I felt it was
time to recount a particular concert I went to many years ago which was made
memorable as much for the journey getting to it as the actual concert itself.
Sometime in 1991 I woke up to a record being played on the radio that sounded
epic coming through the tiny mono speaker. The record was "Jacky" by
Marc Almond and featured a full orchestra and a bombastic electronic backing
track. On buying the record I saw it was produced by Trevor Horn, who was
already one of my favourite producers through his work with Frankie Goes To
Hollywood, Pet Shop Boys and ABC, and it also set me off exploring Marc
Almond's back catalogue of which I had very little knowledge.
Some months
later, the accompanying 'Tenement Symphony' album was released which was half
produced by Marc Almond, Billy McGee, Nigel Hine and Grid members, Dave Ball and Dave Norris. Dave Ball
had been Marc's Soft Cell sidekick and this saw the pair reunite for a few
tracks. The second half of the album was produced by Trevor Horn and formed a
suite of songs titled 'Tenement Symphony"
I remember
having a £10 Boots gift voucher which I guess must have been from Christmas
1991, and I headed into Huddersfield one Saturday to buy the album. Unlike other
stores, Boots didn't stock vinyl albums so if I was to buy it from there, it
had to be on either CD or cassette. I didn't own a CD player so I purchased the
cassette. One benefit of this choice of format was that I happened to have my
walkman with me which meant I could listen to the album straight away instead
of waiting until after the bus ride home. So I popped in the cassette, turned
up the volume, and wandered aimlessly around Huddersfield town centre taking in
what the album had to offer. From that day to this, it remains one of my
favourite albums. Full scale sequenced synth arrangements with huge dollops of
orchestral bliss surrounding Marc's soaring vocals through some amazing songs
such as Meet Me In My Dreams, Beautiful Brutal Thing, Vaudeville and Burlesque
and ending with the sensational My Hand Over My Heart. A great album and a
great way to experience it.
The singles
from the album gave Marc some chart success peaking with the Top 5 cover hit
"The Days Of Pearly Spencer" and he appeared a couple of times on TV
backed by an orchestra.
Fast forward
to the summer of 1992 and I had left school and was preparing to start
university in Salford.
My first day
of lectures was to be on Monday 28th September and I had moved into my Salford bedsit a week beforehand.
While
browsing through the music magazines as I often did, I came across an advert
for a live show. Marc Almond was to perform two shows, Nottingham Royal Court
Centre and then Royal Albert Hall in a career retrospective show called 12 Years Of Tears, which as well as featuring a full band, would also feature the
Tenement Symphony Orchestra. The chance to hear tracks from the album, as well
as other hits, performed by a band and full orchestra seemed too good to be
true. By this time I had built up a catalogue of Marc Almond's discography and
was now familiar with all the albums and singles and Marc had now become one of
my favourite artists. As the Royal Albert Hall show was to be recorded for
video and live album release as well as for TV broadcast, I guessed the
Nottingham show was to be the warm up concert.
The only
difficulty I could initially see in going was that the shows were taking place
in the week beginning 28th September which was my first week at Salford
University. What's more, the Nottingham show was on the Monday. I initially
sacked off the idea as being logistically impossible, but it kept irking me for
a week or so before I decided to review the possibilities. I rang the venue to
get further details, as this was pre-worldwideweb, and was told the concert
would start at 8pm and there would be no interval. I then found out that my
last lecture on that first Monday of my uni course would finish around 4pm, and
the first one on Tuesday morning would be at 9.30am. I also discovered that a
5pm train from Manchester Piccadilly would get me into Nottingham sometime
after 7pm, and the first one in the morning would get me into Manchester around
9am, giving me time to make my first lecture on that day which was actually to
be an improvisation group led by jazz saxophonist Jan Kopinski, of Pinski Zoo.
I found a
B&B situated down the road from the Nottingham Royal Court Centre for a
tenner, and on enquiring was told that I would have to check in by about 10pm
as they would lock the doors. I figured I would have time to do that between
stepping off the train in Nottingham and the concert starting at 8pm.
I decided to
go for it.
September
came and I moved to Salford ready to start the Popular Music and Recording
course. After the last lecture on the Monday, I took off at speed to the train
station to catch the train to Nottingham only to discover it was delayed... And
delayed further...and delayed some more.
I was already restless and a little anxious and this didn't help. I kept
watching the clock trying to work out what sort of timeframe I had. On the
journey I got chatting to the woman sitting next to me after we were trying to
work out the arrival time. She was interested to hear of the concert and worked
out that the train would reach Nottingham around 8pm. Furthermore as she was
going to be on the ITV programme 'The Time, The Place' the next day, the TV
company had a taxi booked for her from the station and she said she could give
me a lift to the Royal Court Centre. I reached the venue at exactly 8pm and
raced in to pick up my ticket. There hadn't been time to post it. I raced up
the stairs to get to the back of the circle as I could hear the audience
cheering to the opening chords of Vaudeville and Burlesque. I had no idea what I
was going to do about the B&B and I didn't have a back-up plan, but I got
to my seat as the full synth band kicked in and Marc walked out onto the stage.
It was quite a moment.
The opening
songs were the synth heavy tracks from the Tenement Symphony album which
sounded great. This set was then followed by a vocal and piano section with
Marc now in a suit and I soon got the idea that the concert was structured more
like a series of different sets with different arrangements and costume
changes. Almost like a few shows rolled into one. A full band then accompanied
Marc for some renditions of early singles including some Soft Cell tracks. One
thing I did notice though was the lack of orchestra. There was only a band on
stage. I felt a little disappointed despite the gig being such a good one, I
then figured the Nottingham show must be perhaps part of a warm up for the
Royal Albert Hall show in two day’s time, and the orchestra would just be for
that one. I couldn't think of any other reason. Then after nearly 90 minutes,
Marc said goodbye and left the stage to rapturous applause. It was around
9:30pm and it all seemed to come to an end. When I had booked the ticket, the
box office had told me there would be no interval so I wasn't sure how long the
show would run for. Also there were quite a few big records Marc hadn't
performed. The audience were on their feet shouting for more with several
rounds of slow hand claps, before an announcement came over the speaker 'Ladies
and Gentlemen, this is now an interval, the show will start again in 20
minutes'. I couldn't believe it! So there was an interval, and I had time to
run down to the B&B, drop off my overnight bag, grab the key and get back.
I raced down the road using the directions I had been given and checked in. I
got back to the Royal Court Centre and saw there on the stage, quite a number
of new chairs laid out. The second half started with Marc performing a Jacques Brel song called 'If You Go Away' which I had never heard before, This was a
vocal and piano arrangement and made for a melancholy opening to the second
half. He then followed this by saying 'Well I guess that is one way of
performing a Jacques Brel song... And this is another'. He then performed
'Jacky' with a full band and orchestra who were on stage for the rest of the
evening. It sounded amazing as they belted through some classic Marc singles
and album tracks with full orchestrations and arrangements making some songs
sound more epic than the recorded versions. The show finished with 'Say Hello Wave
Goodbye' with a full stage, a full sound, and a full auditorium of excited fans
being showered with confetti. I left there feeling elated and blown away. One
of the most exciting musical experiences I had encountered and nothing has
really quite topped it.
I returned to
the B&B and set my alarm for the early hours. To get my train back I was
going to have to leave before the Breakfast part of the B&B arrangement,
and a few hours later I was making my way through a dark, cold Nottingham
following the signs to the railway station. The route took me through an eerie
shopping centre which was just trying to wake up, and I managed to get my train
on time. I was tired and quite hungry but still buzzing from the previous
evening's experience. It was a gig that would inspire me in various ways in the
years to come, but that will have to wait for another blog.
The finale to
this story is almost like a punchline or something that might have been
scripted for a sitcom. I arrived in Manchester sometime before 9am and I
quickly made my way across the city up to Salford University to get to my first
Improvisation class at 9.30. I got to the building in time where I met my
fellow course colleagues and discovered that Improvisation had been moved to
11.30am.
And the
reason?
Because it
was going to take a while for the tutor to get to Manchester as he lived
in.....
Wait for
it...
Nottinghamshire
Needless to
say I was lost for words, but also quite amused. The 12 Years Of Tears show was
still swirling around my head too much for me to be anything else. I headed up
to the canteen and got some breakfast.