Since we learned a new act to drive sorrows away

[valkyriekaren]

This has been a good week for seeing well-known people in unusual settings doing interesting things.

On Friday, d_floorlandmine and I took ourselves off to the Barbican to see Bright Phoebus Revisited.

A bit of backstory required here - Bright Phoebus was a seminal modern folk album released in 1972 by The Watersons and friends. The songs were written mostly by

Comments

[redcountess]

Oh, two gigs I would have loved to have been at! (Admittedly mostly for the music history of the first one) I can quite understand your aversion to AFP but I went to a ninja gig she and Neil did at the Melbourne City Library a couple of years ago and I found her endearing in an awkward way :-)

[valkyriekaren]

I just find her irritating in the extreme. And I'm not sure how she thought a song that referenced (among other things) heroin use, axe murderers and vibrators was appropriate for after a reading of a children's book.

Oh and part of the song was about Sid Vicious, and how he probably wouldn't have died a tragic smack-fuelled death if he had played ukelele instead. With two people who were actually, y'know, around at the time still sitting on the stage behind her. Self-awareness of a mollusc.

[greylock]

I just find her irritating in the extreme.
So do I.
And yet I give her props as an entertainer.

t sure how she thought a song that referenced (among other things) heroin use, axe murderers and vibrators

Where there many children there to think of?

With two people who were actually, y'know, around at the time

Sid was a joke at the time, I suspect they'd be fine.

[valkyriekaren]

She's not that much of an entertainer. Her singing voice is like a foghorn. Unless you think entertainment is wearing a skirt that nearly shows your foof and acting like Queen of the Manic Pixie Dream Girls.

A minority of the audience were children, but not none. Though my point was less that some people might be offended/upset (though they might have been) but that it was inappropriate and out of keeping with the tone of the rest of the event, which had been very lighthearted and warm.

I suspect they'd be fine. Not saying they wouldn't. Just... the sheer bloody self-deluded arrogance of the woman!

[hsb]

I quite liked Lenny Henry's response to accidentally saying something age-inappropriate, though. He basically went oops, and then literally ran around the podium yelping about his advanced age, IIRC.

I think the trouble with AP is that she doesn't think everything through. And unfortunately, since Neil's social media started having so much AP in them, I've stopped reading them. So it was sheer chance that I was there.

H

[valkyriekaren]

Yeah, and at least Lenny's joke was innuendo rather than just bellowing 'VIBRATOR! SMACK!' so it would have gone over most kids' heads anyway.

[redcountess]

Lol! Oh dear!