It is all part of 6 Music’s Kraftwerk weekend. I think I am going to be spending a lot of this weekend listening to the radio (or a lot of the next 7 days on iPlayer more likely)

Steve Howe with his endless swapping of guitars – he used three different guitars during one song, and then later on used three other guitars during another song. Rick Wakeman surrounded on three sides by banks of keyboards and at one point stretching to play two that were 6 feet apart. Even Jon Anderson had at least three different tambourines to bash, when he wasn’t playing the harp. Chris Squires stuck to his trusty Rickenbacker most of the time but at one point did come out with a triple-necked bass and did actually play all three parts of it during the song. Alan White stuck to the one drum kit, but he did fget to play the crotales and I’m sure I heard a gong at one point.

So, I can see why some people don’t take them seriously, but really it was a treat to watch.

It is possible I only watched a bit of it before though – just the couple of older songs. I never did really like the Trevor Rabin version of Yes and have never owned or even listened much to either 90125 or Big Generator. This time I watched it all the way through, even the unfamilar songs, but didn’t enjoy it a lot. It certainly isn’t Steven Soderbergh’s best film either.

The weird thing is that I think of it as the ‘new Yes’ so it was a bit of a shock to realise this was from 27 years ago, which is more than a little scary. Its probably more of an 80s thing though, because I quite like some of the later Yes material. And it is a terribly 80s film. Not just the music, which is more straightforward and less proggy than before or since, but also the clothes and even the film style – loads of those cheap video effects and split screens: all the things that are worst about the Mike Mansfield-directed Jean-Michel Jarre concert videos.

I may have to go down later and watch one of the other concerts to clear my mind – perhaps the Live at Montreux or Keys to Ascension.

Since I already have 4 live CDs by Yes, not to mention 10 live DVDs and VHS it was a bit of an indulgence. Did I really need a 4th live version of And You & I or Roundabout on my PC or yet another verson of Starship Trooper? Probably not, but I just couldn’t resist it. for a couple of reasons.

Firstly, although it is not my ideal Yes line-up it is, as far as I know, the only official release featuring both Benoit David and Oliver Wakeman. I think he was only a second keyboard player on Fly From Here.

Secondly, it does contain a few tracks that aren’t on any of the other live albums I have – Machine Messiah and Tempus Fugit from Drama and Astral Traveller. I think Jon was always reluctant to do songs from Drama for obvious reasons.

The big question was always going to be how does Benoit David cope with being Jon Anderson? For me the answer is that he is OK. Better on some songs than others. I think he comes across better on the unfamiliar songs, which makes it a bit of a shame this didn’t include any of the new tracks (though I’m sure that album will be out this year).

In some places he did seem to be struggling a bit, but to be honest Jon sometimes did but he always got away with it because there wasn’t someone he was living up to. At the root of it all is the problem that Benoit is impersonating Jon rather than being himself and that is always hard to pull off. Any time you try to add anything, a little flourish or a different intonation it will be assumed that you couldn’t do it the right way. Mike Yarwood used to end his shows with impressions of singers like Tom Jones and Frank Sinatra. No matter how well he did them, nobody would have wanted to see him do a whole concert as Frank Sinatra if they could have the real thing instead.

Considering the circumstances I reckon he does a good job and doesn’t distract from the rest of the band who are on absolutely top form. I think that Steve Howe puts in his best performance ever on this CD, truly outstanding, Oliver Wakeman is as good as his Dad or Igor Khoroshev, and Alan White and Chris Squire are as solid as ever. In fact White puts in a fine solo in Astral Traveller that is reason enough to get the album.

Despite the initial misgivings about having a stunt vocalist, I really enjoyed this. The sound is far better than the House of Yes album and the inclusion of some less familiar tunes makes it worth having. On top of all that it comes beautifully packaged and with a 3rd disc of video extras like interviews and live clips.

I haven’t watched the DVD yet. Saving that for a rainy day.

Not sure what to make of it all. Sounds a bit noodly, but then it *is* prog rock. I don’t think you can get a feel for it in a 50-second clip so with any luck it will be available on Spotify so we can hear whether it works better as a whole.

I’ll admit that David Torn is a new name to me, though he seems to have a bit of form, but I’m familiar with Alan White and Tony Levin and two out of three ain’t bad. More twiddly bits than you can shake a (Chapman) stick at, fretless bass ahoy and intricate drumming. What’s not to like?

Midge Ure in 1980 with Ultravox!

Is it OK to admit that I not only remember Slik well from then, but quite liked them and still have a soft spot for ‘The Boogiest Band in Town’?

What finally got me back up there was a concert in Camden – Department S and Spizzenergi.  I have actually lost count of the number of times I have seen Spizzenergi now, but I had never seen Department S.    Stalkers may remember that I was going to take Chrystal up to see Spizz in December, but Crawley got snowed in so she had to go on her own.   Much to my surprise she actually liked it.  She had never shown much of an appetite for punk rock before, but said that she had a great time.

