All New People & the Leisure Society

Now to catch up on a couple of plays.

These two are both new plays with a cast of 4 and a 90 minute run time with no interval. And they are both funny as well as dramatic.

All New People stars Zach Braff of Scrubs fame (for those who follow that US comedy series). Although he may be the "name" to sell the play, its a pretty even cast actually in terms of dialogue and ability. No one carried the play (in contrast let's say to David Haig's starring role in Madness of King George). It starts with the Braff character about to hang himself in a beach house lent to him by a friend. He is interrupted by a scatty English woman who has been hired to try and find new permanent tenants, and later joined by her fireman boyfriend, (or rather just male friend as she doesn't actually love him) and a prostitute (sorry, escort) hired by the absent friend and sent over to cheer Braff up. The play is not the sort of toe-curlingly cheesy one you might imagine where three strangers make the potential suicide realise how wonderful life really is, but rather its one of revelations about all their lives. Its a bit of a mixed media performance too, since at 4 points during the play the action freezes, a screen comes down and there is a short filmed sequence, each time revealing the back story of the 4 characters as to how they ended up here.

Altogether well-acted, funny and sharp. A satisfying evening.

This Monday's play was The Leisure Society, similar in basic format (without the film sequences) but on a much smaller scale. It was at the Trafalgar Studio 2 which is frankly tiny. It was like watching a play in a large living room. I guess the capacity was only 100 ranged around the stage (well just centre floor really - there are no barriers between actors and audience). No set beyond a table, couple of sofas and a piano. And a baby monitor, the baby's presence revealed only through regular crying noises as a rather horridly self-centred American couple had a friend and his young girlfriend (who wasn't a girlfriend as she didn't love him) around for dinner. Again very sharp, witty dialogue, which should probably put one off (a) marriage, (b) babies and/or (c) threesomes.

The important thing to remember about both plays is not to take them seriously. They aren't trying to convey any particularly deep moral insights (I hope), but they are very amusing in a bitter acerbic sort of way. I hope next week's theatre visit is as good. Watch this space!

Burgled!

So there I was coming back Saturday night after the Nero gig, buzzing slightly and then as I was about to put the key in the door, bugger, I saw some low life had jemmied open my front window.

Gone through the whole house opening draws and boxes evidently looking for cash and jewellery (and maybe car keys but my lack of automobile put paid to that.) Very distressing last thing at night. Police came round pretty promptly but not much they can do. And really annoying thing was that I had a fair bit of cash in the house having been paid for a theatre trip in midweek to see All New People with some colleagues and for a gig in the Barbican in the summer. Which I left in the house for safe-keeping rather than take in my wallet to Brixton. Wrong decision!

Of course the real cost is going to be in mending the sash windows. So, further security measures clearly needed. What does annoy me are all these civil liberties twats who worry about CCTV. A bit more surveillance rather than less would make this a happier place to live in. Like anyone else who thinks about it, my freedom not to be burgled or mugged beats my freedom to be seen on a camera any day.

Nero

Nero is not a coffee chain. Well it is, but its also a dance band. So on Saturday night I headed off to Brixton to see them. Having come across them through a friend’s teenage lad, I guess it should not be a surprise to find myself at least 30 years above the average age of the audience. I am getting used to it, but as I approach 50 I do find it increasingly difficult to think of myself as a teenager any more!

Now, for older readers, I should say this was not like going to a gig 30 years ago, nor really like going to the indie gigs I more regularly attend. Firstly, if one rolls up at an indie gig just gone 7pm, you walk straight in. And at the front there will be a little gaggle of fans, most of whom are just politely listening to the first support act while chatting to each other waiting for the main performer. Here I turned up to find a queue round the block. And at the front, for a DJ set (albeit Zane Lowe) as the support, there is a huge crowd going absolutely mental. You see it’s party time. That’s what its actually about.

The other point to note for the older generation is that the dancing basically takes two forms. The one is the bouncing around with arms in the air. (Sorry that sounds patronising.  It’s not meant to be. All dance basically sounds a bit silly if described. And frankly this is just kids having fun in a very natural way. Contrast to the wedding celidh of the previous weekend which is essentially a glorified party game for which one really needs an instruction manual.)

The second form of dance takes place in the mosh pit in front of the stage and consists of young turks just bouncing off each other. It probably fufils the same function as rugby in a boys private school, but sweatier and with less risk of serious damage. Its really an exercise in release of testosterone in the young male. And why not? They clearly love it. A little notice at the door warned that at the front it would be "lively", and it certainly was. Don’t worry, I was at the wings watching on, having long ago used up any testosterone I ever possessed.

One would no doubt have had similar physicality at a punk gig in the late Seventies, but without the good natured element in this crowd. And unlike the anorexic punks, some of these lads could probably hold their own on the rugby field, which I doubt Johnny Rotten or Sid Vicious could ever have done.

So you get the picture. As I say, you had enthusiastic mayhem for Zane Lowe’s DJ set pretty much from the start, when polite applause is what you would expect from an equivalent indie gig.

The other thing that’s different for a drum and bass act like Nero is there isn’t anything to see of the artists themselves. It’s all computer generated electronic music, so Nero (who are two guys with a part-time female vocalist) just stand behind a computer deck in cool shades and press buttons.

So what do you get for your money that you don’t get from a download?  Well for a start there is the sort of bass that if you tried at home would probably undermine the foundations of your house. Noise level is important. Then there is the light show. Now this works best on a big scale – see the Chemical Brothers (as I did with said teenager last summer) and the lighting really is an art form in its own right. Scaled down for Nero at Brixton it was less entrancing until the lasers started towards the end.

And you do get the female vocalist who both has a commanding voice (you don’t want something reedy over this stuff) and is very attractive to look at. I was surprised her presence wasn’t used more.

And of course you get the atmosphere, a teenage audience going absolutely bonkers.  And that collective attitude is probably what they enjoy most. And I am happy to look on from the wings. While I can imagine a lot of adults tutting its just a matter of going with the flow. It’s heady stuff really, although you probably need a teenager to get the full vitality of it all.

And Nero does have a great album, Welcome Reality, veering from their most hardcore (and my favourite) track (appropriately titled Doomsday) to a slightly bubble gum pop vocal over heavy bass beat in Crush on You. This sort of music is worth checking out. Dance music has moved on from seventies disco. A long way.  It’s more serious as well as more fun. It's exhilarating. Really. And before you sneer at computer nerds and ask what happened to real musicians, these two played classical guitar and cello as teens. They just found something rather better when they grew up.

Anyway, I see they are supporting David Guetta in the June bank holiday at the Ally Pally, so I suspect I will get round to seeing them again soon. Well, that's walking distance from home, so worth the jaunt.

Oh, and a funny thing happened to me on the way to the show. I was just walking down to Wood Green tube station when a rather buxom, smiling Asian lady asked me where I was going.  I am not used to even my friends showing that much interest, but to be polite I said I was on my way to an evening out in Brixton.

"You want some jiggy-jiggy later?" she replied. What is the world coming to? Prostitution. In broad daylighht. In Palmers Green. (Well to be fair, it was more Wood Green, but even so, its getting close.) The state of things.

Edinburgh Miscellany

Ok, just some extra photos from around Edinburgh that don't appear elsewhere. Great place for graveyards, so that's the theme at the start.

So one could have a good time just in the graveyards. But there is a lot to admire in the City. For example the wit in Cowgate.

And there is just so much more, so here are some random images.