SMALL PRINT:Don't look now, but your favourite musician isn't all that interested in playing your local concert hall, pub, arena or stadium. Our interest was piqued by news that Irish songwriters Lisa Hannigan, James Vincent McMorrow and Caoimhín Ó Raghallaigh who are playing a one-off (and sold-out) gig at Mitchelstown Cave, in Co Tipperary, on July 23rd. Hannigan, currently on tour in the US, says that she's "slightly apprehensive about the possibility of the instruments warping in the humidity or hitting a strange frequency, and the whole place tumbling down. I haven't really played anywhere as unusual before."
And speaking of strange places to play . . .
Brian May on Buckingham Palace roof
At the start of the Party at the Palace to celebrate Queen Elizabeth's golden jubilee in 2002, the permanently permed guitarist of Queen positioned himself and his mighty axe on the roof of her majesty's gaff and performed a blood-curdling version of God Save the Queen. Ma'am's response is not recorded, but we could definitely see Prince Philip playing air guitar. Honest.
Katie Melua on an oil rig
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of gas production at the Troll oilfield, one of the largest on the Norwegian continental shelf, singer Katie Melua was invited to perform a concert at the bottom of one of the legs of the Troll A platform, 303m below sea level. Before the concert Melua had to undergo a medical test and emergency survival training. During the concert she performed T he Closest Thing to Crazy. Draw your own conclusions.
Jean Michel Jarre at the Pyramids
Never one for the small gesture, French electronic musician/composer Jean Michel Jarre spent New Year's Eve 1999 celebrating not only the dawn of the new millennium but also 5,000 years of civilisation in Egypt. The music-and- razzle-dazzle spectacular was called The 12 Dreams of the Sun. Next stop outer space?
British Sea Power
The UK band British Sea Power like playing in odd places. So far, the band’s chosen venues include London’s Natural History Museum, a seaside cafe in Sussex, a ferry on the River Mersey and a pub in the Yorkshire Dales.
Rage Against the Machine on Wall Street
In 2000 this US hardcore alt.rock/rap act hired no less a thorn in the side of corporate America than Michael Moore to film the video for their tune, Sleep Now in the Fire. The act of filming the band, not known for their subtlety, caused the very first early closure of the New York Stock Exchange.
