Back To The Beginning - Brief Thoughts

Yesterday I watched the live stream of Black Sabbath's final concert at Aston Villa's stadium in Birmingham. I'm no expert in writing music reviews, so I'll just write a few thoughts.

There were 12 support groups and various supergroups made up of famous musicians. Each group played a cover song of Black Sabbath or Ozzy Osbourne. The show was hosted by Jason Momoa.

1. Mastodon

I knew their name, but I don't think I've ever listened to them. The music was fantastic. I'll definitely check them out in the next few days.

2. Rival Sons

This is another group I didn't know. I was less impressed. Their music isn't bad, but I have no interest in listening to them again.

3. Anthrax

Anthrax is one of my favourite groups, but I've always found their studio albums better than their live performances.

4. Halestorm

I used to listen to Halestorm a lot ten years ago. Their performance was great. I need to follow them again.

5. Lamb of God

Lamb of God is a group I've always liked, but their performance yesterday blew me away. Incredible.

6. Supergroup A

Five songs were played with rotating members, all songs by Black Sabbath and Ozzy. A surprise appearance for the fifth song was made by Yungblud, who hadn't been announced in the program. I didn't know him, but evidently he was well known to the crowd, because he was booed when he came on stage. Then he sang "Changes" so convincingly that he won the crowd over. He has a terrific voice, but let's be honest: "Changes" is a ballad, not a rock song. I checked out his songs on YouTube this morning, and he's not a rock musician. Not even close. His participation was probably kept secret because they knew he'd be unpopular.

7. Jack Black

This wasn't a live performance. It was a video shown in the arena. Jack Black did an incredible performance of "Mr. Crowley".

8. Alice in Chains

I like some of their songs more than others, but their on-stage performance today was great.

9. Gojira

I've been listening to Gojira a lot lately. They were terrific on stage.

10. Supergroup B

Eight songs were played with rotating members. I'm surprised that Ronnie Wood was invited. He's never been a good guitarist. I was amazed by Travis Barker. I've never been overly keen on Blink-182, but he's an incredible drummer.

11. Pantera

Pantera is a group I've never liked much, but they were excellent today. Jason Momoa went into the mosh pit and did crowd-surfing.

12. Tool

At the risk of offending their fans: Tool isn't a live group. Tool is a group to listen to at home with headphones. They did a terrific version of "Hand of Doom", but that isn't a Tool song.

13. Slayer

This was the best band so far. The crowd went wild, and I loved them too.

14. Guns'n'Roses

Disappointing. Axl Rose isn't what he used to be. He should quit and let the group find a better singer. Maybe they can hire Yungblud?

15. Metallica

I loved Metallica's first two albums, maybe the third, but they've been downsliding ever since. They're not what they used to be. Their set started out sounding dull, and only their last song, "Master of Puppets", really excelled.

16. Ozzy

Ozzy can't stand, but his voice is better than ever. It was an emotional show. Many of the fans were crying in the audience, especially during "Mama I'm coming home". But his backing band was incredible. Who are those musicians? If Ozzy has retired, they should form a band without him.

17. Black Sabbath

This was the main act and the highlight of the evening. A first class performance. I'm sad that they only played four songs, but Ozzy's health obviously didn't allow him to stay on stage any longer.

I can watch the concert again as video on demand for the next 48 hours. After that I'll wait for it to be released on Blu-ray. I hope it will be remixed and/or remastered. In the middle of the concert there were problems with the vocals not being loud enough, especially Alice in Chains and Gojira.

Theatre: Astoria (4 Stars)

This is a play written by the Austrian playwright Jura Soyfer in 1930. It's about the fictional kingdom of Astoria. An American countess – is there such a thing? – wants to give her husband a country for his birthday. She creates the country of Astoria with its own language and culture; it's only missing one thing: it has no land. This makes it a paradise on Earth. There's no unemployment and no poverty. Thousands of people want to become Astorians, so they're given citizenship, but they aren't allowed to live in the country. The Astorian population is in exile. When Astoria declares war it's at an advantage, because its enemies don't know where to drop their bombs.

