Happiness is a Warm Pun - My Tribute to a Beatles Tribute!

The rest they say is history…

The Beatles are so much part of everyday music history and we credit them with changing the face of popular music that we forget that it’s a simple pun that gave them their name. This blog is a homage to that forgotten pun, as I become a musical pundit, not necessarily as an expert but simply because I can say I punned it! If you expect the puns to get better don’t read on this is a long and winding road. I know I should let it be but with a little help from my friends we can work it out and if we let them into our hearts we can make them better… (I told you it wouldn’t get any better!!)

Well, it was gig 17, you know what I mean and I’m watching The Fab Beatles! My excuse? I’m on holiday in Devon, it’s Sunday afternoon, the sun is struggling to shine and it’s free!

So it’s confession time – lighters in the air anyone else who has seen a tribute band! I will admit I have seen a couple before. The Bootleg Beatles, who were just a night out in the student union back in my under-grad days at Hull (at this point you would be forgiven for thinking I am a massive Beatles fan as two out of three of the tribute bands I’ve seen are Beatles tributes, but I’m not nah nah nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah) and The Musical Box.

The Musical Box, a Genesis tribute act, were a much more conscious decision than either of the two Beatles tribute act gigs I’ve been to! My excuse was that I never had the opportunity to see Genesis in the best era of their career, the Gabriel era. So a tribute band was the only way I would ever be able to experience a little of what it must have been like to see Gabriel in his ‘slipperman’ outfit pushing back the boundaries of what would become known as multi-media. However, as interesting as it was for an avid Genesis fan too young to have experienced Gabriel, it was not a wonderful gig, just a simple reenactment with some other guy playing the role of my hero.

Let sleeping acts lie…

So tribute band - yes or no? Despite my confessions, on the whole, I would say no! If it was 20 years ago today that Sgt. Pepper taught the band to play and the band has long since split then you should probably let sleeping acts lie!

Unlike classical music, live performance of popular music has become firmly wedded to the composers and that has built in a life span when it comes to performance. If the original band splits, so the chance to see the songs performed live is, generally, lost. It is this marriage and ultimate divorce that has spawned the tribute band – people want to get back to where they once belonged before the bird had flown or simply experience what they had missed! So if I kind of get a tribute act of a band that no longer tour, I certainly can’t understand tribute acts for artists who are still performing!

You’re back again – no no no not a second time…

However, the tribute band is now under treat as yesterday’s bands have realised there is money to be made in their own nostalgia, and so the tribute band is being replaced by the reunion tour! Yesterday, all those bands seemed so far away, now it looks as if they’re here to stay, Oh they believe in yesterday. Tribute band or reunion tour I still can’t help feeling that a band and its live performance are always of its time. If I missed it because I was too young, not hip enough, or too broke to see them I can’t recapture that now!

When going to a gig I will always aim to catch the support act. On the one hand I want to discover new music, and on the other I want to brag about seeing them before they were famous! Whilst albums can be enjoyed and rediscovered 30 years on, the thrill of catching a band live at the height or - even better - just before the height, of their fame and power is very much part of the experience and however good the tribute act or reunion tour may be nothing can recapture, replace or relive the first time round because little darling, its seems like years since they’re been here. I am much more jealous of a colleague who saw Led Zeppelin live in Birmingham with a handful of people before they were famous than my friend who got tickets to the 2007 reunion gig!

I can hear them this time…

Yet, I’m still at this gig. Not because it’s a Beatles tribute act, but simply because it’s a free performance on a Sunday afternoon at a local theatre in an English seaside holiday town. I’m not even a daytripper I’m here all week - thank you very much! What a fabulous initiative by The Exmouth Pavilion the place is full and its proper family entertainment. Yes, there is a grandmother who had seen The Beatles in their heyday and there are children young enough to be Paul or Ringo’s great-grandchildren but everyone is having a great time. People are singing along, dancing (there is something in the way they move) and so the band is not allowed to leave the stage until they have exhausted their Beatles repertoire. This is Devon at its best, this is English summer holiday at it best – you don’t need a settled climate to have holiday fun!

Asked if there is any difference from the original, the lady who was there in the 60’s replies with a grin, ‘yes I can hear them this time!’ The Beatles’ grandchildren’s generation don’t care - baby they don’t care, if the suits, boots and hairstyles are authentic or if the Hofner Bass is a copy or real this is live music and they are loving it.

