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Glastonbury Festival – 26th June 2004

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Broadcast live on BBC3 from The New Tent at Glastonbury

Setlist

Discover / Down To The Sea / Wave Hello / Eh Mamma / What Goes On / Sometimes / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Bone / Butterfly’s Dream / Monkey God / Fall In Love

Support

n/a

Review

 

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Bedford Esquires – 23rd June 2004

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Setlist

Discover / Down To The Sea / Five-O / Wave Hello / Eh Mamma / Sometimes / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Bone / What Goes On / Butterfly’s Dream / Monkey God / What Goes On (second version) / Fall In Love

Support

Lee Baker

Review

Arriving in Bedford, you could be forgiven you’d found yourself in Brian Potterworld. The Esquires looked like the Phoenix Club complete with paper sign on the white board above the door advertising Tim’s gig. Once inside however, the venue wasn’t as bad as we’d feared, a good size stage and a reasonable sized crowd in.

Immediately it was noticeable compared to the other shows that the audience now having heard Bone would improve the atmosphere and crowd reaction. Discover was greeted with cheers and a cock-up at the beginning of Down To The Sea was laughed off by the band and appreciated by the crowd.

This wasn’t just a crowd looking for James songs either. The introduction of Five-O didn’t create the knowing response of previous shows. The version was rockier than previous versions and Lee added some backing vocals in the middle as well, showing the band had worked on the song and, as Tim had said, gone to a higher level even since the previous gigs.

Wave Hello and Eh Mamma were performed fast and frenetically, almost on the edge of collapsing under their own pace, but all the better for the power of the performance all five were putting in.

There was a slight lull during Sometimes and Dance Of The Bad Angel as both songs seemed to have been slowed down from previous outings and it did disturb the pace and energy that had been built up. This however was brought back with a stretched out version of Bone which lasted over eight minutes and featured some gorgeous sax work from Robin.

The real highlight of the show was the surprise Tim had promised, a cover version of the Velvet Underground standard What Goes On. An almost thrash version, very different from the original, of the track brought more people down to dance. Keeping the pace up the band then blasted their way through Butterfly’s Dream and a manic version of Monkey God to complete the main set. People were dancing, shouting, cheering, a fantastic reaction to a set of songs they had in the most never heard or just got acquainted with.

Milo then came on stage to perform a stand up routine which involved phoning up a local kebab shop, pretending first to have gone blind after eating a kebab and then to be a Virgin Radio DJ offering a prize for answering three questions. After stringing the poor guy along for two questions, the third “question” was a simple “fuck off” which brought the house down.

Unsure how to follow that, the band came back on and did another different semi-improvised take on What Goes On and then finished the set with a beautiful rendition of Fall In Love for which the crowd simply shut up and listened.

A real success then, a reasonable crowd for a barely advertised warm-up gig and one that was prepared to both listen to the slower songs and getting involved with the faster songs, a great performance by the band and the added bonus of Milo’s stand-up. If you haven’t got tickets for the tour yet, go and get some.

Monkey God

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Monkey God is a track from Tim Booth’s 2004 solo album Bone.

It also gave his record company its name.

Details

LyricsReleaseAvailable OnGigsGuitar Tabs
We co-create our own fate

Everything's connected

God in man, man from ape

Everything's connected

We co-create our own fate

Everything's connected

Man from stars, man from ape

Everything's connected

My behaviour's chemical, nurture biological

Determined by the stars in space

Don't rely on suicide

Meet you on the other side

It's not even your life to take

See things from the stratosphere

We're so unimportant here

What's the point in asking why?

Struggle of the underdog

Too much love or not enough

We die to live and live to die

Meanwhile in the stratosphere

Houston we've a problem here

Someone's cut a hole in the sky

Planet in a Petri dish

Interference hit and miss

Soon there won't be rivers to cry

God's pitch shift way out of time

Created an ape

Infected with the spark of divine

Mix X with the Y chromosome

One to destroy

The other tries to find a way home

We co-create our own fate

Everything's connected

God in man, man from ape

Everything's connected
Song: Monkey God
Released: 14th June 2004
First Heard Live:
Where To Get:

Tim Booth: Bone
Played at:
Unavailable

Bone

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Bone, a 2004 Studio Album by Tim Booth.

