So on Friday we headed oop north to Manchester for a night in a posh hotel and a concert by Cyndi Lauper. Most peoples' reaction to that was "is she still around", but hopefully faithful Monkey followers will know that I've been raving about her new album for almost 6 months. If you haven't bought it, do it now. Go on. Now. It's called Bring Ya To The Brink and it's everything that Madonna should have been doing for the last 5 years.
Concerts are something I do a lot, like a hobby. I tend to stick to fairly mainstream acts but am prepared to give most things a go. I am, however, beginning to appreciate that there are different perspectives on what makes someone a succesful artist or musician. Take Madonna for example. She's huge. Probably the biggest star in the world today in terms of longevity and popularity over time. Her concerts have been getting progressively larger in scale over recent years. Her Sticky & Sweet Tour which has just ended its European leg is her first stadium tour since 1993. She is playing to audiences of 100,000 people at a time, and charging up to £400 a ticket.
Cyndi on the other hand has not 'enjoyed' the same level of success as Madonna since the 80's. She has continued to make music albeit on a more personal level. Her last few albums have been a mixture of acoustic, rave and latin sounds which showcase her voice to its best effect. Her concert last night at Machester's Bridgewater Hall was a small intimate affair with a few hundred people in the audience. £35 for 5th row tickets. So who is more succesful?
While Madonna seems to be intent on putting as much distance (physical and emotional) between her and her fans as humanly possible, Cyndi takes a different path. For several of the songs she jumped off the stage and actually sat with the audience, kicking people out of their seats and getting down with her fans. She made it her job to connect with us, and she did it with style. She wore her heart on her sleeve and for the first time in my life made me cry during a concert! The only time Madonna came close to that was when we realised how much we had paid for awful seats.
To me, success is not about scale any more. It's not about how many stadiums you can fill and how much you can charge for a ticket. It's not about how many dates you play and how many people sleep on the streets for the best seats. In the days of digital downloads and at a time when MTV no longer plays music on its main channel, it's more important than ever for musicians and performers to touch us with their human side. Soon we'll have robots in our homes. We don't need them on our stages.
Cyndi, I salute you. The show ranks up there as one of the best gigs I've ever been to, and reminds me of how music can lift you up, throw you around, break your heart and make it better again.
There are still opportunities to see her in the UK and Europe over the next couple of months. Run, don't walk.
UPDATE: The Guardian interviews Cyndi here
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