Facebook Slider

The Magnetic Fields, King's Theatre, Edinburgh

  • Published in Live

 

The final contemporary music event of the 2017 Edinburgh International Festival finds Stephin Merritt & The Magnetic Fields performing their 50 Song Memoir album over the course of two nights at the King's Theatre.

The theatre auditorium’s not the biggest of those that Edinburgh has to offer but nor is it one you could describe as small; yet with Merritt positioned centre front of the stage, surrounded by instruments and personal items & with the band members enclosing him at the back & sides, he was able to seemingly address each member of the audience in person, making each show a surprisingly intimate event.

Well known for his droll wit, Merritt is on excellent form in between the songs cataloguing his life up to 2015, with tales of his itinerant upbringing (33 different residences in the first 23 years) and familial anecdotes not already covered in such songs as ‘A Cat Called Dionysus’ and ‘My Mama Ain’t’. Either tangentially or directly The Vietnam War, Reaganomics, AIDS and the other major events of the period 1966-2015 are dealt with as the show progresses, sometimes whimsically and sometimes grimly thought provoking but always with great chutzpah and his expressive tones.

Most of the songs have a visual element projected onto a large screen directly over Merritt’s head and these films and cartoons are often very absorbing in their own right. Ranging from the Pythonesque to manipulated medical footage via straightforward animation these serve to visually amplify much of the imagery conjured up to illustrate the singer’s life to date. Or, in the case of the footage from the 1916 silent film version of 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea, his attempts at writing the odd musical or two (something actually achieved with Neil Gaiman’s Coraline).

Night two of the show is somewhat less euphoric than the first though that’s only to be expected as it contains the songs covering the ‘80s and the aftermath of the AIDS epidemic. Still his dry humour drives things along and the amount of love in the room for the 50+ man on the stage, sat in an approximation of one of the tin dollhouses he collects, is unremitting and the openness about his existence over this Friday and Saturday is appreciated with a standing ovation for him and his players.  

Read more...

Contemporary Music @ #EDINTFEST 2017

  • Published in News

In its 70th year The Edinburgh International Festival continues to attract top contemporary musicians alongside the more traditional cultural offerings of opera, classical music etc.

Having had a pretty sonically challenging programme last year (Mogwai, God Speed! You Black Emperor & Sigur Ros) 2017 promises to be a bit lighter on the ears but no less exciting.

PJ Harvey brings her Hope Six Demolition Project show to the Edinburgh Playhouse at the beginning of August, 2015 Mercury Prize winner Benjamin Clementine pitches up at the Festival Theatre a couple of days later with some special guests, Stephen Merritt, with an expanded version of The Magnetic Fields will perform their new album 50 Song Memoir at the King's Theatre over two nights towards the end of the month whilst the same venue plays host to Jarvis Cocker & Chilly Gonzales' Room 29 collaboration over three days just prior.

Add to that a celebration of the work of Edinburgh's own Incredible String Band, productions looking at the connections between Robert Burns, slavery & Scotland and elements of the Spirit Of '47 collaboration with The British Council celebrating the festival's anniversary (including performances from Anoushka Shankar) and yet again you have a world class event in the city to close out the summer with. 

Tickets (on general sale from March 25) and further information for all events can be found here.

Read more...
Subscribe to this RSS feed