Reeves in London

Not me I'm afraid.
Bit of a trek from central Europe.
Maybe those closer to That London?

good news

It seems like it just a discussion? Or are they playing as well? I'll be on gardening leave then so might pop down


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That's what I thought. £16 is a bit steep then?!


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Bill Nelson's website says there will be playback of the album (through cinema sound system) with projected photos, graphics, and guitar images.  They will discuss the music and their creative and collaborative process. 

Advance copies of the album on CD will be available to purchase (no postage charge) and have signed.

Seems worthwhile and a fair price and fun to me. 

As promised here is my review of the afternoon with Reeves and Bill Nelson.

Actually getting to the event was a logistical battle in itself. I had earlier in the day decided to try and catch some of the Tour de France that was going on in Cambridgeshire / Essex just over the border from Hertfordshire, but the album launch was due to start at 3.45-4pm in Central London. That meant I had to somehow get to the TdF, find somewhere to park without ending up in the blocked off roads, then cycle from my car to a good viewing spot, wait for the riders to come past, then get back to my car and then drive back home for 2.45 to then get the 3pm train into London. (Phew! Got that?)
I worked out all my timings and found a spot where the cyclists were meant to come past at 12:50. They actually came through about 1.20 so I was already panicing but had allowed for some leeway. Anyway, cut a long story short, I got home at 2.45 which gave me zero time to dump the car, quickly change and then run down to the station. It was at this point I realised I could probably take a Cure CD or Vinyl and try and get it signed, so a quick mad rush to work out what would make sense, realised Wrong Number was my only choice, ran around the house looking for them, found they didn't fit in my bag, found another bag and then ran out the house. Realised I'd left the event ticket in the house, got the ticket, back out the house, and had to run non-stop to the station. Only to find the train was 10 minutes delayed, panic over. (Double Phew!)

So now to focus on album launch itself. What would it be like? What if the album was terrible / boring? Would I meet Reeves up close? If I did, what would I say? Would I mumble? What if they run out of time and didn't do the signing. etc etc. All the normal fanboy / fangirl thoughts.

Eventually I made it to Oxford Circus (near Soho) at 3.40. It was starting to rain hard, I realised I felt rough as hadn't grabbed any lunch yet, and it dawned on me I hadn't checked the location of the venue. A quick check - bugger - it's at least 10 minutes away. A quick walk and eventually I made it. Quite a few people milling around, some with name badges on, others queueing up for something but I couldn't tell what. Looked like a guest list of some sort. A quick check and I worked out the desk was selling CDs of the album so I joined the queue. At this point, Reeves wandered into the room. No one seemed to really notice or make a scene (which I thought was fair enough). I wondered, do I go now and end up saying something dumb, or hang loose and wait? I waited, paid for my CD and got a beer and some crisps (that was my lunch).

It was getting near 4pm now. Hang on?! Why's everyone got name badges on except me? A quick check back at the desk - you need a name badge to get into the Cinema room. Ah! You could have said when I bought the CD! Got my name badge, and rejoined the group, now heading into the Cinema. I reckon there was 40/50 people there, maybe more, but it was certainly a low-key affair.

Eventually, the compere (Tom?) enters the room and explains the format. They will play the album over the sound system for just under an hour, along with images projected onto the screen. Then there will be a Q&A followed by questions from the audience and then the signing sesion.
Lights down, a quick sip of beer, music starts. Here we go...

As for the album itself, I can't really describe it in great detail. Partly because I've obviously only heard it once, but mainly because it doesn't fit into any category of music that I already own. If push comes to shove and I had to say it sounded like something, I would say Space Rock-ey, with some Psychadelia. Think Spacemen 3 / Spiritualized with some Julian Cope when he was most off his head on drug cocktails (possibly. I don't want to get sued by JC). Some of it was quite Jazzy too.
Plus some of the images being projected were pretty trippy too.
A couple of the songs I didn't really take to. Most were ok/good. A couple were easy to get into. During the playback I did the obvious thing and listened for Cure type riffs, but nothing really stood out apart from one track where you could imagine Robert taking hold of it, tweaking it and laying some dreamy lyrics over it.
The overall style of the album was as the name suggests - Fantastic Guitars. Two guitarists with very different styles, conversing using their weapon of choice. It was interesting listening and trying to work out which guitarist was playing which section. Almost Duelling Banjos but not quite so cheesy.

After 40-45, we got to the end of the album. Warm / polite applause (I think the venue / format was a little unsettling. It wasn't really condusive to audience interaction as such.)

A quick break in the proceedings as chairs and table were brought out, and off we went with the Q&A. How did they meet? What was the recording process? What was easy, what was hard? etc etc. Reeves in particular enjoyed the roast dinners he had while staying in Yorkshire at Bill's home studio.
The Cure were mentioned briefly - having met on various occassions they met up again when The Cure played Leeds, and the idea of an album came out of that.

So, to the first photos:




to be continued...