On Stage: The Good, The Bad & The Queen @ Paradiso

I've probably written it here before, that Damon Albarn is one my musical heroes. Almost everything he touches is gold in my eyes and I think he's one of the best songwriters and musicians of the past couple of decades. I was thrilled to hear The Good, The Bad & The Queen were back with a second album Merrie Land after ten years of silence and a tour that would pass through my hometown.

The Good, The Bad & The Queen at Paradiso Amsterdam, June 6 2019

Not only does this band have Damon Albarn, it also has one of my drummer heroes Tony Allen behind the kit. To top it off there's Paul Simonon on bass, who used to play for The Clash, and Simon Tong, former guitarist for The Verve. The latter two are playing a lot with Albarn, including Gorillaz. Yes, that's not a bad group together I'd say. Set to a backdrop of a classic London scene, some table lamps spread around the stage and some string lights hanging above, the mood couldn't be more perfect tonight in Paradiso. When the band steps onto the stage you can see they are eager to play and all the ingredients are in place for a beautiful night.

Even better, the night turns into a magical one with a group that sounds better than ever, has a lot of fun playing together and has an incredible collection of songs. On stage they have a couple of reinforcements, to do justice to their music. They made only two albums, but quality definitely is more important than quantity in this case, since both records are full of little gems. This is not Blur or Gorillaz, that have some insane bangers to knock out. These songs are a bit harder and require you to really dig in. However tonight this is not a problem at all, since Albarn will drag you into this melancholic world.

Both albums are critical of London and England as a whole, where Merrie Land draws inspiration from the Brexit vote. That doesn't mean this is a political heavy night. Albarn does touch on the subject a few times, but for the rest the music is speaking. You can see he is used to the biggest stages, since he's exploring every corner of this smaller stage that is already filled with musicians and equipment. It's as if he wants to sing to everyone individually, wants to look everyone into the eye and wants to dance with everyone here tonight. There even turns out to be a whole string section on the balcony above us, I found out only after the concert.

The small group of youngsters in front of the stage, who are probably his fellow country men, draw a big smile on his face every time they jump up and down singing along every word in every song. This is the wonderful vibe in here tonight, that only keeps getting better. The setlist is split in half, serving Merrie Land before and after a short intermezzo the songs of The Good, The Bad & The Queen. Almost all songs of both albums are being played here tonight. The slow songs turn into lush intimate moments, while the more up tempo ones keep the party going.

Albarn is constantly looking for contact with the rest of the band. Tony Allen seems to be smiling for the entire set and Simonon is a delight to watch, how he is handling his bass, swinging back and forth. Tong is focused on his guitar mostly, but is definitely in the moment. I can only watch these musicians in awe and try to absorb every second. After more than one and a half hours the band take a bow to receive their well deserved round of applause. This is one of those exceptional nights that I'll always remember and will treasure for ever.



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Setlist:
01. Merrie Land
02. Gun to the Head
03. Nineteen Seventeen
04. The Great Fire
05. Lady Boston
06. The Truce of Twilight
07. Ribbons
08. The Last Man to Leave
09. The Poison Tree
Intermezzo:
10. History Song
11. 80's Life
12. Kingdom of Doom
13. Herculean
14. The Bunting Song
15. Nature Springs
16. A Soldier's Tale
17. Three Changes
18. Green Fields
19. The Good, The Bad & The Queen


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On Stage: Orchestra of Syrian Musicians

Blur's Damon Albarn has always been interested in music from different cultures. It resulted in several collaborations with African musicians and he also got to know the Syrian Orchestra that in the end played on the Gorillaz song 'White Flag'. The war in Syria tore the country apart including the orchestra and many of them had to leave the country and are now scattered across the globe. Together with his African Express group Albarn managed to get many of them together for a series of concerts that kicked off in Amsterdam.

Africa Express Presents the Orchestra of Syrian Musicians at Royal Theater Carré Amsterdam, June 22 2016

The concert is part of the Holland Festival in Amsterdam and takes place in the beautiful Royal Theater Carré. The musicians of the orchestra only had a few days to rehearse the music they will play tonight. To make it even more special a few hundred refugees have been invited for the concert. The crowd is a colourful mix of Holland Festival visitors, Blur and Damon Albarn fans, world music fans and people from countries like Syria and Iran. All that combined makes this night beforehand a success.

The orchestra consists of a string section and some traditional instruments most notably an Arabic flute, combined with a choir. Behind the choir a giant screen is showing visuals by Tammam Azzam and Jaber Al Azmeh, that are sometimes abstract but at other times represent the harsh reality of the war. First the orchestra plays a few pieces by itself before the first guests appear on stage.

