Antony and the Johnsons

Wednesday 27th July 2005 at 13:21 by Andrew Savage

Just Fuckin Sing

A grand piano. Never reviewed a gig with one of them before. Anthony & The Johnson’s are in Glasgow again after their previous ‘coffee shop gig’.

Have you ever seen the film ‘The Green Mile’? I’ll come back to that later.

It seems to have taken off for Anthony and he seems a bit bemused at how things have changed from his last visit. Anthony takes it all in his stride and the audience are reasonably quiet, I even heard someone knock over a plastic pint glass.

Just for reference the plastic pint glasses are very nice at the ABC and not those flimsy things you get at festivals and other venues.

Truth be told the first time I heard the album ‘I Am A Bird Now’ I found it quite difficult to get my head round the vocals. They seemed to swamp the music as they stood out so much but with further listens then quietly melded into the music and it all started to make sense.

The gig in the flesh works from the start. Even the songs I was not aware of were great to listen to as much as the ones I knew all the words too. The cover versions of Leonard Cohen and Velvet Underground pleased the crowd.

Some songs may sound a bit samey but this can be forgiven as the majority of the performance is intriguing. The musicians on violin, cello, accordion, acoustic guitar and backing vocals are exemplary. It almost sounds like I’m listening to the at home with my headphones on.

Anthony handled the friendly heckles with prompt fair and on many occasion had the crowd laughing and sniggering with his quick witted intelligent retorts. One hour and 15 minutes fly by and it’s not even dark when we hit the pavement of Sauchiehall Street.

Before the gig my wife thinks that Anthony sounds like how the big guy from the Green Mile if were to sing songs. In a way she is right, just like the film as we are sad when it comes to the end but we were grateful we were there to witness it

Industrial Duck Broken

Wednesday 27th July 2005 at 11:33 by Andrew Savage

NIN Barrowlands 07/07/05

Tech 1991. It might not mean much to you but that's where I was this evening. NIN delivered a live set which to be honest I didn't really know much at all. When the old songs kicked in I was taken back to what is now known as Caledonian University.

Times have changed since I was last there. When I first went there it was called 'The Tech'.  The main dance floor was upstairs, bar was on the ground level. You had to negotiate the stairs carefully as there always seemed to be a considerable amount of spillages on the stairs. I might be wrong but it always seemed to be cider & and blackcurrant spillages or was it snakebite?

Upstairs NIN were finding their feet on the dance floor to a mainstream audience. 'Head Like A Hole' was a favourite and got everyone up to shake their hair/dreads. Down stairs is a different and towards the toilets the back bar is a different kettle of fish.  It is the punk bar where we would occasionally go to have a drink but not linger to long. On more than one occasion you would see a trail of blood leading from the bar to the toilet across the corridor.

 There was also a guy whose name escapes me at the moment but he always had his hair clippers with him and would cut your hair if you were up for it. I'm sure Environmental Health would have a field day just now but for some reason it didn't seem wrong at all.

Back to the gig. I had a great time. It was nice to see guitars used in anger after all the lame 'indie' guitar bands I've seen live and witnessed on music channels. It's always nice to go to a gig with no expectations and just take it as it comes. I think I was at the other end of the scale from my friend Patrick. Looking forward to hearing the circumstances regarding his early ejection from the gig.

I couldn't name songs or sing along like most of the crowd but I did enjoy the change of scenery and the lights were spot on. Simple, to the point but extremely effective. I did not stay to the end as I felt I was leaving at the right time. Just as I was about to leave they played Hurt. The song Johnny Cash has brought to the forefront in the last few years. The crowd sung in unison and I left with a smile on my face.

I'm glad I went along as you shouldn't limit yourself to a genre of music.  It was a breath of fresh air. Not necessary my cup of (black) tea but I recommend giving music which you might otherwise give a wide berth a chance.

Live 8 Murrayfield

Friday 8th July 2005 at 11:26 by Colin Hardie

OF COURSE I DIDN'T FUCKING GO!

It was enough for me to try to watch it on the telly. I'd even gone so far as to deprive the DVD player of stereo sound through my Hi-Fi to feed the Freeview box through there instead.

All of that to watch and listen to McFly do an acoustic song, Annie Lennox completely go off on one about fuck knows what and just generally to be reminded about how completely shit Scotland is at doing things like this.

It's a bit like the Tsunami Relief concert from a couple of months ago...a few diamonds in there, but getting completely occluded by a minority of complete and utter stinkers. For every Teenage Fanclub there's a Wet Wet Wet creeping onto the bill and so on.

Was I the only one smirking whilst watching Midge Ure (aye...Midge Ure!) singing "Vienna" with Eddie Izzard on piano getting absolutely soaked. I gave up the ghost after about 45 minutes and started channel surfing instead.

Very interesting documentary on BBC1 at the same time about a family from Wanstead who agreed to go and live in a remote African village for a fortnight to experience what it's like. They lasted one night in their mud hut before demanding tents outside the village 'away from all the shit' and 'decent food'. No wonder the big chief wasn't happy. He should have rushed 'em at dawn.

The Dad is out in the middle of nowhere and says 'the views aren't nuffink special - you get as good as this in England'.

Weird the more I see and read about Africa in the media, the more I want to go....