graysonscolumn
Apprentice
Thursday night just gone saw the Manchester leg of Cardiacs’ emotional and triumphant return, with erstwhile Oceansizer Mike Vennart permanently installed in the live set-up now as well as on record.
The Albert Hall’s variable sound quality – partly the consequence, I’m given to understand, of its many windows, beautiful as they are – couldn’t prevent the magic of this strange, beautiful, sometimes manic music shining through, and it’s worth stressing that compiling and executing this near two-hour set so perfectly was no small undertaking, even for those who’d performed some of its contents for decades previously.
These are still earlyish days for longstanding drummer Bob Leith performing without any of the backing tracks which the late Tim Smith had introduced upon the band’s early-1990s conversion to a power quartet, and had kept in place as the live ensemble expanded and right up until the tragic events of 2008.
Live keyboards hadn’t featured in Cardiacs’ live offer for at least 35 years, either, until Rhodri Marsden was brought on board; something else for Bob, Kavus Torabi and Jim Smith to all get used to.
Inevitably, though, it was Vennart who has carried the greatest responsibility to make things work on stage as the band’s de facto frontperson now, to all intents and purposes the Tim of the piece however much he has striven to play down that perception.
Has he succeeded? Kavus’s succinct summary on Facebook yesterday morning that, “Mike has excelled, taking on the almost impossible task of inhabiting these songs with authenticity and passion, not to mention extraordinary ability and talent”, tells you enough.
This was not the Mike Vennart show, neither was it Mike doing Tim Smith cabaret – no replication of any of Tim’s eccentric outbursts, nor any of the theatrical onstage humiliating of Jim (indeed, Jim got a cuddle or two from Mike and Kavus).
Instead, generous tributes to his fellow players and audience during the set, culminating in the outro of The Whole World Window, which rounded off the main set. Flowers thrown from the stage (a nod to the Consultant, one assumes – IYKYK), and a respectful hug of a picture of Tim Smith himself.
The octet on stage looked absolutely spent by the time Is This The Life? drew the second and final encore to a close, Mike and Jim especially. The latter had, some will remember, been unable to complete the final Sing to Tim gig in late 2024 due to illness, but it was emotional investment rather than physical frailty at play here.
By the end of this week Cardiacs will have played four equally long gigs within five nights, and the time required to rest, recover and reflect will be well earned.
Jim has often mentioned that it felt as if Cardiacs were on the cusp of something approaching a crossover, relatively speaking, back in 2007 judged on the size and increasingly varying age profile of their audiences; and the evidence of the rapturous responses to these sell-out dates is that those people have not only waited and returned, but been appreciably added to in number.
The question for Jim Smith to consider, at leisure, will be what happens next.
There are supposedly further remnants of music and lyrics from Tim’s archives which could yet be spun into gold in the same way as the LSD album and ultimately performed live.
Equally, and even factoring in the performances of all three tracks on the Ditzy Scene single this week and/or in 2007-8, exactly half of LSD will have remained unplayed to a live audience by the end of this current tour. That includes such audacious tracks as Busty Beez and Skating – taking these on the road some day must have its appeal.
And, of course, there is a back catalogue of such depth that a staggering number of setlist permutations could still be drawn up for years to come, with or without contributions from LSD, and the faithful would likely still be more than satisfied with that.
All in good time.
More immediately, I know that Thursday night’s concert definitely finds a place among my all-time favourites.
I just need to decide where.
Here’s a phone recording of the concert in full. Not mine, but I’m delighted someone took the trouble. You might want to skip past the first three minutes of grinding noises, another one of the band’s little idiosyncracies from decades prior.
gc
The Albert Hall’s variable sound quality – partly the consequence, I’m given to understand, of its many windows, beautiful as they are – couldn’t prevent the magic of this strange, beautiful, sometimes manic music shining through, and it’s worth stressing that compiling and executing this near two-hour set so perfectly was no small undertaking, even for those who’d performed some of its contents for decades previously.
These are still earlyish days for longstanding drummer Bob Leith performing without any of the backing tracks which the late Tim Smith had introduced upon the band’s early-1990s conversion to a power quartet, and had kept in place as the live ensemble expanded and right up until the tragic events of 2008.
Live keyboards hadn’t featured in Cardiacs’ live offer for at least 35 years, either, until Rhodri Marsden was brought on board; something else for Bob, Kavus Torabi and Jim Smith to all get used to.
Inevitably, though, it was Vennart who has carried the greatest responsibility to make things work on stage as the band’s de facto frontperson now, to all intents and purposes the Tim of the piece however much he has striven to play down that perception.
Has he succeeded? Kavus’s succinct summary on Facebook yesterday morning that, “Mike has excelled, taking on the almost impossible task of inhabiting these songs with authenticity and passion, not to mention extraordinary ability and talent”, tells you enough.
This was not the Mike Vennart show, neither was it Mike doing Tim Smith cabaret – no replication of any of Tim’s eccentric outbursts, nor any of the theatrical onstage humiliating of Jim (indeed, Jim got a cuddle or two from Mike and Kavus).
Instead, generous tributes to his fellow players and audience during the set, culminating in the outro of The Whole World Window, which rounded off the main set. Flowers thrown from the stage (a nod to the Consultant, one assumes – IYKYK), and a respectful hug of a picture of Tim Smith himself.
The octet on stage looked absolutely spent by the time Is This The Life? drew the second and final encore to a close, Mike and Jim especially. The latter had, some will remember, been unable to complete the final Sing to Tim gig in late 2024 due to illness, but it was emotional investment rather than physical frailty at play here.
By the end of this week Cardiacs will have played four equally long gigs within five nights, and the time required to rest, recover and reflect will be well earned.
Jim has often mentioned that it felt as if Cardiacs were on the cusp of something approaching a crossover, relatively speaking, back in 2007 judged on the size and increasingly varying age profile of their audiences; and the evidence of the rapturous responses to these sell-out dates is that those people have not only waited and returned, but been appreciably added to in number.
The question for Jim Smith to consider, at leisure, will be what happens next.
There are supposedly further remnants of music and lyrics from Tim’s archives which could yet be spun into gold in the same way as the LSD album and ultimately performed live.
Equally, and even factoring in the performances of all three tracks on the Ditzy Scene single this week and/or in 2007-8, exactly half of LSD will have remained unplayed to a live audience by the end of this current tour. That includes such audacious tracks as Busty Beez and Skating – taking these on the road some day must have its appeal.
And, of course, there is a back catalogue of such depth that a staggering number of setlist permutations could still be drawn up for years to come, with or without contributions from LSD, and the faithful would likely still be more than satisfied with that.
All in good time.
More immediately, I know that Thursday night’s concert definitely finds a place among my all-time favourites.
I just need to decide where.
Here’s a phone recording of the concert in full. Not mine, but I’m delighted someone took the trouble. You might want to skip past the first three minutes of grinding noises, another one of the band’s little idiosyncracies from decades prior.
gc
