Like a lot of these things that you go to there was a stand out in the audience. This time a brilliant old guy. He kept suggesting the exact thing that had already been taken on as a suggestion one moment before.
“What if the workers staged a sit-in?”
“Okay that’s good. A sit-in I’ll write that.”
“Whit if they aw hud a sit-in?”
“Angie should fall in love with one of the other workers”
“Okay they declare their love”
“The lassie should faw in love wi’ somebody”
Etcetera.
The next workshop was taken by John Clifford, the Eddie Izzard of Scottish theatre. It was much different as he brought us all from our seats onto the stage and began a movement workshop. It was all about space and thought and movement and how this can inform your writing.
After a bit of that he made us all sit down ain a circle and we did breathing exercises. He then asked everyone to speak about themselves for a bit, as one of his main points was that everyone is equal and what everyone has to say or write about is relevant. This was interesting as there was a diverse range of people in the room. The old guy of previous was interesting to listen to, though to be fair he did seem pretty bitter.
After that Tommy and I headed out to Edinburgh to visit with Iain AKA One Neck and Paul from the first You Owe Me Glue show.
On our return to Glasgow we went to the 13th Note to see our mate Drew perform under his guise of Wounded Knee. The gig had been listed in The Guardian’s Guide magazine as pick of the week.
I missed the name of the first band on. Their set consisted of a 20 minute dirge that only approached music right at the end.
Next on were Usurper. Iain had warned us all about Usurper. They consisted of two guys with boards of wood. They moved things around on their boards of wood. One of them pulling the tape out of an audio cassette for around five minutes. If they were a comedy act they may have been funny. However I don’t think there’s any niche that Usurper would fit comfortably into.
The audience didn’t really seem to be taking them seriously. Tommy heard someone shout at one point ‘I love this one’. Again they played one continuous ‘set’. You have to wonder what the thought process was for these two guys starting this act and then thinking, ‘you know what? I think this will go down a storm in music venues’.
Next up was Drew. The Wounded Knee set was also one continuous twenty minute piece. A set he dedicated to Garry O’Connor. He played a harmonica and used loops, reverb and effect pedals. Different from everyone else’s set Drew actually sang. His voice is pretty good when it’s not lost in the feedback of his effects.
He never asked me what I thought of it, just thanked me for coming, as I expect that he just assumed I wouldn’t have liked it. I did like it though. I would have preferred if it wasn’t all in one big chunk and I would have liked to hear him sing more but it was good.
Now we get to the headliner – Kylie Minoise. Tommy said “I’m just going to stay for the first 5 minutes of this guy and then head off”. To which Drew replied “He’s just doing a short set. He won’t be on for any longer than 2 minutes”.
Kylie attached some stuff to his person, mikes or sound stuff or something. He then began shouting and throwing himself about. He attacked the speakers and ran at the crowd, returning to the stage to throw himself to the floor holding his head like he was David Berkowitz. He had another go at charging the crowd before hurtling himself onto the stage once more and breaking some stuff.
The end of the set after no more than 2 minutes, this of course met with rapturous applause. Drew turned to us and said “Hmm, he’s usually more intense than that”.
Then the snow started.
You can hear some of WK’s songs at the MySpace site. If you're really interested Kylie has one too.
The photos below are of Usurper, then a load of Wounded Knee, then Kylie Minoise.
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