Reaching Musical Nirvana.

Some of you may remember that I wrote an article in February about being ‘Excited to see Tom Petty’ and I finally went to that gig last week and it was a truly incredible experience.

I was already extremely excited about the gig before I read a comment from one of my friends on Facebook who went to the Monday night date and said how great it was.  I then spent the next couple of days almost hopping from foot to foot and gradually building anticipation.  This could’ve been a dangerous situation as my expectations were so high by now that there was a real risk I could feel let down!

My wife, brother and I met in London and after a quick snack whilst sat in Hyde Park we entered the stunning Royal Albert Hall.  I have seen numerous bands here and it is a wonderfully ornate, yet intimate venue and I was secretly pleased we were seeing Tom here rather than in an arena.

The support band came on (Jonathan Wilson and his band) who were excellent and I’ve already bought his album!  One problem was that I spent most of the set also imagining Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers walking onto stage and I was quickly becoming a jittery ball of energy.

When the lights dimmed the crown roared and when Tom and the band walked on stage I almost shook with adrenaline, my feet kept tapping and I fidgeted in my seat.  Then when they struck the first chords, the lights went up and they started their song the audience went ballistic (myself included) and they got a standing ovation and a massive roar of approval.  You could tell right away that this was going to be a special night from the audience reaction alone.

I sung along word for word to every song all night and roared between each song until my voice was hoarse.  My hands and wrists were red and hot from the clapping and I was almost giddy with happiness for the entire duration.  To see someone play the music that had inspired me and formed my life for so many years and after wishing to see them for such a long duration was an almost spiritual event for me.  My stomach ached with emotion and my heart soared.

There was a surprise special guest in the guise of Stevie Winwood who also received a rapturous welcome and a standing ovation and the audience stamped their feet and sung along to his two songs with full gusto.  The band played a cover of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Oh Well’ and is was funny and awesome at the same time to see Tom shake two maracas at the mike as he sung and then stomp across the stage like a wild man when the heavy chorus kicked in, only to return to the mike for more gentle maracas shaking!!!

There was a good mix of tracks and whilst a die hard fan like me will always wish for more and for other tracks, considering I love all his music I was extremely satisfied with the setlist the band chose (copied below).  Favourites had to be ‘Here Comes My Girl’ where I sung the lyrics full belt and felt them as I sung and ‘Refugee’ which has always been one of my favourite songs.  The gentler ‘Something Good Coming’ from Mojo was amazing and ‘Yer So bad’ from Full Moon Fever has a wonderful sing-a-long chorus that I happily bellowed along to.  To see Mike Campbell wring out the most emotive solo from his guitar on ‘Runnin’ down a Dream’ was a sight to savour as well.  It would honestly be simpler to say that the whole setlist was my favourite as it was an awe inspiring event from start to finish!

After the band finished on ‘American Girl’ the audience roared, clapped their hands and stamped their feet and I have rarely seen an audience so invested in the gig from start to finish.  To say the Heartbreakers were well received would be an understatement!

I wrote on my Facebook wall as I travelled home that night that I think I had reached Musical Nirvana and that is honestly one of the closest ways I have come to describing that night.  I have waiting to see Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers for so long and to finally be in the same room as they play the music that I adore simply managed to open my heart and mind and make me forget the world outside.

Needless to say, my expectations where well and truly met and blown out of the water.  Pretty impressive when you consider just how much I was looking forward to the concert!  I just hope it’s not so many years until he tours over here again, once I’ve had a taste of that high it’s something I want to experience again.


20 June 2012 Royal Albert Hall Setlist
Listen to Her Heart
You Wreck Me
I Won’t Back Down
Here Comes My Girl
Handle with Care (Traveling Wilburys cover)
Good Enough
Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac cover)
Something Big
Don’t Come Around Here No More

With Stevie Winwood,
Can’t Find My Way Home (Blind Faith cover)
Gimme Some Lovin’ (Traffic cover)

Free Fallin’
It’s Good To Be King
Something Good Coming
Learning to Fly
Yer So Bad
I Should Have Known It
Refugee
Runnin’ Down a Dream

Encore,
Mary Jane’s Last Dance
American Girl

Metal is a Sin?!

