Venue:

Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Date: 10/11/2025

For her 89th birthday treat, I took my mum to see Simon Rattle’s homecoming at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall with his latest band. It’s more than fifty years since the BRSO visited Liverpool and, of course, a young Simon was there witnessing a rendition of Beethoven’s 9th that has stayed with him all his life.

They begin with Schumann’s 2nd Symphony, written when he was on the cusp of a major breakdown. There is a darkness in its heart but, nevertheless, it is beautifully melodic, flows with grace and concludes with hopeful, romantic gestures to his wife. It is by no means a miserable listen. The BRSO are careful to avoid a heavy touch during the sombre parts and being too soft in the lighter ones. It is a tricky symphony to judge well. Rattle and the musicians find the perfect pitch.

Heavy reinforcements are deployed for the complete Firebird by Stravinsky. His score for Serge Diaghilev’s ballet made him a star two years before The Rite Of Spring. He liked a big orchestra. In the end, there are around 120 souls on the stage, including three harps, five percussionists, several large » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Roundhouse

Date: 01/11/2025

A tale of 2 bands tonight. The Stranglers supported by the Buzzcocks

Both bands down to 1 original member, JJ Burnel and Diggle

Buzzcocks were quite frankly, tuneless and dreadful. Most songs incomprehensible. Even the ones I recognised butchered. Honestly just knock it on the head

The Stranglers were better, but in my opinion they aren’t the band with 1 original member. The tunes are reproduced faithfully enough and JJB is still a charismatic and great bass player, but the whole thing seemed soulless. I know they’ve been going a long time without Hugh but now Dave and Jet are dead its really flogging a dead horse

What other bands would be in this position of ever decreasing returns?

The audience:

Obviously the older generation. I felt positively youthful

It made me think..

Bands with few original members should quit

Venue:

The Pound Arts Centre, Corsham, Wiltshire

Date: 01/11/2025

What a revelatory, serendipitous evening we had last night.

Following last month’s lovely Katie Spencer gig in Calstock, Cornwall, I spotted that she had a gig lined up that was a tad closer to Foxy Towers – only an easy 20 minutes away in Corsham. A look at the ticketing for the night in question revealed that the gig was headlined as a John Smith performance, one of only four on his current tour where he has teamed up with Katie. The inevitable effect of this pairing was that there were only a handful of seats left, two of which we promptly grabbed.

My companion at the Cornwall Katie gigs (we’ve seen her twice in God’s Own County) has been my younger brother, who is himself a lovely guitar player. His house is like a guitar shop; they line the walls. For him, the name John Smith invokes a low sigh as his head rolls backwards and his eyes shut in profound admiration. When I told him we’d got tickets for the two-hander, he immediately asked if a) there were any more left, and b) could he crash » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Islington Assembly Halls

Date: 16/10/2025

There is plenty of talk at the moment about the lack of guitar bands. So, if you crave a night of blistering, brilliant plank-spanking you should get yourself along to a Wishbone Ash show; because they have not one but two of the very best British guitarists currently treading the boards.

The show at Islington Assembly Halls was a proper rock gig and my third consecutive night in a 33-date tour. The venue is standing downstairs and unallocated seating upstairs; for us infirm old gits. The place was packed and the sound was pinpoint accurate which gave me a great opportunity to study the playing of Mark Abrahams; Andy Powell’s co-pilot.

Mark has been in the band for 8 years and has brought a new energy and urgency to the sound. Of course he plays the iconic ‘bits’ that us fans associate with Ted Turner and Laurie Wisefield but it’s when he solos that the level of his playing shines.

He flies.

His arrival instantly meant that Andy upped his game and the two of them are now the best twin lead combination still regularly touring the U.K. I would argue that the » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Colchester Arts Centre

Date: 16/10/2025

Eddie Izzard has been touring the world with his single-handed performance of Hamlet since early 2024, and last night and tonight was Colchester’s turn. (I’ll stick to the name Eddie and male pronouns.) Seating was unreserved so a long queue wound around the deconsecrated church even though we arrived in time for the doors to open 30 minutes before showtime. We still managed to bag great seats dead centre and 5 rows back.

