28th May 2013: Depeche Mode / How To Dress Well - The O2 Arena, London

Part 3 of my 4-gig week and my 3rd attempt at reviewing something in 500 words. I think I wrote 500 words about the support- sorry.

You could be forgiven for thinking that I only listen to progressive rock music. Or even, rock music. Looking down through the list of old entries here does make me look like an ever older, fartier old fart than I actually am. The truth is, that I've spent ages reviewing newer, "dancier" acts (Cut Copy, M83, The Invisible) before now, but I don't move in cool enough circles for them to get much interest.

Still, there's a rich seam of synthpop and electronica hitting London over the next few weeks, and across my next 3 gigs I will see a sum total of 3 instruments with strings - all of which are here this evening; Depeche Mode being one of those bands that straddles the electro and rock genres like the Basildon colossi that they are.

Gig buddies tonight (and not biddies, as I just accidentally typed) are Tinyfish Bassplayer Paul and his wife Helen (Queen of the Apiary), who's something of a synthpop nut and has dragged "'Im indoors" along to see what all the fuss is about. Being a musician, he's also a useful person to have about at a gig, since we're too late to get close to the stage, so he suggests we plonk ourselves down in front of the mixing desk for optimal sound, and we end up standing on top of the remnants of the other night's Rush gig.

Um, what is that we're nearly putting our feet in? Yes, I thought so...

Support tonight is from Tom Krell, aka...

How to Dress Well

...who play what I remember as "Ethereal R&B", singing quite soulful vocals into two microphones at once (one more reverby than the other), while a chap on stage right twiddles knobs. Together they produce some fun, jaunty tunes like '& It Was U', as well as some much more sombre material like the beautiful 'Suicide Dream 1', where knobs-man picks up a violin and Tom gives an extremely heartfelt vocal performance which steers just on the correct side of "boyband". The songs are accompanied by sometimes interesting and sometimes downright bizarre video material; the scene which seems to be a man putting on and taking off an avocado facepack for an unspecified reason is a particular highlight.

The last song is quite anthemic, and I can imagine it going down very well in a small club or on an outdoor terrace in summer but in this cavernous arena it gets lost slightly. Ultimately, the crowd are waiting for Depeche Mode and haven't really been prepared to put in as much attention as is required, but these guys are definitely worth a listen at home. A commentator on Youtube suggests that "this is some baby making music" so that probably tells you all you need to know.

The main event is on its way, so it's time to head to the bar and pick up our rock and roll order of "3 waters", which takes a ridiculous length of time thanks to the most annoyingly generous man ever at the bar, who runs up an £80 bill two drinks at a time - firstly for his companions, then the lady he nearly punches in the face, then the people who are getting annoyed at him being at the bar for 25 minutes... All of which means that by the time I return, it's nearly time for...

Depeche Mode

...who make a fairly convincing argument this evening for the possibility of being a rock band without guitars (except when they feel like it), and also for bands from the '80s still managing to create relevant new music in the '10s.

Depeche Mode are another band, like Rush the other day, who I've only recently discovered (I know, I'm so on the pulse...) so it's testament to the quality of new album 'Delta Machine' that they manage to play three quarters of it tonight and not have it stick out like a sore Essex thumb (with a garishly bejewelled fingernail on the end, perhaps).

Kicking off with the one-two of album opener 'Welcome to My World', and current single 'Angel', is a pretty obvious statement of intent - this is no nostalgia show, and even when they reach further back into their bag of tricks, it's with a renewed sense of vigour and purpose. 'Walking in My Shoes' is suitably dark and menacing, and 'Policy of Truth' prompts Dave "I really ought to be dead" Gahan to start the first of many little bolero dances he undertakes this evening in his stunning combo of leather waistcoat and bare chest. I wouldn't recommend it for most of the bands I see, but he is a genuine rock star, commanding the entire venue by his very presence even when he's not singing.

Which is just as well, since he's rather fond of the old "get the crowd to sing the chorus" trick. So much so that he uses it again and again, certainly for the giant singalong classics. The problem with this is that Dave's got a deceptively low voice, and I don't know if you've ever tried to sing very low and very loudly but it usually involves soiling yourself, if it works at all, and is mostly quite impossible. The net result is that some of the best-loved songs this evening ('Question of Time', 'Enjoy the Silence') are essentially chorus-less, which is a bit disappointing. Still, there are plenty of pretty things to look at while we listen to the crowd trying to sing along in the style of Wookies.

