On Fire

I belong to that generation of gentlemen who deeply mistrust musicians who can't play live. It's an oddly naïve attitude as if we're looking for some kind of authenticity beyond the immediate experience of the music. And what's wrong with the idea of composition through the studio? It gave us, amongst others, Sgt Peppers, and that alone is justification. But the fact remains that if I were pressed to name favourite albums a considerable number of them would be live performances.

And now there's another. Last Sunday I bought Paul Weller's Catch-Flame (recorded live at the Alexandra Palace) and it's been receiving pretty much continuous play ever since (as in at this very moment, in fact: a rollicking version of That's Entertainment, since you ask.) I can't do justice here to the sheer rightness of what's on offer but let me just say that if listening to it doesn't have you bouncing off the walls there's something lacking in your appreciation of the good things in life. Sha la, la la la, indeed.