The Incomparable JC

No … not that one … although I did spot a couple of (absent) people after the world ended at 6pm on Saturday who’d been whisked heavenwards by the RAPTURE  …

I do find it incomprehensible still (you’d think I’d have learnt by now) that there are those who actually believe such nonsense. The Earth is still flat, the world was created in seven days, evolution is a creation by non-believers and that nowhere – in the billions of galaxies that swirl around us – is there anywhere but here that may possibly nurture Life …

No … not him … the other JC. I couldn’t decide whether or not to get tickets to see him in Brighton but thankfully Tim bought me one. There’s always that fear that your youthful role-models and heroes may disappoint – they may be past it, may revel in nostalgia or, worst of all, simply pander to expectations.

No chance at all with John Cale – none at all. Musically the gig was faultless. The Man, at 69, on keyboards with THAT voice, two other keyboard players, drums, a dazzlingly talented lead guitarist, 3 violins and a cello are hardly a conventional band line-up but – my God they delivered. I wept through 2 songs, danced to a few and was jaw-droppingly stunned by others. There was funk, country, rock’n’roll, gospel and orchestral – a nod of course to Velvet Underground and even one to Kraftwerk – but most of all it was about lyrics and songs.

It was a concert of great dynamics and surprises, of the occasionally familiar and the brand new. Any artist who can successfully pull off a song’s chorus of …

‘Afghanistan, Afghanistan,
Whatever happened to you?’

… followed by one of Thomas’s most profound poems, set to music …

‘Do not go gentle into that good night,
Do not go gentle into that good night …
Rage, rage against the dying of the light’

… is, by any standards, incomparable. Absolutely brilliant so thank you Mr Cale – substance, accessibility and wonderfully intoxicating. If you get the chance – just go – you may not be fortunate enough to have a Tim who over-rides your unjustified hesitation.

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