Venue:

Sjöhistoriska, Stockholm

Date: 17/08/2019

It had been a few years since Robyn played a proper gig in Sweden and her hometown, so when it was time to end her current tour with a final gig in Stockholm, she invited some musical friends and collaborators to join her on a mini festival bill. A DJ booth in the sound tower opposite the stage was used to give four DJs up to an hour each to play a set while the stage was being set up for the next artist to perform, so from 4pm until midnight, the audience is treated to music non-stop. Slightly cheesy latin-flavoured chill-out disco from DJ Dea Barandana is followed by a slightly hit-and-miss performance from El Perro Del Mar on the stage, wearing a dress that looks part Sacco sack, part Catholic nun, part trenchcoat. Then an inspired DJ set from Zhala get many up on their feet to show their most abandoned moves, before Kindness take to the stage with an all female three piece band, a bit rusty from apparently not playing live in five years, but appreciated by the audience. Although when Robyn herself join him for two songs things dramatically » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Aylesbury Odeon

Date: 10/08/2019

A coming of age drama set in the 1980’s featuring a Springsteen obsessive. Hmmm I’m naturally inclined to like this and having seen the trailers online the rest of the family were thankfully up for it as well; the only question then was when to go. So in the midst of a family road trip and having had an early evening meal we were pleased to find that Blinded By The Light was showing at the cinema opposite our Travellodge.

Javed is the put upon teen weighed down with family commitments, the expectations of his traditional father and about to start 6th form college. Whilst he’s fulfilling the role of the dutiful son he’s also going through the growing pains of trying to maintain a friendship with his more popular childhood friend and neighbor Scott and avoid the increasing number of skinheads and racists that seem to be frequenting Lutons streets.

Though his Dad is concerned with academic success as a route to a good job ( He’s allowed to choose Doctor or Lawyer) Javed is already secretly drawn to writing and once introduced to Springsteen through some loaned cassettes it’s Bruce’s music that serves » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Norwegian Pearl, Mediterranean Sea

Date: 08/08/2019

This will either be your idea of heaven or hell. Four days on a cruise ship in the Med., with Belle and Sebastian, Mogwai, Camera Obscura, Teenage Fanclub, Buzzcocks, The Vaselines and a host of others. Spoiler alert: for me, it was the former.

This was essentially a floating festival. The ship had several different venues, with different bands playing concurrently around the ship. The major bands played more than once, giving people the chance to plan to see everyone at least once.

I’m a huge Belle & Sebastian fan and I was well catered for with 3 gigs over the 4 days, with 3 completely different setlists (including a complete performance of Fold Your Hands Child, You Walk Like a Peasant.) Other headliners opted to repeat the same set, on the basis that people would probably see them once.

Other highlights for me were The Vaselines – I’d never seen them before and fell in love. Been singing “Monsterpuss, Monsterpuss miaow!” to myself all day. Saw them twice and would cheerfully have done so again. Moving return of Camera Obscura. French Navy on the main (pool) deck in the sunshine was » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Cherry Hinton Park, Cambs

Date: 01/08/2019

I think this was the nicest festival I have been to, including my first visit here, 5 years ago. A belated report, the time needed to collect my thoughts eaten by too abrupt a return to work, and I know ‘nice’ verges now on a code for twee, but, skip that thought, nice it was. Civilised, good music, good food ‘n’ fluids, good company. Good weather, even, missing the downpours besetting the midlands on the day of arrival. Tent duly up, off I plodded to explore, swiftly finding @jorrox and losing my programme, in that order. My thursday order was kicked off well by the Rails, a lively electric set by Kami Thompson and James Walbourne, in demand guitarist for the Pretenders and Edwyn Collins amongst others, and their band. I had time for a bit of Sam Sweeney and his WW1 fiddle, aided by a number of familiar folkie friends, like Jack Rutter. But my dance card was already marked for Rura, the scottish band of the moment: bagpipes, fiddle, guitar and bodhran, the latter doubling on flute, with the piper equally adept on atmospheric keyboard. I like » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Barbican, London

Date: 27/07/2019

A 16mm home-movie of the Williams family flickers on the screen at the back of the darkened stage, where the unseen Buick 6 create a skeletal soundscape of slide guitar blues notes, bass pulses and scattered percussion, which all precede a prerecorded spoken introduction from Lucinda. Anticipation builds until she emerges into the light to introduce this celebration of the 20th Anniversary of the release of Car Wheels On A Gravel Road. She seems incredibly nervous, moreso than I have ever seen her before. After a spoken introduction she launches into Right In Time. Musically it’s a straight version, played as on the album, but she’s changed the phrasing, which keeps throwing the version I’m singing along to myself in my head. The album is played in its entirety and the sequence of songs remains unchanged. Pretty much every song gets an introduction, talking about the inspiration or the circumstances of its creation. A lot of the information is new, some of it I’ve heard before. I won’t repeat anything here, to avoid spoiling anything for anyone going to other UK dates, but it all adds to the pleasure of hearing these songs » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Forum, Bath

