Thursday 13 November 2008

Stanley Clark


In April I went to the Stanley Clark and George duke concert at the Opera House theatre. The view was great, and the sound was OK. Stanley was a bit distorted to start with but they sorted it out.
It really blows me away seeing people who have been music legends longer than I’ve been alive. Stanley is one of them. And he’s one of the most famous bass players ever. I was so aware of my jaw hitting the floor as he played. I can’t say I’m a massive fan of his music – he does some pretty weird stuff. I really wanted to go to hear his bass playing talent. But he played stuff I enjoyed and the funk tunes were great.
It was funny to see guys in front of me who were about 50 getting so into it, clapping their hands above their heads and bopping in their seats. People absolutely loved it. George got his keytar stuck on the keyboard stand – someone had to come out and rescue him.
Then in the middle of the show, the band went off stage and Stanley played a solo acoustic bass set, and oh man, you never thought such a thing could raise the roof. He got a standing ovation in the middle of the concert after playing solo double bass!!!! His virtuosity and musicality was mind blowing.
When the band came back on after this they went into some full on funk and the drummer who was quite a young guy, had a massive solo. It went on forever and it was the fastest playing I’ve ever seen. I know that just because its fast doesn’t mean it’s good, but this was. The cross rhythms he was playing against himself were amazing. And then at the end he threw his drum sticks on the floor and jumped off his stool. It was kind of weird – you couldn’t tell if it was an act or he was angry or what. He couldn’t have been angry with himself, because he’d just played the most amazing drum solo. I found out later on from Rich who was mixing the monitors that he was actually really angry at Stanley who wasn’t being very nice to the band. Apparently he is no fun to be around at all. He’s a bit precious they’d had a run in during sound check.
I got my photo taken with Stanley after the show. He was nice to me.

1 comment:

Giggles and Knits said...

Hey Goldy! I found your blog!
Its nice to see... adding it to my favourites.

Emfolle