A fairly inhospitable place to be on a Sunday night: just on the edge of the City, near Old Street roundabout, in the cellar of what used to be an almost permanently empty Chinese restaurant. This is the venue for, I think, only the second London show by Emeralds, a night subtitled “A Brave New World In Sound”.
I was just picking up my ticket and earplugs when Patti Smith was ushered through the crowd in front of me. I would have said hello, but the last time I spoke to her she threw a plate of sandwiches at me after I described her then-boyfriend, Allen Lanier of Blue Oyster Cult, as a ‘certifiable midget’.
A FEW years ago, Elvis Costello declared an ongoing fondness for U2. By way of explanation, Costello outlined his admiration for U2’s ability to forge intimacy and emotional connection even in the Enormo-Domes and Mega-Bowls that constitute their tour schedules. At stadium level now, Costello observed, “everything else is bullshit, or a trip to the circus.”
Former Cocteau Twins singer Elizabeth Fraser is set to play her first full show since 1998.
The singer will debut her new material, as well as perform re-interpretations of Cocteau Twins songs, at Bath Pavillion on Saturday August 4. The show is as a warm-up gig for her two sold-out nights at the Royal Festival Hall in London later in August, as part of this year's Antony Hegarty-curated Meltdown festival.
