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I’ll be heading off to Colchester’s Headgate Theatre next Thursday, 10th April, to listen to Guy Singleton performing an evening of Jake’s songs. News article here: http://www.jakethackray.com/content/view/286/84/
Anyone else "local" going? Ed Oliver? Maggie Press? Clive and Sonia?
Anyone heard Guy perform?
Guy, are you a member here?
Cross-posted to Topica
Would love to come and join you, Keith, but we’ll be in the midst of moving house at the time. No doubt you’ll be able to ask Guy in person the questions you’ve posted here that he may not have seen yet ;o)
Hope you have a good time and see some other fans there!
KeithD wrote:
I’ll be heading off to Colchester’s Headgate Theatre next Thursday, 10th April, to listen to Guy Singleton performing an evening of Jake’s songs. News article here: http://www.jakethackray.com/content/view/286/84/
Anyone else "local" going? Ed Oliver? Maggie Press? Clive and Sonia?
Anyone heard Guy perform?
Guy, are you a member here?
Cross-posted to Topica
I really wanted to go to the Friday night but was traveling back from a half term break with the kids. I got a ticket just incase but didn’t make it in time. M25 Grrr..
So what did I miss?For an am-dram performance, which this was, it was actually better than acceptable. But the main problem was that you need to be very good, and quite possibly you need to be Jake himself, to carry a whole unadulterated evening of Jake’s songs. Guy said on stage that he was not worried about the songs since they would stand up for themselves, but in fact the songs need help to do that. Without the stresses and the other idiosyncracies of Jake’s delivery, the songs aren’t given the best chance to stand on their own. For an example, think back to the Irish guy whose name I’ve mercifully forgotten, who, in Sister Jo, sang "No longer will the cloister toilet seat stand a-PRIGHT". Now unless you sing "seat … stand … up … right" you’ve thrown the best line of the song away. Timing and delivery are as critical to Jake’s songs as to jokes.
If I’m honest, I didn’t enjoy the evening. Guy was close to word-perfect, which was a huge feat, and his voice is OK, but he struggled to carry the first set and for me failed to carry the second; too many songs fell flat. But then Thursday was the first time he’d done the show, and indeed the first time he’d performed as a musician since he was in a band many years back.
The previous one-man Jake show that I went to in the East End of London (forget the guy’s name now but could look it up) was better, because the performer was more energetic and better on the guitar and so gave the songs a much better chance than did Guy. But even then the last quarter was very samey – and a bit desperate, trying to fit in as many songs as possible. When Malcy does his annual Malcy nights he mixes Jake and Tom Lehrer and Flanders and Swann and others, and though I’ve never been to one, I am sure that the variety and change of pace will make Malcy’s evenings more successful than a whole evening of any one of those artists.
I think we have the recipe right at Jakefests and with the JT Experience: many performers each doing a handful of numbers.
Post edited by: KeithD, at: 2008/04/14 19:02
Paul wrote:
So, how was the show? It would be great to have a brief report.
Sorry, I didn’t see that "brief" š
Hi Keith,
Many thanks for your comments.
The Thursday night was a very nervous performance for me. This was the first time I had played guitar in public for a number of years and the first time I had performed Jakes material too. I was pleased to just get through the set with no major disasters.
Friday night was a huge improvement. I managed to relax more and not rush through some of the songs I had hurtled through the previous night (The Statues for example that was played at a suicidal rate!).
Anyway, in general it seemed to go down very well and the theatre was almost full on Friday. There was a much better connection with the audience and I was reasonably pleased with the show (got a bit scrappy as I flagged towards the end).
All in all ahugely enjoyable experience. The most pleasing aspect was hearing people remark afterwards how it had brought back happy memories of Jake. I think I also managed to gain some new fans for him!
Kind regards
Guy
Guy
When I looked before responding to Paul’s request, you weren’t a member here. Had you been, I would have been more sparing of your feelings and been less blunt. But I’m sure you’re right when you say that Friday went down much better.
Since the prime audience was really other performers, my comments were not meant as a criticism of you per se but as an expression of my general feelings about the difficulty of any amateur putting on such a night. I must admit that as a Jake fan I am very conscious that, while an amateur can bring something different/fresh to Jake’s songs, that only lasts a short while and then I start to be more aware of what’s missing (ie Jake’s delivery) than what’s present.
All that aside, all power to your elbow in keeping Jake’s memory alive and converting some new fans to his wonderful songs. I’m sure from your response that you won’t let this old fart deter you from future gigs. I suspect you’ll go on again.
Hi Keith,
Really, don’t apologise. I didn’t feel your comments were unjustified and I certainly did not feel you were having a go at me. In fact you made some very encouraging comments and I value the opinion of someone who obviously has such an intense passion for Jakes work.
Can I just ask one thing? Do you perform Jakes work at all yourself? If so you must let me know where/when as it would be good to come and see you.
Regards
Guy
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