…or to give it its full title – “Things I learned from a Paloma Faith gig that I believe should be implemented in classical music concerts (I’m looking at you Katherine Jenkins)”
Last night, your fearless classical and jazz music podcast guys headed to North London and to the Camden Roundhouse to see Paloma Faith rocking out at the iTunes festival. We’re not so good at gigs in Camden, having been thoroughly confused by Charlie Hazlewood’s Beggar’s Opera earlier this year, and realising five minutes after entering a Big Pink gig at the Electric Ballroom that we were out of our depth, were not appropriately dressed, and that the Big Pink weren’t actually coming on stage until well past our respective bedtimes. Incidentally, it was also at that same moment that Alasdair realised he was old, and Olly realised he was older.
However, not ones to pass up on a free gig, or for that matter a 50% discount on a Nando’s bill (thank you clerical error) we returned to that part of the city we so desperately want approval from, and were treated to a sing-a-long of Faith’s best album tracks along with some covers, including a way over the top cover of Etta James’ At Last as an attempted throw back to her jazz and burlesque days. Neither of us, I think it’s fair to say, were in the moment. Apart from the fact that the speakers couldn’t seem to handle the volume, and caused a distortion that sounded like tiny vuvuzelas, Alasdair had forgotten his little soap box that he takes to most “standing up gigs” so that he can see over the adults and onto the stage, and Olly had just realised via wikipedia that the singer we were (well Olly was) now watching used to do adverts for Agent Provocateur, and so was in an entirely different place and an entirely different moment.
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Classical, Gigs / Concerts, Jazz
beer, big pink, camden, etta james, itunes, paloma faith, roundhouse
This is the church where it all went down.
Not a good start. Alasdair (who has bought these tickets and is therefore responsible) and I are sitting on the cold, hard pews of St. Giles church and my buttocks are aching as very real pain creeps up my spine. Around us people are looking confused as the tortured tinklings of an Icelandic man dressed in black fill the room. This isn’t Jóhann Jóhannsson: Master of minimalist arrangement. This isn’t the man we’ve paid to see and as warm-ups go it’s positively shady. The music is OK. It’s like watching an Autumn breeze ruffling an old oak tree in the calm gloaming of sunset before realising that there are better things you could be doing like watching TV.
I last what I guess are two songs (it’s almost impossible to figure out when the pieces are over, as the piano just sort of dribbles to halt before starting up again with more clunky minor chords) I then rise from the wooden slats designed to remind church-goers of quite how much Christ suffered for their sins and I walk away, Alasdair in aghast tow.
“We can’t walk out!” he hisses as the man in black hammers away at the low notes.
The pub is a bit loud with a cover band lurching between Jason Mraz and The Sex Pistols but the wine’s cheap and it gives me a chance to vent. Alasdair reminds me that he paid for the tickets. I tell him it’s a moot point.
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Classical, Gigs / Concerts
failed music critic entry, gig, johann johannsson, review
What some of you may not realise is that we have been doing what we do for quite a few years now. For those of you who have noticed there are more pages than the front, you will have learned that while at St Andrews University, Oliver decided to do the radio equivalent of one of those 0900 phone lines that charges 50p per minute and DOESN’T come up on your mobile bill. With what was known in the streets of that fair town as his sexy/pervy/predator voice, Olly educated the masses with his three CDs worth of Classical Music from the Movies and Miles Davis compilation. It was called the Jazz and Classical show, and was pretty much the best damn jazz and classical show on STAR FM at the time.
In 2007, a terrified new member of the radio committee mentioned a love for Yo-Yo Ma and the rest is our relatively short history. Well, last week Olly and Alasdair sat down to listen to an early broadcast. It wasn’t a vanity exercise, believe us. In fact, it was a bit like replaying a bad first/last date. Moments of “Oh, did I really say that?!” “Somebody say something, this is getting awkward” and the belief from only one side of the table that there was definite chemistry in the air brought dark, lonely, memories flooding back to both presenters.
However, what we did realise (and this was the real reason we were listening (honest) – is that we played some pretty good music. Before the days where we had to “ask” and “get permission” to play the music on our show, we went nuts. And after a tweet from one of our fans, asking for a GetJazzical Spotify playlist, we thought we’d oblige by archiving the music we used to play on a show we once called “Jazzical“.
So, to all of you who wonder what kind of music we’re really into, or just generally fascinated by the story arc that is (Get)Jazzical, have a listen! It’s on Spotify so if you don’t have Spotify GET WITH THE PROGRAM, JEEZ!
Classical, Jazz, Music
jazzical, spotify, STAR FM, twitter
Click here to download the MP3 directly
It’s awards season, ladies and gentlemen – that couple of months in the calendar that ensures every free newspaper out there is concentrating on awkward double acts, mutton dressed as lamb, jokes sinking like lead balloons, and the ramblings of trumped up entertainers you are sure you’ve never heard of going on for longer than they should.
It was with that in mind that we recorded Episode Three of our second season. If you want to hear the conversation of two over tired graduates who have both reached the end of the honeymoon periods of their “real” jobs in the “real” world, then you are in for a treat! You probably won’t notice the difference, and we know you really came for the music, so here’s the scoop:
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Classical, Episodes, Jazz, Music
benny hill, Fuzjko Hemming, Richard Anthony Jay, Salvatore Bonafede Trio, Tom Norris, Twilight
It really doesn’t seem that long ago when apples were fruits, tablets were taken for headaches, Jordan was a Hashemite Kingdom, and classical music was something you had to really look for, pay a lot for, and not really get as it wasn’t really for you. In fact it wasn’t really for anyone. Most people at classical concerts couldn’t hear the music for the sound of the self congratulatory conversations going on in their own head, imagining the chat at the work place the next day – “Oh the Elgar was divine, but the champagne was warm” and so forth. You might start to think that we’re beginning to sound like a stuck record, but the internet really is changing this.
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Classical, Clips, Music, Videos
