Venue:

Symphony Hall

Date: 13/06/2017

So anyway they debuted a bunch of new songs, played Knocking on Heavens Door as an encore, and Ralf smashed his keyboard up. No sorry it’s a Kraftwerk 3D review. Possibly the band who have elevated quality control and process engineering to the nth degree, no-one goes to a Kraftwerk show expecting anything other than a machine-tooled performance, which is exactly we got at Symphony Hall. All delivered with their signature degree of ironic distance that leaves us guessing exactly how seriously they take themselves. The band’s status as the most important band since The Beatles (OOAA) rests on a comparatively small back catalogue. Over two hours they played Spacelab, Neon Lights, Man Machine, The Robots and The Model off Man Machine (now clearly the ultimate Kraftwerk lp); Computer World, Computer Love and Numbers off Computer World; Boom Tschick and Musique Non Stop off Electric Cafe; Tour De France and Aerodynamique off Tour De France; Trans Europe Express, Radioactivity and Autobahn. All were subtly retooled and retouched, most noticeably on Computer Love which was a lot beefier, and a techno’d-up Musique Non Stop to finish which could have been a Leftfield track. Stagecraft was » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath, Birmingham

Date: 02/06/2017

Yup, it was a bit back, but, for reasons I will outlay, the plan had been a reprise this Friday in Derby, but it’s been cancelled. I’m on a bit of a Wobble bender of late, lit up by his magnificent guest appearance with Youth’s Dub Trees outfit at Bearded Theory at the Spring bank holiday w/e. True, the full onslaught of Dub Trees is a barely contained cacophony of drums, guitar, fiddles and pipes, noosed together by computersanddeckslectronica, but topped this night, and their last recording, or bottomed more appropriately, by the dubbiest bassmeister in christendom. Sometimes with 2 basses, when Youth could tear himself from a six string and his mac. I was already a Wobble fan of yore, having seen the original Invaders of the Heart back in the 90s, and bought the odd and end along his journey, free jazz weirdness with Evan Parker, english folk in dub style and collaborations with Bill Laswell and Eno, amongst others. So there I was, parking up outside the H&H at barely 8pm. And he’d already started. Just, but it seemed ever so early. With the first tune being » Continue Reading.

Venue:

O2 Academy, Oxford

Date: 09/06/2017

If I had to sum this up in one word, it would be joy. The ghost of the much-missed Stuart Adamson is never far away, but his guitar parts are recreated by Bruce and Jamie Watson, sounding uncannily like SA even without that battered old HH amp. They and the rest of the Skids (Richard Jobson, Bill Simpson and Mike Baillie) are clearly having a ball – I haven’t seen a band enjoy themselves this much since Bob Mould played all of Copper Blue in 2012. They start brilliantly, using “Peaceful Times” as their walk-on music and crashing into “Animation”, and it doesn’t let up. It’s around the tenth date on their tour but they’re playing like it’s the first, such is the air of rediscovery. The set comprises most of the singles plus a fair mixture from their first 3 albums, and Jobson’s very talkative throughout; it’s the day after the election so TV Stars includes namechecks for cabinet and shadow cabinet alike. Right at the end they indulge in one song off the new album and it’s OK. Fair enough.

The audience:

As you’d expect, overwhelmingly blokes the wrong side of » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Union Chapel, Islington

Date: 01/06/2017

“Welcome to an evening of songs that you don’t know!” was how Thea greeted the crowd at Union Chapel last night. It was a fair point. Her new album, The Counterweight, wasn’t released until today (a signed, deluxe edition from her website dropped onto my doormat about 12 hours after she stepped off the stage) and 10 of the 18 songs performed tonight were taken from the new album. Even those of us who follow her Facebook posts, receive her mailing list postings and so on had only heard a couple of them before. So there we were in the gorgeous Union Chapel, seeing Thea, her musical and life companion Nigel Stonier, a 4 piece string section along with drums and bass (plus occasional assistance from 10 year old son Egan Stonier) essay a hour and a half or so of music, an hour of which our ears had never met before.

