Customer Reviews

Theatre Royal Drury Lane

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

As the ongoing prog revival digs deeper and deeper into the ephemera and effluvia, mining for diamonds, occasionally a true gem emerges. The RW&F concert, oft bootlegged, may be familiar to serious fans but I guarantee you've never heard it like THIS before! This is apparently a soundboard recording, clear and up close and wonderfully captured for the first time ever. Gee, and it only took 31 years....

Wyatt of course is a legend in his own lunchtime, but his "friends" here deserve mention too, from keyboardist Dave Stewart (Egg, Hatfield, National Health), Hugh Hopper (Soft Machine), Fred Frith (Henry Cow), Mongezi Feza, Laurie Allan, Mike Oldfield, Gary Windo, Julie Tippets, Ivor Cutler, Nick Mason... Would anybody BELIEVE this lineup if the evidence wasn't right here in front of us???

The featured songs are mostly from Wyatt's "Rock Bottom" album (a classic BTW) with a few Matching Mole and Softs and misc others. Hearing them played (REALLY hearing them played) by this band is an unbelievable treat.

Thanks Robert for making these available!

OK, even if you have the bootleg that has been floating around for some time now, you still need this CD, at least for the cover art, personnel listings, and the fact the Mr. Wyatt gets paid something. If you don't have the bootleg, you doubly need it. Why? The music. He and a ensemble of highly sympathetic musicians play the whole of Rock Bottom and then some. The first time I listened to it, I wondered who the drummer was, as he was sounding pretty good. It's none other than Nick Mason sounding much jazzier than Pink Floyd ever let him be. The fantastic South African trumpeter Mongezi Fezi is there as is also Gary Windo on sax. And we even have the BBC's John Peel doing the introduction. So, Robert Wyatt fans, pony up on this one.

Well, what should I say about this unique record...??? Great edition and (finally) decent sound of a superb sunday concert, the 8th of September of 1974...laughs and sounds, keyboards breathing and Robert Wyatt mouth's saxophone, great musicians all together reunited to only give pleasure!! Sometimes there's a melancholic side between anger and desillusion, but at the end remains the MAGIC... and Julie Tippets giving us an astonishing solo moment (Mind Of A Child) with her remarkable voice (have they forget her today?) and everyone's in the right place!!
A Great document!! Long live Robert Wyatt!!! Julie too!!

This presentation of Robert Wyatt's 1974 concert, which is basically his live version of Rock Bottom, is a touching and poinent experiance. This is not too long after his paralsys, and Wyatt's gang of Cantaberry join this wonderful bugger to help him mount one hell of a show.

At one point, Wyatt talks about one of the band helping him adjust his keyboard so he could preform. In 1974, there was almost no adaptive equiptment for people with disabilities. Things were very different than today. People like Wyatt were thought of as pity cases. Wyatt, in his matter-of-fact referances to his state, deflates this garbage, and the music proves him the master he is.

More small messages on this topic are herein: the album starts with an announcer joking that the band is sober, unable to get into the bar backstage. Wyatt was paralyzed from a drunken window fall. The alcohol jokes take on a black humor. So does the cover, which fetures Wyatt with an innane pair of toy legs. He also mentions the person adjusting his keyboard screwed up his thumb, and now HE is playing disabled. The jokes here are revealing and reassuring: despite what has happened, we can joke about it. Everything is alright.

I have to digress. I have Cerebral Palsy. Wyatt's way of referring to his disability so we can FORGET IT is right in line with the way I live, and it works. It is the way to be, and with luck, you can get very good at it.

ENOUGH OF THAT! Like Wyatt, I am here for the music, so let's cut the bollocks and get down to it.

This is glorious jazz rock, with shimmering and shining 1970s Fender Keybords, trumpets, violins, and many other wonderful and warm sounds. This is not the dada of Soft Mahcine, but finely written music in which the master and his crew can exploit both compositional and improvising skills. There is tons of beatuful soloing on here, and it absolutely has the reflex of free jazz. But it is in the contex of impecable compositions. Wyatt writes ballads and meloncholly pieces, but his use of chord progressions is so unique, you feel you are listening to music from another world. Wyatt's world.

But a question does arise? Any fan of Rock Bottom--and any music fan in his right mind should be--knows on the studio album, the tracks segue into a seemless concept piece. It is a perfect play on Wyatt's experiance. Here, the tracks are divided. This is not without merit: having Wyatt's monolauges interspursed creates the warm family affair atmosphere this concert feels like it was. But musically, it works better when the tracks glide together; it is like a graceful movie. Given the choice, however, I like the almost "hanging with friends" feeling this show offers.

Whatever the case, do not miss this album.

Robert Wyatt has had some great friends over the years. His all-solo projects (such as "Old Rottenhat") are always special, but I've always preferred his recordings with like-minded and creative colleagues. "Shleep," the recent "comicopera" and this sterling live set are fine examples of his collaborative work. These recordings have both warmth and intensity, and Wyatt is inspired to great heights by his cohorts.

It's been said over and over, but "Rock Bottom," RW's 1974 LP, is one of the most moving and personal records in all of "pop" music. What a treat it is to hear the entire album on this live recording, with some fairly wild avant-garde blowing pushing the seemingly mellow music to its breaking point. The studio version of "Rock Bottom" is, for the most part, moody, introspective, and haunting. The live performances here are passionate and intense. The other tracks are also very fine, ranging from a brief, deconstructed "Dedicated To You But You Weren't Listening" to the touching Julie Tippetts vocal feature, "Mind Of A Child." All fans of Wyatt and beautiful, quirky, jazz-inflected art-pop will want to pick up this disc.

Is this the place to start with Robert Wyatt? Probably not but then again where do you start? Early Soft Machine? Matching Mole? The solo albums? If the latter which one? Maybe with Mr. Wyatt it's just best to dive in anywhere so why not here? Just make sure you have open ears - top 40 this isn't! What it is though is captivating, progressive, brave, uncompromising, beautiful in parts, mysterious, challenging, engaging and rewarding - and that goes for all the projects, not just this 1974 performance from the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. If this and other reviews make you feel a bit curious but also nervous, head for 'Shleep' and ease your way into his oeuvre backwards. Either way you'll be discovering one of the genii of English music, an individual talent as multifarious and unique as anything in modern music.

IT'S NOT VERY OFTEN THAT I BUY A DUD, BUT THIS WAS ONE!!
I LOVE MUSIC(EVERYTHING FROM RUSH TO MOZART)THIS WAS
AN INCOHERENT MESS!! IF I WERE IVOR CUTLER OR NICK MASON,
I WOULD'NT WANT MY NAME ON IT! 1 STAR IS TO MANY!!
GOOD LUCK TO ANY ONE WHO TRYS THIS ONE!!