大象传媒

Giant Monopoly and the Blue Angel Acoustic Caf茅

The Clock Tower, St Albans

Sunday 28 September 2008

SAASH had organised a concert at the Clock Tower in St Albans to provide a musical backdrop to the giant game of Monopoly taking place in the town.

The music was from four of the Blue Angel Acoustic Caf茅鈥檚 best acts as well as from Mr. Angel himself, the self-styled king of St Albans acoustic music, Mr Bill Johnson.

Indeed, he started off proceedings in fine form, despite it being only 12.30 and not rock 'n' roll o鈥檆lock! The first song summed up the general mood 'Lazing on a Sunny Afternoon'.

Bill then played a couple of originals, including his ace pop hit 'If I Could See You' and 'Lazy' which seemed quite appropriate, seeing as he slept in!

Blue Acoustic Cafe at the Clock Tower

PG Rated

Second up was myself. I was very nervous especially as loads of family and friends had come down to see me for the first time. I was also conscious of the fact that this was a family occasion and so I had to cut out all my usual profanities! So it was to be a PG rated set for the PGs - if not I鈥檇 be going straight to jail without collecting my 拢200!

I tried out new songs like 'Superman鈥檚 Head' (a warning about all of the dangers of mixing action figures with (and in) spong mincers) and 'Scooby Doo', which I did for the little 'uns in the audience.

I also played 'Only UFOs Take the Insane' (haven鈥檛 you always wondered why they only abduct mad Americans?) and the song of mine that the late John Peel (ex Radio 1 DJ and general legend) liked 鈥� 'Ballad of the Peshwari naan'.

My skater friend John described my performance as totally random and that I was his new hero (well he had had 17 double espressos that morning!). With the job done, I could relax and listen to the rest of the show.

Unique

Next up was St Albans own Nick Drake, Mr. J Starck. It is always a joy to hear J Starck with his unique finger picking technique and his melancholic tales of love gone wrong in the city. He played tracks from his new album, as yet untitled, 'Take it While You Can' and 'Better this Day' as well as Drake cover 鈥� 'River Man' and that old cult classic 'The Letter' which was originally a hit for the Box Tops in the 60s (their lead singer was the enigmatic Alex Chilton)

Next was local troubadour Nick Stephenson. He played tracks from his forthcoming album, which is being produced by Bill Johnson, 鈥� 'Sober Up' ( an ace Grateful Dead folk rockin' stomp of a drinking song), and 'Happy Alone'. He also played a cool cover from Bob Dylan's 'Blood on the Tracks' 'You鈥檙e Gonna Make Me Lonesome When You Go'). He was rockin' out as much as one man can with an acoustic guitar, and I think the album should be well worth a listen.

Success

Last up was the yee ha Grand听Ole Opre finale with High Chaparall and their humorous brand of country pickin' feet stompin' bluegrass. Apparently they hail from Tooting and Ipswich which in itself seems a dangerous combination. They played a selection of standards such as 'Rocky Top' and 'Ring of Fire' and also a few humorous tracks of their own 'Does my Ring Hurt your Finger鈥� (a dusty tale of marital infidelity) and 'I鈥檓 Carrying Around a Whole Lot of Anger'.

The sun came out, the kids where dancing, people 鈥渕onopolied鈥� (is that a real word?) and the bluebirds were flying over yonder - a definite success by SAASH and the Blue Angel Acoustic Caf茅!