Entertainment For Lively Minds
Podcast 206: remembering Great Unexpected Gigs, people who can't shut up at gigs and welcoming Scritti Politti
Posted by David Hepworth on 2 March 2012 - 11:50am.
Mark Ellen reckons this Monday's show with Eliza Carthy was one of the best he's ever been present at, which leads to an audit of the other great unexpected shows. David Hepworth goes to see Randy Newman and finds himself sitting behind some people who are clinically incapable of resisting the temptation to talk.
Green Gartside and Rhodri Marsden of Scritti Politti drop in to talk about their upcoming Word In Your Ear show, sing a couple of songs and talk about buying old Little Feat albums in the 70s. Plus your most pressing queries answered.
Features
A fascinating and in depth response to a question on the durability of the spotify model.
Reminded me of this from the Pythons.
Lovely lovely stuff
With these last couple of top notch podcasts, gentlemen, you are really spoilimng us. The SP acoustic tracks are a delight and I will also have to check out the overlooked Mercury nominated album
Looking forward to the gig on the 13th
Concert etiquette
Talking is clearly the worst offence of all, but there are several other crimes against humanity that we increasingly see at concerts.
• “Whooping” during quiet passages. This is a time-honoured American convention which unfortunately appears to be creeping across the globe. Last time I saw B.B. King there was a bloke behind me whooping like a demented gibbon during some of B.B’s whisper-quiet guitar solos.
• Applauding during intros. There are two variations of this. The smart-arses recognise the song before the vocals begin and applaud accordingly to show how clever they are. The casual fans usually need to hear the opening vocal line before they start clapping, so we get the annoying double applause effect. Why clap the intro at all? Surely you’re simply applauding yourself?
• Clapping along out of time. If you have no sense of rhythm, when the singer says “put your hands together” just don’t bother.
• Ditto singing along out of tune. When the frontman says “We need your help on this next one” he’s not talking to you cloth-eared mumblers.
• Applauding too early. Amateur fans who don’t really know the songs often mistake a sudden pause in proceedings for the ending and begin to clap with unrestrained gusto. How foolish must they feel when the song starts up again.
• Clapping a particular line in a song. There are certain moments in live performance that never fail to whip the crowd into an orgy of self-congratulation. Dylan’s "even the President of the United States sometimes must have to stand naked" is a classic example. Likewise Leonard Cohen’s “I was born with the gift of a golden voice” from Tower Of Song (as mentioned on the podcast, in fact) always raises the roof. With Springsteen it's any mention at all of "Jersey", anywhere in the world.
• Nutters shouting stuff out. I’ve got a Dylan bootleg recorded in 1990 at the Hammersmith Odeon titled Thanks For Coming Bob! It was named after the exhortations of a legendary Dylan fan called Lambchop. Throughout the show he constantly yells things out, including "Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby, Bobby", "Stand up, he's coming!" and, over and over again, "Thanks, Bobby! Thanks for coming!" All this at maximum volume, of course.
• Stadium free-for-alls. These are undoubtedly the worst, with people milling around drinking, eating and chatting at will. At a recent Roger Waters' concert the woman next to me arrived mid-song with an armful of beers and food and proceeded to loudly regale her companions with an expletive-strewn story about how someone had queue-jumped at the burger stand and how she had recommended he “f**k off out of it”. Did I mention this took place during the delicate, atmospheric opening section of Dark Side Of The Moon?
There must be more, surely?
Clapping during the song at all
it may sometimes be OK, but at other times it's horribly inappropriate: the Portishead live album has them doing the normally beautiful and evocative "Roads", sadly completely ruined by an audience clap-along.
Oh, and excellent podcast by the way!
the pissed crowd singer
I know what DH means about not wanting to be the person to say "shut the f##k up" but sometimes it can be liberating. In the latter stages of 2007 performance by Crosby Stills & Nash, they started singing that wonderful song 'Helplessly Hoping' - wonderful anyway unless some pissed up prat is trying to sing along behind you.
I turned around and said "please don't sing". I was ignored. I turned around again and with a bit more purpose said, "I mean it, don't sing". He stopped singing. People on both sides of me said thank you. Ruined the moment but it would have been much worse if I hadn't intervened.
The camera phone user
At every concert now it seems at least 50% of the crowd will be filming the show on their smart phones.
At a recent Joe Bonamassa concert the bloke in front of me filmed the entire 10 minute opening number with his camera held at eye level throughout. In the dark the glowing monitor screen provided an annoying distraction directly in my line of sight.
Two more that irritate the hell out of me
1. Openly filming the entire gig on your phone.
2. The continual movement of people during arena gigs. I mean why the hell can't people just stay still for just 5 minutes. I put this partly down to being able to take drinks into arenas.
I once witnessed Richard Thompson halt his set on the main stage at Cambridge Folk Fest because an argument had broken out halway back in the tent.
Boom Boom Bap
What a great version of the song that was, wouldn't have sounded out of place on the "Songs To Remember" album.
I don't think you got to the bottom of The Cure song, it was 10:15 Saturday Night.
But the end of hype, are you sure? Wasn't there a juggernaut in place for Lana Del Rey recently?
Lana Del Ray
I think it's more about the kind of hype that proclaims excitement where none actually exists. If Lana Del Ray's PR campaign claims that Video Games has had 31,000,000 views on YouTube, you only need to go to YouTube to verify that it's true.
Great podcast.
I had a bit of a dilemma listening to David talk about the annoying people in front of him at the gig. He said that if he has to tell someone to shut up then it ruins the gig for him.
I feel exactly the same. If I have a word then then for the rest of the gig I feel uncomfortable as I don't generally like the confrontation. But there are times when people just take the piss and nobody wants to be the one to have a word. These are the times I end up doing the deed. I think I might feel worse if I didn't but ti does muck the gig up for me.
I think I'm stuck in limbo land now!!
I've just realised that this wont be happening this Friday
We're in the front row for Nick Lowe at the Leicester Square Theatre!!
Should be safe I would have thought.
Well I'll be in the second row
so I could yap loudly for your pleasure. But I'm not that type. And I maybe be capturing it for posterity. Although if Nick's people are reading I wouldn't dream of doing such a thing.
But I might
Hi DFB
Sorry just read your comment. I would have shared a pint if Id seen it. It was a brilliant gig. It was great to be close enough to shake Nicks hand and say thanks after the encore.
By the way - how did the 'capturing for posterity'go?!
Oh that was you?
I was about three seats away behind you.
Yes it was captured - haven't listened back yet.
Yes it was me!
I've only been in the position to do that once before. It was Sea Sick Steve at the Albert Hall. It felt like the right thing to do on both occasions.
Oh I was front row at SS at the Astoria
and he came down and shook our hands - and I was taping the bloody gig
Very good
:)
Someone's dad at a Pet Shop Boys concert, circa 1988
He was a row behind me and kept saying "why doesn't everyone just stay seated? Then we can *all* see...".
As the hotly-anticipated Always on My Mind starts up, the whole audience is standing at this point. I get a tap on my shoulder. He's asking me to tell the people in front of me to sit down. I tersely said "no".
Car Crash Avoidance Procedure
Have to admit to guffawing so hard I nearly crashed the VW into a Tesco's bollard when I heard Mr Hepworth slowly annunciating 'Shut..the...fuck...up'...well played, Sir.
RIckie Lee Jones and the mobile phone incident
the weasel or white boy lost his cool when his mobile phone went off at RLJ's gig at the Jazz Cafe some years ago .... RLJ stopped the song (cant quite recall what but it was one of ther early lovely piano tunes) and said "switch it off" (there may have been an expletive too) - we all applauded loudly and she started again.