Music Weblog

David Sylvian, his brother Steve Jansen (family name Batt) and a Japanese multimedia artist (Masakatsu Takagi) put on an intimate show for those of us privileged enough to get tickets. The venue is marvellous, giving a real sense of both the 1950s in which it was built and designed and the timelessness nature of the performance arena.The concert itself could be split into two parts. The first was to play the new album, “Blemish”, in both its entirety and in order. This album details the marital difficulties that Sylvian and his American wife Ingrid Chavez have gone through recently and in fact he was working on another album when he recorded this experimental work in a few days. It is quite remarkable that this most private of recording artists should choose to perform this work in full on a tour of half-a-dozen countries. Most of the tracks actually worked well in a live context, with some clever musical additions for a couple of tracks provided by the underrated Mr Jansen. The highlights being “The Only Daughter”, “Late Night Shopping” and “A Fire in the Forest”. The latter is the best track on the album.The second was to dust off some old songs, in part perhaps to highlight the re-issued Virgin albums by both Japan and Sylvian solo, although the first track of this second section was “The Other Side of Life” from the Ariola/Hansa album “Quiet Life”, which is not part of the re-issue programme. A medley of “When Poets dreamed of Angels” and “Cries and Whispers” followed, along with “Maria” and “Praise”. There were also a couple of unreleased tracks from the upcoming (due early 2004) album by the Batt boys and they were both very promising, the second track was a real return to the beautiful rhythms and melodies these two shared in Japan’s heyday. The first encore was the new single by the Ryuichi Sakamoto co-ordinated group Chain Music, called “World Citizen”, it is a rather pleasant track but on first hearing is not in the same league as their work in the 1980s. The second and final encore was a very pared down version of “Jean the Birdman”, a rather subdued end to a beautiful evening.Or it would have been a beautiful evening if it had not been for (Major Moan) the ludicrous rule that the audience was allowed to leave the hall to get drinks during the performance. In fact, at the end of every song tens of people would get up stagger out to the bar, buy more booze and then stumble back in at the next song end. This meant that those of us who had come to see the performance rather than get bladdered had to get up and down like yo-yos to accommodate these buffoons. My wife had a bag full of beer by the end of the evening as one drunkard had knocked another drunks pint all over the floor. Surely the Royal Festival Hall does not let the audience wander in and out of a Wagner opera? Okay, that may not be the best example as they do go on for days but why was this allowed?Overall a great evening, the pared down arrangements, often only Sylvian on guitar and his brother tapping out a rhythm, allowed Sylvians’ vocals to come to the fore and that rich baritone has not sounded better.Links:David Sylvian’s websiteThe Royal Festival HallOriginally published September 26, 2003