Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

This week, I’m preparing to teach the Cambridge Advanced Certificate here at the school. One of the tasks in the Writing exam is to write a review. A good review should do the following:

• Immediately get the reader’s attention.
• Clearly describe something the writer has done or experienced.
• Give a clear impression of what the item discussed is like.
• Give the writer’s opinion, positive or negative.
• Usually make a recommendation to the reader.
• Be between 220-260 words.

Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Well, I thought I’d give it a go, so this week’s blog post is my review of a concert I went to see last night. Please let me know what you think!

Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space

Last night I went to see a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on London’s South Bank. It was by a band called Spiritualized and they were performing their seminal 1997 album, Ladies and gentlemen we are floating in space, in its entirety. Now, I love this album and it is one of my all-time favourites. I would recommend it to anyone! It’s a timeless, beautifully recorded masterpiece which mixes rock, R & B and blues, with a full orchestra and the London Community Gospel Choir thrown in for good measure.

Because of this, I must admit that I wasn’t sure what to expect. How could the band reproduce the sound of all of the musical elements on the CD live on stage? Would the performance live up to the high standards of the album I’ve been listening to for the last 12 years? Would the show be a disappointment?

As it happened, I needn’t have worried so much. As well as the band, the Gospel Choir turned up on stage, along with a horn and string section. There must have been over 50 people on the stage, and most of the time they succeeded in creating an amazing sound, although at times the sound levels were a bit off. For example, it was quite difficult to hear the violins over the guitars and occasionally the lyrics were incomprehensible.

All in all though, it was a fantastic gig and a great experience and certainly something I won’t forget in a hurry.

Glossary

to give something a go to try to do something, especially something you have not done before.

South Bank the southern bank of the river Thames in central London, famous for its museums, galleries, concert halls, theatres and restaurants.

seminal an important piece of work that influences the way things develop in the future.

in its entirety including every part.

timeless remaining attractive and not becoming old-fashioned.

masterpiece a work of art, a piece of writing or music etc that is of very high quality or that is the best that a particular artist, musician etc has produced.

thrown in for good measure to add something to the value.

reproduce to make something happen in the same way that it happened before.

to live up to to be as good as an expected standard

to turn up to arrive at a place.

horn/string section the part of an orchestra with brass/stringed instruments

a bit off not quite correct or normal

incomprehensible difficult or impossible to understand

gig an informal word for concert

Some definitions taken from Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English, Pearson Education Ltd 2003

Image taken from http://www.spiritualized.com/, copyright Melanie Nyema.