talking heads: stop making sense…

When I grow up, I want to be David Byrne.
I love ‘Talking Heads’ and, back in 2007, owned a DVD of one of their December 1983 gigs given away free with ‘The Observer’. I played it all the time and loved it…
Tragically, following our house move two years ago, I can no longer find it. I gave away LOTS of my CDs etc (free-to-collect on the pavement outside our house), but was careful to retain all my ‘absolute favourites’… and, SURELY, SMS wasn't among them? It was just in a cardboard CD envelope as opposed to a hinged-plastic case… perhaps I put it in a ‘special place’? If so, where on earth was that?
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I went along to the Watershed last night to see the ‘Stop Making Sense’ concert film (filmmaker Jonathan Demme’s new and complete 4K restoration for the film's 40th anniversary) on the big screen - David Byrne, Tina Weymouth, Chris Frantz, and Jerry Harrison, alongside an ensemble of supporting musicians and singers. The live performance was shot over the course of three nights at Hollywood's Pantages Theatre and featured the band's most memorable songs including ‘Burning Down the House’, ‘Psycho Killer’ and ‘Once in a Lifetime’.
It felt somewhat weird for me to be going to the cinema at 8.30pm (me being an ‘old codger afternoon regular’!). The cinema was packed (it was a sell-out) and the evening didn’t disappoint. Wonderful, evocative music; wonderfully energetic and passionate performances; and, of course, David Byrne was absolutely mesmerising throughout.
The age-range of the audience was interesting – half were old fogies like me (I was probably the second oldest member) and the other half were probably all under 40. Some were no doubt re-living their youth and others probably checking out the musical tastes of their parents!
An utterly compelling evening. I absolutely LOVED it (and the rest of the audience did too!).
PS: On New Year’s Eve in 1967(?), at a somewhat drunken party, I was asked if I would like to join a newly-formed group as their lead singer (we called them ‘groups’ in those days, not ‘bands’). They’d clearly never heard me sing. I gracefully declined…
I appreciate that Talking Heads weren’t formed until 1975, but I’m pretty sure that, if I HAD agreed to embark on a musical career, it’s just possible that I might have become the Byrne-before-Byrne legend of the pop world… (we will never know!).
Oh, what might have been?!
PPS: These days, cinemas (even the Watershed) encourage people to take their bar drinks into the auditorium… which is fine, BUT (last night) it did mean that there was a CONSTANT stream of people (of all ages!) making their way from their respective seats, squeezing past fellow audience members in their rows on their way to the loos!