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| B L A K E V I D E O |
 The Tygers of Wrath: The Purcell Room, London, 2nd February 2001 This performance was another in a continuing series by Alan Moore and musical collaborator Tim Perkins (previous performances are featured on the Moon and Serpent, Birth Caul and Highbury Working CDs). The event was organised by the Tate Gallery as part of their definitive William Blake exhibition. The running order of the evening was as follows: Billy Bragg / Iain Sinclair and Brian Catling / Jah Wobble & Deep Space / interval / Alan and Tim / Simon Boswell with guests Ewan MacGregor, Dave Rowntree, Glen Matlock and others. Also on stage with Alan and Tim was dancer Andrea Svacsik whose fire-breathing act was about all she managed due to the limitations of the stage area. Alan's scheme divided Blake's life into four sections: Innocence, Hell, Experience, Heaven.
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| Review: "ADVERTISED AS the 'spectacular finale' to the William Blake exhibition at the Tate Britain, tonight's entertainment takes its title from Blake's The Marriage Of Heaven and Hell—"The tygers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction." Such a headline suggests an evening of energy and inspiration, rock'n'roll, tygers versus horses, on evening that will hopefully reveal the anti-establishment Blake, the psychogeographer, revolutionary and visionary who saw angels in a tree on Peckham Rye. Cradling a Blake death-mask, Billy Bragg starts proceedings explaining why the great poet was like The Clash in "his ability to change our perception of the world through art and imagery". A radical Englishman who has intermingled pastoral patriotism with art and politics, Bragg is an obvious choice to introduce an evening of fanatic Blakery. However, only one song tonight—Upfield ("I dreamed I saw a tree full of angels, up on Primrose Hill")—really lifts proceedings out of the everyday. Next up, armed with such other-worldly instruments as Irish bagpipes and oud, Jah Wobble and his Deep Space drones top smoothly into an aesthetic of changed Englishness, underpinned by a rhythm of driving pastoral dub. And, despite his rather horrible Past Times waistcoat and M&S trews, there remains an undeniable magic to the performance, thanks, in part, to Wobble's uncanny facial similarity to Blake himself. The trip continues with author Alan Moore and an hallucinatory tale concerning Blake's journey through modern London, "Kicking down the Greek Street night (under) golden skies transmuted by bad alchemy to lead." It hits like a shot of free drugs for the psychedelic poor. Unfortunately, there then follows a rapid descent into mediocrity with the arrival of "Simon Boswell, film composer", some light classical meanderings and 'special guest star' Ewan McGregor shouting, "I don't wanna die until it's time for me to die." We beg to differ and, despite an ill-advised group rendition of Jerusalem, MOJO exits with a richer sense of ourselves, the dream of an Alan Moore/Jah Wobble collaboration and the profound belief that Ewan McGregor must be kept out of the auditoriums of Europe. As new spiritual beliefs go, that's not a bad night out." ANDREW MALE, Mojo
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 Overture The piece begins in darkness with a 3 minute wordless prelude |
 The Moon and Serpent insignia from the Highbury Working CD |
 Moon and Serpent kaleidoscopes |
 Titles form against a flickering film strip of Blake's Ghost of a Flea. The words are derived from scans of Blake's own script |
 Over flickering shots of Blake's paintings there flash words of the phrase from The Proverbs of Hell which gave the title to the evening: "The Tygers of Wrath are Wiser than the Horses of Instruction." |
| More screen shots: Innocence | Hell | Experience | Heaven |
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