Despite the comedy it's a philosophical play. What makes a country a country? Does Astoria exist or doesn't it?

The play was performed by amateur actors, the Obersontheim Theatre Group, to which my son also belongs. They put on a magnificent performance. An alienation technique was used to separate the play from reality. At the beginning the theatre director came out and addressed the actors. He told them, "This isn't a performance, it's the dress rehearsal. You can ignore anyone watching you. Your performance doesn't have to be perfect. If you forget your lines you can pick up the script and read it".

It's difficult to believe the play was written as early as 1930, because there seemed to be parallels with the Nazi regime. In one shocking scene there was a military putsch in Astoria. The leader of the army said, "I can restore law and order in Astoria on one condition: you have to give me control of the country".

Jura Soyfer was a Jew who was born in Ukraine in 1912. His family fled to Austria in 1921 after Russia occupied Ukraine. He became a politically active Marxist. He wrote satirical pieces for Communist newspapers in Vienna. He was arrested in 1938 for his Communist activities and imprisoned in the Dachau concentration camp. Interestingly, it was not known that he was Jewish. He died of typhoid on 16th February 1939, one day before he was due to be released and allowed to emigrate to the USA.

Theatre: The Life of Vincent Van Gogh (4 Stars)

This is a play about Vincent Van Gogh, performed by a theatre group from Stuttgart. It has a minimal cast of only three actors. Joachim Mierau plays Vincent van Gogh and appears in every scene throughout the play. Blerta Mujezic and Jacqueline Weik appear in all the female roles, including Vincent's mother, Vincent's nurses and Vincent's lovers. Notable is that all the dialogue spoken by Vincent, apart from the epilogue, is made up of direct quotes from letters written by Vincent to his younger brother Theo.

The play opens with Vincent in a mental hospital being tended to by two nurses, friendly but firm. If anything, this is shown in an overly positive light. 19th Century mental institutions were rough places which treated the inmates more like criminals than patients.

From here we have a series of flashbacks. We see Vincent as a child who was devoted to his religious mother, but there was distance between him and his father. Vincent claims to have been born twice. (He genuinely said this, as we know because the dialogue is made up of quotes from his letters). On 30th March 1852 his mother had a son called Vincent who died a few hours after birth. Exactly one year later, 30th March 1853, she had another son that she also called Vincent. He claimed to have been the same person, given a second chance at life.

After leaving school Vincent worked first as an art dealer, then as a book salesman. He was a failure in both careers. He became deeply religious and wanted to study theology, but he failed the entrance exam. He spent a short time as a lay preacher, then became a coal miner. (The play says that he was a coal miner, but I haven't managed to verify that this was the case, only that he lived in a mining village). He failed in all his career attempts, so at the age of 27 he decided to become an artist. His brother Theo was a successful art dealer, so it was arranged for Theo to sell his paintings. Vincent regularly sent Theo his paintings, but nobody wanted to buy them. Nevertheless, Theo sent him enough money to live on.

Shortly afterwards Vincent fell deeply in love with his cousin Kee. She rejected him, calling the relationship disgusting, which flung him into depression. Kee was possibly the only woman he ever really loved. After this Vincent lived with a prostitute for two years, claiming that he wanted to share his life with a woman it was impossible to love.

Vincent made friends with the painter Paul Gaugin (who isn't shown in the film). At first they were close friends, but then Vincent claimed Paul had betrayed him. The reason was that Theo was able to sell Paul's paintings but not Vincent's, which Vincent somehow blamed on Paul.

This brings the flashbacks up to the present, when we see the reason for Vincent being in a mental hospital. After an argument with Paul he cut off his own ear and wrapped it up as a gift to a prostitute. Vincent was put in a mental hospital because he was considered a danger to society, but he mocked this judgement, saying that the only person he had ever harmed was himself.

