Aladdin Sane Live at Royal Festival Hall

I have been a big fan of David Bowie ever since THAT appearance on Top of The Pops in 1972 and I was lucky enough tp see him live a little later on the Ziggy Stardust tour.

Even so, I was not immediately interested in seeing Aladdin Sane Live. Part of the reason ws that this was billed as an "reimagining" and the other part was that Aladdin Sane was never one of my favourite Bowie albums as I felt is was a collection of songs that lacked a coherent theme or style.

But I still had plenty of credit left on Southbank Centre account and so I took the plunge and paid £50 for seat N9 in the stalls. I would not have paid that much if it was my own money.

Unsurprisingly most of the audience looked as though they were there in 1973 when Aladdin Sane came out. I remember it cost me £2.38 and it was the most expensive album at that time, the excuse being the gatefold sleeve.

The format of the show was quite simple and effective. All the songs on Aladdin Sane were played, but not in the album order, with a series of guest singers performing a couple of songs each. I had heard of none of them but I believe they were Anna Calvi, Jake Shears, Roxanne Tataei, Lynks and Tawiah.

The three women were much better than the two men who seemed to be going for style over substance and the undoubted star of the evening was Roxanne Tataei.

The Nu Civilisation Orchestra was funky, which was fine. It sounded a bit like David Live which may be why they called it Aladdin Sane Live. Having a consistent style across the songs helped to bring some of the coherence missing from the original album.

The song order was much as expected and worked well live. Of course they finished with Jean Genie and they led up to that with Drive in Saturday and Time. 

They also threw in 1984, from Diamond Dogs, at the start of the second half and that was probably to showcase the orchestra and the backing singers as this was performed without a soloist. The encore was another Diamond Dogs song, Rebel Rebel, and that was obviously well received.

Perhaps because they were mostly old, like me, the audience was pretty well behaved throughout. There was no singing (expect when ordered to), no standing up and only a few annoying phones recording snippets. When I saw Bowie live we all stood on the backs of our seats as soon as he came on stage.

The reviews I have read of the concert are a little lukewarm, and I can understand that, but these were good Bowie songs done pretty well and I had a great evening.

Cowpuncher My Ass at Royal Festival Hall

Cowpuncher My Ass is not the sort of show that I would normally consider seeing but my account with Southbank Centre has a lot of credit on it that I need to spend. It is modern dance and I do not see enough of that (mostly through lack of opportunity) so I willingly parted with £40 for seat  J31 in the stalls.

I was quickly reminded why I normally avoid stalls seats as the young man directly in front of me was tall enough to interrupt my view of the stage. Luckily it is a wide stage and the visual interruption while undesired was not not catastrophic. Likewise the nearby audience members  checking their phones, chatting and playing with drink bottles. I have had much worse experiences.

The show itself was much less weird than I expected but that is probably more a reflection on my tastes in modern dance than it is on the show.

Most of the dancers were on the stage most of the time and they were mostly doing different things so there was always a choice of what to look at. 

The costumes, each was different, very much helped with the visuals and knowing they were by Andreas Kronthalera, Vivienne Westwood's widow, you can guess what they were like. The poster helps too.

The music was composed my Mica Levi, not a name I knew but the style was similar to some of the Bang on a Can composers I do know, such as Michael Gordon.

The music was loud and the choreography by Holly Blakey was exuberant and expressive with lots of movement which made it a fun to watch. However, it also lacked something to make it rise above mere (?) entertainment. As one review I read put it "f you’re a creative but not primarily in dance, I think most would consider it the dog’s bollocks. But if you’re a dance aficionado, it’s probably a bit tiresome".

I am glad that I was almost forced into seeing Cowpuncher My Ass at Royal Festival Hall and as it was effectively free I can have no complaints over an entertaining 75 minutes.