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ROCK 8. POP
THEY CALL HER NATASHA Gilded Balloon II - Teviot, 3-16 Aug, 6.30pm.
‘l met him again briefly recently. He’s not been to the show but he’s certainly heard about it, so I reminded him that I was the crazy woman going round the country singing his songs and he said that he’d heard great things, so that was a kind of official endorsement. Then I said he should come and see the show sometime but he said it would be far too weird to see himself as a woman.’
Singer/songwriter Lou Dalgleish is talking about Elvis Costello, whose songs she is bringing to the Festival this year as part of a rights of passage performance piece entitled They Call Her Natasha. She is Elsie Costello, the narrator is alt.country star Michael Weston King, while Gladstone Wilson goes all Steve Nieve on the keyboards.
‘lt’s a poignant narration intertwined with text and songs, basically we cover the period from My Aim Is True right through to All This Useless Beaufy.’ Lou Dalgleish is no mean songwriter herself; with four albums under her belt she has toured the world supporting the likes of Bryan Ferry, David Gray,
Jools Holland and Mica Pan's. It was only On her fourth album Calmer that she finally covered a Costello track - ‘lndoor Fireworks’, her pure voice rewarding the complexities of that ballad. ‘l’ve always been a fan of Elvis Costello’s work,’ she says, “but I was always concentrating on my own material. I was finding though that l was dropping more and more Costello tunes into my set. Then it occured to me that it would be really good to do a show purely of his work. This was around the time that all these dodgy tribute bands were about and the last thing we wanted was to be lumped into the world of tribute; but because i was a woman and i
More than just this year's model
obviously wasn't going to do a Stars In Your Eyes we thought that maybe we could get away with it. So we formed They Call Me Natasha and I thought if I call myself Elsie Costello - it separates me from my own work which means I can go on tour and perform his songs as an alter ego.’
Having just found out she has been chosen to fill in for Elvis himself in the Brodsky Quartet 8 team which will be celebrating ten years of The Juliet Letters it seems that this Jane Horrocks-loving, ex-dancing, ethereal-voiced chanteuse may just be ‘The Only Flame in Town’ this year. (Paul Dale)
ROCK & POP
FRANK BLACK AND THE CATHOLICS
Liquid Room, Mon 6 Aug, 7.30pm. Should you ever find yourself walking down a boulevard with Frank Black coming towards you, you'd be liable to cross swiftly to the other side. Actually meet him for five minutes and you’d probably realise that your panic was misplaced (unless he was gibbering on about his flying saucer obsession and then you'd be likely to shuffle off. smiling politely, as a previously forgotten appointment was abruptly recalled). Then see him live on stage and become very frightened again.
The stocky, sweating, squealing, screeching mass that is Black Francis playing before an audience is a sight to utterly behold. Hey, it's Homer Simpson on a date with Ford Kiernan as arranged by John Goodman: nothing to do with girth, just that he's shiny-topped, carefree and a lover of checked shirts.
With his recent appearance at King Tut 's as a gauge, you can expect to spend your pennies flicking through The Pixies back catalogue; just don't believe any rumours of a guest guitar slot for former Boston buddy Joey
42 THE us? 2—9 Aug 2001
Santiago. Instead you'll get a trawl through the Don mo(men)ts of ‘Debaser’ and “Gouge Away’ while cavorting around the early solo classics: the slidy, rumbling, wispy ‘Fu Manchu', the paranoid punk of ‘Men in Black' and the rock-ous, soft machining in ‘Los Angeles'.
Not that you should be ignoring his current output. His current line-up's latest album, Dog In The Sand has enough raw honesty and blunt energy
To be Frank: it’s brilliant
to satisfy Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson lV's most nostalgic admirer. The sweet surf drive of ‘Robert Onion', the UFO country feedback of ‘Bullet' and, live certainly, the Liber- appropriately titled ‘If It Takes All Night' which has more chord changes than a geography teacher's wardrobe. For a man who clearly wants to be loved, he doesn't actually force it. But you’ll find yourself falling just the same.
(Brian Donaldson)
hitlist *
Bhundu Boys Since their emergence in the 80s, The Bhundu's (pictured) were instrumental in bringing Zimbabwean music to an international audience. Championed by John Peel and Andy Kershaw amongst others, their music brought some of the sounds of Africa to an audience all too unaware of the joys to be found in their uplifting sound. The release of a lost rarities album, The Shed Sessions precedes these late night shows. Gilded Balloon ll - Teviot, 3-9 Aug, 77.30pm; 73 Aug, 1am.
. . .And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead Their seemingly scatter gun approach to live shows sometimes over shadows just how good this Texan quartet can be on the night. Searing noise to whispering quiet whipped up in a virulent alt.rock stramash. Gala, Mon 6 Aug, 7.30pm. 4-Mallty If you can whack it with a mallet, beater, stick or even just your hand then 4- Mality will probably have one in their extensive percussive armoury. Adrian Spillett, 1998 BBC Young Musician of the year heads this quartet of rhythmical wonders. Bongo Club, 4, 6-17, 20-25, 27 Aug, 6. 75pm. Frank Black See preview, left. Liquid Room, Mon 6 Aug, 7.30pm.
They Call Her Natasha See preview, left. Gilded Balloon ll - Teviot, 3-7 6 Aug, 6.30pm. [than lverson The final weekend of the jazz festival brings the nimble-fingered talents of US pianist lverson, who’s keyboard skills will be situated deftly in the centre of his own trio who make their Scottish debut with this pair of dates. Henry '3 Jaz Cellar, 3—4 Aug, 9pm.