Turn the Lights Down!-Live in London [Import]

Kevin Ayers | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (February 21, 2006)
• Original Release Date: 2006
• Number of Discs: 1
• Format: Import
• Label: Market Square UK
• ASIN: B00004R64O
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #113,354 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Editorial Reviews

This important Market Square release documents a complete live set from March 10, 1995 when Kevin toured with Liverpool's Wizards of Twiddly. It marked the return of Ayers to a band format after a period of semi-acoustic solo and duo work. The Wizards, with their hybrid of rock and brass instruments, offered the rich canvas against which Kevin Ayers could stretch out. The gig captured here fills in a missing piece of the Kevin Ayers jigsaw. It was the final night of the first UK tour with the Wizards and it is imbued with a rare ambience and energy. 2000.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars one splendid London evening, December 19, 2007

By 

Bazarov (Amsterdam, Holland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Turn the Lights Down!-Live in London (Audio CD)

Okay, listen, you won't be reading this unless you know Kevin Ayers. And if you know the man, you will have been loving him for many years. No need, therefore, to introduce him or the oh so familiar songs on this live album - just look at the tracklist and gasp excitedly.
What I do need to tell you is that you'll never find a more honest concert recording than Turn the Lights Down. It's all there: Ayers mumbling between songs; Ayers making a false start or two; Ayers continually asking, as is his wont, for the lights to be turned down, until almost every light is turned off; and then Ayers asking for a large brandy. But also Ayers being on top form, and Ayers with arguably the best band he has ever performed with.
The man has always surrounded himself with abundantly talented musicians, in the studio and on stage. I remember seeing him in the Paradiso with the late great and truly magnificent Ollie Halsall, when the sound system broke down and Halsall's amp was the only one left working, an opportunity for him to play the intro to May I for almost half an hour. Magic. Bliss.
But these Wizards of Twiddly... according to the liner notes they went out of existence a decade ago, and since I've just ordered the last remaining copy of their only album (Mad Made Self from 1994), Turn the Lights Down will be your only chance to get a taste of this brilliant, soulful and smoking rock/acid jazz fivesome - distant cousins of The Lounge Lizards, if that name rings a bell, which it should. Don't miss that chance, and be rewarded with a full hour of unadulterated fun, right down to the swingiest rendition ever of Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes.