My brilliant mate Graham suggested about 6 months ago that he didn't mind taking in the occasional event in Brighton as he's familiar with the journey and there are a couple of venues which have some half decent stuff on. So far we've seen Bill Bailey (in November)Billy Connolly last week , and as it was actually my 35th birthday on Tuesday and the Australian Pink Floyd were playing, seeing as the first gig Graham and I had been to had been Britfloyd (surprise surprise the British tribute band) at the Dome in November 2011,
The Dome Britfloyd show had been a pretty good gig at easily the best venue I've ever been to but it wasn't a patch on the Aussie Floyds performance in Brighton.
Put it this way, the Aussie Floyd gig will stay in the memory. I have always been a sucker for good production (ie lights, lasers,
projections – keeping the timing with the music. Whereas nothing much had really happened to the stage lighting during the brit floyd gig, sure they were tidy and tight but it wasn't really a show. The Aussies made it a spectacle, so much so that the crowd gave them a standing ovation at the end if they could stand,
what was worthy of note was the crowd was aging hippies – people who in the 60s and 70s were probably dropping acid or trying to find a vein are now more concerned about bringing a picnic or that the egg and cress sandwiches are up to scratch. One valuable lesson we did learn is never park in an NCP carpark to get closer to the venue, it's more than the price of a concert ticket. Graham and I don't ever expect our concert going to be very Rock'n'Roll but that was utterly ridiculous.
Pink Floyd must have been incredible back in their day, it's slightly trite to say they were before their time but their music is deep, dark, brooding and intense and that is my 100% sober judgement – it is subversive, dirty, emotive and synaesthesic managing to conjure sounds out of a guitar that beggar belief and dare I say it, transport you to another place, and much of this was before the synthesizer was even invented. I don't pretend to be massively knowledgeable about their back catalogue but there are songs like 'Comfortably Numb','High Hopes' and 'I wish you were here' that will live forever, my goodness, youngsters like me talking about them is exhibit A, exhibit B is full concert venues and tribute acts filling them almost two decades after the band have split up (not counting their one-off 2005 sortie at Live 8).
I try not put my eggs in one basket though, so last night I went to the Albert Hall to see the human panda, Lang Lang, play Beethovens 2nd and 3rd Piano Concertos
and I was taken to this by my friend Pat
(here doing her best to avoid the camera) who is a classical music enthusiast. She used to be the 'hand on the tiller' while the lunatics who ran it ran amok, swore loudly and chopped the air!It was a big antip-heavy clubbing outfit called 'heat'
that I once played for many moons ago. Anyway, the long and short of it was I ran into her outside the Albert Hall last year and we have kept in touch through the magic of facebook. I remembered her saying that her favourite classical artist was a chinese cellist so swapping pianist for cellist I thought everyone could be a winner. What do you know, the conductor, some Finnish guy,
even turned out to be an artist she used to manage. Weird.
Anyway. I think we both had a good time, further proof, if proof were needed that taking me to a concert isn't so bad and that importantly, I had got exactly the right person to take me to that concert because it was their thing. This is probably my reason for living these days.
I am aware that this post is dragging on a bit, but just to emphasize how much I am cramming in I am headed back to the Albert hall for some comedy in the Elgar room
featuring a guy who always makes me laugh when he's on TV, Carl Donnelly.
Anyway a computer crash has fortunately deprived you of my thoughts on it. It was good but it was better seeing my old weekend carer, no-nonsense Aussie Bianca
who is a candidate for the exception that proves the rule about Australians.
However, I particularly want to mention my friend Isabel who took me out for lunch on my birthday, not only did she handle my meals during the two weeks I didn't have carers she is also running,swimming and cycling in a triathlon later this year to raise money for the Trust.
Apparently I am a decent example of someone not giving in and getting on with it. She is a hero, please sponsor her. So, it's my birthday buffet on Sunday and I'm the usual bundle of nerves about seeing everyone and of people thinking 'why am I bothering with this f*ckwit?' Sod it – it's an important event for my mental wellbeing and more importantly everyone seems to enjoy it! I'll sign off now with a heartwarming picture of why some great mates of mine (Mel and Lucas) are otherwise engaged on Sunday.
She's called Amira.
Next time, reports of my birthday lunch and how genuinely moved I am that people bother with me.
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