Regina, PIL, Tramlines
Good week for music … two gigs and a free festival in Sheffield …
Regina Spektor played beautifully but it was clear something was wrong. After playing for a couple of hours with only a few smiles to the crowd for their appreciation she spoke. She explained that one of the band members had died recently – the celloist – and that rather than cancelling the tour they had decided to do the rest of the tour in his memory. It explained the mood of the show, and you could see how difficult it was for her to stand up there, but she said ‘playing music was helping’.
PIL
For PIL I wasn’t sure what to expect, I had spent a year or so at Uni in my twenties listening to their catalog at that time on tapes from the Manchester record library. It had somehow suited the urban scene I found myself in, but was perhaps not to my neighbours taste in the halls of residence. Since then I hadn’t listened to too much, but I was curious to see Mr Lydon perform.
The tickets promised ‘special guests’ and I looked at the array of strange mandolin like instruments on the stage and wondered who it could be. In the end it seemed PIL were the special guests – there was no support. Lydon’s stage act was composed of dancing of sorts to the music and continual aggressive grimacing and posturing. However now and then he would say something and then there would be a burst of humour and the occasional cheeky smile. And at these times he seemed the most accessible. I doubt that this was something he ever attemped to be, and there were times when his presence was quite intimidating.
The music was purely PIL, and often unlike the Pistols songs which he said were so tight they couldn’t be played any differently, he had worked out variations on some of the PIL songs and they were still works in progress. Some of the songs seemed to reprise earlier songs played and the gig had a kind of musical theme running through it, rather than being a collection of greatest hits/tracks. When the lights were low and the music was playing you could sense that PIL in their own way were a dance band and Lydon himself kept moving through the gig. There were points were it was pretty amazing and overpowering – the drums, bass and Lydon’s wail. The song that was in my mind at the end of the gig with a repeated theme of No Surrender – not one I knew from before.
Lydon still controversial was making statements against the Pope, the protestors outside against his planned gig in Israel and the Conservative/Lib Dem alliance, but for me I wasn’t disappointed – more due to the music than because I’d seen the ‘national treasure’.
Normally the O2 Academy has a curfew of 11, which makes it easy to get the last train back. So I wasn’t watching the clock. PIL overshot by twenty minutes, and after a gasping sprint across town, I found I’d missed the last train … mm .. a £35 taxi for 20 minutes of Lydon’s wail … Luckily there was a late night National Express coach coming through at 12.30am and it got me across to Bradford. And what else – the best curry in the Kashmir!
TRAMLINES
I’d been watching the buildup to Sheffield Tramlines festival on the web. A free inner city festival, it had really the most amazing lineup for a festival of this type, and all for the price of an £11.50 rail ticket. Saturday had had the main acts on such as Blood Red Shoes, but Sunday still had a large number of bands playing across many venues around the city.
I was curious to see how Sheffield had changed in the last 10 years and coming out of the station I was amazed to be in a completely new urban panorama. A new (?) fountain system and wall with water coming over it hid a large part of the block of buildings up the hill to the centre. And the city itself was regenerated with new buildings and the Winter Gardens, which I seen before, but still found a little astonishing in Sheffield. I overheard a couple of grumpy old ladies complaining about Sheffield had had some nice buildings before, but it seemed pretty amazing to me.
I’d hoped for a festival guide when I arrived as I knew many of the venues hadn’t existed when I was in Sheffield, but there was nothing in the station. Up into the centre I came across the first stage outside the City Hall. Some stewards told me where the main stage was on the Devonshire Green, which wasn’t so far away. The City Hall stage ‘Exposed New Music’ was being curated that day by Rolo Tomassi, a Sheffield band that was making it into the music papers regularly but I hadn’t heard. I was a little early, so I wandered round looking for other venues, refamiliarising myself with the city and taking a few photos.
The first band I saw were Joe Carnell and the Book Club, they had similarities to Artic Monkeys and one of the members had been in Milburn another Monkeys related band. They were quite good.
Then Hiem – an electronic band – young local lads but the main singer was an enormous 50? year old guy – it was worth watching – a spectacle and a half. The second song sung by one of the younger guy’s a tale about a Sheffield encounter was pretty funny.
I only saw one other act on the main stage that day – the Mystery Jets, who I thought were pants, and fairly quickly went off to the Exposed stage.
There had been some pretty good bands on there through the day – lots of noise and energy – seeming punk related, but young bands mainly – hardcore I guess. Also it was close to an area of food stalls which had some quite diverse options. In the end I went for an Egyptian stew which was pretty good. Round the back of the city hall was a chill out zone inside where they were showing audio visual displays to people reclined on the carpet who were having a time out. They showed a Vincent Price movie – The Last Man on Earth set to music by some local (?) composers – a seminal zombie movie, after a while the chill in the room was too much and I had to go back out and get a very large cup of coffee to warm up.
I had to leave at ~7 to get the very long train journey back stopping at loads of stations again, but first I saw Rolo Tomassi. The lead singer, a very good looking lady, made sounds quite unlike any I’ve heard from a woman before. There were later complaints about the sound, but I thought it was supposed to be like that. The whole band were chucking themselves around the stage like crazy and I think pretty much the entire crowd was entertained.
The train I picked up in Leeds revealed why the train into Leeds that morning had been so full. Not hordes of young people descending on Leeds Mcdonalds, but the Party in the Park was on that day at Temple Newsam. The train back was lively – lots of buzzing teenagers. I think I got the better deal – Tramlines so much better and worth the trip out of Leeds, though few had been on the train down with me.
Rolo Tomassi:
