Electric Eel

I have to say that I’ve had limited dealings with eels during my lifetime: there’s been the odd jellied eel; a pleasant if unremarkable visit to Eel Pie island; and I think I once stood on an eel while swimming in a loch.

But everything was to change – and for the better I might add – when I became an honorary Eel last week. Mark Oliver Everett, the big E himself, came over to celebrate the launch of his fantastic book Things the Grandchildren Should Know. His arrival unleashed a frenzy of excitement – it turns out that everyone and their extended family loves the Eels!

E arrived with his lovely tour manager Eric for a week of intensive publicity interspersed with long taxi rides. We hot-footed it round various radio studios and dealt with copious numbers of fans-in-journalists’-clothing – if I had a pound for every time someone gushed, ‘your music is the soundtrack to my life’ . . . Well, lets just say I may not be sitting here writing this for the likes of you. It was an extremely demanding schedule but E took it all in his stride.

The publicity we were doing was in the run-up to a gig at St James’ church in Piccadilly, which was organised with the help of the lovely folk at Waterstone’s. A combination of live music and excerpts from the book, it was a feat of organisation and military-style precision. On the night there was a buzz of anticipation as the church filled up with the most eclectic mix of people: sharp suits; pimply youths who had travelled the length of the country especially for the gig; and bookish, die hard fans. Suddenly the lights went off and the altar, beautifully lit by candles and against a backdrop of gorgeous stained glass windows, became the evening’s stage. E strolled on, resplendent in full trucker garb, taking his place alongside his fancy piano and many guitars.

For the next hour he dazzled the crowd with songs old and new, his distinctive gravelly voice and bittersweet lyrics. There were readings from the book by lucky audience members, plucked from obscurity for a moment of cringe-worthy fame as they realised under the hot eye of scrutiny that it was more than they’d bargained for. This was a daring but genius idea by Everett which could have gone wrong, as he himself later admitted, but he stayed with it as he knew he had a trump card still to play. Right at the end of the gig he invited Pete Townshend of The Who to do the last reading. I breathed a sigh of relief when Pete demonstrated a good command of punctuation and paused for effect in all the correct places.

And it was at this moment that I understood why this particular Eel was so popular. Mark is an everyman, as popular with celebrities as with the general public. Not only is he a musical genius but he is a thoroughly good egg – down-to-earth, gracious and very funny. It was a truly fantastic night and a testament to the hard work of a lot of people behind the scenes.

Posted 30/01/2008 10:30:20 by Suzanne, Publicity with 0 comments.