ROLLING STONES - 27 AUGUST 2006, DON VALLEY STADIUM, SHEFFIELD

Any consideration of a big outdoor gig, let alone a Stones gig, has to work on many levels. My critical faculties were well attuned and is what I thought about the experience....

VENUE

Not bad a for a big place. Good sight lines. Crap toilet facilities. Long queues for everything. The idea of a seated audience at any gig is repulsive though. Rock'n'roll should be experienced in a hot and sweaty group of people who are at liberty to dance if and when they desire. Seated, corporate shite such as the Stones' gigs are very far from the essence of rock'n'roll and are essentially pantomime, at least on one level. But as it's the only game in town it's the one we have to play and
decide what to make of it.

STAGE SET

Very good. Excellent light show and big video screen, but otherwise basic rock'n'roll stage set. Always something to look and marvel at. The big thing that moved into the audience looked like some futuristic D-Day landing craft delivering a crack troop of guitar manglers right into your face and was tippety top - even if just another panto on a smaller level to give the audience the idea they'd had value for money, seeing the old gods, almost dead, at first hand.

VALUE FOR MONEY

Can't recall how much it cost to see the Stones last time but it was less than 50 quid for pretty much the same. 90 quid a few years later is a tad too much. However, when you are sponsored by American Express you have to have some way of explaining the high ticket prices - hence the seating, the no one allowed in the main audience area if you don't have tickets to sit there rule, the officious but entertaining stewards etc. I know, it's only rock'n'roll and we have to put up with it. VFM? We spent money, it had value. How can you quantify VFM, we wanted to see the Stones and were prepared to pay the asking price. Of course we got VFM!

THE PERFORMANCE

Well, if you asked the band they'd probably say it wasn't, musically, one of their best gigs. A few mashed lyrics, Jagger bizarrely changing the timing on some of them. Piano mixed too far back, which is a great shame because chuck Leavell is one of rock's greatest pianists. Excellent guitar from Ronny, standard rock'n'roll shape-throwing from Ron & Keef
throughout. A it's always good to see live a horn section including the awesome Bobby Keys. One level it's a pantomime, a karaoke pantomime, in which the Stones become their own covers band and we all join in the illusion. But if you're prepared to pay 100 quid for your ticket you'll always invest in illusion. On another level if you ignore the size of the venue, the lights and corporate shite (I mean, seating above the stage for the privileged - what the fuck is that about and did you have to have
a Platinum Card to get there?), it's the thrill of watching men and women doing their day job, cranking out high octane R&R in a fashion which pleases those in the cheap seats as much as those in the expensives. It's the only job these boys have done and despite all the cavils, today they had a very good day at the office.

SET LIST

Pretty standard, cloud pleasing fare with a few oddities thrown in. She's So Cold? Ridiculous song best left in the 80s where it was conceived. Good choice in Sway and Bitch, although I thought Bitch was a bit messy. Sympathy For The Devil was entertaining - do you think every now and then Sir Mick has a moment of clarity as he's poncing about in his long red
mac, making devil shapes with his arms. Do you think that, just one, when he's out on the lonely podium, old men cranking a rock'n'roll facsimile behind him that he's heard a thousand (two thousand actually, times before - do you think he occasionally thinks, 'What the fuck am I doing here trying to look like a teenager, singing about the Devil being
misunderstood, when I've got a knighthood, more money than I can spell and a warm tour bus not ten minutes from my last song away?'.) I'd like to think not. Perhaps being on stage is like fucking and it's always good, always different, always to be looked forward to? Jagger's voice was a bit strained although he excelled himself on You Can't Always Get What You Want - which should have gone on much longer in my opinion. No Midnight Rambler though, which was a disappointment. Personally I think that if they ever tour again they should just go back to basics and play old blues stuff, just as they did when they started out.