Summary

Tim Booth’s first solo album.

Track List

Wave Hello / Bone / Monkey God / Redneck / Love Hard / Discover / Fall In Love / Falling Down / Down To The Sea / In The Darkness / Eh Mamma / Careful What You Say

Details

ReleaseAboutSongsVideosGigsArticles
Release Name: Bone
Artist Name: Tim Booth
Release Date: 14th June 2004
UK Chart: -
Format: Studio Album
Label: Sanctuary Records
Catalogue: SANPR268
Produced: Lee Muddy Baker
Engineered: Lee Muddy Baker
Mixed: Lee Muddy Baker
Additional Musicians: Lisa Lindley Jones, Lee Muddy Baker, Kevin Kerrigan, Marjorie Ashenden, David Naylor
Recorded: Recorded At – The L.A.B; Mastered At – The Town House

“This CD was made very casually over 3 years. Most of the songs were recorded on a laptop, in my bedroom overlooking the sea in Brighton. Initially written with KK, later they were produced and re-played by Lee Muddy Baker in a studio he hand built. He plays 90% of the instruments, even did the beautiful sleeve artwork, dammit! After “James” I had no intention of making my own record. Nope, I was gonna make music for others to sing. Let them interface with the “Music Business ” while I would just do the fun creative part. Don’t know what happened, think it was Baker’s fault; something about a labour of love and the songs being too good to waste. Yeah, I know the record’s brilliant but now we have the task of outing it and that is never an easy thing to do at the best of musical times. So here are some songs from the heart, hope you enjoy.” – Tim Booth, amazon.co.uk, June 2004

Songs related to this release:
Videos related to songs on this release:
Gigs related to this release:

London Water Rats – 21st April 2004

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Setlist

Careful What You Say / Discover / Down To The Sea / Five-O / Wave Hello / Eh Mamma / Sometimes / Love Hard / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Bone / Butterfly’s Dream / In The Darkness / Monkey God / Fall In Love

Support

Lee Baker

Review

review by brd

It’s packed with people and steaming hot in the Water Rats Theatre tonight, as is the band tonight when they leap into the closing set of Tim Booth & the Individuals mini-trial tour. The gig is edgier and harder than last night’s Cardiff outing, with one less acoustic song (Laid) and the addition of the powerful guitar driven show stopper Booth and the Bad Angel song Butterfly’s Dream.

The set is also more quickly paced, with shorter pauses between songs, and in one instance going straight from one song into another (I think it was Wave Hello and Eh Mama). This allows the band to better build up the momentum of the set as well as maintain it. That said, you don’t get as great an opportunity to witness Tim Booth’s budding career as a stand up comedian (truly quick wit that he is). As with last night’s Cardiff show, the band take good natured verbal shots at each other, and at one point Tim in mock exasperation asks keyboardist Lisa and songwriting partner/guitarist Lee to stop talking and shut up.

Set highlights tonight include upcoming singles Wave Hello, which just burns tonight, and Down to the Sea, as well sexual obsession ode In The Darkness, and older songs Dance Of The Bad Angel and Five-O. The audience responds well to the nine new songs they hear tonight, welcoming them with an open mind and deservedly quickly embraces them. As Sometimes is recognized, the audience starts singing along. The room belongs to Tim tonight.

A minor quibble, having had the pleasure of hearing the band two nights in a row, is that at times the instrumentation of the songs is too dense. At some points, say at the beginning or even the middle of a song, a simpler approach would provide a more powerful delivery due to the aural contrast. This is the case with Five-O in particular. Oh and did I say the set was TOO SHORT?

I also wonder if the new singles will be re-recorded prior to release as they have apparently changed tremendously since they were introduced live acoustically last fall after being recorded for the upcoming CD. With the other songs in the live set, it would be a tremendous shame if the powerful live delivery of the new songs (and the old ones too) would be lost to the general listening public (in particular those of us located in North America). A nice consolation would be to include soundcheck or live recordings as a Bone bonus disc and/or b-sides. A dvd single with live tracks would be great too.

