Cityscape Christmas 2019

QUIET COMMOTION
position of making music that
would please all types of people, so
it matters to me. I wish there was a
way we could feel more optimistic
about selling more copies of this
record than we sold of the last one
but it’s a challenge. It’s just you
and Commotions guitarist Neil
Clark on this tour – that must be a
long way from the scale of those
early tours? It’s very different. I
don’t mind playing with a band
these days, I occasionally do play
with a band doing this or that. But
touring with a large group of
people I don’t miss at all. There’s a
great freedom you’ve got when
there’s just two or three of you on
the road, it’s a lot easier. We can
enjoy it a lot more and we have a
lot more flexibility in how we
handle things. And what I’ve
learned over the years is that band
shows have got … there’s an impact
from loud music that you have that
is different to what you have with
acoustic music, but if the songs are
strong enough there’s a lot more
spontaneity possible in an acoustic
show. In a perfect future for me I
would continue to play acoustic
shows but I would play band shows
every now and again. With such a
wide and diverse catalogue, how
do you decide what to play? Will
be it be a mix of old and new? Yes,
it’s a mix of old and new for sure.
The last time I was on tour it was
called The Retrospective Tour
because it was based on two boxed
sets that Universal released and the
boxed sets covered 1983 to 1996, so
I didn’t play anything from after
‘96. So on this tour, From
Rattlesnakes to Guesswork, we are
probably going to feature a lot
more of my solo material just so it’s
quite different to the last tour. I
don’t want people to come and see
me again and say he played mostly
the same songs as last time. I did a
couple of solo versions of the tour
last weekend – I played 32 songs
and only 10 of those songs were on
the previous tour. Your songs
‘Perfect Skin’ and ‘Rattlesnakes’
are anthems for your fans – do
‘There’s a lot more spontaneity
possible in an acoustic show’
you feel pressure to keep playing
them? I don’t feel pressure to do all
of them. The songs that I play every
single concert there’s probably
only about five. I play ‘Are You
Ready to be Heartbroken’ and
‘Forest Fire’, but I’ve rested ‘Perfect
Skin’. I’m resting ‘Brand New
Friend’ right now. I was very
pleased with the audience
response to the set last weekend,
given that there were fewer
Commotions songs than maybe a
usual set would contain. And
maybe that’s appropriate now –
I’ve been making music for 35
years and the Commotions was
only the first five years. Do you
choose different songs because it
is acoustic? When you break a
song down to acoustic format, it
really exposes the strength of the
song, whether the song is strong or
not. If it can stand up on its own
with just a couple of guitars then
it’s going to be a strong song for
sure. One of the songs that really
surprised me that way and the one
that made me realise this is the
case is ‘Forest Fire’. I didn’t play it
for a long time acoustically
because I thought, how can I play
that acoustically? It’s all about the
drums and the guitar solo. And
then I was on stage in Dundee in
Scotland one time and they literally
held siege to the stage until I
played it. It’s very simple but it’s a
very strong piece of music and it
doesn’t need the guitar solo and it
doesn’t need the drums. On the
other hand every now and then
you’ll think I quite fancy playing
this song from this album and you’ll
break it down on the guitar and go,
aah, actually there’s not much of a
song there, most of that recording
was really just musicianship and
production. Do you have a pre- or
post-show ritual? I do – the
clothes that I wear on stage look
like the clothes that I wear all day,
but they’re not. I always dress for
the stage. If my schedule allows,
after soundcheck I go back to the
hotel, probably even try and get an
hour of sleep, and then I take a
shower and then I dress for the
show, because I feel I want to get
my stage hat on and I want to start
feeling like a performer. I don’t
think anyone wants to come and
see me wearing dirty clothes I’ve
been wearing all day. I have a very
strict routine and me getting
dressed for the show is the start of
me becoming focused, to get my
mind in the right state. Because
when I’m on stage, the thing about
these solo shows or even the duo
shows, there’s only me up there so I
have to be completely on and
completely focused. Otherwise if
something went wrong and I
couldn’t react to it quickly enough
or smartly enough, I could lose the
audience, I could lose the show,
and I don’t want that to happen. So
I want to make sure I’m thinking
only about doing the show.
What is one thing that you hope
audiences take away from your
performances? I just want people
to enjoy it, you know, it’s a show, I’m
a performer. The show isn’t about
me having an agenda or anything,
the show is meant for enjoyment
and I hope the body of work that
we choose to present and our
presentation of it is good enough
for people to have a great night and
hopefully want to come and see
something similar another time.
Lloyd Cole: From Rattlesnakes to
Guesswork tour
James Hay Theatre,
Saturday November 23
lloydcole.com
107 CITYSCAPE.CO.NZ Christmas 19