Gabriele Heller (vocals, electronics) & Steve Glendinning (guitar)
(Review by Russell)
The Gold Dust ticket clearly stated: Please arrive 10 minutes beforehand, otherwise you may lose your place. The queue outside the Northern Rock Foundation Hall snaked past the East Door of Sage Two stretching to the (closed) balcony bar. This, twenty minutes before the advertised start time. Clipboard types strolled hither and thither, headsets and Access All Areas tags denoting their status…these were BBC Radio 3 people.
The queue comprised M & S and Waitrose types, Radio 3 their choice of listening, early morning through to late at night. They were here at Sage Gateshead to do some thinking, free thinking. Radio 3 people continued to stroll; clipboards, headsets, AAA tags, bottled water. A senior BBC type walked purposefully towards an AAA behind-the-scenes door, produced a swipe card (confirmation of big cheese status) and disappeared beyond. Bang on ‘start time’ a junior BBC/Sage person wandered along the snaking queue checking for Gold Dust. A BBC type (headset etc) breezed up the stairs from concourse to AAA door, a party of thirteen keen sixth form types following close behind, disappearing beyond the AAA door. Later, the BBC type emerged from beyond, dutiful sixth form ducklings, with munch-on-the-go sandwiches, skipping along to keep up with the Radio 3 Head Duck.
Ten minutes after the advertised ‘start time’, the Northern Rock Foundation Hall’s doors opened. The M & S/Waitrose queue was on the move. A Free Thinking thinker – tweedy jacket and satchel – sauntered past, no doubt looking for a quiet spot to do some thinking. The Gold Dust seats were claimed, the stage stretching from a Steinway on the left to the presenter’s seat away to the right. Minutes before start of the live broadcast of In Tune at Free Thinking presenter Suzy Klein spoke to the M & S/Waitrose assembly: In a moment I will be speaking in my Radio 3 voice. A moment later (live on air) you couldn’t spot the difference…Radio 3 on and off air.
Lars Vogt – leader of the house band, the Royal Northern Sinfonia – sat at the Steinway, chatted to Suzy, played some Beethoven and would later be joined by some of the RNS’s wind players. Antiphon – the Tyne Valley
Russell.
3 comments :
About thirty years ago, Different struck up a conversation with me on a coach coming back from London. I know he was called Different cos he kept saying 'I'm Different'.
He'd been to Knebworth which was the nearest equivalent to Glastonbury at the time and, no disrespect to Cliff and his fans, but he felt he was out of place amongst the gods of rock Clapton, Phil Collins and Paul McCartney. No disrespect to Sir Eric, Phil and Sir Paul but, excepting the late sixties, early seventies and about four minutes in 1966 respectively, I felt Sir Cliff was in precisely the correct company.
When he asked why I'd been to London I told him I'd been to see the Ojays, who he'd never heard of, despite four of five sizeable UK hits in the preceding decade and a half. A soul group I advised him. Phil Collins did some soul he said no he didn't I didn't waste my time.
He told me his name again and I often wonder if he ever spotted any irony, or whether he shops at M and S or Waitrose.
Nothing wrong with shopping at M & S or Waitrose. Nothing wrong with being a Radio 3 listener. I agree with Russell that there may be a big overlap (think Venn diagrams) between these three groups - and told Russell so in person yesterday. I think you may also find that the average punter attending jazz gigs in the UK will fit into at least one of the circles in this triumvirate of associations!
I wish I could afford to shop at M+S, Whenever I'm in the Toon I always get some caviar from Waitrose, but only the cheap stuff. I'm afraid my default in the car is Radio 2 but with dozens, probably now hundreds of CDs unplayed, I never listen for long.
I do think there's a certain irony in the BBC, the most powerful Ideological State Apparatus in the Land, who spend millions of our money telling us what to think, within narrow parameters with a tiny bit of hegemony, put on an event about free thinking.
However, anything that invokes discussion must be a good thing.
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