HW: to the BRIXTON CREW 21/10

[Jon Jarrett]

On Sun, 22 Oct 2000, Filip Vanhuyse wrote:

> Well,I don't agree.
> Actual it was one of the worst I've ever seen and I've seen a LOT.
> Mind though it was FANTASTIC to see all those guys on stage,really orgasmic.
> But it was obvious the rehearsals didn't went on very well.
> What a shit was Hugh LLoyd Langton playing,real bad,and I love the man's
> guitar playing(got all his stuff)
> He completely messed up "Angels Of Death".I saw Dave's look at him while
> playing it and it wasn't a pleasant one.
> I saw Dave nodding his head and blowing steam of after the song.

        Huw was pretty bad. He picked up a little towards the end of
the evening but even so. And his singing - worse than the guitar playing,
worse even than Tim's singimg which I was at least expecting. I wonder
what _was_ up with him. I'd have said too much beer too, but someone has
said otherwise already.

> When they started the show we were sitting on the balcony and the sound was
> very very bad.
> So we went downstairs and the sound was a little better but very flat and no
> power.

        Well, it just wasn't loud enough was it? I had real trouble making
things out, and Kirsten, my well-known other half, swears she couldn't
actually hear *anything* for most of the mock-Space Ritual. She was
reacting oddly to the lights and her hearing's not of the best - but I had
trouble making things out too. And my ears weren't ringing at all when I
left. I realise it's perverse to say you haven't had your money's worth
unless you've had your hearing damaged but even so. It wasn't loud enough.

> Guess they had trouble with all the different lines and microphones.

        I will say this, whenever I noticed someone was low in the mix, by
the time I next remembered to listen out he (or she, not that she was low
exactly) was audible. The soundman was at least trying. Hell of a job,
though.

> Tim Blake was absolutely fabulastic!!! Really made my evening through all
> the songs he played along.

        He barely left the stage, did he? I was watching him from the back
thinking it was Harvey - my eyesight being seemingly poor - he was on
almost everything. And he definitely added to things. His solo set was
rather pretty too. "The, er, _support_ act already played
`Lighthouse'... "

> Also surprise of the day was Steve Swindells,he's got more up his sleeve
> than we all think.

        Hmm, you say. I thought he was lousy personally. He wasn't there
most of the time he was on stage and when he was he was painfully
gauche. The bridge of `Sputnik Stan' was the worst, with Alan hopping up
and down to try and keep him in time. I don't rate Mr. Swindells at all
and I saw nothing to change my views.

> Furthermore the solo spot from Dave wasn't that good in my opinion.And I'm
> the man who once said to Dave he could let a fart and record it,I would buy
> it anyway.

        I agree, and there's no more to say really except that I would
probably not buy that, since there would be other things that would get
the money first.

> Also don't think this will be an annual event as Nik Turner pointed out at
> the end of the evening.

        Nik had already told us it was going to happen in March, after
all.

> Dave is too much a perfectionist to let that happen again.
> Don't think there will be a live-cd too as too much went wrong.The Hawks
> recorded the AB in Brussels some years ago
> and they weren't perfect to Dave's standards,so they didn't release it,as
> was the intention (a few songs were released on the cd:"In Your Area") and
> that was a HELL of a gig (as I previosly mentioned).Or they have to do major
> reconstruction and editing.

        This is very true. Though it would be lovely to have a video and
CD package of the whole event just so we could work out what we saw, some
of it was just unreleasable. Only being there made it worthwhile. I doubt
we'll get Huw's bit or that `Master of the Universe', and I think an
otherwise excellent `Sputnik Stan' will get the chop for that appalingly
badly-timed keys break. 3/4 of it might survive though.

        Dpn't get me wrong, I had a whale of a time and I wouldn't have
missed it for the world. Some of it wasn't very good, but the parts that
were incredibly unbelievable made up for it and then a few
galaxies. Yours,
                 Jon

--
     Jon Jarrett (01223 514989)       jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
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        "There's nothin' more dangerous than a wounded mosquito."