Graham, London Garage (14.07.00)

My very own review is available here
Ma propre review est disponible ici

*dotmusic ?*
(not sure !! i can't remember where i got that from)

Sun 16 Jul 2000
GRAHAM COXON - THE GARAGE, LONDON
Released on: Fri 14 Jul 2000

While it's become obvious that Graham Coxon is acutely uncomfortable with the Blur phenomenon, his solo adventures have shown just how far he'll go given enough rope.

With the constraints of being in one of the biggest bands of the 90s snapped, Coxon has wheeled away in terrifying triumph, shorn of any of the pop sensibilities he appears to despise.

Tonight found the painfully shy and insular guitar-hero bludgeoning his way through a somewhat comically deranged sample of tracks from his two solo albums, particularly the recently released 'Golden D'

At times smacking of well-honed genius and others stinking of sheer self-indulgence, Coxon was accompanied on-stage by Idlewild's guitarist and the bassist from Thirteen Thirteen. Perhaps more familiar was Blur's drummer Dave Rowntree on the stool behind and Damon Albarn, who spent much of the show moshing in a woolly hat just feet from his childhood accomplice and songwriting partner.

Not that Coxon was likely to see spot his sweaty exuberance, as he steadfastly refused to look at the crowd. In fact, the only acknowledgement that anyone was watching were mumbled introductions and garbled thanks. However, what he didn't say was more than made up for in the grotesque US Punk the band charged through, and Coxon's wild riffing. All told, it was the sonic equivalent of a blood-thirsty werewolf devouring a fitting corpse.

Setting the tone with the sheets of guitar brutality of 'All I Wanna Do' and machine-gun vocals of 'Jamie Thomas', Coxon's material veered radically in quality, despite the consuming, throat-clutching tone. From the plummeting childish rant of 'Leave Me Alone', to the flying wonder of 'I Wish', the point seems to be in letting him vent his 'true self', while displaying a bluntly visceral line in guitar histrionics.

Notably impressive were the well-formed covers of Mission Of Burma tracks. Both 'Fame and Fortune' and 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver' have a cohesion and clarity missing in much of his own material, right down to the lyrics. The former also aptly sums-up the contradictory notion of Coxon's position - 'fame and fortune is a stupid game, and fame and fortune is the game I play'.

As immediate though was 'Who The F***', for the blatant Blur pastiche of 'Parklife' and Coxon's spitting lyrical confrontation, contained in the yobbish 'who the f*** are you looking at' chorus. But perhaps most spectacular was the angular, squalling instrumental 'Lake', a fitting close, as the white noise resounded throughout and Coxon wandered off-stage, shrouded in smoke.

Once Blur return to the studio, these jarring sounds and cutting ideals will surely retreat back inside Coxon's head, where they will certainly continue to hammer away. However, such musical subversion and unhinged expression is a vital key to what was Blur and what will be Blur in the future...

Pics: Hayley Madden
Ben Gilbert

*365 music*

Venue : Highbury Garage Ticket Price: 10

First London solo show for Blur guitarist and chums.

The audience tonight is largely made up of the interesting, cute quarter of Blur fans, the quiet and perhaps bespectacled chaps being enthusiastically alcoholic in honour of their hero. There's also a smattering of nu-Kerrangers - the sharp-haired, hardcore variety rather than the slightly more goth end. Oh, and several ladies too. All ready to get Fugazi-ed up.

Support feature Fungus had been very, very loud, so things could only up to eleven from here, and it's amazing how a stumbling "Er... Hello"-mumbling skateboarding dad can make such an appealing racket.
With reinforcements from sundry Idlewilders on extra guitar and bass and the mighty Dave Rowntree, Graham's day-job colleague, on drums, the songs - normally all-instruments-by-Graham - expand through these outsiders' involvement.

Kicking off with the Dinosaur Jr-y 'All I Wanna Do', from first album 'The Sky Is Too High', people are actually crowdsurfing, which must be making Coxon wet himself with giddy hardcore glee. The shouting-thrasher 'Jamie Thomas' rattles the walls as Graham lets rip into the madness of metal only to get heavier on the who-needs-Metallica-anyway? 'Leave Me Alone'. 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver' gets the best reaction of the night, people who're aware of various sources of the tune combine in a beautiful let's-get-guns-or-at-least-some-Mission-Of-Burma-records! moment. Likewise 'Fame & Fortune'.