One of them is Paul Weller who is playing a version of his big hit 'Wild Wood'. The sound isn't great tonight where you can hear the volume going up and down several times and clunky running around with microphones and chairs. It doesn't bother anyone for a bit. There are more guest appearances by people we probably never heard of but are known in the Arabic world. Faia Younan is singing beautifully, we can hear the amazing voice of Mounir Troudi and the sensational Noura Mint Seymali who is firing up the crowd.

There's even more! There's a hiphop performance by Bu Kolthoum, Eslam Jawaad and Malikah. Two African musicians, Bassekou Kouyate and Seckou Keita combine beautifully with the Arabic music. Kouyate can make his ngoni do anything he likes and the Keita is playing beautifully on his kora with a big smile.

Smiles is what we can see lot tonight. The musicians are smiling and are clearly enjoying this night. People in the crowd around me are smiling because of the wonderful music and I'm sure the refugees in the crowd are smiling, listening to the songs and music they know, forgetting about their misery for a while. And Damon Albarn is smiling and cheering at the side of the stage. It's clear he doesn't want to be in the spot lights tonight. It's not about him and he makes sure the spotlights are on the orchestra. Only once he's in the spotlights when he plays the guitar at the front of the stage for one of my favourite Blur songs 'Out Of Time'.

Rachid Taha is the one to close the night and you can leave that to him. He looks like he had a jolly day and is in for a little party. He's firing up the crowd and people are getting out of their chairs to dance and clap with him. So maybe it wasn't all that tight or well-organized tonight, but what can you expect when it's already an achievement getting all these people together? It's not the point anyway. It's great to see this wonderful musicians together and bringing all these different people together tonight, playing and enjoying music together, proving that music unites us all no matter what. As long as there's music there's hope; don't let them ever take that away from us.



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Top 10 Albums 2014

To be fair, I don't really care too much about year lists. They don't mean a lot, even though many music magazines aggregate them from many personal lists of people in the industry. But they aren't saying that much, especially when it comes to albums that are not in the top 3. At most the top 3 are albums that are generally considered favourable this year. But people tend to like those lists and ask about them. Since I'm a writer for FestivalInfo and ROAR E-Zine I also have to send in my top ten for their list. So without too many more words, here's mine. Have a great 2015! See you on the other side.

1. The War On Drugs - Lost In The Dream
Play in Spotify

2. Shaking Godspeed - Welcome Back Wolf
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3. Temples - Sun Structures
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4. Spoon - They Want My Soul
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5. Future Islands - Singles
Play in Spotify

6. Ty Segall - Manipulator

7. Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots
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8. Beck - Morning Phase
Play in Spotify

9. Fratsen - Caspar

10. TV On The Radio - Seeds
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Rock Werchter 2014 Day 1: Day Of Legends

This year is the fourtieth edition of the Rock Werchter festival in Belgium. In all those years it grew out from a small festival to a huge one with 80,000 visitors every day and the biggest headliners. This year the line-up looked better than ever, so we really couldn't stay home.

Rock Werchter 2014 Thursday, July 3 2014

After a smooth journey we find a queue at the camping ground, but fortunately it moves fast. Within no time our tents are up and we're sipping a well deserved cold beer in the sun. This way we also make it to the festival ground in time for the first band.



Radkey
The three Radke brothers surprised me a few weeks ago on the Best Kept Secret Festival and are the opening band on the huge main stage. But the three young men don't mind and play another convincing show. They bring their Ramones infused punk rock with a lot of energy and try to shrink the huge gap, the square Metallica ramp and pit causes. It's a shame that all the bands have to fight this pit where no one is allowed in yet. Radkey don't seem to mind and make a well deserved victory round on the ramp at the end of their set.



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Daptone Super Soul Revue
A two hour soul party follows with the best the Daptone Records label has to offer. We missed the beginning and the first few acts and enter the show at the moment where Charles Bradley makes his entry. The "Screaming Eagle of Soul" never lets down and brings his soul songs with all his heart. A bunch of flowers is thrown on the stage and the gentle singer is handing them out one by one to people at the front at the end of the show.



He's followed by the afro-beat band Antibalas. Fronted by the charismatic Duke Amayo, dressed and painted in bright colours, the band starts a dancing party and heats up the hot tent even more. The horns section all get a chance to show their stuff and the band know how to play the crowd.



After that it's Sharon Jones' turn, who will close this super soul show. And you can leave that to the small but powerful singer whose strong performance wraps everyone around her finger within no time. Backed up by her great band The Dap-Kings, she puts up a very good show. Although I'm still not sure what to think of her music, she's showing today what a great singer and performer she is.



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Miles Kane
Another great performer is of course Miles Kane. He has proven that many times. On this hot afternoon his show takes off maybe a bit slow, but after a few songs his hard work is paying off. The still fit crowd is coming alive and soon everyone is dancing to the catchy rock tunes. And so by the time Kane is playing his final song 'Don't Forget Who You Are' everyone is joining in for the "nanana" part.



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White Lies
The bright sun light doesn't look like the right environment for the dark songs of White Lies. The band never was really able to impress me on stage before, but today they actually play a good show. Of course the group has many hit songs that are scattered throughout the set. Somewhere in the middle it sounds like they are letting it slip away again as the attention of the crowd is fading. But then they pick it up and win back the willing crowd.



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Robert Plant And The Sensational Space Shifters
Many people have shown up to watch the legendary singer of Led Zeppelin. Robert Plant is in great shape and knows exactly what the crowd wants to hear. He is throwing around some Zeppelin songs, that sometimes get different arrangements with African influences which sound amazing. His voice is still quite good for his age and backed up by his great and tight band, just now and then you almost feel you're listening to that legendary band from the past. When they start off 'Whole Lot Of Love' a big roar rises from the crowd and the place is totally exploding. Plant himself is looking very pleased with this response and for a good reason. Sensational indeed.



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Damon Albarn
Hardly recovered from that, we find our way to the next legend. To me Damon Albarn is one of the best composers and musicians around. And he is showing that today, with songs from his entire career, Blur of course, but also The Good, The Bad & The Queen, Gorillaz and even Rocketjuice & The Moon. Naturally Albarn is playing many songs of his solo album Everyday Robots, which is a down tempo record, but full of tension. The Heavy Seas Of Love, his backing band, are doing a fine job at combining all these styles into a homogeneous entity. The moments where Albarn is sitting behind the piano all by himself are beautiful and when he's playing my favourite Blur song 'Out Of Time' it is even magical.



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Metallica
The big closing headline of today is of course Metallica. Many people have come to the main stage to see the big metal band play songs that have been requested by the fans. It turns into a greatest hits show with some fan favourites, that is not so much different from all their shows we have seen them play in the past. From our position the sound isn't really great, the drums are too loud in the mix, but this could just be the spot we're in. The only surprise in the show is that their are no fireworks. Still the visuals on the massive screens look great as does the impressive light show with tons of lasers. It's quite a spectacle for anyone seeing the band for the first time I'm sure. For anyone else who's not a real fan, it's nothing more than a solid rock show.



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And so this festival was off to a great start. We're still in great shape and that means we are going to drink a few more beers. Where the party at?

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Rock Werchter 2014 Day 2
Rock Werchter 2014 Day 3
Rock Werchter 2014 Day 4

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Damon Albarn's Beautiful Melancholia

Ever since he has been making music, Damon Albarn has treated us to many wonderful compositions. During his time with Blur it became clear that he is a gifted composer. Together with the unique guitar skills of Graham Coxon, a very good songwriter of his own, this resulted in some timeless songs, especially at the end of the band's lifespan. After that Albarn was always following his heart in Gorillaz, The Good The Bad & Queen, his operas and the many projects he was involved in. He's an interesting and versatile musician who now releases his first true solo album Everyday Robots.

Damon Albarn - Everyday Robots (Ronald Says 8 out of 10)

It may be surprising that he never released a solo album before, but Albarn never felt the need. He was able to ventilate all his musical ideas through the many project he is part of. And if it wasn't for producer Richard Russell it may have never happened. Albarn seems to feel quite happy in bands or other collaborations. But maybe this time his songs are even more personal, drawing inspiration from encounters or places in his life. Or simply thoughts that have been wandering in his mind. The songs feel as if he's dreaming out loud, kind of the way you see him sitting on a stool on the album cover.

Sometimes his songs are quite specific, like 'Mr. Tembo', the sad story about an elephant in Tanzania he once met. Other times he's pondering about our relation to technology nowadays in title track 'Everyday Robots':

"We are everyday robots on our phones In the process of getting home Looking like standing stones Out there on our own"

But always the songs have that typical Albarn sound and feel. The playfulness from Blur, the hiphop, relaxed electronic beats and sounds of Gorillaz, the melancholia of The Good The Bad & Queen, the African influences and gospel, they are all there. Not only does this album feel personal, it holds everything Albarn has brought with him from the past. It feels as if he's holding still for a moment, like many of us do hallway our life, looking back at his past, looking around at the state of the world. It makes him sad now and then, but not depressed. It may all be far from perfect, but there's always hope:

"If the world is too tall You can jump you won't fall You're in safe hands What the day will now give How those seeds will now live It's in your hands"

This album feels like the logical conclusion of what Damon Albarn has been about so far. At the same time it's a showcase of his skills and talent, the apparent ease and nonchalance of his songs. When you listen closely you'll notice how every note is there for a reason, every word has been given thought. Now he's moving on again and we can only speculate on what will be next, all we know is that it will be interesting. Slowly he's shaping up to become one of the most unique composers of his generation.

Listen to 'Everyday Robots' on Spotify.





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