Brighton - 16 August 2005

[Andrew F Wilson <andrewfwilson>]

Patti beamed radiantly as she came on stage with her band at the
Brighton Dome on Tuesday evening.  This is usually a seated venue, but
today the front stall seats had been removed to make a large standing
area.  There is a good sized stage, but there was no screen or
projection in tonight's show.  Lenny, JD, Tony and Tom took up their
usual places.  One difference was that Tony's keyboards were decorated
with paper lettering saying ELVIS LIVES.

Patti welcomed everyone, picked up a paperback of 'Early Work', and
launched into a fluent reading of Piss Factory.

Next was a joyful version of Redondo Beach.  This seems an inevitable
song in Brighton, as it is a beach sort of place.  When I first heard
the song in the mid-seventies I imagined Redondo Beach would be like
an English seaside town.  I did visit the place one day in 1981 (only
because of the song) and found it was not like that at all.

Patti took up her acoustic guitar and sang a beautiful version of
Beneath the Southern Cross.  We were standing front centre - my
daughter Maddie had the very centre front-row place, so you can
imagine what sort of evening she had - giving us the experience of
looking up at Patti above us, like the Statue of Liberty.

She held onto her guitar for the next number, an improvisation to her
own accompaniment.  This was a song to "Andy", the tour planner,
urging him to make sure that when he was planning to send her off to
Iceland, Russia and Finland, he still remembered to send her to play
in Brighton.  This was received with great amusement by the audience
as they gradually realised what Patti was singing about.  The
improvisation then segued into My Blakean Year.  Lenny went back to
his green Strat for this one, having broken a string on his acoustic
guitar during the previous number.

Free Money started languidly with a shimmering guitar part from Lenny.
 The song achieves the remarkable feat of being one of Patti's best
slow numbers and one of her greatest fast songs.  Terrific and
exhilarating, as usual.

Lenny now took up a bass guitar.  A confused roadie also offered a
bass to Tom, who at first appeared too polite to refuse, but finally
did so.  Patti was now sufficiently relaxed to tell a story -
speculating about the effect of chocolate on the local seagulls.  The
introduction to the song was played with Tony on keyboards, but
wrongfooted Patti.  "Where's my note?", she asked.  Tony gave it to
her again, and the song continued;  a lovely performance that had
Patti smiling happily as she caught all the right notes at the end.

A change of pace was afoot as Patti took up her sunburst Strat.  25th
Floor started slowly with some great feedback and she gave the song
its due.  This was followed by Cash, a second song from the Trampin'
album.

Something in the air prompted Patti to speculate on the wisdom of
having eaten beans on toast.  She then pursued what she called "an
easy way to get applause", by reciting her English, Irish and Welsh
ancestry.

Next was Ain't It Strange. This has been my favourite song since I
heard it first on Radio Ethiopia.  It never fails to bring a tingle to
the back of my neck.  I could listen to this one all night.

Patti then introduced "an American folk song" and the band went into
their 40th anniversary version of Like a Rolling Stone.  Lenny played
a red Strat for this one, and sang the third verse.  Patti did better
than usual at remembering words of a new song, just missing a few at
the start of the second verse.  The audience roared out most of the
words in any case, in the first major sing-a-long of the evening.

There was a brief pause.  A roadie again offered a bass guitar to Tom
- but he again declined.  Patti then spoke of the other-worldliness of
Mr Verlaine, his ability to travel through time to 2007, and the
discovery of the 14th planet on Valentine's day.  This whimsy
eventually led into an extremely well-received run through Dancing
Barefoot.  Patti stayed fully shod, but mimed various ideas to the
audience during the instrumental section.

Patti then took up a clarinet and drew the band slowly into Seven Ways
of Going.  Another dreamy and other-worldly performance.

Tom finally accepted a bass guitar at this point, and Tony played
keyboards for Because the Night.  The band played it straight and
Patti did not even forget the words.

Not Fade Away started with Tom Verlaine playing Television-like riffs,
before slipping into the familiar tune.  Patti played harmonica for a
while and slipped into the familiar rap about "love one another".  As
the song ends the band goes straight into People Have the Power, the
audience sings along enthusiastically and the concert ends on a high.

After long and enthusiastic applause, Patti and the band returned for
a two-song encore.  Tom played keyboards, with a life-size cut-out of
Elvis behind him, as Tony sang One Night With You, in tribute to the
King who died on this day in 1977.  Patti sang a small part of the
chorus only, as this was a showcase for a very happy looking Tony.

To finish, Patti started a familiar tale of a boy called Johnny.  Only
tonight, in deference to Brighton, Johnny was wearing
slightly-too-tight swimming trunks.  After that slightly odd start the
movie kept moving as planned and Land segued eventually into Gloria. 
As Johnny was contemplating the party Patti suddenly threw off a
terrific mime of Gloria "leaning on the parking meter".  Only two
seconds long - but a marvellous moment.  The audience sang its heart
out and the end of the concert was a wonderful climax, with no
let-down afterwards.  We went out happy into the night.

Kind regards


Andrew