I saw a photo on Facebook this week that initially made me laugh out loud and then it made me start thinking about music and how it is affected by the society and culture it is formed in.  Here is the photo:-

Firstly I found this hilarious and gave a mental hurrah at the young guy sticking it to the over-zealous religious guy.  But I also started feeling a little indignant about the audacity of someone to state that my musical choices are evil just because they do not fit into your ideal of acceptable music.  To state that metal music is a sin and then link it to religion is offensive to both metal and religion!

There are some heavy rock bands out there who are Christian and who also play Christian music and I’m sure they would agree the level of heaviness has no impact on the religious message they are espousing.

I could personally dislike gospel music (which isn’t true by the way, Aretha Franklin’s gospel album ‘Amazing Grace’ is a sublime album) and say it is a sin and this would offend countless Christians.  My personal musical opinion has no value when gauging the moralistic worth of music.

In America they talk about the separation of church and state and I think maybe this should extend to church and the arts.  Don’t get me wrong, if you want to paint beautiful religious iconography on the Sistine chapel, or write powerful, emotive gospel music, or write religious novels or dance interpretive dances of the gospels, then that is fine by me, but religion should have no say over what art is acceptable and whether it should be made at all. 

I baulk at some music when they glorify things like wife beating or drug taking, but I also understand that in a free society this music will sit alongside other types of music that I find more enjoyable and personally acceptable.  I agree we need to ensure our children are having the right influences in their life, but this is down to the parents (whether they do a good job or not) and not the religious guy on the street waving a placard telling me metal is a sin.

I’m sure as I think about this more my opinions will develop and will clarify.  But, at this moment in time, the one thing I am sure of is that my listening to metal music is in no way a sin and I love blasting away my woes with some heavy music.  It may be loud and pure aggression, but that is what I need sometimes.

I would love to hear your thoughts on this.

The Power of the Imperial March

I have to say that one of the most effective pieces of music composed for a film must be the Imperial March composed by John Williams for Star Wars. 

A classic leitmotif (recurring theme associated with a particular person or place) you know the second you hear it that Darth Vadar must be close and it is a powerful prompt in the film to know you are about to view something from the Empire (the baddies) rather than from the Rebel Alliance (the goodies).

The rest of the score for the original trilogy suits the mood very well and is at times rousing or moving, but that Imperial March is so distinctive and different to the rest of the score that it stands out and is extremely effective.

Aural prompts are very powerful and when used alongside images on screen like I’ve mentioned in a previous article (Film Soundtracks and Early Ego Boosts) they can make an already stirring scene have even more impact.

I remember as a child listening to the Orchestral piece ‘Peter and the Wolf’ by Prokofiev at school and being taught that each animal in the story had a different instrument assigned to it.  We were taught to listen out for each instrument and analyse why it’s tone and feeling represented the animal it portrayed.  I remember being enthralled by this afternoon in class and the lasting effect it had on me.  The Imperial March is a similar form of this idea.

It is amusing how often you will hear the Imperial March used as a ring tone and my friend used to assign it to his wife’s contact so he always had a distinctive, if slightly ominous, indicator that it was her calling.  We used to find it amusing when the phone would ring with the Imperial March and then he’d answer it saying something like ‘hello my love’.  It was very incongruous to say the least.

Now the Imperial March has been associated with evil and at times intimidation, it has been used in other situations to suggest the same information.  Sports teams use it to tar or intimidate their opponents and it has been used by political satirists to comment on the political leanings of noted politicians (John Stewart used to play the Imperial March whenever discussing Dick Cheney).  Notoriously the Band of the Welsh Guards played it when King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia visited the UK in 2007 on a controversial state visit.



I am sure there are other prompts of this kind in films and I would love to hear those that stand out for you, but I think for sheer distinctiveness and impact the Imperial March must be pretty high up the list.  The fact that it is so recognised and powerful even after many years shows how successful it is.

Music to pick you up, dust you off and get you coming back out fighting.

After a particularly rough day at work a good friend of mine posted a music link on my Facebook wall of a song called ‘The Middle’ by Jimmy Eat World and after playing it a couple of times I felt a lot better and tried hard to get things back into perspective. 

Here are the main lyrics,

Hey, don't write yourself off yet
It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on.
Just try your best, try everything you can.
And don't you worry what they tell themselves when you're away.

Chrous:
It just takes some time, little girl you're in the middle of the ride.
Everything (everything) will be just fine, everything (everything) will be alright (alright).

Hey, you know they're all the same.
You know you're doing better on your own, so don't buy in.
Live right now.
Yeah, just be yourself.
It doesn't matter if it's good enough for someone else.

Chorus.

Hey, don't write yourself off yet.
It's only in your head you feel left out or looked down on.
Just do your best, do everything you can.
And don't you worry what the bitter hearts are gonna say.

Chrous.



Apart from the chorus talking to a female character I could relate and  apply it to my own situation.  It was amazing how quickly it picked me up and whilst I am well aware of the power of music I am still surprised at how quickly and potently it works on me and get me back on track and heading in the right direction.

I love how this song is a little defiant and has a ‘screw you’ attitude to all the naysayers and trouble makers and it is just what I needed at that point in time.  Not only is my friend completely unique and hilarious, she is also a sensitive and beautiful person who knows how to rock out and she instinctively knew what I needed at that point in time.  What more could you want from a friend?

I’m sure I will play this a few more times over the coming days and then shake myself up, dust myself off and come back out fighting.  That’s what music does to me and thank god for that, otherwise I’d be a maudlin’ mess in the corner!

Unusual music venues.

After seeing The Temper Trap at Koko last week I started thinking about music venues and the ones we especially love and those that miss the mark.  I also started thinking about venues that original use was for something else and it has been adapted for a new musical purpose.

In its most basic form, and one many of us would have experienced, is where I saw Deep Purple years ago with my dad.  They played out of a leisure centre in Reading and used the large gymnasium as the hall.  I can’t remember too much about the acoustics, but I do remember having a bass chest massage all night and apart from the excellent guitarist this is the overwhelming memory of that gig.  The venue wasn’t designed for music, but it was a large spare space that was available and it suited the crowd attending.

One of my favourite venues is London’s O2 arena.  This was originally the Millennium Dome, created to house an exhibition to celebrate the turning of the millennium.  After 2000 had passed it sat empty for years and my brother and I used to say many times what a great concert venue it would be, especially after it was used for the excellent millennium show during the exhibition.  Incidentally this was composed by Peter Gabriel and it is available as the wonderful album called ’Ovo’ that I love listening to even now.  Happily others thought the same and the site is now converted into a music venue, with a large indoor arena, a small music club, an assortment of restaurants, an exhibition area for various events, a large cinema and an ice rink during the winter.  It is a great day out to go up for a meal and then finish the day off with a gig.  Transport links are great and it is easy to get in and out, all important factors to make the evening go smoothly.  This is why is has been voted the worlds best music venue in it’s first full year running and why I happily snap up tickets for bands playing there.

Another venue I love is Somerset House which does a summer series of gig each year.  This building is used the house the nations birth and death records, but the courtyard is used as an outdoor cinema and for gigs during the light, warm summer months.  I saw The Temper Trap here last year and it was excellent.  Apart from the music being amazing, the venue was superb too.  Due to being stood in a courtyard it felt intimate, even though you were open to the skies.  Lights were played against the walls and as it grew darker it almost felt like you were stood in a stately, outdoor club.  Again, it was easy to get in and out and being in the centre of London transport was good as well.  I had such a great time that when I saw the summer series announced this year I quickly snapped up a ticket and I am delighted to say I am seeing another of my all time favourite artists (Jill Scott) there later in the year.

Then there is Koko.  This was originally a grand, steeply tiered theatre and the old style and décor remains.  But numerous bars have been put in, the floor seating has been removed and strong balcony rails are in place.  This venue was originally designed for theatre shows and plays and now it is used as a music venue and as a club.  I know the uses aren’t a million miles from each other, but the way the old building has been preserved and still utilised pleases me, as so many building of this type fall into disrepair.  I was really impressed with the venue and it’s facilities and would happily book another gig there if I saw someone I liked on it’s calendar. 

I guess when they change the venue from one use to another you have to consider acoustics (and also crowd control if it is especially small, or in a quiet area) but with modern PA systems and acoustic buffers (like the ceiling mushrooms in the Royal Albert Hall) many of these problems can be overcome.  I have to say the sound has never been atrocious in any of the venues I have mentioned here.

I’m sure there are many other examples of buildings being adapted from one use to another and these are just a selection that I thought of and enjoyed visiting.  I’d love to hear of any you have seen and your particular favourites.