I went to the platform event with James Macdonald, director of The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other yesterday. He had some interesting things to say. One thing he said that I've always felt strongly about this play is that you need very very good actors to do it. Dancers can't do it because you need people who can tell a story in a very short space of time. He said he'd met Handke in Paris and found him "very charming and entertaining" and forthcoming about the play.
In the Q&A, I asked him if there were any other Handkes he'd like to direct and he said not really but would like to see Offending the Audience staged. Another question that came from the floor is what would be the difference between the play and pointing a camera at a real square and recording the coming and going. This pinpoints an absolute lack of understanding of the play that seems to be dogging a lot of people. It is NOT a slice of life but a highly artifical, structured work of patterning and musical structure. If you don't get that, you're going to struggle with it.
I stayed on for the performance and found watching it a second time, I picked up much more detail (having re-read it a couple of times since first seeing it helped). I even heard the earthworm this time (joke). I did see some flaws in the production this time. Michael Coveney in his review described it as "more rooted in urban reality, less surreal" (than Bondy's production) and he's right, this is a weakness. It has to be played very truthfully but it's the surreal aspects that work best and there's a slightly prosaic feel to the production. Certainly, the design is a problem (something I didn't mention in my own review) and I'd like to see the set minimalised and preferably freed from a proscenium setting.
The curtain call was met with a lot of booing from one section of the audience. While this is not uncommon at the opera, I can't recall many occasions when I've heard it at a play. Are these the same sort of people who think all classical music is "shit" or feel the need to picket Harrison Birtwistle? One blogger writing about the play has said, accurately in my view, that anyone used to seeing contemporary dance or attending orchestral concerts would have no difficulty with this play.
Perhaps these are just people who are passionate about particular traditions of theatre and can't see over the edge of their ruts. They may just have hated it, which they are free to do, but anyone with any artistic sensitivity or judgement would be able to see that this is a fine production of a great work. I'd like to know what it was that they were booing.
It's sad that in this country many people are so hung up on content and can't cope with exploration of form. There again, this was just a small minority and most of the audience seemed enthusiastic, if a little bewildered.
It was leaked last November so it's a reasoble bet that it's been heard by a lot of people already, but on Monday 25th February Goldfrapp's fourth album Seventh Tree is finally available to buy.
For fans of Goldfrapp's last two electro-centric records who missed the debut, Felt Mountain, there's much to bemuse. And while there are rhythmic and atmospheric harks back to that first - still gorgeous - record, Seventh Tree is a more complete work than that, or indeed Black Cherry and Supernature.
Will Gregory has amassed some truly gorgeous synth sounds. On Cologne Cerrone Houdini there's a plunky bass that's surely straight out of Berlin's Take My Breath Away. And it does - this track seems destined to soundtrack an advert for chocolate. Or sex. Or maybe both together.
Caravan Girl is the poppiest moment on the record, but it's the hues and shades of the subtler songs that make this album what it is.
Anyway, John has reviewed it here. Four stars, he says, and that's despite no deviant theremin sex moments, for shame.
The whole shebang is streaming at their MySpaz page. What do you make of it?
Two of the words in this post's title began with the letter B. Neither of those words was "BRITs".
No, instead this post concerns something on a rather different level to being told that a superannuated boy band make the best music in Britain, and that somehow M.I.A. wasn't even worthy of a nomination, even if she'd wanted one.
Well away from Earl's Court, ITV and industry hand-wringing, musicOMH.com's netjetter-in-chief Alvin Chan has knocked up a little ditty of a feature on Beijing's burgeoning alternative music scene. You can read the fruits of his toil here.
One of the most intriguing points in his piece, at least to me, is the difference one live music venue can make, even to a city the size of the Chinese capital. Filling in a survey the other day, I was asked which was my favourite live music venue. I think there might be a blog post on that in the near future.
Congratulations to ENO for the coverage they've got out of the complete non-story of Paul Whelan singing from the wings at Lucia on Saturday. Nearly every TV news programme, and plenty of print media besides, have fallen for it. I don't know if the team at ENO did it themselves or if they got an agent in but they've done a great spin job. Well done to them.
Following its success throughout the awards season, the French biopic of Edith Piaf La Vie en Rose has been re-released today in cinemas across the UK. The film stars Marion Cotillard as the singer in a performance that won a Golden Globe and a BAFTA and has also received a nod from the Oscars.
I must say I'm quite dismayed by the reaction to Peter Handke's The Hour We Knew Nothing of Each Other at the National Theatre. While of course not all responses have been negative, for the most part it's been greeted with incomprehension and even some hostility. The extraordinary musical qualities of the work have been largely unrecognised and unappreciated by the critics and public alike. Why do people have such difficulty with abstraction when it comes to drama? Nobody pulls out their hair and screams "but what does it all MEAN?" when they hear Mozart.
Mind you, we have a rash of Harrison Birtwistle operas about to hit London, so maybe we're in for more of the same. I've been watching on Youtube the scenes that greeted the revival of his Gawain in 1994, when people actually picketed the Royal Opera House with placards, protesting against modernism in music. Unbelievable. I acknowledge that both Handke and Birtwistle produce "difficult" work that makes you work a bit but they are also among the most exciting artists of today in their respective fields.
The first trailer for the new Indiana Jones film is now online.
At least half is footage from the older films, but there's some definite whip-cracking, a few temples, some angry natives and Cate Blanchett. Check it out for yourself at www.indianajones.com
Portishead are back in our midst with a new album this year, and as if by coincidence, Massive Attack have emerged from the woodwork too.
In quick succession Robert Del Naja and co have announced a new album due for release in September, a Glastonbury Other Stage headlining slot, and now that they'll become the first group to curate the South Bank Centre's Meltdown festival. It's the 15th such shindig, and runs from 14th to 22nd June.
Massive Attack haven't been away as long as Ms Gibbons and Messrs Barrow and Utley, mind, but it's looking like a Bristol renaissance of sorts all the same. All we need now is Tricky.
The trip-hoppers of course follow in the footsteps of Jarvis, Nick Cave, Morrissey, Patti Smith, David Bowie, Lee 'Scratch' Perry', Robert Wyatt, Scott Walker and the late John Peel as curators of the event.
So who's playing? We don't know yet, but I reckon I can hazard a guess at three of the acts they'll be booking already. Want a clue? Two I'm thinking of are solo female singers. One's been around for decades and the other recently released her debut album. A third is, like Del Naja, a sometime pretty boy front man who's getting on a bit, but still definitely has what it takes, in various guises...
Whoever gets booked, the final word has to go to Michael Lynch, the SBC's excitable CEO: “Meltdown 2008 will be Massive!”
Two features up on the musicOMH.com site today: firstly a review of the DVD release of Michael Clayton, which is out to buy on Monday, fresh from its win at the BAFTAs and looking likely to scoop another prize at the Oscars... if they happen.
Secondly we have a competition to win Jumper goodies, though sadly we can't offer an instantaneous holiday in Egypt or even a nice jumper: you'll have to settle for hoodies and copies of the book. Entries for that need to be in by the 20th of February, so get thinking!
Tune in to BBC1 at 9pm tonight for all the posh frocks, dazzling smiles and tearful speeches from the BAFTA awards.
With writers still feeling militant over the pond, it's likely that the BAFTAs will take on more significance than usual this year. The Golden Globes were a mere news conference, and it's not yet clear what form this year's Oscars will take.
Not only that, but there are British entries in all the main categories, with Atonement amongst the favourites.
A full list of nominations can be found at the BAFTAs website.
UPDATE, 21:30 GMT:
Atonement was named as best film, Daniel Day-Lewis as best actor for There Will Be Blood and Tilda Swinton as Best Supporting Actress for Michael Clayton. But Julie Christie missed out.
Amid much OMGing from news sites' comments forums, the full extent of the devastation visited upon NW1 on Saturday night hit home.
Confusion amongst some news organisations was the only light relief from seeing a well-known part of Camden engulfed in flames. On BBC News 24 the newscaster referred to the Hawley Arms as a "nightclub". No, it's a pub. Here's the evidence:
Better still were the names of celebrities listed as regular clientele. Heard of "Neil Fielding" or "Neil Gallagher"? Me neither.
So yes, along with just about everyone from London who has anything to do with music, I've of course been to the Hawley too many times to count. Yes, the beehive was there more often than not, sat on her own, eating lunch and not being interrupted. I've interviewed artistes there (on one occasion the beehive interrupted proceedings) too - the upstairs area being popular for such activities during daytime.
Despite the pub's reputation in mainstream news media as some fantastical glittering nirvana for "troubled" singers, it really was just a decent boozer. Probably a tad passé for some of the more trendoid tendencies of this world now, but it had charm, especially in the afternoons when it wasn't too packed.
The people behind the Hawley had only a couple of weeks ago launched their second pub, Clerkenwell's Wilmington Arms, which has a gig space, and a small record label, which had just released its first single.
They're sure to recover from this, as are the Canal market traders whose livelihoods are also threatened by the inferno of 9th February. There will be a rallying round. And some time soon, when the refurbishments are complete, the Hawley will have an excellent excuse for a big relaunch party. Hell, they might even attract some slebs along. Here's hoping it's not too long before we can toast the Hawley's reincarnation. And maybe it should consider a name change to herald its new era. The Phoenix, perhaps?
Well, the nominations for the Olivier Awards have been announced and there's a surprise in the Opera category, with the inclusion of Pelleas and Melisande as Best New Production. While I didn't hate it as much as some people did, I would never have put it there (or La fille du regiment either). Here are the nominations:
Best New Production: La fille du regiment, Agrippina, Turn of the Screw, Pelleas and Melisande
Outstanding Achievement in Opera: David McVicar for Agrippina and Turn of the Screw, Natalie Dessay for La fille du regiment, Gerald Finley for Pelleas, Angelika Kirchschlager for Pelleas
Finley and Kirchschlager are both real favourites of mine but I don't think they deserve it for this production. I think my line-up would have been:
Best New Production: Agrippina, Turn of the Screw, Death in Venice (ENO), Gianni Schicchi (ROH)
Achievement: David McVicar, Deborah Warner (Death in Venice), Richard Jones (Gianni Schicchi), the RO's revival of Katya Kabanova
A shame that Opera Holland Park doesn't qualify or I'd have got L'amore dei Tre Re in there somewhere.
Maybe on a cybertrawl you've caught American comedian Sarah Silverman, playing her guitar and pouting into a camera as she tells boyfriend Jimmy the way things are, in this video:
Who'd have thought Matt Damon could do such a good job of a duet while playing himself so convincingly? Well I never. Quite the multi-tasker.
Anyway, I mention this by means of circuitously coming round to the kind of track I rarely hear. It's not only technically brilliant and full of hooks, but it's screamingly funny too, and at the expense of all the right people. Money Note is a first taster of Camille's new album Music Hole, which is due over here on 7th April. (Check out Wikipedia's explanation of what a money note is.)
Camille's last album Le Fil (2005 in France, 2006 in the UK) was an extraordinary recording based on a 'thread' or note, with the sometime Nouvelle Vague vocalist stretching and breaking her voice to create all sorts of sounds. These she'd then layer and loop into a modern-day symphony for vocal sounds and marry these to French and English lyrics. Björk's similarly a capella Medullah came nowhere near it. If Money Note is anything to go by, Music Hole looks like taking her on to another level again. I for one absolutely love it.
If, like me, you can't wait to hear Camille's new material, Money Note is available on a compilation CD (those round, silvery things people used to buy) called French Talent 08. Better still, Camille plays London's KOKO on 14th May - ahead of a series of concerts at Paris's beautiful La Cigale. So this time the French are letting les rosbifs in on the act from the off - what generous spirits they are. À votre santé.
In a recent review of an orchestral concert, my colleague Dave Paxton wrote, of a round of applause between movements, “(it’s) something that I greatly approve of incidentally: a warm, spontaneous show of appreciation seems to me far more preferable than the deadly reverential silence called for by some”.
Hmm, it’s an interesting point. If it is a genuinely spontaneous expression of appreciation, then maybe, but more often than not applause seems to be a way of an audience proving that it’s still alive, which doesn’t seem altogether necessary and is seldom welcome to those who have actually listened to the music.
It can be extremely insensitive, as intrusive as the mobile phone ring that ruined the end of this particular concert. I’m not a big fan of applause generally. I quite often leave a performance without having clapped (or very little) and I don’t think that’s disrespectful to the performers. It seems to be something people do just because it’s what you do, because it’s expected.
