| Author | Message | ||
     Luke Member Username: Lukar Post Number: 1 Registered: 10-2006 |
http://www.robertforster.net/rfnews.html Robert Forster is playing the above titled gig in London on July 13th. Can anyone tell me what is meant bt '15 Songs About London' Is it going to be covers of London themed songs, songs he has written about London, or something totally different? There is no doubt I will try to get a ticket, but it would be nice to know beforehand. Thanks... | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 161 Registered: 05-2005 |
so I guess Darlinghurst Nights is out of the question but I'd love to Robert doing 'The Lambeth Walk' (Oi!) | ||
| Jerry Clark Member Username: Jerry Post Number: 1022 Registered: 08-2004 |
Waterloo Sunset Victoria That's about it. At short notice. | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 192 Registered: 10-2006 |
On Tallulah..I'm sure St James Park comes in a lyric..have to play the album again...'You Tell Me' or 'Cut it Out'...would RF do 'Streets of London'..probably...I'm sure the 'Thames'is in a lyric somewhere as well..I'm sure 'Here Comes the City' would fit, though it was written in Germany... | ||
| Pádraig Collins Member Username: Pádraig_collins Post Number: 3605 Registered: 05-2005 |
"And London no longer exists." | ||
| Geoff Holmes Member Username: Geoff Post Number: 685 Registered: 05-2005 |
Maybe a Smiths cover??? | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 211 Registered: 05-2005 |
I'm guessing he'll play ... When people are dead The house Jack Kerouac built The wrong road (a Grant song) IMHO it's going to be Liberty Belle / Tallulah songs - both recorded in London with one or two from Warm nights / Oceans apart - also recorded in London | ||
| Duncan Hurwood Member Username: Duncan_h Post Number: 110 Registered: 05-2005 |
Maybe he can do a series after this, starting with "Eastbourne songs" from the bandstand. | ||
| Shane Greentree Member Username: Realinspectorshane Post Number: 23 Registered: 03-2007 |
Some of the songs will probably have an abstract connection. This is the reasons he gave for most of the '15 Songs About Sydney': Darlinghurst Nights: Obvious. Part Company: While the music had been written in London a while previous, the lyrics came to Robert while in Sydney. The 'there's her handwriting/that's the way she writes' line came from him commenting on a note that Lindy had left behind one day. Spring Rain: The clip was filmed in Sydney. Lee Remick: This is where the Dylan/Playboy/Monkees story was told. Your Turn My Turn: Recorded in Sydney. Dive For Your Memory--I'm Alright: Ditto. I've Been Looking For Somebody: Inspired by walking through Sydney streets at night. Born To A Family: Robert's parents were married in Sydney. Clouds--Love Is A Sign: See above... though he mentioned Clouds was the last song he wrote for 16 Lovers Lane. Rock And Roll Friend: Another one inspired by Sydney experiences... trying to imagine his lifestyle as seen by his then girlfriend who followed a normal 'day' schedule rather than his 'night' schedule. | ||
| Jonathan Evans Member Username: Jon Post Number: 370 Registered: 04-2005 |
I wish he'd written 15 songs about Widnes, it might have encouraged him north of Milton Keynes. Cheers Jon | ||
| Kate Member Username: Kate Post Number: 3 Registered: 08-2005 |
Anyone got any idea if there's a support act tonight and what time Robert's likely to be on? The venue don't seem to know! | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 213 Registered: 05-2005 |
Doors open at 7pm so apart from that I dunno but my guess is 8.30pm. I think Robert likes an early night these days. | ||
| E Weidermeier Member Username: Eweidermeier Post Number: 10 Registered: 05-2006 |
What a great night! The 15 songs were: 1) I Need Two Heads 2) Cattle and Cane 3) Part Company 4) Spring Rain 5) Spirit of a Vampyre 6) Clark Sisters 7) Love is a Sign 8) The Whole of The Law (Only Ones cover) 9) I Can Do 10) She Sang About Angels 11) Here Comes A City 12) Darlinghurst Nights 13) (New song - not sure about exact title) I Love Myself and I Always Have 14) Demon Days 15) Pandamus ----- 16) Danger in the Past | ||