There is an encore, which isn't a very I-love-Dischord-records thing to do. And launching into 'Min Trampolin', a Swedish tune, has the crowd thinking a collective "???", but the pay-off is the lengthy and appealing 'Lake', the moment of sanity on 'The Golden D', and a soothingly noisy thing it is too. And with that, he's off. All said, bit of a winner.

Graham : Is hardcore. 9/10

Eyewitness report :
Every member of Blur was in attendance tonight. Obviously, Graham and Dave were onstage; Damon and Alex were spotted ligging in the audience.

Edward Smith

Setlist :
That’s All I Wanna Do
Jamie Thomas
The Fear
Fame And Fortune
I Wish
Leave Me Alone
That’s When I Reach For My Revolver
Fags And Failure
Don’t Think
Who The Fuck?
Min Trampolin
My Idea Of Hell
Lake

*kitty's diaries : well, here's my lucky day*

1 - ESSEX DOG

I remember, I remember I fell in love with Graham Coxon on Valentine's Day '97 (*wink@Soline*). That's when he told me "you're so great and I love you" for the first time.
I remember the graffiti... -- *aaargh* ENUFF!!
After three and a half long years and many adventures, I at last managed to get myself a ticket to see Graham play in London.
  "So the story begins"

2 - Q-ING

  July 14, 2000.
6.20pm : I got to Highbury along with my brand new mates Jools and Bwernie. The Garage was just in front of us and we almost got lost !! *we stoopid gurrls* ;o)
There were hardly 10 girls there (I mean teenage girls) queueing on the pavement; bored Japanese fans and all - so not cool !
We just sat on the ground, patiently avoiding raindrops and smoking fags, chatting about the dark circles around our eyes and singing a kinda off-key 'Daisy Bell' (actually, I alone was out of tune, stoopidly trying to imitate Phil Daniels's Mile End version!!!). THAT was cool though.
7.30pm: doors opened. Very few people came in actually, but WE were in and that was all that mattered. Heheheh.

3 - SUPPORT BANDS AND AUDIENCE

After having waited again for an hour or so inside the Garage, the first supporting act came on stage. Mmmmh what was that really ? Well, I still dunno. I nicknamed them 'Vomit In The Mike' and that's all I have to say about them. Crap. And too loud that crap was. I may even sign a 'help-our-ears' petition, cos the sound level was simply unbearable for us human beings. We're all deaf now -and that's my idea of hell.
Then came Fungus. Still too loud, but at least their music was good. I hadn't heard of them at all and I must say I was happily surprised. I quite liked the melodies and the terrific energy of the drummer (girls rule !). A very powerful performance, indeed. *thumbs up*
Yet, the venue had so far remained rather deserted...
But then everything started to warm up, and the Garage seemed like overcrowded all of a sudden. There were those usual crazy Blur groupies of the front row, i.e. screaming and giggling teenagers, horribly drunk and dressed like Britney Spears. *beuargh*
During the gig, we suffered a lot from those f***ing crowd-surfing people as well, which made it quite difficult to concentrate on the music rather than on their dirty arses that kept hitting our heads. I lost a large part of my hair, too. Shame.
Obviously, the true music lovers/'sensible' fans/civilized peeps were standing in the 2nd, 3rd and 4th rows. And that's where we settled : my mates made it to the 2nd row and I was standing just behind them in the 3rd line. Nothing to add. *proud grin*

