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Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band

by 72 Comments

Venue:

Co-Op Live, Manchester

Date: 14/05/2025

Over the past few tours we’ve got used to seeing Bruce Springsteen in a reflective mood; reflecting back on times past and on lost friends. This has led to some wonderful, life affirming shows, especially that Saturday show at Hyde Park in 2023 and last year’s wonderful shows at Wembley Stadium. He became Playful Bruce; Cuddly Bruce; Uncle Bruce.

Well, last night, at the opening of his 2025 Land of Hope and Dreams European tour, we got Angry Bruce.

The chance to see The E Street Band in an indoor setting in the U.K is as rare as spotting a Cadillac on the M6 motorway, (the O2 Arena in 2007 is the most recent I can find,) so I grabbed a ticket for Manchester’s American-owned Co-Op Live Arena with both hands. The advantages over a stadium gig?

Better sound, (I could hear the immaculate bass playing of Garry W Tallent last night, for the first time in years,) and a more intimate setting; I hardly looked at a screen last night, whereas you rely on them in a stadium setting.

On the stroke of the advertised 7.45pm start time, the lights went down » Continue Reading.

Go West

by 9 Comments

Venue:

London Palladium

Date: 08/05/2025

This was the third of three Go West gigs with the Sinfonia Smith Square orchestra to celebrate 40 years since the band’s debut album. The build up to the short tour was marred by an illness to Richard Drummie which meant that singer, Peter Cox was flying solo, albeit with the help of the regular GW band, three backing singers and the orchestra.

The first night at the beautiful Bridgewater Hall in Manchester was a terrific gig. Peter was a little nervous at the start, understandably so, especially when he had to announce that his wingman was unable to be there, but the audience lifted the mood. The setlist was a strong mix of those 80’s/90’s classics mixed in with some of their more recent tracks. The arrangements by Rob Taggert were wonderful, giving plenty of space for the brass section to stretch out.

The second gig, at Birmingham’s wonderful Symphony Hall, was even better than Manchester. Everyone on stage had relaxed into their roles and Peter seemed more at ease with the fact that he was carrying the show. His voice is still one of the best around, as it has been for » Continue Reading.

David Gray

by 3 Comments

Venue:

The London Palladium

Date: 09/05/2025

My first David Gray gig was much too long coming. I have every album but, for some reason, his tours have passed me by. His music has resonated with times in my life, something which meant that, on several occasions during the set, I had something troubling in my eye.

The five musicians on stage with him all sang backing vocals which made for a lush wall of sound, while faithful drummer, Clune, demonstrated that he’s as much a part of Gray’s sound as David’s voice.

The delicate After the Harvest from the excellent new album, Dear Life, led into My Oh My and we were off to the races. I was delighted to get three tracks from Slow Motion, one of my favourite of his albums, including the wonderful Nos Da Cariad during which the pesky dust affected me greatly. White Ladder and Silver Lining reminded everyone of Gray’s golden age before the support act, Talia Rae, joined him for Plus and Minus from Dear Life. The atmosphere was building but, when Clune launched into Please Forgive Me, it’s fair to say that the audience lost its collective mind; as did Dave, » Continue Reading.

Wishbone Ash/At the BBC 1970-1988

by 11 Comments

What does it sound like?:

An 11 CD Wishbone Ash retrospective from 18 years of live performances and sessions at the BBC, you say?

Plus a DVD of OGWT footage from 1971; ’77 and ’80, including outtakes and behind-the-scenes footage?

AND a 72-page hardback book with rare photos, interviews and session documentation?

Flippin’ heck, I say; let me at it.

Those lovely people at Madfish have spent four years putting this together with help from band-members and fans alike and the first thing to say is that I can’t believe that all of this material was still available, given the Beeb’s reputation for re-using their tape stocks. Yet, here we are.

The line-up of the band obviously changed quite a bit during its first 18 years; so we go from the classic line-up of Andy Powell, Ted Turner, Steve Upton and Martin Turner in 1970 through to 1988 when the line-up is, er, exactly the same – except Martin had left for 7 years and come back; and Ted had been gone for 13 years and returned.

In those intervening years, Laurie Wisefield and Jamie Crompton had occupied Ted’s spot while John Wetton, Trevor Bolder, Mervyn » Continue Reading.

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks – Live Perpetual Change

by 15 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Oh, bloody joy! What a glorious noise.

This is a live album from 2023’s American tour with The Band Geeks, recorded in St. Charles Illinois in the August. The tour was to celebrate the upcoming release of their wonderful album, True, and was, by all accounts, a triumph. On this evidence, that is the understatement of the century.

Jon Anderson is a force of nature; he was two months short of his 79th birthday at the time of this recording; and his sheer joy at singing these songs, with these musicians, roars out of the speakers at you. So, what do get?

