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Unfortunately this year's Glasgow gig, which was supposed to be next month - a double header of Blondie with Garbage - which I have tickets for, has been rescheduled for next April and is now Blondie with Johnny Marr as support. I do want to see Blondie anyway but I'm somewhat pissed off.
Maybe watching that will make me feel better...
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Class act
Surprisingly, although I will enjoy seeing Debbie at the gig, it's actually Clem Burke I really want to see play - he's one of my favourite drummers ever.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Sad to find that Chris Stein wasn't there - he's got heart trouble and isn't well. On the bright side, Glen Matlock was on bass! I didn't recognise him immediately, although I knew he was someone I *should* know, he had an obvious aura about him - and he got a huge response when Debbie introduced him.
She was great - she's *seventy six years old*. She looks a bit like a crazy old witch now, but she still can sing, although not always perfect on some of the songs... if anything it was the quick-fire punky ones like Hanging On The Telephone which were more noticeably a bit dodgy than her range. And she was jumping around a bit and basically not getting old gracefully. Didn't matter, anyway - she's still Debbie Harry .
Clem Burke not only didn't disappoint, it was possibly the best live drumming I've ever seen, and if anything exceeded expectations. He's no spring chicken either at 67, but it really doesn't show. They played for nearly two hours and he was as good at the end as the start. Just fantastic.
Of the ones you probably won't know, Tommy Kessler (guitar) can really play, although sometimes I did wonder if his obvious Vai influences - including using a swirly-green Jem on a couple of songs - really fitted with the sound of the band, he did stay just the right side of the line.
The visuals and back-projection were brilliant too, mostly New York cartoon/street art and old photos from the CBGBs years.
Johnny Marr was also pretty decent - although it must be slightly frustrating for him that the songs which went down best by far were the Smiths originals rather than his newer material.
But, on the one negative note... why was the mix so bad? It's a top-flight venue and given the quality of gear and the expertise available it shouldn't have been an enjoyable gig *despite* the sound quality - there's no excuse really, and it was a struggle to hear quite a lot of the parts at times, largely because there was far too much sub bass which turned the whole thing to mush.
Ah well. That's another band I never got to see back in their day and never thought I would have the chance again, so it's all good .
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein
Birmingham next weekend at one of my son's venues (as it were) so I might possibly get a returns ticket and go as Billy Nomates.
Last time I saw them on the telly the 2 guitarists had (I think) 50 or 100 watt Mesa recto heads feeding 2 x 12 cabs - which must have been putting out some volume even though Clem was plexi glass-ed off - much like the drummer in the Pretenders these days (though Hynde and co. are using small wattage 1 x 12 combos these days and by all accounts soundmen love for doing so...).
It's great to see these classic pop acts are still using valves.
That wasn't the problem though - it was the sheer amount of sub bass so you couldn't hear anything else clearly.
I've heard both - very good (Genesis) and poor (Blondie) so I don't think it's just the acoustics that are the problem, I think it's more likely to be operator error. I think they equate tons of sub (mostly overamplified kick drum) that you can feel through your seat with 'power'... but if you overdo it, it's counterproductive - the music would have sounded more powerful with less of it so the tightness of the drumming was more obvious, and you could actually hear the bass properly.
"Take these three items, some WD-40, a vise grip, and a roll of duct tape. Any man worth his salt can fix almost any problem with this stuff alone." - Walt Kowalski
"Only two things are infinite - the universe, and human stupidity. And I'm not sure about the universe." - Albert Einstein