Cut Me In Quadrants

Good news, I have located the front door and been back outside having a life again. Hoorah!

Not just any old life either, but a life that includes Antony and the Johnsons at the Royal Albert Hall. There are no words for how much I love Antony. He sounds like an angel weeping, this is SERIOUS ADORATION.

It took a while longer to get to know the Crying Light album than the previous two, but now we are very much united and I actually cannot bear to spend more than a few hours apart from it. Kiss My Name has become a firm favourite along with the heartbreaking Aeon ... and Dust and Water and, well ... all of them really.

I am waiting for Mr Postman to bring me my limited edition 7” of Epilepsy is Dancing which I am purchasing just for the cover. Have you seen the video yet? Go and watch it! It’s gorgeous!

It was only a short set at RAH, about 45 minutes, so I felt a little short changed at £40 a ticket, but I suppose it serves us right for completely ignoring the other two acts on the bill in favour of sitting in the bar drinking vino.

I guess I should have dragged myself in to watch VV Brown, who sounded interesting from the clips that floated in whenever the bar door opened, but I just couldn’t be bothered. Had no interest in Florence and the Machine, she puts me in mind of Edie Brickell or Joan Osbourne. Quirky women ... ick ... *shudders*

Antony opened with Where Is My Power and I was instantly a mess of fluttering eyes, gormless smile and swaying from side to side. The majesty of the Albert Hall is the perfect surrounding for the ethereal beauty of his performance and I felt I’d shot myself in the foot a little with my psychotic need to be as close to the front as possible. It meant I wasn’t able to absorb the impressiveness of the auditorium alongside the awe of the show. But then if you’re at the back you can’t see him grin and giggle, so there’s no real loser or winner.

There were a few tracks from the new album and then For Today I am a Boy at which point, if you can imagine, the idiot behind us started SINGING ALONG. WTF? Who the hell goes to an Antony show and decides to start singing?? Particularly when they are tuneless and TONE DEAF! The words “SHUT UP” bellowed aggressively from my lips and fortunately they stopped it, but I still feel sure he deserved a good bashing.

Antony was quite chatty for once, talking about how he’d eaten too many puddings backstage and how you really shouldn’t give a singer dairy foods. Along with the current stuff we were treated to Shake That Devil from the Another World EP before the set closed with a beautiful version of Aeon.

With a standing ovation I was hoping he would return for an encore, but he just popped his head back to give us a wave and then scarpered. Never mind, he’s back in Hammersmith on May 27 ... sixty days to go and counting.