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The Street’s Mike Skinner goes surfing during his Roundhouse performance |
Largely first-class Electric bill
REVIEW: BBC ELECTRIC PROMS
Various venues
IF the BBC Electric Proms was a game of top trumps, Africa Express would win every time. Performers: 100-plus. Countries represented: 40-plus.
Musicians onstage at the one time: 100-plus. Show length: 8 hours. Number of blind musicians: 3.
Africa Express epitomises everything the Proms is about – real musicians, experiments, jamming, surprises and unusual collaborations. Former Blur frontman Damon Albarn had a hard task orchestrating the world’s top musicians at the Koko marathon, with a line-up including any combination of the following: Chili Peppers’ Flea, Baaba Maal, Rachid Taha, Amadou and Mariam, Johnny Marr, Kano, Toumani Diabate, Romeo from the Magic Numbers, Hard-Fi, and Get Cape Wear Cape Fly.
Highlights included VV Brown and Rokia Traore, with an improvised version of Crying Blood made up in the bar seconds before, and Chicago’s Hypnotic Brass Ensemble, the coolest brass band in the world.
Grooves didn’t make it to Burt Bacharach, but by all accounts it was a night to remember.
Mike Skinner braved the flu and brought The Streets to the Roundhouse on Thursday. Obsessed with checking if the crowd could still see him, he was on fire – or, in his own words, on “a lot of medication but not the Kerry Katona kind”. He worked the crowd, sang all the favourites, newer songs fitting in seamlessly, and ended by crowdsurfing with the caveat: “I’m very ill.”
On Friday the technically brilliant Nitin Sawhney brought guests including Natacha Atlas, Anoushka Shankar and the lovely Natty. A magical night of Eastern beats, inspired by the July 7 bombings aftermath.
Saturday was a bit of a disappointment. At Barfly, Red Light Company gave an energetic show, although frontman Richard Frenneaux lacked interaction. They impressed with Meccano and Scheme Eugene, but had little else to separate them from the rest.
A huge let-down was Saturday Night Fever, billed as an evening with Robin Gibb and guests. The Bee Gee only appeared for two songs, was never onstage at the same time as guests Sam Sparro, Gabrielle Cilmi, Sharlene Spiteri, Bryn Christopher, Steven Gately and Ronan Keating, and the BBC Concert Orchestra padded the set with long instrumentals.
It ended on a low as Mr Gibb disappeared offstage after To Love Somebody – no encore despite a pleading crowd. It soon turned to boos! If it wasn’t for Bryn Christopher’s soul preacher version of Disco Inferno and Sam Sparro’s falsetto Saturday Night Fever, there could well have been a riot.
But the Proms ended on a high with the fantastic Lowkey playing to a depleted Barfly crowd, most probably a victim of the massive Oasis gig across the road. The talented rapper, whose lyrics speak to a new urban conscience concerned more with the war in Iraq than Adidas, was joined onstage by John McClure of Reverend and the Makers.
And so on to the big event. Grooves was one of the lucky few who managed to get hold of a golden Oasis ticket.
A special mention must go to Glasvegas, whose mammoth presence warmed up the crowd.
Teaming up with the 50-strong Crouch End Festival Chorus was Oasis’s Proms gimmick. But the choir was barely audible and Oasis were strong, loud and up for it without added backing vocals. Liam was full of pent-up aggression, Noel played the pleasant big brother as dutifully as ever and the result was possibly better than their golden days.
And just like in 1995, when Oasis and Blur vied for number one, the North-South battle for the best act continues, with Damon Albarn helping open the Proms with one of the greatest experimental shows of the year and Oasis bringing proceedings to a close while staying firmly rooted in lad-rock formula. Music moves in very small circles.
IaIn Docherty
Julia Kouyoumdjian
Roisin Gadelrab
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Watch performances online at www.bbc.co.uk/electricproms |
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