The Proclaimers - Whitehall Theatre, Dundee 1994

 

As part of a touring schedule that reaches the venues and towns few rock acts reach the Proclaimers show comes to Dundee. More specifically the Whitehall Theatre usually home to the likes of Daniel O'Donnell and Sydney Devine. Indeed the smiling visage of Scotland's very own rhinestone cowboy grins from posters in the foyer.

Entering the auditorium the sense of anticipation is thicker than the fug of cigarette smoke rising to the rafters. 

Opening the show the Proclaimers stamp their authority on the night with loud confident readings of 'Hit the Highway' and 'Guess Who Won't Beg'. By the time they pitch into 'I'm on My Way' the audience are on their fee, stamping, clapping and hollering along. 

A Proclaimers concert is now an adrenaline charged distillation of American music producing a release of emotion akin to a soul revue or an evangelist revival. The audience is caught in euphoric rapture as the songs hit home.

The set comes to a close with 'Don't Turn Out Like Your Mother' the band reaching higher and higher towards the finale. Taking a short breather on the encore of 'King of the Road' they finish the night with a yelping 'Oh Jean' with Charlie speaking in tongues like a man possessed. Transcendence is reached and its time for home assured in the knowledge that nothing like this has been seen in the Whitehall Theatre, ever. 

1994

 I've seen the Proclaimers countless times from their beginnings playing in hip clubs and 'hairdresser' bars of Edinburgh. I'm due to see them this summer in a big top on Leith Links. It's been a long gap since I saw them last at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange in the early 2000s.

Tom Verlaine

 I never saw Tom Verlaine or Television live but with his sudden passing I'm realising how much I listened to his music.

I arrived at Television a bit late, I'd found contemporaries Blondie, the Ramones and Talking Heads first The evidence is in my record collection the monumental 'Marquee Moon' LP is budget priced 'Nice Price' release and the second 'Adventure' is a cut-out import bought for £3.49, probably at that hippie run second hand record shop I used to go to in Dundee.  

Those two albums were inspiring, 'Marquee Moon' was like nothing else of it's time (and nothing since). The interplay between the twin guitars of Verlaine and Lloyd is legendary. I've always found 'Adventure' more approachable but nonetheless a sublime and important album. 

I bought the first two solo albums when the came out and played them endlessly. This was brought home to me when I listened to them today, the Sunday after Tom's passing and finding I know them back to front, singing along, well blurting out lyrics tunelessly but accurately. 

I dug those vinyl albums out along with a compilation 'Shake to Date' which contains that iconoclastic single by the the Neon Boys, Verlaine's band with Richard Hell. The early version of 'Love Comes in Spurts' is the well known song that Hell took to the Voidoids but my favourite is 'That's all I know (right now)' it is punk in attitude and approach all incendiary guitar which is probably why Verlaine is often called the godfather of punk. In truth his playing and writing was always more sophisticated than punk perhaps as he said he was inspired by jazz so moved well beyond the one chord wonder limitations of punk. There was always an economy in his playing, it was like he was choosing his path carefully not wasting any notes so the attack was more precise.

Of course Tom Verlaine was originally, like his friend Patti Smith, a poet and somewhere on my bookshelves there is a slim volume shared with Patti that I bought in Grouchos Record Shop in Dundee possibly on the same day that I bought the 12" 'Gloria/My Generation' by the Patti Smith Group in a brown paper bag. 

Tom Verlaine is gone and I might have a slight regret that I didn't see him live but I'm just glad I have the music to listen to and that I have that quartet of albums that I've returned to again and again over the years.

Perhaps bizarrely Television were due to tour with Billy Idol last year, playing large venues - the Hydro in Glasgow - but dropped out due to illness. In hindsight a portent of what we are now mourning. RIP Mr Verlaine, Thank you for the music.