Second trip to the Spiegeltent with a different set of friends, one of whom was Chinese. For which purpose Andrew Maxwell was rather better than Milton Jones, as you need a lot of cultural references to follow Milton Jones. Less so with Andrew Maxwell. You just have to accept that he doesn't like Brexit.
While I had heard various parts of his material before from the numerous times I had seen him before, there was also some new stuff. Not least on Brexit. But also his explanation of why the gig was late starting, a somewhat arduous kayaking expedition with his kids. It was well-related.
Overall, you can't help but like Andrew Maxwell. As one of my companions said, he is a bit hit and miss the hits are good. I particularly liked his impression of his Egyptian father in law ringing up to complain about something.
"Hello? " answers the unfortunate victim.
"Shut UP!!. Shut up, why you still talking? Shut up I say..." And so on. In an Egyptian accent.You had to be there.
Downside? Well much as I agree with him about most things, I felt to wards the end he got bit preachy.I might agree with his views, but I was there to laugh and not improve race relations.
Monday, 25 July 2016
Monday, 18 July 2016
Milton Jones at the Spiegeltent
Sunday night and with a couple of mates we took in Milton Jones at the Spiegeltent in Russell Square. Must start with a word about the venue. According to the promoters:
"Originally built in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these circular, mirrored tents are wonderfully atmospheric and authentic."
Well yes fair comment. Of course its what they don't say that is most telling. Perhaps I should leave it to Milton Jones in his valedictory remarks at the end of his show. "Thanks for inviting me to your oven." Yes it was absolutely sweltering. A warm evening outside turns into an utterly oppressive one inside a tent.
Milton was of course his offbeat self. You have to get his humour. There are no stories, its mostly one liners. Or more accurately two liners. One to set up, the second to deliver. Typical was hos opener. My full name is Milton 43 Acacia Avenue Brentwood Jones. My father was told it was a good idea to put the house in his son's name." Or "I come from a family of failed magicians. I have two half sisters."
This was a one hour gig trying out new material. It was a little disjointed, as one would expect, and at times he seemed to be making up stuff as he went along. The only real routines were one involving flags about Brexit (which was genius) and a slide show, which was hit and miss.
One thing about the show is yoiu need a lot of cultural references to be able to get all the jokes. You need to know the lyrics of popular songs and all sorts of other quirks. The Joke "I like George Best. Well, no actually I like Zippy best" went over the head of my young mate. You needed to remember kids TV show Rainbow to recognise that as a joke at all.
He doesn't do a lot of audience interaction but did get stuck with a drunken middle-aged heckler. Got into particular trouble with "I always wondered why NASA didn't put a woman on the Moon. After all, there is all that dust up there..." Never entirely sure why people like that come out to shows rather than stay at home huddled around their cauldrons making up spells.
"Originally built in Belgium in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, these circular, mirrored tents are wonderfully atmospheric and authentic."
Well yes fair comment. Of course its what they don't say that is most telling. Perhaps I should leave it to Milton Jones in his valedictory remarks at the end of his show. "Thanks for inviting me to your oven." Yes it was absolutely sweltering. A warm evening outside turns into an utterly oppressive one inside a tent.
Milton was of course his offbeat self. You have to get his humour. There are no stories, its mostly one liners. Or more accurately two liners. One to set up, the second to deliver. Typical was hos opener. My full name is Milton 43 Acacia Avenue Brentwood Jones. My father was told it was a good idea to put the house in his son's name." Or "I come from a family of failed magicians. I have two half sisters."
This was a one hour gig trying out new material. It was a little disjointed, as one would expect, and at times he seemed to be making up stuff as he went along. The only real routines were one involving flags about Brexit (which was genius) and a slide show, which was hit and miss.
One thing about the show is yoiu need a lot of cultural references to be able to get all the jokes. You need to know the lyrics of popular songs and all sorts of other quirks. The Joke "I like George Best. Well, no actually I like Zippy best" went over the head of my young mate. You needed to remember kids TV show Rainbow to recognise that as a joke at all.
