Lanegan: All Killer, No Filler

The Union Chapel - I've seen all my favourite men perform under its hallowed roof and tonight, I saw my favourite of all (yes, I went to see him AGAIN), Mr Lanegan. Suits my latest fave phrase down to the ground: all killer, no filler. And he sang "I'll Take Care Of You" which I've never seen him perform live before. Just him and Dave Rosser on guitar. Goosebumps and a lump in my throat...a perfect song sung by my perfect singer.

Saving my soul, Lanegan style

I'm a lucky, lucky girl. As the old adage goes, it's definitely not what I know, it's who I know. I regularly get to see lots of amazing music for free. It's always a privilege, and I certainly never take it for granted.

So when Mr C said he had a place for me to go see Soulsavers with my darling Mr Lanegan on vocals, I was over that proverbial moon. The gig was taking place at Highbury Garage, now known as the Relentless Garage. What? Relentless? Why?

Going to gigs on my own has never really bothered me - aah, the life of the single girl...obviously, I'd rather have Mr Ward in tow nowadays, but there's the small matter of several seas and oceans between us. So, I found myself standing alone watching Tenebrous Liar, the support act. Main singer/guitarist is Steve Gullick, who is also an amazing rock photographer. I've seen his work exhibited at Rough Trade East and in many mags over the years. Much as I admire anyone who stands up in front of a load of folk and gives it their all, and I'm not normally one to ever suggest that someone shouldn't give up their day job, but...well, he is an amazing photographer.

I bump into a couple of folk I know - funnily enough, one is a photographer I happen to be working with at the moment. He and his truly stunning girlfriend are there purely to see Mr L. We'd already discovered our mutual admiration of him during a chat about music in the recent past. I promise the Stunner my after-show party wristband at the end of the gig and she is thrilled. 

The lights dim and the intro to 'Paper Money' begins...I've already wondered how they'll manage a few of these tunes without their gospel singers (Mr C had already told me there'd be no backing singers) but they seem to fill in with a wall of guitars which works pretty well. Mark Lanegan is a powerhouse. His voice never disappoints, and his presence on stage holds the attention of the entire audience, despite doing absolutely nothing but singing into his mic and not moving an inch. Towards the end, he leaves the stage for one song, and although it's well received, when he returns to the stage, it's all too clear that the crowd is here for him. Soulsavers have written some great material, but I reckon it's his delivery that makes it into something musically moving and spiritual.

My sweet Lord...I bloody love him.

Say Hello (2009), Wave Goodbye (Mr Mortimer)

Happy New Year! It's two weeks in and I've been nowhere and done sod all. Christmas was Christmas - you know, family stuff, seeing old friends. We had the Xmas Eve coffee morning as usual. Good to see some old faces, and a few new ones - for the first time, children attended the event. Yes, children - small people belonging to bigger people of one's acquaintance. I managed to make one of them cry quite spectacularly. No sense of irony, kids...

Kid on left cried, kid on right laughed the whole time

Me and the ladies (with Mr T getting in on the act)

Christmas Day was the usual round of over-eating and lolling around. Some spectacular gifts from Mother - topping the mad polls were the fairy wand which flashed and played a techno tune (?), the fire extinguisher - "didn't this used to be in your kitchen, Mum?" to which she replied "yes, I didn't want it any more" (??), but far and away the winner - a crystal baby's dummy in a silk presentation box, one each received by me, my sister and my brother, congratulating us on the birth of our new baby (????????). "Ooooh, I'll kill that bloke in the shop, they were supposed to be crystal guardian angels", she said. We wouldn't give them back for return. Too funny and too precious to relinquish.

Boxing Day - donned the wellies and went for the traditional walk with my brother. Marsden was on top form - freezing cold but brilliant sunshine too...lovely. Wore Dad's trilby - Mum likes it to get a walk too:

Came back to London, lots of relaxing - did a huge walk to the Heath and back, watched lots of films...lovely.

New Year's Eve - although the main attraction was a night of uptown-heavy-rockin' at Heavy Load, I was meeting Blondie and the Old Punk at The Angel. Now as The Angel normally closes at 7pm on NYE, I thought I wouldn't make it. Imagine my surprise when I got a text off Blondie saying Landlord Mike had invited us to his NYE lock-in private party. Holy Grail of lock-ins. When I arrived, the party was in full swing and the free booze was flowing. Superb. Had a good laugh with Mike and his family, and we were pretty sad when we had to go and meet up with the rest of the gang. Picked up Smiff and Marc on the way, and then headed over to HL. Ensconced in our usual shady corner, we ate our way through the sweet buckets put out for the punters, and danced to top tunes all night. Marc got the champagne in, and added to the Jägermeister/lager/JD combo, I reckon it was responsible for some of the moves I pulled on the dancefloor...

