(London, England, U.K.)

Today’s post is an extended one with lots of musical links:  given the event, I didn’t want to break this up into smaller blogs!

When I started planning this trip in June,  even before booking the flights, I ensured that I had great tickets to two shows.  One was the Paul Carrack concert.  The other was a concert at the Royal Albert Hall.  Within a few days, I also had a ticket for Los Pacaminos and I added “The Commitments” a couple of months later.

Why the Royal Albert Hall?  When I think of opulent concert halls, it’s the first one that comes to mind.  However, it has also been the site for a host of legendary concerts.   One of my favourite concert videos is “A Concert for George” – the all-star tribute to the late George Harrison.  In that one concert alone, there were performances by Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Eric Clapton, Jeff (ELO) Lynne, Tom Petty, Billy Preston and the entire Monty Python gang (among others).  In fact, Eric Clapton has played there almost 200 times.

Not only is it stunningly beautiful inside and out, it also manages to hold more than 5,200 people in comfort.  I was determined to be one of those people, for one night at least!

While travelling alone certainly has its drawbacks, it paid one unexpected dividend on this trip:  it is sometimes possible to snap up single tickets very close to the stage that have been left “stranded” by groups buying blocks of tickets.  That’s what happened with the Paul Carrack concert (where I was in the 9th row, in the exact centre of the hall) and that’s what happened here…where I managed to get  a lone seat in the 13th row, right in the centre, for a Saturday night concert less than a month before Christmas.  Even better, it was for a concert that I really wanted to see!

Jools Holland is known in North America as a former member of Squeeze…in fact, when he left, he was replaced by Paul Carrack.  But in the U.K., he is a legendary radio and television host (“Later…with Jools Holland”) and bandleader of the Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra.  Simply put, they are the best known “big band” in the U.K. and in many other countries as well.   They have also recorded with just about everybody with an interest in this kind of music.  On one CD alone, the collaborators included George Harrison, Van Morrison, Sting, Paul Weller, Dr. John, Joe Strummer (The Clash), Steve Winwood, Mick Hucknall (Simply Red), Paul Carrack, Mark Knopfler (Dire Straits) and Eric Clapton.

Imagine an amped-up modern-day cross between Cab Calloway, Glenn Miller, Ray Charles and the Blues Brothers…that might come close to capturing the Jools Holland Rhythm & Blues Orchestra.  The sound is not subtle:  there are 5 saxophones, 3 trumpets and 3 trombones, in addition to the various other singers and instruments you might expect to find in a big band.   And while they do play standards like “Tuxedo Junction”, they don’t restrict themselves to traditional big band material:  here is a live version of Stevie Wonder’s “I Wish” with Melanie C(!), a former Spice Girl, while this is a video for Jerry Lee Lewis’ “It’ll Be Me” recorded with Tom Jones.

I arrived well in advance of the concert, as I wanted plenty of time to look around and experience the venue beforehand.  It is located in a posh area (Kensington) of London; as you can see from the photo at the top of this post, it is quite an imposing sight.  I had to negotiate a series of hidden stairwells and oddly-shaped corridors to get to my seat but it is even more impressive inside.  There are arches, rich colours, suites and ornate accents everywhere…as if one has just woken up in the 19th century.

After a forgettable opening act, Jools Holland and his R&B Orchestra arrived with a bang.  The horn section was not going to be silenced on this evening and the sell-out crowd was very happy with that.  I should also mention that Jools Holland has the best left-handed piano technique I’ve ever seen.   It would have been fine if they played instrumentals all night.

Nonetheless, the vocalists in the orchestra are exceptional.  The current roster includes Louise Marshall and Ruby Turner.  Ruby Turner is an established singer in her own right; I even picked up her 45 (7″ vinyl single) of “I’d Rather Go Blind” this summer in the Netherlands (here’s a live version of the same song).  But Marshall is a vocal powerhouse too…you should expect to see much more of her in the future (here’s a Louise Marshall/Jools Holland recording of a song that she also performed live tonight).  My wife and I saw Aretha Franklin perform a few years ago and (sacrilege alert!) her performance didn’t even come close to Marshall or Turner.

Despite having that kind of vocal talent in his orchestra, a big feature of Jools Holland concerts is having some great guest stars.  On this night, there were two special guests.  The first was Joss Stone; you may recognize her name, as her first couple of releases received quite a bit of attention.  This live performance with Melissa Etheridge is fairly typical (although Melissa Etheridge clearly wins this battle!); here are other ones with Donna Summer and Jeff Beck. Her performances on this night with Jools Holland were similar.

The next guest was bit of a surprise.   Marc Almond was the singer with Soft Cell, a synth-pop duo from the early 1980s who had a massive international hit with “Tainted Love” as well as another big hit with “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”.  He has had a successful U.K. solo career since then.

Almond started his set with “Say Hello, Wave Goodbye”, followed by a dramatic interpretation of a Jacques Brel song.  Would he sing “Tainted Love”, even though it was also a cover version (recorded originally by Gloria Jones in the early 1960s)?   Personally, I wasn’t too keen on the original Jones vocal, but the musical backing was solid.  Conversely, the Soft Cell vocal was memorable but the synth backing sounds dated now.   Luckily for us, he chose to sing “Tainted Love”…and he did it in front of a powerful big-band arrangement!

This was definitely one of the highlights of the night.  The audience was “gobsmacked”, as they say, and the orchestra really delivered with staccato stabs of horns.  This was how the song was meant to be performed and everybody nailed it.

Yet there were even more highlights.  One of the best encore songs was a song called “Enjoy Yourself (It’s Later Than You Think)”.  I knew a version of it by British ska legends The Specials but it turns out that it’s a very old song recorded at one point by Guy Lombardo and his Royal Canadians!   Again, this was a brilliantly performed song and one that perfectly suited both the moment and the evening.   Here’s a recent studio version by Jools Holland.

The Orchestra played for a little more than 2 hours…but it went by so fast.  It was also exhausting, with so much energy in the music.  While I caught a bus just outside the Royal Albert Hall, I had enough adrenaline to walk back to my hotel from Leicester Square without even noticing the distance.

With Los Pacaminos last night and the Jools Holland R&B Orchestra tonight, I have been rather forcefully reminded of the sheer power of live music played by committed musicians.   It even makes me think back to the fun I had playing live in a band at law school, where we bludgeoned our way through grunge (hey, it was the 1990s!) covers of songs by the likes of Abba (“Knowing Me, Knowing You”) and Duran Duran (“Hungry Like The Wolf”, although we turned it into “Hungry Like Beowulf”).

To be honest, I would have been happy just going on a tour of the Royal Albert Hall.  To experience a concert like this in such a wonderful venue was icing on the cake.  It was also a great way to end my year of travel, except for one thing:  my year of travel wasn’t quite over.

I still had one more full day in London…but I knew that there was no way I could find a concert to top what I had experienced over the past couple of days.  Stay tuned to find out how I spent the final day of this musical adventure!

(London, England, U.K.)

On this music-oriented tour of England, I was trying to experience a variety of music venues and formats. One venue that’s hard to arrange in advance is the small pub…but I managed to find and book something 5 months ago. I’m really glad I did, because it ended up being the most enjoyable concert of the tour so far.

The venue was the Half Moon in Putney, located just under an hour by bus from my hotel. The Half Moon accommodates only about 200 people for concerts but has hosted some names you may know: The Rolling Stones, The Who, Elvis Costello, U2, the Yardbirds and Kate Bush for starters. In fact, many of these artists have even had residencies at the Half Moon. It’s just one of those legendary venues that musicians love to play even though it is tiny.

So who did I see here? The name of the band was Los Pacaminos. The name may mean nothing – they have only released 2 proper albums after more than twenty years together. I don’t think they’ve ever played outside of Europe and I don’t think they’ve ever had a hit. However, they contain some of the very best professional musicians in England…including one who you might know.

I didn’t really follow Paul Young’s career in the 1980s. I knew he had a bunch of hits: Come Back and Stay, Every Time You Go Away, Oh Girl, Don’t Dream It’s Over (a Crowded House cover, with Paul Carrack!) and Love of the Common People, to name a few. The songs were squarely aimed at the mainstream and he was very successful with them.

However, Paul Young also has a passion for rootsy Tex-Mex music. In 1993, he formed Los Pacaminos (a nonsense word, referring to “pack ’em in”) with a bunch of musicians who had been in his bands and also liked this kind of music. They are still together today and that’s who I was going to see at the Half Moon!

