Lindsay Cooper Songbook

Cafe OTO, Dalston, London
Saturday 16th June 2018
 

Hectic vibes out in the street before while waiting in the queue (some random violence I've since forgotten the details of). Once inside, Yumi was tense (logistical issues) and, sadly, Dagmar Krause was absent. Someone forgot to circulate the programmes, causing Yumi to be more flustered. False starts. But John Greaves and Chris Cutler remained very calm and seemed pleasantly amused throughout. First there was a very nice improv set from The Watts (Yumi, Chris and Tim Hodgkinson), some Kew.Rhone songs (and more) from Greaves, then a truly amazing solo set from Chlöe Herrington — bassoon, effects, loops, and a version of a Maggie Holland song about the Iraq war ("Perfumes of Arabia"?)... I suspect Lindsay would have been deeply proud that she'd inspired this! Second set was News From Babel stuff...a properly awesome performance... Yumi did remarkably well covering Dagmar's vocals. The third set was Lindsay's Henry Cow compositions, but I had to run halfway through, sadly, to get the last train back to Canterbury. Alas. They were really cooking at that point. Amazingness.

And although I realise I'm probably an ultra-biased Linsday Cooper fanboy, there's this review of an earlier performance, and this one from someone who'd come all the way from Sweden for the occasion. I'm now looking to book LCS for Free Range next spring in Canterbury. Fingers crossed...