The Good, The Bad, and The Queen
Whichever route (musical choices, age, or whatever) brought us here, we were all to experience to one of the most moving and stirring musical evenings that I have attended at the UEA.
For the best part of two hours on Friday night a packed crowd at Norwich's Nick Rayns LCR was transported to a melancholic seaside wonderland where nostalgia and entertainment triumph over sadness and cynicism, where friendship becomes more important than differences, and where music, once again, proves mightier than the sword. This was The Good, The Bad, and The Queen assembled and performing to the convicted, the converted, and the curious - an audience that contained those old enough to have been here when Damon Albarn and Blur last played in 1994, or were at West Runton Pavilion in 1987 and first witnessed Paul Simonon on wielding his bass guitar with The Clash. Among us were also those that had purchased albums by Gorillaz or The Verve, or had fallen in love with Damon Albarn's cheeky Parklife persona and never really gotten over it, and those from 'generation download', who were just plain curious to see the Albarn-led supergroup. Whichever route brought us here, we were all to experience to one of the most moving and stirring musical evenings that I have attended at the UEA.
Against a painted backdrop of Blackpool's North Pier, it began with a traditional medley of tunes on the Yamaha organ from Trevor Raven. More used to entertaining the holidaymakers at the end of Blackpool's famous pier, Trevor transported us to the land of 'kiss-me-quick' with a set that included everything from Simon and Garfunkel to Rimsky-Korsakov, and still left time for a sing-a-long version of Bohemian Rhapsody. A slightly odd-ball booking some may have thought, but placed into context alongside the whole journey to Merrie Land, its kitsch-ness was perfect, and fitted perfectly into the presentation of the show.
And, as the backdrop of the pier became bathed in a sepia light that itself seemed to symbolise the sunset on an era, Damon Albarn, Tony Allen, Paul Simonon and Simon Tong, together with Karl Vanden-Bossche on percussion, Mike Smith on keys, and a four-part string section in the shape of Demon Strings, assemble and take us through the entire Merrie Land album song by song, beginning with the title track and concluding with The Poison Tree.
Albarn switches between vocals, upright piano and acoustic guitar, and still finds time to be bouncy, chirpy and engaging – reaching out to shake hands with those in the front row, and sipping from a glass of white wine. At one point he dons a cowboy hat passed up from the crowd, quipping that it makes him look like Woody from Toy Story. Simonon dances with his bass whilst Allen lays down the beat and Tong keeps the guitar work tight. Although undeniably a melancholic album, it also features moments of pure joyfulness that make you need to dance, although the overall mood remains dominated by the tone of uncertainty reflected within the songs.
After a short break the band return, and take us through almost the whole of the debut album (only Northern Whale, containing its sample of the Stones' As Time Goes By gets left out), a work that some present still remember from the group's headlining appearance at Latitude way back in 2007. Although the vibe of the first album is very different – it was based on observations of life in London at the time, albeit with a backward glance at the British Empire and the abuse of riches plundered from the Colonies, the two works when performed back-to-back produce a stirring and powerful coupling. And, as Albarn remarks after side-stepping the inevitable call-out from the floor to play Parklife, 'I just want to go back to a time where we can all be friends with each other'
I will drink to that.
