Peter Hammill
Stuart Gordon
Tokyo November 6 2004

Shell (Piano)
Curtains
Wendy and the Lost Boy
Touch and Go

Amnesiac(Guitar)
Driven
Like Veronica
Primo On The Parapet

He then invited David Jackson onstage.

I Will Find You
Out of My Book
Central Hotel

Four Pails (Piano)
Autumn
Labour of Love

Refugees (Piano)

Encore:

Traintime (Piano)

____________________________________ More from Sean travelling from Canada(Couch Noise)


Well Peter appeared alone on stage but explained that when he wrote the setlist, the first song he chose is in the absolute worst key for violin. So Peter would have a go at it solo.

Shell

A bit of a false start. Again for this concert Peter needed his notes, and just as he started singing a great gust of wind came and blew all his sheets away. To everyone's amusement, he stopped and replaced the sheets using bits of tape prepared for him on his keyboard. He continued where he left off, and managed very well. Afterwards he invited Stuart on stage.

Curtains
Wendy and the Lost Boy
Touch and Go

Curtains was great and very strong vocally. Cracking, as some would say. Wendy, a fine choice in my mind, but further illustrated his lack of preparation for these Japanese concerts. He started playing the intro but starting singing the verse and so made a mess of it. Once realizing this, he stopped and said `oh, I get it, there is an INTRO to this song` and proceeded to played it while looking at the crowd as if to say `See! This is how it goes!' Once he started singing, he didn't know the words at all and his notes were just too far to read. He would lean and squint before singing but this head movement would in turn make all the beginning of his words inaudible and then get louder as he got closer to the microphone. Before starting Touch and Go, he actually taped his sheets to the keyboard so they would be In View!

Amnesiac
Driven
Like Veronica
Primo on the Parapet

A shorter piano start led to a longer guitar set. Amnesiac was good, but I think was used as a warm up. Driven was good too, but i'll go against the grain here and say it's overrated ;-) I think that was the song he almost played yesterday before playing If I Could. Like Veronica was just surreal. At the end of Driven he hung on to an Am chord and the lights dimmed and side lights lit up making this really eerie effect, just intense. Primo was also very good, even on acoustic guitar. Peter managed very well with his playing and really seemed familiar with this guitar set (no notes). He then invited David Jackson onstage. Before the start of the gig I was told it was a possibility as his equipment finally arrived in Japan and was set up. Once in the hall I saw the 2 microphones set up on the right by the keyboard, one sax height and one flute height. David arrived with 3 saxes and a flute in hand. He doesn't know much Japanese and so yelled out Yamaha! to the cheering crowd.

I Will Find You
Out of My Book
Central Hotel

At first I thought DJ's mic was turned off, and that Stuart didn't leave much room for him cause Stuart was just a wall of sound filling up every available space. Turns out, as DJ passed Stuart he muttered that he couldn't remember this song (I Will Find You) at all! Finally DJ was confident enough to blow his soprano sax loud enough for us to hear, but not without cutting Peter off as he started a verse. DJ cursed himself. Out of my Book was beautiful, Stuart stood back for the start of this one. However great this song is, for the full effect, it really needs the flute. Central Hotel had quite a heavy groove to it, with DJ doing some double sax 'stonks'. Peter got up and went to the piano, has DJ took his hat off and proceeded to fan Peter, in appreciation.

Four Pails
Autumn
Labour of Love

Four Pails was good, maybe not as intense as the QEH gig, cause for one, DJ is quite the clown onstage, with a wide range of non-verbal looks that really make light of what's going on. Autumn in my opinion a great choice as with LOL. Stuart and DJ were really getting used to each other and were less stepping on each others toes, although DJ tended to follow Peter`s singing while Stuart stuck to the song. the last one of the set had to be:

Refugees

A grandiose version! Just fantastic. Even Peter looked floored by it, saying 'yeah' as it ended, meaning that was great! They all packed up and left the stage, but obviously returned for an encore. A little disappointingly they chose to play (as a trio):

Traintime

Gave new meaning to the word encore, as they did this one as an encore the first night. Peter apologized but said this was the start of them repeating songs... I was hoping for another encore but think they ran out of DJ songs. Peter said it would be different, and it was. He started with very quick pace, and actually playing around with that. Stuart was sure it was a deliberate attempt to screw him up... `Peter, he's playing chess!`

Charles and I agreed that Peter`s singing was great tonight. Very strong. DJ's flute play was just great, even Stuart looked impressed at a few times. DJ in turn looked impressed with Stuart during Central Hotel. Great fun to see these guys enjoying themselves onstage together.

We had to leave the Hall while they set it up for the party. During the 3 concerts there has been a very strict rule that no photos be taken, reserving them all for the hired photographer, which is unfortunate for the fans. However an exception was made for the party. Unlike other years Peter & Stuart (DJ was there too) weren't stuck seated at a table but instead were able to mingle in the hall. Peter came out but the other two stayed backstage, leaving Peter alone with all these fans clapping around him... unbearably awkward, he looked back to get the other two out and divert a little of the attention from him. So eventually you had 3 line-ups to get things signed and photos taken. A cake was brought out to Peter followed by everyone singing Happy Birthday. Peter said 'I knew there`d be a curve to this, there's always a curve somewhere..' in good fun. I tried to get David to hum part of Agamemnon Agnostic (a lost Pawn Hearts session song) which he does still remember, but there was a background CD playing (Batteries Included) and he really couldn't do it... During a break in the CD he did hum a few bars.. Everyone was in a great mood and a totally enjoyable experience. As parting gifts, the organizer had little shell shaped cookies with a monogram sticker on them for everyone.