[gig] Marc Almond, Camden Roundhouse, 1st November 2009

It was incredible!  The performance was fantastic and Almond himself comes across as completely lovely. 

I'm not all that familiar with his solo work.  <i>Non Stop Erotic Cabaret</i> is my idea of pop perfection[1], but despite my best intentions I never kept up with him afterwards, though I have heard some of it and have the single of "Jacky" around here somewhere.

The material ranged from upbeat pop numbers to cabaret torch songs.  As you might expect.

This was one of those gigs where not knowing a lot of the material wasn't a problem - the songs are all beautifully crafted and, as mentioned above, the performance was superb.  There was quite a bit of new material that isn't even out yet (which I will be purchasing as soon as it does).  The one that stuck with me had "eyeliner" in the title, and while it's about coming out in the 70s and 80s, it resonates with me because being out as weird in a small town in those days wasn't easy either.  There was a very unexpected cover of David Bowie's The London Boys (a track you have to nerd for Bowie as sadly as I do to even know; it's on the same album as The Laughing Gnome).  I may worship at the alter of Bowie, but I have to say I preferred the Marc Almond version.

The tempo got pretty frantic towards the end and "Jacky" was done at approximately 3 times the recorded speed.  Awesome.

Just when I was thinking that it was all pretty damn perfect even though he hadn't done any Soft Cell numbers, the second-to-last encore was "Say Hello Wave Goodbye".  That's probably on my list of Top 10, or at least Top 20, songs that make me tear up every time I hear it.  And it was live and so moving, even with the audience singing along.

He was on stage for over two hours.  At one stage he was perching on the drum risers and shortly thereafter a chair magically appeared onstage for him, but he didn't end up using it.[2]

I'm so glad I went!  What I get around to doing can be pretty random, and I wouldn't have pegged this as a priority except that I was given 15 minutes to say whether I was in or out (stop sniggering at the back), so I said why not.  Many thanks to zoo_music_girl for arranging it all, especially getting such excellent seats. Isn't it amazing what you can do when you're organised enough to buy tickets as soon as they go on sale.

So.  Um.  Massive back catalogue to get collecting, I think.  Apparently he's planning to do more shows next year.  Must try to pay attention.


[1] I was 12 when it came out.  Even in the land of both kinds of music, Tainted Love was all over the radio and I *loved* that song, but there was no way I could bring an album with that title home at that age.  It wasn't till much later that I got to know the whole thing.  And gosh, it's just possible that not being exposed to "Sex Dwarf" (one of my favourite dance floor tracks to this day) at the age of 12 was a good thing.

[2] Some years ago he was in a really bad motorcycle accident and it looks like his legs still aren't too reliable!

[books 2009] fiction

55. We by Yevgeny Zamyatin

This month's bibliogoths selection.  The mother of all dystopian novels.

Even grimmer than I recalled.  Though, I have to say, New Labour (and to be fair, every government now that we have the surveillance tech)'s wet dream.

Nobody actually liked it, but it did generate a lot of discussion.

56. The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

I've only read two of Waters' books before - Fingersmith, which I love, and The Night Watch, which was technically very good but not really my thing.

This blows both of them (yes, including Fingersmith) out of the water.

It's a departure for Waters.  There are no lesbians.  There is, in fact, no sex.  The narrator is a straight middle-aged man.

Set in 1947, it's the story of the decline of the family in a local Big House and how the local doctor gets sucked into it.  It works equally well as a ghost story or a story of too much isolation leading to descent into madness (no prizes for guessing which interpretation I favour).

I'm completely unable to do it justice - I was glued to it from the first page.

Go. Read. Now.

57.  The Night Sessions by Ken McLeod

My cup runneth over with good things to read!

Obviously, I can't resist a detective novel set in near-future post-apocalyptic (sort of) Edinburgh by an author I already rate highly.  It's a startlingly good mystery, along with the usual mix of interesting (and usually hilarious) ideas that only McLeod can come up with.   As hirez pointed out, McLeod's pretty much alone in having goth and transvestite characters that feel real. 

Again, not doing it justice.  Just go read.

[convergence] dilemma

This will only make sense to Convergence-goers - if you want the back story, read convergence

Do I book a room in the official hotel now, even though we won't be sure for some time whether Jason can come with me or not (or, indeed whether I can make it, but I tend towards the selling-a-kidney end of the spectrum on that subject), book a definitely easily refundable room in one of the alternate hotels, or wait till I get my shit together?  It feels to me like the official hotel will sell out soon.

The big question is, will I be missing out by not staying in the official hotel?  We really felt like we did in Montreal, even though our hotel was about 2 blocks from the official hotel and in fact closer to the venue than the official hotel.

Or should I get my shit together? 

(I'm not even sure if I can book flights yet.)

Should definitely buy event tickets anyhoo.

My colon ties itself in knots every time I think about checking the exchange rate, so I have no idea how relatively rich or poor I am at the moment.

I accept that I will never see the sort of exchange rate like we did last time ever again.  Radio 4 tells me every morning that going to Europe this year is out of the question, though I understand the US rate may have picked up in my favour.

Jeebus.  If I wanted to live in a country with a third-world currency that prevented me ever leaving, I'd still live in Canada where the only other third-world condition I'd have to deal with is the immigration queue at Pearson.