YOKO ONO - MELTDOWN GIGS JUNE 2005
copyright : Photos by TK Light
commentaries R. Layne and Mike Brooker
Back from Yoko's Meltdown gig - fantastic!
The band was Sean, Yuka Honda, Harper Simon (son of Paul), plus a drummer I didn't recognise.
The event started with the band on stage, with a video projection of an all-american family superimposed on a rainforest. Gradually the family disappeared other than a small child. Then Yoko started pushing her hands through holes in the screen, and eventually cut her way through the screen, walked through and tried to find the microphone (she had a bag over her head).
Once the bag was removed I was delighted to see the Rubettes hat underneath. She had a table on stage with a selection of hats which she swapped between songs - "Somebody asked me how many hats I have. I thought it was a very rude question".
Track listing (I may have missed some):
I Want you to Remember Me A+B
Why?
Will I?
Rising
Something I didn't recognise
"Onochord" - Yoko demonstrated the Onochord thing, we all had Onochord lights on our seats. Sean couldn't find the big flashlight she was supposed to use. At this point there was a video projection of Yoko doing Onochord while Yoko and the band did a medley of Mind Train and Open Your Box
The band then left the stage, and Yoko introduced her special surprise guests the Pet Shop Boys. They performed "Walking on Thin Ice" - with Yoko's pre-recorded vocals and with Yoko adding screaming over the top and doing some very funky dancing.
Yoko then picked up her pile of hats and left the stage
Richard --
― Tim Ellison (Tim Ellison), Sunday, 19 June 2005 15:16 (twenty years ago)
The band then left the stage, and Yoko introduced her special surprise guests the Pet Shop Boys. They performed "Walking on Thin Ice" - with Yoko's pre-recorded vocals and with Yoko adding screaming over the top and doing some very funky dancing.MUST. HAVE. THIS. YSI, anything, ANYONE?
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 19 June 2005 15:20 (twenty years ago)
mccartney will not be able to top this at live8 i predict..unless he unscrews his wifes leg and does an impromptu dick van dyke mary poppins routine and brings out erasure to do back in th ussr
― dan bunnybrain (dan bunnybrain), Sunday, 19 June 2005 16:08 (twenty years ago)
I saw her do a similar set at ATP (as headliner) in April and I thought it was total fucking bullshit. Not musical at all. Conceptually, not that deep either. Band: not tight. They even had John Frusciante and Afrirampo on stage with them, and it was decidedly lack-luster. (Hey, I like many of her recordings but there was nothing recognizable to me during the show).
― Bobby Peru (Bobby Peru), Sunday, 19 June 2005 20:14 (twenty years ago)
Fucking yoko ono, she ruined the plastic ono band.
― JD from CDepot, Sunday, 19 June 2005 21:30 (twenty years ago)
Easy to over hype this one... Yoko played a very short set, concentrating on recent material. The band were so-so; nothing compared to her 70s bands that Lennon put together. The current lot suffer from a mother's indulgence and are less experimental than they thought they were. I'd like to see her as guest vocalist with a great band - Sonic Youth spring to mind, or perhaps less obviously Matmos.
PSBs were entertaining. The song's vocals were sampled from the original, PSBs re-orchestrated it, and although Yoko added the odd live wail, mostly her performance simulated a classic night club PA. She was willingly being added to the PSB camp pantheon - Dusty, Lisa etc
― Guy Beckett (guy), Monday, 20 June 2005 09:31 (twenty years ago)
seven years pass...
four months pass...