Entertainment For Lively Minds
Stagecraft - who knows how to work a crowd these days?
Saw Buddy Guy on BBC 3's Glasto coverage. As our current generation of gun totin' hoodie wearin' and glottal stoppin' scamps would say he was old school.
He put on a Show. Note the capitalisation. No doubt he was as rehearsed as anyone else but he improvised, teased, entertained and performed. Very much in command of his band he stopped and started numbers at any point he chose and, in general terms, rivetted the crowd.
Who can do that kind of thing amongst the young big names packing them in at time of going to press? Do anyone of them want to? For all their faults (and there are many!) the likes of The Wombats, Pigeon Detectives etc seem keen to get up and sweat. But was it stagecraft? After a weekend of seeing badly dressed but very enthusiastic young people hammering Telecasters autistically and continually exhorting Glastonbury to 'come on' I did not feel I'd seen any greatly charismatic performances.
Mind I was sat on my fat arse at home, as I've said, and not there, man. Even so, any thoughts?
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Yes, they don't do it like that anymore.
Lonnie Donegan and Dr John are the only people I have seen who did the old show-biz coming on and off to the rest of the band playing their "signature".
Guy Garvey
...of Elbow seems to have the ability to chat easily with a huge crowd as though playing a small pub gig. I thought the bit where he apologised (to huge cheers) for seldom facing the section of the crowd to his right, because the sun got in his eyes when he faced that direction, was pure natural charm.
Josh Ritter
seems to have a wonderful stage presence, oozing boyish charm that the ladies seem to love in particular!
This is a massive problem...
...I agree. The vast majority of current indie bands seriously lack the ability to connect with a crowd. At Glastonbury of the sets I watched, Guy Garvey was great, Buddy Guy was fantastic fun and Neil Diamond did pretty well- even working around a mishap with a microphone! Otherwise, I didn't see a lot of charisma or stage presence....and two of those are over sixty years old!
King Solomon Burke
He oozed charm and soul. Sitting in his throne, the velvet voice covering the audience like a blanket. Sending the band out with rosies for the laydees was pure ham but he got away with it and the girls in the audience were looking dewy eyed at this 20 odd stone sweaty old bloke. A pro!!
An ad...
...in my local rag a couple of years ago saw a venue boasting that this summer they would be 'bringing Solomon Burke to the stage'. To which a wag chum of mind responded, 'With a crane presumably'.
Boom Boom.
A word of praise for Beth Ditto
I caught a few snippets of Glasto on telly. Two acts stood out: The Raconteurs sounded terrific, boasting their odd couple front men (and a bassist who is perhaps the oddest looking fellow I've seen on stage in years), all of them sounding like they really knew what they were doing.
But best of all were The Gossip, especially their extraordinary singer. Talk about stagecraft: I've never seen anyone connect in such a delightfully untrammelled way with such a huge audience. She borrowed people's hats, let random bods squawk a line or two (not snort, stop sniggering), asked a stage hand to marry her, marched into the crowd, thus becoming invisible to the cameras. And all the while, she kept on singing, unbelievably well in the circumstances. Amy love, you're fab, but watch, listen and learn, and please, let us never see you on a stage anywhere else until you can sing your excellent songs properly.
Anyone who ever played with James Brown
They got fined if they didn't. But it worked: Maceo Parker is the black Bruce Springsteen, basically - three hours of the audience eating out of his hand. But, yes, he's a man in his sixties plying a trade he learned in the Sixties.
As for the young slips of things, although I haven't seen her live, judging from YouTube clips I get the impression that Regina Spektor can get the audience exactly where she wants them before even the first song is over. True?
She gave it loads
Yes, I saw Beth Ditto perform her socks off too.
In defence of all the performers and to extend my original comment, despite the usual good nature of the Glastonbury crowd, it can't be that easy to motivate while playing in daylight, possibly at a mealtime, to a disparate lot who very likely haven't come to see you and are more keen on drifting round the whole site until The Verve come on at night time.
Possibly all a band can really do to put themselves across and generate a reaction when faced with all of the above is to jump up and down and say 'Wooh!' a lot. A little more originality in delivery would be nice though.
Broken Family Band
can do it. Partly because they're great musicians and Steve Adams is a very funny bloke and also because they seem to get bored with their own songs very quickly so always bugger about with them and perform them differently every time.
Bobby Gillespie
No, hear me out.
He can't particularly sing, his dancing is at best all over the shop and his lyrics are really quite dreadful, but as for channelling and creating the Scream brand by going 'Woooh! Hey', 'Alright!' and 'I'm a suicide bomb, off to bomb the pentagon with some black panthers and heroin laydeez, yeah', he's amazing. Bar the nazi salutes obviously.
Rufus Wainwright. Marvellous darling, would be good to see him just ramble away. His between-song banter is often very funny.
Wombats and your comment above
Hi Andy
I am 48 and like to think I know it all and repeat the sort of stuff like you do re "Old Guys" are better than the "New guys". I have been to Glastonbury for many years and have just returned from a stunning 5 days. On unday I managed to get in with 50 people to an exclusive Wombats gig in the Guardian lounge. All I can say is they played their hearts out to a very enthusiastic mixed age audience and I was taken back to '77 when I went to see my first ever Clash gig at the Bristol Exhibition Centre.
Whilst I agree that from your armchair, noshing on your Nachos, Buddy Guy looked great, I have to say that for the being there experience whilst I enjoyed Mr Guy I thought the power of the Wombats deserved them a "one of the new greats" award.
I still like the older pro bands but in summary here is my general take on what I saw: Draw your own conclusions:
Neil Diamond - Karioke
Shaking Stevens - great band plastic performance from Shaky (only there because his daughter Buffy got him the gig!
Massive Attack - disappointing
Edwyn Collins - Genius (ANd an excellent Roddy Frame on guitar duty due to Edwyns incapacitated hand)
Verve - Massive and brilliant
Kings of Leon - Genius and unique
Ron Sexsmith - stunning
Scouting for Girls - great performance but I cant stand the songs
Newton Faulkner - rubbish and murdered Bohemian Rhapsody
Pidgeon Detectives - Enthusiastic
Hot Chip - Lame
Black Mountain - I was back in the 70's - genius
Elbow - best and most professional gig of the weekend
Regards Jon
Absolutely
Being there is 99.9% of the experience. There was no festival vibe on my sofa so all I had to go on was what I was presentted with by the Beeb.
I'm a little younger than your good self (though not by much) and know what moves me artistically having listened to all sorts for a long long time. But, like you, I want to be further excited. I like new. I so want it to be good. Much of it is too. Again, in defence of the younger bands, Buddy Guy and his ilk can do what they do based on their own longevity. They're confident. They may be modest onstage but they KNOW they're good. They know how to play and how to elicit the response they want.
Enthusiasm is always good, and fair play to most of the bands for getting up and giving it welly. I just felt as though I was watching the same guys over and over.
Seasick Steve
Had the Pyramid crowd in the palm of his hand at the weekend. One man, two guitars and a diddley bow (and a drummer).
Just natural charisma and style.
Duffy
Surprisingly staggered to be honest....
Yeah but. . .
those buttons on her shorts were still a terrible idea.
Nick Cave
Works the audience like he's paying us by the hour - in a prostitute way. It's fantastic.