Proms at ... Bold Tendencies Multi-Storey Car Park, Peckham - 26.08.17

[Prommer]

To appreciate this concert, does it help if you have previous experience of bold tendencies in a multi-storey car park?

Asking for a friend.

[Brixton Dave]

Just wanted to note a couple of technical points. I physically went to the early performance at 12.00 noon, then listened to the second 3 pm performance at home on FM radio.

1. This concert was very heavily wired - there were a large number of sound reinforcement speakers on stands all round the venue.

2. The Peckham car park is right next to a railway line - and on a bend, so every few minutes as a live listener you got graunching sounds of wheel against track as trains went past on the Victoria bound lines. Fortunately the Overground lines being further away and straighter caused much less noise.

As regards the sound reinforcement - as a live listener (and a slightly deaf one) the impression in the car park was of a sound world similar to a Michael Nyman concert (one of which I heard at the Proms several years ago). The sound was bassy and punchy. At home on FM radio this was much more a normal orchestral and vocal sound.

As regards serious disturbance from passing trains - this was very intrusive at the concert, but remarkably I did not even detect any passing trains on the broadcast.

The set-up apart from the reinforcement speakers did involve a headphone wearing sound engineer on a Digico mixer, manipulating his faders and with quite a technical-looking LCD display of bar charts to watch. I guess if the setup managed to somehow cancel train noise it was worth it.

I quite enjoyed the numbers - though my feeling was that the Granville Bantock arrangement of "Sleepers Wake" would have been better heard in a concert hall, or at least without so much electronic intervention.

[MrGongGong]

Surely part of the environment at the car park is the fact that it sits within the sonic context of the urban soundscape?

I wrote a string quartet a few years ago for a performance in an active fire station in Birmingham. Part of the piece had to allow for the alarm going off and people sliding down poles during the piece (which didn't happen at the gig).

If you want a soundproof box go to a studio.
When I first went to live in Lincoln many years ago the review in the local paper for the annual Halle concert in the Cathedral said
"The cathedral was cold and over-resonant" No Sh*t Sherlock

[Bryn]

It really is long overdue that a Prom was 'staged' in the South Kensington Subway beneath Exhibition Road.

[MrGongGong]

It really is long overdue that a Prom was 'staged' in the South Kensington Subway beneath Exhibition Road.

I used to busk there sometimes many years ago
wonderful acoustic but not quite as good as Crystal Palace

[Serial_Apologist]

I used to busk there sometimes many years ago
wonderful acoustic but not quite as good as Crystal Palace

A musician friend once asked me where I was now living. "Crystal Palace", I told him. "It must be very cold there in the winter!" he said.

They've reconstructed one of the staircases down to where the entrance to the old CP Upper Level station was, and this it was open for visits for one day, a month ago.

[Bryn]

I used to busk there sometimes many years ago
wonderful acoustic but not quite as good as Crystal Palace

When I lived in Penge, several decades ago, I would explore the then freely accessible Upper Level station site and the tunnel at the south end. At that time only the College Road bridge end was fully blocked. I have a photograph, saved from the Internet, of a highly decorated number 3 bus which managed to leave the road at that bridge and land at the station end of that tunnel.

Ah, here it is:



and here's a press report of the incident.

[Serial_Apologist]

When I lived in Penge, several decades ago, I would explore the then freely accessible Upper Level station site and the tunnel at the south end. At that time only the College Road bridge end was fully blocked. I have a photograph, saved from the Internet, of a highly decorated number 3 bus which managed to leave the road at that bridge and land at the station end of that tunnel.

Ah, here it is:



and here's a press report of the incident.

I never knew anything about that accident, just up the road from here! Given that the wall is particularly sturdy, the bus must have smacked into it at considerable speed. Amazing that no one got killed, let alone severely injured.

[Bax-of-Delights]

Fascinating music - but TS presentation is ear-achingly OTT.

[Constantbee]

The Ascent: a Tone Poem, Panegyric on Brutalist Architecture

1. Night
2. The Rising of the Barrier
3. The Ascent begins - first gear
4. Wandering by the brook, at the waterfall - ah! Loos are on ground. Remember for later.
5. In the flowery meadow on verdant pasture - got a brightly coloured VW camper van behind me.
6. On the wrong path - distracted by VDub. Go wrong way down one way ramp.
7. On the Glacier - kid pulls a face.
8. Dangerous moments - omg, still going wrong way. No room to turn round.
9. On the Summit - how the ?!?! Well, I got here - somehow.
10. Vision - A Space! At last ...

Connie
xx

[Prommer]

The Ascent: a Tone Poem, Panegyric on Brutalist Architecture

1. Night
2. The Rising of the Barrier
3. The Ascent begins - first gear
4. Wandering by the brook, at the waterfall - ah! Loos are on ground. Remember for later.
5. In the flowery meadow on verdant pasture - got a brightly coloured VW camper van behind me.
6. On the wrong path - distracted by VDub. Go wrong way down one way ramp.
7. On the Glacier - kid pulls a face.
8. Dangerous moments - omg, still going wrong way. No room to turn round.
9. On the Summit - how the ?!?! Well, I got here - somehow.
10. Vision - A Space! At last ...

Connie
xx

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I wrote a string quartet a few years ago for a performance in an active fire station in Birmingham. Part of the piece had to allow for the alarm going off and people sliding down poles during the piece (which didn't happen at the gig).

I never thought of you as a Malcolm Arnold fan.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzYhRQbjPE