I saw Van Morrison (No Probys No Farlowes No Photos!) again on Monday 13 Nov. in Birmingham Symphony Hall with ‘Spud’ (in the Shrewd Idiot) who taught me photography. He had never seen Van before and when he saw Van was coming to Brum he thought there’s only one man to see Van with and that’s PK, so he booked 2 tickets and invited me. Van did a great gig, he worked really hard, played sax a lot (he’s not quite got the Pee Wee Ellis touch tho’), a lovely Les Paul gold guitar and keyboard for his best number on the night Northern Muse, “She moves through the county Down”, on which he fair flew over to his keyboard to do a piano run in and seemed to be doing a number suggested by someone in the front row.
This vid is a version of Northern Muse: (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MhgbFVAde20&feature=player_embedded)?
His band were tight as a drum. I loved the woman’s bongos a bit but her xylophone was supreme and I loved her sense of timing & fun trying to keep up to the Man’s demands. Below is a track list,
- Hold it right there
- Moondance
- Warm Love
- Too much trouble on my mind
- Magic time
- Baby please don’t go
- Here Comes the Nicht
- What you believe in your Head & Heart / Island of the saints or Ireland of the saints?
- Days like this
- Did you get healed/ I said Yeh Yeh
- Sometimes we cry
- Carrying a torch
- Enlightenment
- Whenever He shines his light
- I can’t stop loving you
- Northern Muse
- Van lose stairway
- Got my mojo working
- Broken record
- Brown eyed girl
- Gloria
This clip from Jools Holland is the same group but Chris Farlowe was not at Brum. Nor was the smaller of the 2 women. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BcfAs36YLho
And a full Van Lined ‘Orchestra’ at the Hollywood Bowl doing Ballerina, which must be one of the best songs ever, ever. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IfaaaDX_Uh0
I drove back home the following day. Long way, over 300 mile round trip but worth the effort.
Sadly I didn’t find his new cd inspiring me to Roll With The Punches. It harks back to R&B numbers from the 1960s and further back which are not Van’s best licks.
On Wednesday 15th Nov I went to one of Colchester Arts Centre’s ‘pay what you can’ nights to see a wonderful piece of performance art. It entailed a story about a woman born with white hair and some of the challenges her silk like locks brought with them. She told her story with no spoken words only some recorded conversation in which her mother reiterated how others had reacted to her white haired daughter.
“I was born on the day the Pope came to Coventry, my home town. In my family this unexpected appearance was perceived as a blessing. A sublime gift”
Jo Bannon uses blinding light, proximity, movement and sound to create an extraordinary visual poem.”
She started the gig under a big sheet and it took me some time to realise it was a metaphor for the womb & birth. Every element of her gig was clean cut and crisply choreographed. I liked the way she created the Pope’s hat from a single sheet of paper + sellotape which she had secreted on her wrist. I learned a lot from watching her move through her silent script.
She had various leads which led from her table to electricity source as she boiled a kettle and poured hot water into a stainless steel bowl with some cooler water in then washed her silken locks then for me the best moments of the gig she used a powerful hair dryer to blow her hair (almost) away.
[There’s some really beautiful images of her on her website which I cannot use as I don’t have the rights permission. http://www.jobannon.co.uk/Alba.html ]
On Sunday 19Nov my friend Dave showed me his vid of my gig the previous week at Colchester Arts Centre and it was glaringly obvious that I had used too many words and too fast at that. My determination to breathe deeply and slowly throughout my gig had blown away with my first breath after which I don’t think I took another inward breath until the final curtain fell. So much for my plan.
The entrance of Apulhed to Mark Newby Robson’s music stole the show but the fact I was not breathing correctly didn’t matter at all as my face was hidden inside the mask. The presence of Apulhed stole the show and I instinctively kept the mask on for more of the gig than I had planned and gave him the job of reciting the beautiful Clay Jug poem by Kabir and dancing to ambient music by Luke E Walker whilst showing the audience the inside of the jug. We shall edit the film down and upload it onto utube sometime before Christmas, I hope.
On Sunday 26 Nov me & a few friends have tickets for the FINAL Farewell Tour gig of [Captain Beefheart’s ex] Magic Band at Colchester Arts Centre. I sadly never saw The Captain ‘live’ but my friend Chris Leonard who saw him said he went to the recent Bristol gig with trepidation not knowing what to expect and he said it stands among the best performance he ever saw! And he’s seen a lot! I hope they play Bluejeans & Moonbeams https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjazg_lTfJA cos I love it, one of the best songs ever and the band are stunning. IF they do I’d be up there in Seventh Heaven, shaking hands with The Captain!
Peace Be With You
apulhed tingling 