HW: (off) Litmus at the Bull and Gate - January 25th

[trev]

if only it was only the doors which were busted off...windows...most of the 
fixtures and fittings...not to mention the casualties...oh rock and roll you 
have much to answer for...ghasp!


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Jonathan Jarrett" <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Friday, February 15, 2008 9:49 AM
Subject: Re: HW: (off) Litmus at the Bull and Gate - January 25th


> On Mon, Jan 21, 2008 at 04:06:47PM -0000, trev typed out:
>> Naaaaa John, I doubt very much if anyone will be there....you see, Judge
>> Trev and Kev Ellis are gigging at the Horse and Groom, Islingword Road,
>> Brighton on the same night AGAIN.
>>
>> This happened before..a couple of months ago and while we pulled an
>> audience of between 4-5 thousand, Litmus did manage to pull 2 passers by 
>> in
>> because they were drunk.
>
> You must have bust the doors of your venue off, then, because
> Litmus had pleasantly close to a full house.
>
> I was trying to do too many things with the night, and only
> arrived at about nine, by which time, I soon learnt, that they had been
> playing for about an hour and had broken the snare drum. It didn't seem
> to slow them down; Marek was using an extra tom for the time being and
> it gave his drums a very martial sort of crack. The replacement snare,
> when Colin bravely fetched it, wasn't quite as distinctive.
>
> The band had kept most of their new material for the second half
> of the set, so other than one of the best versions of `Under the Sign' I
> can remember (though, it must be admitted, I was already cheerfully
> drunk and probably more forgiving than usual) I mostly saw songs I
> didn't know. I did however steal the set-list off the stage (no-one
> seemed to want it) so can tell you that the whole thing went:
>
> Temple
> Twinstar
> Earthbound
> Evil
> You Are Here
> Infinity Drive
> Dreams of Space
> Sonic Light
> (Theta Wave) Inductor
> Mothership
> Tempest
> Under the Sign
> Helios
> Astronomy Domine
> Kings of Infinite Space
> `Masson Riff'
> Endless Skies
> Right Stuff
> Hero With a Wing
> Ejection
>
> I came in mid-way through `Tempest', and so there was an awful
> lot that I missed which I'd rather not have, but what I saw was between
> good and absolutely bloody electric. In particular, the `Astronomy
> Domine', which I'd have thought the lack of a keyboardist (still) would
> prevent, was downright head-melting, and Simon's guitar work deserves
> maximum credit for his effectively taking up the space of two
> instruments without resorting to widdling. Martin was in fact playing a
> keyboard, set up in the dark behind Anton, during `Helios', and I
> thought that was a good (if slightly HW!) compromise, which might let
> them resurrect `Planetfall' (though I guess Simon might have to take the
> keyboard part) and maybe other things. Otherwise, the final triplet was
> complete fan service really, but I never ever expected to see `Hero With
> a Wing' done live, and I'm not sure it can be done as anything more than
> a special treat for people who know the Captain Lockheed album
> backwards, but on that level it was very rewarding.
>
> The new stuff, despite my forgiving mood, didn't grab me as much
> as it might have; `Kings of Infinite Space' could teeter towards being a
> "power ballad" like `Lost Stations' or it could become an epic
> piledriver and I don't think this is worked out yet. The thing on the
> set-list as `Masson Riff', which I'm guessing won't be its final title,
> is really quite a lot like a second take at `(Theta Wave) Inductor',
> which keeps me happy as a concert-goer but doesn't really stand out as
> new development of the genre. It's probably the best new thing that I
> saw, however, and it would be unfair to say there's not good stuff in
> the brew; it's just not as shockingly brilliant as `Mothership' and
> `Under the Sign' and indeed `Far Beyond' were when I first heard them. I
> hope there is stuff like that to come though, and on the showing of this
> gig I'll certainly be out the front waiting for it to hit me.
>
>> why why oh why does their manager "Colin of the Yamato" (who is also a
>> traitor to the empire) repeatedly ensure that their gigs are completely
>> empty because they coincide with the magnificent performances of the 
>> mighty
>> Judge Trev.
>
> Well *quite*. How are they supposed to turn up and worship,
> after all?
>
>> You see, they are far too young to have any sex appeal like wot i ave - 
>> an
>> essential in the space rock community...cough!
>>
>> jt (57)
>>
>> THE BUS PASS COMETH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
>
> May it be like the gasman, ever threatened but never actually
> present, yours,
> Jon
>
> -- 
> "When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
>     (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
> Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
>