From Outer Space To The Centre of The Earth

In the last couple of years, I have seen more gigs, shows, concerts, and other types of performances than I probably had in the previous forty, and 2019 was another bumper year, with 23 shows, featuring 35 different bands, orchestras, and solo artists, at 17 different venues.

Rather than review each event, here’s a sketch of the good, the bad and the indifferent.

Best show:

A tough choice this. Marillion were a surprise delight, as was Howard Jones. Tubular Bells for Two – whom I saw a couple of years ago and were delighted by – were excellent, and Steve Hackett was – as usual – brilliant. But for best show it’s a toss up between RPWL, the German prog rockers who started life as a Pink Floyd covers band, but in 2019 toured in support of their new album, Tales From Outer Space, and Steely Dan at Wembley Arena. Playing at the tiny Boston Music Room in Tufnell Park, RPWL performed a masterly collection of songs old and new; a really great show. Steely Dan, however were on another level. The death of Walter Becker in 2017 means that Steely Dan are now effectively Donald Fagen plus backing band, but what a great show they put on! And supporting them was another of my long-time favourites, Steve Winwood: truly a great night’s music.

RPWL

Marillion

Best venue:

In recent years I have developed a preference for standing at gigs, and the Islington Assembly Hall has become a great favourite of mine. I saw no shows there in 2019, so it’s another old favourite, the Hammersmith Apollo that tops my list this year, with a more than honourable mention to The Coliseum in St Martin’s Lane, where I saw an opera (Jack The Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel), a musical (The Man From La Mancha), and a recording of the BBC’s Friday Night is Music Night featuring a host of artists who first found fame in the 1980s

Rick Wakeman performing Journey To The Centre Of The Earth

Biggest surprise:

I haven’t seen Marillion since the 1980s, when Fish was still with them. I’ve not listened to a great deal of their material since Steve Hogarth took over singing duties, and I’ve been fairly ambivalent about what I have heard, but I saw them with an orchestral ensemble at The Cliffs Pavilion in Southend and they were quite superb. I confess that a good deal of the material was new to me but it was almost immediately familiar, and the song they closed with – This Strange Engine – has to be not just one of the best tracks they have recorded, but one of the top prog songs of all time. Howard Jones was a similarly surprising delight, as his show featured old stuff – much of it reworked, with Jones accompanying himself alone on piano – and new material from his latest album, Transform which impressed me to the degree that I immediately bought it. Another surprise was a ballet. My wife has become a bit of an opera and ballet fan in recent years, and I’ve seen a few with her, one of which was the ballet Don Quixote which we saw at The Royal Opera House, and which I found enchanting. A problem I have with operas is the surtitles at operas, which tend to divert my attention from the stage and give me a bit of crick in the neck; no such problem with ballet where I can give the dancing my undivided attention as there’s no singing in a language I don’t understand!

Howard Jones, with guitarist Robin Boult

Best support:

Support acts are a mixed blessing; I’ve seen some great one’s over the years and some that have been dire. Kanga, who performed a set of electronic stuff in support of Gary Numan at The Cliffs Pavilion, was ok for the first five minutes, but then I grew steadily more and more bored. The Temperance Movement, who supported Blue Oyster Cult, were ok, and China Crisis (supporting Howard Jones) were better than I’d expected. Most times at gigs, the support act is someone I’ve never heard of, such as Harry Payne, who opened for Marillion and was excellent – I could have done with another half-an-hour of his material. He would have been the best I saw in 2019, had it not been for Steve Winwood, although I would have enjoyed him even more if he had performed more of his solo material.

