As all Scouts (and Scar from The Lion King) know, it pays to be prepared, so we have to applaud the lengths that Brian Eno went to to ensure that his 2021 Acropolis gig with brother Roger went off without a hitch.
In an interview with The Independent, the ambient legend confirmed that, because the show took place during a heatwave, he kept a backup for his backup computer (a third laptop, basically) in a fridge to ensure that it wouldn’t overheat.
“Here we are in the oldest theatre in the world and the world outside is on fire - the climate crisis worsening,” explains Eno, with Roger reporting that ash was falling on his piano.
The show took place in August 2021, and was the first time that the Enos had performed live together. It was staged in the Odeon of Herodes Atticus amphitheatre at the Acropolis in Athens, and featured both performances of tracks from the brothers’ 2020 album, Mixing Colours, and songs from their respective solo catalogues.
Among these was material from Brian Eno’s ‘70s albums, Before and After Science and Another Green World, which required him to go back and study their lyrics. “Embarrassingly I couldn’t remember any of the words,” he told The Independent. “Those songs have never been played live before, not even during the recording, because they were made bit-by-bit through collage and dubbing. It was a thrill seeing what good musicians could do with those songs.”
Those musicians included Cecily Eno, Roger’s daughter and Brian’s niece, who sang and played ukulele and mandolin, along with Leo Abrahams on guitar and Peter Chilvers on keyboards.
Can we expect any repeat performances, then? “I would hate, more than driving nails into my scrotum, to actually go on tour,” says Brian Eno, so we’re guessing not.
However, a film of the Acropolis concert has been made and is set to premiere at cinemas across the UK on 2 March. Head to CinemaLive for tickets.
