26th March 2016
Nik Turner
at The Shed
with Carlos Stein and Multimorph
Tonight’s show was opened by Carlos Stein, the Lord of the Loops, who gave us a well good set of his songs, ending with his classic reprise Big Fat bankers.
Carlos was joined on stage by Poetman for a joint number. Now that was a moment. We heard more instruments from this one-man band than you usually get from a full rock group. A start to the evening that went down well with everyone.
Multimorph Shapeshifter
is a band that I have known for a very long time. Every time I see them they seemed to have morphed into something bigger.
On stage tonight were six artists. On the light show the same guy who has been pouring oil on water for many years. This was a solstice experience, a somewhat Druidical expression of the psychedelic seventies (that I missed out on at the time.) Multimorph poured out colourful showers of sound with their orchestral levels of musicianship, led by the vocals of Maureen Anderson As it says on the band’s Facebook page we read:
The current vehicle for Maureen Anderson’s poetry and general creativity, Multimorph rose from the ashes of Shapeshifter when the latter’s long-standing guitarist Dave Johnson passed away from cancer in March 2009. The band’s line-up stabilised in mid-2010 with Maureen complimented by dual guitarists Kevin Hewick and Rizz James, dual bassists Dave Dhonau and Darren Baxter and cajon drummer Jim Tetlow. Personnel has morphed again since! Live performances are further augmented by the live painting and costumes of local artist Nick Nixon and the liquid light show of Lumiere Ogbanje to create a bizarre but infectiously memorable live experience.
Maureen has been making music in Leicester since the 1980s. Previous members of the band have included Chris Conway, Alan Freeman and, as noted above, Kevin Hewick.
The star performer at tonight’s gig was Nik Turner, a founder member of Hawkwind, the band that pioneered space rock. Born in Oxford in 1940, Nick discovered free jazz in Berlin and, on his return to the UK, became the saxophonist for Hawkwind in 1969, the time of the band’s formation.
Well, having said all that, tonight’s performance by Nick and his, young band, packed a punch and delivered richly rhythmic songs that cantered along at a fast pace. Nik is said to be a big believer in the healing power of music; he sang his song about Wilhelm Reich’s orgone – the universal life force put forward by Reich in the 1930s. Reich believed that many diseases were due to a lack of orgone and invented a machine he called an orgone accumulator which could enhance orgastic potency.
Anyway, it was a song that really rocked. On to the stage came a lady in a silver lame jump suit to do some dancing. At one point Nik referred to Michael Moorcock, the science fiction and fantasy writer who was a literary influence in the 60s and 70s. The 75 year-old Nik gave a vigorous performance; his life-time of music experience was clear to see. I was impressed by the young drummer and the guitarist both of whom put in some sterling work. A set fired with atmosphere.
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