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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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| JOHN
OTWAY AND THE BIG BAND, Half Moon, Putney,
London, January 14th 2006
It’s
winter quiet in January London at the moment.
Curtains are drawn early in the afternoon, electric
light-bulbs shimmer, families huddle round glowing
radiators snacking on Christmas surely-past-their-use-by-date
leftovers, and entertainment seems largely to
be provided by North London’s European football
team and Celebrity Big Brother. |
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| In
case you don’t know Serge, that’s a
TV programme (remember – the box in the corner?)
where run of the mill celebrities like superannuated
rock stars, end of the pier comedians, forgotten
actors and the odd Member of Parliament sit around
in a house making fools of themselves for the sake
of a nation’s entertainment (perhaps Gordon
Brown will make us all watch it as part of the new
British Day celebrations). Personally I don’t
get it, but I’m told it’s a fine way
of passing the time if you’ve no money, and
no where to go. And gigs are certainly thin on the
ground at the moment. But by way of avoiding the
telly, or worse, we wandered south of the river
on Saturday to Putney to see Whiskyfun’s old
chum, and Rock and Roll’s self declared ‘Greatest
Failure’ John
Otway and his Big Band (all five of
them). |
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| Not
that I thought I would have much to say about this
highly entertaining and amiable eccentric (with
an appearance that gets more like the late Michael
Hordern playing a demented public-school chemistry
teacher every time I see him) that I didn’t
say when I reviewed him back in 2004. To be sure
the set was almost identical, although we did get
a couple of additional numbers from his 2005 album
Ot-air, including ‘Rumplestiltskin’
and ‘International dateline’. |
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The
band (Richard Holgarth, lead guitar; Murray Torkilsden,
rhythm guitar; Seymour, bass guitar; and Adam Batterbee
on drums) was as tightly inept as Otway deserved,
with Richard Holgarth ( a sometime Hot Rod with
Eddie) in outstanding form with his School of Rock
Gibson SG. It also featured Otway collaborator,
writer and producer Barry Upton, on keyboards and
guitars, whose perma suntan is no doubt more the
result of his work with Cheeky Girls and million
sellers Steps than with Otway. |
| So
I stood there enjoying my beer and Otway’s
infectious buffoonery whilst the Photographer played
with the new Whiskyfun camera. And a thought came
into my mind, which was that quite possibly there
was more depth, and more danger, to Mr Otway than
might at first meet the eye. Think of it this way
– we’re told that it’s the youth
who challenge the status quo in the music business,
and I guess the latest example would be the Arctic
Monkeys. But in fact for all the fuss and nonsense
about ‘democratisation’ of the music
industry through the influence of websites such
as myspace, the band are being so hyped by ‘the
business’ that it’s hard to tell them
apart from anyone else (think of that famous moment
in the final paragraph of Animal Farm), and like
all the other brave new things before them they
seem to be careering happily into the open arms
of the music establishment. But not Otway. He subverts
the very concept of fame. He subverts the conventional
business constructs that support the music industry
(don’t believe me? Then have a look at his
planned World Tour). And he even subverts the structure
of the song (‘House of the rising sun’).
Most of all he subverts the notion, commonly held
amongst young folk, that 54 year olds should know
better. |
| So
what better way to start a musical year than with
a performer who turns the musical world (and it
should be said, himself) upside down? A musical
year, I observe, that promises a mixture of something
old, something new, something borrowed, and quite
possibly something blue – and all of that
before the end of April. And if it delivers only
half the entertainment that Mr Otway produces, then
I can tell you now that we’re all in for some
good whiskymusicfun. Oh yes, and if you do only
one thing this year, then please go and see Otway.
You won’t regret it. - Nick Morgan
(concert photos by Kate). |
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the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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