Entertainment For Lively Minds
Is "Everyone on stage for the big finale" ever entertaining?
Sunday night I saw Edward II (very good), Sly & Robbie & the Taxi Gang (excellent), Edwyn Collins (good, considering) and the Orange Juice Dub Arkestra (under-rehearsed and self-indulgent) playing in Glasgow's Celtic Connections Festival.
At the end of the gig the Taxi Gang (6 piece) were joined by the OJ Dub Arkestra (6+ piece) and a few local musos for a big finale. It wasn't just one song either, but four or five, and you know what?
The sound was reduced to mush by so many instruments, there was no sense of arrangement to it - everyone just playing along as best they could, and nobody seemed to know when or how to end the songs. It struck me that this not insignificant component of the set hadn't been put together for the benefit of the audience so much as the musicians themselves, and maybe any hungry photographers present.
I've seen this a number of times, usually at benefit concerts with multiple bands involved and
Or have members of the massive enjoyed such an event?
Can a song be improved by having multiple vocalists sing one line each?
Might there be a good musical reason for having two bass players (when one of them is Robbie Shakespeare)?
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One of the first and best...
...if only for wondering what's going through Neil Young's mind. He looks like he's just won a bet concerning Joni Mitchell.
Gah!!
I was about to post a Lazt Waltz finale clip
normally it shouldn't work, but
I do recall seeing the Saw Doctors one New Years Eve in Dublin bringing out The Undertones (minus F Sharkey) to play Teenage Kicks with them. Two basses, four rhythm guitars, not sure if there were two drumkits, but there was definitely an accordion in there.
It was an unholy racket and one of the best 8 minutes I've ever had in me life!
Fair point
I can see that... There's obviously good unholy racket and bad unholy racket.
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The only one I ever saw personally
was at a Van Morrison gig in Dublin around 1993. Bob Dylan had played the same venue the night before and rumours were rife.
Part way through Bono emerged to sing 'Gloria', genuflecting at the feet of the Man who for once appeared to feel that he had received his due regard.
My recollection gets a little hazy at this point -it was before the smoking ban, and I am open to correction - but at the encore Van starts into ‘It’s All Over Now Baby Blue’. Crowd goes wild. Stage right a figure emerged ... crowd go wilder ... it was ... Chrissie Hynde. Then another … Steve Winwood and another ... Kris Kristofferson.
Pushed to the front of the stage by Van, Chrissie doesn’t know the song and he has to coax her through it, while Winwood hides behind a keyboard and Kristofferson wanders about.
At this point Bob Dylan emerges from between the amps and stands at the back huffing into a harmonica miles from any microphone.
Eventually it limped to an embarassing end and we all went home.
Still, if anyone out there has a tape I’d be interested to hear if it was as anti-climactic as I remember.
did you happen to notice if
Dylan brought his own harmonica, or if he had to use one swiped down the arse-cracks of a few disgruntled roadies/sidemen?
Maybe that's why
he wouldn't even venture near Van's microphone.
I thought that was 3 separate people posting the same gig.
It was beginning to sound better and better.
Sorry!
It was a long day .... Three times - how did that happen? It wasn't that good.
it wasn't particularly star-studded
But seeing Primal Scream headline Reading and dragging out Mick Jones and Dave Gahan (during his 'Heroin? Yum!' phase) was painful.
I seem to remember Phil Mitchell turning up at Glastonbury during a Daft Punk set too, but I may be mistaken
It's just yer average Cropredy
Every living ex-member, the current band and a selection of all the earlier bands over the 3 days and a selection from Percy Plant/Roy Wood/Ian Anderson/Gary Brooker and Eddie Yates off Corrie.
It works for me.