You are allowed to enjoy this…

The Missus and myself enjoyed the Steve Hackett Trio at the QEH so much that when we realised that he was playing a mere 30 minutes drive away, we snapped up tickets immediately (and they were considerably cheaper than the QEH tix). We’d never been to the Broadway Theatre before, but I had heard that it was a relatively new building. Despite our complete lack of knowledge of the Barking area, we found the theatre quite easily and were a good twenty minutes early for the performance. This gave us time to check out the lavatories (in very good condition) and the rest of the facilities (there was a bar and a little cafe area and balcony). The venue itself is rather nice, if a little “blocky” and modern in construction and I was a bit jealous that Barking should have such a building when our local council can barely manage to keep the over-budget, over-schedule public swimming pool from closing down. 🙁

Anyway, we were in row C, which gave a nice view of the stage, just above eye-level of the performers. There was plenty of leg-room and I was surprised just how many people had turned up for this concert. Then I noticed a familiar looking chap and his lady friend take a seat next to the Missus. After much sideways looking and discreet peeping, I whispered to the Missus that “it’s that bloke…that bloke from the Steve Hackett Band”. Basically, Terry Gregory, the current bass player from the electric Steve Hackett Band was sitting right next to her. We argued in whispers whether it was him or not (until later, when SH himself put us right by announcing Mr Gregory’s presence).

Just after 8pm, SH took the stage and I immediately noticed that the atmosphere was very different from the QEH show. It wasn’t as supporting…in fact, the audience felt nervous, not knowing how to respond to SH’s little anecdotes. At the QEH, there was plenty of applause and laughter, at Barking, there were little applause for the anecdotes and just a little laughter. Of course, this could just be a volume thing as there was only a fraction of the audience present compared to the QEH gig.

The setlist was almost identical to the previous show. The guitar seemed to keep its tune a bit better too. I was just getting into the music, when a gruff voice came from over my left shoulder. Some oaf who was as pissed as a fart, was effing and blinding during the show. So in the right ear I had the gentle strains of SH’s acoustic guitar and in the left ear, a stream of coarse, East-End styled, expletives. Now don’t get me wrong – I am an East End boy myself and I like to swear just like the next man (you bunch of bloody buggers, you <--- SEE) but this was SOOOO wrong. There were kids present and I could feel the energy just disappearing. Terry Gregory seemed visibly riled by the man and I thought at one point he was going to say something. Eventually the man calmed down, but throughout the evening the show was punctuated with phrases such as "fucking twat" and "he's a fucking cunt". Astounding...never heard anything like it, even at a "proper" rock concert. After forty or so minutes, SH retired and we had the interval. We went out to stretch out legs and check out the rest of the theatre before returning to our seats. The second half seemed much more pumped up and the audience seemed to get behind the music a lot more (plus the increased volume drowned out Mr Beery Sweary behind me. Again, the setlist was almost identical with a few tweaks here and there. "Hands of the Priestess" and "Jacuzzi" are still my favourite songs of the night, along with "Gnossienne #1". By the end of the concert, the crowd was well into the music and we coaxed them back for an encore. This gig was very different from the QEH, it seemed a lot more relaxed and the banter between SH and Roger King and his brother, John Hackett was a lot funnier. There were some corking gags, like the one from Roger King comparing Steve Hackett to "Jasper Carrott on Horlicks" and that SH has pioneered "sit down" comedy. It was very funny. They even managed to have a sly dig at Terry Gregory saying that they could make bass sounds without the need of a bass player. Ouch! Terry Gregory's lady friend replied to Roger King's little knock with a spirited "The bastard!". Yes it was that kind of concert. I don't normally see the same gig twice, but hearing SH a second time really got me into the music (despite the services of the swearing oaf in row D) and I am glad we did it. Afterwards, I went to the merchandise stand where Alan "Super Genesis Fan" Hewitt was hawking some SH goods. I bought a copy of the DVD "Hungarian Horizons", shook Mr Hewitt by the hand and wished him well with his biography of Hackett. Then we stumbled off into the night for the return trip home.

To begin, I am not the biggest ELP fan around. Granted I own all the albums on vinyl and thought that they were pretty cool when I was a younger man, but like all things you enjoyed when you were younger, you grow, develop, broaden your tastes. My main problem with ELP is that it demonstrates all that’s bad in progressive rock. The music is overblown, pompous and like a quickie at McDonald’s, ultimately unrewarding. But saying that, I still enjoy Greg Lake’s vocals and the songs that he brought to the group. It’s a shame that he was never allowed to shine in ELP – instead Keith Emerson decided that it was his ego trip.
So will this opinion flavour my review? No. And I’ll tell you why. The people who put this DVD together got the package right on the button. The first disc contains all those old live performances from Beat Club and snatches of live material taken from the group’s hey-day in the 1970s. It’s all good stuff and seeing as I wasn’t witness to ELP’s shows, it was a real insight to how the band operated on stage. Of course, the real gem on the first disc is the 60 seconds or so of black-and-white footage snatched at the 1969 Hyde Park performance of King Crimson. I already have this in another form, but it is nice to have a complete, DVD quality snapshot of that footage. It is slight and it is gone in a flash, but if you are a KC fan, you will want this collection just for that brief dalliance with 21st Century Schizoid Man.
The rest of the material covers 1970 at Beat Club through to a 1992 performance at the Royal Albert Hall, so you get a good snapshot of the band through the ages. There are even promos for “I Believe in Father Christmas” and a really naff 1970s TV performance of “Tiger in the Spotlight” featuring a real tiger tethered up, right next to Greg Lake. What would the animal rights crusaders think of that now? When Emerson comes clunking in with his god-forsaken Hammon organ, the poor tiger gets startled and you can see that he wants to try and take Emerson out…and I was cheering for the tiger. But alas, that doesn’t happen. J
The second disc is a game of two halves: the first is the full 44 minute performance from the California Jam of 1974. It’s good to see an entire performance rather than the patchwork of material that you get on disc one, but my minor criticism is that there is some crossover of material with edits of Still You Turn Me On and Karn Evil 9 appearing on both discs. This was wasteful – but that’s ELP, I guess. The performance at the California Jam is fascinating to watch and when you think of what the other prog bands were doing in 1974, going to an ELP show must have been something else. You even get to see Keith Emerson performing his hammy “spinning piano” trick at the end. Hilarious…I’ve never laughed so much in my life. Genesis had theatricals and flash powder, Yes had Roger Deans organic stag set and ELP had a rotating piano. Amazing.
The second part of the second disc is given over to the “Beyond the Beginning” documentary that lasts an hour. It’s interesting to hear the band talk about each other so candidly and the reasons why and how the band imploded. (It’s also interesting to hear about Love Beach and why it is such a dog’s breakfast). I really enjoyed the documentary, though I thought it could have been longer. It left me wanting more, so I guess that’s a good thing. There are some extras too including a nice short interview about the ELP artwork (did you know that three artists that worked on Greg Lake-related album artwork all died prematurely? It’s the curse of Greg Lake, I tells ya).
I think that this is a fantastic package of material and hope that band’s like Genesis, Yes and King Crimson take note. Bring out a DVD of all that old live material from the 1970s that appeared on TV to stop those bootleggers flogging it on eBay. And do a second DVD with an interview…it works so well and ELP have set a good standard with this package. Heck, it even got me playing Tarkus this morning while I type this review. And that’s got to be a good thing!
To get you in the mood and all juiced up for the release, here’s Greg Lake talking about the “In the Court of the Crimson King” album cover: