Venue:

The Gibson Rooms

Date: 13/07/2017

Not quite a Nights In and not quite a Nights out…..

At The Gibson Rooms in Soho, I was part of a small group gathered together to listen, not only to part of the Master Quality Audio of Black Sabbath’s Ten Year War box set but also a Q&A hosted by Alex Milas who was talking to mastering engineer Andy Pearce, Tom Allom, who engineered the first three Sabbath albums and MQA’s Spencer Chrislu. Before the event started, we had an opportunity to use some Android based portable MQA players provided by Pioneer Onkyo which are quite chunky compared to carrying a phone. Preloaded with the box set, the players sounded pretty good, given that the basement room was quite noisy. The audio files appear on the player as FLAC but MQA retain as much of the audio data in as small a file as possible so that If MQA files are played back on non MQA equipment then they should play at better than CD quality. Also on display were a selection of the vinyl discs (pressed in “splatter” vinyl) along with the covers. The box set contains the eight albums with » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Town Hall, Birmingham

Date: 24/07/2017

Those of long memory and patience might recall a plaintive post I put up on our predecessor, seeking advice around going to see this duo, afeard as I was of a lynching, on grounds of my gender. Assured, perhaps by Twang(othan) or Vulpes, maybe Steve T, there tonight incidentally, I brewed up my courage and waited this 9 years for their next tour. And I was not disappointed. Supported by Lucy Wainwright Roche, another Wainwright scion, she was charming, witty and self-deprecating. She could sing and play the guitar well too, but I can’t recall a hint of her songs. Even the ones from the record I have. And disarmingly and obviously her fathers daughter, Loudon in a wig being the look. Which is harsh as I warmed to her. Such is the role of a reviewer. A short gap and she was back, albeit alongside a fiddle player, very good, of chinese extraction and interesting hair, the two being the current band alongside Amy Ray (darker hair, lower registers) and Emily Saliers (fairer hair and the higher notes). I have their debut and a couple of others, so was anxious I may » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Glasgow (SWG3)

Date: 16/07/2017

In over 30 years of gig-going I rarely experience anything new – it’s all variations on a theme, and fair enough – but Sunn 0))) made me experience something new. And not just some choice moments, but the whole performance.

From one perspective this is a two hour health and safety nightmare: from the time you enter the venue there is so much dry ice you can barely see 10 yards in the already-dimly-lit space. We stand at the front, and only belatedly realise that (a) we are standing on metal plates which are basically sound-and-vibration amplifiers, and (b) the several square metres worth of speakers are but a few feet in front of our faces.

The noise: the bone-crushing, ribcage-rattling, nostril-vibrating tsunamis of sound, only barely recognisable as being of guitar-based origin. I literally have to shift my posture a few times to reduce the sonic echoes throbbing through my whole body. It hardly goes without saying that there is an utter lack of information or breaks between songs, and an absence of anything resembling a song or a tune.

But from a different perspective – and I realise this after » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Letchworth Cinema

Date: 16/07/2017

I came back to the the Apes quite recently, having seen the original film back in the day, the TV series, the cartoon..I mean, how many apes do you need? The one with Helena Bonham Carter was OK but nothing spesh…so the reboot series caught me by surprise. Bought in a 6 for a fiver second hand DVD clear out, Twang Jr negotiated that the twofer set of the first two films counted as one, so they cost a fraction of a quid – and they are brilliant. Telling the story of how the original ape dominance of the planet happened, “War for the Planet of the apes” picks up the story as groups of renegade and lawless humans fight back against the simian hoards and also against each other.

Studiously avoiding spoilers, the film is thoughtful and quite deep, with some glaring nudges to the ribs moments too (who, exactly, is the animal in this scenario…?) with plenty of action to keep the 13 year old in the group happy too. The ending neatly links to the start of the original film, and in google land you can find nerdy analyses plotting all » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Not the Colston Hall, Bristol

Date: 13/07/2017

This was one of a small series of concerts to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Bella Union label. I’d snapped up tickets as soon as they went on sale – how could I not? One of my very favourite acts, playing with a full orchestra and a Cocteau Twin? Yes please. There was a hiccup the day before, when the roof fell in on the original venue, the Colston Hall, and it was hurriedly moved to the O2 Academy in town. I was a bit anxious about this. The Academy is fine, but more of a scuzzy rock venue than the refined concert hall vibe of the Colston. It turned out okay though, as we found a place with perfect sightlines and the sound was mixed as well as I’d have expected up the road. A big shout to whoever was in charge of the logistics – I have no idea how they fitted thirty people, most of them seated, onto the Academy’s stage but they managed it. God only knows how rammed the dressing room was.

The support is a new signing to Bella Union, one Charlie Coxedge. » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Markthalle, Hamburg

Date: 05/07/2017

OK Afterworders, we all know that the first band on at Live Aid was ‘ver Quo, yes? Bonus points if anyone knows who was first on at Philadelphia? Yes, it was the Hooters, a band so ignored in the UK and long forgotten that they’re a bit like Iceland. 99% of people have never been, and 99% of the people who have, have only been to Reykjavik. As a test, see if you can name any other City in Iceland? As a further test, even if you’ve heard of them, how many of you own a Hooters album? The defence rests, your Honour. Philadelphia’s finest, The Hooters are in fact, still going, especially popular in Germany, and, here’s the thing, I utterly absolutely and fantastically love them. Ostensibly, they’re the band who harbour the uber hit song writers Eric Bazilian and Rob Hyman (One of US, Time after Time, Private Emotion, Old Before I Die, Gimme a Stone and a fair few others) and they play a kind of music that is somewhere between roots, rock, folk, reggae and ska, with mighty tunes, the kind of choruses you can’t stop humming and a joy » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hyde Park, London

Date: 09/07/2017

There’s a song from a lesser-known Tom Petty album, 2002’s The Last DJ, which rails against large outdoor gigs. “They sat in golden circles/And waiters served them wine … And way up in the nosebleeds/We watched him on the screen/They’d hung between the billboards/So cheaper seats could see”. This is the Hyde Park experience, and Tom Petty has become part of this – not that I blame him. He last came to the UK in 2012, and may not play here again, so he’s playing to Hyde Park sized places. My £65 ticket (plus fees) gets me the basic admission, which gets me about 100 yards from the main stage at best. If I were to empty my wallet further, I might get in the silver section, a crescent nearer the acts, or the gold section, nearest the front. My friend who works in the city got a ticket in the still-more-rarefied VIP garden, a grandstand slightly to one side of the stage, commanding a raised view of the stage, and possibly featuring butlers, caviar on ice and executive relief.

Back in the plebs’ area, we have the option of a huge amount » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Granada Studios

Date: 06/07/2017

Manchester International Festival can’t be accused of relying too much on the musical heritage of the city itself (previous MiFs have had musical input from the likes of Bjork, Kraftwerk, Massive Attack and so forth) however the spirit of Tony Wilson and Factory was always been bubbling under the surface and this year’s a bit more blatantly Factory/New Order related – as well as the New Order performances there is also a related art Exhibition ‘True Faith’ and tellingly the closing event (bringing Friedrich Engels back to Manchester..of course) is called Ceremony. New Order’s part is a series of shows at the old Granada Studios, an appropriate venue since of course this was where Tony Wilson presented ‘So it Goes’ and delivered The Sex Pistols to an unsuspecting public and Joy Division themselves made their first TV appearance here on Granada Reports. Inevitably the gigs sold out in a heartbeat, however, the MiF box office are in the habit of releasing last minute tickets on the day and sure enough I was able to bag one for tonight.

Stepping into the Granadaland studios, it’s a bit like the Old Grey Whistle Test – » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hyde Park, London

Date: 01/07/2017

Last night Green Day delivered two hours of upbeat commercial punky rock’n’roll that set the standard for summer park festivals.

As someone who’s watched bands in halls, tents, parks, stadiums and arenas for 30 years it’s always a pleasure to watch musicians who, even after two decades on the road, still project the kind of boyish enthusiasm you’d find in a bunch of teenagers bashing out Ramones numbers in a suburban garage.