4 - THE SHOW

10.00pm : gig started. Graham didn't have his glasses on, and looked pretty tired. He was wearing a camouflage T-shirt (army stuff as usual! *wink@Bwernie*)... and his wonderful yellow Telecaster.
I think Graham was much talkative tonight, for it had been reported he'd kept quite silent during his first gig in Glasgow. And that's true he looked pretty confident on stage -tonight in London- (erm, well, maybe not that much cos, y'know, he's always a bit... nervous). Anyway he told us loads of crap jokes, but we thought them all *so* funny. Hey we're fans, that's all. ;o) There was the joke about the band name ('the Coxons' or rather 'the Voxons' as he said) ; the one about goats to introduce 'My Idea Of Hell' ; the one about the series of crap jokes to introduce 'I Wish' ; he even gave us a kinda mini-sketch with this strange high-pitched voice before 'Lake' !! So much fun, really. Graham was really cool tonight and perhaps "booze DID help by the way", heheheh.
Nearly at the beginning of Graham's performance, a bunch of blokes started to call "Dave! Dave! Dave!", which made Dave blush like a little girl behind his drum kit. Graham seemed a bit annoyed for a sec, cos he was supposed to be the one and only star of the night, y'know... *take heart, Gray, you know we love you*
During the whole set, we eventually got crushed onto the first row by the overexcited pogoers of the back. Everybody was forcibly snogging everybody (sorry Jools if I snogged your shoulder - or whatever it was), choking and sweating in a hellish delirium. Death was close. Still, I didn't give a f*ck, cos "if I died, I'd die in front of my hero !!". Yeah, I'm crazy *poor Graham*
Around 'I Wish', all the little Britneys turned back and screamed stuff I couldn't understand. What the hell was going on ? I heard one of them yell something about... DAMON ?! So I looked in the same direction and he was there next to me (ok, there was a bloke inbetween me and him), DAMON Albarn, DAAAAMOOON!!! -oh sorry, the groupie in me is still alive, I'm afraid. He was standing right there in the audience, crushed like anybody else, and he'd come here to see his best mate enjoying being a frontman for the first time. I could see some sparkle of pride in his eye, and that was great, yeah that was so touching actually...
I briefly thought "have to do somethin', I dunno wot, but sumfin'!", so I unfolded my left arm that was completely stuck and numb, and my sweaty fingertips touched Damon's T-shirt. *OH MY GOD* I had also noticed this strange silver medal he was wearing and I could've touched it as well but, at that very moment, I remembered I was there for Graham, not for Damon. "Enough is enough", I thought, and I concentrated back on Graham's stunning performance of 'I Wish'... *dreamy grin*
ater on, the rageous waves of the audience (caused by people avoiding the crowd-surfing idiots' shoes and whatever), took me to the back of the venue. "Zut alors !" I couldn't see anything anymore apart from lights and people's backs. I hadn't waited long though, until another wave teleported me to the 3rd row again, this time on the other side. I did rejoice to see Graham again, although I wasn't even able to catch a glimpse of Dave on this side. I found myself quite far from my mates, too. ;o(
Anyway, I had plenty room to breathe and move my hands as I liked for a change, Graham was standing almost in front of me and Colin was looking after us like a dad. On top of that, the peeps around me were nicer and rather funny, so that was ok.
During the short break before the encore, a young bloke behind me started shouting: "Graham, I luv ya, come back!!". That sounded so weird that I turned round and looked at him for a second, quite amused. He saw me and smiled and realised how weird it might've sounded. He then said out loud: "Graham, I don't LUV ya, I LIKE ya... come back!!", and we both laughed our heads off! :o) *nice one*
Also, Colin understood how exhausted and terribly hot the front rows were, so he kindly passed his bottle of water for us to drink and refresh a little. I do believe that he saved my life at that point, as I was just dying from thirst...
hen Graham came back on stage with his 3 mates, I felt sort of down, really. I knew it would be the end of this magical concert very soon.
Gray sang a *suh-ber-lime* 'Min Trampolin' in Swedish (!!!!), spending a great part of the song gazing at someone backstage -perhaps Anna... yeah, he can be so cute sometimes... *sigh*
And let's not forget 'Lake' which ended the night in an epic climax (see below). "It looks like we made it to the end" though.