Like this!

And this!

And some cute dogs. And the band wearing and swapping a variety of hats. And lights which come down like a helicopter at the start of 'Question of Time'. There's even a lot of fire, but it's just on the screens. Rush had real fire. Just saying...

Mid-set, there's the obligatory "quiet spot" where Martin Gore, with his never-aging, slightly sad clown-looking face, grabs a guitar and takes centre stage. It's an opportunity for the hardcore fans to enjoy his much softer, more melodic voice, and some of them embrace and look genuinely moved as he makes his way through 'Higher Love' and 'When the Body Speaks'. It's also an opportunity for people who only know three Depeche Mode songs to shout at each other, take photos of themselves in front of the stage, and generally act like, well I want to say "bellends" but really it's more like "modern-day giggers". Get off my lawn, hipsters.

Oh, go on, please listen to me, or I'll look even sadder... 

With Dave back on the stage, the gig makes its way to the finish line, with some of the biggest hits still to come, including a very dance-y version of newer hit 'A Pain That I'm Used To', based on the Jacques Lu Cont mix, and a slow, Johnny Cash style start to 'Personal Jesus' before it turns into the rockiest song of the evening.

It's in the encore though, that things finally come alive for the whole arena (bellends included.) A very James-Bond-esque version of 'Halo' (which turns out to be based on a Goldfrapp remix) is a surprise highlight of the entire gig, and then there's the small matter of an early '80s mega-smash hit single and erstwhile DFS commercial, which gets the whole place jumping up and down to Alan Fletcher's cheesetastic keyboard riff in a way which is rather at odds with the rest of the evening's dark, brooding set.

I bet they 'Just Can't Get Enough' of playing this song. Ha! HAHA!

A couple more bona fide hits, with occasional choruses, round up the evening and we're sent home with the sounds of 'Never Let Me Down Again' ringing in our ears, past the resident tube station busker knocking out 'Personal Jesus' for the hundredth time.

It's been a good night, with some excellent music and some proper rock star behaviour (not all of it from the band). It's hard to get too involved in a gig when you're standing right at the back of an enormodome, but Dave Gahan has a good old go at engaging every single person in the hall, even those standing by the sound desk on a pile of someone else's spit.

I will probably never, ever, forgive them for not playing 'Everything Counts', though. Surely that's the only way a Depeche Mode gig should ever end?

Depeche Mode Setlist:

Welcome to My World 
Angel 
Walking in My Shoes 
Precious 
Black Celebration 
Policy of Truth 
Should Be Higher 
Barrel of a Gun 
Higher Love (Sung by Martin)
When the Body Speaks (Sung by Martin)
Heaven 
Soothe My Soul 
A Pain That I'm Used To ('Jacques Lu Cont's Remix' version)
A Question of Time 
Secret to the End 
Enjoy the Silence 
Personal Jesus 
Goodbye

Encore:
Home (Acoustic)
Halo ('Goldfrapp Remix' version)
Just Can't Get Enough 
I Feel You 

Never Let Me Down Again 

24th May 2013: Rush - The O2 Arena, Greenwich

Part one of ‘James attempts to write a normal amount’. 

Rush are surely the biggest band that most people have never heard of, aren't they? Ultimate proof of this comes a few days after this gig when on round one of daytime quiz show par excellence "Pointless" (what can I say, I work from home…) it's revealed that only 3 of 100 people surveyed could identify the name Geddy Lee as a member of the band. Still, you wouldn't know this upon arrival at the O2, as hordes of middle aged men and the odd outlier like gig buddies Tim and Karin queue up for nigh-on 45 minutes to buy T-shirts at £25 a pop. “No T-shirt is worth queuing for 45 minutes for,” says Karin. “Not unless when you put it on, Peter Hammill magically appears in front of you.”

Actually there's a lovely, chilled atmosphere in the queue – a chap in front of me and Tim joins in with our banter, we all roll our eyes in mock scorn and secret jealousy at the blowhard behind who is proclaiming loudly about having seen the ‘Hemispheres’ tour at the Southampton Gaumont, and we have a good old snigger at the £400 Rush leather jackets. “Who would pay that much money to look like that much of a knob?” I say, a question which is answered on the way to our seats as we spy two gentlemen proudly wearing the said matching garments in a way which Karin likens to teenage girl BFFs.

