Search - Kevin Ayers & the Wizards of Twiddly :: Turn the Lights Down!-Live in London

One splendid London evening

Bazarov | Amsterdam, Holland | 12/19/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Okay, listen, you won't be reading this unless you know Kevin Ayers. And if you know the man, you will have been loving him for many years. No need, therefore, to introduce him or the oh so familiar songs on this live album - just look at the tracklist and gasp excitedly.

What I do need to tell you is that you'll never find a more honest concert recording than Turn the Lights Down. It's all there: Ayers mumbling between songs; Ayers making a false start or two; Ayers continually asking, as is his wont, for the lights to be turned down, until almost every light is turned off; and then Ayers asking for a large brandy. But also Ayers being on top form, and Ayers with arguably the best band he has ever performed with.

The man has always surrounded himself with abundantly talented musicians, in the studio and on stage. I remember seeing him in the Paradiso with the late great and truly magnificent Ollie Halsall, when the sound system broke down and Halsall's amp was the only one left working, an opportunity for him to play the intro to May I for almost half an hour. Magic. Bliss.

But these Wizards of Twiddly... according to the liner notes they went out of existence a decade ago, and since I've just ordered the last remaining copy of their only album (Mad Made Self from 1994), Turn the Lights Down will be your only chance to get a taste of this brilliant, soulful and smoking rock/acid jazz fivesome - distant cousins of The Lounge Lizards, if that name rings a bell, which it should. Don't miss that chance, and be rewarded with a full hour of unadulterated fun, right down to the swingiest rendition ever of Stranger in Blue Suede Shoes."