Visons of Blake

At The Purcell Room, South Bank Centre, February 2nd 2001.

It's hard to remember exactly what happened. After the introduction Moore and Perkins walked out onto the stage, checked that everything was in place, water, table, mic stand, tambourine and then, I think walked out again ( I might have got the order wrong and this might have been before the intro. ). The music started independently of Perkins who played only percussion on the night although all the music was composed and recorded by him specifically for the performance. I can't quite describe the music, technically it was almost twee with a very artificial fast beat at first but the actual musical phrase that was playing was quite arresting, seems Perkins and Moore, presuming that they collaborate to some extent on the writing of the music are really getting the hang of creating a reaction in the listener's mind / whatever. I'm really lloking forward to The Disco Cabbalah if it ever comes out after hearing the music on The Highbury Working and at tonight's performance.

There was a screen over Moore's head displaying John Coulthard's awesome animations, starting of with the new Moon and Serpent logo as seen on The Highbury Working which morphed into a gorgeous yellow wavy distorted pattern reminiscent of that screensaver named "Electric" if you've seen it. From here the film cut to various patterns, bits of Blake's work fast edited to give the feeling that something was happening. The music and imagines were pretty well integrated, although the sound did cut out for a bit near the start. The fast edit bit with the sort of uplifting music went on for a few minutes before Moore even spoke. Tim was bashing away on something by this point.

As the first track/song/tune/whatever faded Alan took a sip of his water, shuffled his papers and sort of half brushed away the parts of his hair that creep over the sides of his face but in such a way that they didn't move at all. At the same time he did a weird sort of head sway that was strangely related to the music but by no means synchronised with it. He looked like an occult newsreader who'd suddenly had to go on and do a newsflash but who was coping as well as you'd expect, overflowing with proffesionalism - visibly not that startled. His head movement was to be repeated over and over again throughout the night, it had the un-self concious air of someone who has a 100% conviction in what he is doing and just happens to be fucked out of his mind!

Moore began to speak, I apologise but I can't remember a word he said. Like the other performances he has done which have made it to C.D. he speaks too fast to properly follow it first time - I'd have to listen to it again. I think the first bit was a little potted history of Blake's childhood, adolescence, early work and so on. Airy music, light illustration, can't remember.

Next was the descent into Hell - I think was to represent the stage in his life when Blake was first "plagued by demons" so to speak. A dancer entered from the door at the back of the stage - an attractive young woman wearing a white dress like a wedding dress or something and carrying two lit torches. She took a sip from a half pint glass and then proceeded to breathe fire for the rest of the "Hell" segment. The projections during this section were excellent and quite memorable - loads of trudging around the depths of hell and loads of fire. It looked like it had been lifted from an old film but coloured with incredibly rich fire like tones and overlaid with various effects to simulate intense heat. It may have been totally original, I don't know but it seemed vaguley familiar and old looking. Again I'm afraid I can't remember what big Al was going on about at this stage but it he was fairly spitting it out and generally scaring the old ladies. Moore was totally into his stride now after some initial difficulties where his mike stand sank lower and lower as he spoke ( he's using both hands to hold his papers ) and a stage technician / roadie type ran out to adjust it and pretty much failed to correct the problem threatening to plunge the whole affair into a Spinal Tap style disaster. He droned on and on and no sooner did I try to catch a word he said than I missed the next one, I was captivated none the less and hanging on every word waiting for it to click. Ocassionally I'd hear a sentence and my mind would race off after it before being dragged back to try to hear the next, I can only emphasise the way that the whole music / voice / lighting / fire woman / projected visions of hell ensemble affected me in a weird way and hope we all get the chance to hear the words on a C.D. somewhere down the line.

As the flames of Hell retreated and the music calmed down and fire woman left and Perkins changed tambourines, Moore calmed down a bit, had a sip and turned a page. What followed was a much more relaxed section focusing on Blake's work and his adult life. The projections showed a lot of Blake's paintings and Alan seemed a bit more coherent as he described varous things that had happened to Blake and work he had done, pouncing with unerring accuaracy on the stranger moments and the more magical, occult aspects to Blake's work and inspiration. There were a lot of weird effects used in the visuals, shimmies and blurring very reminiscent of hallucinatory "visuals" the whole crew worked together to make you feel just like you'd been snacking on the local mushrooms as Special Agent Albert Rosenfield would put it. I think that this section dealt with everything up to and including Blake's death - sadly for anyone not enjoying the performance this was where the Moon and Serpent Cabal really warmed to their subject!

The music lifted again and the screen showed a few shots of modern day London, including three or four plaques on houses "William Blake was born here", "William Blake lived in this house", "William blake lived here", "William Blake died here". As the music stepped up a gear and the screen images started to quicken and distort and morph and kaleidoscope in and out of each other Moore pitched in a voice just as intense as the Hell section. As Moore described a sort of fast forward after death flight through London we were treated to a very fast smeared light image switching from negative to positive colours, visiting the Blake plaques over and again and as Mark Jobling put it in his post "the conjuring of acid demons in Russell Square". By this time fire woman was back out as Angel woman complete with wings and during this section did a "dance" that involved collapsing in slow motion and getting back up again. The story seemed to involve Blake and his ?wife? ?Katherine? (sorry I'll check another time) flying around London fucked on death and having a great time - I can't keep this up - just thinking back to the night is confusing and exhausting and yet I'd like nothing more than to sit through it again. Someone more well balanced who was there please help me out!

I'll host all the reviews of this performnce that I am sent. I'd also like reviews of Moon and Serpent, Birth Caul, Highbury Working, Snakes and Ladders and whatever else any of you have seen or heard on C.D. It's not easy so I'll offer a prize, like last time I don't know what it is yet, but for the record last time I aked Adam what he'd like and he picked V for Vendetta which I posted to him last Friday about a year after the contest started ( or was it two? )

I know four guys on the group might be able to shed some light on what happened - Mark Jobling and Frazer Irving were there, GJ Lucken who said he was going but I haven't heard from since and John Coulthard who did the film and could probably lay bare the whole master plan if only he was here!