john hopkins at beacon hall…

Last night (thanks to my three lovely daughters who gave me gig vouchers for my birthday), I went along to see Jon Hopkins in concert at the Bristol Beacon (formerly Colston Hall). It was the first time I’d been there since the Beacon’s extensive renovations. I’d seen Hopkins perform several years ago when he was teamed up with King Creosote back (in 2011, I think) and again when they came to the beautiful isle of Iona in 2012, when they performed in the tiny library there (I was volunteering on the island with the Iona Community for two months at the time). The seating capacity was probably just 35 and it was a sell-out gig(!). It proved to be a memorable, entertaining concert – in part because they’d spent the afternoon at the Argyll Hotel being plied with countless triple gin-and-tonics (which continued right through the performance)!  
Last night’s concert was VERY different… 

Hopkins’ music has ‘moved on’ somewhat from those days (understatement!) – including working with Brian Eno and Coldplay – to become an acknowledged electronic artist and producer boasting an output (quoting from the Beacon’s blurb) “that flows from rugged techno to transcendent choral music, solo acoustic piano and psychedelic ambient, the Mercury Prize nominated Immunity (2013) and the Grammy-nominated Singularity (2018), two intense, ambitious albums of spiritually-minded techno and ambient tracks, were among the decade’s most lauded electronic albums”.
Firstly, I was probably the oldest person there. It was non-stop; high volume; big bass; wall of sound; massive colour (lighting engineers seem to be the new gods); enthusiastic, throbbing audience… and Hopkins on his own at the front manipulating everything on his synthesizer keyboard/drum machine (or whatever it is he uses!). I have to admit, it was the first such gig that I’d attended (Hopkins has travelled a long, long way in the last 12 years or so – without me following his journey). Being an old codger, I spent an awful of the time wondering what the high volume was doing to the eardrums of the people standing up (very) close to the amplifiers!!
Did I enjoy it? Well, yes, I absolutely did… even though the ‘music’ was not my sort of thing. I found it something of a mesmerising experience. Simon+Garfunkel it was not!!
PS: It was very good to see ‘Big Jeff’ (a Bristol music icon who regularly attends over 300 gigs a year) in the ‘front row’ of the audience… despite all his health problems after being badly burnt in a domestic fire three years ago.
PPS: It was also lovely to meet up briefly with Stu and Iris before the concert started (we’d all booked to see Hopkins, completely oblivious that we’d all be attending)… they were standing, while I was sitting(!) in a somewhat cramped seat on the ‘Lower Tier’ gallery.
Photo: Some ‘mash-up’ pics from last night.

chasing the sun…

I went along to the Watershed last night (together with great friends Sarah and Dave) to watch a film about cycling. Nothing to do with the Tour de France or professional bike racing… this was simply a documentary film about lots of cyclists endeavouring to ride 205 miles coast-to-coast (UK South event: Thames Estuary to Weston-super-Mare) in a day – the longest/summer solstice day.
It’s NOT about speed or being first across the line. It’s about how much of a land it’s possible to see, to feel, by bicycle in a single day (in 1973 an American university professor set out to discover the most energy efficient creature on earth… and he concluded that it was a human being on a bicycle!).
It’s now an annual event – and there are other similar coast-to-coast rides organised on the same day in Italy, Scotland and Ireland (with others being planned elsewhere). Ollie Moore (the person who first came up with the idea) views the event as giving people an opportunity to get away from their screens and daily clutter and creating a “space for thinking” and re-attuning the senses to being surrounded by nature and allowing individuals to see things they wouldn't normally see. Moore was inspired by Richard Long, the English sculptor/land artist – who attended last night’s film (Long would document his walks through nature by opening up his senses, drinking in the sights, sounds and sensations he was feeling on his bike or his walks). It’s also about the environment and ‘saving the planet’.
The film has interviews with people who have discovered (or re-discovered) the health and environmental benefits of cycling in their own cities, towns or villages… and many who are passionate advocates for ensuring greater provision of dedicated cycling space on our heavily-trafficked streets.
The film includes rather wonderful footage of (and conversations with) a couple of cyclists participating in the coast-to-coast ride – a woman who had never previously contemplated cycling any such sort of distance and a man who talked about how cycling had massively helped his mental health.
It’s a passionate, joyful film and I hugely enjoyed it.