Joanna Newsom, Roy Harper: bit of a contrast there then

Royal Festival Hall
11 May 2010

Ah Joanna, Joanna - what is there to say?

Strange you should ask, as a few things do occur. Apart from the nagging suspicion that she would still have a lovely conversation even if she were alone in the room, and the obvious thoughts about bending her over and so on, she does seem to be a bit of a wonder. The great and the good were there to see for themselves, with a number of groovy popsters spotted in the audience, also the Boosh one who isn't Noel Fielding.

Despite having to learn a new singing style after vocal chord nodules a year ago, the endless torrent of lyrics streamed forth, importance to the oeuvre demonstrated by the dedicated book of words in the album box set, all impeccably, and clearly, sung. However, unlike many lyrically-focused artists, there is now - an improvement on Ys - an equal balance between the musical and lyrical interest, with the musical scope broad and inventive, faultlessly played by the band. Encompassing country, folk, jazz, blues, pop and classical elements - often in a single song - there was no shortage of fantastic, spellbinding music to thrill the passing blogger; thoughts that Good Intentions Paving Co is likely to be my song of the year lasted only until encore Baby Birch (although I do claim the right to revert that title).

My one complaint was that several times before the lengthy harp-tuning/Q&A interlude, and occasionally afterward - questions were invited from the audience, but "Who do you think should be the new Chancellor of the Exchequer?" was a bit of an ask, to be fair - the band drowned out JoNew, which kind of defeated the object, lovely as the arrangements were.

All of which magnificence, in case I have not made my feelings clear, was in marked contrast to the support act from "legend" (presumably in the footballing sense i.e. lazy shorthand for 'once thought to be quite good by his mum') Roy Harper, who really did make me want to kill myself *.

A bloke and a guitar - well, two guitars, but he only played one at a time - and he somehow contrived to have more sound problems than JoNew and her five musicians. Only two hours to soundcheck, he bemoaned, but go figure - one man, one mic, two electro-acoustics. Moving, then, swiftly beyond the forgotten words and the lost plectrum (just strum it!), suffice to say it was hard work to sit through this ego trip, although to be fair he can play a fine blues guitar. Unfortunately I find blues guitar to be a predictable idiom, and don't enjoy it.

There was enough reverb on the vox to muddy much of his singing, although despite the potential benefits of this, during a song that he had introduced as being about his 'bohemian' love life I am sure I heard the line "I saw you have your first daisy chain". I know which of the evening's artists I would rather feature in that mental image....

On that happy note, this is post no. 100; a suitable point at which to cease and desist. Thanks for stopping by.

* Please note that I did not kill myself in response to Roy Harper's performance.