Venue:

Saint-Chaptes, France

Date: 17/10/2015

This was a bit of a find, and a bit of a revelation for a confirmed jazzophobe like me. A village hall in rural France (when we arrived, the road crew were taking on the locals in what appeared to be a life-or-death game of petanque) is an unlikely place for a jazz epiphany. But first, a trestle table in the car park offering dinner options; cheap red in a plastic cup at 1 Euro a throw, and a hot dog. Well, this being France it was saucisson de canard en baguette, but you can’t have everything.

My expectation of some ancient Gallic ivorie-plonquer shrugging his way through La Vie en Rose was blown away by the discovery that 28-year-old Kauflin is American, a well-respected protégé of Quincy Jones, and the subject of last year’s documentary Keep On Keeping On, about his friendship with the legendary trumpeter Clark Terry. How his trio ended up here among the Langedoc vines I don’t know, but the event promoter was the most Jazz person I’ve ever met. Imagine being a super-cool laid-back daddy-o beatnik hepcat, and being French as well. That’s how Jazz he was.

I’ve » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Union Chapel, Upper Street London

Date: 13/10/2015

Great gigs. They exist in the popular memory because a couple of journalists went and their views concur. Frazey Ford at the Union Chapel in 2015 was a Great Gig, but memory of its magnificence will be limited to me, the 800 or so gig goers who went and Afterworders who read this and agree with me. Frazey is in some ways reminiscent of Liz Fraser in that she’s creating textures with her voice. Yet the lyrics matter, as with e.g. Done, “a bitch song” she says, but men can use it too. The band is splendid; drums, guitar, bass, tenor sax, trumpet and harmony singer. Absolutely sympathetic and on the money with their playing. It was all beautiful and moving but set closer, Indian Ocean, will remain with me as one of the most transcendent moments of my life. A mellifluous warm sound enveloped us and transported us thousands of miles. A gorgeous, flawless, irrepressible, moving, heart-stopping, life enhancing evening. When she comes back do go and see her. Your life will be all the better for it.

The audience:

Far more mixed than I thought it would be » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Norwich Waterfront

Date: 12/10/2015

The only thing I know about Ride is that I sold a lot of their album – the blue one with the wave on the cover – back in the day, and that Mark Gardiner was the shambling punch line to a Rob(ert) Newman joke about playing five-a-side with shoegazers (“Come out Mark – narrow the angle!”). Both of these things happened the best part of two and a half decades ago though, so why I was tempted to The Waterfront (switched from the UEA due to their appeal becoming more selective) I’m not really sure, other than it was a good chance to catch up with my friend Baggers, who’s retired from BT to become a gardener. Maybe it was one of those subconscious things… As it is, this gave me the perfect opportunity to come at the band blind, as it were, as I hadn’t even bothered to do any background listening, and couldn’t have named a Ride song if you’d held a gun to my head, although I did once post a picture of my breakfast looking like the cover of ‘Going Blank Again’ on Twitter. Turns out they were going » Continue Reading.

Venue:

St James Theatre, Victoria, London

Date: 12/10/2015

Oh it was fanboy central downstairs at St James Theatre tonight – a lovely intimate venue with top sound. At one point, halfway through the intro to ‘Shipbuilding’ Steve Nieve, Elvis Costello’s erstwhile piano botherer and songwriter, asked “did you recognise that?” triggering an incredulous “yes”. People had travelled from all over to see Steve take centre, well left of centre, stage with interpretations of Elvis tunes which most of the audience knew inside out and often that’s how they were played. In between we got little tales from the road and studio illustrating the song history that were a surprise and new to even the devoted nerd like me

His guest, Alex Cornish, admitted it was the most terrifying thing in the world to play an Elvis Costello song in front of a room of hardcore Costello fans but he played a blinder on both ‘Shabby Doll’ and ‘Alison’ which was the first communal singing of the night. Another young fella (who’s name I didn’t catch) also did stirling work particularly on the rarely heard CostelloNieve co-write ‘Passionate Fight’ (bloke in front of me who said “Almost Blue” – bzzzzz, » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Half Moon, Putney, London UK

Date: 10/10/2015

I was wondering how he’d manage playing on such a small stage, as the last time I’d seen him it was a proper extravaganza with a trumpeter, Chinese instrumentalists, guest vocalists and guitarists… I need not have worried. What we got was the core band of Wobble on bass and percussion, Marc Layton-Bennett on drums and percussion, Martin Chung on guitar, George King on keyboards and Jamie Crossley taking care of samples, keyboards and pre-programmed wotnots. Mr W. has a 6-CD retrospective box set just released. He played a good varied selection from it, including Visions Of You, Public Image, Becoming More Like God, Poptones, How Much Are They?, Sea-Side Special, New Mexico Dub, Java (Augustus Pablo cover), Theme from Midnight Cowboy (John Barry), a Reggae version of Theme from “The Sweeney” (Harry South), Liquidator (Harry Johnson), Theme from Get Carter (Roy Budd) and Take Five (Dave Brubeck/Paul Desmond). Mr W. had an unfortunate bass malfunction during “Liquidator” but quickly switched to his spare without interrupting the flow. He was in very good humour and the band were totally shit-hot, especially Marc L-B and George K. Phenomenally good players all. » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Astor Theatre, Perth, Western Australia

Date: 06/10/2015

Let me put my cards on the table. If I had to rush into a burning building to rescue some treasured possessions, the first thing I’d grab would be those early Mahavishnu Orchestra LPs. Well, after the Beatles and Zappa records, of course. And one of the twins, obviously. That’s how much John McLaughlin means to me.

The last time I saw McLaughlin live was in 1975 at the Royal Albert Hall in London with the second incarnation of Mahavishnu featuring Jean Luc Ponty on violin. That was 40 years ago but the maestro has lost nothing in the interim.

With time signatures so complex they might as well have been hieroglyphics transcribed from the wall of a pyramid and guitar solos so intricate they would have left Yngwie Malmsteen scratching his head in disbelief, this was definitely music for grown-ups.

Looking for all the world like George Martin’s slightly younger brother, the silver haired McLaughlin produced unbelievable sounds from his Paul Reed Smith guitar. With the incredible Étienne M’Bappé on bass (playing in gloves!), Gary Husband doubling on keyboards and drums and Ranjit Barot on drums, the band » Continue Reading.

Venue:

The Works, Sowerby Bridge

Date: 30/09/2015

I have not seen Nic jones for nearly forty years and after the car crash in 1982 thought that I would never see him perform again.He had played a few festivals, but this was the chance to see him in a one-off concert this year in a folk club. I thought I wouldn’t be able to go as I’m awaiting an operation, so I was glad it was delayed as I may not have been able to see this. I imagined that there may be tears, which there was, however it was mostly tears of laughter, there is a rapport between the two, with much gentle rib taking, and the occasional muffed note which brought forth much hilarity. Nic no longer plays guitar as he says he knows what to do, unfortunately his right hand can’t physically do it, but Joe’s playing makes up for that. Nic has to read the words as he sings and maybe the voice isn’t as strong as it was, but just to be there and see him perform again was wonderful. As our Cheshire feline chum said “ I was worried that it could have turned » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Radio City Music Hall, New York

Date: 25/09/2015

Let’s start by getting this off my chest first. I’m only sat in Radio Bloody City in that Bloody New York aren’t I? !!!!!

So the lights dim and the plush stage curtain parts slightly to allow a besuited Colin Meloy to stroll onto the stage with his acoustic guitar and we are straight into the whimsey and then onto the absurd with The Apology Song followed by My Mother Was a Chinese Trapeze Artist. Next up is the poetic Crane Wife during which the curtain rises to reveal the band in front of the familiar quilt style backdrop. The macabre Leslie Anne Levine follows and then (with a dedication to the Pope) we have the humour of Billy Liar (‘the second dirtiest song I’ve ever written’). So there you have it. The bases that define the wide ranging ouvre of Portland’s very own and very wonderful The Decemberists are swiftly covered.

Just how broad their canon of work is can be demonstrated by what they leave out in a set that has almost totally changed in the last two months of the summer tour of North America. No room » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Leicester Square Theatre, London

Date: 10/09/2015

Adam Carolla, though he would strenously deny it, is something of a Renaissance Man; a Los Angeles native who couldn’t quite hack it as a ceramics major in community college becomes a master carpenter, boxing instructor, zoo radio sidekick, creator and presenter of The Man Show with Jimmy Kimmel, West Coast replacement for Howard Stern and, eventually, one of the first US comics to efficiently monetize podcasting. Oh yeah, he also writes and directs feature films and races vintage cars in what little spare time is left. A little like Elvis, Carolla’s never played outside the States so an appearance in London brought the Fun Facilitation Officer and me over to Perfidious Albion to drink in the Ace Man live.

A show of two halves, Adam first brought on an irascible Rich Hall to run through some robust, but tender ruminations on family life and, after the intermission, introduced the delightful Rod Argent and Colin Blunstone of The Zombies to chat about their fabulous career and listen to some new, really rather good material from the band. Many laughs and a few awkward moments were had: classic Carolla, in essence. A response » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Lowry Salford

Date: 09/09/2015

Hastily arranged substitute gig as I had to cancel my coming weekend gig in Birmingham due to an overseas business trip. First time at the Lowry and have to say it is a splendid venue. The night started with a support slot from The Rails which was positively wonderful. Their first album was good but patchy but live they are a different proposition. Harmony vocals were excellent despite Kami apparently under the weather. They later joined Richard for the opening number of his set and James Walbourne is an astonishingly good guitar player and very much the pretender to Richards throne. Would love to see them do a full set together- hopefully something for the future. On to Richard’s set and was surprised that bass duties were performed by Davey Farragher and not Taras Prodaniuk. Now he really is an Imposter although he fitted in very well. Crowd were subdued until 1952VBL which as usual got the loudest cheer of the night. Personal favourite was Never give it up with its sinewy bass/drum intro and Salford Sunday. We also got a rare Meet on the Ledge and For the shame of doing wrong. Michael » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Bush Hall, London

Date: 08/09/2015

This was like falling asleep and waking up inside her wonderful 2015 album “On Your Own Love Again”. With a broad sweep of red velvet curtain as a backdrop, there was a Lynchian dreamlike quality to the set-up which suited Jessica’s uniquely mannered vocal and guitar-picking style to a tee.

Entrancing is perhaps the word most often used to describe her music. Indeed, the spell woven by her songs in this live framework proved even more hypnotic than the studio recording. Opening the evening with the haunting “Wrong Hand”, Miss Pratt never hurried her performance. The softly swirling “Moon Dude” had an even slower lilt than on the album.

“Strange Melody”, “Back, Baby” [which included an impromptu audience rendition of the opening line, “Sometimes I pray for the rain”] and “I’ve Got a Feeling” combined to bring the regular set to a marginally more uptempo close before “Titles Under Pressure”, from her debut album, and a new number [I think], “Fortuna”, formed an understated encore.

Jessica was charmingly tangible throughout, asking the desk if they could fix her reverb glitch and telling her audience she felt a little ill, offering her » Continue Reading.

Venue:

Brighton Dome

Date: 05/09/2015

The big one: King Crimson plus heavy friends in a sold-out Dome. Light-prog fans were at the conference centre grooving to the Australian Dave (excuse me, David) Gilmour Show hearing and watching what sounded like the same heritage Floyd show. Fripp had collated 3 drummers (one doubling on keyboards), Tony Levin, Mel Collins, and Jakko Jakszyk, and while there were plenty of old tracks (three from “The Court of the Crimson King”, “Larks Tongues in Aspic”, “Easy Money”, “Red”, etc.), some these had not been played sometimes for 40-plus years. Minimal lighting, minimal amplification (but astonishing sound), and advice to sit back and just go with the music meant this felt a more adult event, and not just a re-living of smoke-filled afternoons in late-adolescent bedrooms. Intense, complicated music the way King Crimson fans like it flowed over the crowd, somewhere between heavy metal, chamber music, and psychedelic -progressive music. Two hours passed in minutes though Fripp had minimal engagement with the audience.

The audience:

What do you think? Men of a certain age, blokes who looked like my accountant, many fathers and sons (saving long-suffering wives from a night of pain), and Tommy » Continue Reading.