Re: BA's at Harbourside Festival!

["Paul Vallis" <paulvallis@ho...com>]

Nice to meet you too Ewan!  A most polite interruptor, if I may say so!  
Always good to meet another person off this list.
I too started off right at the front, then dropped back a few feet to get a 
huge improvement in sound, and ran into a couple of other friends too.  I 
noticed a few people in the crowd singing along with Jacket Hangs, so there 
were a few fans there.
The band was the same line-up as the Altitude tour, plus the fiddle player 
that Ewan mentioned.  They seemed to revel in being on a larger stage, 
Gerard very mobile, he and Max chasing each other around at one point.  
Julian seemed a little detached from the rest of the goings on, but played 
very well indeed.  The violinist looked like she'd just changed out of her 
nice, well starched public school uniform and wandered onto the stage.  She 
played on about half the numbers, most effectively on Days of 49 and 
Beautiful Is, and stood there not really knowing what to do with herself for 
the other songs, a slightly bemused smile upon her face.  I'm not sure she'd 
ever seen Gerard dancing before!  John Langley played an absolute blinder as 
usual.  He really is something else - not many drummers would even imagine 
doing some of the things he does, let alone attempt it.
For Breaking In My Heart they were joined by another guitarist, a mandolin 
player (neither of whom I recognised) and a second bass player who did look 
familiar, perhaps from a previous Xmas gig?
We left before BIMH finished, elbowed our way back across Pero's Bridge and 
got to the coach in time to go and see Massive Attack at Westonbirt (you 
should have come Nick!).  Excellent gig, although Angelo only seemed to 
really get into his stride later on in the set - he seemed to be going 
through the motions a bit up until then.  Terry Callier was supposed to be 
singing with them on a couple of numbers, but seemed to be taken ill during 
his support set which was cut short (I was standing very near the back at 
that point, sheltering from a shower, and didn't really see exactly what was 
going on).  Still, both Horace Andy and Liz Fraser were there.
PV1


From: Ewan Milne <ewan.milne@bt...com>
Reply-To: The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List <blueplanes@st...net>
To: The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List <blueplanes@st...net>
Subject: Re: [Blueplanes] BA's at Harbourside Festival!
Date: Mon, 31 Jul 2006 13:21:51 +0100

Nick Walters wrote:

> > PS:  Nick - the bloke who shouted "Oi Nick" whilst parking a motorbike as 
> > you cycled past on Temple Back was me!
> Oh, I wondered who that was!
Weirdly enough, as I was waiting stage front for the 'Planes set to kick 
off, I overheard two guys behind me talking about this incident, and thus 
bumped into Paul and Nick for the first time. Hi chaps, it was a pleasure to 
meet you, and you were most friendly to this stranger butting in on your 
conversation. Paul, hope you made it to Massive Attack okay, and that it was 
a good gig too.
As for the BAs - a great set in somewhat unusual circumstances. It's already 
been noted that they were second on the bill to a Madness tribute band (who 
I did not hang around for), and the audience was not just a mix of music 
fans, but as far as I could tell, a pretty good sprinkling of passing 
Harbour Festival goers too. I couldn't help wondering what some of them made 
of the art'n'poetry'n'rock'n'roll coming from the stage....
But the band showed no signs of going through the motions in their half-hour 
mid-afternoon slot. Kicking off with three Altitude songs - okay four if you 
count the Bristol Byzantium intro, then into Raise The Roof High, Tree Full 
of Starlings and Beautiful Is. "...Starlings" was enhanced by a youthful 
violin player (and the rest of the set was rather enhanced by her just 
standing stage front, ahem).
Then there was a quick delve through the back catalogue: Jacket Hangs, Days 
of 49, The Applicant, possibly something else? - but of course, ending in 
traditional style with Breaking In My Heart. The sound was pretty rough 
right up by the stage, with the vocals barely discernible, but it sounded 
great from further back.
Throughout, Gerard seemed like he was enjoying himself, and the band too. 
First time I've seen this line-up (in fact first time I've seen them without 
Rodney or Wojtek), but they seemed pretty tight and together - a real band 
rather a pick-up set of musos. I guess the core members' other band helps a 
lot here.
Been a few years since I saw them (to be honest, I'd kind of stopped 
attending the Xmas shows), but I'll have to catch them again soon.
Cheers,
Ewan



_______________________________________________
The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List
http://www.blueaeroplanes.com/
Post: Blueplanes@st...net
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Info: 
http://lists.sthomas.net/mailman/listinfo/blueplanes


_______________________________________________
The Blue Aeroplanes Mailing List
http://www.blueaeroplanes.com/
Post: Blueplanes@st...net
Subscribe/Unsubscribe/Info: 
http://lists.sthomas.net/mailman/listinfo/blueplanes