Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Here we are in our summer years, living on ice cream and chocolate kisses
You will have to forgive me. I'm a little deaf and horse, my throat is dry and full of second hand smoke and sweat, due to singing shouting and having a great time. Yes I've been to a Billy Bragg gig....
The music of Billy Bragg is one of my continuing passions. I mentioned in one of my previous Billy Bragg (BB) gigs, the infamous one at Manchester Poly, where I got bounced around like a billiard ball. There have been many other great BB nights, and tonight was one of them. It is a tribal gathering, we share a common heritage, language and usually the same (left wing) world view. We have grown old together, although tonight there were a lot of young people (compared to a middle aged man like me). BB was touring to support anti racist activities, as well as to plug his new book, and to have a great time. I have never left a BB gig feeling dissapointed, and tonight was no exception.
Billy Bragg is like Bob Dylan, a fantastically gifted songwriter, with only a fair to middling voice. He is however many many times better as a live performer than Dylan. I have seen Dylan twice and will not see him again. Dylan is variable, the last time he played in my city he sang all of his songs at 150mph as if he wanted the whole evening to be over as fast as possible
BB's audience is a bit obsessive. You find yourself surronded by driven men in NHS glasses who know ALL of the words to all of the songs. There is great cudos in being one step ahead of the gang, and thanks to having a broadband connection and the wonder that is google mail, who trawl the world of webs and blogs for BB related material I picked up mp3's from one of his American concerts.
As for the minutia of set lists, etc, who played what and when, I'll leave that to truly obsessed. Suffice to say he played all of the popular songs, and a few new ones. The title to this blog is a BB quote from a song called Shirley "here we are in our summer years, living on ice cream and chocolate kisses, and would the leaves fall from the trees, if I was your old man, and you were my missus". You've got to love someone who can write a phrase like that!
Which brings me onto my final point. Why do tall guys like to stand at the front at concerts? Its the same at football matches. The guys who consistently stand up at the football (and who are the most vocal and nostalgic about terraces) are usually over 6 feet tall. Answers please to the usual address
The music of Billy Bragg is one of my continuing passions. I mentioned in one of my previous Billy Bragg (BB) gigs, the infamous one at Manchester Poly, where I got bounced around like a billiard ball. There have been many other great BB nights, and tonight was one of them. It is a tribal gathering, we share a common heritage, language and usually the same (left wing) world view. We have grown old together, although tonight there were a lot of young people (compared to a middle aged man like me). BB was touring to support anti racist activities, as well as to plug his new book, and to have a great time. I have never left a BB gig feeling dissapointed, and tonight was no exception.
Billy Bragg is like Bob Dylan, a fantastically gifted songwriter, with only a fair to middling voice. He is however many many times better as a live performer than Dylan. I have seen Dylan twice and will not see him again. Dylan is variable, the last time he played in my city he sang all of his songs at 150mph as if he wanted the whole evening to be over as fast as possible
BB's audience is a bit obsessive. You find yourself surronded by driven men in NHS glasses who know ALL of the words to all of the songs. There is great cudos in being one step ahead of the gang, and thanks to having a broadband connection and the wonder that is google mail, who trawl the world of webs and blogs for BB related material I picked up mp3's from one of his American concerts.
As for the minutia of set lists, etc, who played what and when, I'll leave that to truly obsessed. Suffice to say he played all of the popular songs, and a few new ones. The title to this blog is a BB quote from a song called Shirley "here we are in our summer years, living on ice cream and chocolate kisses, and would the leaves fall from the trees, if I was your old man, and you were my missus". You've got to love someone who can write a phrase like that!
Which brings me onto my final point. Why do tall guys like to stand at the front at concerts? Its the same at football matches. The guys who consistently stand up at the football (and who are the most vocal and nostalgic about terraces) are usually over 6 feet tall. Answers please to the usual address
Labels: Billy Bragg, Middle age, standing gigs
# posted by Mark @ 3:29 PM 
