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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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SHARON
SHANNON AND HER BIG BAND WITH CAMILLE O'SULLIVAN
AND SHANE MACGOWAN
The Forum, Kentish Town, London,
April 18th 2009
As
I think you know I was a big fan of Del Shannon
back in the old days, largely because the copy
of ‘Little town flirt’ that a neighbour
gave us was for many years about the only record
we had in the house – even before we had
a Dansette record player. But you could actually
play it with a pin if you spun it on the top of
your finger and listened very closely. Though
‘Flirt’ charted in the UK at number
4, what was of more interest was the remarkably
(even at the time) culturally insensitive B side,
‘The Wamboo’. With lyrics like this: |
Del Shannon |
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Well
way down deep in the Belgian Congo - hey the Congo
Well there's a dance they call the wamboo - hey
the Wamboo
And as they dance they sing this song, wam-boo wam-boo
way, wamboo,
With voodoo drums beating all night long, wam-boo
wam-boo way, wamboo
Wam-boo wam-boo way, wam-boo wam-boo way
Wam-boo wam-boo way-o! |
| Who
really needs peace, love and understanding? Anyway,
we decided to ‘time capsule’ the record
for posterity, and it now lies safely entombed under
concrete in a very secret spot in Oxfordshire. No
doubt it will explain something of the folly of
human civilisation when it’s discovered by
some post-apocalyptic archaeologist. Or maybe not. |
| All
of this might lead you to think that I’m struggling
to say anything much about Sharon
Shannon’s (no relation) performance
at the Forum a couple of weeks ago, which sadly
isn’t far from the truth. It’s not that
I don’t have huge admiration for this genre-defying
performer who, through a variety of imaginative
collaborations, has managed to bring the accordion,
kicking and screaming, into the twentieth century.
And it’s not that she, or her accomplished
band, didn’t perform well, although the almost
painful smile that Ms Shannon had painted on her
face suggested at times that she was playing through
a pain barrier, as if suffering from the accordionists’
version of repetitive strain injury. With her group
taking turns to lead (although frankly I don’t
think we’d really paid our money to hear the
roadie perform his party piece ‘Dancing in
the moonlight’), she conjured up a relaxed
almost ceilidh-like atmosphere on the stage, which
was enjoyed by the crowded balcony, all pints of
Guinness and up for some Saturday night craic, and
by the noisy but frankly half- empty downstairs.
|
Sharon Shannon |
| But
truth is, after a while the songs and tunes tended
to merge together into a sort of Gaelic wallpaper,
and if you nodded off half-way through a song you
could wake thinking that you were trapped in the
living hell of a woollen shop in Oban. |
| So
Ms Shannon’s tactic to break through the tedium
was ‘Special Guests’. Camille
O’Sullivan burst on the stage larger than
life, wearing the sort of short skirt that made
you glad you weren’t at the front of the stage,
and tore into her witty song ‘In these shoes’.
It didn‘t get any better than this, with a
predictable rendition of ‘The port of Amsterdam’
(hammy enough to fill several baguettes) that must
have had poor old Jacques Brel spinning in his grave.
Her version of ‘Don’t think twice it’s
alright’, a difficult enough song to perform
at the best of times, sung from a lyric sheet, was
simply lamentable. |
Shane MacGowan, Camille O’Sullivan,
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| But
it got worse – and I’ll be very honest
and say now that had I known that Shane
MacGowan was the big ‘Special Guest’
I wouldn’t have bought tickets; I’ve
expressed my view on this subject before. He had
a coterie of fans downstairs who could have been
at a bear-baiting, cheering as he staggered onto
the stage clutching a pint glass of vodka. Why people
want to watch someone as ill as MacGowan humiliate
themself in public is beyond me and even if he does
need the money, I question the judgement of anyone
who puts him on stage. He very clearly didn’t
know what day it was, let alone which microphone
to use, and when he poured a pint of beer over himself,
incapable of getting the glass to his lips, we decided
to call it a day and bid our farewell to the not-so-funny
Kentish Town Forum. - Nick Morgan (concert photographs
by Kate) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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