Those of us caught somewhere in between are happy to be entertained. The band are as tight as the mop top wigs they wear and they are playing songs we know all the words to. They have made a real effort to look the part and it’s all adding up to a lovely Sunday afternoon. No, I wouldn’t want every gig to be like this but it’s a gig that’s guaranteed to raise a smile, so may I introduce to you the act you’ve know for all these years….

Gig: 17 of 50

Date of Gig: Sun. 23rd August 2015

Venue
Exmouth Pavilion

Artists
The Fab Beatles

Running total of artists seen 39

Oh (Punch) Brother, Where Art Thou?

I instinctively know if a gig is good or not. I don’t wrestle with the good points and bad points to decide. I normally just know! However, this gig is throwing up more questions than answers!

So many questions it feels like I'm sitting an exam…

RFH Exam Board

You have two hours to answer all the questions.

Please show all your working out.

Turn over your papers once the headline act takes to the stage.

Please put pens down after the encore.

Q1: Philosophy 101: If this gig was a philosophical question what would that question be?

A1: When does virtuoso become mundane?

A great song is not necessarily a collection of sublime solos. It can be a well-crafted simple set of chords married to a deep and poetic lyric played well within the ability of each musician. Songs should be allowed to speak for themselves. In this gig however, it felt as if each and every song was little more than a fusion of five fabulously talented musicians showing off!

Q2: Mathematics: Express the gig as a mathematical conundrum.

A:2

Q. 26.5 strings are played by 50 fingers for two hours what is the speed?

A. 150 miles an hour

However, the best solos are not necessarily the fastest. It is harder to control a motorbike at walking pace than at 70 miles an hour (I couldn't say for speeds above the speed limit - honest!) there is more to a great lick than speed. In what is not played, in the pure clean note held for an incredible length of time, in the sweet slow serenade of the solo - it is in these things the listener finds excitement and amazement too.

Q3: Media Studies: If this gig was a film, what film would it be, and why?

A3: Oh (Punch) Brother, Where Art Thou?

Not just because of the pun, but because they are ‘The Men of Constant Solos’!

Q4: Politics: If this gig were an electoral voting system would it be First Past the Post or Proportional Representation? Explain your conclusion.

A:4 Proportional Representation!

Every band member does not need to shine in every song! This is democracy gone too far! The result of giving every musician a crack of the whip each time round is that the songs become formulaic. Giving everyone a solo works in some songs - the final song of the night was a brilliant tour de force and an inspired way to finish. However, the brilliance was dulled by the fact that it mirrored every other song!

Q5: Philosophy 201 “A gig is an essentially existential experience.” Discuss

A5: “Hello Band, let me introduce myself - I’m the audience and I paid good money for these rather comfortable seats…”

At times I felt superfluous to the gig, and it takes more than faux flattery between songs to make a crowd feel part of a performance. By definition, a gig is a chance for musicians to play in front of an audience. There were times tonight when I was convinced that we could have all walked out and the band would have played on, and the first they would have been aware we had abandoned them would have been when there was no applause!

Q6: Sociology: “A gathered crowd at a gig becomes one.” Discuss

A6: False

If I have to sit through at least 4 solos in each song, please, fellow audience members, don’t applaud every solo, especially when it means I miss the start of the next one.

Q7: Musicology: How would you classify The Punch Brothers’ music?

A7:  Eclectic

American bluejazz, modern grass, barber pop, rock ’n’ shop, country roll classical chamber music!

Q8: Performance Studies:  “A gig is to music what an exhibition is to art.” Discuss

A8: I am convinced that the faithful audience would lynch me if they knew what I was thinking. The Punch Brothers can do no wrong in their ears but I feel like I’m standing looking at a painting in an exhibition and listening to the people next to me talk about the wonderful expression in the artists portrayal of skies, when all I can see are cartoon clouds which I’d expect to see on a seven year old’s drawing. It is like staring at a work by Ravilious when all you want to see is a John Martyn!  I can see it is art but I can see no reason for the fanatical dedication of the audience.

I put my pen down and I’m not sure if I’ve passed the exam. I envisage lots of red lines through my stumbling, meandering attempts at answers!

Rachel Sermanni supported tonight and shone. Not through her music, which I felt rather stumbled than flowed in her performance, but through her ease at being on stage and being one with the audience. She walked on, guitar in one hand and mandolin in the other, and said hello down the mic. Then she looked around, obviously having lost something, and asked if we had seen her drop a plectrum! Then, with grace and poise and no hint of embarrassment, she retraced her steps into the wings searching for the lost plectrum, all to great applause and appreciation from the audience!!

In-between her set and The Punch Brothers I was treated to a ride in the Singing Lift in the Festival Hall! As we descended so did the notes of the musical accompaniment and as we ascended so did the music. It is a wonderful musical lift and as I went up and down in it I reflected that perhaps that is why I go to live music - to get that metaphorical musical lift. And in the end, I guess that is what I was missing from the headline act; The Punch Brothers are undoubtedly brilliant musicians, writing finely crafted songs, but they failed to connect with me through their formulaic approach to showcasing their talent live. 

Gig: 16 of 50

Date of Gig: Sat. 1st August 2015

Venue
Royal Festival Hall

Artists
Rachel Sermanni
The Punch Brothers

Running total of artists seen 38

When is a gig not a gig?

Oh I do beg your pardon…

I am going to see Ladysmith Black Mambazo and my assumption is this is gig number 15 of 50. OK, it’s at the Sadler’s Wells Theatre but it is still a gig – right? However, finding that the evening is billed as ‘Inala – A Zulu Ballet featuring Ladysmith Black Mambazo’ I feel my confidence ebb away! Is this a gig or not? And in any case, what makes a gig a gig and a show a show?

As I exit the theatre my gut says this wasn’t a gig. But why not? As I am pondering this question, I absently mindedly bump into a striped blazer wearing audience member who exclaims ‘Oh I do beg your pardon’. Perhaps it’s the class of the audience that does not allow me to call this a gig, but when I think about the gigs I’ve been to many have had more than a whiff of the moneyed middle classes about them.

So what else? The audience is different. We are not squashed together in the stalls shouting loudly over the music played before the headline act appear. We are not screaming with delight as the first chords of the latest hit are struck, nor do we throw beer or attempt to lift our partners on our shoulders! But then again, I’ve been to gigs with soft seating, interval drinks, programmes for sale, and ushers who show me to my seat (even if I do sit on the edge of it!). My brain and gut can’t at this stage seem to agree.

No, it’s the curtain. That’s what it is! A curtain is raised on a show and it is lowered at the end. At a gig the stage is open for all to see the roadies at their work; there is no secret intercommed announcement from the Stage Manager, just the public flash of the roadie’s torch to say the gig will begin. This is not a gig! But this is subjective surmising on my behalf; in my distant gig-going memory I see a curtain open and a blanket of dry ice fall off the stage and engulf the audience as the band take the stage. Still no answer……

I need a definition, so I turn to the trusty font of all twenty-first century knowledge; Wikipedia!

“Gig is slang for a musical engagement in which musicians are hired. Originally coined in the 1920s by jazz musicians, the term, short for the word "engagement", now refers to any aspect of performing such as assisting with performance and attending musical performance. More broadly, the term "gigging" means having paid work, being employed.”

So this is a gig, in one sense! The musicians performed and I assume they have been paid. But the musical performance is not the whole story tonight because there is also drama and dance, chorography and costume! I know there will be some who argue that it is possible to go to any Kylie concert and find plenty of costume changes! And there is nothing more (crassly) choreographed than the boyband, dressed in white suits, seated on stools, standing as one as the music modulates and walking to the front of the stadium stage! But I would struggle to call such events gigs!

Perhaps it is the sense that the whole evening is choreographed that means I cannot call it a gig. I know bands create set lists but they can change night-to-night and even on the night! Bands carefully arrange their songs, but at a gig the way they present each song is live, on the spur of the musical moment. Even the clichéd rock-star poses are not rehearsed to appear at exactly the same moment of each song and show! The best gigs are those that create the vibe and set the scene as the musicians feed off each other and the audience. A show on the other hand, is carefully rehearsed, planned and choreographed to create a whole into which the musicians fit.

So before I tie myself in knots and bore the reader rigid (if that hasn’t happened already) my final definition is……. it’s a Show with musicians gigging at it!

Celebrate the normal…

As I have suggested it is a show that brings together musicians,

Ladysmith Black Mambazo, and some truly incredible dancers. There are some wonderful moments, simply beautiful dance and a touch of humour thrown in. During the first half I’m desperately trying to work out what the story is. Am I so uncultured I can’t see the metaphor?