Eddie opens the evening by explaining that the intention is to strip away the distance between the icon of ‘Shakespeare’ and the audience, presenting the work new and raw as it would have been to a contemporary audience. He is not primarily known as an actor and the decision to perform Hamlet, playing every role himself, without props or scenery, is certainly brave, as well as a prodigious feat of memory. He is also, it must be said, not that great an actor. His range of tones is limited and the distinction between characters often slight, though his scenes as the mad Ophelia and the dying Hamlet are genuinely moving. But he is, of course, a superb comedian and it’s » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Calstock Arts, Calstock, Cornwall

Date: 20/09/2025

Last Saturday my brother and I drove down narrow lanes embellished by thick mohican strips of vegetation into the depths of darkest Cornwall. Not deep into the west, just across the river from Devon, but beyond the easy reach of many an aging sat-nav. In the background of my photograph of the venue’s stage, that land you can see is in Devon. The venue itself is in Cornwall, a lovely re-purposed chapel, steeply perched on a riverside hill. Only the 50 yard width of the Tamar – the middle of which delineates the border at this point – separates the venue from the hills behind.

I suppose I could have taken the photo half an hour later, while the gig was in progress, but as we sat less than 5 yards from the stage I couldn’t bring myself to raise my phone up to grab a shot almost face-to-face in such an intimate setting.

The reason for our pilgrimage was the second gig in Katie Spencer’s latest UK tour – details of which can be found at the link I have included in this post. Katie has a new album to promote, » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Palais Theatre

Date: 20/09/2025

The Palais is a beautiful deco style refurbished theatre in Melbourne -capacity 2900. Thkis gig wasn’t sold out -they’ve been here in the last few years and a big footy preliminary final was on late afternoon. And it is a seated venue which is an interesting prospect for a full-on psychedelic funkfest. We arrived a few minutes in and everyone was standing in their seat space and pretty much stood all night. 14-piece band 3-piece brass, keyboards, drums, 3 vocalists/talkers/rappers/dancers ,bass, 4 guitars and George. Mr Clinton, resplendent in his gold jacket and cap, spent most of the night in what looked like an armless office chair. He sang little and spent the bulk of the evening clapping or that full length lowered arm waving he does. The only time he was off the chair was to come to the front and exhort us to do the funk, the dog, get on down, get on up etc….or when he fell off the chair. Maybe wheels on that chair were a bad idea. Given he is 84 he wouldn’t want to tumble too often. It was a continuous stream of songs punctuated by long and » Continue Reading.

Venue:

City Folk Festival, Lansdowne Park, Ottawa, ON

Date: 14/09/2025

The Pogues without Shane MacGowan. Worthless surely? Not really.They were never all about Shane, there were other songwriters in the band (e.g. Jem Finer co-wrote Fairytale of New York amongst others), they did instrumental tracks sometimes and quite a few cover versions. The last 2 or 3 times I saw them Shane was “unwell” and either Joe Strummer or Spider Stacy was on vocals. And they made 2 albums without him after he was fired from the band.

They were the first band I became a bit obssessed about seeing live. First time was supporting their future producer Elvis Costello at Hammersmith Palais in 1983. Later in the decade I moved to Switzerland, I bought If I Should Fall From Grave with God on release and was so impressed I bought the rest of their back catalogue within days. I then saw them live for the second time in Zurich in May ’88 where despite the time of the year I memorably witnessed them performing Fairytale of New York together with Kirsty MacColl. Over the next half a decade or so I saw them many times either in Switzerland » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Moseley Folk Festival

Date: 31/08/2025

There are bands that you feel are ‘yours’ and Doves are definitely that. While I can’t say I was in on The Cedar Room on release day in 2000, I had signed up to their brand of Northern Windswept Romanticism © by There Goes The Fear and The Last Broadcast saw them top the UK charts. The first time I saw them live was at the late lamented V Festival, one of the first we took ourselves post-kids with two under three in tow, to. We saw about 10 minutes of several bands in between worrying about eldest wanding off never to be seen again, but on the second stage I can vividly remember an intense version of Pounding. By the time Kingdom of Rust came out in 2009 we had babysitters sorted and saw them at the Academy, a truly great gig. And that was it until this year. There was a hiatus for solo albums, then COVID, then a new albumThe Universal Want. I had tickets for the tour in 2021, only for it to be cancelled in sad circumstances, as bassist and lead vocalist Jimi Goodwin’s mental health prevented him » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Edmonton Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium

Date: 30/08/2025

Also Calgary Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium (29/08/2025)

I bought tickets and booked flights for these concerts in April. I have travelled to the US on many occasions to see Wilco live, but I am currently boycotting that fine country for obvious reasons and these were 2 of only 3 Canada dates this year (the other being Vancouver), they were also the last 2 nights of an extensive tour that has taken them to many different parts of the world. The shows were also billed as “An Evening with Wilco” which meant there was no support act and they played 2 sets. As Jeff Tweedy explained middle of first set “We will come back for a 2nd set and we will play different songs!”. So a fair bit of travel and expense but I worth it I thought for 4 Wilco sets.

Something happened between April and late August, a friend of mine who had been battling cancer for a while received the appalling news that there was nothing more they could do to save him. Desperately sad, he’s only 50 with 2 teenage girls. He has tried to pack quite a » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Göta Lejon, Stockholm

Date: 27/08/2025

Lyle Lovett and his five-man group take the stage at a well-filled Göta Lejon. It’s the first time I’ve seen the famous Texan perform with a band since a London gig in June 1988, on a memorable double-bill with k. d. lang. All are dressed in a suit and tie, with the exception of legendary 78-year-old session man Leland Sklar, with his huge white beard and mane of hair, perched impassively at the back of the stage with his five-string, fanned-fret bass guitar, surveying proceedings like a guru. It’s quite a band that Lyle has put together, including Russ Kunkel, who’s drummed for anyone who’s anyone in the country/rock orbit since the early 70s, and top session pianist Jim Cox. They play in an engaging, relaxed style, making light of their virtuosity. Joining them occasionally is backing singer Amy Keys, whose talents are rather under-used.

Lovett’s setlist stretches over his whole songwriting career, from “This Old Porch”, written before his 1986 debut album with Robert Earl Keen, all the way up to recent songs written “in collaboration with” his 8-year-old twins (!) And like many older artists, Lyle punctuates the set with » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Cropredy

Date: 07/08/2025

8 years, I note, since I last went, saying I would never go, or need to go, again. But fate has a funny old way of turning out, and so, with an opportunity I couldn’t refuse, here I was agin. Rather than a review, more a series of reflections. Fairport have had to downsize the festival, so as to make a buck and avoid redundancy: a profit can be made from selling out at 6,500 tickets as opposed to selling 18,000 when you have budgeted for 20,000. Despite that, everything appeared much as normal, bar noticeably fewer headliners of consequence. So none of yer Alice Coopers, Chics or similar, who have seemingly featured recently. The audience seemed younger than last time. I don’t mean young young, but spritely 50-70 year olds, rather than the wagon train of mobility scooters and morbidly obese I recall last time. And quite a few half that age, and not just the children and grandchildren either. The same stalls around the field but easier to accommodate, smaller queues etc. As a result, the village has expanded what is now a distinct fringe, and advertises as such, especially the Brasenose, which » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Wedgewood Rooms, Portsmouth

Date: 19/07/2025

20 years ago a band of trainee school teachers formed in Fareham. They released two albums of “South Coast Indie-Folk”, slogged round the toilet circuit in a van during the school holidays, and drank too much (often the only payment for a pub gig). I loved ’em, fed and watered them, and put them on five or six times in various Cambridge pubs over four years. I’d do the sound for them whenever I could. After seven years of support tours with the likes of Frank Turner, they were exhausted and called it to a halt before they all fell out.

Last December they met up for a 40th birthday seven-a-side footy match and decided to reform for one night only in their hometown venue. Saturday night was the night in question.

Saturday lunchtime saw me my my youngest offspring set off in driving rain, heavy traffic on every road south, finally to arrive at the Portsea Island, exhausted, 10 minutes after doors opened. Our chance to socialise with the band beforehand had been eaten up by the Chichester ring-road.

