22 June 2005

The Coral Sea, Patti Smith's Meltdown: 22nd June 2005

The Coral Sea was written for Robert Mapplethorpe and performed as part of this years Meltdown curated by Patti Smith.
I arrived slightly late, Cat Power had started and was doing 'Knocking on Heaven's Door' accompanying herself on guitar with no other musicians. She did a couple of other songs and alternated between guitar and piano. Then came what was essentially a reading of The Coral Sea by Patti Smith with guitar accompaniment by Kevin Shields. At times I was reminded of the early tracks like 'Piss Factory' and 'Hey Joe' and the guitar worked very well alongside, sometimes I thought I heard echoes of 'Loveless' in the style of play. At the end all three were on stage for a song Patti Smith performed at Mapplethorpe's memorial service.

This is definately one of the better Meltdowns, speaking to a Royal Festival Hall Marketing person afterwards it seems Patti Smith has been much more involved than say last years curator: Morrissey. The fim list went up late but included a couple of Bresson films and Jacques Rivette's 'Paris is Our's' which I'd really like to see.

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