| E Weidermeier Member Username: Eweidermeier Post Number: 11 Registered: 05-2006 |
A review of the night: http://fireescapetalking.blogspot.com/20 10/07/i-love-myself-and-i-always-have.ht ml | ||
| C Gull Member Username: C_gull Post Number: 162 Registered: 05-2005 |
It was indeed excellent. Highlights for me were Sang about Angels and Darlinghurst Nights and of course Cattle and Cane brought a tear to the eye. Good to meet a few of you in the pub beforehand aswell and the early finish meant a quick dash and was home by midnight so apologies if did not say Good Night to anyone. | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 160 Registered: 11-2004 |
Yeah - great set. It must have been very difficult to do as Robert must have had to think a lot about introductions and links to each song. I loved the new song 'I Love Myself and I Always Will' - amusing, stylish and foppish. I also loved Roberts tail of always eating the same chinese dish when they lived in South Norwood, London. Only to never eat it again after it gave him food poisioning on the eve of their recording sessions for Oceans Apart. | ||
| Richard May Member Username: Richm Post Number: 1 Registered: 07-2010 |
I really enjoyed Tuesday's gig at the Jazz Cafe. It was good to see Robert perform "I need two heads" as it's always been a favourite of mine. Did anyone here make it to the Rough Trade gig? | ||
| Charles Coy Member Username: Coy Post Number: 194 Registered: 10-2006 |
..I recall he did 'I love myself and I always have' in Melbourne at the Toff earlier this year...Matt's call of amusing, stylish and foppish...a solid appraisal.It has to be on the next release.. | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 214 Registered: 05-2005 |
Robert Forster London and environs round up 2010 Part 1: 15 songs about London. Jazz Cafe, Camden. Circa 9.00pm 13 July 2010 Support act was Brooke Parrott but couldn't be heard above the din in the venue. Robert Forster descends the stairs from rockstar heaven for an audience with the mortals. Starts by depressing expectations - 'not sure how well this will work etc.' and then goes on to confound himself through a chronological catalogue delve. 1. I need two heads First song written in London when he and Grant first came over in 1979/80. Specifically in Highgate and recorded in Scotland. 2. Living in Charles Sq, Ladbroke Grove two years after. Wrote a lot of the Before Hollywood songs here, which don't translate well acoustically so it's a Grant number: Cattle and Cane. 3. End of 1982 living at Fulham Park road with assorted members of the Birthday Party entourage. Started the song in London and finished it in Australia - Part Company. 4. Spring Rain - no into. Outro - I wrote that in the 3rd place I lived. 5. Robert lived in London from 1982 to 1987. Lived for two and a half years in Highbury Grange, Hibury Barn in the attic of a four storey house previously populated by one Val Doonican which Robert took to be a good omen at the time. Had the music of a song for a while but had no lyrics. Reading the Guardian in Soho when he came across the obituary of Elsa Lancaster, wife of English actor Charles Lawton. She was in 'The Bride of Frankenstein'. She had just died in a clinic outside of L.A. which means this number was 'Spirit of a Vampire'. 6. Clarke Sisters - no intro. 7. The last song he wrote in the house that Val Doonican built was finished in Australia. 'Love is a sign'. 8. The next song was an 'Only Ones' cover - a South London band. Grant and Robert were huge fans of the first two albums, especially the second - an all time favourite. Went to see them play in the first song (that's 1979/80) in the Electric Ballroom, along with bands like the Gang of Four, The Fall, The Cramps and the Raincoats. The Only Ones weren't great - they were a bit too rock. Grant and Robert having seen Gang of Four and The Fall weren't really into rock. Anyhow, played 'The whole of the law'. 