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Tonight Simon and I went to The Coral Sea, a tribute to Robert Mapplethorpe by Patti Smith and Kevin Shields. Unfortunately I'm still feeling absolutely dreadful (although I did go back to work today) so we only saw the first half and missed the actual Coral Sea bit as I wasn't sure I could get through the second half without having to leave in the middle of something to pass out or throw up, which as I was in the second row would have been distracting for Patti and embarrassing for us.
The first half was excellent though. When she was just talking I kept thinking I was going to have to leave, but during the songs the music was so beautiful that I mostly forgot how ill I was feeling. It lasted about an hour and started off as Patti, Tony Shanahan (who I think was with her at Charleston) and Italian cellist Giovanni Solima, who was brilliant. It was the usual mix of great songs and political polemic in between, and she did her daffy thing again, talking about trying to find a square with a poet's house in it and getting distracted by the squirrels and eventually realising that the square she was looking for was on the other side of London.
She put it on a bit too though, I'm never sure how much of the daffiness is real (although I don't doubt she really did end up knee deep in a cow trough at Charleston) pretending to have forgotten the words to a song that she wanted us to sing along to, presumably to get a good second cut as they were recording. Later she was joined by Jason Pierce (of Spiritualized/Spacemen 3 fame), and for the last song of that set, by Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine).
We'd actually arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Hall just as she was finishing an (I assume, as it didn't seem to be advertised) impromptu solo acoustic set in the foyer and that was great too. She's a total legend. I suspect we've missed a great second half.
Review of Monday night's show from the Independent.
You can download new track "Qana" here.
The first half was excellent though. When she was just talking I kept thinking I was going to have to leave, but during the songs the music was so beautiful that I mostly forgot how ill I was feeling. It lasted about an hour and started off as Patti, Tony Shanahan (who I think was with her at Charleston) and Italian cellist Giovanni Solima, who was brilliant. It was the usual mix of great songs and political polemic in between, and she did her daffy thing again, talking about trying to find a square with a poet's house in it and getting distracted by the squirrels and eventually realising that the square she was looking for was on the other side of London.
She put it on a bit too though, I'm never sure how much of the daffiness is real (although I don't doubt she really did end up knee deep in a cow trough at Charleston) pretending to have forgotten the words to a song that she wanted us to sing along to, presumably to get a good second cut as they were recording. Later she was joined by Jason Pierce (of Spiritualized/Spacemen 3 fame), and for the last song of that set, by Kevin Shields (My Bloody Valentine).
We'd actually arrived at the Queen Elizabeth Hall just as she was finishing an (I assume, as it didn't seem to be advertised) impromptu solo acoustic set in the foyer and that was great too. She's a total legend. I suspect we've missed a great second half.
Review of Monday night's show from the Independent.
You can download new track "Qana" here.