Apart from brief interludes, Vincent spent the last two years of his life in different mental hospitals. He painted as if possessed, producing 840 oil paintings in two years. He shot himself after writing a letter to his brother calling himself a complete failure.

Within a few years Vincent's paintings were finally discovered, and he was soon being hailed as one of the greatest artists ever. In the epilogue Vincent appears as an auctioneer selling his sunflower painting for $39 million in 1987, which set a new record for the world's most expensive painting. After the sale was completed he shot himself again.

The play is emotional and deeply moving. Joachim Mierau portrays Vincent's madness with terrifying realism. We're never allowed to forget who or what he was, because Vincent's paintings are sporadically projected onto the white boards at the back of the stage.

How could the play have been made better? It could have been longer. The first part lasts 90 minutes, but the second part, after the intermission, is rushed and only lasts 30 minutes. The relationship between Vincent and Paul Gauguin could have been shown in more detail, even if it meant adding a fourth actor to the cast. Vincent was an outsider all his life, so his only friend deserved to be shown in more detail.

I'm no art critic, but I see something magical in Vincent Van Gogh's paintings. His madness contributed to his art. A sane man could never have painted so brilliantly. He painted what he saw, and he saw another world. He looked at France and saw Japan. He looked at a calm sky and saw it exploding with colours. Can there ever be another artist like him?

Theatre: Don Camillo and Peppone (4 Stars)

The story of Don Camillo and Peppone is well known in Italy, and it's possible that some of my readers in other European countries might know it. A series of eight books were written by the author Giovannino Guareschi and published from 1948 to 1996, some of them posthumously. Five of the books were adapted as films from 1952 to 1965. In 1980 there was a 13-part television series with new stories based on the two characters. This year a German language musical premiered in Austria. And then there's this play that was written by the German playwright Gerold Theobalt in 1999, loosely based on the first novel in the series.

Camillo and Peppone were best friends as resistance fighters in Italy during World War Two. Now that the war is over they live in the same small village, Boscaccio, but they have developed in different directions. Camillo has become a Catholic priest, while Peppone has become a Communist and is now the village's mayor. They are now enemies, although they ironically support one another's causes. Camillo admires the social justice demanded by the Communist Party, while Peppone is secretly a devoted Catholic.

Camillo is able to talk to Jesus, who spends most of his time hanging on the cross in front of the church, but occasionally goes for a walk round the village to watch what people are doing. Camillo expects Jesus to support him against Peppone, but most of the time he says that Peppone is right. Jesus is usually invisible to everyone except Camillo, but he appears to an old woman who won't stop shouting his name.

The play incorporates themes from Romeo and Juliet. The son of a Communist and the daughter of a rich land owner fall in love with one another, but their parents don't allow them to be together because the village is in the middle of a general strike. The young couple decide to kill themselves so they can at least be together in death.

It's a raucous, irreverent comedy which makes fun of both the Catholic Church and Communism. Only two things can turn best friends into enemies: religion and politics. The message of the play is simply that people can only be helped if the Catholic Church and the Communist Party unite. The two organisations have more in common than they realise. I doubt Karl Marx or the Pope would agree, but it's a thought that might be attractive to some of the people in the audience.

The play was performed as part of the annual Freilichtspiele ("open air plays") in Schwäbisch Hall. The performance took place on the 53 steps of the ancient St. Michael's Church, which was built in 1156. It was amusing to see the actors running up and down the steps. No compromises were made; the original play was adapted to make full use of the steps.

The performance was sold out. It seemed that everyone enjoyed it, despite the low temperature and cold wind. When it began at 8:30 pm the natural light was bright enough. By the end of the evening -- it finished at 10:40 pm -- floodlights were needed to show us what was happening on stage.

I very rarely watch live plays. I don't like their transitory nature. I already feel bad that this play will probably never be released on Blu-ray, and if it is it won't be on the 53 steps of Schwäbisch Hall. Maybe I should watch plays more often. If they were all this good I would.