He doesn't do a lot of audience interaction but did get stuck with a drunken middle-aged heckler. Got into particular trouble with "I always wondered why NASA didn't put a woman on the Moon. After all, there is all that dust up there..." Never entirely sure why people like that come out to shows rather than stay at home huddled around their cauldrons making up spells.
Saturday, 16 July 2016
The Last Shadow Puppets at Alexandra Palace
I sort of went to this gig with a mate. But he had to work late, and it was too crowded by the end to meet upo, and then he wanted to leave before the end, so we never actually saw each other at all. Just swapped a few texts. So I also sort of went on my own.
First support a threepiece called Yak. Quite liked the short bit of them I heard online, quite raucous. But they weren't that exciting live.
There was a second support. Mr Gaz Coombs. Now I am a big fan of him and seen him several times fronting Supergrass; this was my first solo gig. Again I felt disappointed. He has a great rock voice, but none of the songs really stood out for me.
So then onto The Last Shadow Puppets. Nice touch to start - they put the lights on as the tricolour at the back, and then followed up with a minute's silence for the Nice victims, which was pretty well observed apart from a few prats at the back.
Now I have to say I didn't enjoy this gig as much as I should. That had nothing to do with the Last Shadow Puppets. Miles Kane and particularly Alex Turner are great on stage. And I loved both their first album, The Age of Understatement, the title track for which opened the show, and their new one, Everything You've Come to Expect. The songs are great, they can both sing and Alex has a wonderful preening persona. Fine if you don't take him too seriously.
The encore started with the brilliant Miracle Aligner. Unfortunately, to my mind it then tailed off with cover versions - The Fall's Totally Wired and Bowie's Moonage daydream. Hate to say it, but TLSP's songs are better than those to whom they pay homage.
But my discontent was really with the audience, or more specifically the audience right around me. Worst was the mobile phone watching. I watched much of the gig through someone's mobile recording not so much the gig as the mobile phone of the person in front of them. Cut it out guys. The recordings are rubbish. Just watch the show!
And then also being trapped next to very excitable (and sweaty) young ladies who whoop at every opportunity and also sing totally out of tune. Grr.
And when I said sweaty I meant it. Very humid. I have been in many hot and sweaty gigs but this one was unnecessarily so. A warm day it needed more air con.
And final indignity on way home is they wouldn't let anyone cross because of overcrowding at Alexandra Palace Station. Ok for those who would add to teh overcrowding, but I only wanted to cross over the top of the station to walk home. But had to take a detour with everyone else.
First support a threepiece called Yak. Quite liked the short bit of them I heard online, quite raucous. But they weren't that exciting live.
There was a second support. Mr Gaz Coombs. Now I am a big fan of him and seen him several times fronting Supergrass; this was my first solo gig. Again I felt disappointed. He has a great rock voice, but none of the songs really stood out for me.
So then onto The Last Shadow Puppets. Nice touch to start - they put the lights on as the tricolour at the back, and then followed up with a minute's silence for the Nice victims, which was pretty well observed apart from a few prats at the back.
Now I have to say I didn't enjoy this gig as much as I should. That had nothing to do with the Last Shadow Puppets. Miles Kane and particularly Alex Turner are great on stage. And I loved both their first album, The Age of Understatement, the title track for which opened the show, and their new one, Everything You've Come to Expect. The songs are great, they can both sing and Alex has a wonderful preening persona. Fine if you don't take him too seriously.
The encore started with the brilliant Miracle Aligner. Unfortunately, to my mind it then tailed off with cover versions - The Fall's Totally Wired and Bowie's Moonage daydream. Hate to say it, but TLSP's songs are better than those to whom they pay homage.
But my discontent was really with the audience, or more specifically the audience right around me. Worst was the mobile phone watching. I watched much of the gig through someone's mobile recording not so much the gig as the mobile phone of the person in front of them. Cut it out guys. The recordings are rubbish. Just watch the show!
And then also being trapped next to very excitable (and sweaty) young ladies who whoop at every opportunity and also sing totally out of tune. Grr.
