| Reports
from the 12 bar. |
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Date: Wed, 4 Feb
1998
From: "Matthew Knights"
Subject: See Kimberley
Play
Robyn wore the salamander
shirt for the final 12Bar show last night. If anyone taped the
show I'd welcome an e-mail off list as I would really enjoy listening
to it again. I felt last night's show was the perfect Robyn gig.
As an old 'Softie' the biggest thrill was seeing Robyn and Kimberley
head off into the night after their soundcheck, presumably for
an evening meal somewhere and anticipating seeing Kimberley play
for the first time since 1981. (Incidentally, I can't imagine
R&K dining at McDonalds - I wonder where would they go to
eat out?)
Suzy Hug jumped
on stage about 9pm and charmed and entertained the neutral crowd,
silencing the noisy element with a few intelligent words before
her set began. Jake from Homer backed her up on guitar. By the
final song she had won over the whole audience with a very good
support act. As she left the room I spotted Kimberley standing
by the door congratulating her.
Big R took the
stage about 10.15pm with Lets Go Thundering and followed this with
52 Stations, Cheese Alarm, Trilobyte, that Furs song (News of the
Day?) and others before switching to Telecaster. Robyn filled his
set with plenty of stream of conciousness ad libbing chat. Kimberley
joined in for the last 20 minutes and they played Queen of Eyes,
Face of Death and - my absolute favourite - Insanely Jealous ( I
felt smug at this point having shouted out "How about IJ!" a little
earlier). They played Waterloo Sunset as an encore. Robyn enjoyed
himself and left the stage with a cheerful"See you in July".
Mattrom: woj <woj@smoe.org>
>Subject: a note
from Robyn
>got the following
from antwoman this evening: Robyn has asked if this message from
him can be 'circulated'
>>Apologies ofr
the mouldy gig at the 12 Bar. The people upstairs wouldn't shut
up, so I shut down. Normal service will be resumed ASAP. Love,
Robyn
>anyone who was
at the 12-bar care to explain?
I wasn't at the
gig, but I know Robyn's gripe, and it seems to be common at the
12 Bar. The 12 Bar is a TINY place. If you took a two-car garage,
and slapped a balcony in the top, stuffed a stage in one corner,
and a soundboard in a closet where the water heater should go, you've
got an idea of the 12 Bar. The stage area is actually high enough
that the performers are looking at eye level with the people seated
at the tables in the balcony (especially a tall guy like Robyn).
Put fifty people in there and it's crowded. Put 150 people in there
and it's jammed. The sound of people having ordinary conversation
becomes a roar. When I went to see Robyn and Tim at the 12 Bar in
August last year, Robyn came out onstage before Tim's set with a
tin of tomatoes, and made the announcement that he was holding a
tin of tomatoes and he didn't know why,but he did know that Tim
was coming out on stage followed by himself. Thclub is small, and
the shows are acoustic, and both he and Tim could hear all the conversation
everyone else is making during the show, so please keep it down
cos it blows their concentration. If the audience members couldn't
be considerate enough to keep it down during the songs, then they'd
stop until the audience got the talking out of their system. We
did. Great show.
Look after yerselves...Doc
: Tue, 27 Jan
1998 11:16:05 -0000
From: "Matthew Knights"
<mknights@harrywasp.prestel.co.uk>
Subject: Re: a note
from Robyn
Robyn gave a strong
performance and the talking from upstairs was only a problem in
the first part of his set. I was downstairs and the talking from
upstairs was loud, intrusive and persistent. Curiously, the noisy
ones were quiet during the Homer support set but came to life
as soon as Big R appeared. I couldn't see them but they sounded
like media types - don't ask me to explain, I love my prejudices
- and they conversed in avery animated way, over the music, as
though they were at a party.
Naturally, Robyn
was doing his acoustic stuff first and his poor Martin couldn't
compete. He completely lost it somewhere around his third song
saying "You'll find it much more comfortable outside, the people
down here have bought tickets you know, this isn't a Rock venue.
This is FOLK music". Robyn was dour and fierce and I could sense
suppressed rage. He responded by firing off his songs in quick
succession without any ad-libbing or stories at all. His plea
for silence had no immediate effect but the talking did diminish
a while later. When it came to the electric section,he really
cranked up the amp volume, using the power of the telecaster to
enforce silence on the audience. In my opinion, no apology is
necessary as Robyn's performance was solid and professional.
Matt
There was a busload
of folks there from Not Europe, whowere more concerned with impressing
each other than listening to music (or allowing others to do so).
I suspect that most of them were more used to conducting conversation
over several hundred yards of cornfield rather than several inches
of echoey London club.
Despite a perfectly
polite and reasonable request from Robyn, the chatter continued,
hence one of his more perfunctory performances. Not that the chattering
ghastlies would have noticed.
Setlist something
like:
JT
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to Robyn Page.
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