London 99 Shows & CD-Rs.

[Warren McKay <wjm>]

Hello All,
I haven't posted to the B-List since my reviews of the Patti Dylan Australian T
our
in September 98 so I think it's about time i did something about this instead o
f lurking.

Spent a good part of 1999 in the UK/Europe & a year ago this week attended the
two London Patti gigs at the Kentish Town Forum in London the 1st & 2nd of July
.
As a lot of the places i stayed at weren't connected to the net I don't know if
 these two
gigs received a lot of coverage on the list.

This will be the first of two posts concerning these gigs ,the other will conce
ntrate on the
2nd gig & scoring a seat next to a famous music celebrity who just happens to b
e one
of my all time favourites.

I arrived early at the venue as I had arranged to meet up with girlfriends outs
ide so
we could get something to eat before the show. We walked up the high street to
a cafe,
did our thing & slowly made our way back to the venue. The girls wanted to get
some
fags so they popped into a shop to purchase said items while I waited outside.

While doing so who should come strolling down the street on his own some but Le
nny Kaye.
I was lucky enough to spend some time after gigs on both PSG tours of Australia
 chatting with
him & other band members. I was rather taken back by the fact he remembered me.
We spoke of these tours & it seems that the whole band would like to make a thi
rd tour
in the nearseeable future as they enjoy Australia immensely. I can't remember a
ll the details
of our conversation but one thing I do remember is being told that Dylan actual
ly rang Patti
himself to offer her the spot on the Australian Zealand Tour.

I enquired about the then unheard new album to which he replied you'll hear som
e of it tonight
& when you do I hope you like it.

The girls came out from the shop, I said my goodbyes then strolled on down to t
he Forum.
I usually tape every show I see but my DAT died in the ass a hour after taping
the Rolling
Stones gig in Groningen Holland so this was to be a DAT free gig in a long whil
e.
Rather enjoyed it as I didn't have to worry about being caught & ejected from
the premises.Funny enough I was to pick up the hopefully repaired machine the v
ery next
morning with the 2nd gig to be a test run.

After entering the Forum, that is after many others & myself had been frisked p
lus subjected
to a bag search we made our way to our downstairs seats to find they didn't act
ually exist but
were in fact general admission. As the majority of folks were still at the bars
 buying drinks
at that stage we easily found a spot right in front of the stage. As the joint
started to fill up I
noticed here in London as in Sydney that a good portion of the crowd were under
 thirty
but of course the over thirty's were out in force as well!

The gig attracted people from all walks of life, suits rubbed shoulders with fo
lks who looked
like no closet could hold them. I distinctly remember feeling that the atmosphe
re on the floor
area was like being in one giant lounge room, with out dating myself I think we
 used to call this
feeling good vibes! We chatted with fellow Patti fans from all over the globe.

There was no support act just Patti & the band. I'm not that great at describin
g gigs in
great detail in print so I'll just list the songs & comments Patti made to the
first night audience.
The lights dimmed, cheers erupted & Patti walked onto the stage & started the n
ights
entertainment with
Piss Factory
Dead City
Which started out with Patti yelling London!
Persuasion
Patti informing us it was a new song, it appealed to me straight away & is
still my favourite cut from Jung Ho. She went on to say that they were mixing
the album here in London. Voices from the crowd asked when is it being
released, soon she says following this up with I promise you it's a great album
.
Redound Beach
Pissing In A River
Patti on finishing this song gave us a little antidote about performing PIA Riv
er
in London in 1975 then corrects herself changing it to1976. Seems she had troub
le
hitting the notes on this number way back then, stating she did the best she co
uld
but 20 years on & finally she can sing it so thanks London for giving her anoth
er
chance. This leads into saying so don't ever give up, don't worry about what pe
ople
say, just keep at it & you'll eventually get there
Boy Cried Wolf
Beneath The Southern Cross
Grateful
She played guitar on this lovely song making a mistake at the start at which
a rather loud whoops emitted from Ms Smith
Ghost Dance
A humorous moment when some wag in the audience yells out Gloria to which
another audience member replied 'No it's not, it's Patti"!
Wicked Messenger
A short lull after this while Patti rearranges her hair, which causes her to sa
y in a not
all that convincing English accent "You'll have to excuse me I'm fixing me hair
".
Dancing Barefoot
Don't Say Nothing
Free Money
More motherly advice about drinking more water. After this number there is a bi
g
discussion between Patti & an audience member, turns out he has given her a
winning lottery ticket......for the princely sum of 5 UK Pounds roughly about U
S$3
Things get a bit hectic up front at this point so Patti has to do a brothers &
sisters
speech about calming down as she doesn't want anybody to get hurt
About A Boy
For me IMHO the one & only low point of the night, this tedious song always
over stays it's welcome, i could think of many other Patti gems that could be
inserted here instead. Looking around at this point I noticed others seemed
restless also & made dashes to the bar & or rest rooms
Because The Night
Wing
People Have The Power
She tells us she co wrote this song with Sonic Fred Smith & he would
have liked nothing better to know that we are singing along.
Encore
Land Gloria
We are informed at the start that Patti is pleased to see that London has
not lost it's spirit.

A great gig with a really appreciative audience. We hung around the Forum after
wards
talking to others & all agreed that it was a good return to London. Some voiced
 that they
expected a special guest like John Cale who had joined the group on-stage in 19
96 but it
wasn't to be. A number of people had talked non Patti fans into attending this
night
& the ones I spoke to afterwards were very impressed indeed.

The next few weekends were spent searching the flea markets of London looking f
or tapes
of this gig as one can buy last weeks major gigs quite readily the next week bu
t all I found
was a tape of the Glastonbury performance.

A week before leaving London for Australia I was given the contact address of
someone who apparently did tape this gig. When I tried to contact this person t
hey
were away so tried again on my return to Sydney.

I was luckier with the 2nd attempt but found that this particular person does n
ot trade
but only sells his product so I brought 10 2CD- R sets which all found homes.
Over the months I lost contact with this bloke but recently he wrote to me aski
ng if I wanted
some more, so a further 10 are about to land down under.

The sound on the CD's is excellent, contains the complete show from go to whoa
& there is
minimal audience noise. The cover artwork all has to do with the actual show.

If anyone is interested in this CD-R all I am asking is what they cost me, I wi
ll foot the
postage to where ever. For all enquiries please contact me privately.

One last thing if my old trading partners Mark F of SF & Derek L of NY see this
 please
drop me a line as I have lost your address's due to a PC crash.

Bye for now,
Waz From Oz