I didn’t know what to expect.  I read that “La Bamba” and “Wooly Bully” generally made appearances but the rest was a mystery to me.  My expectations were low, the ticket price was by far the lowest of the concerts I’m seeing, and I was a little unsure about spending a evening in an unfamiliar bar far from “my” part of London.

Any anxiousness was gone by the end of the first song. They came on stage with suitably “western” hats, like cowboys.  They played a combination of originals and slightly obscure but very fun covers of songs from their musical influences…such as Doug Sahm (of the Texas Tornados and the Sir Douglas Quintet) and even Johnny “Guitar” Watson.  They even tried a few synchronized “moves” like you would see from guitar instrumental bands in the 1960s.

The lyrics were sometimes similar to those you’d find in country music (there was the occasional mention of “hurtin'”, “drinkin'” and “cheatin’ hearts”) and there was a pedal steel guitar and an accordion…but the arrangements had Mexican touches and were rocked up far more than you’d ever get in country music.   They all played well but special mention must be made of their guitarist Jamie Moses:  he’s played with Queen and clearly has the chops to play even the most ostentatious rock guitar parts.

Most importantly, it was blindingly obvious that these guys loved the music and were having a great time.  A couple of times during the show, they’d play a short version of “Tequila” and a tray of tequila shots would materialize on the stage.   Despite this, they stayed happy and nobody in either the band or the audience became a problem.  The joy was infectious and the 2+ hour gig was over in a flash.

I picked up a CD signed by all of the band members and look forward to listening when I get back to Kingston.  If you  ever get a chance to see Los Pacaminos, I highly recommend it.  [Click on the link for a “studio” version of Woolly Bully by Los Pacaminos!]

(London, England, U.K.)

One of my favourite movies is “The Commitments”. It came out more than 20 years ago and was based on the Roddy Doyle book of the same name. It’s about a motley crew from the wrong side of Dublin who, against all odds, became a shockingly proficient soul music band. There is no Hollywood ending to the movie but there are some truly electrifying musical performances.

As I may have mentioned in my blogs from Dublin, the final performance of “Try A Little Tenderness” has to stand as one of the most powerful musical moments ever captured on film (and record). I hesitate to say this because I may be accused of blasphemy…but it might even improve on Otis Redding’s original.  Regardless of which version you prefer, it has got to be one of the very best soul songs ever written.

Having been to musicals in both Toronto and New York City, I really wanted to see one in London’s West End. When I heard earlier this year that “The Commitments” had finally been adapted to the stage, there was no doubt that I had to see it when in London.  Among other things, I think it would have been much more difficult to reproduce the thick North Dublin accents with a North American cast.  Of course, there is also no guarantee that this musical would ever cross the ocean like the movie did.

The musical is playing at the Palace Theatre on Shaftesbury Avenue.  It’s a big old theatre with ornate decor and rather steep upper levels.  My seat was near the front of the first balcony and I had a perfect view of the entire stage.

In my opinion, the first half of the show didn’t work quite as well as the movie.  The band (deliberately) makes lots of mistakes and missteps as it struggles to become a unit:  this makes for a good movie but it didn’t come across that well in the musical format.

After the interval, however, the show redeemed itself. The second half of the show features a more polished band as well as more complete versions of songs.  When performed well, a live musical can engage all of the senses and be more effective than a movie…and for the second act, it was.

Including some songs not heard in the original film (“Papa Was A Rolling Stone” being a surprise as well as one of the strongest performances), this may have been a jukebox musical but it was highly effective.  Similar to the “concert in heaven” that ends the musical “Buddy” (about Buddy Holly), the last 4 songs are not really part of the narrative…they are just complete and furious renditions of soul classics.

The best was saved for last.  I read the previews and knew that “Try a Little Tenderness” would eventually make an appearance.  Sure enough, it was the big finale and the cast milked it for all it was worth.   In terms of impact, it was just as overwhelming as the movie version.

The final verdict?  You can’t go too far wrong with either version, especially if you are a fan of soul music.  Ideally, you’d be able to see the first half in movie form and second half live on stage…but, if you’re not in London, watching it on DVD will still give you a pretty good idea of what it’s all about.