![]() Max’s elegant and spare approach to guitar playing interwove beautifully amongst the complex and dense keyboard lines. Pete Howard is a phenomenally powerful drummer and his über rock dynamics brought a genuine edge to the show. Max was the sole guitarist and Pete was the primary drummer with Chris bringing a more electronic percussive element along. The band was rounded out with the astonishingly talented drummer and percussionist Chris McComish and myself on bass. (From left) Marcus “Matic Mouth” Smith, Carl Barât, Angie Pollock, Max La Villa, Me, Bill Drake, Chris McComish, Pete Howard plus some of Carl’s fans! These synth parts were played by two exceptional musicians, Angie Pollock (who I would have a musical future with playing together in the Karl Hyde band in 2013) and former Cardiacs keyboardist and solo star William D Drake (Bill). Samples of the rare and groundbreaking 1940’s Hammond synthesizer, The Novachord rubbed shoulders with the 80’s sampler The Fairlight mixed with liberal splashes of analog classics the Mellotron and Korg’s Monopoly along with a whole host of other well chosen sounds. The Hammond Novachord – a major part of the sound of Pop’pea The advertising for the opera featured a flaming Les Paul (as shown at the top of the page) but this kind of balls out rock was very much in the minority in Pete and Max’s treatment. This did prove to be a fairly controversial idea as the much hyped “Rock” element of the production was partially subsumed within this esoteric and peerless arrangement which featured a never heard before blend of unusual sound sources. There is a good video here which has Max explain the approach. Together they set about deconstructing Michael Torke’s adaptation and using a very contemporary approach mixing all sorts of musical genres and instrumental sounds to give it a timelessness. Pete duly brought on board Max La Villa, former bandmate from their time in early 90’s alternative rock band Eat to co orchestrate. To counter this, at the suggestion of the English librettist, Ian Burton, a much more credible source in ex Clash/ Queen Adreena drummer Pete Howard was brought in to act as musical director. The well known American composer Michael Torke was commissioned to carry out the musical adaptation which although a skilled arranger, his original interpretation lacked rock music’s contemporary edge. The director of the Chatelet, Jean Luc Choplin What made this particular production of Poppea unusual was the bringing together of the classical world and the rock’n’roll world of which I inhabit! ![]() The opera had largely been forgotten until it was revived in the 19th century and since then has become a staple for Opera productions worldwide. Back in 1643 when this opera was written, that is all that essentially existed of it and various productions would sound quite different due to differing approaches of the orchestrator. This production was the brainchild of the director general of the Châtelet, Jean Luc Choplin and follows the long tradition of taking the original top lines and bass lines of the opera and orchestrating it using current methods. The principals from left (back) Valérie Gabail, Carl Barât, (front) Pete Howard, Marc Almond and Benjamin Biolay The whole rock opera is currently available to view online at the moment in 2D here and in 3D here. It was a star studded affair featuring Carl Barât in the lead role as Nero, Marc Almond as Seneca and French lothario, Benjamin Biolay. I have to say though that editing on the unit is no fun and I highly recommend Gumtown’s astonishingly excellent free editor for it available here.īack in early 2012 I was asked to play bass in a modern reworking of the Monteverdi opera masterpiece L’incoronazione de Poppea (The Coronation of Poppea) to be held in early summer that year in Paris’s beautiful and prestigious Théâtre du Châtelet on the banks of the Seine. ![]() The GR55 has an incredibly deep programability which I think people aren’t aware of. I mapped the trombone sounds to the expression pedal which let me create swells over the woodwind base. I also wanted to try and use tones that would resonate well within that space so I created a trombone woodwind hybrid using the dual PCM layers of the GR55. The room has a long decay, around the 2.5 second range so therefore lots of long legato notes would work best in that setting. The hall I used in this example is the Upper Room at Cairns Road Baptist Church and I’d like to thank them for the opportunity. ![]() I was interested to see how writing a piece of music within a particular large room would affect my note choices and phrasing. Jean Guillou’s magnificent flames of hair and the inspiration for the title of my piece! I am using my trusty Roland GR55 which is the same unit I have used extensively with Karl Hyde and the rock opera, Pop’pea. Here is a performance I recorded last August of my Jean Guillou influenced piece, The White Flame.
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