Even to an audience as adoring as hers, and I freely admit that I would pay to hear her sing the Conservative Party manifesto, might find themselves tried by so much unfamiliarly material from an artist with an impressive back catalogue » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Victoria Warehouse, Old Trafford

Date: 28/05/2017

Transformer is a new indoor festival event, with a pretty mind boggling line-up… reminiscent of those ill-fated ATP events in fact…hmmm. Sure enough the organisers posted a notice to the effect that one Barry Hogan was not involved in a financial capacity (presumably to avoid a long line of creditors turning up demanding cash, and to allay any concerns that the event might be a birrova a shambles or indeed be cancelled at very short notice). Reading a bit further, surprise surprise it turns out Barry is a ‘consultant’ to the event – well he does know how to put a great bill together. The price is right though, for just £25 which is what you’d pay to see just one of the headliners – it’s worth a punt.

First up, at the ungodly hour of 4pm I’m really pleased to see This Is Not This Heat again. It feels strange walking in from the Sunday afternoon sunshine straight into the ferocious ‘Horizontal Hold’ in full flight. It sounds immense. It’s a more compact band version of the band than their headline show at the Barbican back in February- no » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Tralf, Buffalo

Date: 21/05/2017

Bit of an enigma is Eric. Sometimes regarded as the guitarists’ guitarist, he continues to gig and record on his own terms. An example being this tour; having already played a lengthy set of dates in support his most recent release, an acoustic CD, this date in Buffalo is part of a tour for his electric band where there’s no new release to promote. None of which prevented a sell out in this 800 seat, rather excellent venue.

First up was Arielle playing a solo acoustic set. It would be easy to take a dig at the hippyish star-child persona but she’s a talented musician with a great voice. Her songs had a little too much whimsy for me until she offered up a beautifully rendered “Blackhole Sun” in tribute to Chris Cornell.

Johnson was backed by Chris Maresh from Eric’s home town of Austin on bass and Joe Travers on drums (yes, that Joe Travers – the vaultmeister for the Zappa Family Trust). They are a tight unit and Travers drum work really drives the band during the up-tempo numbers.

Johnson has always been hard to categorise and flicks between jazz, » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Thekla, Bristol

Date: 24/05/2017

Not quite sure how I stumbled across the Pains of being Pure at Heart – probably an obscure connection to a temporary flame. But I did last year and was pleased after three nifty indie pop albums to find them playing close by – first night of a short UK tour in advance of new album in July. So why not? And then…suddenly going to even a minor show, by a minor band, in a minor venue feels a tiny bit edgy? Defiant pose? Obviously not, the most dangerous thing I did all day was drive to work but It did feel like the tiniest gesture of solidarity with the light against the darkness.

Whatever. POBPAH are at the poppier end of indie guitars a jangling and we loved them last night – reminded me of the Delays (RIP) also rocking out a bit more than expected. Main man Kip very impressed to be playing in Bristol home of Sarah records (see below) and on a boat…aren’t they all? we all took to him very quickly – liked the way that he came off stage and rather than retiring for a well earned » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Islington Assembly Hall, London N1

Date: 23/05/2017

Early on is his set, Ron Sexsmith commented that he wasn’t sure that anyone was going to turn up.

Coming the night after the atrocity of the murders at the Ariana Grande concert in Manchester I can see how he felt that way, although he had also a few minutes earlier said, to much applause, something along the lines that we have to stand up to the terrorists by showing we aren’t cowed by them and carry on with out lives. That’s very much how we felt.

Security was understandably far tighter than normal with thorough searches of bags, not just a quick glance inside. Though how this helps when the killer turns up with the intention of blowing people up as they leave the venue isn’t clear.

But if it were political and sociological comment that you wanted, you wouldn’t be here, but elsewhere seeking more perspicacious insight than mine. So how was Ron’s performance, you ask.

Well he was on really good form. Better than I’ve seen him for some time. When the tour was announced some months back I asked my wife if she wanted to go. Much » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Marina Bay Sands, Singapore

Date: 19/05/2017

When the web site stated something along the lines of “Bjorn Again will support Village People, but both acts will play for the same amount of time”, you suspected that either there had been some tense running order discussions or perhaps the promoters had realised that nobody with a credit card wanted to watch a full set of Village People, even on their 40th anniversary.