5 - THE MUSIC

Every and each song sounded fantastic live ! No kidding. What vibes ! The music was even deeper and more energetic than on the CD's. Now it all made sense. We could even feel the emotion in the air : Graham's and ours of course.
The highlights ? I'd say the whole gig, really. But I must admit that 'I wish' and 'Lake' were simply gobsmacking.
'That's All I Wanna Do' made a very good introduction to the show though, with everybody singing the words in chorus. We then explicitly entered the 'this is the Golden D-only tour' phase, Graham screaming a jumpy ode to his fave skateboarder 'Jamie Thomas'. 'The Fear' just sounded great (one of the songs I prefered live rather than on the recordings). 'Fame And Fortune' and later 'That's When I Reach For My Revolver' were obviously heavier than expected, but they remained fully genuine and most welcomed among the audience.
I Wish' or THE highlight of the night : we singing the lyrics and staring at the awesome G man during the verses, then jumping up and down all over the place during the guitar bits. Crazy.
'Leave Me Alone' and 'Who The F*ck?' allowed us to yell our brains out and simply have fun. I'd tought 'Don't Think About Always' would've been the heaviest song of all perhaps, but I was definitely wrong. Everyone was resting actually, even Graham. We found ourselves so exhausted from getting mad, that we just 'quietly' admired the band and listened to the song. Funny, isn't it ?
The encore opened with a surprising Swedish song, a mellow Bob Hund song entitled 'Min Trampolin'. It was a very good mix of sweet melodies and heavier choruses. I liked it very much, and found it so sexy that Graham was singing in his girlfriend's primary language !!! It just killed me.
The whole encore was marvellous, indeed. Graham had chosen 'Lake' (his groundbreaking masterpiece as I call it) as the ultimate song of the night. I just wished it'd never ended, for I found myself suddenly caught up in a surreal, psychedelic trip. I could almost touch the sound, feel the music between my fingers that I'd raised in the air. I wanted Graham to look at me and see how much I was enjoying his music...
I then felt like crying but -"I knew it would end this way"- gently smiled instead.

6 - AFTER THE GIG

Franoise Hardy in the speakers!!! 'Tous les Garons et les Filles', oh this is so Graham... *sigh*
We decided to wait for a little while inside, whilst people were leaving the place. Some staff members were throwing bits of papers to the few remaining fans, and Jools got the setlist !! Cool.
We finally went out, looking for some fresher air, and got to the back door of the Garage. A bunch of people were hanging around there -mmmmh Japanese fans again...
Soline: "d'ya recognize this tall guy over there?
Me: "huh? which one? --oh, erm, ok."
That was ALEX JAMES!!! *screeaaam*
waved at him and he waved back but obviously didn't give a damn.
Bwernie approached him fearlessly (*well done*) and Jools asked him if she could take a pic. He even told Bwernie his favourite joke of the moment:
A: "Is Graham your favourite Blur member?
B: "Yes!
A: "Yeah, he's my fave member as well."
*hahaha* -poor Bwernie. In fact, Alex was thoroughly pissed and he didn't care about us at all. -Anyway I liked his mobile phone cos it looked exactly like the one in the 'Matrix' movie!!
e suddenly burst out running after a "TAXIII!!!" -and disappeared with his "girl" to a better place where no fans would be bugging him too much.
We waited again for a while in the cold night. We could hear music from the inside. Actually, we thought we might've seen Graham or Dave, but there was nobody, except these 2 guys who were carrying stuff back into a van. What were they packing ? we thought.   That's when we realised we hadn't seen any Transcopic merchandise, so we asked these blokes if there was any. And *surprise* that's what they were packing! They showed us every merchandise item and we all decided to purchase these great baseball shirts. 15 each.
Jools found out that one of the guys was in fact Jamie *the Transcopic webmaster*!! We all chatted a little about the gig and Jools's website and all, then he asked us if we were French :
Us: "Well, yes, we are!
J: "Oh... -je ne pawle pas le fwanais"
 So cute.
That cool night out ended with that cool moment of sweet euphoria.
We then managed to catch the last train to Camden Town, said goodbye to Soline, and all went (almost) straight to bed. How was the day, by the way? Exhaustive, deafening -and definitely joyful though. *cheers*

7 - THANK U'S

= Jools, for her support and friendship.
= Andre, without whom I would never have seen GC on stage.
= The Eurostar Company, quick and safe and not that expensive for youngsters.
= The London Underground, so much clearer than the Parisian 'Metro'!!! I love it.
= St Christopher's Inn, Camden, for giving me a bed although I hadn't booked it in advance. *oops*
= Fungus, for promoting Swedish music so well.
= Graham, for being such a sweet person and a genius.
= Dave, for being the best drummer in the world. I mean it.
= Damon, for letting me touch his belly, I mean, his T-shirt! well, he didn't notice it anyway...
= Colin, for his bottle of water.
= Alex, for having a pic with us.
= Jamie, for his Transcopic merchandise and this friendly chat we had after the show.
  And, of course, thanks to Bwernie and Soline - and my parents for not calling me 'mad'.