Neil Innes Quotes

The Tinted Windows shows were very fun but it's very different for me as a performer. I'm not playing music - I'm just singing and I missed that. I miss rocking out on keys, drums, guitar... whatever it is.

I remember seeing McCoy Tyner in concert, and thinking that the music was incredible, but wanting to be invited in. I figured that humor was the way of letting the audience in. I've gotten a hard time about it, but I love to be funny onstage.

I think I'm more entertainer than musician. I like to get with the crowd, make this night special for them.

Music is a performance and needs the audience.

I've figured out what to do with my hands... onstage. I'm a percussion player, so I grab a tambourine as much as I can.

I'm very proud of my records, but my most natural creative tendencies have been in live performing. There's a beautiful element to recording and making records, but I've always felt a little shy with it.

There's a wonderful tradition of jazz people getting on stage and jamming and finding some feeling for music with audiences who may be fresh. For others, it might be just like a comfortable shirt they've been wearing.

I just wanted to say one more thing: I also think that when you go to play music, you're there to play music.

I like to say, 'I hit every type of music in a show, and I play the people, not the instruments.'

Playing live is such a total visceral experience, and really, as a musician, you're trained from the beginning to be a live performer.

The less people that are on the stage, there's more drama. You start living the music with each individual. When you see a band with ten people on stage, just a huge ensemble, you don't know who's doing what.

I love playing to people and seeing them react.

When I use music on stage, the prime directive is to entertain the public, so it is different.

I do radio gigs, three-minute spots, solo shows, so I still get plenty of practice at the sniper attack - me at a piano or with a guitar, having to win people over fast.

Find someone you can jam with. That's a big deal. When you play with someone else, you gotta work together to get the thing started and in time, working and in the groove.

Performing music live, there's a certain magic to it.

I also think something that makes the whole live performance fun for me is that I love my music.

Drumming is a real part of my live show, and I like to do it because so many people aren't expecting me to go and do it.

I didn't always enjoy playing music with the Trees.

I've always enjoyed playing live onstage.

Especially with music, people want confidence.

When you're playing music, say for instance, you're playing a part of the band and you're looking at your music, your horn is down into the stand. This way, it's up and it goes right on out to the audience, you know?

I've never, ever in my life enjoyed playing live the way I am now.

I've looked at photographs of myself during concerts and it sometimes looks as if I'm in a fencing move, with a guitar in my hands instead of a sword.

When you play a concerto with a small orchestra, you don't feel it is as important as Carnegie Hall. You try to work out all the little problems. Once that's all done, trust comes in.