Hitting the high Cs Odd crew takes fans on musical voyage
Hal Willner's Rogue's Gallery Grand Canal Dock, Dublin
Shane MacGowan's contribution worked a treat with the bawdy material on offer in Hal Willner's production at Dublin's Dockyard at the weekend
Monday July 21 2008
Rogue's Gallery is the most eye-catching event in the Analog Festival, the leftfield Dublin docklands weekend, now in its second year.
Where else would one get to see such luminaries as Lou Reed and Shane MacGowan sharing a stage with Hollywood actor Tim Robbins, a reconstituted Virgin Prunes and such English folkies as Teddy Thompson and Eliza Carthy? And if the line-up is odd, so too is the notion of said figures performing ancient sea shanties and pirate ballads.
American producer Hal Willner -- the organiser of the wonderful Leonard Cohen tribute tour, 'Came So Far For Beauty' -- is the man responsible for pulling this eclectic cast together and he's getting into the spirit of things with pirate garb and "Avast, me hearties!" banter between acts.
Lou Reed isn't quite as chipper. And he looks decidedly uncomfortable with his rendition of 'Good Ship Venus', at one point appearing to forget the lyrics. Rock's grumpiest man is visibly peeved.
There are no such problems for Tim Robbins, who proves he's not just a fine actor with his take of 'My Son John', while Gavin Friday is suitably sleazy for a gnarly rendition of 'Baltimore Whores'. Friday later teams up with his former Virgin Prunes buddies, Guggi and Dave-id Busaras, and the trio, now called Three Pruned Men, are comically awful. The original Prunes were pants, but this lot are even worse.
Unsurprisingly, those from the English folk tradition handle the songs a lot better than a bunch of situationist chancers. The Langley Sisters and Kami Thompson certainly sound as if they've rehearsed -- not something one can say of all the performers, although Shane MacGowan's typically drunken presence works a treat on such bawdy material.
With 40-odd songs performed, the docklands buzzes for over three-and-a-half hours.
Contrary to rumours, Bono -- whose Hanover Quay studio is just a stone's throw away and who performed on Willner's 2006 Rogue's Gallery album -- does not put in an appearance, but it hardly matters.
The rousing finale involves all the participants -- and an unexpected contribution from English folk veteran Linda Thompson.
- John Meagher
