Roxy Music with Brian Ferry

It’s hard to imagine now, seeing the ‘mature’ gentleman blowing on a saxophone in front of me, but It’s fair to say that Roxy Music are one of  the key influences  in modern Pop music history.  Glam, Punk and New Wave all bear hallmarks of the band’s influence from the days when Brian Eno might appear with a pink feather boa draped over his shoulders.  Part Band, part Media Package, Roxy Music encompassed Music, Modern Art and fashion.

Fast forward to 2010.  Brian Eno is long gone, and truthfully it’s hard to be fashion gurus when you are (Ferry), or nearly are (Mackay),  eligible for a pensioners bus pass.  Smart evening jackets and ties are order of the day now.  The Modern Art influence is  still evident though in the use of a giant screen backstage that mixes live video with pre-recorded material.  I especially liked the grainy black & white close ups and the ‘memory lane’ moments featuring iconic RM album cover art from the days when vast resources were spent on getting Amanda Lear or Jerry Hall to pose provocatively wearing not much more than lip gloss (and what WERE all those women with spears on the cover of ‘Flesh & Blood’ doing anyway?)

So much for the Fashion and the Art. Where the Music is concerned Roxy Music certainly deliver quality Pop in spadefuls. Alongside the band nucleus of Ferry, Andy Mackay on Sax/clarinet and Phil Manzanera on guitar there are some very impressive sounds from the ‘lesser known’ band members. Andy Newmark is replacing Roxy drummer Paul Thompson very ably on drums but it’s two younger musicians who catch my ears: Anna Phoebe  looked good from my camera lens and proved to be a bit special on electric violin when it came to the close-out for Andy Mackay’s instrumental ‘Tara’, delivering flourishing runs on her violin that matched the virtuoso clarinet performance from Mackay himself. Even more memorable for me was the guitar solo delivered by Olli Thompson at the end of ‘My only love’. At just 23 he’s certainly one to watch for the future.

Crowning it all of course though was ‘The Voice’. Like the very best vocalists, he doesn’t sound like anyone else. You hear Rod Stewart, or Billie Holiday and you KNOW who it is. That’s how it is with Brian Ferry. An early favourite was ‘More than this’ but as the evening warmed up, so did Ferry’s voice. It hit top form with a blistering ‘Both Ends Burning’ and sailed majestically through ‘Virginia Plain’ and ‘Love is the Drug’ – the giant screens showing a roughly filmed black and white close up of Ferry had the perfect air of emotion within desolation.   Despite, ot perhaps even because of, his years Ferry is still visually the epitome of sophistication.  Still the lovechild that a biologically impossible meeting between James Dean and Noel Coward would create.  wherever you look at his face you end up drawn magnetically to those  powder blue eyes.

For those unlucky enough too be too far back in the large crowd to see those eyes there was still lots to enjoy though.  Speed driven Roxy favourites like ‘Do the Strand’ and ‘Stick Together’ were marvellous but had the not so marvellous side effect of propelling the show forward at a dramatic pace until it was almost over before we knew it.  After belting through the tail end of their set the brakes were applied to stunning effect and it was refreshing that after such a varied musical journey with clarinets, saxophones and electric violins the Roxy Music ‘train’ should finally come literally whistling into the station with  Brian Ferry’s closing notes to Lennon’s ‘Jealous Guy’

Fans being what they are, the post gig debates that I heard revolved around the set coming out at under the allotted 90 minutes. Someone (with an air of German exactness) announced it at ‘82 minutes’ which makes me wonder if some people come here with stop watches.

All I know is that this band were good enough to have ‘padded out’ the show with long solos if they’d wanted to. Instead we got a finely polished stage show proving that behind all that 70’s and 80’s marketing hype, and those blatantly sexist record covers Ferry and Mackay actually produced some timeless music that stands up on it’s own more than thirty years later.

As I walked home afterwards I couldn’t help but whistle ‘Jealous Guy’ to the heavens above.  Was that just a star, or was it John Lennon winking back in satisfaction from behind the Post Tower?

MORE PHOTOS

Miao Mio in Klanggarten

The ‘infamous’ Bonner Loch as an Open Air concert venue – inspiration or desperation? Popular local band Miao Mio were likely to be a good test to find out if the fancifully names ‘Klanggarten’ really could prove to see a renaissance of this much maligned piece of prime Bonn Real Estate. When better to test it indeed than on a sunny Summer Saturday? So I did a bit of Saturday shopping and set my bags down by the concrete steps to look and listen.
The usual venue for ‘Bonner Sommer’ is of course the Marktplatz. With its inspiring Guildhall backdrop and bistro table filled, cobblestoned courtyard it has proved good enough for heads of State and Tour de France heroes alike over the years. On a good day it can fit in thousands of people.

Summer 2010 of course is not a ‘good day’ appearance-wise for the Market Square. The Guildhall is a mess behind it’s marquee facade. Someone had the bright idea therefore to move the free Summer concerts to Bonn’s most celebrated mess opposite the Main Railway Station. Having moved the homeless and drug/alcohol dependent inhabitants up the road (opposite the Bus stop for tourists arriving from the airport as it happens) there was not only a space vacant for concerts, but, with it’s cement steps, a veritable seated ‘amphitheatre’ to tempt the shoppers on their way home to stay a bit, take the weight off their tired shopping legs, and listen to some free music.
But does it work?

Miao Mio have worked hard this year since their CD release party at Kult 41 in December 2008. Most recently they took Rheinkultur by storm – or at least
survived a storm during their set. Band competitions, radio appearances (recently on Rhein-Sieg) and work on new material have kept them busy. They seem more focussed image-wise too, taking the stage in brightly coloured clothes. This turns out to be a wise decision as they compete with scaffolding, trees and shop signs for attention (ah, do we miss the beautiful Guildhall backdrop). These girls are feisty though, and a spirited version of ‘Lauf’ makes sure the ads for ‘Zeeman’ and ‘McDonalds’ behind them are soon forgotten.

The idea of having a built in seating system backfires a bit though. There are plenty of ‘bums on seats’ but the seats are a long way from the high stage and the shoppers don’t want to stand up and lose their place (or their shopping). The result, despite numerous hints from front girl Anika to get up and dance, is a sort of no-mans land that provides a photopit of the proportions I would love to see at Museumsplatz. Not so keen on having to share it with a half dozen beer bottle waving down and outs though. Having said that, this was truly music for the people and the uninhibited atmosphere stage front was actually quite enjoyable – although I suspect the girls were glad the stage was built up high.

All things considered, the sound quality wasn’t bad considering the many walls it was bouncing off of, and all the directions it could , and indeed did, travel in.  I would walk over broken glass anyway to hear Anika sing one of her plaintive ballads and even here she had that rare ability to give me goose-pimples armed with nothing more than a heavenly voice.

I’m sure I wasn’t alone with that thought, and by 9.30 pm the atmosphere was actually so appealing that I’d even recovered from the surreal quality of a venue layout that meant you could actually watch the band thinking there were only six people there, and then peer round a pillar to see several hundred faces staring back from the steps and beyond.
Even the sweetest of voices and the most enthusiastic of bands can only go so far though, and when a song called ‘Tanzflür’ (dancefloor) doesn’t get people out of their seats, then you just know that one with a Tango rhythm is unlikely to really hit the spot either. You can’t fault the girls of Miao Mio for trying though.

So, Bonner Loch as music venue – Inspiration or Desperation? My verdict: Better than expected, but I still look forward to the cobble stones, bistro tables and above all, the Guildhall backdrop for Summer nights in Bonn again next year.

More Pictures

Miao Mio on MySpace

Next Folk Club Evening

The next Folk Club show (the seventh!) will be on  Friday, 3^rd September at 7pm for 7.30pm.   Guests promised include MIKE AND THE DOCTOR who played a memorable set at the club a while ago (see our earlier Folk Club report) so get there early for a good seat. 

‘There’ in case you didn’t see previous ads for the Club is:

Gastätte zum Schützenhaus

Estermannstrasse 109

53117 Bonn

Tel : 0228 92985179

The folk club will meet in the room at the rear.
NOTE: For people new to Folk Clubs, there is NO membership required to attend the Club! Entry is also FREE!

FOLK CLUB WEBSITE

3 J’s – 3 Different Blues

The three J’s – maybe that should be the three G’s as three different generations of Rock Blues guitarists took the Museumsplatz stage by storm on Monday.  Jimmy Bowskill, Joe Bonamassa and Jeff Beck.   We sent two J’s to cover the event.  John Harrison provides the words and John Hurd the pictures at this one off musical event with a past master, a current icon and a tip for future fame all under one hot Bonn Tent.

Sometimes less words = more understanding:

Proof of that is Jimmy Bowskill.  Still only 19 and Canadian, but playing with a passion that most people will either never ever know, or have long since lost! If the blues have a future it is intrinsically here, raw, emotional and practiced with both skilful feeling and innovational talent.

Jimmy’s been straight back to the source and listened to Robert Johnson and Son House, he’s worked his way through the old Delta blues players as a young boy and expresses his contemporary feelings in a modern way, but you can still hear the old masters’ voices coming through when he plays.

Mid-set he swaps his Gibson Les Paul for a twin necked Gibson and lets rip on the 12 string arm, because it’s a fun thing to do. Jimmy enjoys playing and this comes through in his music.

His instrumental rendering of Summertime on a Fender Telecaster, audaciously tuning the guitar to a minor key and then playing bottleneck slide was both visually and audibly mind boggling, he didn’t tune it just two frets down to Dm, he tuned it 4 frets down to Cm, Jimmy likes a fatter sound and he certainly gets it with his instrumental ‘Tour de Force’ that prepared us mentally for Jeff Beck later in the evening.

“Gold in its native state is but dull, unornamental stuff, and only lowborn metals excite the admiration of the ignorant with an ostentatious glitter. However, like the rest of the world, I still go on underrating men of gold and glorifying men of mica.”

-Mark Twain, author and humorist (1835-1910)

Twain might have been at tonight’s set by Joe Bonamassa when he wrote that.  Bonamassa is good.  Very, very good in fact.  But he comes across tonight as possessing more quantity than quality, with uncountable notes that seemed tapped out like morse code on a railway station with a telegrapher one hundred years ago.  He changes guitars like he has to, but he doesn’t really.

Joe is certainly a great polished professional showman, with the shades to match, but I missed a feeling, a raw simple gutsy feeling, that comes sometimes through the axe of a great player when everything falls magically into place and the soulful sounds totally enchant the listener.

Sometimes less words = more understanding(reprise):

Jeff Beck of course doesn’t sing a lot, but then he doesn’t have to.  He lets his snow white Stratocaster cry, then he lets it gently weep, and then he lets it sing for him.  It sings like a nightingale.

He doesn’t throw plectrums into the audience either.  Why? Because a hard cheap piece of far eastern manufactured plastic would reduce his feeling.  His strings are gently stroked by the skin of his thumb and his naked finger tips. This gives him a much a warmer sound than most of his peers and this and his almost unique use of the tremolo arm on his guitar contributes to the lead guitar sound which is Jeff Beck. I think Hank Marvin of the Shadows was the last guitarist I saw actively using the tremolo.

His music is driven by passion rather than aggression, fire rather than anger, love rather than desire.

Sheer boots and braces music – which oddly enough is how he is dressed tonight:  White calf length boots and, due to the heat shirtless under the white waistcoat, grey braces hanging like pendants -almost as if he’s only half out of bed, and, totally nonplussed before dispatching the young whippersnappers, pretentiously nipping at his heels, who walked the same boards earlier in the evening.

If ever there were an apprenticeship for blues guitarists it would be the Yardbirds, Jeff Beck was lead guitarist as was Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton left because it was becoming too commercial and losing its blues roots.  What a schooling!

Jeff Beck doesn’t just play songs, he carefully selects them, and then wears them like a tailored suit.The fact that he doesn’t sing would be a drawback to lesser men. He has a knack more recently of picking songs where the melodies and the words are already in the heads of his audience. He merely plays a wonderful instrumental and triggers the latent words to spring into being in the listener’s mind.  Short and simple: A genius!

He simply plays, and the words are in our heads, found, addressed and mysteriously activated after just a few bars.

Early in the set he, in a rare moment of explanation, said that the next piece “Corpus Christi “ was an old carol from 1660, the white haired man next to me aspired, “why doesn’t he play some blues?” Blues are supposed to make your eyes water! You can find the blues anywhere, even in the body of Christ.  Jeff really did square the circle as the tears welled in my eyes.

Then such a wonderful bass solo with harmonics and goose pimples.  “People get ready” is a great gospel song from Curtis Mayfield and is somehow even more heart rendering, when the only words are self supplied.

In “Rolling and tumbling” some wonderful vocals from Princes former bass player Rhonda Smith, as if almost an after thought to her superb bass playing.

Jeff Becks interpretation of “Somewhere over the rainbow” led us like the Pied Piper down the yellow brick road.  And later “Day in the life” from the Beatles Sgt. Pepper album came to life, despite of, or perhaps because of, the lack of vocals.

The mystique in Jeff Beck’s music is what he does not sing, his guitar simply knocks wordlessly on the mind’s door, and invites everybody in.

Review: John Harrison

Photos: c.John Hurd

John Harrison is MC and Regular Guest at the Bonn Folk Club



The Bonn Players

Those of you who enjoyed the spectacular and very entertaining Last of the Red Hot Lovers will be delighted to know that plans for the autumn production are already under way  for The Importance of Being Earnest.  Auditions took place in June.  Details about this next production, the play reading group,  other forthcoming events, as well as how to join the Bonn Players can be found here:

BONN PLAYERS WEBSITE

Joe Cocker – Jumping for Joy

He came, he saw, he conquered – then he came back again. Even Joe Cocker himself couldn’t dare hope to follow ‘Little Help from my Friends’ but his little jump for joy at the last note of the evenings final song, ‘Cry Me a River’ said it all. Cocker was enjoying the evening as much as his audience were.

I made sure to arrive early and catch the set by Dana Fuchs. Her set at the Bonn Crossroads Festival for this years Rockpalast was the highlight of the event for me so this was a ‘must see’ support slot.   This prestigious show with Cocker goes back to the 2007, Beatles inspired, film Across the Universe in which both Cocker and Fuchs appeared. Indeed Cocker sings Come Together along with Help from my Friends later and Dana Fuchs’ last song of an all too short 45 minute set is a rocking version of Helter Skelter from the White album. I told Dana later about the problems of photo restrictions caused by film cameras both at her Bonn Harmonie show and at the Museumsplatz. “Then try again next year when we will be back in Bonn and with a new CD out” was her reply. I’ll be watching for the exact date and my advice if you love Raw Rock sung from the heart is to do the same.

Joe Cocker started his working life as a gas fitter.  My memory of gas fitters in the early 1960’s is that, like most workmen, they were likely to turn up late for appointments, or possibly not at all. Joe Cockers time-keeping though is immaculate – In the rhythm of his voice as much as the punctuality of his appearance onstage. Maybe that’s why Cocker turned to music. Plumbing’s loss was certainly the worlds gain as Cocker took us through his musical career highlights in something of a reverse order; starting with Hard Knocks from his latest CD and ending with – well, what else – a rather well known Beatles number from Woodstock that opened the doors to fame, fortune and along the way problems with drink and drugs. How to explain Cockers amazing longevity?

“Papa why do you play all the same old songs
why do you sing with the melody
’cause down on the street something’s going on
there’s a brand new beat and a brand new song”

These lines from N’ Oubliez Jamais pose the question perfectly. The same old songs they might be but singing other peoples songs has meant picking from the cream of the songwriting crop and they don’t get better than Lennon/McCartney. Add to that a voice that those former ‘Moptops’ would have died for and you have the reason why Joe Cocker is standing here in Bonn in front of 5,500 people today 42 years after Woodstock.

Well, ‘standing’ is a bit inaccurate, it suggests someone not moving. Cocker however leans over, waves his arms in air guitar fashion, and lurches to the rhythm of his excellent band. If you could transport someone from that long ago Woodstock crowd to Museumsplatz in 2010 they’d wonder where the angry young man with the long sideburns was until they closed their eyes and just took in the growling voice.

The hits were of course sung – often as much by the audience as by the singer himself. It was a bit disconcerting to hear a burly, bearded German crooning You are so beautiful in my ear, but Germans love Joe. Up where we belong and Unchain My Heart met with similar vocal accompaniment.

At around 9.30pm Joe began rolling his sleeves up for the ensuing physical/vocal effort just about to come, maybe a throwback to those early gas fitter days. The keyboard intro alone was enough to have the audience applauding before even the first “What” escaped Cocker’s mouth. Arms waved from side to side and only the bright daylight stopped the cigarette lighters from appearing in force and being held aloft. Joe Cocker gave the song everything, With a Little Help from his friends in the audience of course.

Topping that was pretty well impossible and even though there were three encore songs to come a fair few people started leaving.  A big mistake as they missed a highlight in the final Cry me a River with Cocker giving a little jump of joy to finish. Many of us in the audience had the same happy feeling.

Life, Death and Football

Maybe it isn’t more important than life and death as the late Bill Shankly once described football.  A good Cup run though  has been known to increase a City or Country’s productivity.   We have some tips for watching the Big games to share with Expats at a time when being from another Country really does make a difference.

Something we Brits and Germans definitely have in common is our love of Football.  Both Country’s fans  have shared interests – none being shared more than bitching over those infamous Vuvuzelas (or ‘Uwe Seelers’ as older football fans know them).  Okay, they are popular at African games.  How many African games have a crowd of 50.000 though?  Soccer City Stadium in Johannesburg  has a capacity of 88.000.  Imagine 88.000 of those irritating trumpets in one place.  You won’t need a television to broadcast the sound – just open your windows.

We both enjoy hotly discussing the good goals and bad haircuts, the high jinx and the low fouls.  We enjoy having ‘experts’ discuss these points for us on TV.  Which is odd, because either they say what we ourselves thought in which case we already knew it – or they say the opposite – in which case we shout disparagingly at them as if they were referees missing an obvious handball in the penalty box.    something of a no win situation if you ask me.

Despite my misgivings about their actual existence as TV pundits I will however miss Gerhard Delling and Günther Netzer sparring it out with a humour that is drier than the Sahara at mid-day.   I know it’s all very calculated -  With typical German reserve they never call each other Gerhard or Günther onscreen despite being close friends for years – but they are rip roaringly funny compared to the other pundits on offer.  Maybe, this being their swansong competition, future matches will have a panel of experts as England has for years now sitting round a table.  At the moment it’s like German Supermarkets – as every company makes the same flavoured pizzas and crisps so every German channel has a one on one football panel.  Which leads me to hope that Netzer and Delling will round off their career as German footballs answer to Laurel & Hardy by announcing they are ‘going du’ and hurling custard pies into each others smiling faces as a goodbye gesture after the Final.   Remember you heard it first on English-network.

I can’t deny that there is a cameraderie about watching your Country on TV though, and hearing a roar from the neighbours TV set as a goal goes in.  My only complaint is that our neighbours are on satellite and seem to get the goals about five seconds before we do.

Better is to be with so many people making so much noise that you can’t even hear the commentary on the screen in front of you, never mind the neighbours Pay TV.

Here are my tips for being part of the crowd without booking a flight to Africa:

The Fiddlers, Endenich

Museumsplatz

And where to be for non-football fans:

World Cup Free Zone

Rooftop Royalty

The KAH Rooftop ‘ Sommergarten’ show was a bit different last Sunday.  For the first time Rock music was on show – and it attracted not only lots of visitors but also lots of glorious sunshine.   With a band called  The Queen Kings onstage you would expect lots of loyal subjects at their Garden Party – but where are the caviar sandwiches?

Status Quo cover bands have it easy:  Simple songs and simple arrangements that sound good in an arena or in a garden tent.  But Queen –  Masters of larger than life performances in mega arenas?  Try playing Bohemian Rhapsody in a tent, or on a roof even.  Queen Kings did.

Crazy?  Maybe not.  All it needs is ‘A kind of Magic’ and they have it.

I could spend a lot of time and computer screen arguing whether Queen Kings succeed in recreating Freddie & co onstage.  To Jan it simply doesn’t matter.  Jan you see is just a small boy.  He ran in front of the stage and danced.  Jan doesn’t know who Freddie Mercury is or was,  Jan doesn’t care.  All Jan knows is that ‘Crazy little thing called love’ makes him want to dance – and so he does.  That’s what really matters.

The original Band were so much larger than life that it’s easy to forget the strength of the music itself.   Mirko Bäumer and his Band put that right.  Here is ‘Rhapsody’ and ‘We are the Champions’ in plain shirts, jeans and sneakers.  Waiting with my Nikon to catch Bäumer striking  Freddie Mercury poses requires a lot of patience and when they do come they seem natural rather than put on.  I mean, how can anyone sing ‘We are the Champions’ without at least the slightest strutting walk and jutting jaw?  The words demand it.

Whilst there’s no doubting the quality of the Band – both Rolf Sander (bass) and Matthi Schmidt (drums) were in demand for Germany’s version of the Queen musical ‘We Will Rock You’ – It’s fair to say that to truly appreciate Queen Kings complete Show visually you need a spotlit stage and enclosed space to manage the sound perfectly.  Sunshine and small children are not quite what Freddie, Brian, Roger and John were about – maybe Jan though would disagree?!

The Curtain is Up!

There was  no escape.  The World Cup was once again upon us with it’s flag draped cars and days of crowds around any electrical appliance that broadcasted a picture.  To celebrate the Bonn Guildhall also had a new face to celebrate:

Meanwhile-Back at the Folkclub

Familiarizing myself last month with the layout of Graurheindorf  proved to be a lifesaver this month.  In temperatures guaranteed to fry eggs on the pavement I managed to get from bus stop to Folkclub inside of five minutes and had time to sink two Kölsches almost before John Harrison could say good evening.  Since last month the decor has certainly changed.  Wall to wall German flags suggest that there just might be some business in this room when the World Cup kicks off – No sign of a TV screen anywhere though, unless it’s buried under all the flags.

As always, our MC John Harrison has some surprises up his sleeve.  The first is actually his sleeve, or more accurately, his whole shirt.  It’s not checked!  Will the beard be gone next month too?  So, checkless shirt and flag bedecked wall, we’re off for another evening of mystery and music.  John himself gets things rolling.  His traditional picks this month are so well known that you cannot help but join in – “Charlie is me Darling” written not by anyone named Parker-Bowles but an old (18^th Century) standard.  Slightly newer (but not by much) was ‘Molly Malone’ which has become an unofficial National song of Ireland.  Full marks to John for swapping his guitar for an imaginery barrow of ‘cockles & mussels, alive, alive-o’ on this one.

At this point I should point out that although I promised not to sing at the folk club I actually did join in the chorus – it’s one of those knee-jerk reactions when someone sings “cockles & mussels” to reply “alive, alive-o!”. Can’t be helped, or cured.

When John plays the blues though I much prefer to just listen.  He digs out some interesting material here too.  You can’t get more traditional in ‘official’ Blues than WC Handy’s ‘St Louis Blues’, possibly the first EVER song to bear the Blues title in fact – though not, as John points out, true Blues.  There are numbers from Furry Lewis and Blind Blake too, and my favourite of the set, “Blues with a Feeling” accompanied very ably by Frederick on his Guild guitar and with a lovely bit of Blues Harp by Mr Harrison as icing on the cake.  Very tasty it was too.

Barry Roshto gave us an encore of last weeks ‘God is great, Beer is good,’ and  another eclectic mix inclusive of a lively ‘All my trials’ and a moving ‘Once I had a sweetheart’.  All from a songbook with suitably large notation – I could see every coda from my seat 15 feet away Barry!

Surprise act of the evening were Yvonne Roche-Harth and Peter Ferrow (see I didn’t lose the beermat with your names written on Yvonne!)  Both were taking a break from acting with the Bonn Players to, well, play.  Yvonne possesses a soothing Irish singing voice which I’ve long been partial too – be it Rory Gallagher or Mary Black.  Cyndi Lauper’s ‘True Colours’ was an unusual choice at a folk club but who cares – it sounded great.

When I’d come in the door it looked as though this would be a quiet evening.  Too hot for anyone to want to sit, never mind sing.  Here we were though and still they came to play…

Susanne & Peter (Petite Fleur) played ‘If I were you’ and Frederik was joined by Barry on piano for some James Taylor – ‘You’ve got a friend’.

Well the Folkclub has a friend in me too.   Where else can you start singing with a pint in hand and not just not get thrown out but asked to come back next week with a guitar?

Okay, I wasn’t asked.  Maybe they heard me on “alive, alive oh!’ after all.

The Bonn Folk Club meets 1st Friday each month (Next meet: July)
Where: Gaststätte Zum Schützenhaus, Estermannstr. 109, 53117 Bonn
For more information visit the FOLK CLUB BLOG

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