N.B. there might (or might not) be spoilers in this article!
I recently discovered Led Zeppelin’s 1970 Albert Hall performance. (It wasn’t lost; I simply hadn’t seen it before.)
One of the things that’s astonishing about that performance is how nonchalantly they stroll onto the stage; Robert Plant says a polite ‘Good Evening’ to the audience, stubs out his cigarette and the band launches into a performance of We’re Gonna Groove so blisteringly good it almost passes as a studio performance on their contractual obligation filler but nevertheless still great final album Coda.
What does this have to do with Doctor Who‘s visit to the 2010 Proms, you might ask?
Perhaps very little, other than the BBC National Orchestra of Wales are such good musicians you’d be forgiven for thinking you were listening to a polished soundtrack recording as used on the show. Admittedly, mine is not accomplished enough an ear to know whether these were note-perfect renditions of Murray Gold’s compositions – you’d have to ask Gold or conductor Ben Foster for an opinion on that – but it certainly doesn’t sound like one of the soloists goes off on a Jimmy Page-style ramble in the middle of I Am the Doctor.
It would be churlish to say an opportunity to hear Murray Gold’s music in isolation is hardly necessary given how it often drowns out the show’s dialogue. But Doctor Who at the Proms does give the show an opportunity to be – as Matt Smith says more than once on the Blu-ray introduction – ‘theatrical’. The panoply of Doctor Who rogues and villains show up: Daleks, Cyberman, Judoon, Silurians, voluptuous vampires stomp and creep around the hall. And indeed, Smith himself gets to terrify a child with a spot of audience participation.
As a kid – hell, as a Dad! – these proms would have been awesome concerts to attend. And if kids went off and listened to some Elgar (or Led Zeppelin) as a result of learning about the connection of great music to this great venue – well, all the the more reason to keep having them. (Doctor Who Proms, that is!)
