HIS HIGHNESS LEE SCRATCH PERRY PT2

Current mood: BRACED
Category: BRACED Music

A madman??

Well who the hell wants to be normal?

And as Mr Perry says on the bonus interview disc of the Divine Madness Definately LP 'Madness is the ultimate power'

No-one fucks with a madman, apart form other madmen....

This makes sense: I never got bullied at school. I should have. I was quiet and shy and had sticky out ears and home made clothes, and out of fashion shoes, and absolutely no ability to physically defend myself in any way. But no-one fucked with me, and with hindsight i think it was because of the slightly mad and vacant look in my eye - oh.....and maybe because i dissected a dead bird at my junior school show and tell...

With Perry the madness is whatever you want it to be: Too much dope, too much music, just plain mad, or a big old act...

For me it's harmless ecentricity and maybe a little acting. Or what used to be known as plain old madness - before madness became all dark and dangerous, all categorised and somethign you had to keep your kids away from...

Just how much of this is aped up for the benefit of the cameras is difficult to know. I remember reading that Andrew Weatherall put Perry's madness down to him wanting to keep a distance and a barrier from the vampires that pervade the music industry, and he could well be right..

Whatever the reality and the reasons, with Perry you get a full and proper act. It's not just the music and a bald head with some nice slacks and thanks very much London goodnight...

Perry, like all true legends is a proper showman. He has the costumes. The swagger. The myth. And this is the key. You need all of this. Think of it: James Brown, Jimi Hendrix, Miles Davis and Lee London Perry


I've always loved Perrys manner and dress - in fact it's been a big part of the appeal from day one. There's humour and spectacle and fire in everything he wears and everything he does. He's a man of passion and energy..

I mean, who wants ethical GAP rocking cocks like Chris Martin?? Fools wearing dull fucking jeans and browns and kahaki and singing complaints against the rain??... If there's any hope for us, we need colour and show and style like this...

Another genius of LSPerrys, is his ability to use signs and symbols in a way that twists their meaning and reclaims their value for his own personal show...

I've got a black and white pic badly photocopied from a library book. It depicts Perry holding the pose of the statue of liberty. He has a whole swagger of symbols of priviledge and tyranny and they're all his: He's wearing an SS cap. He's holding a cross, a flag and an American football helmet in one hand, a guitar in the other. He's got a Cambridge University T-shirt on and has a joint hanging off his bottom lip..

What does it say and what does it mean?? It means Perry's on top of the world. - that he can wear and do whatever he likes. That he IS entertainment. That he's cracked it!!

So, the next 3 times I saw Mr P perform were all in The Jazz Cafe in Camden, London.

The Jazz Cafe gigs have been a regular fixture of LSPs calendar for a few years now. It's a small and intimate venue. Upstairs there's a restaurant that affords a view of the stage, and downstairs there's the pit and the stage. The capacity is 500 tops.

There are 2 ticket options. One: to stand on ground level, and the other to buy a meal and gig combined for about £50. The latter affords both the food and an upstairs seat from which to watch the gig in the manner of somekind of lazy and fat aristocrat...


It's very difficult for me to separate the first two gigs - I've drunk too much and had the odd joint before and since, and besides i'm getting old: Both times I had a floor ticket - I remember that much.

I also remember that the best thing about the Jazz Cafe as a venue, is the staircase that comes down to the stage from the dining floor above. And it's this handy prop, together with the intimacy that makes these Perry gigs so clever

The show starts with the band. They descend from above and start playing a rhythm. Behind the crowd sits the Mad Professor (a veritable legend of sound in his own right) his job is the mix and he IS the mix.

So, once they're ready, the keyboard player starts the chanting

LEE SCRATCH PERRY!!
LEE SCRATCH PERRYYYYY!!

And after a few rounds, you hear the spidery voice...

"I am the open door"
"I am the open door"

It bounces around - no - The Mad Professor throws it about the room like a lead weight beach ball.

Where is Perry??

You can feel the ripple of something, and down the stairs he comes looking for all the world like jesus damn well should have done...

Perry already has his microphone - a microphone which is a shrine in itself...

And from there the gig kicks on in...


The first two shows were populated by enormous spliffs. Perry would bring a large bag down with him, and out of it would come these huge fucking joints. That first gig, he had a few blasts and then it went into the crowd. I got my share. It was proper old grass. Not skunk or genetically engineered hydro fuckhead gear...Plain Grass and no tobacco...


For the third gig, we got flash and fancy. We took the meal ticket option.

The meal was great, fucking great in fact, and we saw the full procession. We saw his Swiss wife (What a woman she looked to be!!) We saw him smile and brush past us on his way down. He'd quit dope and I recorded the whole thing and played it 4 times a day for a week after....

SO HERE IS THAT THIRD JAZZ CAFE GIG IN FULL (DISCLUDING THE ENCORE)...

This recording comes free with the sound of cuttlery, and the couple next table complaining about the bill.

They wouldn't shut up.

There was a living legend on the stage and they were bothered about the fucking bill!!! I'm listening to it now...

"Well it says £19.99 on here"

They barely looked at the stage all night....

Fucking unbelieveable...


But nevermind them and nevermind anyone or anything else...

When i got home from all 3 of these Jazz Cafe performances, i felt like i'd most likely undergone a completely religious experience and that is afterall what it's all about...

:+)

Currently listening : War Ina Babylon By Max Romeo & the Upsetters Release date: By 21 March, 1991

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