I’d seen Bjorn Again previously, so knew what to expect: kimonos, peroxide and a lot of cheese: cheesy Swedish accents, cheesy dance moves and cheesy “this half of the hall sing with me” type banter. Ah, who cares, what you also get are tour-perfected selections from one of pop’s best greatest hits catalogues. The Aussies have been doing this for a while now and obviously know at 8pm on a Friday night their audience is going to consist of people who have put their work week beyond them and have already had a couple of Tiger beers. So their slightly truncated set list found room for stompers such as Ring Ring and Honey Honey, but not the reflective Winner Takes it All. During the set it » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Town Hall, Birmingham

Date: 11/05/2017

A mere 44 years on from when I saw them last, I and a load of folk of questionable age assembled to see how this particular band was weathering it’s half century. And the answer, notwithstanding only one original member still standing, is not half bad. And not entirely good, but getting there. Gary Brooker is, of course, the man, and, looking a bit like a Buster Merryweather a week or so into growing his beard, both in looks and demeanour, played a corker. His voice, surely up there amongst the great of UK rock vocalists, along with Cocker and Rodgers, is undiminished, higher notes and all, his piano tinkling more overt than on record. Kicking off with a track from the new album, Novum, all promised well, especially with the next song being a beautiful ‘Homburg’, for me a superior song to that song, see later. And so the first half, interspersing old with new. A particular highlight was ‘Strong as Samson’, the glorious back swirl of organ unmistakeable, even if Fisher begat Copping begat, currently Josh Phillips. Guitar, and apparently for decades is Geoff Whitehorn, erstwhile of Back Street Crawler and » Continue Reading.

Venue:

New York University Arts Centre, Abu Dhabi

Date: 12/05/2017

Nufonia Must Fall started life as a graphic novel by Canadian DJ Kid Koala and he has now taken it on the road. Nufonia we are told (after an opening game of picture bingo) ‘stems from a latin word, Nufon… which is No Fun spelt backwards’. The aforementioned marsupial turntablist takes centre stage providing all words (such as they are), sound effects and recorded music. The Afiara Quartet provide strings and percussion and around the main stage are some ten tiny sets each manned by puppeteers which are then filmed and thrown up onto a large back drop in monochrome. The story is as old as time… robot meets girl, robot falls in love, robot makes shocking discovery. It’s funny, touching and clever and features the best robot since Wall-e. The puppets and scenes are wonderfully naive and reminded me of Lost In Space which as a point of reference acts as a great leveller for the multi generation audience. My eleven year old absolutely loved it and (in an all too rare moment of concise profundity) declared it to be ‘a very interesting and clever romantic comedy’.

The » Continue Reading.

Venue:

V & A Museum

Date: 09/05/2017

I was fortunate enough to be invited to today’s press preview of this event, and to have the rare opportunity to wander around the exhibits at leisure with only a handful of other people in the rooms.

All I can say is that if you are a Pink Floyd fan, you will love this fantastic audiovisual experience – but I’m getting ahead of myself….

On arrival, you are issued with headphones and as you enter the first room, via a recreation of the band’s Bedford van, the music and interviews begin playing as you are transported back to London in the swinging sixties. One of the first exhibits is also perhaps the most poignant one, a touching romantic letter from Syd Barrett written to his girlfriend back home. The band’s formative years are illustrated with audio and video as well as numerous mementos of the time. The whole exhibition is studded with red telephone boxes, which have displayed inside important musical, literary and cultural memorabilia from the relevant period. Each new exhibit triggers new music and commentary as you approach.

As you’d expect, as the artefacts progress through the years, there is » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Soup Kitchen, Manchester

Date: 08/05/2017

Ducktails is the solo project of Matt Mondanile which he has run in parallel with being a key member of Real Estate (who are getting to 2,000 seater venue and heavy 6 Music airplay level – a mere 4 albums in). He’s made a series of curiously idiosyncratic records over the last few years with his own uniquely gauzy take on the artier end of 80s Pop and 70s AOR and really hit his stride on the last two ‘The Flower Lane’ and ‘St Catherine’. He has now parted company with Real Estate, apparently, in less-than amicable circumstances that nobody concerned wishes to mumble on about (and it’s hardly earth shattering Pop news) – so this project is now his day job.

