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Phil Hobbs
Second Love
United Kingdom
47 Posts |
 Posted - 24/06/2020 : 16:06:25
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| Don't miss this! The legendary Glastonbury performance of Forever Changes with strings and horns is on BBC4 at 10pm Friday 26 June. If you have not seen it before (and there is a longer version on YouTube), you will love it. For me, it's the definitive live performance of this album (with the bonus of it being a beautiful summer's day!). |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9866 Posts |
Posted - 25/06/2020 : 03:20:44
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Thanks!quote:
Originally posted by Phil Hobbs
Don't miss this! The legendary Glastonbury performance of Forever Changes with strings and horns is on BBC4 at 10pm Friday 26 June. If you have not seen it before (and there is a longer version on YouTube), you will love it. For me, it's the definitive live performance of this album (with the bonus of it being a beautiful summer's day!).
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. – GENE CLARK
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Kula John
Old Love
United Kingdom
754 Posts |
Posted - 25/06/2020 : 13:59:38
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Can't wait! I've only ever watched this on a dvd on my laptop, or on YouTube, so I can't wait to watch it on a big, widescreen TV! :-)
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For the time that I've been given's such a little while and the things that I must do consist of more than style....
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Edited by - Kula John on 25/06/2020 13:59:57 |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 27/06/2020 : 00:08:49
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Thanks ever so much for the heads-up on this, Phil. Just watched it - a magnificent performance. Great to see 'Your Mind and We' as an encore. For me, when Arthur sings 'So many people...." - that is the most sublime moment in the whole history of Love.....and I can never get over just how expertly he captures that live.
Also - what a wonderful service BBC 4 does for music......as well as of course, history and the the visual arts - how blessed we are. |
Edited by - John9 on 27/06/2020 00:12:52 |
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Kula John
Old Love
United Kingdom
754 Posts |
Posted - 27/06/2020 : 13:10:23
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Felt quite emotional watching it to be honest. What a performance and what a moment. It's pretty great that on a night when the BBC had literally 100s and 100s of performances to choose from, they picked out that one to show. They knew it was extra special.
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For the time that I've been given's such a little while and the things that I must do consist of more than style....
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otiselevator
Third Love
United Kingdom
61 Posts |
Posted - 27/06/2020 : 19:45:10
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| I was pretty choked up too. Arthur looked so relaxed and happy. What a performer and how wonderful to see Forever Changes get the full works. Thank you BBC4! |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 28/06/2020 : 00:18:18
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Yes indeed KJ and O - it was like a portrait of an artist fully reconciled with his legacy.
The first time I ever posted here on Torben's site was the previous year when the same lineup (minus of course the orchestra) performed at Manchester University - we got about 60% of 'Forever Changes' plus a liberal sprinkling of selections from all the other Elektra albums - easily the best concert I've ever attended. I've just retrieved the review that I wrote back then:
LOVE REVISITED: LIVERPOOL 1975 AND MANCHESTER 2002
When a Love tour of the UK was announced in the spring of 1975, the rock press in this country was less than enthusiastic. There had been a tour the previous year with the Real to Real line-up and the reviews had been poor. In the mean time the recently released album had done little to correct the impression that Arthur's most innovative work was by then a long way behind him. All of this cut no ice with me and I could scarcely conceal my excitement at the prospect of seeing a living legend. The fact that the mind behind Forever Changes had also been responsible for False Start and Vindicator merely served to add to the magic.
I had managed to persuade a new convert to attend the Liverpool gig with me and, when we queuing up to pay (there was plenty of room on that night) we could hear a highly proficient drummer rehearsing briefly. "Suranovich!" I thought. In those days at such concerts. Men tended to dress down whilst their girlfriends went to the opposite extreme. I remember very vividly one young lady whose beautiful dress and matching hat would not have disgraced Ascot! Following a lengthy assault on the senses by UK heavy rockers Dog Soldier, Arthur Lee, John Sterling (lead guitar) Kim Kesterson (bass) and George Suranovich took to the stage. Arthur was resplendent in a metallic blue gown whilst George's familiar frizzy locks were largely concealed by a white bobble hat. Within seconds Arthur was picking out that delicate guitar arrangement that heralds Alone Again Or.
Love's 1975 incarnation were a refreshingly tight band and in sound, resembled much more the music of Four Sail (for me one of the most underrated albums of all time) than that of the early seventies recordings. It was wonderful to hear very faithful versions of August and Nothing played that night although there was at least something from every LP. At the set's conclusion, Arthur's valedictory was "I hope to see you all again sometime".
I wonder just how many of the 200 - 300 souls present for that 1975 event would have predicted that 27 years later Arthur could have packed out a venue like Manchester's Academy. I attended last Monday's gig with my mate Paul, who had been lucky enough to see one of the legendary 1970 performances. We ran a gauntlet of hopefuls desperately pleading for tickets and we were thankful that we had booked ours in early March. There have been plenty of reviews and set lists for this particular tour and so I won't provide any unnecessary duplication. I'll just say that Arthur's presence on stage was just about the most charismatic I've ever seen. Baby Lemonade serviced Love's vintage catalogue in note perfect form to an almost eerie effect. I shall mention just two songs. A House is Motel had a powerful resonance in the light of last year's tragic events with its line:
By the time I've come through singing, the bells on the school of war will be ringing.
