From: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org (alloy-digest) To: alloy-digest@smoe.org Subject: alloy-digest V2 #4 Reply-To: alloy@smoe.org Sender: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-alloy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk X-To-Unsubscribe: Send mail to "alloy-digest-request@smoe.org" X-To-Unsubscribe: with "unsubscribe" as the body. alloy-digest Sunday, January 5 1997 Volume 02 : Number 004 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Alloy: June 5, 1984 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Sun, 5 Jan 97 15:17:40 +1000 From: Paul Baily Subject: Alloy: June 5, 1984 From: "Mary A. Brown" Reply-To: "Mary A. Brown" To: alloy@smoe.org Subject: June 5, 1984 As threatened, here's my attempt to enable those deprived souls to live vicariously. Again I plead for your indulgence since this was written originally for my own benefit (and I admit to wincing now while typing some of it). I never dreamed there would be anyone else interested! Fortunately, TMDR has a poor memory so I guess I don't have to worry about him correcting me on the details (Brian, however, is another story). But this wasn't meant to be the definitive review as you can tell by the title (which /is/ what I called it at the time). I hope you enjoy it! Mary A Subjective Account of the Thomas Dolby Concert 5 June 1984 at the Auditorium Theater in Chicago, Illinois After what seemed an eternity, the black screen rose, revealing three video screens each in the shape of the trademark Dolby monocular. These immediately were filled with the image of a professorial-looking gentleman behind a podium lecturing about how the earth was flat. During this time the musicians took their places on the darkened stage. The videotape ended and the spotlight focused on Mr. Dolby as he entered from the left of the stage. He strode confidently towards the center, took a little bow to acknowledge the thundering applause, then continued on his way, puffing madly on a cigarette (or perhaps it was a cigar). Meanwhile, the band had begun to perform the intro to "White City" Thomas took a few more puffs on the cigar(ette) and grabbed the wireless mike. He slammed through a blistering rendition of the song. "So this is Chicago, eh?" he asked the crowd. "Is it true what they say about Chicago?" The crowd went wild. Thomas was wearing a white suit, white shirt, black skinny tie, and some very soft-looking white shoes as he began the performance. Since he was only playing the Fairlight CMI, he was free to walk and dance around the stage which, of course, he did. The stage was set up in different levels. Thomas, Chucho Merchan (guitarist), and Matthew Seligman (bassist) were directly on the floor, Debra Barsha (keyboardist) had a raised platform by herself at the left, Lesley Fairbairn and Lyndon Connah (also playing keyboards) shared an elevated platform on the right, and in the center above everyone was Justin Hildreth (drummer) plus some other percussion instruments which were played later by other members of the band and also by Thomas himself. The next song was a new one called something like "Marseilles" with lyrics like "Waiting for the shipment from Tangiers". It was very danceable with kind of a Latin beat to it which Thomas reinforced by playing bongos. It was either before or after this song when he took off his jacket. He also performed a bit on the Jupiter 8. Thomas had quite a rapport with the audience, asking the usual "How are you tonight?" and receiving an enthusiastic response. "Splendid! Glad to hear it!," he replied. "I kinda like this place," he remarked as the looked about then focused on the balcony. "I like all those little boxes up there. It looks like you'd expect to see royalty there." "Dissidents" was the next number and this was accompanied by scenes from the video which showed the clandestine meeting, arrests, death by firing squad, and pamphlets fluttering down from a helicopter or airplane. Thomas had a flashlight to illuminate his face at various times during this song, I believe. He also played a manual typewriter. This live version was similar to the 12" mix. By this time I think Thomas had removed his glasses. "This song is the title cut from my new album," he stated to introduce the next tune. "It's called 'The Flat Earth'". This quieted things down a bit as he gave a soulful performance of the piece, starting out by playing a bit of percussion. The contrasting female vocal part seemed to get a bit lost but that was the only flaw. The video screens flicked on again, each of them out of sync by a few seconds as they had been before. Visions of real submarines and clips from "Live Wireless" were juxtaposed on them. Thomas stood at center stage singing "Missing, missing" into a megaphone which he utilized at strategic points during the songs. "One of Our Submarines" sounded much like the version on "Live Wireless". As the last strains faded away, Thomas gravely saluted the crowd. "This song is one of my old favorites. It's called 'Urges'," Thomas announced. He sat in front of the drums as he began the tune and rubbed his hand along his thigh in a very seductive manner to emphasize some of the lyrics. The song had a smoother sound than the recorded version but was no less dramatic. He was without his tie at this point I recall. "The last time I was in Chicago I was with a friend of mine named Lene Lovich. I wrote this song for her and it's called 'New Toy'!" This was the first time I had heard Thomas sing this and he did a fantastic job. It sounded more like the way it was done on Lene's EP as opposed to the version on "Live Wireless", that is, minus the domination of rather obnoxious guitar. It was during this part of the show, I think, where Thomas did a backflip off the platform where the percussion instruments were. Things slowed down for the next three songs. Thomas sat down at the electric piano and said, "One of my heroes lives in San Francisco and drinks a lot of this, " gesturing at what appeared to be a bottle of rot-gut whiskey. He poured himself a shot as he continued, " He came to my concert there which was quite an honor. He wrote this next song," which was of course, "I Scare Myself". As I expected, it was one of the most dramatic numbers of the concert. Some footage from the video was projected on the screens. Thomas was bathed in a dim red light and the rest of the band had different colored spotlights on them so he was practically anonymous. "One night I awoke to what I thought was a gunshot. It turned out to be artillery fire. I wrote this song then and it's called 'Airwaves'". Thomas performed this solo, accompanied by only by a few video shots, some of which were similar to those shown during "Urges". They were of Thomas wearing the long black coat, white scarf, and fedora while running through the snow. It also showed the armed guards with their metallic helmets, not allowing him to pass through the roadblock. Clouds of smoke enveloped Thomas while he sang this. Surprising to me (since he had said in an interview the voice on the recorded version of this was different from his usual one and he wasn't sure he could reproduce it), the next song was "Screen Kiss". While he didn't exactly capture that same vocal quality, the performance was moving. Thomas left the piano and returned to center stage where "Europa and the Pirate Twins" was given an energetic treatment. I believe it was around this time when Thomas inquired if anyone here liked synthesizer music. Predictably, the audience replied with a resounding, "Yes!" "Then you've come to the wrong place!" Thomas wickedly retorted. This song segued into "Get Out of My Mix" with funky bass courtesy of Matthew and even a little snippet of "Magic's Wand". Thomas left the stage during this and returned wearing a white cotton jacket with rolled up sleeves but no shirt. I may be mistaken, since perhaps "Hyperactive!" came before "Europa". Thomas walked out with the cube on his head, singing away with clips from the video on the screens behind him. But lo and behold, who should enter from stage right but Thomas! He looked really disgusted about the impostor and chased him from the stage. He really threw himself into this one, dancing, playing percussion, dabbling with this synthesizer and then that one. Debra came to the front clutching what looked like a stuffed dog and sang Adele's part. Also during this song, Thomas attempted a moonwalk. Lastly, the song that much of the crowd had been waiting for all night, came "She Blinded Me With Science". Thomas didn't let anyone down, acting the deranged scientist al the way through and even playing the Fairlight with his forehead. He was especially animated at the lines, "I don't believe it/ There she goes again/ She's tidied up and I can't find anything!" The audience was definitely on its feet for this one. This too was accompanied by clips from the video. Thomas received a standing ovation and the crowd whistled, stomped, and shouted for more. Lighters blazed everywhere and finally Thomas walked out carrying a ventriloquist's dummy. "This is Herbert," he announced. "Everyone say hello to Herbert." The crowd did as they were told. "Herbert's quite a scat singer. Will you sing for the people?" Thomas entreated. "No!" was Herbert's definitive reply. "But they're such nice people. They really want to hear you sing," cajoled Thomas. Herbert still refused to give in. "All right everyone, ask Herbert politely to sing," Thomas instructed. The audience in one voice yelled, "Please!" That finally succeeded. Herbert did some scatting and danced around a bit. Then Thomas took him offstage, coming back to do "Commercial Breakup". Thomas really clowned around during this one, extending his left arm to lean on Chucho, missing the mark, and pretending to fall but succeeding when he tried with his right. Just before the synth solo in that song, Thomas walked off but reappeared wearing a long black wig and a red portable synth strapped around his neck. He gave an inspired jam, ripped off the wig, flung away the synth, mock apologizing by claiming, "I don't know what came over me!" and brought the song to a satisfying climax. But the crowd wanted more... After much cheering and some chanting of "Dol-by Dol-by", Chucho returned and began to chatter animatedly in Spanish. Of course no one understood what he said but we hoped it was something to encourage Thomas since he gestured for the audience to increase the applause after he spoke. Thomas cam back saying that his was the last song and that "You have to take your hands out of your pockets for this one." It was "Windpower" which he performed as I had never heard it done before. It was really funked up and caused the irresistible dancing urge. The audience clapped along and was even encouraged to sing part of it by Thomas. He took the time during this song to introduce the band and wound up by saying, "Lead vocalist tonight, Thomas Dolby" in a very offhand sort of way which incited the crowd to go wild. And that, unfortunately, was the close of the concert. A few details I neglected to mention above: Some of the filmed segments almost looked as though they were home movies At some point, maybe just prior to "Hyperactive!", Thomas put his glasses back on The band members' attire: Chucho in a red shirt and dark pants Justin in a white shirt and shorts Matthew in what looked like a black and white dress (a tunic maybe?) and very tight black pants Debra, Lyndon , and Lesley in black mini-dresses - Lyndon's being like a cocktail waitress style with a full skirt, the others being more like sheaths The lighting was often very subdued and rarely spotlighted Thomas (a touch of modesty perhaps?) ___________________________________________________________________________ _____ Mary A. Brown, Genetic Ingenue | Department of Biochemistry Phone: (606) 257-7349, -7039 | University of Kentucky Fax: (606) 323-1037 | 800 Rose St. E-mail: mabrown@pop.uky.edu | Lexington, KY 40536-0084 "I'm just a slow emotion replay of somebody I used to be" Matt Johnson ___________________________________________________________________________ __ ------------------------------ End of alloy-digest V2 #4 *************************