Andy Kershaw interviewed Rachid Taha on his programme two weeks ago and said that, when he first saw him live at Cargo, he'd felt that Taha was three men in one man's body. Those three were Gene Vincent, Joe Strummer and Bruce Springsteen. Taha sounded, understandably, a little wary at the Springsteen comparison.
I suspect Taha is best appreciated live. I can just see him playing a balmy Saturday night at WOMAD.
I first came across him soon after the UK iTunes store opened and I was running some searches to see what they had. A search for Brian Eno turned up the collaboration Still Standing, credited to Eno and Taha. Then I would have heard a few tracks on Kershaw's programme, and probably browsed Amazon for his albums. But it was seeing this CD at £11 in the Barbican shop that triggered an impulse buy.
Eno actually appeared live with Rachid Taha for a benefit/protest gig last November, but it was a Sunday night, and the night before the deadline for the first full draft of The Book, so I didn't go. As the review says, Eno is more likely to be seen performing in art galleries than at rock venues. Indeed I saw him sing twice in galleries last year as part of an evening curated and commissioned by Tom Phillips.
 MusicBrainz entry for DiwânLive |
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