Gerard's gig

["Paul Vearncombe" <vearn@wo...co.uk>]

What a fantastic night at the Cube for only six quid!  A couple of hours 
shooting the breeze in the bar with Ann Sheldon (Gerard's long time 
girlfriend), Steve Bush (an old pal of Gerard's who contributed vocals to 
'Bop Art') and of course the great man himself.  So what's the news?  The 
long-awaited Aeroplanes album is finished but still untitled (Gerard has 
around twenty titles he's toying with) and unreleased (he doesn't want to 
give up the copyright to a record company so has to find a distribution 
deal somewhere).  Speaking of copyright, I managed to upset Gerard by 
remarking on the double-CD release of 'Tolerance' and 'Bop Art', of which 
he was unaware.  It seems that Gerard owns the copyright to the latter and 
has not granted any permissions to release it.  I sense a shitstorm 
coming!  This is kind of ironic considering the illegal nature of 'LIT' 
but the unsanctioned release of a whole published album can't really be 
compared with appropriating the odd bit of an artist's unreleased 
leftovers.  Not content with that I then upset Gerard further by asking 
him about the possibility of a re-release of 'Bagipe Music', to which he 
squirmed and made faces!  Oh well, I liked it!  Also, the planned 
re-release of 'Swagger' is still bubbling under, but EMI still want that 
grand. One day...

Gerard took the stage eventually and performed five poems with Paul 
Bradley.  I say 'performed' - you will know the man well enough to know 
that words like 'read' or 'recited' are horribly inadequate.  His delivery 
was typically Gerard, relishing every syllable, rolling the words around, 
repeating sections to fit the music, adding and taking away in his own 
style, while the music shifted around him.  Paul Bradley is a guitarist in 
the loosest sense, working with digital loops, delays, effects, and 
bringing in other instruments here and there.  I have never before seen 
anybody use a recorder to play the xylophone, or a harmonica as a guitar 
slide, and I hope that gives you some idea of what he was about.  A 
magician of the highest order.  It was a shame the two of them didn't 
perform more pieces together, but the main act had to start - Fuzz Against 
Junk - who are a bizarre six-piece band who sound like some sort of weird 
development of Krautrock.  Obviously accomplished musicians who were 
comfortable with improvising around the poetry.  An intoxicating blizzard 
of sound which formed a very different backdrop to Paul Bradley's.  And 
the words themselves - I'm no poetry scholar but Gerard obviously spent 
some time making his selections and putting the right sort of emphasis on 
each.  The whole affair was recorded, apparently, to form the basis of 
'LIT Volume Two', when Gerard gets around to it.  If it's anything like 
the performance that night it should be a blast.

Ann was selling 'LIT' at the front desk, beautifully designed by Steve 
Giles, who was also DJ-ing at the gig.  I still can't decide whether 
buying number 3 of 50 is sad and fannish or cool and exciting.  Anyway, 
the packaging alone makes it worth owning - a gatefold sleeve with 
photographs of all the poets, a booklet with the words, and all wrapped in 
a printed paper bag the likes of which I remember filling with penny 
sweets when I was a child.  It's glorious to behold, and obviously a 
labour of love for Steve Giles.  Listening to it now, my expectations have 
been far surpassed.  I anticipated something 'difficult' but it actually 
sits nicely alongside 'Record Player', in many ways. The first seven 
pieces are new performances by Gerard, against these stolen musical 
backdrops.  It all works amazingly well, and even rocks out at times - 
REM's backing on 'As Freedom Is A Breakfast Food', in particular.  The 
disappointment, if there is any, comes with the last five tracks which are 
Aeroplanes' treatments of poems, lifted straight from the records we all 
have.  Even having said that, to hear 'Police' and 'The Applicant' in this 
context puts a whole different spin on the thing and makes you listen more 
to the poem than to the music.  Nice to hear the beautiful acoustic 
arrangements on 'Autumn Journal XXIV' once again - never did understand 
why it didn't make FLP2.  Anyway, I'd urge you all to buy a copy of the CD 
while there are some still left.  Sorry to folks who wanted me to pick 
them up a copy - my email was down last week and I didn't get the 
messages.  The good news is that Ann was happy for me to share her email 
address with anyone who wants a copy.  Mail her on hapcat@wa...com and 
she'll fix you up.

Great to meet Nick White and his girlfriend in the bar afterwards too.  
See you at the next gig, Nick.

PV2