I resolve to let the second half happen and not worry too much. This, it turns out, is the best decision I make as I enjoy what is a fusion of cultures and art forms with – according to the reviewers -no particular story to tell or axe to grind.

“Inala is most vibrant when the dancers and singers come together to share moves and jokes and their personalities come to the fore. It’s like a danced concert, rather than a fully realised concept, but there's a real warmth to this cross-cultural experiment. The title, in Zulu, means “abundance of goodwill” and Inala is a show true to its name.” 
Lindsey Winship London Evening Standard

So I was right about there being no message, but wrong about it being a Show with musicians gigging – it’s a danced concert, rather than a fully realized concept!!

In our increasingly sophisticated society we have lost the ability to celebrate the normal, and it is this that gives the piece its ultimate charm and depth - it is basically a celebration of the everyday – of highs and lows, of love and death.  

Conversation I overheard today…

Adult 1: Did you win anything at your sports day?

Child: No.

Adult 2: But you and your Dad came second in the Dads and Lads race.

Child: Well yes.

Adult 1: Well that’s good too. Coming second is OK.

We celebrate celebrity; we write about winners, we share success, we brag about beating others but no longer do we value the everyday, the masses that don’t win but simply compete.

No clearer is this seen than in the development of the soap opera on TV.

It fascinates me that when I watch the original episodes of the original soap, Coronation Street, all I see are normal people having everyday conversations. But then we must have got bored of that because today every back street of Manchester, every sleepy village in Yorkshire as well as the East End of London has its mass murdering, plane crashing, adulterous script. I remember when I was in conversation with Johnny Vaughan after he had interviewed me on Big Breakfast (I add this in so you can celebrate my celebrity story…..) he said ‘David, all you need for a good soap is a bitch with an itch and a man with a plan’!

Then we got bored of the excesses of Soap Operas and we watched ordinary people in Big Brother. Then we got bored with them and we watched the weirdest ordinary people producers could find on Big Brother and we made them into celebrities. Then we got sick of ordinary people and so we watched celebrities in Big Brother. In other words we have lost the ability to celebrate normality.

However, Inala has redeemed us through exceptional musicians (the gigging kind), wonderful singers (Ladysmith Black Mambazo) and brilliant dancers (hard to pick out just one but Jacob O’Connel was amazing). But in all that, the producers refuse to tell a story of epic proportions and apocalyptic scale, instead we celebrate the natural rhythms of ordinary lives.

The eternal in the fleeting…

And there is something spiritual about the evening because of that. Art is spiritual. It lifts and communicates with the soul in ways that words and shopping can’t.

Music can and does soothe me, stir me, calm me, make me weep, transport me to another dimension, make me glad that I am alive. It communicates directly with my spirit and makes me whole.

Inala enables me to be lifted by the music (how can you fail to be moved by the beauty of Ladysmith Black Mambazo), to be touched by the sheer beauty of the dance, yet it also raises me above the routine of my life to remind me in each conversation and every confrontation, each traffic jam and every open road, each loving word whispered in my ear and every angry shout directed at me there is something deep at work.

True spirituality comes in finding the eternal in the fleeting, the beauty in the mundane, the meaning in the everyday - the divine in the ordinary.

When is a gig not a gig? When it fails to lift your spirit and does not enable you to see the world differently. Despite my gut reaction, my reasoned argument and Wikipedia definition - tonight is a gig!

Gig: 15 of 50

Date of Gig: Sat. 11th July 2015

Venue
Saddler's Well theatre

Artists
Ladysmith Black Mambazo

Running total of artists seen 36

The Nursing Homes of North London are Empty Tonight

Check the pulses of those in front of me… 

At last night’s gig, during the My Grey Horse set, I was old enough to be everyone’s Dad. Tonight I am young enough to be everyone’s son! As I queue at the venue door you can see the confusion on the bouncer’s face – he is not sure whether to check the tickets or the pulses of those in front of me!!
 

I wander into the venue, Under the Bridge, having suffered a very quizzical look from the bouncer whose unspoken question is, ‘Surely you’re too young to be at this gig?’ The venue is under the away stand at Stamford Bridge the home of the Premier League Champions Chelsea and I wonder how different it was when Fotheringay were last on the road. That was in 1970 and Chelsea only managed 3^rd place in Division One behind champions Everton (you may just have found out where my football allegiances lie!) 

