Robin Ince and Josie Long – Robin & Josie’s Shampbles – South Street Arts Centre, Reading – Saturday September 7, 2013
In keeping with the Shambles theme, there doesn’t appear to be a proper poster for the tour dates, just this for a related venture
It’s slightly unfair reviewing this show, seeing as how it’s a late addition to the schedule and is intended to be a bit of a shambles (hence the name) rather than a structured and coherent piece. But then I paid £12.50 per ticket to go, so what the hey. I’ll keep it brief though.
What structuring there is of the show is that Robin and Josie will take it in turns to do their own bits, be on stage together some of the time, and at the end of each half singer/songwriter Grace Petrie gives us a few numbers.
Having seen Robin Ince a fair few times before, he is his usual shambolic self here, in as much as he normally comes on stage with 10 stories to tell the audience and will manage to complete five of them, which five will differ from night to night. Having a fair few years of experience now, Ince has a wealth of material and can easily fill the his time on stage with a variety of stories old and new while still failing to do everything he set out to. It’s all very funny and in keeping with what you’d expect from the man.
Josie Long as someone I’d not seen live before, though TV, radio and podcasts had filled me in on the kind of thing to expect. Unfortunately, the material she’d prepared for her solo section feels a little slapdash and half-hearted. I don’t know if it was because she wanted to prepare something new, where Ince was essentially using elements of other shows and anecdotes to fill his time, but there was a sense that she knew it wasn’t her grade A material, or that it was a work in progress, to be worked into shape later.
Long’s banter with Ince was much better, with the couple (not in that way) having a great rapport and not afraid to annoy the other, much to our collective amusement.
Finally there was Grace Petrie, a protest (and occasional comedy) songwriter, who’s two stints on the stage came as a surprise to me (and perhaps some other members of the audience). I had heard Petrie perform on Radio 4’s The Now Show with a number she reprised in this show. I don’t want to review Petrie on the basis that her music isn’t the kind of thing I gravitate towards and so my views aren’t really going to be relevant. She’s clearly a more-than-competent songwriter, with a good, strong voice and some pleasant tunes, and she was very well received by the other members of the audience. I wish her every success…
B
There’s no suitable clip available of Robin and Josie, so here’s a TED talk by Robin Ince instead, and below that is a clip of Josie on One Night Stand…
