Tribute

I have never really understood the demand for "Tribute" acts, which seem to fill the schedules of most small to medium sized music venues of late.

I go to the Brook in Southampton occasionally and a quick glance at what they are hosting for the next few months, shows a good percentage of the acts are tributes to former favourites who are either no longer with us or too old/scared to play live.

I have seen a couple. Gaga, a Queen tribute band who sound just like their heroes used to and look a bit like them. Freddie and Brian are represented by one overly talented guy who you can’t help thinking should maybe be trying to emulate Matt Bellamy, with original material in his own name.

I’ve also seen U2UK who do sound and look like the originals, but although enjoyable enough only really made me want to see the real U2!

Last week however I went to see the Australian Pink Floyd and they changed everything! They made me realise that for some bands/genres the live experience is just that and who actually is delivering that experience is less important.

APF reproduced Floyd at their finest, with the full on stage show, including the huge circular screen at the centre of the stage with lights all around it. They had lasers, inflatable pigs, inflatable school masters and best of all, a twelve foot tall, bouncing, inflatable bright pink kangaroo!!!! The musicianship was of the highest standard and they nailed song after song, to the point that the real band being on stage, in aural terms, would have been only slightly better. Clearly they didn’t write a note of the music and the original stage show was designed by others too, but they therefore also don’t have the record royalties to fund such a special evening.

I have therefore changed my view on some Tribute acts. These days most classical concerts are in some way a tribute act evening. Beethoven is long gone so the chances of his conducting his own 5th Symphoney is unlikely. So when the BBC concert orchestra perform it live, it is no more than a tribute act, albeit on a bigger scale.

APF are no different, they reproduce "classic" rock music in a way that reflects exactly how the writers would do so and that, to me, makes this type of Tribute act completely justified.

Easy

I have been searching for an app to use to blog from my phone and it looks with iA I may have found it. At last!

Very simple to use and files can be easily saved on iCloud.

Let's get typing!

Wrecking ball

One of the things that I'm trying to do is listen to albums that I buy. That may sound a bit daft, but my iTunes library is littered with albums that I've bought, because it's so easy to do it in the digital age. Then I have maybe, only listened to it  once, or worse still I forget that I bought it and find it days, weeks or months later and then I can't be bothered to make the effort!

This week I bought the latest Bruce Springsteen album, Wrecking Ball, and it has been on heavy rotation* ever since.

Here's what I think. Every so often, Springsteen nails the current mood in the USA (as it appears to me in England!), he did it with "Born in the USA", then again with "The Rising" (post 9/11), then the Seeger sessions tapped into the rich vein of American roots music and now "Wrecking Ball" is his view on a post Occupy world.

It starts with "We take care of our own", an anthemic rocker which puts all the markers down. Bruce is angry and has a message for you and it will not be subtle. Great stuff.

The album also returns to the music of the Seeger Sessions with plenty of accordion, fiddle and bits of brass.

Subjects covered include, being shackled to our lives which are going nowhere, (Shackled and Drawn), how as the man of the house the writer will do anything to make ends meet (Jack of all trades), that our towns have been stripped bare (Death to my Hometown) and how in this depression, love is what will get you through (This depression).

Half way through Bruce drops in "Wrecking ball" his tribute to the demolition of Giants stadium, which works on a number of levels in the current climate. There's a great video of him playing it in Giants stadium which you can watch here.

The second half starts the climb back out of the abyss. "Rocky ground" is about as urban as Bruce gets, with a brief RAP,. It's about faith and doubt and is full of religious symbolism. This is followed by an old song "Land of hopes and dreams" which was written 10 years or so ago and was part of his live show at that time. It fits perfectly and features probably the last recorded sax solo by Clarence Clemons, Bruce's  "big man" who died last year and who gets a great side of liner notes on the album.

"We are alive" has a cowboy feel to the music and deals with the fact that after we die, we are alive! (I think). And that's it!

Although it's not as the extended version has two more songs, the first of which Swallowed UP (in the belly of the Whale), takes its theme from the Biblical story of Jonah. But when Bruce sings the refrain "we've been swallowed up" it suddenly works on a number of levels. Is he referring to America's world position, the plight of the man of the street, Christianity in a secular world or the music industry in the digital age? Who knows but it's very haunting.

Finally another older song, American Land, which in case we wondered is why we he loves America. This was written around the times of the Seeger Sessions and again featured in his lives shows so it's well worn already. A hooting, singing, twirling finale, which you see being sung in bars on Independence Day.

Overall a real return to form and I wish I could get to see him this summer but it's unlikely, he's only playing four dates here!

* refers to a time when we used play records on a record player!