As part of the Glasgow Film and Music Festival, which is itself part of the wider Glasgow Film Festival which starts tomorrow until February 28, acclaimed outfit Pere Ubu are coming to town this Saturday for a very special performance at the Classic Grand.
Long Live Père Ubu! - The Spectacle is the concert version of Pere Ubu's theatrical production, Bring Me The Head Of Ubu Roi, which was in itself an adaptation of Alfred Jarry's Ubu Roi.
Given the band’s experimental streak and often-wild eclecticism, pretty much anything could be expected on Saturday. Therefore it seemed only wise to talk to Pere Ubu’s singer David Thomas to get an insight into what’s gone into their latest show.
Can you tell us a bit about your latest spectacle, and how the idea came about?
I don't know how interesting the truth will be, but here it is. I always look to turn on its head expectations of what a (rock) band is/should be capable of. The entire project started out with two goals even before I decided on the Jarry adaptation. I wanted to deal with the "gaps" between songs both in concert and on record. The beads on a string paradigm has long irritated me and been an encouragement to push in various directions. The other goal was to come up with a vehicle that would serve my desire to allow sound itself take a greater role as a narrative voice.
I have been asked regularly over the last three decades if I wanted to do the Ubu Roi play or adapt it. Until about two years ago I was uninterested. I saw no point in a nostalgic undertaking and I could see no other way in. The goals described above led me to re-consider it as a useful vehicle. This coincided with my interests in surviving the unfit... of particular relevance in the current political and social environment.
A useful URL might be: http://www.ubuprojex.net/llpushow.html
It seems to involve the combination of many different artistic strands, what were the challenges behind that, and how long has this been in the making?
I started the work in July 2007. It took about two years from start to finish. The challenges to overcome were ridiculous. First the adaptation, determining what to turn into music, what to leave out altogether and how to handle the dramatic portions. How to stage it using only the band, the members of which also have to play music, obviously, as well as act... moving bodies around the stage and so who is going to play this musical part because the bass player is supposed to be dancing at that moment. Writing the songs based not on "musical" ideas but on the voice, and organic time.
This led to huge problems for the musicians since the music I wrote was purposefully illogical and "nonsensical." If you are a musician and analyze the songs you will soon discover that many of them, particularly the early songs, don't make any sense internally. The script-writing and re-writing went on forever.
The Quay Brothers became involved and the animations they did were sensational but I won't bore you with the technical and musical difficulties of playing the songs live in sync with the animations. Because of various problems the premiere at the Royal Festival Hall was the first and only time we had been able to run thru the production from start to finish, discovering such subtleties of the theatre as when the stage fades to black you can't see anything! Doh!
Then I took on the task of assembling a radio-play version for which dialog was recorded in bits and pieces in motel rooms from Columbus Ohio to Hove England, then weaving it all together sonically so that it becomes seamless. As well, for as many performances as there have been there's twice as many scripts. Every day on tour we revise and re-work scenes or parts of scenes. It's tiring just recounting this nightmare!
Pere Ubu seem a band unafraid of tackling big concepts, do you feel it's necessary to keep challenging yourselves to maintain a certain vitality?
Always do what you can't do. Never bother with something you already know how to do. Makes sense to me.
Are there any other sorts of films or types of film-makers that have inspired you personally?
The two-part BBC Orson Welles interview should be required viewing for anyone working in public art. I saw it when it first aired decades ago and it shaped/reinforced everything I knew instinctively to be true. I saw the re-broadcast a couple months ago and it was as powerful. In fact it reduced me to sobbing tears again.
For those Glasgow Film Festival attendees unfamiliar with your work, what can they expect to get from your show?
Life and life only. Survive the Unfit.
- Long Live Pere Ubu! The Spectacle is on at the Classic Grand at 7pm on Saturday February 20. Tickets are available on the GFF’s official site, and you can also find more news, interviews, trailers and info on our own festival microsite at stv.tv/gff.