Theatre: The Sistren (4 Stars)

I saw this play in the Arena Theatre in Wolverhampton today. It was performed by a touring company, but they're based in Wolverhampton, so they were on their home ground.

The premise of the story is that when a woman is in a time of great distress and needs guidance a committee of three women is sent to her from the afterlife. These three women examine the circumstances, and after coming to a unanimous decision they influence the woman to make her take the right path. In the play we only see the three ghosts meeting in the woman's kitchen. They are all famous women from English history: Mary Wollstonecraft (1759-1797), Emma Lloyd-Sproson (1867-1936) and Claudia Jones (1915-1964). The central character, the woman in need of aid, is off-screen throughout the play. We aren't given concrete information about her, but we can piece together her circumstances from the conversation of the three ghosts.

• She is in her 30's, single without children.
• She is black.
• She works as a nanny looking after the two children of a working mother.
• She is an intelligent woman who is well read in feminist literature.
• She has been the victim of a sexual assault.

The decision she has to take is whether to speak out about the assault or remain quiet. While this might seem an easy decision for the three eminent feminists from the past to reach, they get involved in arguments with one another about differences in their own backgrounds.

Mary Wollstonecraft is often considered to be the founder of modern feminism. She campaigned for the right of girls to be educated. Interestingly, her daughter was Mary Shelley, who is now remembered as a famous author.

Emma Lloyd-Sproson was originally a member of the suffragette movement, but she later distanced herself from it because she considered it to be an organisation of middle-class women with too much time on their hands. She went on to become the first female counsellor in Wolverhampton.

Claudia Jones was born in Trinidad. She moved to America, where she became a prominent member of the American Communist Party. After being deported she moved to England, where she fought for the rights of black people. She was buried next to her hero Karl Marx in London.

The play deals with feminist issues, but is interspersed with comedy. For instance, the unseen woman is criticised for the disorder in her kitchen, leading to discussions of the dilemma of a woman having to do a full time job and still keep her house tidy. The three ghosts argue over their different political and social perspectives. For instance, Claudia is criticised by the other two for being more concerned about helping black women than women in general. Throughout the play Mary seems to be the least feminist of the three, if that's the right way to describe it.

My thoughts: I was rather surprised, after reading about the play, that it turned out to be a comedy. I laughed at the jokes, but maybe the over-abundance of humour obscured the important issues. As a person who is strongly in favour of promoting women's rights, it seemed to me that the comedy detracted from the feminist message, if indeed feminism was intended to be the central message. The political stance seemed to be just as important as feminism, as shown by the fact that on the two occasions Margaret Thatcher was mentioned it was disparagingly. Mary Wollstonecraft, the only one of the three women that I previously knew much about, came across as the weakest of the three characters, suffering from OCD. Was this deliberate? I would be interested in hearing the thoughts of the authoress, Therese Collins, who also played the part of Emma.

Summing up: a good play, but not perfect.

Theatre: Macbeth (4 Stars)

Today I had the chance to see "Macbeth", one of William Shakespeare's best known plays, at the Blue Orange Theatre in Birmingham. It's a very small theatre. I was sitting in the front row, and my feet were only about six inches from the stage. Suffice to say, I had a very good view. It was a minimalist performance with only four actors. Oliver Hume played Macbeth himself, while three female actresses divided all the other roles between themselves, putting on different cloaks to signify who they were at any point. This was confusing to me at the beginning, but as the play progressed it became easier to understand. All four actors put on excellent performances.

Musical: Tonight's the Night (4 Stars)

Judging by the leaflet advertising the coming events in Birmingham's New Alexandra Theatre this is a new trend: the so-called jukebox musicals, when the best known hit songs of a performer are strung together to tell a story. After Rod Stewart they'll be showing musicals with music by Meatloaf, the Beatles, Marc Bolan, Elvis Presley, Simon & Garfunkel, Johnny Cash, and many many more.

