Leonard Rossiter plays
Gonzales, 'From Major to Minor'. Meltdown Festival, Purcell Room, 16 June 2007
Gonzales opened Jarvis Cocker's Meltdown festival last Saturday. Competing with Motorhead in the Royal Festival Hall was never going to be easy, but the show was sold out perhaps because he hadn't played in London since a slot supporting Fischerspooner nearly 5 years ago at the RFH.
That night, after his one man rap gig as 'Chilly G', he took off his pink safari suit and played an intimate piano set in the downstairs bar. I was there, it was great. An indication of things to come, he released his Solo Piano album in 2003 and hasn't picked up a mic in anger since.
On saturday Gonzales wore a lab coat to underline the experimental nature of the performance. It made him look like a strange teddy boy version of Leonard Rossiter. At the end of the show, he read some reviews that indicated why he hasn't been desperate to return to London. With phrases like 'Schmaltzy piano', 'Briefly barely famous', 'Conniving little Jew' I ain't surprised! But what we saw was a masterful and 'anally crafted' (his words) show of deft piano melodies, audience experiments involving 'whistle that tune' and 'hum like the Wu Tang', and nifty wire brush drumming from his mate Mocky. Like Rossiter, his comic timing was impeccable and in some ways what Gonzales gave us was a night of great comedy with the bonus of some dreamy tunes.
Gonzales started playing piano at the age of 3 and never stopped. The angular haircut bridage, and fans of his stuff with Kitty Yo need to get with his Piano Solo album. Taught by a smelly old woman who heaved her breasts against him as he played, he became something of a virtuoso. Now he creates melodies that remind you of black and white French films and Satie, and hark back to some of this tunes on his first album, 2000's 'Gonzales Uber Alles'.
There were cheesy moments on Saturday. After recalling some of his 'hard touches' of the past (he refused to call them 'hits'), he put a load of famous but awful pop tunes through the minor key treatment. Chariots of Fire became Chariots of Hellfire. Hello by Lionel Ritchie morphed into the Ace of Spades. Common People by Pulp (get the connections here?!) exposed the sad and lonely theme. He did a fine version of 'Where the streets have no name', apparently requested by Cocker as he is a fan of 'gospel music played by Irish billionaires'. Cocker, however, got the finger for not deigning to stay to watch Gonzales play - preferring Motorhead instead. Cocker's loss, our gain. Chilly G is dead, long live Gonzales.
