Paul Simon Roundhouse, London 1/7/11
4/5
By: Matt Tomiak
Like Bob Dylan, the inaugural headliner of the 2011 iTunes Festival will turn 70 this year. But whilst Mr. Zimmerman’s anniversary was marked with predictable fanfare, breathless broadsheet approbation and academic scrutiny, Paul Simon’s seventieth is likely to pass with altogether less palaver - and you get the impression he’d be just fine with that.
It isn’t that his back catalogue is any less durable than Dylan’s. Tonight, we are reminded of half a century’s worth of enduring contributions to Great American Pop & Folk Songbook, from the earliest work of Simon and Garfunkel era to present day solo pursuits.
Taking to the stage with his band at a pensioner-friendly 8pm, the diminutive, casually-attired New Yorker presides over two hours worth of career-spanning material, provoking an enthusiastic clap-along for ‘Peace Like A River’ and a suitably reverential hush for an unaccompanied rendition of ‘The Sound of Silence.’
Not big on chit-chat, Simon does acknowledge George Harrison following a cover of The Beatles’ ‘Here Comes The Sun.’ ‘The Boy In The Bubble’, the opening track from 1986’s world music watershed Graceland LP, is embellished with a projected astrological animation worthy of the opening credits to a Professor Brian Cox TV documentary, and the group return for an inevitable second curtain-call with ‘You Can Call Me Al.’
Artists in this article: Paul Simon
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