The Good the Bad and the Queen

This was a choice of my mate Andy rather than mine. 

The Good the Bad and the Queen are the latest project of Damon Albarn from Blur. They have actually produced two albums, and are somewhat of a supergroup of oldies including former members of the Clash and the Verve. But it was a somewhat odd evening.

Good start as we ate at an upmarket Indian restaurant in Mayfair called Bombay Bustle. My prior experience of upmarket Indian restaurants has always been poor compared to local curry houses. For once this was not. Much higher price tag, but at least we felt we had got genuinely good food for it.

But the odd thing to start with in the gig was not just that it was the London Palladium but that we were sat up in the Royal Circle. Normally I would turn up my nose at that, but actually it was ideal. The Stalls were still seats, but  people crowded to the front so it would have been just uncomfortable standing with obstacles. But we got an excellent view from the Circle with comfortable seats. (Well more comfortable for me with restricted leg room than my 6 foot 5 companion.)

The opening act was distinctly odd, an elderly gentleman who apparently plays the organ in Blackpool, doing a medley of pop like Queen and Abba. Take your pick - fun and quirky, or in Andy's words, "What's the point?"

 And then onto the main course. There will be those (Andy amongst them) who think Damon is a genius and indeed he has an impressive back catalogue when you listen to Blur and the Gorillaz. For some therefore he can do little wrong. There were a lot of women of a certain age at the front who clearly just wanted to touch the great man's hands as if they could heal leprosy.

For me, well some of his output as Good the Bad and the Queen is good, but some is just pretentious crap. Bits are effectively his pretence at something like beat poetry over music which has no melody and is little above audio-doodling. In his mind I am sure there is profundity in his lyrics. But just in his mind. When he talks he is surprisingly inarticulate.

By far the most impressive parts of the evening were those where his "backing singers" came into play. A few times the curtain at the rear would rise to reveal the Penarth Male Voice Choir. They were tremendous, and added so much to the songs. Not just my opinion - you should have heard the applause when they finished.