I only caught two songs by Kat Meredith and her band, featuring » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The O2 Arena, London

Date: 19/07/2025

The curated pre-show music tells me I’m at the right gig; Little Feat; Chicago; ZZ Top; The Allman Brothers; Mountain; Doors; The Faces and Tower of Power; and the audience reaction, (tapping of feet, singing along, air guitar,) tells me I am with my people.

The eight musicians walk onto the huge stage at precisely 8pm; Nashville bassist, John Cowan; sax player, Marc Russo; drummer, Ed Toth and percussionist, Marc Quiñones join multi-instrumentalist, John McFee; guitarists and originals, Pat Simmons and Tom Johnston; and, on keyboards, the great Michael McDonald who, let’s face it, is the main reason I’m here.

I saw The Doobies in the same venue, in 2017, (a stellar show with Steely Dan,) and saw McDonald at the Hammy O the following year. He sang four of his five biggest Doobie Brothers hits that night; I Keep Forgetting; Minute By Minute; What A Fool Believes and Taking It To the Streets; just omitting It Keeps You Running; but it wasn’t with The Doobies.

The band opens with Take Me In Your Arms and hits the ground running. I do love an American guitar band who comes out fighting, taking » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Academy, Manchester

Date: 02/07/2025

Lucy Dacus may not be a household name, but she is having a bit of a moment. Hot on the heels of the success of boygenius her latest album is getting a lot of traction. Three years ago she was playing at Manchester’s 500 capacity Gorilla; now she’s effortlessly selling out the 2000 capacity Academy.

Her songs are understated, introspective and often low key melodically. But any fears that they wouldn’t work in a standing venue of this size are dismissed from the off, as she and her five piece band launch into ‘Hot and Heavy’ from her 2021 album ‘Home Video’, swiftly followed by the crowd pleasing ‘Ankles’ from her new album, ‘Forever is a Feeling’. She does almost the whole album, interspersed with songs from her earlier records including probably her best known song ‘Night Shift’. That, and the one boygenius song, ‘True Blue’, are greeted rapturously but so too are the new songs. The title track, and ‘Big Deal’ are standouts, but the song which arguably gets the warmest reception is ‘Best Guess’, which clearly is ‘Our Tune’ for many of the audience and I suspect will be much played » Continue Reading.

Venue:

St Georges, Bristol

Date: 26/06/2025

The band Lady Maisery in cahoots with the duo of Jimmy Aldridge and Sid Goldsmith have worked together for some time now – their Winter show, called ‘Awake! Arise! has charmed and warmed us twice now over the last two years.

Happily they have now been inspired to put together a sibling show for the summer; it’s called ‘Wakefire’ – and last night we went to see them perform it at the wonderful St. Georges venue in Bristol.

What we witnessed was stunningly original, beautifully delivered and expertly played by musicians who have both mastered their instruments and have fabulous voices.

Five part harmony singing. Electric and acoustic guitars, an Mbira, a harmonium, a piano accordion, a drum, an amazing bouzouki, a banjo, some clogs, a violin, an old valve radio and a couple of shaker sticks. Old songs and new songs, songs from Latvia and Sweden, chord sequences and phrases stolen from mash-ups, even cocktails, it’s all there. All in an evening’s entertainment that left a packed, sold-out hall on its feet applauding enthusiastically for the final numbers.

Outstanding and exuberant, original and exploratory and innovative, this was » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Sound Lounge, Sutton, London

Date: 20/06/2025

Gigs by Robbie McIntosh and his band are as rare as hen’s teeth so, when this one popped up at the wonderful Sound Lounge in Sutton, London; I had to go. Apart from anything, Robbie is a Sutton boy so the crowd is peppered with friends.

Five days earlier I was sitting in the Royal Albert Hall waiting for Bonnie Raitt to come on when Robbie and Giles Martin sat in the row in front of me. During the standing ovation for the encore I was able to tell Robbie that I would be at his gig on Friday. He was genuinely chuffed and shook my hand before disappearing backstage, (having had a “I’m honoured to have guitarist Robbie McIntosh in the house tonight,” from Bonnie earlier.)

First off I have to name check his stellar band; some of the best British musicians still doing the miles.

On bass and bv’s, the effortless Steve Wilson; on keyboards and bv’s, the ‘wearer of hats,’ Steven Darrell Smith; on percussion, the evergreen Jody Linscott; on vocals and acoustic guitar; the delightful Hannah Robinson; on harmonicas and jews harp, the unbelievable Peter Hope Evans » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Royal Albert Hall, London

Date: 16/06/2025

Bonnie Raitt at The Royal Albert Hall? It’s always one of my favourite gigs of the year, when it comes around every couple of years.

This time, the support is the Man from Kent who is called ‘the 8th Wonder of the World’ by Bonnie herself; Jon Cleary. He comes out to a packed audience, many of whom know him well due to his ten-year residency in Bonnie’s band around the turn of the century.

Cleary immediately sets about turning the big old hall into a piano-bar on Bourbon Street in New Orleans; the city he’s called home for much of his life; and has us in the palm of his hand, (I’m actually sure he has three hands; so mesmerising is his playing.) His voice has been soaked in Sazerac rye whisky and the smoke from a thousand Lucky Strikes and the 40 minutes passes in the blink of an eye and ends with a huge ovation.

Bonnie’s band has two ‘new-boys’ over the last couple of tours; Duke Levine has stepped into the huge shoes left by George Marinelli, Bonnie’s gunslinger for 30 years, and does a brilliant » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Utlilita Arena, Newcastle/BP Pulse Arena, Birmingham

Date: 05/06/2025

The initial viral reaction to the opening Australian dates of this tour were pretty scathing and, it turns out, hopelessly misguided. The general cause of the bitching was that the show is minimalistic, low on stage production and costumes, and generally considered ‘cheap’. Well, to an extent, m’lud – La Minogue is feted for the spectacle of her stage shows, and compared to say the Showgirl and Aphrodite: Les Folies extravaganzas, this one is indeed stripped back. But there are still lasers, a ceiling descent, dancers, confetti showers, bespoke filmed inserts, a mirrorball and copious costume changes, so we’re not exactly talking Dumpy’s Rusty Nuts at the Student Union here. Yet the main objections to those early shows have been emphatically silenced by the sheer quality of the performances and the giddy sense of communal ecstasy that they have inspired. (Review continues in comments)

The audience:

Unsurprisingly an eclectic multi-generational mix, with a gratifying proportion of boomers and Gen-Xers, and heartwarming pockets of dads-with-young-offspring generally congregating near the B stage. And of course a huge gay contingent in their many manifestations, from those in all their glittering peacock finery to » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Bridgewater Hall Manchester

Date: 02/06/2025

Cat Power has been touring her song for song live performance of Bob Dylan’s 1966 tour setlist for the best part of 18 months. Indeed she recorded and released her performance at the Albert Hall (the real one) in late 2023 (@Junior-Wells reviewed it here at the time).

I’ve heard the record and enjoyed it without being blown away. And of course I know exactly what the setlist is going to be, so I wasn’t sure I could be bothered to go to this. But in the end curiosity won out, and I am very glad it did.

The show starts with the acoustic set of course, although unlike Dylan, Power confines herself to vocals, accompanied by one of her band on acoustic guitar and another on harmonica. The sound is impeccable, the lights are low, and there’s an intimacy in her vocals which means the cavernous and characterless Bridgewater Hall is made to feel almost like a late night jazz club. But as the songs follow each other there is a homogeneity in the slow tempo Power gives them all. Its pleasant enough but not really catching fire. » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Algonquin Commons Theatre, Ottawa

Date: 29/05/2025

Probably well known to a number here, The Musical Box are a band from Montreal that recreate Peter Gabriel era Genesis in a live setting.

They are doing a “Genesis 1973” tour. I went primarily to keep a mate company. I like this era of Genesis, but am by no means a massive fan. It was also in a small venue with excellent sound which helps.

And they were truly excellent, amazing musicianship. I could almost imagine it was Gabriel on stage, apparently recreating the original stories/introductions without a trace of a French Canadian accent. I didn’t love all the songs, but all were recreated with much conviction. Special mention to “Phil Collins” who was superb throughout. A fun night out after escaping a massive thunderstorm on the outside.

The audience:

As you would expect

It made me think..