Green Day have an impressive back catalogue of catchy three minute post punk singalongs on a dozen albums going back to the early nineties. Last night’s show revolved around their latest release, Revolution Radio, and their massive sellers American Idiot (title track, Boulevard of Broken Dreams, Letterbomb, Holiday, St Jimmy and Jesus of Suburbia) and Dookie (Basket Case, Longview, She, When I Come Around and Welcome to Paradise), as well as a few songs from the early 90s albums and later releases Warning (Minority) and 21st Century Breakdown (Know Your Enemy). I had hoped to hear a handful of my favourite tracks from the band’s enjoyable album trilogy Uno Dos & Tre but this didn’t spoil an otherwise well-paced and » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Trades Club, Hebden Bridge

Date: 01/07/2017

I bloody love this band. I go back with these guys. I’ve been going to their gigs since 2009 and they never fail to surprise and delight. They’re currently working their way around the festival circuit and although I’m pleased they are gradually reaching larger audiences this was a nice chance to see them in more intimate surrounds of the Trades Club. It’s a sell out crowd, hot and sweaty and the occasionally complex time signatures and Steve-Reich-esque poly-rhythmic xylophone work-outs don’t stop the crowd from cutting a rug – following lead singer Duncan’s lead who throws plenty of shapes up front. The band are now onto their 5th album, and have a considerable repertoire to choose from – they take heart from the fact newer songs from their latest ‘Big Balloon’ get an equally huge ovation as earlier material – nice to hear ‘Doppelganger’ from their debut LP and the title track from ‘Cadenza’ already sounding like classic stuff even though it’s a mere 5 years old. If you’re not familiar with the band, there’s a definite proggy angle to Dutch Uncles but think the poppier end of it – ‘Turn » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Hospital Club, London

Date: 28/06/2017

I signed up with Pledge Music to buy the album, buy the book, and buy the gig ticket. (For some reason after writing that I now want to adopt a stupid Dennis Waterman voice and say “write da feem toon, sing da feem toon”).

It was a collaboration that intrigued me: author Laura Barnett teaming up with singer Kathryn Williams to create a fictional ‘greatest hits’ album for a made-up music star. (For some reason now, I’m thinking of Garth Effing Brooks and his fictional rock and roll alter ego Chris Gaines, and no, God no, this is NOT like that!)

Last night I headed for the Q & A session and gig part of my pledge purchase, which was being hosted at London’s posh Hospital Club (a private members club and hub for people in the creative industries, don’t you know. Despite that, they let me in).

Laura’s new novel, Greatest Hits, tells the story of Cass Wheeler, a music star who, at the height of her fame, cuts herself off from the world. Two decades later Cass gradually re-engages with life as she compiles a personal ‘Greatest Hits’ tracklisting » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Student Central, University of London

Date: 28/06/2017

My first ever gig was in November 1971, at Guildford Civic Hall. Mott The Hoople were pre-hits but were the biggest band touring the UK. They had built a solid, 2 year reputation as the best live act in the country, as they rampaged from college to uni to theatre. They were loud, chaotic, shambolic but utterly captivating. That night, I fell in love….with Mott, with lead singer Ian Hunter, and with live music. 46 years later, the love affair still burns bright.

I have seen IH&TRB several times, over the last few years, but this was the best. With a newish album, a 42 year solo back catalogue, plus the Mott Hits, the setlist was a stormer. Starting with That’s When The Trouble Starts, from the new album, Fingers Crossed, the band, and Ian, ripped the roof off the place from the get-go. Throughout the set, there was no let up, with the chords of the next intro starting beneath the thunderous ovation for the previous song. Second up was Ian’s biggest solo hit, Once Bitten Twice Shy, which was a sizeable hit in the USA. Ian moved to Conneticut » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 24/06/2017

Jackson takes the stage thankfully shorn of the huge beard he sported on the cover of 2008’s “Time the conquerer” from which album comes the opener, “Just say yeah”. This is followed by “The long way around” from 2014’s “Standing in the breach”. He’s clearly starting by doing new and doing political. The first set is dotted with political messages and references – a Cuban protest song here, a reference to Brexit or comparison between England (he means the UK) and Trump’s America there. But the band is glorious and the JB voice is in fine shape, if adopting the “two semitones down” technique entirely justifiable for a singer / songwriter legend in his 60s. From the first number Greg Leitz gives JB deity alumnus David Lindley a run for his money on lap steel, pedal steel and exquisitely phrased lead guitar. Other guitar duties are handled by Val McCallum who does the fast tricky stuff which would have been played by Danny Korchmar back in the day, swapping guitars like a juggler, until I could spot a pending country number as he grabbed his Telecaster or a rocker as he reached for » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The London Coliseum