It’s a Yes Greatest Hits setlist, as it should be, so they crash in with Yours is No Disgrace and Perpetual Change from The Yes Album before the glory of Close to the Edge. Then comes Heart of the Sunrise, Starship Trooper, Awaken and And You And I. Next comes Your Move/I’ve Seen All Good People and Gates of Delerium before the obligatory, (but perpetually exciting,) closer, Roundabout.

The musicianship is fantastic. You get to hear 5 musicians who have been practising their whole lives to play with their hero, never thinking » Continue Reading.

Rick Wakeman. Yessonata

by 1 Comment

What does it sound like?:

This limited edition vinyl release is a follow up to Wakeman’s Final One Man Solo Tour of North and South America from earlier this year. It is a piece he wrote for solo piano after performing The Yes Suite for orchestra and choir at his London Palladium concert in 2023.

This work contains more than 30 musical fragments of YES music that Rick was a part of, including the much maligned, (by him, let’s be fair,) Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Picking out your favourite elements is great fun but the piece soon becomes a whole entity, as you give it time and space. I found that putting it on in the background while I was writing was a lovely thing to do as it would suddenly catch me as the beginning of South Side of the Sky or Long Distance Runaround would emerge.

The aforementioned elements of TFTO work perfectly alongside parts of Close to the Edge and nothing grates or diverts.

The second piece is a piano adaptation of the main themes and melodies from Rick’s ‘The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table’. Again, this is full » Continue Reading.

The End; an African icon and an album that began in a tiny room in West Hampstead…

by 10 Comments

…and sold 50+ million copies.

Today’s episode of my blog about London recording studios is the 4th and final part of the story of EMI Studios at No.3 Abbey Road. The tale includes the end of The Beatles, a fleeting visit by Fela Kuti and the story of Dark Side of the Moon.

https://willyoumeetmeonclareisland.wordpress.com/2025/02/14/the-studios-of-london-emi-studios-abbey-road-pt-4/

Toto / Christopher Cross.

by 13 Comments

Venue:

OVO Arena, Wembley

Date: 05/02/2025

Christopher Cross doesn’t visit the U.K too often these days, (2019 was the last time,) and that’s a shame. His music has endured over the 45 years since that all-conquering first album, (‘the green album,’ as he calls it; the one with the flamingo on the cover,) hauled in five Grammy awards and set the course of the genre of Yacht Rock through the ‘80’s, (as Toto guitarist, Steve Lukather, says later; “Where’s my fucking yacht?”)

Cross is a consummate guitarist, (Becker & Fagen asked him several times to be on Steely Dan albums, but he declined,) and his band reflects that, giving his arrangements a distinctly ‘Dan feel’ throughout the set. It is a four-piece band plus three female singers, with the star of the show being the drummer, French jazzer Francis Arnaud. Sounding like Porcaro, Keltner and current Dan drummer, Keith Carlock, all at the same time, I spent much of the 45 minute-set with my eyes glued to that left-hand jazz grip which always looks so classy when he is rolling around his impeccably-tuned kit.

The setlist is pulled from Cross’s first two albums, five of the nine songs coming » Continue Reading.

Josh Rouse

by 13 Comments

Venue:

The Garage, Highbury Corner.

Date: 24/01/2025

Two years ago, at this venue, Josh Rouse performed his wonderful album, 1972, on its 20th anniversary. In 2025, it’s the turn of the follow up, Nashville. Both albums are packed with classics and tonight’s he’s playing Nashville in track order. His band has been with him for over 15 years and are all Spaniards – Rouse landed in Valencia when he fled a broken marriage in 2003 and ended up marrying Paz Suay from Valencia, where they have lived, on and off, ever since.

Any set which kicks off with It’s The Nighttime and Winter in the Hamptons has a fair chance of being a belter – those two would normally be part of the last 5 or 6 of his normal set – and the audience are singing and dancing along and we’re off to the races.

The wonderful Carolina reminds me that we’re only a Middle School Frown away from my favourite JR song, My Love Has Gone. When it starts I struggle to fight back the tears, it means that much to me. He has the incredible knack of making a lost-love song sound upbeat and as his » Continue Reading.

Attention @Twang and all fans of good music.

by 5 Comments

Next Saturday (25th January) there’s a veritable cornucopia of music docs and concerts on TV.

It all kicks off at 5pm on Sky Arts with the fantastic Hollies doc, Look Through Any Window. I promised @Twang I’d look out for it, hence why he gets the shout-out.

On BBC2 it’s James Taylor & Carole King night. Documentaries and gigs run from 8.35pm through to 2.30am.

Back on Sky Arts there’s the Beach Boys, Roy Orbison, Johnny Cash, Eric Clapton & Buddy Guy.

This has been a Public Service Announcement.

A house in St. Johns Wood; Britain’s first rock ‘n roll record and a No.1 hit that was too long.

by 16 Comments

Today’s episode of my studio-blog is about EMI Studios, Abbey Road and it is my 100th post.

I started this venture in May 2021, as we emerged from the isolation of lockdowns and the pandemic. It allowed me to travel into London, to go to places I had never been before, and to research so much wonderful music and incredible people and who have enriched my life.

This is the first part of the Abbey Road story. I hope you enjoy.

Niall.

https://willyoumeetmeonclareisland.wordpress.com/2024/11/22/the-studios-of-london-emi-studios-abbey-road/

Bonny Light Horseman

by 19 Comments

Venue:

The Roundhouse, Chalk Farm

Date: 20/11/2024

The singing-relationship between Eric D. Johnson and Anais Mitchell is something special. They are both on the half-turn, watching each other’s mouths to ensure that the phrasing of the harmony is pin-perfect. Both are constantly on the move, stepping back from the mics in between lines, Johnson all long hair, flapping shirt and dancing feet while Mitchell moves and dances like the music is an electrical feed directly into her body. She feels the music like no one else I know. By just the third song, we’re already at The Roving, the song which hooked me and many others when it was on a Mojo cover-CD in 2019, and Anais Mitchell comes into her own, doing that thing she does, standing on one precarious stiletto while her left leg is cocked behind her, like some blonde flamingo….in black leather pants*.

While the vocals, from all three of them, are the big feature of the band, it is Josh Kaufman’s guitar playing which steals the show. Like Buddy Miller, he is only ever looking to serve the song but, man, he can send shards of sound from that red Guild guitar, looking for » Continue Reading.

Frost*. Life in the Wires

by 8 Comments

What does it sound like?:

The reason this review is late is a simple one; Frost* albums take a while to absorb and take in, especially when it’s a double, like this one.

Their previous release, 2021’s Day and Age, was something of a departure because it contained songs with no solos. I absolutely loved it but I know that wasn’t the case for everyone. Life in the Wires is a return to the band’s roots; a proper concept album with an absolute plethora of fantastic melodies, virtuoso playing and terrific songs. Oh, and a solo or ten.

Jem Godfrey, Frosts*’s leader, keyboard player and co-singer, puts out hilarious ‘the making of’ videos which give fans the background and timeline to the gestation of each album and for this one, we can see that it is very much his baby, especially as he has taken all of the lead vocals. The whole ‘double concept-album’ is obviously his passion and that shines through in the music.

Ah, yes; the music.

The songs are almost universally glorious. There’s an intensity in many of them but without too much of the heavy, complicated time-signature stuff which I know turns some fans off. » Continue Reading.

Danny & The Champions of the World – You Are Not A Stranger Here

by 12 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Sometimes a new album sideswipes you; whips the rug from under your feet and sends you tumbling into a different time and space. Once such album is the new one from Danny & The Champions of the World, ‘You Are Not a Stranger Here.’

It is seven years since the band’s last studio album, seven years in which so much has happened to Danny George Wilson, the band’s principle songwriter, voice and frontman; from solo album to his other band, Bennett Wilson Poole, he’s been a busy Antipodian. He bought into a record shop – Union Music in Lewes which also has a satellite branch in the wonderful Sound Lounge in Sutton where, if it’s your lucky day, you can drink coffee and talk music with the man himself when he’s ‘behind the counter.’ This has exposed him to so much new music, broadened his horizons and, along with the pandemic, made him look differently at the world.

So, if you were expecting another Champs homage to The E Street Band for this, their seventh studio album, then this is where the rug gets pulled right from underneath you.

The ten tracks here, four » Continue Reading.

Thin Lizzy 1976

by 71 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Here’s a great idea for a re-release; take the best calendar year for a band and put out everything they recorded, both official releases, alternate mixes and unreleased tracks.

So, the first cab off the Universal rank is Thin Lizzy 1976, five CDs and a Blu-ray or limited edition coloured LP sets.

You get brand new stereo and atmos mixes of the Jailbreak and Johnny the Fox albums, demos, radio sessions, outtakes, remastered original versions of the albums plus a previously unreleased live show.

By the beginning of 1976 the classic lineup of the band had been together for 18 months;Phil Lynott, Brian Downey, Scott Gorham and Brian Robertson; and the band’s distinctive take on the classic ‘Wishbone Ash twin-lead guitar’ attack had begun to cut through, on both sides of the Atlantic.

The Jailbreak album was recorded at The Who’s Ramport Studios in Battersea, London, between December ’75 and February ’76, with John Alcock producing. The band had worked up the songs in a small studio in Buckinghamshire in late ’75 so that the arrangements were really tight by the time they got to Ramport, (too tight for Robertson who later complained that » Continue Reading.