Date: 18/07/2019

Well, what a blast! My mate and I decided to go to this when the tour dates were first announced months ago, and neither of us wanted to venture a guess as to how well the show would go. I’ve been a CSN/CSNY fan since the first album with the band on the porch at Cass’ house, and I’ve got pretty much everything they’ve ever done, together or singly, brilliant, bad or indifferent. I love their voices together more than any other band, and the back catalogue is bursting at the seams with gems. My old pal Mike is (was!) much less familiar with the canon; a battered vinyl of Four Way Street and maybe a couple of Hollies 7 inch singles. So Mike didn’t want to cast doubt over my enthusiasm, and I didn’t want to big the gig up so much that he’d maybe be disappointed.

We had front row seats in this exquisite venue, maybe 20 feet from the front of the stage, pretty much in the middle. It’s an old art-deco building which still has its original seats, beautiful wooden internal doors and so on, and is a » Continue Reading.

Venue:

CMAC Arts Center in Canandaigua, NY

Date: 13/07/2019

At 6:30 on the dot (or in this case, the polka dot) Buddy’s band fire up, to an auditorium that is barely one third full, out strides the man himself. If there’s one thing Buddy knows, it’s how to work a crowd. Even if it’s still daylight, most are still at the bar, and you are set up ten feet from the front of the stage.

Buddy works the “room”, exhorting one and all to sing along (and “not to f it up”). It works, and as more take their seats the better it gets. No precious promotion of the last album – he plays the songs he knows are most likely to be recognized. Opening with “Damn Right I’ve Got The Blues”, he gallops on into “Hoochie Coochie Man”, John Lee Hooker’s “Boom Boom” ,“Who’s Making Love To Your Old Woman” and “Cheaper To Keep Her” where he points out he didn’t write it, he just sings it. Anyone still on the fence is won over when Buddy strides out into the crowd to get up close and personal -well, with those of us in the more expensive seats » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hyde Park,London

Date: 07/07/2019

Okay lets gets the reason I was here out of the way first. I like Ms Streisand more as an actress than a singer. My wife loves her singing and since she is in her words ‘enduring’ Cambridge Folk Festival with me in August it was only fair I got tickets for one of her favourite singers. We got there halfway through the Kingdom Choir set I must have had my head under a rock because I didn’t know they sang at Meghan and Harry’s wedding – why would I come to think of it? They did a pretty decent version of the Coldplay ‘classic’ fix you and took away the histrionics that irritated me in the original. A couple of other half decent covers and they were not bad as a warm up act. Then came Kris Kristofferson. What can I say? The artist with the best songs on this particular day had the worst voice by some distance. He had Merle Haggards band providing outstanding accompaniment throughout but his voice was shot to bits. A half decent Me and Bobby McGhee but a risible Sunday Morning coming down. Help me make it » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Oxford Academy aka the old Zodiac for you 90s indie kids

Date: 04/07/2019

“Twenty two years ago to this very day we were stood on this stage” announced Stuart Murdoch, “how has your life been?”. The last of these small warm up UK shows for a US tour ahead of their Boaty Weekender cruise gave the band a chance to shake the setlist up a bit. Whereas Sheffield & Manchester got a fairly usual set with firm favourites like ‘I’m A Cuckoo’ & ‘Me & The Major’ we in Oxford were shown, what I think sportsball commentators term ‘strength in depth’.

A sizeable chunk of tonight’s set was taken from ‘Fold Your Arms Child, You Walk Like A Peasant’ – a less celebrated entry in their canon and one which I don’t actually own. Then again I’m not a massive fan of one of their most celebrated ‘The Boy With The Arab Strap’ so go figure. I am a bit of a late passenger on the B&S Express – I got on board with The Life Pursuit and worked my way backwards. An acquaintance played me Tigermilk back in 1999 and I have fond memories but I » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Jazz Lab Melbourne

Date: 03/07/2019

I didn’t know of Luke Howard but was looking for a gig to celebrate my daughter’s birthday. Jazz Lab is Melbourne’s premier local jazz club, the successor to Bennet’s Lane and not far from Ms Wells’s place. I read up on him and he has some pedigree. Fulsome praise from the BBC, commissioned work, soundtracks. theatre music, games as well as work with his long time trio comprising Jonathon Zion on double bass and highly regarded drummer Daniel Farrugia. In reading the bio I was pleased to read Daniel saying sometimes I just stop playing because the music the other 2 are playing is so beautiful I just want to listen.

I am currently listening to Luke’s 2018 release on UK’s Mercury, lush orchestrations occasional single note pieces etc. It’s lovely. But this was a night for the trio.

So, in we go on a cold Wednesday night. There are about ten people there. Well, that’d be because you mixed up show start and doors open times you dickhead Junior. Great spot secured, we wait. A good way to lower expectations is to come on stage with a croaky voice and advise that » Continue Reading.

Venue:

MASS MOCA, North Adams, MA

Date: 28/06/2019

My 2nd visit to this festival set in the former industrial town of North Adams, deep in the magnificent Berkshires of Massachusetts. It is now the home of the largest museum of contemporary art in North America, MASS MOCA. The festival, curated by Wilco, takes place every 2nd year. I previously attended in 2015 and wrote about it on this site. Unfortunately I was unable to attend in 2017 for some sad immigration reasons, wild horses couldn’t keep me away this time. I realise there was another festival on the other side of the Atlantic this weekend, the one in North Adams was on a smaller scale, about 9,000 festival goers (sold out), around 30-35 musical acts (plus comedians, authors etc), 5 permanent stages, plus several “pop up” ones inside the museum.

This year I opted to stay in town in (extremely basic) student accomodation where rooms were made available for the festival duration. It meant that I parked my car on Friday and didn’t use it again until Monday. Also I got to see more of the lovely town and could see more time on site including the museum (the » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Met, Bury

Date: 22/06/2019

An eclectic array of instruments, banjo, harp, accordion, glockenspiel, voilà sit on a bare stage surrounding three unassuming blokes who are grinning from ear to ear as the packed room lauds them. They are Harp and a Monkey and for almost two hours they have entertained delighted the audience with their unique Northern Folk Experimentalism and storytelling.

The future is built upon the past they’d sung earlier and so it is, using various connotations of the instruments mentioned plus home made backing tapes that add extra of said instruments as well as beats and grooves, they’d performed both original and traditional songs . Their music at times conjures thoughts of David Thomas, Music Hall, The Orb, Lenny Cohen, Jacques Brel, Bjork and The Oldham tinkers but it is always, uniquely their own.

Singer Martin Purdy had a begun the show by saying they were probably “committing commercial suicide” as they would be playing the new album,( due November) in it’s entirety during the first half the show. Yet such is the craft, the sheer excellence of this band and the strength of the material that each new song was greeted at as » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Manchester Apollo

Date: 22/06/2019

Ever since she was a young girl, Gladys Knight has sung songs of life and love with elegance and grace. A natural contralto, age hasn’t diminished her vocal powers. In fact, over time, she has grown even more elegant and beautiful. She looked every inch The Empress of Soul, on Friday night, sparkling in a plumb trouser suit.

She had a wonderful, note perfect band to support her, drums, bass, guitar, two keyboards and percussion, plus three outstanding young backing vocalists. The stage was replete with flowers, the lighting tasteful and understated. The audience was fully aware it’s in for a night of romantic nostalgia. After all, when they were hits in the sixties, seventies and eighties, her songs knowingly harked back to better, more mature, respectful times. Her lover caught the Midnight Train To Georgia to go back to a world he once knew. If I Were Your Woman and The Best Thing That Ever Happened To Me paint an old-fashioned picture of domestic bliss. The Way We Were speaks for itself. The most dramatic performance was for the definitive Bond theme, Licensed To Kill, a traditional style dating back many decades. Even » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hampton Court Palace

Date: 19/06/2019

Hampton Court Palace is a stunning setting for a concert. The courtyard was big enough yet somehow intimate too with no one to far from the action. Lorde’s cover of “Everbody Wants To Rule The World” was a haunting intro to the drama that followed. With the muggy atmosphere and dark looming clouds the scene was set for something epic and Tears For Fears did not disappoint. Starting with the crowd pleasing “ Everybody Wants to Rule The World” I was thrilled by the sound quality along with Curt’s voice which had seemed to find some strength and power since the recent Radio 2 set.. Everyone was on their feet and then we had a run of songs that for the Tears For Fears fans showcased why they remain the gold standard for 80’s synth pop duo’s. These boys know how to put a song together and perhaps more surprisingly know how to transfer that onto the stage. Roland’s turn next and we were treated to “Secret World” a lesser known song but perfect for the occasion reminding us that Roland was always more than the one doing the strange dance in the » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Royal Albert Hall

