Jeffrey Louis-Reed JLR@Audiosushi.com Twitter @Disastronaut Facebook.com/Audiosushi Itunes: Disastronau, Jeffrey Louis-Reed https://itunes.apple.com/gb/artist/jeffrey-louis-reed/id956681417
Monday, December 01, 2014
British Sea Power "Brass at Sea" with NASUWT. Review at De La Warr Pavillion Bexhill, England 24.10.14
British Sea Power "Brass at Sea" with NASUWT.
at De La Warr Pavillion
Bexhill, England 24.10.14
the original show: http://www.sagegateshead.com/event/british-sea-powers/
Brass in popular music generally has recently been revisited, updated
and pushed forward by Matthew Herbert Big Band, Acid Brass, Ol Dirty
Brasstards, the Hackney Colliery Band, Hot 8 Brass Band, Youngblood
Brass Band and several brass specific festivals like BRASS where this
piece was commissioned and played first.
This concert featured British Sea Power with Peter Wraight who also
has worked with Matthew Herbert Big Band] and Durham's NASUWT working
through a more than 15 years of BSP tracks. The NASUWT being founded
in 1877 and short for The National Association of Schoolmasters Union
of Women Teachers Riverside Band.
Looking at this wide ensemble filling up the entire state - the
promoter in me was totting up the costs of Durham to
Bexhill train fares, hotels, of bringing such a big band down…. As a
promoter, the last time I put on British Sea Power [on an infamous
night with Faust] where Faustian pacts were apparently broken and one
of BSP got clocked in the eye for a likely imaginary transgression….
Kirsten Reynolds [of Headbutt, London Dirthole, etc] still laugh about
that night as she assumed the lead role in the "11 screaming women"
asked for on the Faust rider. I'm glad I don't promote too many shows
like that anymore.
The human in me wondered about each of the players [not the battle
hardened BSP band] but the Brass - being so far away on a night when
they might be home watching telly with their families after a long
week at work, or perhaps playing in another band…
but to be here on this stage…. in Bexhill… there are a lot of them...
the nature of a big band situation as a player often isn't that
rewarding. Things to think about before you join a big band, I
suppose.
So here - in what is a beautiful windswept Pavilion on the sea - I
know it well because in the summer I swim over the 5 miles
here from my house at Hastings in open sea …. The venue itself is
functional - all seated with 2 stalls on either side - all facing
forward - and an upper tier that was closed tonight. [i wish there
were more in as the room needs that to absorb some of the big sound].
During the sound check it was obvious that there is quite a lot of
reflection in the room - which created some interesting
late reflection points when it was empty. When full - it was a bit of
a unique experience - in that the all-seating [and remarkably no smart
phone carrying audience] created a sedate feeling - along with the
wash of sound --- added up to be a most tranquil journey through mid
tempo, soft edged numbers. One would guess, that the intelligence of
this crowd, if locked in, could solve quite a few of the world's
middle class problems.
Indeed, the set list - starting with Heavenly Waters and running
through many of the ballads and softer numbers were
yet even softer in the arrangements, necessary for this large racket
[said the nicest way] to really work.
Now with BSP [headline shows] you are liable to get a clash of
topiary, flags, lights, films and the vagaries of a creative, restless
band at its peak… Tonight - the nearest i can describe it is a late
October Christmas show special taping in about 1978.
The arrangements were concise, dazzlingly good at points and largely
wonderful. I did crave a bit more individuation and
more solo work - and also some experimentation - but for a work only
to be played 3 times [in Durham last summer] and Bexhill,
Barbican [which on the night experienced a power cut that cancelled
the show!] - you can only push the band so much….
And with that - the achievement becomes, in reflection, even more
impressive. Special credit must go to the arranger, conductor
Peter Wraight who forged a sound that had nuance, colour and a beauty
---- the sea of brass - that possibly was envisaged at the
beginning. . . spectral but also Kitsch, luminous - and very jolly.
Its inescapable with the Brass palette.
The NASUWT provided an huge counterpoint - and once you forgot about
their genial exploitation,
lost families and missed TV dinners - the sequences especially in the
opening sections of the show.
As for BSP. They're BSP… The fact that they did 2 of my favourite
tracks - Wooden horse [the original track is here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmUNxS1EYx8] and Smallest Church -
was delicious.
They also out Arcade-ed the Fire - at many points making tracks like
Atom - which are great regardless into sonic fireworks … a few days
short of the bonfires --- yet bringing the smouldering to what is
admittedly a very reserved crowd.
By the encore - of Waving Flags, The Great Suka and Warm Wind - I had
moved into the foyer as the sound was getting much on these old ears…
and through a single set of doors the mix was even better… walking
outside the venue just in the last minutes The sound was even better -
the brass and BSP working this show to the bitter end - and then sea
waves, light rain - the night mixing in with the last phrases of this
audacious collaboration.
Almost impossible to sum up but as the project is out of time, , as I
am still trying to remember melodies of the 1970s American Christmas
specials of old … This was a taping and concert that I want to see
again - but at Christmas, at home half asleep, drunk in front of the
fire.
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