Settling an old score: Frank Zappa’s 200 Motels

'Weirdness…a lot of profanity, I just think it’s going to be bonkers.' 'I’m expecting the unexpected, that’s all I ever expect from Zappa, something bizarre.' - Just a couple of comments from two of the numerous fans who travelled from all over the country, and beyond, to hear the UK premiere of Frank Zappa’s colossal 200 Motels at London’s Southbank Centre.

Before the concert, the Southbank Centre was buzzing in anticipation: not many of us had been to a classical music concert ‘suitable for audiences aged 18+’ before. Die-hard fans in their Zappa t-shirts and piercings chatted at the bar with equally die-hard Zappa fans in pressed suits, while long-haired rockers reminisced about watching the man himself to excited young fans who weren’t born when he died.

A cult classic on film and on record, 200 Motels is a suite from the orchestral soundtrack to the American composer's surrealist documentary film about life on the road as a rock musician with his band The Mothers of Invention, featuring Larry the Dwarf, Cowboy Burt, groupies, macrobiotic food, tie-die shirts and tuna ‘samwiches.’

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