Neil Gaiman

Last night I saw Neil Gaiman at the City Recital Hall in Sydney, a place I had no idea even existed. It was a great night, with Neil starting off by reading the prologue and first two chapters from his latest novel, The Ocean at the End of the Lane.

  

The tale seemed to be written in first person, and started as a very pleasant foray into a middle aged man’s childhood. There were elements of melancholy, nostalgia and the supernatural in it, but only hints. I’ll definitely be buying the book when it comes out in July.

After the intermission the band FourPlay took to the stage. An excellent string quartet with progressive rock, folk, classical and country elements to their arrangements. Like the City Recital Hall, FourPlay was also a new discovery for me, and they were excellent. The cello player has some very cool tapping and strumming techniques, and the other three violinists were extremely melodic and playful.

FourPlay started with a very cool introduction, and then went into a rendition of the Dr Who theme tune (which delighted a lot of geeks in the crowd). After that Neil took to the stage. He spoke briefly about Gerry Anderson, the recently deceased creator of Thunderbirds, Captain Scarlet, Joe 90 and Fireball XL5 to name a few. FourPlay then played the Fireball XL5 theme tune, with Neil singing the lyrics! 

His singing voice is basically his speaking voice but louder. It made me smile to watch him perform, as he was enjoying the moment very much.

Neil then read (for the first time ever) the first third or so of his new absurd short story Fortunately the Milk, a tale about a father who goes out to buy milk for his children’s breakfast, but finds himself travelling through the space time continuum provided by an alien spacecraft, landing on a pirate ship 300 years in the past and then being rescued by a speaking stegosaurus in a hot-air balloon who claims to have invented a lot of things, including his own cardboard box time-machine and coconuts.

Phew. After that Neil did a quick (approx 15 minutes) and very entertaining Q&A session and then called it a night!

Finally I bought my two year old nephew a copy of Neil's latest children's book, Chu's Day. It will be a nice bed time story for him.

Money well spent :)