Its 45 years since they last played live. This gig is taking the denim-clad audience back to their carefree youth. Back to a time when they could have bought Fotheringay’s first album for less then the cost of the pint they buy at the bar tonight. A time when they would have sat cross-legged on their mate’s Afghan for the whole duration of the gig and still sprung up without any ache or pain! A time when, despite the 10 pints, they wouldn’t have had to visit the facilities after every second song!

It’s taking me back to a time before I fell in love with music. That was a simpler time, a time before I realized I couldn’t sing. A time before I painstakingly started to learn to play guitar! A time when my favorite - well, only - album was the Trumpton LP and I used to wake my Dad up early on a Saturday morning to put it on the record player for me! I guess what I’m trying to say is tonight is a little bit before my time!!!

Going to their God….
I find a seat, a kind of Dave Allenesque chair. I sip my whisky as I wait for the support act, absent-mindedly wiping imaginary ash off my upper leg with one finger bent double to give the illusion of having lost half a digit, and I find myself practicing my Irish accent with the words "May your God go with you.” If I’m honest most of the audience look like they are more likely to be going to their God rather than their God going with them!

Tonight seems more Darby and Joan than Rock ‘n’ Roll as the audience reminisce about the heady days of folk-rock and wonder where nearly half a century, their waistline and their hair has gone! At least they still have their denim!

I’m not sure if it’s the fact that the average age of the audience is 87 but there is a strange laid back feeling to the gig. Even the lighting engineer is sat doing the crossword and fails to notice the support act is on stage!!

Really should just play covers…
Fabian Holland is the support and proof that some people really should just play covers. He is a wonderful guitarist but his self-penned songs leave me as flat as the Dutch countryside. They are composed of recycled predictable rhymes and damn obvious lyrics that are an insult to the poetry of Denny’s songs, which we will hear later. A lot has changed since Fotheringay last toured, not least the growth of an individualistic society (although I’m aware that is something of an oxymoron). But whatever the Thatcherite legacy is, please don’t let it destroy music too - not everyone is a one-man band, Fabian. Cultivate a partnership with someone else to write songs together. A little seed of poetry in the lyric fertilized by your exquisite guitar playing we could witness the growth of a headline act. Continue to plough your own furrow Mr. Holland and you’ll be a wallflower all your gigging life!

At the break, the person sitting next to me is doing his crossword. I half expect him to reach in his bag and bring out a packed lunch too. It does have more of the feel of a village cricket match crowd than a gig audience!

Fotheringay take the stage and invite people forward as if we are at some church meeting. At this point I should point out that this is Fotheringay 2015, i.e. the surviving members plus extras! Sandy Denny and Trevor Lucas both have died (there is no truth in the rumor that Jerry Donahue is dead - he's just not moving!). Their replacements for this tour Kathryn Roberts, Sally Barker and PJ Wright.

I had thought long and hard about going to this gig – I have been listening to Fotheringay for years but was it worth coming to hear them live in 2015 without Denny and Lucas? In the end I decided to come because I never had the chance to see them first time round! Roberts and Barker are excellent, but Wright’s vocals are nowhere near strong enough and are the weak link in the new Fotheringay chain. However, this might be an intentional link back to the original line up as Lucas’ vocals were similarly criticised; “his voice offers nothing that you could not hear in any amateur folk club, any night of the week” (Dave Thompson - Allmusic).

The musical statue…
It is great to hear the songs live but nothing has moved on. At last night’s gig Matt Owens had a set full of songs that owed much to his favourite artists of the 70’s yet there was a modern feel to the gig and sound – a sound that had the crowd dancing. Tonight the songs still have that very early 70’s sound and the gig feels like an anachronistic monolith, some kind of weird time travel where only the sound has travelled back in time. Back to a time that was at a turn of a decade that would give us prog rock, glam rock and ultimately punk rock and with so much music under the bridge these songs tonight sound dated.

The beauty of the songs goes without saying and on CD they still sound great, but live they need updating, reworking for a different time and relative dimension in space! Jerry Donahue, the musical statue, declared they might well tour some more after this. I’d think twice if I was you Mr Donahue there can’t be much mileage in such dated songs and such an aged audience! Or sack PJ Wright and employ Matt Owens he would have the octogenarians leaving behind their crosswords and dancing!
 

 

Gig: 14 of 50

Date of Gig: Fri. 19th June 2015

Venue
Under the Bridge

Artists
Fabian Holland

Fotheringay

Running total of artists seen 35