"I See A Light Inside, And It Comes From You" Part Three - GBS London Borderline Show Videos, Looking Ahead To The GBS Rogers St. John's Show, & Seeing The King Inside

The King I see inside. - From "The Lion King"

During the past few days' whirlwind of touristing (Tower Of London, Westminster Abbey, London Eye, Big Ben & Parliament, Trafalgar Square, the British Museum, and of course a boat excursion up the Thames and plenty of pub-sampling), everywhere we look, we have seen lions: big lions, small lions, majestic lions, endearing lions. Which means that my favourite lion of all - the Rock Star Guitar God Frigging Lion King - has never strayed far from my thoughts. Finally, after giving a piece of my heart to the South Bank Lion yesterday (uncanny-resemblance photos to follow eventually), we said "Oh, shag it, let's just go see The Lion King over at the Lyceum Theatre." Which we did last night, keeping that favourite Lion King near and dear in mind and heart throughout one more show before heading back.

The Lion King was a grand show, some spectacular staging and costumes, to be sure, but it was the one line quoted here at the start that made the strongest and most lasting impression on me; that one line caused me to recall the entire series of shows over on this side of the pond, to think of all the commanding moments and exciting moments and magnificent moments I have seen on stages both small and large, high and low, near and far, muddy and dry. There have been so many wonderfully sweet and unabashedly delighted moments. Out of all these moments, the one I thought of first when I heard the words The King I see inside took place early one Denmark morning inside a half-millennium-old water mill, when Alan joined the members of Danu up on stage and let the King he is inside show with such clarity and power, beauty and grace.

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I believe this is a complete set of videos from the London Borderline show. I'll put up the Straight To Hell link again to keep them all together, and also because it's so wonderful. For those who enjoy Giant Alan vids (and also Dancing Sean vids), highest recommendations go to the Singalongs clip.

Alan Doyle & GBS, Singalongs (Delightfully Up Close), Borderline, London 2007     (185 MB)

Alan Doyle, & GBS, Penelope, Borderline, London 2007     (143 MB)

Alan Doyle/GBS, Impromptu Pub Song, Borderline, London 2007     (94 MB)

Alan Doyle/GBS, Straight To Hell, Borderline, London 2007     (215 MB)

I'm still working on getting the Tønder videos uploaded; that's going to have to wait till after I get back St. John's later tonight - it seems weird that we'll be back by then, but such are the vagaries of East-To-West travel.

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As great as this trip has been, I have to admit I'm looking forward to getting back to having time enough to write something that's more thought-out and less of a scramble. One last such scrambled bit before I head off to pack up and go get my last English Breakfast before heading to Gatwick.

I've been thinking and thinking about these past shows over here, about how much less encumbered they felt by expectations or preconceived notions, and the feeling of hopeful liberation and unconstrained possibility this gave to the performances and even to the music itself. GBS's choosing to come here and do these shows was a brilliant move to make directly before heading into the meat-and-potatoes part of recording the new CD, even if they probably did encounter a few strange show experiences along the way (Bob's got a wickedly incisive new Soundtrack Journal up in regard to festivals...more about that later too, except to comment that I did indeed wonder how in the world things were proceeding in the apparent utter chaos of the Beautiful Days festival and a few others - it got quite sketchy on the other side of the stage at times too). Regardless of any bumps and bruises along the road here, it was still a wise choice to precede the creation of new music by going out and playing in a few places where there's a bit more room to spread your wings and fly than might be found in some other places; chances seem excellent that all of this will work to make the new GBS CD even better than it was already going to be.

I am wondering quite a bit about the upcoming home show, the Rogers show at the Glacier on September 1st. It's shaping up to be quite an odd kind of show. It's a promotional show but not quite a corporate show per se since the tickets were handed out to any and all for free. It's a public show, but not your typical GBS public show since those who got the free tickets wound up hearing about it by word of mouth (or outright rumour) that was in many cases outside of the "usual" GBS-fan channels. I see that GBS never put this one up on their Tour Schedule, and the only reason the official-site fans - including the locals and the CFAs who have moved there, as well as some fans who will travel to St. John's to see this show - knew about it was from one OKP post made by a local who heard a rumour from somewhere. I certainly heard about this away from that online connection, and I'm still very grateful to the sweet fellow who has made September 1st be a grand day for me and eleven locals.

So now there will be a cluster of "regular" GBS fans mixed in with folks who heard about the free show from a variety of sources other than Official Channels. Home shows are complicated and challenging as it is, and this one might wind up being yet more complicated, though hard to tell yet if it might also be more challenging. I am looking forward to hearing the new music done at that home show, maybe most especially Straight To Hell, a tune I believe has the potential to be GBS's biggest hit since Sea Of No Cares, a tune which just might get them some significant radio-play if they record it with an arrangement/mix aimed at that goal.

STH has gone over smashingly well with mostly American audiences this spring and summer, and it went over even more smashingly well with all of the European audiences, including the audiences that knew next to nothing about Great Big Sea. People love this tune; I have heard them singing it still as they walk out of various and sundry venues after the show has come to an end. But these are the audiences with the fewest preconceived notions about what it is Great Big Sea is "supposed" to be doing and how it is Great Big Sea is "supposed" to be acting. I believe there will be some resistance to STH from the Old Guard in Canada - probably from some areas in the States too - the ones who want GBS to sing Donkey Riding and Old Black Rum all the way to their graves, but I am not at all sure yet how the home crowd is going to react. The show at the Glacier could be a clear indication of that potential reaction.

At the end of the day, though, it's more a feeling of anticipation than one of worry. When all is said and done, I'll put my trust in the song and even more so in the songwriter. Who better to trust than the King himself?

Time to pack...eat...fly. Perhaps the Duke later this evening.

Comments

[Laura]

Are you back now Lynda? :)

[lynda]

Define "back". Kinda, sorta: I'm back on this side of the Pond, in St. John's for most of this month, full of hopeful ambitions of getting a big chunk of writing done. Time will tell how that pans out, but no matter what, it's still great to be here.