I can understand this from two sides. Today's concert halls are full of tribute bands playing the old hits, often just as well as the original bands, and when you stand there you're surrounded by middle-aged women dressed as 20-year-olds singing along. They know every song by heart, and they're glad to live in the past, recapturing their youth. The jukebox musicals are also riding the nostalgia wave, although I have to admit that the women in the audience tonight were dressed more conservatively.

On the other hand, I have to see this from the side of the authors of the musicals, in this case Ben Elton. This is a very lazy way to write a musical. No songs need to be composed, so all the author has to do is put the songs in the right order to tell a story. I admit that some creative steps are needed; for instance, "Maggie May" was sung as a duet, and by dividing the lines between the man and woman the meaning was changed. But that doesn't make this musical an "Evita". Ben Elton is no Andrew Lloyd Webber.

The story itself is a variation on Faust. Stuart is a shy boy who works as a car mechanic in Detroit. He is in love with a girl called Mary, but is afraid to tell her so. She also loves him, but she's waiting for him to make the first move. Stuart thinks that if he were a big rock star like Rod Stewart Mary would like him, so he sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for self-confidence and musical talent. He gets the girl straight away, but he wants to go on the road and perform, showing off his talent and making money. And as is usual in the rock'n'roll business, he sleeps with a different girl in every city. Interestingly, the Devil and Stuart's manager are played by the same woman, which seems to be a statement about the music business.

The story has a happy ending, of course, as everyone who has read Goethe's Faust will know. The Devil gives Stuart back his soul, because she thinks he's too boring to have him in Hell with her forever. This happens just before a big concert, when Mary is coming to watch him. Stuart realises that he's his old self again, too shy and untalented to perform. But then his friend tells him that the Devil never gave him the talent, he had it all along, so he goes out on stage and puts on a fantastic show. And they all lived happily ever after.

A simple story, full of clichés, but does it work? The audience seemed to think so. They applauded at the end of every song. It was noticeable that the applause was longest and loudest after Rod's biggest hits. The crowd had come for the songs, not the story. And the cast certainly delivered the songs. Ben Heathcote was an excellent singer as Stuart, but in my opinion it was Jenna Lee-James (Mary) who stole the show with her incredible voice. There were also great performances from Tiffany Graves (the Devil and the manager) and Jade Ewen (Mary's friend Dee). Ironically, Michael McKell, who plays a Ronnie Wood-lookalike called Stoner, has a singing voice that resembles Rod Stewart more than Ben's voice. The dancing was first rate, though not overly athletic. The band, which played anonymously and semi-visibly behind a thin curtain, were adequately skilled in playing the backing music. The audience loved it, and I liked it too, so let's forget the weaknesses in the story and say it's worth watching, especially if you're in your 50's, a Rod Stewart fan, or both.

Musical: Seven Brides For Seven Brothers (4 Stars)

Yesterday evening was my first ever visit to the live performance of a musical. I'd already seen this musical on film, but seeing it on the stage overwhelmed me. The colours, the songs, the dancing, the smiling faces, it was an unmissable atmosphere.

The story is very simple. Not much story is needed, it's all about the music. Adam is a hunter and trapper who lives in the mountains of Oregon. He goes down to the to the nearest town to find himself a wife. He sees Milly, the waitress in a restaurant, and after rescuing her from drunken customers she decides to marry him after only knowing him for five minutes. He takes her back to his hut, and she is shocked to find he lives with his six brothers, Benjamin, Caleb, Daniel, Ephraim, Frank and Gideon. It seems like his parents wanted 26 children, but they never got that far. Milly is distressed having to look after all seven uncouth brothers, so she teaches them good manners and how to dance so that they can go to the town and find their own wives.

Courting isn't as easy as the boys think. They set their eyes on six beautiful young women, but they return empty-handed because they have to compete with the local boys and get into a fight. Adam tells them that courting is useless, if they want women they should just go back to the town and grab them. Which they do. Some of the girls are knocked unconscious, while the rest are carried away kicking and screaming. They return to the cabin just before the pass is blocked by snow for the winter.

