Homeward Bound

Is that a professional camera?
No, it's mine.
Does it have a disposable lens?
Sorry, disposable lens? No!
I mean a detachable lens.
Yes.
Well you can't take it in.

Horror! Give up my camera or give up my ticket to Paul Simon's last ever gig this side of the Atlantic?

I guess I must have looked like an impending medical emergency. I was taken pity on and allowed to take in not only the camera (as long as it stayed in my backpack, hence the dire quality phone pictures) but even our illicit satsumas.

When I first started listening to Paul Simon he was 26. In the blink of two lives he is doing his farewell tour. It is bewildering.

We got as close as our plebeian tickets would take us to the Great Oak Stage - the best festival stage I have ever seen (extra) - and I started reminiscing about the Graceland gig my son brought me to in this same park six years ago to the day - could today possibly match that perfection? I sent him a sentimental text to say where we were and, wistfully, that there were still some tickets left, although I assumed he was performing at some festival somewhere far away. Text back: No, his gig was last night and he'd just got home to Bristol and, actually, he'd really like to come. 

Really? While James Taylor and Bonnie Raitt played we were bouncing texts to and fro about where to get a ticket, about cancelled trains, about a rendezvous then, half an hour before Paul Simon came on stage, son was with us. Delight.

Rare artist that he is, Paul Simon played an exquisite concert that left my experience of the previous one intact. The old songs are not fossilised, but playfully alive with changed rhythms and new accompaniments. Each one felt like a surprising exploration of something I thought I knew but was made to hear anew.

He didn't even do the usual tiresome encore ritual (troop off, much whooping, troop back on). He did leave the stage and return but then played eight or nine songs, many of which could have been the last - Homeward Bound (I wish I was homeward bound), Boxer (I am leaving, I am leaving), Graceland... But when he played Sounds of Silence, everyone knew. The arc of the concert had landed. The clapping was respectful of the whispering in the sounds of silence. It was time to go home.

As the crowds slowly shuffled out of the exits we were quietly massed-singing, 'You can call me Al'.



Set list:
America
50 Ways to Leave Your Lover
The Boy in the Bubble
Dazzling Blue
That Was Your Mother
Rewrite
Mother and Child Reunion
Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After the War
Can't Run But
Bridge Over Troubled Water
Wristband
Spirit Voices
The Obvious Child
Questions for the Angels
The Cool, Cool River
Diamonds on the Soles of Her Shoes
You Can Call Me Al
Late in the Evening
Still Crazy After All These Years
Graceland
Homeward Bound
Kodachrome
The Boxer
American Tune
The Sound of Silence