I went with a friend to see Duke Special last night at the Oxford Academy (now the O2 Academy, formerly the Carling Academy, formerly the Zodiac). I’ve seen him a few times now at the Academy/Zodiac, and each time has been different, and very entertaining.
Last night was no exception. He had two support acts – one a local guy, and other an up and coming act by the name of Dan Michaelson and the Coastguards. They weren’t too bad, and passed the time whilst we waited. After they’d finished, we waited for what seemed like an eternity. One of the roadies appeared with setlists, then about 15 minutes later picked them all up and replaced them with others, so I can’t help but feel the delay was possibly due to some last-minute changes.
After much staring at the stage doors, the Duke suddenly emerged from the wings onto the stage, much to everybody’s surprise. The whole place fell silent whilst he began to play. The Temperance Society’s Chip Bailey appeared after a couple of songs and joined in on drums and percussion. The banter with the crowd was good. Some songs employ records being played as intros to the songs (well, I think some come from recordings off the mixing desk, but I digress), but it seemed the record the Duke wanted wasn’t where he thought, so a singalong ending to one song was drawn out longer whilst he ran around trying to find the record he wanted. It gave a few laughs anyway!
Chip appeared to have added some more percussion instruments to his already odd arsenal of Stumpf Fiddle and cheese grater and whisk. The new additions were attached to a large stand, and included a broken cymbal with bolts through it, a saucepan, and some small sheets of metal on a hook, among other things.
Mid-show, the Duke mentioned that at the previous gig they had done in Portsmouth, he’d been able to wheel his piano out into the middle of the crowd, and play some songs acoustically. Unfortunately, that wasn’t possible due to there not being an easy way to get the piano down. He actually seemed genuinely dismayed that this was the case, but apologised and carried on anyway. The show came to an end, and a final encore took place. He said a few thankyous, then announced that it was the end of the show, but they’d managed to set up another piano downstairs. Everybody was welcome to come downstairs and enjoy the little ‘after show’. He then said himself and Chip would crowdsurf to the back. Everybody laughed good naturedly.
He meant it.
So one short crowd surf to the back (very rock and roll!), Chip hanging onto his Stumpf Fiddle whilst doing so, everybody piled downstairs. The Academy staff were running around trying to open up doors and get people down safely. My hat off to them, as I think it really was an off-the-cuff thing, and pretty much everybody transferred downstairs.
The downstairs room is much bigger, but obviously hadn’t been opened up for use, as the only lights on were the main lights. Sitting in the middle was a piano, and everybody just crowded around. The Duke was still running around (I think he was actually looking for his pint), and eventually joined everybody. Chip was busily entertaining everybody by playing his Stumpf Fiddle some more. The Duke started up playing some songs – a weird mish-mash of his own songs, some modern songs, and some old drinking songs (The Old Bull and Bush being one).
The whole thing was played out by candle light as somebody lit the little candles on his piano, and the main lights were turned off. It turned into just a fun sing-song. OK, he did forget the words to some of the songs – including his own – but nobody cared. It was great fun. The show-stealer being a little boy who managed to stand down next to the piano and held up the words during one song, then sang a few parts with the Duke, then alone. Naturally, he got massive cheers for singing along (he wasn’t bad either).
Eventually the show ended properly, and we all filed out. It was gone 11:30 at this point, so we’d probably gotten another 45 minutes out of that extra bit of show!
I can’t help but feel that with Duke Special, he’s a musician’s musician. He really does LOVE music. He loves to play it, and play it for and with other people. If he can get the audience involved, he will. Suddenly, as an audience, you don’t feel that you’re being played to, but that you’re somehow involved. I’ve seen other bands who barely acknowledge the audience (Editors did that), or they have a laugh, but more with each other on stage, so you feel that you’re watching somebody else having fun. Duke is more about involving the audience. Chip Bailey is a great accompaniment to that, as he does the same thing.
It’s just damn good fun. Exactly what a live gig should be.