When encore Fall In Love unfolds far too soon in the night, the audience is just swept off its feet. It feels as if you can reach up in the air and grab the emotion in your hands. The room is in suspended animation as the song ends, there is a moment of silence as everyone holds their breath, and the empty space quickly fills with applause. Damn, its over. What an amazing performance.

Back on my side of the Atlantic as I write this, I know it was worth every penny and effort to see these two Tim Booth shows and the birth of a new act. Thanks very much Tim. I can’t wait for the new single and CD. If Tim does a show within walking, train or driving distance of you this year, don’t think twice about seeing him.

Cardiff The Engine – 20th April 2004

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Setlist

Careful What You Say / Laid / Down To The Sea / Five-O / Wave Hello / Redneck / Sometimes / Love Hard / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Bone / In The Darkness / Monkey God / Fall In Love

Support

Lee Baker

Review

review by brd

There was a storm outside, endless rain, as we meandered from central Cardiff to Cardiff Bay in search of the Engine Room, the venue for tonight’s third stop of Tim Booth & the Individuals sea to sea mini tour. We didn’t get struck by lightning but got drenched as we sought and gained refuge in a nearby pub for a pint, some grub and more importantly some warmth.

As it would turn out, we experienced the literary construction of prophetic fallacy, as we would shortly be swept away by the flood of excellent music.

The show got off on a humorous note with Tim congratulating us as being amongst the lucky few ticket holders who had been vetted and let in due to our purported excellent hearing skills. To be trueful, I was oblivious to the size of the audience, as I was transfixed by Tim’s outstanding performance and by my close proximity to centre stage. Anyway, this good humour and relaxed attitude continued through the far too short night, with a real rapport quickly struck with the audience and between the band itself. At one point, Tim in his role of standup comic, asks for the venue’s security staff to help out a patron who keeps on shouting “protect me” (poor disoriented bastard didn’t know he was over ten years too late for that gig).

The variety in the music delivered through the night was impressive. The new songs ranged from the powerful guitar rock of In The Darkness (centring on sexual obsession), to the pub rock of soon to be released first single Wave Hello, the complex vocal trio presented in Down to the Sea (quite a different arrangement to that done in Tim’s performance with 1 Giant Leap last year on Dom Joly) and the jazz rock workout of cd title track Bone, featuring bassist Robin on alto sax and acoustic guitar. The latter song reminded me of the trademark sound of classic band Traffic.

Lyrically, the new songs are rich and like all of Tim’s writing, their complexity will likely fully reveal meaning when allowed the luxury of repeated close listening (this being Tim Booth, it wouldn’t suffice to read the lyrics as you have to hear the inflections in his voice to grasp the true meaning). Standouts in this category include the aforementioned Bone’s musings on life; Monkey God, which discusses how existence and spirituality are all interconnected; and Redneck touches on celebrity and mentions the Hindu God Rama in the chorus.

The Individuals are an outstanding band. Drummer Milo is a powerful rhythm keeper; the flexibility of multi instrumentalist Robin is a real bonus to the band, spending 60% of the night playing bass and the rest playing guitars and saxophone as well as the occasional backing vocal; songwriting partner Lee “Muddy” Baker is a strongly competent guitarist and bassist, constantly adding backing vocals and lots of cheek to the proceedings; and then there is diminutive keyboardist/flautist Lisa “Xan” and her amazing atmospheric vocals. She is the secret ingredient to the Individuals, truly providing the extra elements to the older songs which sets them apart. This is particularily evident to her world music vocal colourings in Booth and the Bad Angel’s Dance of the Bad Angels, and her contribution to the vocal trio which closes James’ Sometimes. Not enough of her voice is heard through the night.

All is not perfect through the night, as after all Tim Booth and the Individuals are human (or are they?). Guitar tuning is a bit off in the otherwise amazing rendition of Five-O, Sometimes could use a touch of acoustic guitar throughout as it approaches piano lounge music at times, the guitar in In The Darkness should be heavily distorted to give it the edge it needs and the breath taking set closer Fall in Love needs a bit of synthesizer as the melodica makes it sound like a campfire song. Finally, and most important, the set was TOO SHORT! We should have heard at least another couple of songs from the upcoming CD. Nine of the twelve songs was not enough. Greedy bastard, eh?

At the end of the night, there is definitely a new colour in the musical rainbow: Tim Booth and the Individuals. Don’t miss the opportunity to see something amazing unfolding. Next time there is a Tim Booth show, bring a few of your friends and an open mind with you.

Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms – 18th April 2004

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Setlist

Careful What You Say / Discover / Down To The Sea / Five-O / Wave Hello / Eh Mamma / Sometimes / Love Hard / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Bone / Butterfly’s Dream / In The Darkness / Monkey God / Fall In Love

Support

Lee Baker

Review

review by oneofthethree

So, Tim’s first electric gig with the new band outside of Brighton, the first test on the road of the new band, the new songs and what sort of reaction there would be. Disappointing, the Wedgewood Rooms weren’t full, not surprising I suppose because of the nascent state of the band and the fact that the publicity campaign hasn’t kicked in yet with the album two months away.

What’s noticeable immediately is a much harder edge to the sound. Freed from the restrictions of the Sussex Arts Centre in terms of noise, Milo is a revelation on drums, his high-energy full-on performance reminiscent of an early-day Gavan Whelan but with the tightness of Dave Baynton-Power. Robin on bass, sax and guitar demonstrates a presence and an ability to take control of a song that we hadn’t seen at the two Brighton shows. Lee was on particularly good form, the chemistry between him and Tim is a joy to watch, amusing, piss-taking but also very affectionate. Lisa’s backing vocals are stunning and add real colour to the songs even though they are often sadly under-utilised. Her solo performance of one of her own compositions whilst there’s an issue with the backing tracks before Bone was simply breathtaking. The real beauty of this band is that they’re not overawed by Tim and his past and he doesn’t act the big pop star with them.

The show is a little up and down because the momentum is broken from time to time by technical problems and overlong changeovers, but this is all forgiveable at this stage considering this is only their third gig and their first in a full-size venue. Once they’re ironed out and the band get going, the performance and the inter-band chemistry shines through. The audience though is receptive, given that there are nine songs in the set that most of them will never have heard, three Booth and the Bad Angel songs that were very rarely aired live and two James classics, Five-O and Sometimes from the Laid era. There’s no open complaints about the lack of familiar material.

Highlights of the set included a stunning version of Butterfly’s Dream off Booth and the Bad Angel. It’s good to hear Tim going back to this album that never got a real airing live first time round rather than taking the easier option of James’ more familiar back catalogue. Eh Mamma, In The Darkness and Love Hard benefit from the harder sound whilst in contrast Wave Hello is slowed down slightly from previous versions and sounds more measured in its delivery and a fine choice for the first single as Tim indicated it would be. Discover and Careful What You Say remain as passionate and yearning as previous performances and Monkey God is probably the prime example of the funkier undercurrent that runs through much of the set.

Five-O and Sometimes drew the biggest cries of recognition of the evening. Five-O maintained the wistful beauty of the original but with a rocky edge, a good choice for a trip back to the James catalogue. Sometimes, with Lisa’s gorgeous rambling keyboard taking the lead, sounds as driven in this guise than the guitar-led strum of its James incarnation.

An intriguing night of a band presenting songs that are relatively new to them to an audience to whom they are brand new. There’s a passion, a sense of purpose and celebration that’s bristling through and it’s fun, real fun, from the banter between songs, the way the band encourage each other during the songs and the general atmosphere on stage. At one point Lee remarks about Tim “you have seen him having this much fun, have you?” to which Tim responds “I took the microphone stand from up my arse.” Not a pleasant image, but the point was made. When the enjoyment coming from the stage is matched from an audience familiar with the songs and the expectation of a set chock full of James songs diminshes, there are going to be some really special evenings coming up. I can hardly wait.

Brighton Sussex Arts Club – 6th March 2004

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Setlist

Careful What You Say / Laid / Discover / Wave Hello / In The Darkness / Redneck / Love Hard / Sometimes / Falling Down / Dance Of The Bad Angel / Eh Mamma / Monkey God / Bone / Down To The Sea / Fall In Love With Me

Support

Lee Baker

Review

Following another excellent support slot by Charles Manson, Tim’s “silent partner” on the forthcoming album Bone, Tim and the band took the stage at just before ten o’clock to an enthusiastic welcome from an excited crowd, which counted Scottish football legend Gordon Strachan amongst their number. The opening two tracks Words and Laid, whilst still not delivered with a full band, benefitted enormously from the addition of Lisa (Xan, Sid) on keyboards and in particular on vocal harmonies, a theme that would shine throughout the whole evening’s performance. Laid, in particular, was a success after last week’s competent but unrevealing performance.

