The Greatness of The Magnificence Presents: O Canadia

Well, it's almost been a year since Jesse's last GOTHMAG gig at the Cube and it was worth the wait. As part of a Canadian season at The Cube Cinema, Bristol, this was the opening event called 'O Canadia'. A selection of Bristol's finest musicians were all contributing songs made famous by Canadian singer/songwriters.

As before, on Neil Young Night, I decided to try and record the Cube event for posterity and to use the web to share the music and images with the artists. This time I plugged my DAT Walkman straight into the mixing desk, but wasn't able to monitor everything live, so the levels of some of the performances resulted in some unexpected peaks!

Each recorded performance will appear as a download link soon via another blog, but for now the songs appear in orange and bold type. Hopefully, images will be posted on another web site soon too.

Earlier that morning, I unexpectedly had a call from Jesse Vernon (GOTHMAG's founder) asking if I'd like to play drums on a couple of songs. I was then emailed a couple of MP3 tracks to rehearse, both of which were strangely familiar! They were Sundown by Gordon Lightfoot and Diana by Paul Anka. I downloaded both onto my iPod and mixed this through the headphones of my V-Drums so I could get the right balance and become familiar with the structure and tempo.
I also offered to help Jesse set up the PA, as I was free for the afternoon. When I arrived at the Cube, I found the house drum set... well not exactly a set, but a somewhat knackered bass drum and tom-tom, which I set up on stage with my snare drum, so we could get some sound level guides. I was told that there was the good chance of better drums arriving later, as this was rather basic equipment, no hi-hat or cymbals etc.

We then set up the microphones, guitar and PA and Jesse moved to the mixing desk, where he set up levels on each. I had a chance to see what is actually involved in the preparation for an amplified gig, which was interesting.

After the arrival of local Canadian singer/songwriter Jimmy Goodrich, I left for a while before returning at 7.30pm to find I'd missed my sound check! There was a drummer setting up on stage and I introduced myself and asked if I might play on his gear. At this point, I wasn't even sure whom i'd be playing with! I watched a few of the artists sound check and did manage to play through a little of Diana with Jesse to try and pick up the jazzier feel.

At about 8.30pm Jesse announced Jimmy Goodrich who opened the evening with The Canadian National Anthem, this and the first song wasn't recorded due to a technical problem, but then things went a little better for the rest of the evening. I found a seat in the back corner near the mixing desk from where I could check the sound levels occasionally and take some digital photos from that vantage point too.

First on stage was Quentin from No Primadonnas but this time as a solo performer. He gave us The Barenaked Ladies song Lying in bed, just like Brian Wilson did

Then came Iain Morrison, whose Joni Mitchell song Blue had apparently been testing Jesse's transcribing skills the previous night as the arrangement is so complex. Originally played by Joni on piano, this was now interpreted as a guitar version with Iain's rather affecting falsetto voice floating over the top of it. It worked very well I thought.

The Lumbering Angels followed Iain, firstly with a traditional Canadian folk song, She's Like The Swallow then with a stab at Joni Mitchell's Tin Angel They were each wearing a set of wings!

Paul McGuiness [bass] and Richy Paradise [drums] and Simon Van Der Lindt [lead vocal] then sang It Makes No Difference by The Band with Jesse [guitar] and Maddy Longhurst [backing vocals]. This was the first loud electric performance and when I reviewed the tape afterwards it is clear there was a problem with peaks on the recording levels, which is a shame.

I then joined Jesse and Paul on stage to play drums, but I still had no idea who would be singing and improvised the feel of the emerging Paul Anka song Diana which was introduced by a little country ditty for 'Fred' who I think is AKA Hannah? 

She sang Diana in a cabaret style, which was really fun.

Greig Ashby was on next, but was outside in the 'garden', so a bit of necessary filling in was done very skillfully by Jesse. Unfortunately for the tape machine, Greig wanted to perform acoustically, so his entire song was lost on the recording of the night.

Rosey Plain's following performance was also lost, perhaps because she too chose to sing and play without going through the PA?

Next up and this time successfully captured on tape was The Tones, none other than Tony Almo [guitar, lead vocal], Lucy Harper & Maddy [backing vocals] and an unknown musician [violin] performing a beautiful acoustic version of the 1974 Bachman Turner Overdrive hit You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet. With almost perfect timing, a revealing background image of Pamela Anderson appeared which made everyone laugh, including the band! 

Next, A track from Arcade Fire called Window Sill emerged after a few plugging-in difficulties on Maddy's guitar.

Some Bone Fide Canadians, called The Freebone Band were on after that, introducing a Broken Social Scene song Shoreline followed by Thompson Girl by The Tragically Hip.

Maddy Longhurst's and Lucy Harper were back to perform Blanche Comme La Neige a McGarrigle Sister's song in French with a folk tale style introduction, so the audience wouldn't feel totally lost in translation. After that Maddy introduced a Jolie Holland song Roll My Blues accompanied by Tony [ukelele]. Finally, Maddy played a tribute to Jimmy Goodrich, with some nice guitar picking by Jesse and backing singing by Lucy. I called it Jimmy's Tribute

Pat Reid's band The Great Admirer's followed up with "the greatest domestic hit of the New Romantic era" called Safety Dance by Men Without Hats. This was followed by a sing along song by Leonard Cohen called Memories  all together now...sha na na na na woa oh oh oh oh!

Susuki Boom Boom followed this performance with a provocative joke about Moose fucking before going into Bryan Adams Run to You - cut short by a broken guitar string - then Joni Mitchell's Woodstock

John Fergie Wood was sharply dressed in his Canadian threads and I landed the drumming job on Sundown a Gordon Lightfoot song from the 70's, which I'd rehearsed earlier, but suddenly sounded unfamiliar! I think we got there in the end...

Jimmy Goodrich finally closed the evening with three songs, Joni Mitchell's A Case Of You then Halelujah by [not] Jeff Buckley but Leonard Cohen. This was followed by My Heart Will Go On from the film Titanic. The Canadian National Anthem was sung again to play out The Greatness of The Magnificence Presents 'O Canadia'... 

Once again I want to thank everyone involved, especially Jesse and hope The Greatness of the Magnificence Presents will continue, it was a great evening.

by Olivejunkie 28th April 2008