ldlewild's Roddy Woomble on the lunacy of air travel and joys of elephantine entertainment.
Departure lounges at airports are strange places, like a middle earth between where you've been and where you're going. Everyone thinking of themselves in future tense. Maybe I've just had a bad week in airports, waiting around for planes that never take off: eating doughnuts from a cafe called ‘Treat Street'. Surrounded by people waiting anxiously to be someplace else.
I've been in my apartment so little this year that it was as unpleasant as you can imagine. especially after a few days in the Texan sun, to come back into a cold room covered with a thick layer of New York soot.
So I go and see the new Woody Allen film, which is great, and walking out into the Manhattan dark and going to a diner for some coffee. it feels like I haven't left the cinema. that I'm part of some deleted scene.
The second scene being the next day. when a friend takes me to watch a parade of circus elephants arrive in the city through the midtown tunnel. It's certainly a surreal sight. apparently an annual tradition, undoubtedly an occasion for excitement. especially for children and elephant enthusiasts.
It's rare for me to have a place. a few days. and the inclination is to lie around on the floor reading books and magazines and listening to music. So I've been feeling good about doing that. eating apple oat scones from the bakery down the street. listening to my new favourite singer, Judee Sill (an acid-soaked. quasi-religious. folk rock mystic). almost approaching something near relaxation.
And then I'm back in an airport queue. with little boys crying. old woman complaining and businessmen sighing and me, typing, waiting on a plane. To catch onto a tour which will eventually wind up back where it started. in a crowded airport departure lounge.
ld/ewi/d play Barrow/and. Glasgow. 2 May and Usher Hall. Edinburgh, 3 May.
70 THE LIST l-1~28 Apr 2005
lNllll KASABIAN Carling Academy, Glasgow, Fri 22 & Sat 23 Apr
Brash, baggy wannabes or passionate rock stars with oodles of attitude? Working out where you stand on the Kasabian question is a tough one. They first foisted their aggressive, anthemic mix of scratchy guitars, pummelling basslines and dark electronics on an unsuspecting public last year with the release of their hugely successful self-titled debut which went gold in a week. Not bad for a boisterous bunch of childhood friends from Leicester who started making music together aged 17, abandoned careers as grocers and professional footballers to focus on rock'n’roll, and subsequently named themselves after Linda Kasabian, American serial killer Charles Manson’s getaway driver. The fiery foursome then moved into a remote old farmhouse-turned-recording studio called the Plaggey Bag Ranch in the Rutland countryside to make their masterpiece, giving life to such chart stormers as ‘Club Foot', ‘Reason is Treason’, ‘LSF (Lost Souls Forever)‘ and ‘Processed Beats’. They’re no strangers to controversy
l()ll\
.Illliiil all?
and music is only part of the equation where Kasabian are concerned, and their growing reputation for provoking extreme reactions with contentious quotes is almost as important as the sounds themselves. For example. while talking about the impact of their first album, frontman Tom Meighan came out with the following little beauty: ‘We needed to make this album. This is what it‘s all about. And without it we‘d be lost souls. But music needs us as well. British music needs a kick up the arse and Britain needs a new band to breathe life into it again. Music feels like it‘s in the afterlife right now. We don‘t want people to give up on it. The serpent's going to rise from the sea and scare all the pirates away.‘
Take out the peculiar metaphors and you may find that he's right. Surely an act that so clearly divides opinion is more exciting than one that provokes no reaction at all. What some see as plodding retro beats, others are calling the most exciting sound since The Stone Roses or Definitely Maybe, and in an indie world where it seems to be taken as read that Franz Ferdinand : good and plastic pop 2 bad, it‘s great fun to be arguing again. (Camilla Pia)
MARTYN BENNETT MEMORIAL CONCERT
wilt) llllétlll, fillJ,l.‘.lllll l Tl w
Queen‘s Hall. Edinburgh, Fri 15 Apr
tumult. (ll Mgirtpil lie-lillwll. . at; l'l l " 't .’ 1' ll"" "
{lllllftlllllillirl, lirugiii 'ltir ,.' .mw aw." i' l r '?
lf1£illllllllllllt.‘. :rltv-igiri-ta‘. '. ‘fl‘L‘f""i:l7 ' ' w : H l l)‘,'lllf;'.'.'<)rl\,ltiium-ilil‘ l' lr Xv“ izl llllilfltiflllll){llllt1il53’ tn rill l ’ izzm' .li'. ; t" " MW," " " ~,-' Liv ;.l"" lilzt llll‘.’f:||t?l Shelia f’fi:.‘..ir'.. i ."-’l lllw'i‘mrt‘ .l'T i n’ t l ' 1 Kill; 1;“ ti. (:(llflflfléllllltt-‘llllllltl.lf‘Sl‘Jf. ill“)V:l":lll.’l(l"""’l' 2' “ ’v '.:f"‘ l)tll swim.- ft'v- wi'r ill Ml 'll
/\rl(l'itm‘.‘lrl{;Iliurlxigillm.T‘.“nt':o:r,zi' ‘rl ,wr'tn-t'w" .,‘F",'lllw;t' llltl‘ilt‘ll'lli. .'.’lll(1l.l.lil'i,f‘ t‘.‘.‘:"“lt"l r1311 ’«w'vz'lw'. {‘7" ' l 'tl r ' l..’l’f,’i’7l(}’/.‘§_ ’,’llllfl‘l‘)‘llf,'l~'7’l for V' i: ,:,i:.'.I.'~; l f. ' ;’vl'|'vf" u" ' "l 4! Pmmrwls. rlzl tr; ltlr: Hop-3. Mzi'l,' tiwrxrw" Tr l‘ ‘ r:' '2 I w' ' ‘i'liz,
lrzirllllwllgil 8‘ mil. Hum. ’ l‘ m» ’l'l'l“: 'rl : VHF/1’3, lw (:r<>5;:s<,~fl .‘.‘llli first tit/i, if rl' . ’l‘:'il-'r ,m; mi”,- ' it" h it .‘ ‘ .‘.,i . ' ' ~ " .': (:ziirlm’l it iilziiiiirg lrl‘. f'l" “lull ' -"li’;. tin! i: ; l?l’ :"'ri (9:, '2'; lllf: l‘lllftf‘» zirtrl fittilln, than: rim-28': : iii «1 r l', ' . 7" ;s w l w :t NOAH", l.:il;klrt<;_ Hl‘; Eula" err." i" lrl' !l’ .‘ ’l' l . ‘ liltllti knew/l ff:(,‘(;.’flll")‘; ‘m:., ,1..- vl/yfl' r,» f, t w i’fffH‘)’II'I'T'VlLL/i’:I"l 'i ,r l; .I'.‘ "1"; 't ,{ llétlllllwflétl “ ll‘ ' l lull ingr‘ ‘ t' ’ ' f ' '
“Hi: .'..i‘; :i rat: "in; m C' '«l/ l ) ‘ “ 1 real 83.". )l aw," i. i' ’l ' ill l ' ' "I l a. r'nirl r/ ' 2' :i :w ' at. l', i‘rér'l<t~:;tt.'&, (m1, . l” ' ,.'.i r'. . .m,
<1 i" ‘ ‘7 l l ' z'ni‘ ' ' . ii (i l‘ltl} {I} 1