I tend to think of silence as less of an infliction than noise is (a bit like fresh air; no matter how unpalatable to some tastes it may be, fresh air seems to be less of an imposition on smokers than cigarette smoke is on non-smokers). But I’m aware that imposing things like silence, fresh air, good manners, freedom etc could be deemed as fascistic.
I guess you can’t please everybody – one person’s poison is another’s life blood and we have to tolerate some behaviour that we don't like. I would like people to think, though, about the act of slapping their wrists together (often resembling a performing seal), rather than just doing it automatically and indiscriminately. If you think about it, it’s a pretty daft thing to do. Like quite a few habitual human activities.
Following Michael's blog about the new music that's tickling his fancy, so to speak, I thought I'd chip in with my favourite new acts of the moment.
First up, The Gadsdens - a four-piece from London who actually don't sing in a regional accent, have piano based songs that don't sound like Keane and are fronted by a man with a voice that's a dead-ringer for none other than Tracy Chapman. Songs like Stalker's Tango and The Confession are stark, dark and moving, while Sailor Song just sounds desperately moving. They're unsigned at the moment, but that's sure to change pretty soon.
There are a hell of a lot of female singer / songwriters out there right now, but one that I keep coming back to is the appropriately named Emmy The Great. Emma-Lee Moss was born in Hong Kong and has been a regular fixture on the London gig cicuit for the last three years.
She's collaborated with the likes of Jeremy Warmsley and Lightspeed Champion, and Kate Nash can't seem to get through an interview without plugging her. Her MySpace page will give a pretty good idea of the literate, yearning folk on offer, but at the time of writing is missing Canopies & Grapes, a heartwrenching account of a relationship breakup.
Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip probably don't really count as a 'new act' anymore, but they're still a lot less well known than they should be. Le Sac provides the slightly barmy electro-pop backing over which MC Scroobius Pip quickly garbles out quick-fire, articulate rhymes. The Beat That My Heart Skipped should have been a much bigger hit than it actually was, but it's Thou Shalt Always Kill that proves the most addictive - a series of 'new commandments' which range from "Thou shalt not think any male over the age of 30 that plays with a child that is not their own is a paedophile" to "thou shalt not put musicians and recording artists on ridiculous pedestals" before reminding us that The Clash, The Beatles and Arctic Monkeys were "just a band".
Black Kids have been touted as a mix as The Cure and Arcade Fire, and as strange as that hybrid may sound it does actually work. They've already been blogged to death (helped by the free download release of the excellent Wizards Of Aaah EP) and are due to support both Sons And Daughters and Kate Nash in the next month or so. Expect to be bouncing around to Hurricane Jane and I'm Not Going To Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You (the latter already covered by Ms Nash) for the remainder of the year.
And finally, Glasvegas have already caught the attention with their dramatic Daddy's Home single, released at the tailend of last year. Feedback aplenty, waves of noise and broad Scottish accents all combine to create something some startling. The aforementioned single was a haunting tale of parental abandoment, but the forthcoming It's My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry will surely grab all plaudits - and not just for that memorable title.
Round about this time last year I'd already picked my album of the year, LCD Soundsystem's Sound Of Silver. I fear the same may have happened this year.
There are almost certainly other ***** albums waiting in the wings. But I've not managed to get Guillemots' Red, their second album, out of my mind even at other people's gigs. I'm getting a bit obsessed. It is 2008's first great pop record.
If you hand over your personal data to Polydor, you can download the stunning opening track Kriss Kross for nout.
With its mix of Arabesque drama and Elton John's I'm Still Standing, it's one of the stand-out tracks, but so many of the others are too.
Get Over It, which you can hear at their MySpaz, is far and away the poppiest thing they've yet made, but its motoring bass and Beach Boysy whoo-hoos, along with an off-kilter beat, remind that Guillemots have a huge arsenal not only with their songwriting abilities, but also with production and arrangement.
I saw them three times around the last record, which was Mercury nominated, so I'm well aware how ace they are live. But this album is better than the first one. After careful consideration, and several listens, as far as I'm concerned it is quite simply genius.
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