The lovely, the scrumptious, the divine Mr Rufus Wainwright is doing a nationwide tour in Match and April. Here are the dates:

Carling Academy Islington London TUE 01/03/2005 - sold out

Hall for Cornwall Truro TUE 05/04/2005

Colston Hall Bristol WED 06/04/2005

Reading Hexagon Reading THU 07/04/2005

Journal Tyne Theatre Newcastle SAT 09/04/2005

Symphony Hall Birmingham TUE 12/04/2005

Royal Concert Hall Nottingham WED 13/04/2005

The Lowry Salford Quays THU 14/04/2005

Shepherds Bush Empire London FRI 15/04/2005


No-one's allowed to buy tickets for Bristol as I haven't got mine yet and desperately don't want them to sell out.

Eeeeee! I'm so excited I could puke on my shoes.

I already got mine. Apparently if you ring the venue you can still get front row seats. i got mine from the site and they're 5 rows back.

Lovely MrStella swung by the Colston Hall on his way back from work yesterday and bagged us third row seats. I'm stupidly excited.

Ooh well done. You'll be able to see the whites of his eyes!

And the bulge of his jeans.

Ahem. Not that I'll be looking, you understand. It's all about the music, man.

Very slightly off topic...a few of his CDs are in the HMV sale. Any recommendations?

Get Want One first off, it's definitely his best. You may find it takes a bit of getting used to 'cause it sounds more like an opera than a pop album and it's rather like getting slapped in the face by an effeminate diva. Once you've got your head round it, though, it's completely astonishing and uplifting. Some incredible songwriting on there.

Poses, his second album, is his second best. The eponymous first album is pretty patchy, I find, but there are some complete gems on it like Foolish Love and April Fools.

Thanks Stella...I shall have a look at lunchtime

RW is playing & signing at Virgin Megastore in Oxford St on Monday 7th. Think the sign said 6:30 or maybe 7:30

The Bristol Gig last night was spectacular, even though the poor boy's voice was giving out and he couldn't get all the high notes. He was very joky and gracious about it all saying "singing is overrated anyway" after Beautiful Child (I think).

Anyway, for the 1st encore he did a track from Want Two called Old Whore's Diet and started to strip halfway through. And not only him - but the whole band got their kit off too and dressed up in some hilarious old whore's outfits. Rufus was wearing a tiara, a sash that said Miss Bristol 2005 and a very, very small pair of spangly pants, out of which one hairy bollock popped. He didn't notice for several minutes and I didn't know where to put my eyes. (Well, I did. I think you can guess where.)

OOer missus!

Were you on the left or the right? Maybe I saw the back of your head!

Poor Rufus's little cracky voice. Bless. Weirdly though he almost held the long note in Vibrate perfectly. And it seemed to come back totally at the very end. Stripping obviously agreed with him.

Couldn't believe all that epilepsy inducing flashing lights either. My poor eyes.

ooh, I might have to go to shepheard's boosh after all. We weren't goign to after the last oen there was so ridiculously boozy

You should definitely go.
When else will us lowly girls get to see rufus's bits and pieces?

Lauren, you should definitely go but miss the support act, "Joan as police woman". I thought she wasted a beautiful voice on some really bland songs but she won my respect back when she did backing vocals and violin in Rufus's set.

Fop, I was on the left as you looked at the stage, 3rd row. His voice is such a strange thing. There was notes I was certain he wasn't going to get but he did them beautifully.

What's a good first Rufus Wainright album to buy?

All of them.

Could you maybe a little more specific....
I can't afford that many right now.

Do you like big production with an orchestra (Want 1 and 2), or smaller and more simple? (eponymous, and poses - kind of)

Well i don't have an aversion to either. What's your favourite?

Sorry, I'm a little fangirl right now.

I think Want One is his most consistent and accessible out of the four he's done so far. I want to say it's upbeat and sparky but that'd make it sound like a Britney Spears album so I won't. It's very grand, theatrical and tiny bit camp sometimes but there's a reason he's been called the greatest songwriter alive today.

If the song Beautiful Child on Want One doesn't make you want to stand on the top of a mountain with your arms thrown wide, you're not human.

Thanks. i'll make it my next music purchase.

Seconded. And Go or Go Ahead.

They performed The One You Love brilliantly yesterday too.

I gotta admit, I fancy Joan a bit, so i'll see her

I heard some of his stuff the other day, I think a lot was from Want Two. I was quite impressed. I may have to investigate more fully, particularly as Want One seems to be generally regarded as better than Want Two.

She is veh cool. And she had a thick crop of armpit hair going on which I find strangely attractive on a lady.

Didn't notice that. She is gorgeous though, I'll give her that.
I only just found out she was Jeff Buckley's girlfriend.
Had no idea.

That man is a legend.

For those of you interested, here's some shots of Rufus en deshabille at the Reading gig, courtesy of tosayok's livejournal:





RAWR!

::jubilation::

I was just perusing that very site myself.
Lookie, he has a diferent pair of stripey socks for each night.

ah! we share the same tailor.

That was a fantastic show, Stella MM I took that first photo you posted!
I'm also hoohah on the Rufus board if that's where you got it from. This was my favourite of the night (that I took, though Lorna's were much better!):

Hello there. Sorry, I thought I'd taken both those pictures from the livejournal I linked to. I didn't mean to nick your picture without permission - but it's so good!

No problem at all

I'm seeing him live next Saturday at Shepherd's Bush, can't wait!

He's playing Glastonbury! Can't wait to see him live!

According to leaflets at work, he's coming to the Opera House, which means I could see him free and get paid - bahahahaha!


Please don't puke on your shoes. My housemate did that last semester and they ain't been right since.

hopefully this is the best place for this...

if you are a rufus fan, make sure you check out the antony and the jonsons record, i am a bird now.

not only is it a great album but rufus duets on one of the tracks. well worth buying if you are into camp new york art pop.

I saw the show last night and I was quite impressed, not knowing that much about him. He had a nice clear voice. Made it all sound quite easy. A little whiney though and he didn't do a very good job with Hallelujah either. Despite that, the stripping was fun and it was all rather enjoyable.

Hmmm, yeah. I've seen him do it live a couple of times and never liked his version that much. That song will always belong to Jeff Buckley as far as I'm concerned. I do love Memphis Sky that he sings before Hallelujah, though.

i did wonder why he did a copy of hallelujah when its already been covered so brilliantly. i would have thought he'd try to do something original.

His version was nothing new either. It was him and a piano and one of the female singers sang a verse terribly. I actually cringed when she did it. Some of the harmony was nice but it just wasn't enough. I thought it was a shame.

I saw him a few weeks ago at Shepherd's Bush and he was brilliant. One of the best gigs I've ever been to, without a doubt. But I agree with the Hallelujah thing, it will always be a Jeff Buckley song as far as I'm concerned.

He was asked to do it for the Shrek soundtrack - he says he'd never heard Jeff's version before he did his but I think that's pretty bloody unlikely. I like Rufus's Hallelujah but, like you say, it'll always be a Jeff song now. And his final note is just....oooh!

And he keeps singing it at gigs because Memphis Sky is written about/for Jeff Buckley. Although I'm not sure ol' Jeff would be entirely grateful for the desecration of Hallelujah that follows the tribute...

I've always liked Rufus's version of hallelujah.
Jeff's is better, naturally.
But you should hear some people's shocking covers of it.

And I doubt Jeff would be too bothered, seeing as it's not originally even his song.

Yeah, I guess. But he owns it in my mind.