The Good The Bad & The Queen - Coronet, London - 10th November 2011 (Live Review)
Thursday, 17 November 2011
Written by Gareth Padfield
The Coronet has seen a few name changes in its time, but as a landmark of London’s musical and theatrical history, it’s a fitting venue for the Good the Bad and the Queen to play the album Damon Albarn described as a song cycle and mystery play about London. And with the theme of the flood hanging over those songs, who better to celebrate the arrival in London of the Rainbow Warrior III, and the 40th anniversary of Greenpeace.
The London connections continue as the legendary Don Letts opens with a DJ set of classic dub and reggae – including the surprising but brilliant cover of Coldplay’s ‘Fix You’ by the Dualers – a suitably eclectic warm up for the genre-crossing music we’re expecting. And finally the band arrive, backlit beneath a painted London skyline complete with gas towers and canals, on a stage draped in bunting, setting the scene for an exploration of contemporary London through the eyes of one of its celebrated musical sons.
If the 2007 album is another example of Albarn’s continuing musical creativity, the live show is as much about Paul Simonon, and the link that he, and his own musical history bring to the concept. His brooding presence, almost always in the spotlight, but hidden under a trilby, adds the dark side to the performance and recalls another history of London.
Simon Tong does not compete, but contributes a broad brush of guitar sounds, almost cosmic in scale on ‘Kingdom of Doom’, and beefing up the live version of ‘Three Changes’ with an insistent fuzz, while lightning flashes across the backdrop illuminate Albarn throwing himself around the stage.
Tony Allen refuses to play straight, chopping his beats up into musical phrases which sometimes hint at dub, sometimes hip hop, but never MOR. His touch re-imagines the encore of ‘Melancholy Hill’, abandoned after early sessions for the Good the Bad and the Queen, but now resurrected, and distinct from the recent Gorillaz version.
It’s been three years since this lineup played live, and Damon’s nerves show on ‘A Soldier’s Song’ (restarting the intro before asking for his own guitar to be turned down) but despite the odd slip in the rhythm section (partly perhaps as a result of Simonon aiming his bass as much as playing it) it didn’t show, with the music tight and Albarn’s performance ranging from hesitant preacher during ‘Breeze Behind the Sun’ to straight up punk rocker in closer ‘The Good the Bad and the Queen’.
Albarn is a serial collaborator, and his output since the break up of Blur continues to impress, but rather than hide his light, the collaborations just highlight the maturity and depth of his skill as a songwriter and musician. Is this collection of songs and their performance a distillation of the real Damon Albarn? There’s a melancholy of observation that we’ve heard before (think This Is a Low from Parklife) and it seems that his love for London, for England, and his sadness at the state in which it finds itself in the 21st century are completed by his support for the organisers of tonight’s celebration. Who are we to argue with that? The only complaint of the night was summed up in a perfectly pitched heckle, from the guy who simply shouted:
“Do another album!”
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Tony Allen refuses to play straight, chopping his beats up into musical phrases which sometimes hint at dub, sometimes hip hop, but never MOR. His touch re-imagines the encore of ‘Melancholy Hill’, abandoned after early sessions for the Good the Bad and the Queen, but now resurrected, and distinct from the recent Gorillaz version. 