Date: 21/06/2017

On a hot summer night, we wound our way down Charing Cross Road to theatreland for Bat Out of Hell – the Musical! The album is a massive, over the top confection, so it’s only fair that now it has finally hit the stage, more than 40 years after its genesis as an abandoned musical, it has found a home in the baroque wedding cake of the London Coliseum. As if the venue wasn’t ornate enough the huge set covers the proscenium arch and beyond with metal beams and the boxes closest to the stage are filled with speakers, promising that whatever happens next will be loud enough to shake the gilded plaster from the venerable hall.

What does happen next is a flash of light, a drum crack, and then a bellowed, ‘I remember everything!’ leads our hero Strat into the opening monologue of Love and Death and an American Guitar. Strat is the leader of the Lost, a tribe who are all eternally 18 and live in the disused train tunnels underneath what used to be called Manhattan, but by 2100 is the land of Obsidian. Obsidian is ruled over by » Continue Reading.

Venue:

O2 Arena, London

Date: 17/06/2017

In the two decades since Ritchie Blackmore’s very final departure from Deep Purple in 1993 the classic rock press have expressed exasperation, puzzlement and, at times, guarded admiration for the old contrarian’s pointy hatted medieval minstrel meanderings. Column inches have opined on the prospect of Purple reunions and whether he would stop diddling about with lutes and flutes and, for God’s sake, just play what he was put on God’s earth to play: meat and potatoes classic English hard rock. Some even speculated about a Rainbow comeback – maybe with Ronnie Dio, before he sadly passed away, or Joe Lyn Turner – with Ritchie reportedly claiming that he would never play hard rock again.

On Saturday night at the O2 Arena, the Man in Black (yes, he still dresses exactly as he did in 1977) led a 21st century ensemble called Rainbow in order to relive his past stargazing glories with the earlier Dio, Graham Bonnet and Turner line-ups. Basically, the maestro gave us a wonderfully fluid and melodic master-class on a Fender Stratocaster which was a delight to savour.

Fronted by a denim waist-coated Chilean Dio sound-alike, Ronnie Romero, the band » Continue Reading.

Venue:

O2 Institute, Birmingham

Date: 19/06/2017

At last, 3rd time lucky, I have got to see him, mishap and misfortune interfering during his last 2 trips. And what timing, hot on the heels of strong contender for 2017 album of the year, Gargoyle. First things first, arriving as I did half way through the support, a 2 piece on guitar and drums. Who is this, I asked those about me, too old to read the paper on the wall behind the bar. Nobody knew, but I liked the gothic(k) stuff, evoking the bastard love child of 90’s RT, Night Comes In, with ’67 Doors, The End, but with more distort. Of, course, it suddenly hit me, Duke Garwood, buddy of Lanegan, and it was indeed. Tip top stuff I will be investigating. A short gap and on comes the band, again with Garwood, this time on 2nd guitar, maracas and 2nd keyboards. (To be fair, Lanegan later introduced the whole band, but all I could hear was him clearing his throat.) I love Gargoyle and I love Gravediggers Blues, his last 2 releases in this sort of style, guitar heavy electronica, at least on record. Live it was much » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Queen Elizabeth Olympic Stadium, London

Date: 16/06/2017

I never got to see Guns N’ Roses as a kid: I was about 14 when Slash called it quits, and I never had any interest in seeing LA’s finest hard rock JD-swiggers without him. By the time I lost interest in them, they’d become a bloated caricature of rock excess with Axl Rose routinely arriving 3 and 4 hours late for shows and causing riots by so doing.

So I was a little amused that we were late for this gig.

By the time we got there, it was about 8:20. The Olympic Park is a proper shlep from the wilds of Berkshire and we thought there was no way they’d be on before 9. But as it turned out, we missed It’s So Easy, Welcome to the Jungle and half of Rocket Queen. Ironic, as Alanis Morissette might observe.

Didn’t matter, though. I never thought I’d see Slash, Axl and Duff on the same stage again and yet not only here they were, but here they were warm, smiling, going back-to-back in solos, Axl laying a fond hand on his top-hatted compadre’s arm every so often. It » Continue Reading.

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.