A kinda catch up blog....

On Friday it was payback time. Owen has braved concerts by artists unfamiliar to him with me so it was only fair that I did one for him - bearing in mind the last two like this nearly turned me into a shut-in as the audiences were so vile (Steve Harley, Maximo Park). Yes Constant Reader, Friday found me in Croydon Fairfield Halls to see O's beloved Slade. Well the two original members who still perform as Slade, Dave Hill and Don Powell.

As I blogged back in April after seeing Petula Clark, the Fairfield Halls is a particularly dismal experience for any event. Built in 1962 it's almost like a parallel universe Royal Festival Hall - which is a pretty soulless joint too. Zero atmosphere, zero customer service from the geriatric and jobstart staff, no attempt made to make you engage with the building... it's remarkable it has survived to this day as a live venue.

Noting the pre-publicity that it was a great pre-Christmas party night you can kind of guess the ambiance in the half-filled auditorium - desperate gaiety mixed with a hint of retardation. By arriving late we missed the start of surprise support Atomic Blondie who I must admit I was willing to sit through but as O had tickets in the dead centre of the third row we deceided to sit that one out. Then it was time for Mud II which afforded me more time to soak up the Kremlin-like ambiance of the foyer as a donkey and a length of rope wouldn't have got me into the auditorium for that dog show.Needless to say after more than an hour sat in the morgue-like foyer I was willing to embrace any sign of life so we took our places for the headliners. Now it's always an odd experience to see a band who you are not emotionally connected to but I must say - while maybe not like Granny in MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY who was 'Up and rock 'n' rolling with the rest' - for the whole set I was clapping along to the thunderous whacking of Don Powell's drumming and joining in the choruses of their biggest hits - and we got most of them in a non-stop hurtle through such songs as TAKE ME BAK 'OME, GUDBYE T' JANE, CUZ I LUV YOU and SKWEEZE ME PLEEZE ME. They also did a fine sweeping version of RUN RUN AWAY and nice versions of their terrace ballads FAR FAR AWAY and MY OH MY. The obligatory MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY was played as an encore along with the only one of their songs I ever really liked CUM ON FEEL THE NOIZE.

So contrary to all predictions I enjoyed them. But it is an odd thing to see a band where the focal point is the guitarist - and not the singer, singing songs written by and for an obviously charismatic presence. Sadly the Noddy Holder soundalike is just that - he has a gravelly delivery but that's all - his voice isn't all that. It was peculiar to watch him belting out songs only to step back while Dave Hill did his joint virtuoso playing of guitar & crowd. All very off-kilter. I also was surprised that the audience response wasn't more raucous... maybe they were disappointed they were not as chicken-in-a-basket as the acts that had gone before.

Another curious experience was on Sunday seeing THE SNOWMAN at the Peacock Theatre - again it's a auditorium that doesn't have a particular vibe - in an odd way I always feel I should leave my coat on while sitting in it. Anyways we booked to see this as it was on a ticket deal with Matthew Bourne's production of NUTCRACKER at Sadlers Wells. I have managed to avoid this production for the past TEN Christmases at the Peacock and have skillfully managed to avoid the original tv animated film so was kind of coming to it new.

Within ten minutes I suddenly remembered why I don't go to more family shows... the inevitable white noise of children in a darkened auditorium. Now I am all for introducing kids to theatre at an early age and for them hopefully to be engaged with the imaginative leap needed but couldn't they all be given dummies to suck on? Preferably with Night Nurse in?? My appreciation of the piece was slightly hampered by the simultaneous commentary provided by the precocious girl behind me to her mother/grandmother/aunt/nanny/kidnapper.

"This is where they fly now".... cheers bitch.

It was an amiable way to pass an hour and 50 minutes but ultimately I found it too cutesy. The great things about any kid's story is surely the darkness that lurks within and that I remember I used to love as a kid - honest I was one once. The wicked queen in SNOW WHITE, Maleficent in SLEEPING BEAUTY, the White Witch in THE LION THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE (Yes they *are* all diva bitches!) - all genuinely disturbing presences. Here Jack Frost pops up when The Snowman and little James venture to the North Pole and tries to steal The Ice Princess from Father Christmas but is easily trounced. As I had just sat through a needless pas-de-deux between her and The Snowman with as much growing impatience as the kids around me I was actually hoping he would whisk her off somewhere. I guess The Snowman melts in the end which some might say is pretty dark!

So nice stage design by Ruari Murchison and notable performances from Aedan Day (James) and Jodie Blemings (Jack Frost). The choreography was a bit underwhelming.

On July 1st 2006 Owen and I saw Gladys Knight at the Royal Albert Hall. We hung around with the vague hope of seeing her afterwards along with a dwindling group of fans. Despite the protestations of her manager that she had gone we still hung around... as Owen opined, if she was gone what was he still doing there? Eventually he came out and said "If you leave your names with me I will see you will get a signature" so grudgingly we all wrote our details on the proffered sheets of paper.

After nearly a year and a half of admitting to ourselves it was just a ruse to get us to leave the stage door and thinking the pages were chucked in the bin, look what arrived this morning from America - even if it is a printed autograph!