From: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org (avalon-digest) To: avalon-digest@smoe.org Subject: avalon-digest V15 #136 Reply-To: avalon@smoe.org Sender: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-avalon-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk avalon-digest Monday, July 11 2011 Volume 15 : Number 136 Today's Subjects: ----------------- Re: [AVALON] King of Kewl again... [Chris Cassidy ] [AVALON] Review from Nathan Aged 8 [Jocelynfiske@aol.com] [AVALON] King of Kew ["Mark Longhorn" ] Re: [AVALON] Review from Nathan Aged 8 ["K B Porter" ] [AVALON] John Punter: From producer to publican, this little piggy came all the way home [Gerard York Subject: Re: [AVALON] King of Kewl again... It was a very good show and set. I took a friend for her first Ferry experience and she was amazed how good he was. Jorja was excellent. What happened to Jeff Thall - that was a major disappointment? All in all a great night. He was understandably knackered at the end as were the band. Chris ________________________________ From: "kwil632057@aol.com" To: avalon@smoe.org Sent: Sunday, 10 July, 2011 1:00:12 Subject: [AVALON] King of Kewl again... What a difference a night makes. Tonight's show at Kew gardens tonight was far and away the best Bryan Ferry concert I've seen to date. He was clearly on form from the start, the band played their hearts out and we were even treated to a stunning version of Reason or Rhyme mid-set . It was the most playful I've ever seen him, as he fed off the crowds enthusiasm. Spellbinding would be my one word description. The only minuses were What Goes On being clipped at the end (Ferry clearly wanted the song to carry on, the band had other ideas) and the oddly abrupt climax at the end of the show (I guess I'm used to the slow For Your Pleasure send off). Great to see him not relying on the backing singers too much and singing the songs himself. Also, I love the on stage dynamic of the Amazonian sax symbol Jorja Chalmers coming to the front alongside Ferry for LST. It's a great and very cool look. Did anyone get pictures? Stunned, amazed and very happy, J ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:37:54 -0400 From: "K B Porter" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Re: clapping R Deagle recently asked: "Uh... Is this really Merlin Ferry guitarist for/as Voltorb? Must have been years in the making. Glad to see on expense was spared on the production. http://pallettownhero.bandcamp.com/track/voltorb " Maybe so. In checking it out, I found this fairly new article: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1388974/Bryan-Ferry-s-son-makes-mockery-law-let-carrying-combat-knife-campus.html ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 12:56:01 EDT From: Jocelynfiske@aol.com Subject: [AVALON] Review from Nathan Aged 8 On the back of Chris reporting that his first-time-viewing-Ferry date was impressed at Kew last night, I thought Ibd bring you a review from Nathan aged 8 who was next to us at the front. Now bearing in mind his age and his height (just scrapping the top of the barrier) and the fact that this is not verbatim just from memory, this is what Nathan had to say. bMummy wanted to drag me to Kew to see a man called Bryan Ferry. Then she dumped me to lie on a tartan travel rug with Uncle Hugo and drink Pimms. Itb s OK, I go to boarding school so Ibm used to looking after myself. So I came down to the front to look up Sophie Ellis Bexterbs skirt. She is very pretty. Then the man called Bryan Ferry came on and I was really surprised because I know all his songs and really like them b I just didnbt know that he looked like that. He played a very good song to start about spells. It was easy to drum along very loudly on the barrier. Then he did some other songs which were very good too. The big people around me were being very loud but I think that was because they came from the north. Then Bryan Ferry played What Goes On which is my favourite. Mummy says itbs about being menopausal, but I know it is about heroin because the drug dealers at our school gates told us. I think Bryan Ferry also liked this song very much because it went on for a long time and he nearly fell off the end of the stage. Then he playedb&.umb&b&.b I think this might have been Avalon, when Nathan spent most of the song with his finger planted firmly up his nose. bThen Bryan Ferry played a song about his dog because he kept whistling for him. If I get a dog Ibd like to call it Jelly Eye too. Thatbs a funny name for a dog. But then Bryan Ferry got scared by all the bangs and ran off. But it wasnbt a drive-by, it was just fireworks. The Endb Well, there you have it b out of the mouths of babes. For the grown ups, it was one of the best Ferry solo concerts ever, totally unexpected. It was just one of those nights when happily, Ferry was bonb, the audience was bon b and the band were totally into it. Jerry Mehan was immense and there was a surprise appearance from Neil bOld Motherb Hubbard. But Ollie was wearing the white sparkly shirt, which I believe is the guitaristbs version of the Yellow Jersey. The big hits of the evening were the start of Reason Or Rhyme which was almost just Ferry and piano (it lost it when the barrage of guitars came in and drowned the delicacy), Alphaville, Sign Of The Times and most definitely What Goes On, which took me personally back to the feel of the In Your Mind tour (Speddingbs last night). I must also mention that the ever so pale, doll-like Sophie Ellis Bexter was a great support b and I never thought Ibd ever say that! Fab to meet you at last Terry and sorry I missed you Chris. Grab a ticket for a town near you everyone and pray for a repeat performance. J P.S. Nathan has now been taken into care. ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:26:06 +0100 From: "Mark Longhorn" Subject: [AVALON] King of Kew If anyone happened to record the event, I'd love to hear from them offlist- it sounded great! Mactheaxe ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 13:20:27 -0400 From: "K B Porter" Subject: Re: [AVALON] Review from Nathan Aged 8 LOL! Nathan's the new cool... Love the reviews. You guys are soooo lucky. Hope BF et al remain in top form, especially in Maryland, where we will be merry. Thanks. KBP ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 11:20:37 -0700 (PDT) From: taxi2hb Subject: [AVALON] South Downs South Downs (Johnson Somerset Mix) http://soundcloud.com/bryanferb ry/south-downs-johnson-somerseb t ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 20:19:38 -0400 From: Gerard York Subject: [AVALON] John Punter: From producer to publican, this little piggy came all the way home http://www.mykawartha.com/localprofile/article/1038856--primetime-john-punter ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 00:46:28 +0000 From: helen@triffidbait.ca Subject: Re: [AVALON] John Punter: From producer to publican, this little piggy came all the way home And its a nice pub, too. Been there twice when visiting friends in the area. And I've never gotten up the nerve to get chatting with my favourite producer. - ------Original Message------ From: Gerard York Sender: owner-avalon@smoe.org To: Avalon List To: Procol Yahoo To: Beanstalk Subject: [AVALON] John Punter: From producer to publican, this little piggy came all the way home Sent: Jul 10, 2011 8:19 PM http://www.mykawartha.com/localprofile/article/1038856--primetime-john-punter ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon "Sent from my highly addictive gizmo" ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Sun, 10 Jul 2011 18:31:52 -0700 (PDT) From: Victor Hastings Subject: Re: [AVALON] Review from Nathan Aged 8 Jocelyn, I almost dampened my armor reading your review! ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 11 Jul 2011 07:51:07 +0000 From: Andrew Shearer Subject: RE: [AVALON] King of Kewl again... SPOILER ALERT!!! I'm not sure I can add much to what has already been written about the Kew Gardens' gig. Perhaps I can add my bit of colour. I'm also surprised to find myself saying how good Sophie Ellis Bextor (SEB) was though I thought the mix seemed to do her voice a disservice as for much of her performance you couldn't hear her over the band. What really did surprise me however was her audience interaction and I think a small part of the success of the whole evening may be down to her getting the audience dancing from an early stage. Funny Moment of the evening No1: SEB was telling of how that afternoon she had done the "tree top walk" at Kew Gardens: one of our Avalon tribe shouts out: "Not in that dress, you didn't!" And then to BF. If you've read any of my previous posts you'll be unsurprised perhaps to learn that my expectations weren't high. Kew Garden's was a last minute purchase thanks to Roxyrama saying more tickets had recently been put on sale. I'd just finished a major piece of work, the ticket price was reasonable and I thought I'd treat myself. As the ticket was "unreserved", I expected to be way back in the crowd and not against the stage as I was (no blagging involved) with my Avalonian friends, some of whom perhaps I hadn't seen for ten years. So with this and already having had a very pleasant bbq with friends in the afternoon, the evening was looking good. It was a bit of surprise and pleasing to see Neil Hubbard walk on stage. He must surely have been passed BF's Dorian Grey picture because he doesn't seem to have aged since I last saw him on the Mamouna Tour of 93. Hubbard was stage left alongside Ollie Thompson, and I'm not sure I saw a single glance exchanged between the two. Of course I could be wrong but I got the impression Thompson was thinking "WTF are you doing here?" Much has been said of Thompson being great and indeed he is. As Jocelyn says, perhaps he has been given the "yellow jersey". He does look like he might be a star in the making but I also got the impression that perhaps he's started to believe that too much and fear it might be his undoing. I Put A Spell On You for me will always be remembered on the Mamouna tour (93) as a highlight and subsequently very difficult to match. Then I was on row 4 of the Hammersmith Apollo and had never been so close to the stage. During the song Ferry would sprinkle glitter towards the audience. It was all very cool and exciting. And sure enough though I enjoyed seeing the band coming on stage and starting to play on Saturday it didn't quite match that halcyon memory of 93. And I think I felt that for the first 6 songs (IPSOY; STL;DSTD;TTB;ITIS;MYFML) it was all good but didn't feel great. I've seen elsewhere others saying how good Make You Feel My Love was. For me it doesn't work. Perhaps it would be better with fewer players on it and stripped back, perhaps like the start of the Frantic tour, when it seemed like there was a prologue of two or three songs with Ferry and piano or guitar only. If he could do something like Adele's performance at the Brit's (of a different song) then it could work. But talking of Adele, she has almost made MYFML her own and I suspect his version will almost always be unfavourably compared to hers. It's interesting watching the players when the spotlight is not on them and during the first six songs Andy Newmark was the main drummer and Tara just didn't seem to know what he was doing. He looked like he was looking across the stage for guidance from Colin Good or Andy Newmark as if to ask: "Which one shall I hit and when?". I'm also sure at one point he looked like he was texting on his phone and then had a conversation with Simon Willey: all I felt were a bit disrespectful to the other players. And then it came to You Can Dance and Tara took charge of the drumming and Andy Newmark I swear to God had the look of dog who had been left at home. (And I have to say, Tara seemed quite good on the drums - but I still don't understand the necessity to have two drummers). There is no one more surprised than me when I say it was at this point that for me the gig really took off. You Can Dance was really rocking and Alphaville, again, I was surprised how well it translated to the stage. Reason or Rhyme for me didn't work. I think it's a great song but I agree with Jocelyn it's weighed down by the players too much and I reckon would be fantastic as one of those "prologue" songs with him just at the piano. Or perhaps as he did in 2000, with the Only Face just before (or was it after?) he went for a "comfort" break. And then, I do think, I shed a tear, when Sign of the Times came on, one of my favourite BF songs that I'd never heard live and it was a fantastic rocking version, perhaps the highlight for me of the concert. I've got work to do so I'm going to have to finish there but suffice it say that I had a great time (another highlight - What Goes On) and I was pleased I went. Time and money well spent indeed. Oh Funny Moment of the evening No.2. Perhaps inspired by SEB's audience interaction, from behind the piano BF spoke of the lovely surroundings of Kew Gardens and then tried to cajole the audience into supporting the Gardens' charity. In this situation you normally get some sort of cheer in support but hardly a whimper was heard. It was quite funny, but even more endearing was Ferry laughing at himself and his failure to get a response from the audience. I'm only glad he didn't start talking about doing the "tree top walk". Bye for now. Andrew www.andrewshearer.com Twitter & Facebook: @shearermusic > To: avalon@smoe.org > Subject: [AVALON] King of Kewl again... > From: kwil632057@aol.com > Date: Sat, 9 Jul 2011 20:00:12 -0400 > > What a difference a night makes. > > Tonight's show at Kew gardens tonight was far and away the best Bryan > Ferry concert I've seen to date. He was clearly on form from the start, > the band played their hearts out and we were even treated to a stunning > version of Reason or Rhyme mid-set . It was the most playful I've ever > seen him, as he fed off the crowds enthusiasm. Spellbinding would be my > one word description. > > The only minuses were What Goes On being clipped at the end (Ferry > clearly wanted the song to carry on, the band had other ideas) and the > oddly abrupt climax at the end of the show (I guess I'm used to the > slow For Your Pleasure send off). > > Great to see him not relying on the backing singers too much and > singing the songs himself. Also, I love the on stage dynamic of the > Amazonian sax symbol Jorja Chalmers coming to the front alongside Ferry > for LST. It's a great and very cool look. Did anyone get pictures? > > Stunned, amazed and very happy, > > J > > > ___________________________________________________________________________ > To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ___________________________________________________________________________ To unsubscribe, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: unsubscribe avalon ------------------------------ End of avalon-digest V15 #136 ***************************** ======================================================================== For further info, mail majordomo@smoe.org with: info avalon-digest