THE AUDIENCE

Lawdy! If you're sitting you can't really be an audience, you have to be an observer. Even standing in your seats (would you have sat down if security told you to - I think you would!) is merely being a standing observer. Rock'n'roll is about participation first and foremost and you can't participate when sat, segregated by you ability to afford better or worse seats. You can kid yourself, but you'd be wrong. Audiences are always bizarre, Stones audiences more so than most as you get the complete spectrum of age, fashion and musical allegiance. You also get a lot of middle class twats who treated the stewards like shit, you could see thought bubbles saying, 'Don't you know who I am? I read the Guardian, enjoy the Sunday Supplements, eat pesto and have a rather smart jumper thrown over my shoulder. My wife has actually bought trainers for
this event you know, and you expect me to walk around the field rather than across it?'. They appeared to be there because it was the done thing to be there, to say they'd been there and how awful the stewards were. Fuck 'em! Then there were the housewives, singing their little heart's out to their favourite tunes, unlike Jagger they certainly got what they wanted, as did the hardened rockers who were just rejoicing in the sheer glee of being there and part of it, the show that never ends
inside their heads made real. All in all though, a very staid group of people. But just imagine what it would have been like if there were no seats and a general admissions policy? Wild scenes of rock'n'roll bacchanalia, I suspect, but there y'go.

DID I ENJOY IT AND WOULD I SEE THEM AGAIN?

What a bizarre question!

I said 'no' this time but was seduced by the idea of the spectacle and of seeing the World's Greatest Rock'n'Roll band in the flesh, at their age, at my age, just to see if the magic still worked. And yes, it did. The clattering, grinding brand of rock'n'roll the Stones can still, effortlessly, churn out is still the sound that cut through my adolescence and is still the sound that drives me. In summary I can only quote from Bill Drummond's book, Bad Wisdom, in which he sums up both essence of rock'nroll and essence of Keef, the Human Riff, The World's Most Elegantly wasted Human Being and the driving force behind the world's Greatest Rock'n'Roll Band - still!

"Keith, Keith! KEITH! What is it that we must never do? But he never tells us. So sometimes we don't keep ourselves in check and we go off and make a record with some South American rainforest people or decide that the electric guitar is too limiting in its ability to express the magnitude of our imagination. Of course, we make arseholes of ourselves and we come back and we are sorry; we pick up our guitar and some time soon see a picture of Keith, and those eyes of his tell us, 'I told you so,' and yes, he did.' "

You know what it is, you know it's 'only' that (only!) and you like it, very much indeed.

See you next time!


A VISIT TO THE DOCTOR

Dr Strangely Strange, The Sugar Club, Dublin, 1 March 2008


Not long returned from a sunny but bloody cold Dublin and a fantastic Dr Strangely Strange gig which, for me at least, went something like this....

It was certainly well advertised. Lots of flyers and posters verging from A4 to A1 size in shops, bars, cafes and walls all over Dublin, including out in the suburbs. After a jolly drunken evening with Adrian and Deena, Jeanette and Andy on the Friday night (at Gruel, a rather good boho eatery on Temple Bar, not far from the amazing Why Go Bald neon sign) Gaynor and I spent half of Saturday wandering round the old Strangelies haunts in Dublin. The present owners of what was the orphanage commune at Sandymount must have been puzzled by at least three (to my knowledge) lots of people photographing their house!

The gig was at the Sugar Club, a converted art house cinema. Lovely,
intimate venue with a mixture of seats and tables on a raked slope.
Excellent sight lines. The only problem was that it was a salsa club after midnight so some of the salsa people (why? is all I can say to that sort of nonsense) were already there and making noise in the bar which marred the general ambience of the gig).

The Strangelies in Dalston DVD was played on a full size cinema backdrop while we hung out and did what people do while hanging out - it's even better large and if you haven't bought it I recommend you do so. Tom Barwood, who did the mash up of Kip of the Serenes for the soundtrack was also present.

Support was by Irish band Agitated Radio Pilot. Three youngish guys who had obviously been raised on trad. and were fans of the good DR. They were joined for most of their set by Alison O'Donnell ex of Mellow Candle. They were ok, but, well, a bit trad. for my liking and trad. on its own can be tedious. However, they have promise and in the right environment withy the right audience I suspect my thoughts would alter.