At first the girls are distressed. Milly looks after them in the house and makes the boys sleep in the barn. But as the winter progresses they fall in love with the six brothers.

Let's stop there. This is the only reason I won't give the musical a higher rating. It's a very anti-feminist story. Of course, I know it's a comedy, I know it's quaint, but it still gives a message that I strongly disagree with. Men should be real men and take women against their will, because that's what women really want, even though they don't admit it. Not even Milly's stance as a strong woman ruling over the household can cancel out the pervasive gender roles taught in the musical.

Nevertheless, it was an outstanding performance, in particular from the leading actors/singers, Alex Hammond and Helena Blackman. Alex, 23, is a local boy from Kings Heath, Birmingham, so he received special appreciation from the home crowd. Alex was originally cast as one of the townspeople, but after the leading man became sick he was catapulted into the centre stage. A brilliant performance.

Theatre: Coriolanus (5 Stars)

As I mentioned in a previous post, I had never seen any Shakespeare plays performed live, even though I have read the majority of them. "Coriolanus" is the first that I have seen. It was performed live in the Donmar Warehouse in London and simulcast to cinema screens throughout the world yesterday, January 30th 2014. "From Mexico to Sidney" was the slogan, although I dread to think what time of day it was in some of the locations.

While I was at school I read two Shakespeare plays in my English Literature classes. The first was "Julius Caesar", the second was "The Merchant of Venice". A few years later my grandfather died and I salvaged his copy of the "Complete Works of William Shakespeare" that my grandmother was about to throw away. I lapped it up, reading play after play in quick succession during a university holiday. Having lost my momentum I didn't continue in the next holiday. I probably read about two thirds of his plays. I don't know how they were ordered, chronologically or by type, but I never got as far as "Coriolanus". If I remember correctly, in the next holiday I began to read the plays of Friedrich Dürrenmatt, which I admit that I enjoyed more than Shakespeare. And then I discovered the books of Michael Moorcock, and Shakespeare was forgotten.

Never having seen Shakespeare performed before, neither in the theatre nor on television, I had nothing to compare yesterday's performance with. The only impression that I had was that it was a modern, not a traditional performance. The soldiers were dressed in typical Roman military garb, but all of the other actors were wearing 21st Century clothing. The common people wore jeans, while the rich people wore fine suits and dresses. The shape of the Donmar Warehouse makes a typical stage impossible, so the off-stage characters were not hidden behind curtains, they were sitting on chairs at the back and stood up when they "entered". This jarred for the first 15 minutes, I admit, but after that I got used to it. The powerful story and the skilled acting engulfed me so completely that small technical details became irrelevant.

I'm glad that I had never read "Coriolanus" before seeing the performance. The story was new to me. I realise that many of my readers may already know the story, but I shan't give it all away in this review. I'll refrain from spoilers, as I do with most of my film reviews.

The play tells the story of the Roman general Gaius Martius, who lived in the 5th Century, long after the decline of Rome's glory. After successfully conquering the city of Coroli he is given the title of "Coriolanus" to honour him. Due to his great popularity the people elect him consul of Rome. A few years later (though it seems immediate in the play) the people turn against him, due to his mishandling of a famine and his outspoken criticism of the greedy common people. As a result he is banned from Rome. In exile he plans his revenge.

The story is very relevant for today. Some people compare Coriolanus with the fascist dictators of the last hundred years, but that's not the connection I make. I see him more as a privileged aristocrat. He's the Eton schoolboy who feels destined to become England's prime minister, not caring when the people he rules over become poor and hungry. The tribunes, though they were elected officials in Rome, represent the press, who sway the public opinion one way or the other. The people are the people. They think they've made up their own minds, but in truth they're being manipulated.

All the actors in the play gave strong performances, but Tom Hiddleston was nothing short of amazing. Whether he was caught up in the bloodlust of battle, angrily decrying the people or weeping with emotion, his performance was stunning. A brilliant actor.