Johnny Clegg is finally in Melbourne and Jools and I have just seen him playing at the Dallas Brooks Hall {thatch does happy dance… actually thatch danced for the whole second bracket}.
Talk about serendipty, I was at a meeting with Mark from drumdrumwatertoys discussing websites and music (hmm… go figure) and while we were paying up I happened to look up at the posters on the wall. This is usually a source of great annoyance because I usually find someone who would have been worth going to see andd it is usually for a date that was a week ago.
There on the wall was a poster announcing that Johhny Clegg was playing in Melbourne and it was for a date in the future {insert more happy dance here}. Sodding unbelievable. Mark and I parted company… quickly and I scurried around to the nearest ticket place and parted with a bunch of money and they gave me two tickets for the concert. Jools was happy, Thatch was happy and presumably so was Johnny Clegg.
Killer band and good sound (just not loud enough).It’s taken 25 years for him to get here from South Africa and Jools and I have waited that long to see this guy play live. In 1982 we heard “Scatterlings of Africa (only short sample)” and it was all over, the band were amazing to listen to. ( If you rummage through my walkman CD’s you will always find Scatterlings somewhere on it after all these years).
Jools (who took all the photos this time) blogged about this a couple of weeks ago when we got the tickets.
“And was it worth it?” I hear you all ask.
Oh Yes {insert even more happy dance here}. It wasn’t long enough (have you noticed how the really good concerts never are?) but it was a brilliant show..
Highlights?
- Some of the older songs have very cool new arrangements.
- Johnny Clegg’s Parker guitars (it’s a toy thing)
- assassination squads and band meetings. (You really had to be there)
- A long and fascinating rave about the links between mitochondrial DNA and the song Scatterlings.
The good news is that he will be back. He promised.
By the way if you ring the Adelaide Ticket office after walking out of the Melbourne show (just wanting to check if there were two seats left…) they dont answer, but the airlines do.
Aren’t obsessions wonderful.
UPDATE: And here is Jools post with a few more piccies. {insert more happy dance here}