A few hours earlier. I woke up in the Lake District after the Krankenhaus festival. (PSB had played a Brighton Krankenhaus evening). It was an early rise. A quick tidy of my apartment and the start of a 5 1/2 drive back home, before heading into London. 

After a long festival and a poor night’s sleep. I really struggled to stay awake on the drive home. I had fears of sleeping through the whole Prom, especially if the Albert Hall was hot. Luckily, the train trip into London seemed to wake me up and thankfully I managed to stay awake.

I had set a high bar for this. I was expecting a history lesson with lots of Reithian quotes. I was expecting the score to be formed around ‘inform’ ‘educate’ and ‘entertain’. In some ways it was. But it was less obvious than I expected and given the BBC’s vast archives, many of soundbites were actually quite weak and surprisingly they weren’t worked into tracks as they have done on records. PSB had created a more traditional music score that acted as a soundscape into which the clips were dropped. I also thought ‘Theme From PSB’ would have featured in the set.

The piece started gently. An old style radio unit brought onto stage and switched on and the band and orchestra building up layers of ‘musical’ radio waves telling the story of the early radio tests. The piece then explored other archive material including clips of Reith, early broadcasts with Seth Lakeman adding vocals. It was all very pleasant.

I was surprised the test card didn’t feature with a short spurt of an orchestrated Roygbiv. But despite the archive footage, this was never going to be a greatest hits of Public Service Broadcasting, this was a respectful celebration of the BBC and their public service broadcasting remit.

PSB chose to concentrate on the early story of the BBC. How it was set up and how its principles formed. Then there was a brief reminder that the BBC is under threat and the closing pieces asked us to think about the future of public service broadcasting. It was all very pleasant.

I would be lying, if I didn’t say I was slightly disappointed. I found their approach to archive matieral slightly odd. I was expecting shorter pieces focusing on the BBC’s ‘Inform’, ‘Education’ and ‘Entertain’ principles. Covering how the BBC has contributed to British Society. How it has helped with the understanding of the natural world – with reference to David Attenborough, sections on sports, science, entrainment (maybe with a bit of Morecambe and Wise), school programmes, and children’s probably. Most importantly, news with a section focusing on how The BBC has always been there breaking the big stories. I can understand why the did what they did. Clearly they wanted to create music that worked for an orchestra. But I wanted a ‘Space Race’-type approach.

As the concert came to an end. I also misjudged their ending. While good, I think my idea is better. The orchestra started to walk off their stage. I thought this was a brilliant idea. I thought they would gradually leave Willgoose on stage with his guitar as all the lights went down. He would then play some feedback and walk off the stage as we were left with the white dot you used to get when you switched off old TVs. Instead, they all just gradually left the stage. It was still an interesting ending. But I think my idea was more impressive. In some ways this sums up the evening. I really enjoyed the evening. The music was good and I enjoyed the evening and pleased I made the long trip. But I have to admit leaving the hall having expected more.

Prom 14 turned out to be a bit of torturous prom. Five piano concertos from Prokofiev was probably two, too many. 3 1/2 hours of Prokofiev is probably enough for anyone. Don’t get me wrong. Some of the playing was sublime. The third piece especially was a bit special. But by the time the fifth started. There were a lot of people around me (including me) struggling stay attentive.

Then hotfooting across London using a combination of buses and Tube I made it to the Lexington to catch the end of the Mammoth Penguin set. The two songs I caught I thought were really good.

Next up were Allo Darlin’, a band I like on record. But wasn’t overly impressed by them live. However, as I was meeting some friends I thought I’d give them another try. But tonight I felt the same as the first time. I guess I’ll stick to listening to them on record.

As always, it was an entertaining evening from Mr B and friends. But I wish he’d play more of his earlier tracks. It’s not to say that his new stuff isn’t enjoyable, it is. It’s just that some of his earlier stuff is based on songs we all know and therefore I think they’re better for getting the crowd involved. But still it was an entertaining evening. Even if at times I felt like I was going to cough my guts up.

Tonight, without Patty Griffin in tow and playing at a blues festival, Robert was back to his blues Zep roots. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed (mostly) his trip into Americana and duets. But I wasn’t keen when it strayed into ‘country’ and seriously unimpressed whenever he’d give Patty the stage and would take a back seat. Tonight, with his Shape Shifters, a new iteration of his Strange Sensation band which brings in Juldeh Camara for a West African influence, Plant ripped through a combination of old blues numbers and some of his Zep back catalogue in a thoroughly enjoyable evening. Even the cost of the taxi back to Kings Cross failed to damp my enjoyment of the gig. I really hope he sticks to this formula.

Pulp

Pulp

Pulp

Pulp

Pulp

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