He sometimes appears with a 4 piece band but tonight he’s flying solo with just a guitar, a bunch of FX pedals, a little sampler and most of the music on a backing track (and anyone who gets in a flap about such things really needs to accept that this is the only way, in these austere times, for touring musicians to fly around on a tight budget). I’ve seen » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Playhouse Theatre, London.

Date: 06/05/2017

The outside walls of the theatre are literally pasted with four and five star reviews, and so the heightened air of expectation inside is palpable. David Baddiel – former poster boy* for the New Laddism of Nineties comedy, now a sober, reflective (middle aged) parent – starts by airing a few screen caps from Twitter, breezily introducing the concept that social media is merely you, but the you you’d prefer to project, and punched up a few levels. It’s a gentle introduction, but contains the kernel of a devastating callback later in the show. We move on to a discourse on the correct use of “quotation” marks and the appropriate number of exclamation marks to add to an email’s closing sentence(!!!!) which is also generally lighthearted and pretty much what we’ve come to expect from one of the blokey, jokey architects of Baddiel and Skinner Unplanned. Once we’re sitting comfortably though, David moves into murkier waters, and the laughs become slightly more nervous. However much he’s signified that this is okay to laugh at there’s still an innate reserve within the audience which suggests that relating graphic details of his late mother’s » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 05/05/2017

Bear with me, I’m still shaking. Sometimes there are gigs that are just OK, sometimes they can be good, sometimes even great. Occasionally, just occasionally there comes one that is an epiphany. Dawes at Shrewsbury Folk was my last. This was another. And sure, the setting helps, but the assuredness with which Kiwanuka and band owned the venue was nothing short of stunning. Let’s skip the lacklustre and muddy sounding support. Knowing from umpteen reviews and youtubes how it would start, that anticipation and excitement was palpable. We were in the choir seats, behind the band, with a fabulous view of the stage being set. Bank of keyboards (5), drum kit, adjacent percussion kit, mini stage for backing vocals, mini stage for strings. Lights down. The strings and keyboards start and play the familiar opening to Cold Cold Heart, a cheer as a shadowy figure slopes on and hangs on his guitar for that perfect lick. As the song progresses so too are the rest of the band arriving, with, a nice touch, a bevy of teenage girls: some sort of choir, to add their swell to the orchestration of this 12 minute » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Picturehouse

Date: 30/04/2017

A couple of years after it’s original release a one-off cinema showing of the black & chrome special edition of Mad Max:Fury Road, to coincide with a dvd reissue. Supposedly this was director George Miller’s preferred version – not sure about that but it might have been in his mind; “You will ride eventual shiny and chrome!”. It remains a high-octane adrenaline blast. The monochrome is particularly good at picking out details like Charlize Theron’s eyes, and seems to enhance the whole gotterdamerung feel of the big trucks roaring like dinosaurs in the desert – on the rubber road to Valhalla.

The audience:

wide awake

It made me think..

What a lovely day

Venue:

The Institute, Digbeth, Birmingham

Date: 30/04/2017

Jings, but it’s been a while since I stepped out for some live, forgetting quite how much I delight and deplore the process. Thankfully this was more the former, a homecoming for the boys of Tuam to what is still one of the bigger cities in the west of Ireland. And by Paddy, they were out in force, all ages, shapes and sizes, mainly generous in all three parameters, at times the room reminiscent of the Craggy Island Farmers Dance. I962. And that was the mood set by the support, as if merseybeat had never happened, a world where all the bands are populated by Richard Hawley lookalikes. They and the ridiculously overpriced piss sold in thin plastic slop jars to refresh the audience provided the downside. Thankfully a brief yet all too long set ended and, just before half nine, on trouped the current six physicians, kicking straight off into a set of favourites, both old and, probably, brand new. With a newish record to promote I am sure some songs were new, but they all sounded familiar and the audience knew all the words, or seemed to. There is something » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Basingstoke Anvil

Date: 28/04/2017

Like mushrooms , which I don’t but that’s another story, I have a preference towards darkness and fretting over the intricacies of life’s bigger questions. Whether it be love, death, time, space or the nature of reality – it’s very much in my wheelhouse. Which is where we find The Unthanks and their latest Diversion, No.4, using the words or Molly Drake, poetess, songwriter and mother to the more well known, Gabrielle and Nick.

