Doing cool things...

"You should write a blog, you do loads of cool things", a friend said to me yesterday. And so, because yes I would jump off a cliff if she told me to, I am.

Sadly, it's not really true about the cool things - I'm usually in my jimjams by about half seven - but I'd just mentioned I was going to A Tribute to Nico at the Royal Festival Hall, which I'd seen quite a lot of hype for. Unfortunately, I imagine it'll get pretty mixed reviews - the audience didn't seem to fully go with it, mostly because it was pretty challenging to work out who anybody was, and you can only enthuse over complete strangers for so long. The trouble with tortured musicians communicating exquisitely through their art is that it doesn't help all that much with the practical side of things. A German family came up to me in the interval and asked if I could explain what was happening and if John Cale had been on yet, and as he was pretty integral to the whole thing I don't know what hope the Fiery Furnaces, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, or Liz Green had. I don't think I helped the family much, they started rambling on about Nico's importance in "the Factory", and although I'm almost certain that they meant this in the Warhol sense, they were so puzzled that it's possible they'd mistaken the whole thing for an evening dedicated to an old pal from their days in the steel works.

Highlights were:
1. Guillemots being totally brilliant despite the shouts of "Who are you?" from the audience.
2. The fantastic Nick Franglen of Lemon Jelly grinning away as part of Cale's band, and the way the two of them looked like they were great pals.
3. Lisa Gerrard in a stunning dress-and-shoes combo that made it literally impossible to walk like a normal human being.
4. Liz Green - whose name I only worked out after a bit of googling this morning - who is quite brilliant.
5. The Band Aid style singalong at the end. And a guy sitting behind me having the exact same thought and shouting out "Do They Know It's Christmas!" as they started.

So, it was an interesting night - there were some very good bits, but overall it didn't really hang together all that well, and I'm glad I had a free ticket. The trouble with tributes is that they are always missing the thing that's so special about the tribute-worthy one, and everybody involved - while they may be brilliant in their own right - doesn't actually get to do anything much.

I think I might have preferred, just slightly, sitting at home listening to 'The Velvet Underground and Nico' in my pyjamas.