Sunday, 16 March 2008
St Patricks Day in Trafalgar Square was GREAT -- as Luka said 'a soft Irish day', so not bad at all!!
Quite a festival atmosphere! Lots of tricolours, football shirts, shamrocks (including temporary face tattoos being handed out at the gate), leprechaun outfits... And people of all races, ages, etc... In fact, when Luka spoke to the crowd in Gaelic, nobody paid him any mind, so I think the 'genuine' IRISH were in the extreme minority!!!! Three huge nets of balloons (green, white orange, of course) were released to great applause and cheers. Then one of the nets got caught on the stage lights over the stage, requiring 3 men & one enormous ladder to get it disentangled -- again to loud cheers & not a little joshing!! Not everyone was paying strict attention to what was happening on stage, but that's okay, everybody seemed to be having a great time -- lots of people up on other people's shoulders (children on daddies', teenage girls on teenage boys'... ) and flag waving (including makeshift flags from umbrellas) and groups doing their own sing-a-longs. Don't remember if it was Luka, or Joe Brown who was on before him, that said "looks like you guys have a little gig of your own going on right there..."Anyway, Luka sang 8 songs (not 100% sure of the order but I don't think I missed any!), as follows:
* CANDLE IN THE WINDOW
* I AM NOT AT WAR
* FIRE -- I heard this for the first time in De Barras the other night -- fantastic song,
I hope he records it -- lots of energy & 'angst', harks back to Riverside days, in my opinion!
* I'M A BOGMAN
* CITY OF CHICAGO -- the only song the audience appeared to know well enough to really
sing along to -- he gave his "the song my brother made famous" introduction...
mention of Christy got a big cheer
* NATURAL MYSTIC -- audience LOVED this!! everybody was dancing
* DON'T BE AFRAID OF THE LIGHT THAT SHINES WITHIN YOU -- which the crowd
seemed largely to ignore, which is such a shame
* YOU COULDN'T HAVE COME AT A BETTER TIME -- introduced with the words
'as the actress said to the bishop...'
I arrived too late to catch Ann Scott -- and by the time Luka finished, my face felt frozen and I needed the toilet.... and then I thought it might be a good idea to start making my way home before all the drunken hordes later on... So while I caught Joe Brown (who reminded me rather oddly of Rod Stewart), I missed out on Roisin Murphy and Aslan, which I had been hoping to see. Ah well, another time.
(Originally published 2008 at http://www.rbergholz.net/lukabloom/review/fanreviews8.htm#160308).
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