Live Review

Weird Al Yankovic – HMV Forum, London

• 14th Dec 2010

Weird Al Yankovic has invaded American popular culture throughout his 25+ year music career (he released his debut album in 1983), and he was keen to demonstrate his ubiquity at his first ever London show. During his numerous costume changes, video clips were played on the big screen behind the stage, under the guise of AL-TV. There were spoof interviews with the likes of Eminem, Jessica Simpson, Madonna, Celine Dion and Michael Stipe (all hysterically funny), interspersed with clips from the many US TV shows that have referenced or guest-starred Yankovic over the past two decades. There was a clip from the Simpsons’ episode where Homer becomes a grunge star and Weird Al parodies his song. There was the ‘Friends’ Barbados-wedding episode, where Chandler said “I came here with Monica and I’m leaving with Weird Al”. We saw his cameo in ‘The Naked Gun’ and a reference to him in ‘King Of The Hill’; a guest appearance in ‘Johnny Bravo’ and his ‘Celebrity Deathmatch’ fight with Al Gore. In short, there’s hardly a popular American TV show of the last 20 years that hasn’t guest-starred or at least mentioned Yankovic.

And yet, he remains a cult figure and a relative unknown in the UK, not least because he’s never toured here before. However, following on from a hugely successful appearance at All Tomorrow’s Parties festival the previous weekend, there was huge anticipation of this show at the Forum. And the capacity crowd left at the end of the night with huge grins on their faces, courtesy of a comedy masterclass from an excellent showman.

Every single moment had been carefully pondered, and the setlist constructed to perfection. He opened with ‘Frank’s 2000 TV’ and then drew the first big laugh of the night by asking the crowd “Who came here to ROCK tonight? (big cheer) This next one’s a ballad.” At the end of the aforementioned slow number, ‘You Don’t Love Me Any More’, he trashed his guitar, called for a drum solo (which comprised just a single beat) and then reappeared in a blonde wig, accompanied by cheerleaders, to play his Nirvana parody, ‘Smells Like Nirvana’.

The atmosphere was warming up, and the crowd engaged in a sing-along for ‘You’re Pitiful’, his James Blunt spoof. He then ripped off Devo (‘Dare To Be Stupid’), the White Stripes (‘CNR’) and The Stooges (‘Let Me Be Your Hog’) before launching into one of the real crowd-pleasers of the night, his Green Day parody ‘Canadian Idiot’ (sample lyric: “well maple syrup and snow’s what they export, they treat curling just like a real sport”).

During his pastiche of Prince, ‘Wanna B Ur Lovr’, a couple down the front became engaged, and Weird Al, ever the pro, descended from the stage to sing the track to them. When he reappeared on stage, he treated the crowd to a medley of shortened versions of some of his biggest hits. There was ‘Money For Nothing/Beverly Hillbillies’, which uses Dire Straits’ music accompanied by lyrics from the TV show theme tune. There was ‘eBay’, his spoof of the Backstreet Boys ‘I Want It That Way’. He played his Red Hot Chilli Peppers-sampling song about the Flinstones, ‘Bedrock Anthem’. Without pausing for breath, he launched into his Queen spoof, ‘Another One Rides The Bus’. And to finish up the medley, was ‘Gump’ (from the Presidents Of The USA’s ‘Lump’ but with lyrics about Tom Hanks’ most famous film character) and ‘Eat It’ (Michael Jackson).

The main set finished with ‘Amish Paradise’, his Coolio parody, for which he dressed as an Amish man, with wide-brimmed hat and lengthy beard; a rapid costume change into a gangster rapper to rip off Chamillionaire on ‘White & Nerdy’; and finally, wearing a convincing and utterly compelling fat suit, ‘Fat’, his cover of Michael Jackson’s ‘Bad’. The raucous crowd yelled, clapped, stomped and eventually/predictably got their wish of an encore. A bevy of Storm Troopers danced on stage with Darth Vader, whilst in front of them, in full Jedi robes, Al and his band played ‘The Saga Begins’ and ‘Yoda’, two of his finest career moments. Adapting all the verses of ‘American Pie’ to tell the story of Star Wars was no mean feat, and neither was his reworking of The Kinks’ ‘Lola’. It was the perfect finale, the crowd singing every word back to him, arms swaying. A truly triumphant gig, and we’re only left to wonder how it’s taken him this long to get across the Atlantic. Hopefully it won’t be another quarter of a century before we get another chance to see Al playing these shores.