life and upbringing. Nothing wrong with the format, and in some ways I wish their were more. I did manage the only question in the set when he described a trick played on him by his two older brothers, Jon Voight, the actor, and Barry Voight, the renowned vulcanologist....some family... and he wrote a song about them titled (I think) 'Bastard Brothers'.
Part of the song writing factory that included Carol King et al in New York during the 60s and 70s his two best known songs being Wild Thing (written in fifteen minutes...not surprising) and the far better Angel of the Morning. (see Youtube video shot from my lap in the front row, link at the bottom of photos above). But songs also for Johnny Cash which when he then sung a Cash song, sounded exactly like him. (but without the awful dump, dump dump of Cash's bass guitarist in the background).
John Platania backed Taylor on lead guitar in what was an easy workout for him. Some 40 years earlier, and only a mile away in Cotuit Hall one Saturday night, watched the Beeb broadcast of Van Morrison's Too Late To Stop Now show live from the great Rainbow in North London, and as Van says so clearly on probably the greatest live album available, 'and on guitar, John Platania'

A rather enjoyable evening.

Great Tracks No9. Svo Hljott by Sigur Ros

From its very quiet start, into a plodding almost step like rhythm as Jonsi comes in with his distinctive Icelandic vocalisation this songs builds up reflecting in my view an adventure through Iceland's landscape. Through hearing you can see waterfalls, glaciers, snow falling and finally building to erupting volcanoes as it reaches its crescendo.
Stupendous

Nick Cave @Royal Albert Hall, London

So finally we get to see Nick Cave and my continued love hate relationship with the Royal Albert Hall. Spectacular interior, people dancing as if little cameos in their own boxes, people standing up in the gods looking down, the domed ceiling with the acoustic dishes hanging down, set against still por acoustics, the snare drum bouncing off the rear.
Given that the other half was third in the queue at the RAH when they first went on sale the seats secured were not as good as I had hoped for, but at least NC sat at the grand piano facing us, but when he left the piano stool and confronted the audience, the powerful side light beamed straight into our eyes. The RAH has crap lighting.
For the first time ever i had the ability to purchase a recording og the gig directly after, which during a 3 and a half hour trip to London and back a couple of days later proved worthwhile listening.
This was, and rather appropriately, a gig aimed at the location, ballads, laments, love songs with Cave proving to be probably the greatest living post modern crooner in the business. Gone was the violent/disturbing/searing Bad Seed’s approach, a request for Stagger Lee, and I would have liked to hear it too, was rather brutally dismissed by Cave, (‘you might as well fuck off now’), although he did apologise immediately. No it was not going to be one of those gigs, a more suitable location would be required for that side of his and the full Bad Seed’s persona.
Unlike the weak bladdered, in constant need of a drink fellow audience members (another big grip for the RAH) who kept on getting up and down, passing by so we all had to shift (although swivel seats helped) with little regard to all those they were disturbing. And to the two pratts behind us who constantly chatted through numbers until those around started to complain to their faces. The guy next to me got up and started to go over the seat to get at them, thought he was going to deck them, Cave’s relationship with the audience could not have been better (the fuck off now was really a joke). He got down in with them, bought three up on stage for a group hug and even had a basic duet with one big guy who obviously knew every word. Cave was also generous in his thanks to the audience leaving the stage finally on after the second encore with a rendition of Push the Sky Away which was joined in by the audience in hushed tones.

Then there was a 20 minute queue to gather our pre ordered cd, a real production line was noticeable in entrance gate vestibule 9 with what looked like an optical cable running inside to the mixing desk. Even Tamsin Grieg the actress from the memorable Episodes comedy series, who was sitting just along from us had to queue. Once the cds were cut, then the queue moved quickly as they were placed into covers already printed for the tour.
Next Berlin a couple of days later.

9/10 (too many ballads) otherwise 10/10. (and for us, must see him somewhere less formal, Koko again please.

The photos above have a link to a video I shot using a small GoPro video camera. More atmospheric than pure recording of the performance. Did not know what the song would be in advance, just steadied myself and pressed the button.

Set List
Water's Edge
The Weeping Song
Red Right Hand
Brompton Oratory
Higgs Boson Blues
Mermaids
The Ship Song
From Her to Eternity
Love Letter
Into My Arms
West Country Girl
Tupelo
Black Hair
The Mercy Seat
Jubilee Street

Encore:
Avalanche
And No More Shall We Part
Breathless
Jack the Ripper
Stranger Than Kindness
Up Jumped the Devil
The Lyre of Orpheus

Encore 2:
Push the Sky Away

Larkin Poe @ The Bullingdon Oxford

Larkin Poe were a group totally unknown to me, but Mike at Empty Room Promotions was putting them on so must be ok. The Observer's quote about their performance at Glastonbury 2014 and touring with Elvis Costello bode well, so along we went to the revamped (again) Bullingdon on Oxford's Cowley Road.
The tight blackout room was just over half full when we went in and propped the bar up but by the time the sisters came on it was nearly full.
And they were more than OK
I was reminded of The Black Keys with hints of The Drive By Truckers with Rebecca Lovell on guitar, Megan Lovell of lapsteel guitar and a drummer whose name I did not catch but should not be forgotten as he played pedal bass at the same time.
Good vocals, impressive lapsteel guitar playing in the standing position (why dont we see more of this?) and great songs made it an excellent evening. Where have they been hiding?

A video can be seen here youtu.be/dhn21x8PUl8 

9/10

Savage Beauty @ The V & A London

Fashion is not something that concerns me but I was attracted by the odd previewthat surfaced on the media a month ago, so tickets were purchased for an early evening timed entry.
What a stunning spectacle it proved to be. Held in the same location as the 'David Bowie Is' two years earlier, it was a catwalk through his many shows arranged in various 'themed' rooms leading to the large double height room with manakins, shoes, headwear stacked in black boxes to all four sides. Centre piece was my eventual favourite 'No13' which is a dress that was shown at a show where the model wearing a white dress rotated around on a dias being sprayed with dye from two performing robotic arms.

Not to be missed, 9/10

Vintage Trouble @ KOKO, Mornington Crescent, London

Koko, Mornington Crescent, London. My favourite venue, a tight ex theatre on at least four levels and on  this night, packed to the rafters. Vintage Trouble are in town.
What followed in a lightning 85 minute set was an object lesson on how to entertain your audience. From driving R&B rock from the tight three piece lead, bass and drums (Nalle Colt, Rick Barrio Dill and Richard Danielson) to the charismatic Ty Taylor on vocals this was on hell of a performance. starting off with the band shaking each others hands, to finally leaving the stage and walking through the audience to make their way to the small front foyer to meet and greet all the Troublemakers as they left the auditorium with large smiles on their faces.
The first time I saw them was some three years previous in a 25 minute set in the middle of St Pancras Station and managed to have a little chat with Taylor and Colt they were approachable back then.  Later that year we saw them play a friends club The Plug, in Sheffield. with privileged access managed to sit on the stage right next to Dill and saw at close quarters the effort they put in. And it was there that I became aware of Taylor's penchant of going into the audience and wondered in this packed venue how was he going to repeat it. Should not have worried for about half way through a change to a roving mike signalled something was going to happen. It sure did, surfing the audience, running upstairs to the third level balcony, dancing in with the audience and on he went.
One last thing of note was the audience, an age mix which separated into two distinct zones. The oldies where generally found on the balconies with the youngsters down on the floor.

Brilliant. 9/10