9. After 'Love is a sign' the GB's went to Brisbane. Foward a few years and Robert was checking into a hotel in Hamstead. Walked to a studio in West Hamstead every day for six weeks fuelled by Coffee and almond croissants. The studio was owned by one Edwyn Collins and the first album ever recorded there was 'Warm nights'. A couple of months later Robert was back in London doing promo work for the album and he blagged his way into a record company only gig at the Serpentine Gallery - Patti Smith. He wrote a poem after the show and put it to music two months later. 'I can do'. followed by 10. 'When she sang about angels' 11. 'When she sang about angels' was written in 1996 and came out on 'Friends of Rachel Worth' which was recorded in Portland, Oregon, USA. The next one - 'Bright yellow, bright orange' was recorded in Sydney (Melbourne?). After BYBO, they were thinking of doing something different. Mark Wallis was the only big time producer who had worked with the first incarnation of the GB's on 16LL. Mark had set up his own studio in Lower Norwood, a rough part of town. The GB's had the studio booked for the weekend following their Barbican show in London. Chopped duck intervened and the weekend studio time was reduced to one day or most of one day - Grant, Adele and Glenn were flying back to Australia at 7pm so had to be gone by four. The six hours recording done that day were the best recording the Go-betweens ever did. The song they managed to pin down was ... 'Here comes a city'. 12. ‘Darlinghurst nights’. No intro. 13. Next up, the London premiere of a song written last year – ‘I love myself and I always will’. Robert was thinking of concept love albums along the lines of ‘For him’, ‘For her’ and a love album to himself came to mind. Nobody’s done it. How would ‘I love myself and I always will’ be as an album title? D’ya think it would fly? I’d be killed by the critics. “I march to my own beat. With banners in the street.” Yes, indeed. 14. Having done ‘Here comes a city’, the GBs returned to London a couple of months later and did the album ‘Oceans apart’. Grant passed away in 2006 and Robert came back to London in2007 and recorded the ‘Evangelist’ again with Mark Wallis. ‘Demon days’ 15. Returning to earlier doubts Robert says he didn’t know at the outset of the show whether the format would work or not tonight ... so thank you. Presumably, then he was satisfied that it had. ‘Pandamus’. 16. Encore – ‘Danger in the Past’. 10.25pm close. Best – ‘Love is a sign’, ‘Danger in the Past’. Worst – ‘Spirit of a Vampire’. | ||
| Randy Adams Member Username: Randy_adams Post Number: 2409 Registered: 03-2005 |
Thanks, fsh, that's great reading! | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 161 Registered: 11-2004 |
WOW thanks Fsh - how on earth you remembered such detail I will never know (unless you had 'accidentally' brought a recording device along with you to the venue?). After reading that the evening came back alive for me. I did attend the Rough Trade In Store gig in London. Unfortunately I arrived at 6:45 so I missed half of the set. There was a bigger crowd than I expected (about 60 people). I caught Demon Days, (another track from the new album which I'm still trying to remember) and Cattle and Cain. Robert introduced Cattle and Cain by saying that he wasn't going to do an encore as such and he remarked that people 'have a lot to do on a Friday evening'. He then thanked the crowd several times and spoke to a line of enthusiastic fans shortly after coming off stage. I'd love to see a full set list if anybody has one? | ||
| Matt Ellis Member Username: Matt_ellis Post Number: 162 Registered: 11-2004 |
Looks like my wish has been granted! Here is the setlist for Rough Trade East: http://www.robertforster.net/reviews/rf2 0100716.html | ||
| fsh Member Username: Fsh Post Number: 215 Registered: 05-2005 |
Matt wrote: how on earth you remembered such detail I will never know (unless you had 'accidentally' brought a recording device along with you to the venue?). No recording device other than a pen. I've recorded a few gigs over the years on Pro Walkmans and minidisc and the like and I always found it such a royal pain in the ass: it detracts from enjoying gigs. That said the Go-betweens are a very well documented live band, better documented than many of their 'successful' 80's comtemporaries. |