Wednesday 12 July 2006

A Matter Of Perspective

London Fields # 28
First published Inpress, Melbourne on 12 July 2006
NB: Each column has a name, but these do not appear in print; printed versions may differ slightly to those displayed here

Three Saturdays ago, I was sitting at home at a loose end. Doctor Who had finished, it was warm and still daylight and rather than sit at home, I walked up to a local pub, as Ed Tudor-Pole was due to play. I had no idea what to expect.

What I found was a weird mixture of cabaret and spleen. He’s angry, and loathes the current government. His hand-painted shirt is scrawled with slogans, including Socialism Is Shit and Destroy PC. He plays with a manic energy, wielding the most beaten-up guitar you’ll ever see. One of his steel toe-capped boots seems intent on going off on its own, taking his leg with it. He pays all the hits, from Who Killed Bambi to the Tenpole Tudor classics Wunderbar and Swords of A Thousand Men.

What I didn’t expect was to be invited to join his table and spend the next few hours chatting with him, hearing unprintable stories of the times of punk from someone who was at one time a Sex Pistol. His new material is political, but he’s not happy with me when I suggest that his Conservative stance makes him the anti-Billy Bragg. Oh, and if any promoter is reading this - he would love to come and tour Australia…

It’s moments like these that make the sometimes-alienating experience of living in a foreign land all worthwhile. It’s a seesaw battle; sometimes; events, circumstances and mood can all conspire to make the experience a good or bad one. But sometimes it’s all a question of attitude, but when things happen that you couldn’t imagine happening back home, and you gotta smile and say to yourself – “Yeah!”

It can get you down when you fork out hundreds just to have the water connected to your house, and then have a hosepipe ban imposed when a “drought” is declared. Not that it’s a countrywide water shortage – just the Thames Water region. Yup! That’s the company that has just posted a 31% pre-tax rise in profits to £346.5 million this year; the very same company that loses 894 million litres every day through leaky pipes. But if you use a hose, you’ll cop a walloping fine!

Many of the best live bands I’ve seen in my time here have never made it to Australia, and probably never will. It was so great to see Paul Buchanan of The Blue Nile touring for the first time in ten years (and to chat to him at the Barbican). The shows were something quite extraordinary, as the intimate music of a thousand bedrooms became an intimate concert for a thousand people. Sometimes, it felt almost too personal, like eavesdropping on a confessional – this truly was art without artifice. The highlight was A Walk Across The Rooftops with its blend of strings, drum machine bass and vulnerable yet powerful vocals. Their sound may be ‘80’s, but it doesn’t sound dated at all.

Ken Livingston, the Mayor of London is encouraging us to take up cycling as a major form of transport. But in London it simply isn’t safe - only last weekend, a local man was killed in a head on collision. That wouldn’t be so unusual, except that he was one of around seven hundred cyclists taking part in the fourteenth annual running of The Dunwich Dynamo, from inner London suburb Hackney to Dunwich beach on the Suffolk coast. I used to cycle too, until one day an idiot leaned out a passenger window and pushed me under a (thankfully stationary) bus. But it really ended for me when I lost two friends, killed on their bikes in separate daytime incidents, within the space of six weeks. That’s why my bike is slowly rusting in the back garden.

It doesn’t take much now for an act to get huge in the UK. Hard-Fi managed to sell out a five-night run at London’s largest pub venue, the 4 500 capacity Brixton Academy, with a single album. Editors managed to sell out a three-night stand, and they were playing 800 venues only eight months earlier. But being as popular as this doesn’t necessarily make for an entertaining evening. In fact, after my experiences at Death Cab For Cutie the other week, I think I’m really over seeing BIG shows.

Now I’m quite fond of them on record, but as a live experience, DCFC weren’t much fun. The audience was one of the most annoying I’ve ever experienced; it was like being transported back to a 3XY Under 18’s Concert. The music and playing was so safe and bland - it was the epitome of what used to be known as college radio, or an emo version of Coldplay. The nadir came when a second drum kit was set up for Ben Gibbard – rather than generating excitement, I was reminded of one of those clockwork drumming monkeys. The only saving grace was Chris Walla – whether he was on guitar, keyboards or bass, he really was the star of this act.

So I’m sticking to smaller gigs from now on. It’s great to see bands longs before they hit the radar, and even bigger bands are more enjoyable in a smaller space. It was wonderful seeing The Church playing a tiny basement club (The Borderline) a month ago. Even if sometimes they work too hard to show what rounded and talented musicians they all are, theirs is an easy grace that comes from their years of playing together. Steve Kilbey was having a few voice troubles, but nothing that distracted from gambit of emotions the set went through. From the fun about how they have no market in Manchester leading to a riffing on Joy Division’s She’s Lost Control, to a Providence dedicated to Grant McLennan, and a final moving segue of Invisible into Bye Bye Pride that stayed with me for days. And I’d never seen Steve sing without the comfort of a guitar before either!

As Lily Allen states in LDN, it’s all about perspective: “You might laugh, you might frown, Walkin' round London town…” Indeed! Sometimes it’s all a question of attitude…


© James McGalliard 2007