Photo: Tim Lawrie

Arriving in our seats, the PA keeps us entertained with selections from Crimson and Genesis, and the gods of fate and coincidence throw a complete curveball as I suddenly realise that the chap standing in the aisle by our block looking around for his gig buddy is my cousin Adrian, who I haven't seen in possibly years. “Adrian! ADRIAN!” I shout repeatedly, in an unintentional homage to both Rocky and Alan Partridge. He doesn't run up any steps to come and meet me, but to be fair the poor guy's just had a baby, so I'll let him off.

Eventually, with only 135 words remaining, the gig starts. (This is going really well, isn't it? Perhaps I'll reset the word count now we're talking about the actual thing.) Now, here's a confession, in case you're expecting the kind of gushing eulogies I sometimes dole out to my most favouritest bands – I like Rush, I'm on the way to loving Rush, but I am basically quite a noob compared to everyone else I meet this evening. The problem is, it took me until 2009 to start listening to them at all, and at that point I ended up picking up all the albums pretty much at the same time, and in case you hadn't noticed, there are quite a lot of them.

'Subdivisions' - Photo: Tim Lawrie

Whilst this means I don’t really know anything apart from "The Hits" very well, it does basically mean that I don't care what they play, as I sort-of-know it all to about the same degree. Which is just as well, since they've decided that this tour is to be a kind of “80's to present day” tour, with lots of selections from albums like ‘Power Windows’, ‘Grace Under Pressure’ and ‘Signals’. Kicking off with one of my very favourites, ‘Subdivisions’, is a good move on their part as this completely partisan crowd goes completely batshit crazy and doesn't let up for the next 3 hours. ‘Big Money’ is up next, not a song I know that well but it's ok, a thoughtful fan directly behind me sings the lyrics directly into my left cochlea in exactly the same register, pitch and accent as Geddy - to his own beer-befuddled mind, anyway. Nobody can sing like Geddy, let's be honest. And thank goodness for that – even Geddy can't actually sing like Geddy half the time, although he's in fine voice this evening, hitting a higher percentage of the high notes than in 2011 and commanding the stage and everyone's attention more than anyone who yelps for a living ought to.

Photo: Tim Lawrie

And over the course of the evening, the band give us a master class in how just 3 men can keep a giant arena audience entertained for the whole evening whilst playing far from their best known material. Geddy switches between bass, pedals, keyboards and bad jokes all evening (“We've got about 60,000 songs for you tonight…”) and makes it all look effortless, Alex Lifeson runs the full gamut of guitar techniques from the Police-esque strumming of ‘Grand Designs’ to the far more rifftastic display of ‘Far Cry’, and Neil Peart proves several times why he's widely regarded as the best drummer in the business, not least on his two solos, the second of which breaks new ground in having his kit trigger notes and samples to create a surprisingly electronic atmosphere, continuing on into a fantastic reading of ‘Red Sector A’.

'The Percussor' - Photo: Tim Lawrie

The songs and the playing are enough for me, but then again, if you're going to play a giant dome like the O2, then why not use its capabilities? Hence there are giant screens showing both impressive modern graphics and wonderfully vintage animations for songs like ‘Force Ten’, there are fantastic light shows, and there are even giant pyrotechnic explosions which literally make me jump out of my skin. Ok, not literally, that would be disgusting. There's even a man who runs on stage in a chicken suit and throws things around, some guys with traffic cones, and a giant popcorn machine. No, me neither.

'Force Ten' - Photo: Tim Lawrie

But for me, the highlight of this evening is the second half of the set, when the band bring out a wonderful string section to accompany them for the vast majority of new album and probable personal favourite ‘Clockwork Angels’. I'm still inordinately annoyed about missing the Yes Symphonic tour in 2001, but this nearly makes up for it. Exquisite string arrangements for heart-rending new songs like ‘The Wreckers’ and ‘The Garden’ and the old classics like ‘YYZ’ cause Karin to wonder whether the band will ever sound the same again without their new wooden friends. (She might not have put it quite like that, mind.) And the best bit about this whole thing is that we can actually hear what they're playing thanks to a great sound mix– adding sumptuous harmonies here and biting riffs there.

'The Wreckers' - Photo: Tim Lawrie

For fans of classic (i.e. pre-1982) Rush, it might have been a long old, synth-and-new-album-heavy slog for the main part tonight, but not to worry, there’s still 30 minutes of the gig remaining, and following “the best instrumental ever to be named after an airport apart from perhaps ‘Heathrow’ by Level 42 – oh dear lord am I going to get it from certain people now” , the show ends with the “feel-good classics”, the closest Rush have to “hits”. ‘The Spirit of Radio’, ‘Tom Sawyer’ (sadly with real, non-South Park lyrics), and a nice chunk of ‘2112’. Who can argue with that?

