Spaceship - Sean Lennon - Concerts Bondi Pavillion, Sydney Australia, January 22, 1999 We have been so lucky in Sydney with Sean performing two concerts here in the last two days, the first of which I attended, standing right at the front row dead centre, about six feet from the man himself. It was awesome. (About 10PM, Friday Jan 22 at the Bondi Pavilion Hall, Bondi Beach, Sydney). The venue, although small, was packed to capacity (about 250 I'd say). The concert was promoted as part of the Sydney Fringe Festival. My friends arrived early and heard some of the sound check at about 4.30PM that afternoon, which they said was fantastic. After the soundcheck, Sean and his entourage (of about ten) walked across the road to Campbell Parade to a local Thai eatery for dinner. As much as I admire the man's musical talent and that of his band, I did have some prior reservations about how tight the band would sound. This was based on the only live performance I had heard up till now, the concert netcast from Slim's in SF, last year. That performance to me sounded a little substandard, enjoyable as it was. But my concerns were totally unfounded: The first track, a ten minute grunge type extended jam, set the mood for the night. The six piece band cooked, Timo Ellis' harmonies and back up vocals were great, his bass playing thumped, and Sean's voice was in top form, he sounded brilliant. Sean's guitar work was also great. It was amazing to be up so close, and actually read the chords he was playing. Yuka's keyboard sounds were inventive and effective. The band looked a little tired, but that was understandable as Yuka and Sean had flown in the day before from Tokyo where they attended the funeral of Sean's grandmother, (Yoko's mother). The concert was great, over 90 minutes long including three encores. Several new tracks were played including "Heart and Lung", and a great rap track Sean performed with the bongo/percussion player (name? I've forgotten). Sean was in great form, chatting between each track. Sean said he'd heard on the radio that morning that Australian Scientists had discovered in a local trial here that smoking dope caused men to grow larger breasts. So then he said, to a chorus of cheers, that Australians obviously had this advantage over Americans, so we should "smoke up!!" The final track was a killer version of Spaceship, complete with a closeout guitar feedback duel between Sean, Timo, and Smokey Hornell. Soon after, Sean came back to sign autographs. He was friendly, relaxed and very obliging. We managed to get three things signed, Into the Sun CD, program (see JPEG attachment to this email), and also he signed my copy of Ben Lee's new album, Breathing Tornados. At first Sean asked me "why do you want me to sign this?" but before I replied he said "Oh, thats right, I'm on it".(Sean sings on "Sandpaper Back"). The record company (EMI) then asked us all to leave, as they then had a "meet and greet" session for Sean with the usual industry hacks /hangers on. However me and my friends then chatted to Timo Ellis, who was at the bar relaxing after the show. Interestingly, he revealed that the band was next doing a Japanese tour. Then Sean plans to tour with Cibo Matto for about a year, before going back to the studio to record a new CD. He also said that the band loved doing these small venue shows, and that Sean wants to come back to Australia and tour again sometime. Can't wait. Hope you can use this material. Cheers, Stephen Thomas, (Sydney)