Charles Hayward, London, 1/12/06

The evening's entertainment took place at the Arts Theatre Club in Soho, a small cellar with red walls which can hold maybe 150 people. A tiny triangular stage in one corner, which looks more suited to the bored strippers who performed for gullible tourists and tired businessmen in Soho's sleazy 'heyday', an equally cramped DJ booth and a small, not ludicrously overpriced bar complete the scene. A motley assortment of individuals gathered and witnessed an evening culminating in one of Charles Hayward's infrequent and remarkable solo shows.

His solo performances feature him singing and drumming with additional textures provided by keyboard and bass sounds on minidisc, although these do not appear to be backing tracks in the conventional sense but simply background washes of sound. His colourful drumkit is a pretty basic single bass drum set up with rather more cymbals than usual (although I didn't notice the extra cymbals when I saw him playing at an outdoor jazz gig in the summer). The performance exudes a phenomenal amount of energy but is also highly controlled and disciplined - like a good jazz drummer he plays from the wrists and creates incredibly complex rhythms, with his four limbs occasionally appearing to be working independently of each other. The set opened with some wordless vocals in the style of Las Vegas Tango from Robert Wyatt's End Of An Ear, accompanied by some restless, unpredictable drumming. As the performance unfolded so did Hayward's worldview - the songs didn't exactly form a narrative but there did seem to be a common theme, the illusion of choice in the modern world, especially in the political sphere. Only one song was included that I was familiar with; No Bones was included on the excellent Live In Japan volume 1 and here featured some rewritten lyrics. In 1995 he sang about 'John Smith/John Major', the equally faceless leaders of the two main political parties in the UK at the time. This was reduced to 'left/right/left/right' spat out over a militaristic snare drum figure. A similar theme was explored in Abracadabra Information, the title track of his most recent solo album, which appears to be about the simultaneous profusion of news media and the lack of concrete information and serious analysis that we get from them. During one song he used a pair of red maraccas, which looked oddly like boxing gloves as he shook them, and there was definitely something confrontational about the performance. The highlight of the set, though, occurred when he pushed his microphone out of the way and concentrated on drumming, his gaze fixed on some undefined point in the middle distance and a look of Zen serenity on his face. I have no idea how long this lasted, but I experienced the sensation that time had been suspended, stretched, distorted, something I have previously experienced only twice in rock music; once when watching Yoshida Tatsuya with Acid Mothers Temple SWR and once when watching Christian Vander with Magma. This was the drummer as shaman, leading us from darkness into light, and it was utterly compelling. The set closed with Hayward emerging from behind his kit and spinning a metal tray on the floor before going to the bar for a well earned drink.

The evening featured 3 other acts. Joe Williamson is a bassist well known on the improvised music scene, here playing short, rather macabre songs on a battered Spanish guitar and looking oddly like a character actor in a 1960s Michael Caine film. Lyndsey Cockwell plays a red bass guitar and uses echo delay to multi track her voice, bass and bits of percussion, shifting from deep bass grooves to a one woman 1960s girl band with remarkable aplomb. Finally, La Momo is a 5 piece which recalls Neu!, La Dusseldorf, Stereolab and OOIOO, all infused with a punky energy. They were occasionally rough around the edges but hugely enjoyable, and even included a snippet of Charles Hayward's Accidents and Emergencies in one of their songs.

The whole thing was organised by the Orchestra Pit, who apparently put shows like this on quite regularly. Superb value for only a fiver, and I'll definitely go along to more of their events. They seem to specialise in the off beat and unusual, so if you're in Soho on a Friday night you know where to go. Photos and details here: http://www.theorchestrapit.com/

Wonderfully written and lovely descriptions, Chris.
It sounds like a very good show.

You intrigued me with the mention of La Momo. Have they released anything?