Darling - stop confusing me with your wishful thinking

Venturing in to London on a Sunday night?!?  It's gotta be a work freebie, surely...

Yup - and it's an interesting one.  David Arnold is best known for his film score composition work (he's done five James Bond films) but he first came to my attention with Bjork's "Play Dead" (a great track from a mere 30 years ago) which was co-written by him, Bjork and Jah Wobble which is quite the mix of personnel.  Given that he's primarily a composer, touring isn't really something he does - but for the coming week, that's exactly what he's doing, so I'm intrigued to see what it was going to involve.  And yes, it was a freebie and it was in a new venue for me, which I always enjoy checking out.

The venue in question was Lafayette which is, for me, extremely conveniently located at the back of Kings Cross (£6.70 return with a railcard on a Sunday - which is surprisingly good value for a train in this country).  I went in a bit early to have a wander around and have to report the area is charming on a Sunday with a load of market stalls and interesting shops.  Which is amazing when you think what it used to be like 30 years ago - "wandering around Kings Cross" was something you only did if you had specific (and in all likelihood illegal) requirements.  

But by 6pm. everything was shutting up and the rain was getting more persistent so I ventured across to Lafayette to check it out and I have to report that it too is pretty damn charming (once you get past the somewhat uninviting frontage, at least).  The foyer area isn't the hugest but is nicely decorated and features several areas serving a wide selection of food and drink - it felt nicely cosy on a wintry night as I settled in with my Kindle.  After I'd got my hand stamped with the most nondescript security stamp I've ever seen (get yourself a black Sharpie and you'll get in free every night) I wandered through into the venue to find a small balcony area upstairs and a not exactly huge main area downstairs, with another surprisingly pleasant bar area attached.  And a lot of instruments squeezed onto a pretty compact stage area.

And at 8pm, what seemed like a load of accountants wandered onto the stage somewhat apologetically.  There was definitely no "HELLO LONDON!!!" moment here - what he actually said was "I appreciate you have an abundance of choice of Hollywood composers to see on a wet Sunday night, so thank you for coming".  But as the evening progressed there was no doubt that if they were accountants, they were certainly accountants that knew their way around their instruments - there was some serious skill on display up there.  And what an interesting evening it was - very different from a "normal" gig (whatever one of them is).  

It was basically just an opportunity for Mr Arnold to tell some stories around how various songs of his came into existence and then play his version of them with his mates.  In some cases his version worked well and was instantly recognisable - in other cases it was pretty different (or unknown to me at least) but you appreciated it was something he wanted to play in the way he wanted to play it.  It almost felt like you were the director of the film/show/musical involved and he was pitching the song to you and suggesting who might sing it - which made for a totally different and enjoyable perspective.

The whole evening could easily have come across as a pointless vanity project, but he's obviously not doing it for the cash and the stories and his delivery were charming.  His obvious appreciation of all those he's come into contact with also shone through - I'm sure he's worked hard, but he totally knows he's lead a charmed life.  As was made clear by the eclectic list of names he dropped throughout the evening as having had something to do with at least one of the songs - Mel C, Vic & Bob, Nina Persson (from The Cardigans), Don Black (the lyricist, who was in the audience), Scott Walker, Shirley Manson, Shirley Bassey, David McAlmont, David Cameron, Katherine Jenkins, Youssou N'Dour, Sophie Ellis-Bexter, Bjork, Chris Cornell and kd Lang all got mentioned!

He also had quite the band up there with him - I must admit I didn't catch all their names so I won't namecheck any of them but a lot of them have high powered jobs working with musical superstars (Adele, Elton and Madonna were all mentioned) and they've basically just dropped everything to go on tour with Dave for a week - with no rehearsals so they were all just playing along off music written on massive sheets of paper.  Given it was the first night of the tour things didn't always go smoothly, but they styled it out with ease.

"Play Dead" was the obvious highlight of the night for me (he's no Bjork though!), closely followed by the Bond title tracks ("You Know My Name" was a lot better than I was remembered) but it was all very enjoyable.  As I previously said, it didn't really feel like a "normal" gig - it was more like a music lesson with a cool teacher who couldn't help slightly showing off but you were happy to let him do so.  And I liked the venue as well - I'd be happy to head back there, especially since it's so convenient for me!  It's also pretty easy to get VERY close to the band.