Long Live Père Ubu! – The Spectacle @ Komedia, Bath
23rd February 2010
Price: £16 advance / £18 on the door
Doors: 7.30pm
“All very anti-theatre and anti-good taste. And what made it all worthwhile? Hearing Thomas in full baritone majesty belching out that one word he was born to deliver: "MERDRE!!!" - Ed Pinsent, The Sound Projector
Père Ubu are Cleveland, Ohio’s most influential musical export. They defined the art of cult; refined the voice of the outsider; and influenced the likes of Joy Division, Pixies, Husker Du, Henry Rollins, REM, Sisters of Mercy, Bauhaus, Julian Cope and countless others. A more widely referenced band would be hard to find.
"Long Live Père Ubu!" is odd and scary... As the narrative unfolds, so do the atmosphere and sonics, thrown into a white-hot crucible of pretentiously brilliant creativity.” Joe Shooman, Record Collector, October 2009.
"Long Live Père Ubu!" - The Spectacle is the concert version of Pere Ubu's theatrical production, Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi, which is David Thomas' adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi. David Thomas plays the parts of both Père and Mère Ubu. Members of the band perform the music and the choreography, as well as other cast roles. The band line-up is augmented with electronica artist Gagarin. As with the full theatrical production, the staging is framed by be-spoke animations from The Brothers Quay.
"Père Ubu is not now nor has it ever been a viable commercial venture. We won't sleep on floors, we won't tour endlessly and we're embarrassed by self-promotion. Add to that a laissez-faire attitude to the mechanics of career advancement and a demanding artistic agenda and you've got a recipe for real failure. That has been our one significant success to this date: we are the longest-lasting, most disastrous commercial outfit to ever appear in rock 'n' roll. No one can come close to matching our loss to longevity ratio” – David Thomas
Tickets: http://www.komedia.co.uk/bath
The Brothers Quay biog:
The Quay Brothers were born near Philadelphia where they studied at the Philadelphia College of Art, then later in London at the Royal College of Art. Since 1980 they have produced a hybrid variety of puppet animation film work: documentaries on Stravinsky, Janá?ek, Anamorphosis; interludes for MTV; commercials, as well as films inspired by the writings of Kafka, Bruno Schulz (Street Of Crocodiles) and Robert Walser (Institute Benjamenta). Their work also includes decors and stage designs for the English National Opera, Royal National Theatre, the Royal Danish Ballet, and others.