Milo and Robin joined the other three for Discover which showed that they are still working on the songs, developing each one, not being happy with the previous performance, pushing the song further each time they’ve played it. This having been the third time I’ve heard these songs, it’s now enough to sit back and listen to the development as the band gel. Wave Hello is a glorious mess, it sounds as if it’s going to come crashing to a halt at any minute, Tim adding to the seeming chaos with keyboards of his own, but it’s pulled off as some Manchester band from the nineties did in their prime.

Into Darkness is possibly the highlight and sounds like it would be a great choice for a single (which automatically means it won’t be), a song about sexual obsession and an obsession with a girl on a train. Tim makes a scathing comment about band of the moment The Darkness at the end that goes down well with the crowd. Redneck, with its ambigious references to Auld Lang Syne, ice-cream, space dust (whatever happened to space dust? – showing my age a little) and “rama-rama” is laid-back, yet almost borders on a free jazz style. The backing vocals complement Tim beautifully.

Hard Love is probably the simplest of the new songs, yet one of the most effective with the verse dominated by discreet but stunning keyboards before a crashing drumbeat announcing the chorus and into a gorgeous vocal section with Lisa. Sometimes just about fails to reach the high standard of last week’s performance but still manages to remain fresh in its new piano-driven guise. The reception is rapturous for the last of the songs by the J-band this evening.

Falling Down Again is my least favourite of the new songs as it probably doesn’t quite afford the possibility of experimentation that some of the more up-tempo numbers do.

Booth and the Bad Angel album track Dance Of The Bad Angel is introduced into the set for the first time. The pace of the song picks up gradually to a stunning crescendo. Lee and Lisa’s vocal harmonies contrast stunningly with Tim’s. Tim’s spoken about vocal improvisation in the past, but with the new band he appears to be getting the opportunity to really try it out and it can be quite breathtaking when it comes off.

The set draws to a close with the three of the more up-tempo numbers in the set. Mama is under three minutes, includes both Tim and Lisa on keyboards and Tim’s vocals hollering through the middle with Milo’s drumming holding the whole song together as it careers towards the end.

Monkey God follows with the stream of consciousness ending where the band talk over the intro the song about random subjects, I’m not sure this works and just confuses the audience. The song crashes to a halt because of a hitch. Tim cracks a pun back at Lee that “I left James for this” to respond to Lee’s piss-taking throughout the set.

Bone and Down To The Sea appear to have made their claim to be the setclosers. Both have moved on greatly from their earlier incarnations from the ICA gig and the Dom Joly performance (of the latter) last year. Robin’s sax and the vocal harmonies bring Bone to a stirring climax whilst Down To The Sea has grown into a real thing of beauty from something that sounded distinctly run of the mill just a few months back.

Fall In Love With Me, with Lee and Lisa accompanying, closes the set. Sung with a passion and minimum background, the emotion of the feelings Tim’s expressing pour out of every line.

Another success, the development of the songs in the live environment is evident even though it’s only a week or so since the last show. The potential for improvisation is rife through many of the songs and where it’s done it’s a great success, keeping the sound fresh and utilising the talents of the whole band. The interaction is a joy to see after years of terse on-stage tension with James. Taking this out to bigger, standing venues and probably a less patient audience (how long before we get a demand for Sit Down?) will be the next challenge. The sound’s there to fill bigger venues, but whether there’s an audience there for improvised exciting fresh music made by people with a passion for their work and working with their bandmates when success seems to be guaranteed by a few singalong choruses, changing your name and lying about your age (28 eh Mr Kapranos?) and being flavour of the month with the eNMEy is going to be the big challenge.

Still the band and those of us who join the ride are going to have some great evenings finding out. Come to the shows with an open mind, forget Tim’s past and allow yourself to be convinced.