Date: 19/06/2019

The stage is set with three large and quite beautiful drum kits at the front, with the rest of the band’s gear behind. I’d heard about the three drummers, which was a concern (two drummers almost always being one too many) but I needn’t have worried. The band come on stage promptly at 7.30 after an amusing plea not to take pictures during the performance read, I’m fairly sure, by Fripp himself and immediately the drummer thing makes sense. These are drummers like Ronaldo kicks a ball. They all play the kit musically and like well drilled artillery, but also a range of percussion, gongs, octoplus and rota toms – if you can hit it, you can be confident these three did between them at some point. And it is utterly gripping to watch and hear as textures and grooves float across the stage and back. We’re only 2 minutes in…

The percussion fest settles into “Larks Tongues part 1” and “Cirkus” then “Lizard” follow swiftly. The flexibility of this Crimson lineup becomes clear when I realise the middle drummer is also a keyboard player, and in fact probably plays keys more then » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Portland Arms, Cambridge

Date: 14/06/2019

Fonda 500 had a few years off recording before last year’s ‘I Heart Fonda 500’ album and hadn’t visited Cambridge for ten years. Anyhow, here we were on a Friday night for a run through their 20 years of metronomic hits. Lead keyboard mangler Simon still wears his woolly hat (“it smells like a horse”) pulled down to his eyes to attack his Casiotone MT-65, ladybassist Bod still makes grown men swoon, guitarist Nicholas and Jonee flank either side of the stage, and drummer Ian hides behind his kit except for his brief lead vocal during ‘I.a.m.a.d.r.u.m.m.e.r.’ A set drawn mostly from the last two albums kicked off with I Love Stereo ‘Cos Stereo’s Good For Me, The Sounds Sound Warmer when the Sound is Shared With You, Je m’appelle Stereo got the audience dancing, Jenny #1, both Golden Digits of Devilry and Mathematiques from last year’s album, early single Computer Freaks of the Galaxy, and we all threw caution to the wind during set finisher Electronique Bee 101. Between songs, Simon cracked jokes, threw sequins into the crowd, blew up and let off balloons, and sent up the serious muso stereotype.

The » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Old Market, Brighton & Hove

Date: 04/06/2019

‘I think there will be something in our repertoire tonight to satisfy even the most jaded of audience members, including those who might only recognise one or two song – probably sung by someone else’ grins new septegenarian Nick Drain Lowe from the low stage of the Brighton Old Market. Despite being many years down the rock n roll road he appears to still be having a whale of a time. Backed by surf garage band Los Straitjackets in their Mexiacan wrestler garb he’s already given his his initial solo statement ‘So It Goes’ (BUY1), ‘Ragin’ Eyes’ and ‘Without Love’ with an effortless grace and cool.

Still whippet thin and in crisp white shirt, this silver fox has left the crooning at home for the most part and got his dancing shoes on. With a new EP ‘Love Starvation’ folowing on from last years ‘Tokyo Bay’ he indeed has songs of all kinds to despense. This aims to be a rather civilised evening – doors open at 7pm, the excellent support set from rockabilly riot Howlin Jaws at 7.30 with Nick done and dusted by 10pm sharp. Which means » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Sydney Opera House

Date: 30/05/2019

The last of five nights performing the Disintegration album + assorted non-album tracks from that era as part of Sydney’s Vivid festival. The Cure are a band I’ve always liked a lot, but never gotten deeply into, although sitting next to a fairly rabid fan at work for the past couple of years has at least started to remedy that.

Demand was high for these gigs, so much so they had to run a ballot for the chance to buy tickets, and this fifth night was added due to the first four selling out quicker than you can say “pass the lipstick Robert”.

Kicking of with Delirious Nights we were treated to a batch of b-sides and demos, setting the scene for the dark and brooding Disintegration. The band, made up of Smith, Gallup, long time members Roger O’Donnell and Jason Cooper and relative newcomer Reeves Gabrels, were tight, very tight, and what must have been intense rehearsals to recreate the album showed. Finishing with a superb Babble, the band left the stage for a few minutes as the wind chimes started for the beginning of the album. Live, the album sounded » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Soup Kitchen, Manchester

