Dag 1084: in the bag

Last night was my first gig since leaving my native Scotland - well ok slight exaggeration, it was my first gig since leaving my 4 year Scottish based contract. The last one was Gary Numan at Glasgow University and as I arrived so early I managed to get a place right at the front and took some pretty decent photos using my phone. The camera on my phone no longer works, but I now have a phone sized 5 mega pixel Canon Ixus so I thought if I can get to the front I will be able to get some even better quality photos. Some of the gigs I go to don't allow photos, but you can often get away with it if its is a big venue and/or large crowd to hide amongst. I thought I should be ok taking photos as I had noticed that the John Cale website had recently asked for people to send in photos they had taken at John Cale gigs so that some could be included in the packaging of the soon to be released live cd pack entitled "John Cale - Circus Live".

So I printed off the instructions on how to get to the leadmill from their website and set off down the M1 in search of junction 33. As I headed up to the roundabout at the end of the parkway I new my instructions. Take the 3rd exit, then turn left at the mini roundabout, then left again and then turn into Leadmill road and there the famous Leadmill will present itself in front of you by means of a glowing red sign - simple.

So I turned left and looked out for this mini roundabout. One didn't appear and After going through a couple of sets of traffic lights I got the feeling that I was heading out of town and had maybe missed it. I turned round and drove back looking for this mini roundabout, but still no joy. I began to think that maybe the directions were out of date. I had now driven past the station twice and the website had also provided instructions on how to get there from the station, but I hadn't bothered to print those out as I wasn't going by train.

So I ended up back at the big roundabout and wondered if maybe I should have taken the next exit which goes into the centre of Sheffield. As I waited at the traffic lights I already knew I was wrong and should have gone back towards the station, but I was committed so 10 minutes later I was back at the big roundabout and heading back to the station. It was now 15 minutes after the doors opened so I just thought I may as well park in the station car park and ask someone. I did this and was at the leadmill front door about 30 seconds later - why didn't I do that first time round?

I handed my ticket in and noticed a sign saying "The Artist has requested that no one smoke during the performance". I guessed Mr Cale must be thinking about his health and not wanting to go the way of Roy Castle. It also meant I had a chance of not going home with clothes stinking of smoke.

Once in the room I noticed that the stage only had a couple of people next to it and they were towards the left side so after depositing my coat I made a b line for the spot right in the middle. The layout seemed to consist of a back row for guitar, drums and bass and then a front spot on one side for when he was playing guitar and a front spot for when he was playing keyboard on the other side, so I was right between the 2 with the drums right in front of me. I had watched the John Cale performance on Jools Holland and had noted that the drummer was pretty good so all in all it was a good spot and I should get some great photos.

Just before 20:00 someone walked onstage to stick down the set lists. These were easily in view of the few people that had now claimed spaces at the front so he asked us not to look. We did as he said, until he had walked of and then all craned our necks to try and get a glimpse.

I couldn't read all the track titles as they were upside down, but I noted that heartbreak hotel was second on the list and quite a few old songs were scattered in there, though I couldn't see any tracks listed from Paris 1919, and a few others I thought he might do didn't seem to be their either.

At the end of the gig I could have got one of these set lists - they were handing them out, but I didn't see the point of getting one, but now I see that if I had got one I could have listed it here. So I'll try and do it from memory and list it further down. I did count them, though, and there were 20 (including 3 for encores).

It began to look like things might be about to start and I heard the sound guy telling the guy that stuck the set lists down that John had decided to swap the order of the first 2 songs. The other guy looked like he was about to go and rip up the first set of sheets, but the sound guy said to just leave it as it was. Then the background music faded and the heavily treated drone of a viola faded in. This went on for some time and then 4 guys walked on the stage and there was John Cale a foot or 2 in front of me. I had first attempted to see John Cale toward the end of the 1970s and although I had a ticket my parents didn't let me go. It had taken me about 25 years to finally get to a John Cale gig.

As soon as he was on stage I thought that he had a certain presence about him that is often present in successful musicians. It made me wonder a bit what it was like being as good as he is, yet be playing in small venues like the leadmill. I also wondered what it was like being in his band - whether he got really mad at them when they made mistakes or not.

They started off with Heartbreak Hotel, as expected, and it was pretty different from any other version I had heard. The vocals were heavily affected and the chorus had oooos instead of the "I could die" line. In al it was pretty tame compared to his original recording of it and very tame compared to the live video I saw where he was pulling up stage tiles as he was singing it.

Then came the second song (that should have been first) and I can't for the life of me remember what it was (why didn't I take one of those stupid set lists). I seem to remember that I enjoyed it more than heartbreak hotel though and thought swapping them round was probably not that good a move.

If I remember correctly it was Helen of Troy next and there followed a number of other tracks from that period.

There was also a selection from Black Acetate and by this point I was really enjoying the music. All the musicians were great, but the drummer was particularly good. I am definitely not a drummer, but there is a style of drumming that I prefer and would play if I could play the drums and John Cale's drummer matched that exactly. I found that even during songs that I didn't know or that were different arrangements I was tapping my hands in the way I would have been playing and it just seemed to match how the drummer was playing - it was quite amazing.

After great renditions of Outta the bag and Perfect there was an acoustic section during which we were invited to eat our sandwiches. For these track the bass player played an electric upright bas and the drummer fixed shakers to his feet and sat on, and played one of those boxes that I had seen used at the Paco De Lucia concert in Edinburgh.

All too soon they began singing choruses of "Goodnight goodnight" at the end of Pablo Picasso (if I remember correctly) and then left the stage.

They came back and plaid Dirty Ass Rock and Roll. This wasn't one of my favourite album tracks, but the live version was great. I expected them to go into the next of the 3 encore tracks (and I think the backing musicians also did), but John Cale signalled for them to leave and I though that might be it, but they did come back on and performed Hush (if I remember correctly) from Black Acetate followed by the song listed on the set list as Chorale. I had never heard this track before, but it was brilliant with some great singing from the whole band and it was a great song to end the show with.

All in all a thoroughly good gig and I ma sure my gig going buddies of the last few years would all have enjoyed it, even if they didn't know any of his stuff already.

So what of these stunning photos that I was expecting to take?

Mr John Cale has left the stage.

Well I usually wait for someone else to take a photo before I do just to see how the land lay first. Near the start of the gig John Cale seemed to have noticed something he didn't like in the audience and one of his security crew went over and made them put their cigarettes out. He then took up a position at the side of the stage and spent the rest of the gig scouring the audience. The first time a flash went off he shone a torch at the offending fan and told him not to do it again, so my camera remained in my pocket until just after the band left for the last time, when I took the above photo just before a heavy black curtain just about knocked me out as it fell to the ground blocking off the stage from view.

As far as the set list goes, so far I have remembered the following songs and they were roughly in this order. If you were there and can add any of the missing songs or correct the order please leave a comment.

The set list as far as I can remember:

Heartbreak Hotel
Can’t remember, but I think it is from Black Acetate
Helen of Troy
You know more that I know
Sold Motel
Big White Cloud
Outta the bag
Perfect
New Song

Ship of fools
Save us
Pablo Picasso

DirtyAss rock and roll
Hush
Chorale


The concert finished pretty early (around 21:45) so I had time to collect a chicken fried rice from Knaresborough on the way home. My plan was to have a vodka and sprite and eat it watching Jonathan Creek just like in the old days. It almost went to plan, but I had no sprite so I had to have my Absolut vodka with coke, and it just doesn't taste as good. Also the chicken fried rice wasn't very nice so I only ate half of it.