Rick Wakeman. Yessonata

by 2 Comments

What does it sound like?:

This limited edition vinyl release is a follow up to Wakeman’s Final One Man Solo Tour of North and South America from earlier this year. It is a piece he wrote for solo piano after performing The Yes Suite for orchestra and choir at his London Palladium concert in 2023.

This work contains more than 30 musical fragments of YES music that Rick was a part of, including the much maligned, (by him, let’s be fair,) Tales From Topographic Oceans.

Picking out your favourite elements is great fun but the piece soon becomes a whole entity, as you give it time and space. I found that putting it on in the background while I was writing was a lovely thing to do as it would suddenly catch me as the beginning of South Side of the Sky or Long Distance Runaround would emerge.

The aforementioned elements of TFTO work perfectly alongside parts of Close to the Edge and nothing grates or diverts.

The second piece is a piano adaptation of the main themes and melodies from Rick’s ‘The Myths and Legends of King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table’. Again, this is » Continue Reading.

Jon Anderson & The Band Geeks True

by 25 Comments

What does it sound like?:

Q: Why is the old fool reviewing an album which is already three weeks old?

A: Because my copy only arrived yesterday after I cancelled the presell-one ordered on the Tax Dodgers because they said they couldn’t guarantee delivery by Christmas and what the feck is that all about so I bought it from Burning Shed and got it in 24 hours so up yours Jeff Bezos.

This won’t be detailed review; if you’re a Yes fan you probably have it already; but it will be an unutterably enthusiastic review because this album makes me happier than almost anything else which I’ve heard this year.

Richie Castellano is a multi-instrumentalist who has been a member of Blue Oyster Cult for two decades. In his spare time he has a bunch of friends who play classic Yes music. In the summer of 2018 they posted a version of Close to the Edge on YouTube which got over half a million views and comments. In response to some of the comments, Richie wrote:

“This isn’t a bunch of music snobs showing off. This is genuine love for Yes and their music. We are hardcore Yes fans » Continue Reading.

Big Big Train A Flare on the Lens

by 12 Comments

What does it sound like?:

A new live album and blu-ray release from Britain’s premier prog band, Big Big Train, ‘hits the shelves’ just in time for their Autumn tour of the U.K and Europe.

The recordings are from the two triumphant nights at London’s Cadogan Hall at the end of their 17-date, The Journey Continues Tour, of last year.

I was able to take in seven dates of the tour, travelling to Basel, through Zurich to Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Edinburgh, Birmingham and London. After every show various band-members looked out for me, making sure that I had travelled well, eaten properly, etc; it’s that kind of band.

The one thing you know with any Big Big Train release is that the sound will be immaculate. Their producer, Rob Aubrey, is also their live sound-engineer and he’ll have mixed these recordings to within an inch of their lives. So, yes, it is as good a sounding live album as you are ever likely to hear; no mean feat when there are up to eleven musicians on stage at any one time.

The band had varied the set-list on most dates and the idea for the two nights in London » Continue Reading.

An old friend says ‘Hi.’

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I was at the launch of David Hepworth’s new book at Waterstones Piccadilly tonight. It was a live Word in Your Ear podcast; a terrific chat between David and Mark Ellen.

Once I got my book signed afterwards I managed to spend ten minutes with Mark and mentioned our site. He was chuffed to find we were still going and sends his best to everyone who remembers him, (as if.)

We swapped Wishbone Ash stories and he remembered fondly that night when we all met up on the day The Word died. I reminded him that he and I ended up singing the crescendo to the mighty Phoenix by Wishbone in the very late hours. I left him chuckling away and humming the riff to himself.

So, a lovely old friend says hi.

No Easy Road

by 15 Comments

Author:Wishbone Ash

Here’s a great idea for a book about a band:

1.Take the golden days of a 50+ year live career. 2.Interview the musicians involved, (and their sound guy.) 3.Pepper the pages with photos and clippings from the time. 4.Wrap it all up as a 216-page coffee-table tome, limited to a thousand copies, and chuck in a CD of 10 live tracks from those golden days, plus a photo signed by the classic MkII line-up.

If you were in your early-to-mid teens as the 1960’s turned into the ‘70’s; if Ian Hunter’s Diary of a Rock ‘n Roll Star was your favourite book of ‘74; if you were an original member of the Wishbone Ash fan club and if you had the double-page spread from Disc of Andy Powell and Ted Turner on your bedroom wall, for years, then you are, (a) me, or (b) the target audience for this book.

Wishbone were ‘my band,’ the 2nd band I ever saw. Andy Powell, with his long, blonde locks and that Flying V, was like catnip to this spotty fifteen year-old when I first saw Wishbone Ash at Guildford Civic Hall, 9th February 1972. I loved his aggressive guitar » Continue Reading.