Lots of Strangelies, family and friends milling about before, during and in the intermission. Caught a few words with Ivan who told me he was premiering a new song about his parents. He said he would have difficulty not becoming visibly upset while playing it. I wished him well, adjusted my consciousness accordingly and sat back and waited.

On they trotted. Tim, Tim, Ivan and 'new boy' Joe Thoma (who always looks vaguely bemused and slightly embarrassed!), and off they went...

The set list, with notes where necessary is as follows.....

1) A new song - Good To Be Back?, straight into
2) Strangely Strange But Oddly Normal
3) Ballad of the Wasps
4) Ashling - new to the set. A very mellow and well sung
arrangement. Tim B forgot at least one of the verses so it
was a somewhat truncated version
5) Le Le Rocking Sound
6) Hames & Traces
7) Roy Rogers - played at Kenmare last year but not at the 12
Bar
8) Strings in the Earth and Air
9) Horse of a Different Hue
10) Donnybrook Fair
11) Ivan's new song. The title escapes me but was probably the
Red Haired Girl & the Soldier. A very poignant song. Ivan
stopped after a minute or so because the salsa retards in
the bar were being noisy and, as with all Ivan songs, this
needed a bit of hush. He sung and played it beautifully,
with some lovely choral keyboard work from Mr G. Ivan was
close to tears throughout the song, which only added to the
effect. Hopefully we will see this on a future release of
some kind.
12) The Invisible Kid
13) Drive 'Em Down
14) The James Gang - joined now by - I think - a guy from
Scotland called Davy McFarlane who added some ace mouth
organ to the tune

At this point Tim G introduced three more band members - the Strangeliettes in fact! Or maybe the Dr Strangely Strange Big Band. Or maybe just a load of guys having some serious fun. This comprised Ivan's son on electric lead, Tim Booth's son on bass and Barnes Goulding, Tim G's nephew, on drums. Rock, and indeed, roll, appeared to be in the offing!

15) Piece of Cod. A great song at the best of times. Part hymn,
part sea shanty, part dub reggae freak out. Ivan junior
provided some deeply menacing guitar in the background that
reminded me of nothing other than something off an Edgar
Broughton album. Yet it all worked perfectly - harmonies
harmonised, the band grooved and Ivan looked as though he
had gone to his happy place. Many of us were there with him!

16) Tale of Two Orphanages - still with extra members
17) Sign on My Mind - no further comment necessary. My mind had
gone away. It may still be there. Few songs do it for me like
Sign does and with added geetar, bass, drums and goborgan it
was almost too much for the engines to take. I'm an old man
and shouldn't have to endure this sort of excitement.

Encores

18) So Young. Everyone duly rocked out

19) Halcyon Days - A bit weak in delivery and they should have done
this before and finished on So Young


Musically I don't think they were quite as consistent as at the 12 Bar club (and I haven't heard the Kenmare gig yet), but their voices, well, Ireland's version of CSNY and with big band attachments it was awesome and, as I believe young people once said, was a stone groove. Yes, people missed cues, yes Ivan's guitar was out of tune every now and again, words were forgotten and re-invented and to the casual outsider (and you should have seen the faces of some of the salsa-heads! it might all have a appeared like a bunch of old hippies playing ramshackle psychedelic hymns). And it was, and that's why it was so fucking fantastic. The Strangelies turn up, act like normal
people, play what they want how they want and make people happy. And that's the key thing, happiness and a sense of not taking themselves seriously beams out from them on and off stage. Tim G grounds them musically (and wherever possible his keyboard seems to seek out the boogie/barrel house theme of a song, as well as some lovely country inflections), while Tim B remains steady at the side, singing his delicate songs. And of course, for me at least, the star of the show, Mr Ivan Pawle. Resplendent in suit with vibrant T shirt underneath, mostly looking ecstatic and wanting everyone to have fun. I'm sure, based on speaking to him after the gig, that he and the band weren't too impressed with their performance but the audience loved it and I suspect would have listened to them play all night.

All in all an absolutrely tremendous night that far exceeded even my high expectations. The Stranglies haven't been off the CD in the car or at home since.