Venue:

Bush Hall, London

Date: 22/01/2023

A freezing Sunday night, in the dark side of town, and a queue outside Bush Hall wind’s it’s way around the corner. Five Swedish guys, all nine foot tall, are behind me – they have made the trip specifically for this gig. It Bites were that kind of band.

A stellar bunch of musicians shuffle onto the stage, (Peter Jones, the blind keyboard player from Camel and who is also Tiger Moth Tales, is helped to his seat by the bass player, Paul Brown, to a huge roar. Pete is a Prog legend,) including guitar prodigy Luke Machin, from Maschine & Tangent and drummer Bjorn Fryklund. Finally, the 6’ 4” Dunnery comes out, with that white Squier Strat still around his neck, beams out at the audience, and counts in All In Red. And I’m at Guildford Civic Hall, in 1988, in awe at Frankie’s sheer charisma, and singing my lungs out.

It is clear from the off that Dunnery is amongst friends, with the audience singing every chorus, every backing vocal and every vocal tick that we loved from the albums, which Frankie still sings too.

The setlist mines all three » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Barrowlands Ballroom, Glasgow

Date: 12/11/2022

The first Saw Doctors gigs for six years provoked a flood of ticket-sales, especially in Glasgow, their natural ‘musical’ home. The band has long said that The Barrowlands is their favourite place to play, anywhere in the world, so I was determined to see them, (maybe for one last time?), in the iconic old venue.

The roar when the band came out was like a Saturn rocket taking off. The communal singing started immediately, and didn’t let up for the two hours the boys were onstage. It was a Greatest Hits setlist – Exhilarating Sadness, I Useta Lover, Tommy K, The Green and Red of Mayo, Why Do I Always Want You, Clare Island, Sing A Powerful Song, Macnas Parade and N17 were just the highlights of a raucous, lung-busting gig before a breathless encore of Red Cortina, Joyce Country Ceilidh Band, Bless Me Father, That’s What She Said and Hay Wrap sent the 1900 punters home happy, delirious and very drunk. No trouble, no aggression, no concerns walking back to my hotel, just an overwhelming feeling of happiness.

The audience:

The best I’ve ever been in. I’ve lost count of how » Continue Reading.

Venue:

KOKO Camden

Date: 15/11/2022

January’s Anais Mitchell album is my most-played album this year, closely followed by her band, Bonny Light Horseman’s 2nd album. So I couldn’t wait for this gig, especially as it also meant a catch-up with the estimable @SteveT.

Anais Mitchell’s voice is Marmite, I get that. But I’m a great believer in the theory that certain types of sound-wave are compatible, give pleasure, even, to certain people. Her voice makes me shiver with pleasure. Her voice gives me goosebumps, makes the hairs on my arms stand up, gives me pleasure.

As I say, the current album is my fave of the year so, to begin the gig with Real World, Bright Star, Brooklyn Bridge and On Your Way made me very, very happy. The musicians keeping her company were wonderful – delicate, quiet, just nourishing the songs – especially guitarist, Austin Nevins, who added tiny sparkles of electric guitar on a beautiful big old white Gibson – and Anais herself was funny, self-deprecating, humble, giddy when she announced she had just found out that her album had been nominated for a Grammy.

Wedding Song from her album, (and Broadway musical,) » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Eventim Apollo (Hammersmith Odeon, for God’s sake)

Date: 17/11/2022

Guitarists and their precious pedal-boards!

The start time for the headline act was delayed by 20 minutes by Jason’s tech fiddling about with the pedal board, cables, amp and various guitars. Every time he tuned a guitar, he spent ten seconds making a complicated, convoluted shape with the lead on the stage, before hanging it on the mic stand. Then, when the band finally came out, (9.21pm, ffs,) you could have been forgiven for thinking that drummer, Chad Gamble, had the most puny right leg ever known to man. It took until halfway through the second song, It Gets Easier, before we could hear the bass-drum and another two songs before the round things which Chad was hitting sounded remotely like a drumkit. However……

The setlist was drawn from a good spread of Jason’s albums – solo, band, Drive-By Truckers and covers – and included just about everything I had hoped he’d play. The steady start included 24 Frames, Dreamsicle, Hope The High Road, Travelling Alone, Only Children and Overseas, before Alabama Pines suddenly moved the gig into the upper reaches of this year’s gig-list. The sound improved, the » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Cadogan Hall, Sloane Square, London

Date: 23/10/2022

On a night when the apocalyptic weather meant that London traffic came to a standstill, where better to be than in the arms of the beautiful Cadogan Hall with Beth Nielsen Chapman?

The Texan singer-songwriter prides herself on the quality of the musicians in her band and, in Scott Mulvahill, she has, once again, chosen well. The young fellow-Texan walks on stage at 6.30pm as the support act, levers an upright bass off the floor and begins to charm the audience with his terrific voice and hooky songs. He is joined at one point by Mia Morris, the drummer in Beth’s band, for a couple of songs before she sits at the piano and sings one of her own. How talented are these people?

Beth Nielsen Chapman has a brilliant new album to promote and, right off the bat, she delivers the first three tracks, in order, and they sound great in the surroundings of this hall. Three terrific additions to her setlist rock our socks before the handbrake comes on and we’re weeping to Sand and Water, her 25 year-old gift to the world of songwriting. She follows this with » Continue Reading.