Does Bernard Always...?

I was watching my Finsbury Park DVD this afternoon for a few brief moments and I noticed that on many of the songs they performed that Bernard was glancing at times, staring at others down at the monitor at his feet to his right. During "Your Silent Face" there is a shot from behind Barney near Stephen just as the words are about to begin and the text on the monitor is visible and it appears to begin scrolling with the lyrics and Barney is reading them as he sings.

I guess what I am wondering is does Barney do this often? I imagine it is difficult at times to always remember the words to your songs, in fact, I've seen REM and Michael Stipe has a music stand with lyric sheets right there with him. Do many other artists do this as well as our beloved Barney?

Lots of artists do this that have a catalog of songs that span over 15 years. Of all the songs that make it to an album, how many songs get left on the cutting room floor? And I'm not just talking b-sides. I'm talking songs that never even made it as far as the mastering process and were axed in mixing. It's no so much as remembering the lyrics. It's remembering which verse you left off at. When not singing after a verse, you start to think about other stuff, you take a look at the crowd, you see what hooky is doing, etc. Then you hear the upcoming musical cue to begin singing again, but you forget which part of the song to start with.

Plus... "Cocaine is a hell of a drug!"

That makes perfect sense to me. I always forget what verse comes next in many a song. Where can I get me a nice little portable version of Barney's monitor?

isnt it called a teleprompter or something?

could just use a karaoke deal that plays through a tv screen...i dunno why youd want to though

But when you play basically the same set list (2001-2002), and songs that you've literally played hundreds of times in the past two decades, no matter how much drugs and alcohol were consumed, one would think they'd be second nature..

LOL! If you hear their live stuff a lot, he does miss the musical cues also. Either he'll just start singing from the point he realizes his mistake, missing the first part of the line, or he'll wait for the next bar and take it from there, causing the rest of the band to compensate.

Something to do with repeated Ecstacy and Pernod abuse......causes the brain to forget things, like lyrics. Would you rather have no gigs since 1989 or a teleprompter to tell him the words ? At least it doesn't have the chords on it !!

BLT's the best, he gets the chance to bend down on his knees and read the teleprompter up close!

what i find confusing about this that they can remember how to play the bloody tunes, so why not the lyrics?

Originally posted by Mr Ben what i find confusing about this that they can remember how to play the bloody tunes, so why not the lyrics?

Seen 'em recently ? They can't remember the tunes either, hence the lack of set list change !

in most of the set-lists ive seen, they usually play 9 songs, that are usually extended it seems... it seems like its not much to remember, but oh well, everyones different :\ohwell:

The post-reform gigs average about 15 songs and last more than 80 minutes.

Originally posted by twist The post-reform gigs average about 15 songs and last more than 80 minutes.

Unfortunately, it's always the same 15 songs.

I think he's always had trouble remembering the lyrics. In the olden days he often made them up on the spot, or substituted a few well chosed words that usually contained f...k and c...t. With the use of monitor this has decreased, however see BM 316. You could say he is using the autocue to clean up his act.

I think he still gets a bit of stage fright to be fair, most people do to a certain extent, and combating this with drugs/drink isn't exactly conducive to giving a top performance. I challenge anyone to remember words/guitar parts when off their face and placed in a pressure situation like performing on stage !

Barney couldn't remember his lines for the school play in 1968 and he hadnt started drinking then let alone doing drugs.

Originally posted by a very small boy Barney couldn't remember his lines for the school play in 1968 and he hadnt started drinking then let alone doing drugs.

What play was that? "The Sound of Music"?

Yes it was! Barney played the part of Rolf who tried to get into Liesl's knickers and then became a Nazi Youth. He single handedly captured the Von Trapps but the Captain disarmed him with those immortal words "Rolfy, dont point that gun at me" I cant remember who played the part of the impressario Max Detweiler but it was likely to have been Terry Mason.

Did he have the corkscrew perm in those days, young Terence, mate of the stars ?

The photographic evidence suggests not. Corkscrew perms would have been even more radical than the skinhead look which Barney was then currently developing.

Barney always had trouble remembering the lyrics... it's just that in the old days he invented new ones and now he just reads from the autocue