And when I said sweaty I meant it. Very humid. I have been in many hot and sweaty gigs but this one was unnecessarily so. A warm day it needed more air con.
And final indignity on way home is they wouldn't let anyone cross because of overcrowding at Alexandra Palace Station. Ok for those who would add to teh overcrowding, but I only wanted to cross over the top of the station to walk home. But had to take a detour with everyone else.
Wednesday, 13 July 2016
Spoils
I came out of this play not quite sure whether what I had seen had worked or not. Certainly it went down well with the audience (which included Jonathan Ross and his family on our row) who gave the actors a standing ovation. And one actor in particular - the American film actor Jesse Eisenberg (Social Network etc) who also wrote it. Why my question? Well its a very funny play, but also has a lot of drama, so one was just left unsure about how seriously to take it all. Had one watched a sort of sitcom, or a serious play about characters and human frailties? Yes maybe both but does one detract from the other.
Now before I go any further, a night out to see this is very good entertainment whatever my conclusion. No you don't see the ending coming (although then again maybe that's in part as its not a very satisfying ending). And, like several Hollywood actors I have seen on the stage, Mr Eisenberg proves he can act. Seriously good actor in fact. he was terrific. I guess that's in part why these film actors come over here for plays like this - not the money but the status and proof that they "can cut it".
The play has lots of themes and ideas. Jesse Eisenberg's Ben is not a likeable chap. He is Jewish young man living in a flat bought for him by his father. While his contemporaries have started careers, he is a sort of film-maker, but this is more an affectation than a job. Really he smokes weed and for social contact relies on his flat mate, Kalyan, a charming Nepalese business student, who is trying to get a job on Wall Street and have a relationship with his third generation Indian girlfriend. Ben and Kalyan make an odd couple as flatmates, and Ben is openly hostile to the girlfriend. She is clearly someone who gets in the way of his friendship with Kalyan, although this is not a homosexual relationship, and he would rather she were gone. Ben struggles with women (and indeed men), but has an infatuation with childhood friend (and we are talking very young childhood - under 12) who is about to marry a character played by Alfie Allen - a somewhat gormless stockbroker.
Top squirm moment in the first half is a dinner party where Ben is stoned and desperately (and obviously) trying to impress childhood friend Sarah in front of both Kalyan's girlfriend and Sarah's fiance. Its funny and not exactly realistic, but then again I could see some of the same traits I saw in an acquaintance at University; the attention-seeking, the absurd efforts to draw conversation around to himself.
But nothing could beat the top squirm moment in the second half where he recounts to Sarah a dream he had when they were both 7. It involved nakedness and faeces. And could have been the worst chat up tactic of all time. Ben is geeky and self-centred and vulnerable and strikes out at those who care most, like Kalyan. But Kalyan has his own weakness. He has written an economics book in Nepal of which he is inordinately proud. And his world is shattered when he finds that Ben has actually read it, but preferred to pretend he was too lazy to do so rather than actually admit he had read it at once and realised how rubbish it was. Of course, nothing hurts more than the truth. And there are some truths that one cannot bear to hear because they go to the heart of oneself. And so there are some truths you cannot tell even your best friend. Kalyan is lovely, but just a bit crap. That's not what one wants as self-image.
Ben is both endearing and frustrating, but mostly the later. He is bright and funny, but spoilt and self-centred. He needs someone to love him, but is too nasty to be loved. He has it in him to be a great friendbut, but frustratingly can't see how to do it. And I guess to some extent we have all come across people like that. Maybe it's even us.
Now before I go any further, a night out to see this is very good entertainment whatever my conclusion. No you don't see the ending coming (although then again maybe that's in part as its not a very satisfying ending). And, like several Hollywood actors I have seen on the stage, Mr Eisenberg proves he can act. Seriously good actor in fact. he was terrific. I guess that's in part why these film actors come over here for plays like this - not the money but the status and proof that they "can cut it".
