this and that

[amck@eden.com (Alan McKendree)]

Hello all,

Back from a vacation which included a Who-oriented week in London.

The Twelve Bar Club was tiny!  Capacity of no more than 150 in the main
performance area.  There was an adjoining barroom from which one could hear
but not see well.  The doors to the alley were swung open for ventilation
and more audience gathered out there.  The show really kicked into gear
when Simon went electric and Ben got on the drum kit.  Sadly, Tony Lowe's
mother had died that day so he had to miss the show.  Lindsay did a good
job of simulating a bass on keyboards.

I saw Wembley from the fifth row, about two seats house-left of John.
Sound was great.  As Mark T mentioned, the stewards were very hard-nosed,
making everyone stand at their seats, no flowing out into the aisle.
Happily, during the encores I spotted an abandoned seat third row
dead-center and got it.

P J Proby knocked me out by singing an almost flawless performance at
Wembley!  Look, I don't ask much.  I only want the singing to be on the
beat and on the note (Gary Glitter never _did_ get the "on the beat" part,
yet I forgave him), but P J didn't come close to either of those things at
the Earl's Court shows.  Apparently his practicing has paid off, because he
was hitting the notes spot on, and only screwed up coming in on the beat
one time.  With this show he went from being a painful embarrassment to a
legitimate member of the cast.  (Maybe he was equally good in other
European shows, but I didn't see those).

Ben Walker, the new Ace Face, was quite bad in the parts that required
acting, he way overacted the Bell Boy part, cringing in front of Roger
while making hidden "screw-you" motions for the audience's benefit.  He
also mimicked Billy Idol's "rotating fists" motions a lot instead of
developing something of his own.  A definitely second-rate fill-in for the
presumably unavailable Mr. Idol.

I love Jodi Linscott but I didn't miss her or the auxiliary backup vocalist
for a minute.

TED -- brilliant as ever.  I timed John's solo at 2 minutes, and as ever it
brought down the house.

In other news, I have the sad duty to report that we discovered that
Keith's house, Tara, has been demolished, replaced by another house
courtesy of one Vince Clark of Erasure, behind high brick walls, a
stainless-steel gate, security cameras, etc.  Should auld acquaintance be
forgot...so long, Tara.  Unfortunately, I never got to visit the house in
person.

It was great to see the stalwarts, Mark Tilson, Bernd, Neil Bilbe, Amy
Dresser, etc. at the shows.  I also met Ian (didn't catch his last name) at
the stb show, who told me that when they shot the group photo for the
inside cover of "among us" he brought a blown-up B&W photo of someone who
couldn't be there, mounted on a stick.  See if you can find it!  :-D


Alan

"When I'm on stage, it's not like bein' possessed...it's just...*I* *do*
*my* *job*."                 - Pete Townshend