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I’m floating on a moment, don’t know how long
No one knows, no one can stay (…)
Beth Gibbons rests her hands on the microphone. In the changing light, I can see the muscles and bones in her arms. She is completely focused on the music. And yet, so present in this very moment. We all feel like she’s our good friend whose concert we’ve come to see.
Her brilliant voice and the sounds of a dozen instruments are electrifying. The evening in London is hot, but the Roundhouse is burning with the present. We can’t take our eyes off her. I sway, I raise my hands in rhythm.
“Lives Outgrown” – solo album by the lead singer of the legendary trip-hop band Portishead, links to my situation. As if I am waiting for the ghosts between the lines. Because I lost my beloved cat. Now I have him in a tattoo on my forearm.
I also turned 50 and just like Beth Gibbons in the songs on this album, I started to reflect on the time that passes relentless. I already experienced that loss is like an abyss. And the only constant in life is change. And as I approach menopause:
I’m lost in the tide just like heavens inside
But all we have is here and now
Despite the melancholy in Beth’s songs, the pangs of conscience, the inevitable fact that life has end, and we are going the the place nobady seen in an unknown. I notice light, those summer light between the trees of wisdom. Because the artist herself seems to me to be a person with a cheerful spirit. She is real and human. The audience is feeling this.
Hey you over there
Change your heart instead of stare (…)
I jump with joy when I hear this piece. Gibbons
folds hands in gratitude for audience. She is like the moon of this night, full glow.
When she leaves the stages. We do not want to let her go. She returns for encores with Portishead’s song: “Roads” . The light becomes cobalt like someone’s eyes, or spilled ink. How to carry all this in one person in one feeling.
Different people around, but we seem similar. The atmosphere at the concert is hearty. We pass water each other. No one pushes in crow. Everybody stare at Beth Gibbons. The other musicians are also amazing. In the song “Whispering Love” I’m surprised by the fantastic drum roll.
(…) oh, that summer sun
Moon time will linger through the melody
Of life’s shortening, longing view
Oh, whispering love
Come to me when you can
“WHISPERING LOVE” BY BETH GIBBONS
The quotes I used in the post arę from Beth Gibbons solo album “Lives Outgrown” which was recorded with Working with multi-instrumentalist and producer James Ford and Talk Talk‘s Lee Harris:
“Floating On A Moment”, “Oceans”, “Floating On A Moment” (again),“Lost Changes”, “Whispering Love”.
