Current mood: LAISSEZ FAIRE
Category: LAISSEZ FAIRE Music
Those of you who've been reading this here blog for a few months or more will know BBC2s The Culture Show has been a regular free lig of mine..
Each week, the show is recorded on the Tuesday to be broadcast the Saturday. And when I'm free and interested, i go along to the cosey environs of a small bar/restaurant just off Regent Street called Annex 2 and watch: Babyshambles, Jarvis Cocker, Mika, Bryan Ferry, Bat For Lashes, Maximo Park and Faithless to name a handful, perform LIVE for TV..
Now though I've had a passing interest in liking or disliking most of these acts, none would make it anywhere near my top 10 albums chart and none have ever been important in forming my cultural archive or any kind of direction I've taken.
But like i said in pt 1, The Manics have...For good or ill, the boys from Wales have always been a band I've paid attention too, so I didn't need to be asked twice if i fancied it..
So, for the summer, The CS has moved from Annex 2, to the terrace of The Purcell Room on The South Bank and it was there I finally caught up with them - except I didn't really...
I spent the first half of the day relaxing in the sun, chatting, watching the hardcore and cut fans discuss Bakunin. I worked the tan into shape and watched the filming of the links. Meanwhile inside, the stage was being set and the occasionally flurry of hardcore fans clutching cd covers suggested the band were about, but I wasn't that bothered to go find them..
The first I saw was James Dean Bradfield belting out a vocal soundcheck.
Bradfield has got some righteous force about his voice. Pete Docherty and Bryan Ferry almost whisper into the mic and leave the heavy work to the amplifier and the soundman, but Bradfield was roaring away like a drunk busker and to be completely honest I wasn't 200% sure he was in tune.
Next, Nicky Wire was out for an interview wearing his heavy eye make up and the kind of confident slouch that probably got him a reputation as being good for nothing at school..
It was wierd, but because i was out in the sun and enjoying that in itself, I didn't really feel involved with the whole thing. That's the Manics I thought and this is the sun and unlike their own lyric, they weren't about to take the sun form my heart or even off my redening forehead unless they started breakdancing or something..
Thing was, the tight control of the other small venue was replaced by constant coming and going of curious tourists and flustered workers looking for somewhere to have lunch and wondering what the hell a bunch of rockstars and associated camera crews were doing taking up their picnic benches, and i was finding this interplay as interesting as watching the minutae of the boys go about TV perfomrance 102 or whatever it was..
Obviously I went inside for the main event.
It consisted of two tracks - the first two form the new album. and if you're in the UK you'll be able to see them on the box this Saturday evening and doubtlessly on YouTube sometime after that..
Well, they had a keyboard player and an extra guitarist. They were most definately at ease. They had roadies and spare guitars. They looked like a band cruising and knowing they can do as and what, but then I reckon they've generally been that way. They've always had an arrogance and confidence about them and they were right to have it..
So, the tracks were played 2 times each and then it was done. They came and signed stuff and posed for photos and I stood and stared from a distance and thought Mmmm, that's The Manics then.
Of course, I'd thought about taking something to sign myself, but I'm 32 years old not 13. It would have been stupid. And besides one look at my smug sunburnt forehead and they'd have known I was going to sell it just as soon as the price was right rather than nail it to my wall with blood nails...
So there we go. The MSP..Live for TV
Kind of ignorable really, but I enjoyed it all the same....
 | Currently Listening : Chill Out By The KLF Release date: By 08 April, 1993  |
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