For those about to see Arthur Lee..........

I am resentful that I will never be even 1 per cent as cool as the Arthur Lee I saw on stage last night at the Wah Wah Hut. Is it proper to have pop idols who seem to be stellar beings - in touch with the mysteries of the cosmos and giving us a glimpse of the music of the spheres? How are you supposed to be ironically cynical faced with that?

I say NO to people who seem so astonishingly talented that witnessing them makes us all feel like a less evolved spicies. You would think post-modernism had never been invented! There should be no absolute values and so everything is worth exactly the same, by flaunting his immense talent Arthur Lee is making a mockery of quite a few French intellectuals.

i saw arthur lee before his incarceration, 93 or 94 i think, at highbury garage. he was ok.

There should be no absolute values and so everything is worth exactly the same, by flaunting his immense talent Arthur Lee is making a mockery of quite a few French intellectuals

but this i do not understand. are you saying that because you thought arthur lee was so good, it showed that there was an absolute, being arthur lee's talent? presumably i cannot disagree with an absolute, which only leaves me with the option that my opinion is somehow incorrect or false. this i struggle with, as i am unable to discern why

Gareth, your understanding of what I write is just as valid as my own, the author's intention is irrelevant. "Everything must either be or not be"

Wot you on about? I have a degree in philosophy and I'm totally perplexed by all this.

Arthur Lee is great though and I look forward to seing him again.

Kris England.

your understanding of what I write is just as valid as my own

well thats what i thought! i must have got confused by what you said before...

Free Arthur Lee now, free Arthur Lee.

I guess he got out of jail.

are you saying that because you thought arthur lee was so good, it showed that there was an absolute, being arthur lee's talent?

No, I said "absolute values" (plural) one of which is his talent.

presumably i cannot disagree with an absolute,

If you had been standing beside me on Tuesday night you would have witnessed something quite extra-ordinary. I was so astonished by the intensity and beauty that I cannot concieve how anyone else could disagree. Because there are multiple values, you may not have 'liked' it but I hold it self evident that there was something astonishing going on.

which only leaves me with the option that my opinion is somehow incorrect or false.

I'm not sure why you even have an opinion that the Tuesday night performance I saw was astonishing, never mind why you have one that is false.

sorry, wasnt clear. i meant arthur lee live, not arthur lee live on tuesday. i have also seen him live. i did not think it was astonishing or extra-ordinary. it was not self evident to me. perhaps i did not listen hard enough

I made no claims either way for other live dates.

A lot of the force of the performance seemed to be Lee dealing with inner demons - especially since a lot of Love material is strangely precient ('we're all normal and we want our freedom'). Obviously attempting a psychoanalysis of the man is inappropriate but lets just say I wouldn't be surprised if he was metally fragile and so performances could be inconsistent.

I've seen the Fall live at least a dozen times. Three of these have been terrific, a couple more have been pretty good and all the rest have been dismal. One was downright wretched. I'll probably go see them again, I might even witness something great (odds are much increased recently though)

"Free Arthur Lee now, free Arthur Lee. I guess he got out of jail."

Who says the mAKE UP never changd anything!

I always thought Arthur Lee was one of those sad cases where an immense talent either throws it all away out of frustration or just kind of chickens out after a period of great work that promised even greater things in the future (a la Nick Hornby's assessment of Radiohead).

Others that fit this mold; Oddly enough both Steve Marriott and Rod Stewart...