Cards on the table I knew very little about Molly before I heard about this project, Actually pretty much nothing apart from being Nick & Gabrielle’s mum. I expect this may be the experience of many attendees of this tour and listeners to the album and I can say that it’s perfectly fine. In fact I had preordered the album and it’s accompanying 8 track mini album ‘Extras’ which had duly arrived 2 days before the show but deliberately delayed listening so I could experience the songs for the first time in a live setting.

For these shows The Unthanks are a more streamlined setup which serves the songs best – Becky, Rachel & Adrian on piano, Niopha » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Thekla, Bristol

Date: 26/04/2017

The return of big, bad, Barry…former bass player with Magazine, ex Bad Seed and all round cool guy. His latest album “Know Where to Run” slipped out late last year, missed by many (including me to begin with) and now he’s touring it, pepped up with a nifty EP “Love Sick Dick”. You do the meaning. A solo show, BA plays guitars, keyboards and i-phone. And it’s a seriously good show. He may be a bit greyer round the muzzle (aren’t we all all) and thicker at the hips (aren’t we all) but sunglasses and a fedora and he is seriously cool. And some seriously good new songs. First time he played Bristol was 40 years ago at the C*****n Hall as part of Magazine. A fair few in the audience were there(not me sadly) and as a reward he closed his encore with that great f*** off fascist anthem “The Light Pours Out of Me”. Glorious.

The audience:

Blokes mainly, but cool with it.

It made me think..

Heart beats up love

Venue:

Pizza Express,Brindley Place, Birmingham

Date: 21/04/2017

Wonderful night at Pizza Express in Birmingham watching Dean Friedman. Not a name on many people’s lips. Possibly remembered for some quirky songs nearly 40 years ago.

But this guy is not just a one-hit-wonder. He composed loads of great songs. He teaches songwriting and conducts workshops.

He comes on and plays acoustic guitar with a very polished and nuanced hybrid picking style. At 61, his voice has lost none of its richness and range. His repartee between each song is witty. He embroiders each song with a tale – the evolution of McDonalds Girl into a YouTube hit and its eventual adoption 30 years later by the eponymous brand; the tale of Half Man Half Biscuit’s “Bastard Son Of Dean Friedman”, which is followed by his song about HMHB’s Nigel Blackwell entitled “A Baker’s Tale” ‘explaining’ Nigel’s birth.

He moves to piano and reveals a style rich in both jazz and classical training. The songs are well constructed, literate and funny.

He plays all the favourites – “Ariel”, “Rocking Chair” , ” Shopping Bag Ladies”, “Woman Of Mine”, and many more, including a very Randy Newmanesque “Death To The Neighbours”.

He » Continue Reading.

Venue:

170 Russell St / Bird’s Basement Melbourne

Date: 27/04/2017

At this time of year we get a stream of sideshows in Melbourne from bands booked for the Byron Blues festival. I prefer to cherry pick and get longer sets than sweat in a tent (TMFTL) at Byron. These last 2 weeks I’ve seen Laura Mvula, Electric Miles and now St Paul and the Broken Bones on Thursday followed by St Paul and the Minneapolis Funk All Stars on Sunday (not a Byron gig).

St Paul and the Broken Bones come from Alabama and are fronted by Paul Janeway. Deprived of music for most of his life due to a strict religious family he’s got JB, Sam Cooke, Otis and southern Baptist fervour infused into his remarkable voice. Their set of white southern soul / funk kicked off at 7 pm , squeezed in before they flew home. St Paul comes out in a cape and opens with Crumbling Light off 2016’s Sea Of Noise. The band are pretty good without being great, drums guitars, keys and a line of brass – but it is all about St Paul. But the thing is, he is such an unlikely figure » Continue Reading.