The play has lots of themes and ideas. Jesse Eisenberg's Ben is not a likeable chap. He is Jewish young man living in a flat bought for him by his father. While his contemporaries have started careers, he is a sort of film-maker, but this is more an affectation than a job. Really he smokes weed and for social contact relies on his flat mate, Kalyan, a charming Nepalese business student, who is trying to get a job on Wall Street and have a relationship with his third generation Indian girlfriend. Ben and Kalyan make an odd couple as flatmates, and Ben is openly hostile to the girlfriend. She is clearly someone who gets in the way of his friendship with Kalyan, although this is not a homosexual relationship, and he would rather she were gone. Ben struggles with women (and indeed men), but has an infatuation with childhood friend (and we are talking very young childhood - under 12) who is about to marry a character played by Alfie Allen - a somewhat gormless stockbroker.
Top squirm moment in the first half is a dinner party where Ben is stoned and desperately (and obviously) trying to impress childhood friend Sarah in front of both Kalyan's girlfriend and Sarah's fiance. Its funny and not exactly realistic, but then again I could see some of the same traits I saw in an acquaintance at University; the attention-seeking, the absurd efforts to draw conversation around to himself.
But nothing could beat the top squirm moment in the second half where he recounts to Sarah a dream he had when they were both 7. It involved nakedness and faeces. And could have been the worst chat up tactic of all time. Ben is geeky and self-centred and vulnerable and strikes out at those who care most, like Kalyan. But Kalyan has his own weakness. He has written an economics book in Nepal of which he is inordinately proud. And his world is shattered when he finds that Ben has actually read it, but preferred to pretend he was too lazy to do so rather than actually admit he had read it at once and realised how rubbish it was. Of course, nothing hurts more than the truth. And there are some truths that one cannot bear to hear because they go to the heart of oneself. And so there are some truths you cannot tell even your best friend. Kalyan is lovely, but just a bit crap. That's not what one wants as self-image.
Ben is both endearing and frustrating, but mostly the later. He is bright and funny, but spoilt and self-centred. He needs someone to love him, but is too nasty to be loved. He has it in him to be a great friendbut, but frustratingly can't see how to do it. And I guess to some extent we have all come across people like that. Maybe it's even us.
Everything Everything
First off, and I say this every year, the courtyard at Somerset House is a splendid venue for a music gig. Acoustics are good, surroundings impressive and its but a stroll from the office (or the West End which happened to be where I was coming from after going round the Sicily exhibition at the British Museum).
Having gathered together my little party of 5 and installed myself on the barrier right at the front, we settled down to watch the support act Pumarosa. Had never come across them before. One of my p[arty with typical Laconic wit described them as "not shit" which is quite a high complement from him. The female lead singer has a serious vice and not a little of the Florence Welch about her. Overall we were impressed. (Although some of the lads were a bit entranced by her unshaven armpits....)
But we were here to see Everything Everything, a Manchester indie band. What makes them interesting is also what means they will never headline festivals , although they gathered a decent enough crowd here. Their music is interesting because it doesn't take just one form - nothing is standard verse chorus. But it also means they lack the catchy tunes that enable a crowd to sing a long happily, well only in small patches. Weird lyrics such as "it's alright to feel like a fat child in a pushchair" again go to make them quirky but not popularist.
Lead singer Jonathan Higgs has a high-pitched voice which goes up scales but is also usd in patches of rapping. Nothing flows, but then its not really meant to. Radiohead have done ok with some similar features (and yes ok they can headline a festival) but Everything Everything aren't quite in Radiohead's league for innovation or depth.
Having gathered together my little party of 5 and installed myself on the barrier right at the front, we settled down to watch the support act Pumarosa. Had never come across them before. One of my p[arty with typical Laconic wit described them as "not shit" which is quite a high complement from him. The female lead singer has a serious vice and not a little of the Florence Welch about her. Overall we were impressed. (Although some of the lads were a bit entranced by her unshaven armpits....)
Lead singer Jonathan Higgs has a high-pitched voice which goes up scales but is also usd in patches of rapping. Nothing flows, but then its not really meant to. Radiohead have done ok with some similar features (and yes ok they can headline a festival) but Everything Everything aren't quite in Radiohead's league for innovation or depth.
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