“The Randoms” - Awards for a musical lucky dip at Somerset House

Having been lucky enough get tickets to 10 out of the 11 gigs in that made up the 2010 Sumer Series in Somerset House, I’d like to award a few prizes:

Loudest – Soul II Soul

This one is easy – they had clearly turned the volume all the way up to 11 – not a big surprised for a collective that  had its origins as a sound system. The windows around the court yard where at significant danger at some points – not to mention my ear drums!

Youngest Audience – N-Dubz

Run away winners – and a good thing too as that meant they where also the shortest audience so I could still get a good view despite giving up my place near the front for a call of nature…

Oldest Audience – Gil Scott Heron

It would be Interesting to see if there was a correlation between the average age on and off the stage – Gil’s audience was definitely the most mature – matching those on stage providing the entertainment.

Early Arrivals – N-Dubz’s Audience

I thought I should get there a little early as it was Sunday and a very “current” headline, it was also a very pleasant walk through the city to get there on a warm Sunday evening – but I didn’t expect the entire audience to be there an hour before the doors where due to open!

Late Arrivals – Not Awarded

Possibly because of the very strict 11pm curfew, none of the acts took there time appearing on stage.

Best Opening act – Joint -

Cathy Davey (Divine Comedy) & Mayer Hawthorne (GIl Scott Heron)

Hard to separate these two – both had me buying there albums via iPad live at the event, should either headline an event themselves, I’ll be looking for tickets.

Strangest Opening act – Ólöf Arnalds (AIR)

I’m not sure what the link is between Icelandic folk and synth based electronica – but it didn't work for me or most of the audience

Biggest Surprise – Divine Comedy (Solo)

I’d not had time to do any research on what to expect from this evening – Neil Hannon’s working of and with the audience was superb entertainment.

Best Gig –

Winner – Florence + The Machine – Runner up – Divine Comedy (Solo) 

This is a close run thing – I had high expectations of Florence Welch and her extensive “machine”, which they still managed to exceeded with the most complete performance of the series. I had no expectations of Neil Hannon – but he delivered a solo performance which I defy anyone not to have been entertained by.

Honourable Mention – The weather

I can’t believe I attended 12 outdoor musical events in a few London summer weeks and there where only a few spots of rain for all of them.

If I’m in London when the 2011 series is run – I’ll definitively be trying to get tickets all the of them again – the musical lucky dip was a wonderful way to spend some glorious summer evening escaping the stress of the office… Somerset House – please offer a season ticket to the event for the musically brave so I don’t have to resort to GetMeIn or the many ticket touts that gather outside the events. And please rebook the weather.

Somerset II Soul

From Soul II Soul

Closing the Somerset House series for 2010 where Soul II Soul – and from standing in the queue I knew they where going to push the sound system all the way to 11! My place at the front of the queue would secure me a position right at the front and if the volume of the sound check was anything to go by I might have ended up using my earphones as ear plugs! Jazzie B’s admission that they’d not played live for 4 years showed – it was a shame, individually much of the music was a great reminder of the end of the 80’s and good times at University – but they failed to flow as a group and never managed to get the audience moving as one.

An evening of divine comical musical comments on life

Divine Comedy was one of the evening where I really didn’t know what to expect. Standing in the queue didn’t make it any clearer – a very mixed audience in terms of age and social appearance, large groups of young people, families with young children – one group with a champagne and sushi picnic to eat in the queue! Frantic chaos at work meant I’d not even used the internet to find out what to expect!

From Divine Comedy

The warm up act, Cathy Davey, was so good I bought two albums on my iPad in the break before the main act! The “Solo” added to the main act title on the event promotion, the piano and single guitar on the stage gave some more clues to the nature of the main act. The fact that person placing the artists drinks and props for the evening being “suited and booted” should have been a clue…

Then Neil Hannon made his appearance on stage – suited and booted, completed with a bowler hat and brief case! A Flanders & Swann style commentary on the current financial problems started the evening – and it was that style of clever humorous commentaries on all sort of things that fill the rest of a great evening.

This will revive my childhood listening to Flanners & Swann - “complete collection from iTunes already download” – one of my favourite quotations from them being:

“Raise the ceiling four feet, move the fireplace from that wall to that wall, you'll still only get the stereophonic effect if you sit in the bottom of that cupboard”

Sums up the modern hi-fidelity world…

One event in the Somerset House series to go – Soul II Soul will find it hard to top Cathy Davey and Divine Comedy (Solo) – for me the best so far of a very good series of very varied evenings entertainment.

Contemporary Jazz in historic surroundings

From Corinne Bailey Rae

After the traditional Jazz from Gil Scott-Heron on Wednesday it was the turn of the current generation of musicians to fill the court yard of Somerset House with Jazz. Corinne Bailey Rae filled that role with yet another rain free evening in central London, surrounded by architecture that hide the bustle of the city in an oasis of music. A very pleasant way to start the weekend.

Managed to “get me in” to this sold out event…

The ticket to see Florence + the Machine was the only one I’d had to resort to GetMeIN to get – and it was worth the extra cost. I do wish a method of ensuring tickets get to music lovers rather than the touts could be found – maybe some form of loyalty scheme you can only take advantage of if you actually attend the event! “The XX” hadn’t appealed enough to pay the price premium for their sold out appearance in the series and was the only one I missed.

From Florence and the Machine

The entertainment began with Holly Miranda – who really didn’t seam to be up to playing to an audience awaiting Florence. Of all the support acts so far she was the first not get any rapport from the crowd – even the Icelandic folk music got a better reception! It continued with the stage crew trying to get the curtain installed to ensure a smoky start to Florence’s performance would actually fall down to prevent the breeze from displacing the stage smoke…

Then with the added tension of whether the impromptu smoke retainer would manage to drop to reveal Florence the main show began… Florence represent the current generation of 20 something female British pop/rock vocalists – that include the likes of Lily Allen, Ellie Goulding and Little boots – very capably. She had the largest backing group of any of her piers – but they filled the courtyard of Somerset House with a great modern sound.

From Florence and the Machine