Certainly not any the people we meet up with afterwards, including Bob "Top 5 gig of all time” Hodds, Matt “Loopy” Stevens, and Paul “Vitamin P” Tippett, who's even managed to catch one of the T-shirts fired from cannons on the stage.

They love lamp, you know. Photo: Oh, me!

Like much of this evening, it doesn't make a lot of sense to the uninitiated, but for those who are fully paid-up members of the clandestine society of Rush, it's the icing on the cake. Let's just say I may have learned the secret handshake this evening…


1209 words. That's actually not bad for me, honest, and I think Rush deserved it. Will try harder next time.

Rush Setlist

Subdivisions
The Big Money
Force Ten
Grand Designs
The Body Electric 
Territories 
The Analog Kid 
Bravado 
Where's My Thing? (Including drum solo)
Far Cry 

Set 2: (with Clockwork Angels String Ensemble)

Caravan 
Clockwork Angels 
The Anarchist 
Carnies 
The Wreckers 
Headlong Flight  (Including drum solo)
Halo Effect
Seven Cities of Gold 
The Garden 
Manhattan Project 
Drum Solo (The Percussor)
Red Sector A 
YYZ 
The Spirit of Radio (Without String Ensemble)

Encore:

Tom Sawyer 
2112 Part I: Overture 
2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx 

2112 Part VII: Grand Finale 

2nd - 10th December 2011: The Watch, The Lexington / Penn & Teller, Indigo2 / Renaissance Singers of London, St Giles Church

Oh dear. How long have I been writing this blog, 2 months? And already I'm getting lazy... very lazy indeed. No longer can I be bothered to write everything up properly at great length, I've resorted to a round-up. A "highlights". A clip show.


Or, to spin it another way, perhaps I've learned the art of self editing. Perhaps I've learned that writing should be punchy and concise to grab the reader's attention. (Seems unlikely, doesn't it?) After all, isn't there a reason why newspaper gig reviews are only 100 words long or so?


To tell you the truth, I'm running low on time to get things written up, there's a major gig event in the prog community tomorrow evening which is going to require the mother, father and sister-in-law of all blogs to do justice, and I just want to clear the decks before that happens. That, and I can't plug the charger into my laptop since it's started causing black smoke to emit from the socket, and I have but 55 minutes of battery to go before my new one arrives on Tuesday.

Yep, this is what's going to happen to me in the name of blogging,
 if I'm not careful.

So let's get cracking. (Bloody hell, I've already wasted several hundred words writing about how I'm not going to write very much.)


2nd December 2011: The Watch & John Hackett / Nick Magnus - The Lexington, London


Another last minute decision, I'm tempted along to this gig by my friends at the Fishtank who promise an evening of singalong prog, and I'm not disappointed.


A heavy afternoon and evening of work threatens to stop me from coming at all, but a sudden inspired piece of delegation to someone in a different timezone luckily has me heading off up to London to join in the fun partway through the evening's first act - John Hackett (brother of Steve) and Nick Magnus (ex Hackett band keyboard player). Not sure of what they play before I get there but as I arrive they're playing what sounds a little like lift muzak, with John on flute, Nick on keys, and an 80s drum machine on taped percussion.

John and Nick are joined by The Watch guitarist Giorgio Gabriel

Not the most inspiring start, but then there are a couple of beautiful tracks from one of Nick's albums, and then John, looking ever so much like his brother, announces that they will play a couple of Steve's songs. This might sound a little bit desperate but since both John and Nick were a big part of Steve's band in the 70s and 80s and made these tracks their own on stage, they've every right to give them an airing tonight.

And we're very glad they do - starting with the wonderful 'Jacuzzi', they then lead into the instrumental section of 'Overnight Sleeper', and finish up with the absolutely sublime 'Hands of the Priestess' from Steve's 'Voyage of the Acolyte' album, 3 tracks which I don't think Steve himself has played since those days. A wonderful start to the evening.

And then it's time for the main event. Most bands start out playing covers and then start doing their own material, but Italian band The Watch seem to have it the wrong way round, inasmuch as they first came to my attention as a new prog band with their own material, back in the early 2000's. I wasn't that impressed with the album I heard at the time but they subsequently appeared on my radar again some years later with their Genesis tribute shows, which seem to be their main line of work these days. Tonight is the last night of their 'Green Show' tour (dunno, don't ask me), which is a set based largely around Genesis' 'Selling England by the Pound' album from 1973.

I have had some of the best nights of my gigging career at Genesis tribute gigs, and some of the most soul-destroying "what is wrong with my life?" ones as well, so it's always touch and go, but this one falls somewhere inbetween. One great thing that the band have going for them is that they don't pretend to be Genesis - which is excellent news, and frankly none of them look anything like their counterparts anyway so it'd be a trifle embarrassing.


The exception is singer and flautist Simone Rosetti, who sounds every inch like Peter Gabriel in the 70's and even has his bizarre hip-twisting movements and stilted tambourine banging utterly perfected. You'd swear it was Gabriel. Until you looked upwards and saw the lovechild of Marty Feldman and Gene Wilder. Let's chuck into the mix the heavy Italian accent - which gets interesting when he's singing lines like these from the London brawl commentary 'The Battle of Epping Forest' :


"There's Willy Wright and his boys,
One helluva noise, that's Billy's boys
With fully fashioned mugs, that's Little John's thugs,
The Barking slugs, super smugs."


At this point we're watching a man with an Italian accent impersonating Peter Gabriel from nearly 40 years ago impersonating a cockney. It's not something I'm quite prepared for, and unfortunately it takes me most of the gig to get past it and stop sniggering. Terrible, I know. But he hits all the right notes and does so with power, so is by any measure an excellent singer. The rest of the band are spot on, too, with all the right sounds, and the keyboard player even plays guitar when Tony Banks would have done so, which scores maximum Genesis Tribute points. 10 Squonks to The Watch.

Simone Rosetti. Tambourine action not pictured.

But let's backtrack, the gig starts in very interesting fashion with some incredibly obscure and early Genesis tracks such as 'The Shepherd' and 'Let Us Now Make Love' ("Do we have to?", I ask out loud to nobody in particular, causing Tinyfish lyricist Rob Ramsay to inhale beer through his nostrils.) These two, as well as one of the band's own songs, feature John Hackett on flute, which is another nice touch. 'Let us Now Make Love' has a very rocked-up  arrangement and is one of the best tracks of the night. 


From here, the band move into the 'Selling England' set which is extremely well received by the faithful, (they play everything except for 'More Fool Me' and 'After the Ordeal'), and although I used 'Epping Forest' for my own sadistic humourous purposes earlier, I have to hand it to Simone, managing to spit out all those lyrics that even Gabriel struggled with on stage, and in a non-native tongue. It's actually one of the highlights of the evening for being a bit less played at these events. As well as the 'Selling England' tracks, they also play 'Musical Box', the last section of 'Supper's Ready' (cut due to the curfew) and some more of their own songs. Ah yes, their own songs. I'm sorry to say that my opinion of these hasn't really changed in that they have all of the sound and feel of vintage Genesis tracks but with none of the melody. I try, really I do, but I can't hear anything to get excited about. Sorry, guys.


For me, the fun of the evening is hanging out with some friends, watching some amazing musicians playing great music note perfectly, oh, and doing the super geeky thing of loudly singing Phil Collins's cheesy vocal flourishes from the tracks which he sang on the 'Seconds Out' live albums. Well, it has to be done.


Towards the end, they announce next year's show, which is called, wait for it... "The Yellow Show". It sounds intriguing, they plan to play some songs from the two albums released just after Peter Gabriel left the band, but in the style of the Gabriel-led band. So that'll be an Italian man impersonating Peter Gabriel from 40 years ago impersonating Phil Collins impersonating a cockney. That has to be worth a look.

6th December 2011: Conversations with Penn and Teller - 35 Years of Magic and Bullshit - Indigo2, Greenwich


Right, these last two are going to have to be super speedy - we have 30 minutes of battery left now and, honestly, I'm not exactly sure how to write about something which isn't actually a gig.


In case anyone's been living under a rock, Penn and Teller are American magicians/ illusionists / TV presenters chiefly famous for their no-nonsense approach to magic, their debunking of various myths and scams in their 'Penn and Teller - Bullshit' series, and their Saturday night TV show 'Penn and Teller - Fool Us'.

Penn Gillette is the tall, dark haired, ranty one on the left and Teller (he's so cool he only needs one name, like Sting and Dappy) is the short, balding, mute one on the right.


