Virtually as good as the real thing
Agig on your laptop sounds like a contradiction in terms. It won’t be the same consuming thrill, but it can still be a treat of a different kind – cooler, calmer, more intimate. And easier to get to. There are now so many virtual shows that the Gigs And Tours website publishes a daily list (gigsandtours.com). If your concentration span is fraying, don’t worry: some only last a few minutes.
Musically, the early days of lockdown belonged to John Lennon, as singers flocked to channel his existential clarity. Now the central figures are two living legends, Annie Lennox and Bruce Springsteen.
Lennox stood out at the #TogetherAtHome concert, singing There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart) with her daughter Lola, who oozed star quality herself. Often busier as a humanitarian than as a musician, Lennox seems to have found her voice again in isolation. Feeling irritable last Sunday, she dealt with it by sitting at the piano and sending her 289,000 Instagram followers an intense version of Cold. She was less fierce, but no less powerful, on Eurythmics’ Here Comes The Rain Again. A natural stylist (silver crop, scarlet AC/DC T-shirt), she could just do with a decent mic to calm the piano (instagram.com).
Springsteen, with his sympathy for the underdog, was made for this moment. In March, he put a whole Hyde Park show online for free. At the Jersey 4 Jersey benefit gig, he turned Land Of Hope And Dreams and Jersey Girl into tender duets with his wife Patti Scialfa (both at vimeo. com). Now he’s supporting pandemic relief by releasing a live album, Brendan Byrne Arena 1981 (live.brucespringsteen.net, £7.95), which captures The E Street Band at their best. Another elder, Neil Young, is posting a performance every week. The Fireside Sessions (neilyoung archives.com), filmed by his wife Daryl Hannah, give you half an hour with that radiant voice. Also posting home-made gigs, more improbably, is the Royal Albert Hall. Royal Albert Home presents one-hour shows ranging from KT Tunstall to Alfie Boe (royalalberthall.com).
If you miss getting really lost in music, the place to go is Radiohead’s YouTube channel. Every Thursday at 10pm, they post an entire gig from their archive, so you can follow their evolution from yearning balladeers to uncompromising pioneers. The viewing figures, from 280,000 to 830,000, prove that artrock can have mass appeal (youtube.com).
In need of light relief? Step forward Sophie Ellis-Bextor, who holds a Kitchen Disco at 6.30pm every Friday. Shot by her husband Richard Jones, it’s a hot mess of cheesy tunes, chatty asides, sparkly outfits and freewheeling children (they have five boys). It shouldn’t work, but it does (instagram.com).