"Paris 1919" in Norwich

http://www.theatreroyalnorwich.co.uk/whatson/shows/johncale.aspx

Just checked the theatre site. Only five weeks left and so many tickets still available - even four in front row
Maybe every Cale fan living in the UK has already seen the piece performed in Cardiff and/or London.

aaa

Oh Isabel, then we have to clap ten times more than usual. My hands are already hurting now...
But Cardiff was also not sold out even one week before and at the entry the staff still told me that it's not sold out yet. And in the end CoalExchange was so stuffed.
And if it will be half empty, maybe Cale will start concentrating on his new album and stop the "Paris" and "Nico" concerts, although I enjoy both...

Cale's new album?...he's often spoke about his unhappiness at the delay between recording songs and getting them released, by the time he mixes the "new songs" they will be old songs. The danger then is he'll look for the "right" record deal which could take years..he needs to re-learn quickly the lessons of the past and just stick the songs out here as they are finished, one by one pretty much as he did with "Jumbo". The artist James Murphy (LCD Soundsystem) has just said the album format is dead and he plans to release no more in that format.

fireball wrote:Norwich is not an easy place to get to

WORD!

When I bought the tickets I was firmly convinced that Norwich was a London suburb. No idea where that thought came from. After the booking was done, I checked the Wikipedia map of England and ---

No risk, no fun!

I hope whoever is going posts a report when they get back!

i just hope no one posts a report before the concert.. i can give the track list for the 1st half of the gig. if its not sold out today Cale usually rushes through the concert.Does anyone think this series of gigs is a step backwards for Cale? The promoter has not used any booking agencies to sell tickets so this event has lacked publicity. Vienna to Norwich airport...here i come..ha ha!

fireball wrote:Does anyone think this series of gigs is a step backwards for Cale?

Hi Fireball! Reading between your lines I would say that you’ve had quite enough of John Cale performing these Paris 1919 concerts and Nico tributes and that the highlight of the moment for you will be the flight over from Vienna to the UK – ash cloud permitting that is. Regarding your question as to whether anyone thinks this series of concerts is a step back for Cale brings to mind a Metal Machine Trio concert I attended in Brussels on April 22nd. I was mesmerised by the new experiments in sound and noise that Lou Reed is working on with musicians Ulrich Krieger and Sarth Calhoun, and find it interesting that Cale has been characterised as someone who doesn’t look back in contrast with Lou Reed, and yet here we have the former revisiting his 1973 album Paris 1919. And yes I know that Lou Reed has revisited his 1973 album Berlin. Could this be an omen? Maybe it’s now time for the tide to turn and John Cale will soon be mesmerising us with his new experiments in drone.

Setlist is up here:

http://blogger.xs4all.nl/werksman/archive/2010/05/15/549465.aspx
http://www.xs4all.nl/~werksman/cale/setlists/2010_05_14.html

i dont think cale is taking a step back i just wondered if anyone else thought that.....wow what a concert last night, cale's gotta keep the trumpets!!

Really interesting setlist last night. I'm glad he is making use of the orchestra for more songs now. Someone better have taped it!

Oh yes, the concert was really great!!! I already wrote something about it on Hans' blog.

Regarding the question of Fireball, if this series of gigs is a step backwards for Cale:

I don't think so at all! I think, it was a quite clever publicity move, both Nico and Paris. Anyway, from the musical perspective the concerts were also very interesting and innovative, especially the Nico arrangements. But after all, Cale got maybe more publicity and fuller auditoriums than he got when his last albums were released. He seems to be now on the peak of media and fan attention and he was also able to collect some more fans with those gigs. After the Paris show in September he really should release his new album. Maybe it will sell better than HoboSapiens and blackAcetate.

I keep my fingers crossed that the new album and a tour will follow soon...

Hello There. Did Cale play all that pretty piano that’s on the track or did the orchestra take it?

I saw MM3 at a gig a while back and thought they made some great noise. But I can’t imagine Cale immersing himself in drone at this point in his career. I agree with Nayika that right now he’s bristling with energy. It’s all the trumpets and orchestra – and it shines in his own trio of gifted musicians.

Hey Zig, John played his acoustic guitar and was accompanied by his faithful trio and a small wind ensemble during "Hello, there".

This evening was much cooler than Christmas during my childhood. Almost every song in the second part was a great surprise!

The wind ensemble was already sitting on stage, when John & Co. returned after the break, he took his accoustic guitar, and I was only wondering what song they're going to play in this combination. And when I recognised "Hello, there" I was just smiling all over the face. What a present!!!

fireball wrote:Does anyone think this series of gigs is a step backwards for Cale?

Hi fireball! – fireball, where are you!? – I’d just like to make it clear that I don’t think for one second that Mr Cale is taking a step backwards with all these recent performances. As Nayika says, we can view it as a clever publicity move. It’s great to see him out there now – and why stop. I have nothing but praise for ‘legends’ (I hate the word) such as John Cale and Lou Reed when I see them out there entertaining the crowds. And they’re digging what they do. They’re having fun.