Date: 29/05/2019

This Swedish trio have been treading the boards for a while. Their new one ‘Are You A Dreamer’ is a cracker. Their influences are writ large – and admittedly somewhat well worn – 60s Soundtracks, psych, library music. The most obvious comparison is Stereolab in their more playful mode, or Broadcast before they went down the occult wormhole. However, they do it so very well and on this new record they really put their own stamp on it and have a melodic warmth and openness to their sound which is very appealing. On stage they have no rhythm section, relying on the beat and bass looping on a sampler which is somewhat of a hindrance but I guess born out of financial necessity for a touring band playing tiny venues. I find myself moving closer to the stage – everything else is played live so lovely twangy/vibrato guitar, the vocalist has a couple of synths and another keyboard player has a Moog connected to some analog FX and a Mellotron (well a digital version of same which does a very good impersonation of that classic Flute sound etc) with echoey vocals floating on » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Bill Murray, Islington

Date: 24/05/2019

Our hero stumbles onto the stage with a pint, bundle of A4 with unkept hair and grey beard (Julian Assange has let himself go…..Father Abraham from The Smurfs has let himself go…..) for this hastily scheduled Work In Progress show for his Work In Progress show at the weekend. He later reveals that a visit to the doctors earlier that day produced an offer of ‘seated activities for the over 50s’ and the enquiry “have you got someone to look after you at home?”

In the autumn thru spring Stew will have his regular several month residency at the Leicester Square Theatre with ‘Snowflake-Tornado’ and some of the material from this first gig might well appear. So I’m not going to spoil it. An obscure reference garners a response which he hopes will also work in audiences of more than the 60 people crammed into this hot room at 6pm on a Friday in May.

His first sketches of a hour long comedy set are better than some stand ups entire career. Will be fascinating to see how it is honed and perfected between now and October but it went down » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Hare and Hounds, Kings Heath

Date: 21/05/2019

First time have been to a seated gig at the Hare and Hounds but it was a welcome change. Stumbled across this gig by accident a couple of weeks ago and glad I did because Peter Case is someone I have wanted to see for a long time since I heard his debut album in 1986. But first Sid Griffin came to the stage – full of funny stories he definitely has a sunny disposition and a decent back catalogue to choose from. However in my opinion he is better suited to the raucous sound of the Long Ryders. His set covered songs from the Ryders, his solo stuff and also Coal Porters. It was okay but nothing in it to elevate it to greatness. Before the show I had wondered who would headline as Sid Griffin possibly better known over here. 30 seconds into Peter Case’s set all doubts were removed. He was simply brilliant from start to finish. Many songs from his most recent release Hwy 62 and covers by amongst others Memphis Minnie, Leadbelly, Rolling Stones and Bob Dylan. An excellent raconteur he also had the audience joining » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Open, Norwich, and Union Chapel, London

Date: 21/05/2019

What a difference a lighting rig can make.

I have loved Thea Gilmore’s music for most of the couple of decades that she has been releasing superb, occasionally dipping to merely very good, albums and always catch a gig on each tour as well as buying every album in the week of release. This time The Light and I plumped for a train and Travelodge trip to Norwich rather a school night visit to London and the chosen show, at Open, fell on the day of release of Small World Turning.

Matt Owens, formerly of Noah and the Whale, played a short but amiable opening set before reappearing on electric bass with Thea’s band, along side Katriona Gilmore, no relation, on a variety of stringed instruments (right handed fiddle but left handed mandolin oddly enough) and Thea’s musical and life partner Nigel Stonier. At times the bass dominated the acoustic guitars, and I wondered about the lack of drums.

The performance was highly enjoyable with plenty of songs from the new record and a smattering of old favourites, notably a couple from 2001s Rules for Jokers, but … It » Continue Reading.

Venue:

London Palladium, that London

Date: 14/05/2019

So I went to see a hologram. And you know what? It was rather good. The Zappa Family Trust, never slow in identifying new ways of monetising their late father, have assembled a touring band comprising some of Zappa’s most competent and least imprisoned members to accompany a full height hologrammed Frank, captured from 1974 footage. I brushed off the sneers of some of the Zappa cognoscenti and joined Billy Bragg, Steven Wilson, Nick Beggs and Carl Palmer to witness what I imagine will soon be a common sight – your favourite inconveniently dead star brought back to life to dip into his/her back catalogue and your wallet.

The hologram was actually the weakest part of the show, looking highly fake and rather small, being set back behind a scaffold structure that forced the drums over to the left. Thankfully, it only appeared on four songs. The taped period guitar solos were all outstanding – and unfamiliar to me, despite owning everything released from 73/74. The vocals were a bit echoey and distant – odd given how well recorded everything from that era sounds on disc. The visuals however were superb, featuring » Continue Reading.