We've been told what to expect, so we know we haven't come to see a magic show as such, but rather an evening of conversation and Q&A. I'm rather wondering how this will work since Teller famously doesn't speak at all on stage or on TV, adding a rather unique dimension to his tricks. All is answered after the opening card trick (in which Penn picks out an audience member's card by stabbing it through Teller's hand), when Penn announces 'To interview us this evening, a good friend of ours, Mr. Jonathan Ross'.


Rather a nice bonus, since I do like Mr. Ross, although I later discover that the following night they're interviewed by Stephen Fry (dammit!). First question, to Teller, is he going to speak tonight? He pauses for dramatic effect... "Fuck yeah."

I know these two people could be anyone - but look, it does say 'Penn & Teller', so trust me.

So then, over the next couple of hours we're taken through their history (Penn met Teller when Teller was a high school Latin teacher), their relationship (we learn that they're not really friends and hardly socialise at all), what Penn hates more than anything (TV Psychics / Mediums provoke the best rant of the evening and a huge round of applause), and about their showbiz friends (Derren Brown, Matt and Trey of South Park amongst others - this is all I need to know about what kind of guys they are.)


After the very enlightening chat which I can heartily recommend if you're a fan, there's time for the fans to ask questions which range from the uber-geeky to the pointlessly vague, but interspersed throughout the night are about 5 magic tricks, all of which are very impressive although mostly seen already on the 'Fool Us' show. But then, when do I ever complain about a band playing a song I've heard them play before? Their 'tricks' (if you can call them that) are so expertly crafted and played out on stage with their trademark chemistry that they're worth watching again and again.


It all seems to be over very quickly, and Karin and I are off out into the main dome on our way home, but somehow the two guys are already out of the venue and standing outside doing some street magic for the passers by.


The cleverest trick of all though? The IndigO2's organisation causing us all to turn up 90 minutes before show time for a seated gig with allocated seats, and having us all queue up for 45 minutes without opening the doors. Truly impressive. When's the last time that happened at the theatre?

Only the O2 could get people to queue for 45 minutes for their allocated seats.

10th December 2011: Renaissance Singers of London: A Boy is Born - St Giles-in-the-Fields Church, London


And so to my first Christmassy event of the year, and one of a semi-regular series of concerts which Karin and I like to attend to support my sister Helen who's a semi-professional alto soloist and chorister. Helen's in various choirs,including the amazing Serlo Consort and this, the Renaissance Singers of London - a group which (so the programme tells me) was "founded in 1944 to spearhead the revival of interest in performing Renaissance sacred polyphony at the dawn of the early music movement". 

St Giles in the Fields, pictured, well possibly not yesterday, look at the fashions on display.

In the interests of disclosure, I have to say I'm not the world's biggest fan of very early music (not enough guitar solos for my liking), but it's almost irrelevant when you're sitting in a beautiful old church in candlelight, listening to amazing unaccompanied voices floating around the vaulted ceiling. And there's much to enjoy - with pieces from Byrd, Gibbons, Taverner (tonight's oldest composer, born in 1490) and Thomas Tallis amongst others, there are plenty of opportunities to enjoy the massed voices of the whole choir, then just the ladies (and men with tight trousers), and then the full choir with soloists - including the aforementioned Alto who, biased though I may be, is the star of that particular piece.


There's even an organ solo piece, performed with enthusiasm by guest conductor Elizabeth Burgess. Nearly a guitar solo, but not quite. For me, though, there are two highlights, and in typical Philistine fashion, they're a) the one I know and b) the most modern piece on the  programme. "The one I know" is the evening's only "popular" Christmas Carol, the Coventry Carol, which is possibly the oldest tune of the evening, but is in a very interesting modern arrangement by 20th Century composer Kenneth Leighton. 


And the most modern piece is a song entitled 'Adam Lay Ybounden', by composer Matthew Martin who's just in his mid 30s - that's the same age as me! The mind boggles. Some very interesting harmonies and counterpoint provide a nice contrast to the largely more simple tunes from Renaissance times that make up the rest of the programme.

All in all, a most enjoyable evening, and there are even mince pies and mulled wine in the interval - an absolute godsend since the church is so freezing that Helen has to be rushed to the nearest Starbucks between rehearsal and concert to thaw out her hands and vocal chords on a bucket of peppermint tea. 




Epilogue


So, there we have it, three very different evenings to add to the year's gig tally. There are just two more in the calendar between now and New Year and then I think it'll be time for some end of year round-ups and 'Top 10' lists. I'll never be a proper blogger without lists.