New Year's Day brought a severe hangover...which turned into a five-day bedfest. The shivers, aches, pains I suffered CANNOT be attributed to the booze - I can neck that on a normal night and be up with the lark the next day. No, i succumbed to the dreaded flu. Not nice, and certainly no way to start a New Year. Then, on the 8th day, I arose (not unlike Jesus, but no beard or sandals and I took slightly longer to get out of the cave thing), thinking "yup, this is me getting better". By Sunday, the chest and sinus infection had struck. So I went to the docs, and got the dreaded antibiotics. But boy-oh-boy, those babies do work. So now I'm really on the mend. 16 days in and not a 2009 night out under my belt. And no gig yet! WHAT??? My first gig of the year will be The Gutter Twins on Monday at the Union Chapel. Might ask Mr Lanegan to rub some Vicks on my chest...

Postscript: I am dreadfully sad to read that John Mortimer has died. I've read so much of his work over the years, including all the Rumpole stuff. Barrister and QC, he was a great libertarian, and defended brilliantly at both the Last Exit To Brooklyn obscenity trial in 1969 and Oz "Schoolkids" trials in the early 70s. He was a funny, witty clever man who was high on my top ten list of people I'd actually like to meet and have a pint with, preferably in the French House (and in my fantasy, Peter O'Toole would join us slightly later...)

Oh, I Do Like To Rock Beside The Seaside...

As a kid, most of my holidays were spent in little B&B's, presided over by bustling landladies in pinnys and slippers. I used to listen enviously as friends told of holidays at Butlins, with its knobbly knee competitions and Redcoats. How I dreamed wistfully of such glamour...

My chance to visit Butlins for the first time came when some friends had a spare berth in their chalet for an All Tomorrow's Parties weekend to be held in Minehead. The weekend was to be curated by Mike Patton (sigh) and the Melvins. At first, I resisited. When Soulsavers announced they were playing, with the wondeful Mr Lanegan in tow, I buckled and gave in.

We drove down on Friday - me, Tabby, Nads, Chris - taking about 4 hours from London. This included a Tesco stop, so we could stock up on Pot Noodle, Jaffa Cakes and booze (essential Rock fodder). Minehead is a pretty town, nestling in tree-covered cliffs. Butlins is right on the seafront. Our chalet was perfect - a Formica home-from-home. Tom and Ulanda arrived from Whitstable and our party was complete.

Bands seen over the weekend:

• Melvins 1983 - Good way to start. Buzz Osborne's hair is as big and bouncy as ever with tunes to match.
• Dirtbombs - good tunes, but sound was a bit disappointing on the vocals.
• Isis - great drone - superb
• The Locust - wild. Men in insect outfits playing what can only be described as post-punk-jazz-doom-John -Wyndham-core (creating new genres became a fave pastime of the weekend...)
• Meat Puppets - the Kirkwoods done good.
• Os Mutantes - ohmifuckinggod! How to describe - psych-meets-samba-meets-circus-freakery all done with a beaming smile. Brilliant but odd.
• Butthole Surfers - I have a crush (one of my many) on Gibby Haynes. Because he was, and is, at the forefront of making music that pushes people into places they wouldn't normally go. And he's hugely tall and does a brilliant wobbly leg move on stage. And you never know what he'll do next. Swoon.
• Mastodon - considering these guys were a guitarist down, they ROCKED that hall. Consummate metal showbiz. Superb.
• Fantomas - what to say? Mike Patton is a supremely talented individual with an amazing voice. He's joined by an equally amazing line-up - Buzz on guitar, Trevor Dunn on bass, and Dave "Slayer" Lombardo on drums. And they performed the Director's Cut, an album of film orchestration done in metal-thrash style, but often staying faithful in parts to the original. They were simply breathtaking.
• Martina Topley-Bird - lovely voice, lovely frock.  A real breath of sweet air amongst all the Heavy. Did a cover of one of my fave Kate Bush songs Army Dreamers. Didn't murder it either.
• Teenage Jesus & The Jerks - Lydia being Lydia. Jim Sclavunos - yes please. Immaculate drumming and not a man boob in sight under that shirt which got slowwwwly opened button by button. The tease.
• Soulsavers - oh, Mr Lanegan. If only you knew what your voice does to me. I waited up until 2am to see this and he was worth the wait. Nice use of gospel voices too. Lovely.
• James "Blood" Ulmer - saw this cool old blues dude a while back at the Barbican with Vernon Reid and the Punk Funk Allstars. Still got those blues...
• Joe Lally - please, if there is a God, let Fugazi reform. Joe has a sweet voice and plays that bass like an angel. Although all this solo stuff didn't quite hit it, some of the tunes were real growers.

Other highlights included:

• Me being chased by a huge, bearded man (who became known as Treebeard), who insisted that "I only want to touch her" to my doubled-up-with-laughter friends. I had to actually RUN away from him in the venue.
• When the car radio wouldn't work, I said it might if I blew on it, which caused much cynicism. So I blew on it...and it worked. Magic.
• Lovely walk on the seafront
• Seeing Mike Patton up close and realising that he really is still GORGEOUS.

And that's about it. We drove back on Sunday evening (work beckoning - I hate that work rubbish...gets in the way of a good time...). Back next May for the Breeders ATP. Hi-De-Hi!