Department S were interesting.  I never really knew much about them at the time although obviously I had heard Is Vic There?  I was glad to get the chance to hear them play it live because it is one of those iconic songs.  There are a few punk/new wave bands who never really reached much beyond their core audience but had one song that everybody had heard, or at least heard of – like Bauhas with Bela Lugosi’s Dead, the Ruts with Babylon’s Burning, the Psychedelic Furs with Pretty in Pink or, I guess, Spizzenergi with Where’s Captain Kirk?

They did do the big hit, but I found the rest of their set to be excellent too, even though I didn’t know any of the songs. The singer has a real presence and they are still writing new songs, which is good to see.  I thought the end of the set was strange though: in the last song the singer put his jacket back on and did the “we’ve been Department S, goodnight” bit and went off stage, but the song carried on for what felt like five minutes after that in an extended instrumental.

Spizzenergi were exactly what I’ve come to expect.  Part of me would like to be surprised by new material or a very different selection of songs, but the other part of me quite likes to hear the same songs.  That is not to say that it is always identical, the arrangements gently evolve over time rather than get a radical re-working.   The highlights for me are Soldier, Soldier, Central Park, Kirk, the Model, Virginia Plain and Island.

I think I’m largely responsible for Island to get on the set list.  Years ago Spizz gave me some copies of old demo and rehearsal tapes from the Spizz Oil days and there was one track on there that had never been on any record at all even though, to my ears, it was better than some tracks that had been released so I asked about it and it ended up in the repertoire, despite the rest of the band not really liking it much. I think.

Thinking about it, there aren’t really many other songs they could include.  Quite a lot of the older stuff is really quite experimental and arty.  Much as I love the Do A Runner album, a lot of it probably wouldn’t work live and a lot of it was quite keyboard-centred.   I wouldn’t mind hearing Dangers of Living though.  I reckon that would sound good with this line-up.  A couple of the football songs would go down well too, even if they are a bit too specific to past tournaments.

It was all good fun and it gave me a chance to try out the Flip video camera, with mixed results.  I learned a couple of things about it.  Firstly it has trouble focussing in very low light, which is true of most auto-focus camera I suppose.  Secondly it doesn’t like it when a really big bloke stands right in front of you.   I only filmed two songs – here is one of them:

One of the things I like about the band are thet they all seem to be really enjoying themselves, and it was a pleasure to be able to share the evening with our daughter, who seems to be loving life up in that London.  I don’t think there is much chance of her moving back home after her course finishes.

Now I’ve got the taste I mustn’t leave it another year before going up to town.  Maybe I’ll pop up to see that vorticists’ exhibition at Tate Britain and see a few other sights.  Perhaps take Jayne up the eye [[Oops.  That came out ruder-sounding that it was supposed to]] or pay a visit to the zoo?

One thing I won’t do is make the mistake of walking from Euston to Camden again.  What a depressing area the hinterland of Euston station is!

Yes there were some TOTP clips, but also quite a few songs from concerts shown on the BBC, a Royal Variety Show performance,  a guest spot on the Morecambe & Wise show, and so on, but it was also broken up by bits from interviews and non-musical guest appearances on Blue Peter, Parkinson, Wogan as well as clips from the news.  All it really needed was more Ray Cooper.

With all the interest in his hair, his civil partnership, his tantrums, and his lifestyle generally it is easy to forget just how good he is at his job and how good he was at his best, when he knocked out 9 great albums in 6 years.  More amazing is how he seems to have hit that sort of form, albeit at a slower pace, with his last four albums.  He may be an official national treasure, but he’s still a top-class songwriter, musician and entertainer in my humble opinion.

After that I moved onto last week’s episodes.  I’ll admit I skipped through Fleet Foxes and kd Lang, though I did watch the rest:

Hugh Laurie was entertaining.  Maverick Strike was disconcerting because the singer looks like Mike Skinner but sounds like Finlay Quaye.  After getting over that confusion I really enjoyed their sound.  The Agitator was very good, though I suspect the format only works in short bursts, but the most enjoyable act for me was Vintage Trouble who I reckon would be a good band to see in a pub or club: lively, infectious and they really look like they are enjoying themselves.

While I was watching the backlog a new episode of the Tuesday live show was being recorded so I finished off by watching that – a very strong female line-up this week with Lykke Li, PJ Harvey and the Unthanks.  I’d already listened to the PJ Harvey album a few times on Spotify and bought the Lykke Li CD as soon as it came out and enjoyed both so there was no fast-forwarding going on for this one and I’m already looking forward to the full show on Friday.

Not too excited about next week though: Adele and R Kelly…  still keeping my fingers crossed for Gang of Four, Beardyman, Human League or Keren Ann to pop up later in the series.   Be good to see Spizzenergi on there too, but I can’t see that happening so I’ll just have to pop up to Camden on June 11th and see them play with Department S.