Least best show:

I’m loath to categorise any of the shows I saw in 2019 as bad, but there were a couple that were underwhelming. Actually, on reflection one was pretty poor, and that was Jack The Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel. Now, I quite like opera, but I’m no expert and it isn’t my first choice for musical entertainment, although I do like Rigoletto and Carmen (albeit not the performance I saw in 2018, where the set was a minimalist let-down and rather dragged the music down with it), but the Jack The Ripper opera was unremarkable at best. Most operas have at least one piece that you can’t get out of your head afterwards, but The Women of Whitechapel was pretty tuneless in my opinion. It was possibly the longest three hours of my life. If the show is ever revived, take my advice and avoid it. Don’t Fear The Reaper is one of my all-time favourite songs, and I saw Blue Oyster Cult perform it way back in the 1970s at what was then known by its proper name, the Hammersmith Odeon. I saw them again at the same venue in 2019, and quite frankly I think they must have performed the same set as I’d seen last time. According to the website setlist.fm, Blue Oyster Cult have performed The Reaper 2,299 times, and I think it showed. Don’t get me wrong, Blue Oyster Cult are undoubtedly a great band, but at times that evening I felt that they were going through the motions somewhat.

Spookiest moment:

My wife and I are great fans of CJ Sansom’s Shardlake novels, and the most recent – Tombland – is set in Norwich at the time of Kett’s rebellion, and in the novel Shardlake stays at The Maid’s Head, a real hotel that is still operating. Val and I stayed there for a couple of nights in July, and it is a charming hotel, well worth a visit, as is Norwich generally. 

The Maid's Head, Norwich

When we visited the cathedral, we heard some singers; they turned out to be The Spooky Men’s Chorale, an acapella group from Australia’s Blue Mountains, who were performing in Norwich that evening. We went to the venue’s box office, but the show was a sell-out. We loitered in hope of some tickets being returned, and two were – by separate people – and spookily, next to one another. The Spooky Men’s Chorale’s repertoire consists of original songs, Georgian table songs, and what they call ‘inappropriate covers’ which included a highly original version of Bohemian Rhapsody, All in all, a great night, and a surprising delight.

Best t-shirt:

I have mentioned before that I have a real weakness for merchandise at gigs, specifically t-shirts. Merchandise is a major source of income for smaller bands, so I justify my purchases on the basis that I’m really supporting the artists. Eleven were purchased in 2019, with Steely Dan’s offering, and Roger Hodgson particularly good, but the best was undoubtedly the IQ Christmas effort.

This time last year I had 11 gigs lined up and eventually saw 23; at the time of writing I have tickets for 11 more in 2020; I doubt that that will be the final total!

January

La Traviata – Royal Opera House

 BBC Concert Orchestra - Friday Night Is Music Night – Hackney Empire

February

Blue Oyster Cult – Hammersmith Apollo. Support from The Temperance Movement

Steely Dan – Wembley Arena. Support from Steve Winwood

March

BBC Concert Orchestra – Double Acts – Royal Festival Hall

That Joe Payne plus Doris Brendel – Zigfrid von Underbelly

April

Don Quixote – Royal Opera House

RPWL – Boston Music Rooms. Support from Aaron Brooks

Jack The Ripper: The Women of Whitechapel – The Coliseum

May

Tubular Bells For Two – Queen Elizabeth Hall. Support from Gypsyfingers

Roger Hodgson – Royal Albert Hall

Howard Jones – London Palladium. Support from China Crisis

June

The Man From La Mancha – The Coliseum

July

The Marriage of Figaro – Royal Opera House

The Spooky Men’s Chorale – Norwich Playhouse

Rick Wakeman: Journey To The Centre of The Earth – Royal Festival Hall

In Tune (BBC Radio 3) – Imperial College Union

October

Gary Numan – Cliffs Pavilion, Southend. Support from Kanga

Friday Night Is Music Night: The 80s with Carol Decker, Johnny Hates Jazz, Nik Kershaw, Howard Jones, Jimmy Somerville – The Coliseum

November

Marillion – Cliffs Pavilion, Southend. Support from Harry Payne

Steve Hackett – Hammersmith Apollo

IQ – The Garage, Islington

December

BBC Singers: Contemporary Christmas Carols – Temple Church, London