Marina V / Queen V / Markus Michelucci – Acoustic Sanctuary, Boondocks, London; July 15th, 2018
When I discovered that amongst Marina V’s US tour Dates was one concert in London and on a weekend too, I immediately checked if I had time to go. It had been almost a year since I’d last seen her live and I was in the mood for some of her music. Thus, I planned, I booked and set out for an amazing long weekend in London where the Acoustic sanctuary concert that Marina did together with Markus Michelucci and Queen V was only one of many Highlights. The days I spent there were full of culture, long walks, nice people, protest and good times. I was so happy I made the decision to go. Marina and the other two musicians were brilliant. The concert alone made the trip worthwhile.
Arriving in London on Friday in time for the women’s march and general anti-Trump protest, I spent many hours walking the streets and bringing noise together with other protesters. It was a colorful crowd and made me feel like I’m not alone. That was only the beginning of my weekend and apart from exploring much of London on foot I managed to see ‘A Winter’s Tale’ at the Globe Theater at a midnight matinee and the awesome ‘Bat out of Hell’ musical. Only on day three it was time for the concert. It was also the day of the Football world cup finale and the restaurant where it took place was showing the game, but since England was out it didn’t draw many people. I arrived early enough to have some food beore the gig and chat with D., the organizer of the concert beforehand. There were two other artists apart from Marina and I was looking forward to hearing both of them.
The concert took place in a nicelly decorated basmet room with music sheets for wallpaper and a few rows of seats in front of a small stage. A few of us had come to see Marina, a few to see Markus. When Marina and Nick arrived we had said hello and got to talk for a bit before the gig. It was a nice atmosphere and I wished more People had come to see. My friend L. was planning to drop by, but didn’t make it in the end. It ended up being an intimate concert.
Eventually everyone setttled down and Markus Michelucci entered the stage. He joked about everyone having trouble pronouncing his Italian last name and entertained us with small stories between songs. He just brought a guitar and his voice and I enjoyed everything he played, even thouh I cannot remember the title of even one of the songs. I do remember that one was about a friend who is also a muscian. He told me after that he will be playing in Germany this year so I’ll be on the lookout for tourdates. Bought his CD too, but have not had a chance to listen to it yet.
Marina was up next and started solo piano with ‘Fire in the Sky’ the introduced Nick told us how everyone had let them borrow instruments to play on for this concert. <3 Apparently though the micstand was shitty and kept dropping which led to a few funny moments during the gig. 😉 We learned that Marina won an award for their song ‘You make me beautiful’ last time they were in London. The Award was presented by Sir Bob Geldorf and somehow being in London involved an accidental massge by Vanilla Ice – for Nick. 😀 The song was played beautifully too.
She told us the story how she came to the US on a scholarship at 15 and returned later and met Nick. It turned quite funny, because somehow she felt the need to assure us she was older than 15 when she met Nick and he commented on what we might think about that. “I have no idea where I was going with that”. It all led to playing ‘Run’ in the English/Russian Version. 🙂
After a few technical difficulties we got to hear a lovely rendition of ‘Together Alone’ She then made us guess the next song. It was Neil Diamond’s ‘Solitary Man’ traslated to Russian. I’m still not sure I have ever heard the original of this song, but I love this cover. <3 It was funny too, because nobody answered when she asked us if we knew Neil Diamond and she had to ask again before she got a reaction so she joked that we left her standing there like an idiot. Marina thanked us for coming and mentioned those of us she knew had traveled to be there.
It was a night of many stories.We heard about the vacation Marina and Nick had just taken in Italy before coming to London. Judging by the pictures she posted it must have been beautiful. 🙂 Someone had requested an older song called ‘Make this Minute last’ and I’m not sure I’ve ever heard it live if at ll. It was beautiful. Nick needed to take a break, because he suddenly could not stop coughing. It seemed contagious too, because someone in the audience started coughing as well. It was kinda funny. D. asked for Marina’s cover of ‘Don’t cry’ and immediately I went down memory lane, because it was one of the songs she played when I saw her for the first time in Tucson. She could not remember the lyrics though and gave us ‘Speak’ instead.
There was time for one final song and she announced it as a song about being the best we can be and making the most of every moment. We would even have to sing – with three professional musicians in the audience it should work out. After the first try Marina told us to “put some balls into it” even those of us without balls. 😉 That went better. I could have listened to the music for a few more hours, but this was the perfect last song, leaving us on a happy note.
Setlist
Fire in the Sky
You make me beautiful
Run
Together Alone
Solitary Man (Neil DIamond cover)
Make this Minute last
Speak
Born to the Stars
Queen V in the end had a great voice and played a mixture of her own songs and some covers. she was all about being vegan (hence the V in her Name), but her songs, despite being announced as “vegan songs” were much more universal. I loved her voice and when she started playing she totally made ne think of Amanda Palmer, but soon the Impression was gone and I realized she had a style of her own, which I liked. One of the covers she played was Cindy Lauper’s ‘Time after Time’. She was a great addition to the other two artists, they all fit together well.
It was a lovely evening overall and the ongong joke of the night was they should all change their last Name to “V”. I had the chance to chat with everyone afterwards, told them each how much I had enjoyed it and hung out until they all left. It as still warm outside when I walked back to my hostel so I enjoyed a bit of the bautiful summer night before going to bed with the music still playing inmy head.