Spiritualized: Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space
(Monday) November 07, 2016 - 21:00
Barbican Centre - Barbican Centre, Silk Street (Map)
402 people attended
DESCRIPTION
** First show (7 November) is now sold out, but we've added a second show due to popular demand on the 8 November. Ticket link above.
Described as ‘one of rock ‘n’ roll’s greatest live spectacles’ by Pitchfork, Spiritualized present the most ambitious performance of their seminal album Ladies and Gentlemen We Are Floating in Space to date, backed a 15-piece orchestra and a gospel choir.
As its name would suggest, listening to Ladies and Gentlemen... gives you the odd sense of our place in the universe, as one speck floating in the infinite – from the huge, booming drums of the opening track to the churning cosmic guitars that come crashing in immediately after on ‘Come Together’. Enhancing the contrast between the chaotic and considered that runs throughout the album, the orchestra draw out all the layers of record, with frontman J Spaceman and band augmented by percussion, brass, strings and a gospel choir, showing just how contemporary it still sounds today despite having been released nearly 20 years ago.
As J Spaceman himself said: It's the 20th anniversary next year so we figured we should be playing a celebratory concert to coincide. Fortunately the new album is also due next year… twenty years to the day since Ladies and Gentlemen... and so as they don't compete, we decided to run an anniversary show this year and leave some clear space for the new album. I just didn't wanna pass on the opportunity to perform Ladies and Gentlemen... live again. It's such a massive and detailed piece of music to play and is still as demanding and relevant to me as it was on its release. In one 70 minute blast it just about covers everything I still find interesting and engaging in music...from free jazz, doo-wop, and soul to rock & roll, gospel, and the blues...All with heavy guns and the Barbican's wide screen stage as the backdrop…It's a real honour to be asked to play it there again.’
