Monday, 10 November 2008

well what can I say... Al was something else... every bit the legend that you'd expect!  That said, it all really felt like trying to relive the glory days, not just from his point of view...in fact mainly from ours!  The way to see a man like that, a heart like his, a soul merchant like him is, of course, not in the Apollo in London in 2008, but in an old smokey club or an old Church hall, somewhere deep in the South at the time when it was all making sense.. like watching the Clash or the Pistols in the 70s....Jimi Hendrix on his first visit to London... Christy Moore in his home town pub, in a hushed room full of people with their eyes closed...

You know what I'm getting at, I reckon...  it was a great gig, but it was a little bit in the 'show' tradition, like we might have been watching 'The Al Green Extravaganza, featuring Joe Blogs as Al Green' type thing... having said that, there were moments where it was quite evident that we were watching the real deal.  At one point, during a rendition of Amazing Grace, he made up a verse (not on the spot I wouldn't imagine) about his Mother, at which point I felt like I'd been hooked up to an electric charge and bolted to the floor.. it was heartbreaking and wonderful!

The fact that he had as much of a vibe as he did is just testament to his purity and calibre... because, let's face it, as wonderful as he surely is, is not what's happening right NOW!

Not that there is anything happening right now... there are a lot of great things happening in many corners of the world, but no Punk, Soul, Beatles, Rock n Roll or the like.. everthing is so evenly spread now... all the big movements seem to have moved on to Politics...yikes!

Naively I used to think 'hope' was the new punk.. not my album 'hope', but 'hope' itself... it's always felt like the new taboo, in an age when all the old taboos have been grinded down into pulp and washed down with whiskey... It still feels taboo in my ways and circles but it doesn't sound off the Tsunami alarm that all the former movements did... if anything, hope will be a quiet revolution!

Right, enough thought vomit for one night, I have a gig at a Dance Agency tomorrow morning, where I provide music/noises for dancers staying subtle on a day off.. keeps me on my toes... then I'm going to see Jules Maxwell playing tomorrow night in Greenwich, it's going to be good... Jules, singing... his songs are usually covered by other people so I'm really looking forward to hearing them all in one sitting, sung  by the man himself... I always like the writeres version of their own song, better than the covers.....anyway... ni night...f