Fireball, I’m sorry if I offended you with my post – ‘reading between your lines’. I had no right to assume that you’d had quite enough of the Paris/Nico concerts. Hope you had a safe landing.

Two youtube videos were posted!



and

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPYsVNBpQgM

Hi! Thanks for showing the E Is Missing video. And a powerful version it is, too. The song, apparently about the poet Ezra Pound is a favourite of mine and the lyrics are most mysterious. I can only imagine that John Cale is the only person to understand them. I’ve visited several Ezra Pound forums looking for answers but their poets and professors are equally baffled. Notice in the video how the words slip from his memory as he sings ‘signalling lighthouse’ instead of ‘a derelict lighthouse’, making him all the more ‘human’, ‘charming’, ‘forgiveable’ and ‘mortal’. Hmm. Oh to have been at the concert. Thanks to all for the enthusiastic reports. Here’s some words I put together from those reports.


Melancholia (Melan-’Cale’-ia)

And after the highs of Norwich
where the air was punched
and the clapping hands were hot like fire,
and the whooping voice was lost in cheer.

After the “thank-you-so-much, we’ll-see-ya-soon”
a sort of sadness falls . . .
and these halls seem kind of empty
as the forum sleeps
under a blanket of hush.

JK

Nice to see LouisRede on the forum. Welcome! Thanks for the YewTub viddies

Hi, I'm not really a John Cale fan but i was given a free ticket and wanted to try out my new kodak zx8 so i recorded the whole concert from the middle of the balcony. My partner fell asleep, but luckily he does not snore. We are use to seeing The Fall live who have a little more energy despites MES tendency to walk off half way through. I tried to upload the whole concert to youtube but i kept getting error messages so that will not happen now. I have just sold the recording to a collector in manchester, (hi, if you are on this list!) he has a wicked collection and i was not really interested in keeping a copy, i just joined this group to see if any John Cale fans enjoyed the recording i made. Best wishes, S.

Hi LouisRede, of course we enjoyed your Youtubies and would have loved to see more. What a pity that YT prevented you from uploading more. I remember I even needed four tries to add a comment to your videos. Sometimes YT really sucks

LouisRede wrote:Hi, I'm not really a John Cale fan but i was given a free ticket and wanted to try out my new kodak zx8 so i recorded the whole concert from the middle of the balcony. My partner fell asleep, but luckily he does not snore. We are use to seeing The Fall live who have a little more energy despites MES tendency to walk off half way through. I tried to upload the whole concert to youtube but i kept getting error messages so that will not happen now. I have just sold the recording to a collector in manchester, (hi, if you are on this list!) he has a wicked collection and i was not really interested in keeping a copy, i just joined this group to see if any John Cale fans enjoyed the recording i made. Best wishes, S.

Thanks for posting the videos you did! I hope the collector you sold it to is nice enough to post the rest up on youtube.


So you have none of the copies on your computer anymore?

Oh LouisRede,

You really have guts!!!

Your username sounds like the one of this evil guy who hurt 'our' John so often. Your (still???) partner fell asleep during the Maestro's blessing. And you didn't pay for the ticket, used John only as a laboratory rat for your new Kodak (urgh...Kodak...), and you earned even money with this blasphemy. (Maybe even more than John that evening?!) You were not interested in keeping your own recording!? And you're not really a Cale fan, though your YouTube channel looks like... (Do you have any coming out problems??? Or does Cale make only a good test subject for YouTube???)

And you really have the guts to post all these facts on a Cale fan forum???

You are lucky that Cale fans don't form a religion - one of those religions which can't laugh at making fun of their prophet.

Anyway, I also enjoyed your clips, but your Kodak seems to be scrap. I was wondering why the picture is soooooooooooooo bad. Now I know.

Enjoy the energetic The Fall concert!

Cheers, Nayika

I was made a good offer for the recording so i took it. The blank sd card cost me £32. The Kodak recording was not on my computer, i was more interested in the sound than the picture (which was on the VGA setting rather than HD60). The man who bought it has hundreds and hundreds of Cale shows but told me today he will not be uploading anything. Youtube did not prevent me from uploading, i was just getting an error message so i stopped. When i say i am not a John Cale fan i mean i was, he just does not excite me anymore...Circus is an awful record. Its worse than Comes Alive and Fragments of a Rainy Season.
ps. i have removed the norwich youtube videos....well they were "soooooooooo bad". Best wishes S.

Dear LouiseRede,

First of all:
Your sense of humour, in the case you have any, obviously doesn't match my one.

Secondly:
As the Admin of this forum, I definitely won't praise Cale concert recordings, especially when they are even sold. This whole fan thing and recording of concerts is a bit tricky, but I see a huge difference between sharing your loot with other fans and selling it.

Thirdly:
John Cale doesn't excite you anymore? But you obviously get an exciting feeling when people praise you for recording this unexciting guy. That's why after all you came to this forum. Pathetic!
And even more pathetic is the fact that you removed your clips out of being furious with me, while everybody else was thanking you.
Your selfishniss indeed reached new heights!

PS: I really don't care about your technical know-how defence. I was joking and pulling your legs. But...(see paragraph 1)