Second Shot

Ben Folds, or actually the Cappella groups, does it again with University A Cappella.

Go get it and the rest of his music.

Thanks go out to my brother for letting me know that Ben Folds was touring the UK this week. I was umming and erring about going because of the ticket price but thought that he’d probably only turn up once this year so what the hell.

And I’m so glad that I went for it. Yesterday night (Tuesday) at the Hammersmith Apollo was absolutely f-ing amazing; yet again Folds performed like a talented mad-man, hammering out the old and the new and really getting the audience behind him. As always, it starts off high and hard, followed by a quieter solo section, and then ramped up towards the end finshing on ‘One Angry Dwarf’ minus the Misirlou ending. Why? Because the first tune was ‘The Theme From Dr Pyser’ (which incorporates said riff), a fantastic acoustic session that I’ve only heard from the DVD (The Complete Sessions at West 54th).

In fact, Folds played a load of tunes that I hadn’t heard live the last two times I went to see him. ‘Underground’ (which he said he messed up in Dublin a couple of nights ago), ‘Freebird’ (mixed in with what I will forever call ‘weather channel shit’), ‘Evaporated’ (a great sentimental tune), ‘Narcolepsy’ (or at least a muchly improved/favoured version), ‘Last Polka’ (riffingly good), ‘Still Fighting It’ (another great sentimental piece), ‘Kate’ (great chirpy tune), and a new one I hadn’t heard ‘Such Great Heights’ (a cover apparently).

And to make matters even better, just to push the boundaries of skill even further, was that he had a little syntheseiser keyboard (as well as a number of other instruments) that he’d programmed in some absolutely brilliant sounds. The fact that he was impressed with his own handy work made everyone else chuckle. He played to the crowd fantastically, and with him swinging between syntheseiser and piano with his right-hand, it truly showed his greatness, bouyancy and flair. There was a load of ad-libbing added to the mix of songs and just for filler, and for me that’s just as good as the tunes themselves. I have the greatest respect to those that can just pull something so tune without thinking, covering mistakes with flair and just generally pumping out tunes. The drummer (Sam somebody, not the usual drummer) has my respect too, picking up Ben’s riffs and giving the whole session a fantastic beat.

I have to say that the only downside with a slight lack of atmosphere, lacking in the wooing and yelping during quiet sections of tunes (maybe that’s a bit too American?). But it didn’t matter much as I made my own atmosphere although I did hear some others singing – twas good to hear others getting involved. I have to find a bootleg of it (and I’ve just found out that there’s a bootleg of the Brixton event too).

Finally, I read on thesuburbs.org.uk that Jamie Cullum was sitting up in the Circle Seats balcony. He told someone at the bar that Folds was his hero and I suspect that he was mightily jealous of all the applause Mr Folds was getting (I don’t follow Cullum’s work, so have no idea how many events he does or how popular). I know I would be. But I suppose that truly shows just how good Ben Folds really is.

I completely forgot that the Eurovision Song Contest was on yesterday as I had more important things to attend to (my brother’s birthday), but it didn’t surprise me to read on BBCi that the UK came way down the table at 19th (out of 24) with 25-points.

This was especially so after reading the title of our song ‘Teenage Life’. And it probably didn’t help that the singer’s name was that of a washing powder, Daz (Sampson). Oh my god, I’ve just found his website… Thank God he didn’t win; what a spazzy looking guy with spazzy looking women around him. Hmm… apparently he’s quite a well-known dance-music person.

Anyway, maybe it is the way to go, what with Finnish’s pantomime of a ‘horror rock’ music show. I remember when it was all sensible and proper singing, but in recent years it has just become a stage for prancing around on and not much else. There used to be famous people singing but now it seems like those on it are using Eurovision as a stepping stone to further their careers.

If we wanted to win, all we’d have to do is pull out any one of the current ‘Top 10′ artists we have and blow them all out the water. Of course, none of them actually want to waste their time with Eurovision, and fair play to them. It would probably be a step backwards anyway.

Oh, and well done to Ireland for getting 10th position.

And lastly, Terry Wogan said: ‘Every year I expect Eurovision to be less foolish, and every year its more so!’

I couldn’t agree more.