The ending of The Red Telephone saw Arthur remaining faithful to the voice of the oppressed:
All of God's children just gotta have their freedom!
Incidentally, I don't think I've ever seen written down anywhere that the line: We're all normal and we want our freedom is actually from Peter Weiss's 1964 musical play about asylums and the French Revolution 'Marat Sade'. You can hear a whole suite of songs from this little masterpiece on Judy Collins' 1966 groundbreaking In My Life album.
And the vast and highly appreciative audience who helped to make last Monday night so memorable? Well they seemed to range in age from late teens to late fifties. But the vast majority of them were young - far too young even to have been alive at the time of the 1975 show, let alone during the strange summer of Forever Changes. And if you think that Arthur could have no finer tribute than that, then think on this. A young girl next to us, who danced her way through the entire set, seemed to know all the words to every single song.
John Ward Manchester, England 16 June 2002
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Edited by - John9 on 28/06/2020 00:41:50 |
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Kula John
Old Love
United Kingdom
754 Posts |
Posted - 28/06/2020 : 14:00:12
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That's wonderful, thanks for sharing that, John.
I think that is what really affected me when I finally saw Arthur perform live for the first, and sadly the only time in 2005, the huge range of ages in the audience. The same is clearly evident at that Glastonbury performance.
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For the time that I've been given's such a little while and the things that I must do consist of more than style....
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 29/06/2020 : 00:23:17
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| Thanks Kula John - we obviously both have memories of Arthur to treasure. Your point about age variation is an especially resonant one. A few weeks back I was watching online some of the Stones' Glastonbury performance from a few years back. What really struck me was just how many young people seemed to know their 60s classics. I think that popular music can bring different generations together much more than it ever did when I was 20 or so. |
Edited by - John9 on 29/06/2020 00:23:52 |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9866 Posts |
Posted - 29/06/2020 : 03:20:05
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quote:
Originally posted by John9
Thanks Kula John - we obviously both have memories of Arthur to treasure. Your point about age variation is an especially resonant one. A few weeks back I was watching online some of the Stones' Glastonbury performance from a few years back. What really struck me was just how many young people seemed to know their 60s classics. I think that popular music can bring different generations together much more than it ever did when I was 20 or so.
Fantastic review, J9. Chills...
I also love your shout out to Judy Collins masterpiece recorded at Sound Techniques/London.
It was Sound techniques' founder & engineer John Woods first exposure to the potential of just how magical the "new" music could be--and it took an American artist to show him. They learned a lot from those sessions and created a template for future classic recordings there.
Elektra sent Judy over just to record her album there, and what a magical recording studio it was...from there Woods and Boyd went on to record some of the greatest British talents of the era or any era...Nick's Drake's three long players are proof positive.
I happened to be listening to my 1966 first pressing of that Elektra classic yesterday. Groundbreaking indeed.
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. – GENE CLARK
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Edited by - lemonade kid on 29/06/2020 03:28:13 |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 29/06/2020 : 11:55:56
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Many thanks for this, LK - yes, Judy's 'In My Life' masterpiece is one of my all time top ten albums - and a key part of that golden Jack Holzman period at Elektra. The fact that, as you've said, it was recorded here in Britain adds to it magic. And a few years back I was fortunate enough to attend a beautifully intimate concert of hers in a city centre church setting. |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9866 Posts |
Posted - 29/06/2020 : 13:56:26
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Lucky you!
quote:
Originally posted by John9
Many thanks for this, LK - yes, Judy's 'In My Life' masterpiece is one of my all time top ten albums - and a key part of that golden Jack Holzman period at Elektra. The fact that, as you've said, it was recorded here in Britain adds to it magic. And a few years back I was fortunate enough to attend a beautifully intimate concert of hers in a city centre church setting.
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. – GENE CLARK
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The sweet disorder
Fourth Love
United Kingdom
218 Posts |
Posted - 04/07/2020 : 21:46:27
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Excellent review John, I was also at the Manchester 2002 gig which ranks as one of the best I've ever seen. I was unsure what to expect given Arthur was not long out of prison at that point but the band and Arthur were particularly razor sharp (Mike's guitar sound was fabulous in that gig) - It may have been his Arthur's first introduction to a football chant as I recall as "There's only one Arthur Lee" reverberated around the Academy.
Great memories. |
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John9
Old Love
United Kingdom
2154 Posts |
Posted - 06/07/2020 : 00:01:31
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Thanks ever so much, Sweet Disorder - yes now that you mention it, I do remember the football chant. As you've said, Arthur's highly unpredictable nature always brought an agreeable frisson to the occasion. But I don't think that I've ever seen any band give so much as Love did that night. Cheers. |
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lemonade kid
Old Love
USA
9866 Posts |
Posted - 10/07/2020 : 03:32:26
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quote:
Originally posted by John9
Thanks ever so much, Sweet Disorder - yes now that you mention it, I do remember the football chant. As you've said, Arthur's highly unpredictable nature always brought an agreeable frisson to the occasion. But I don't think that I've ever seen any band give so much as Love did that night. Cheers.
Arthur & LoVE must have responded in kind to all that love radiating from the audience...envy here!
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The actual writing of a song usually comes in the form of a realisation.
I can't contrive a song. – GENE CLARK
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Edited by - lemonade kid on 10/07/2020 03:33:51 |
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Love 2003 Glastonbury on BBC 4, Friday 26 June
