Apologies if this has been done already and I’ve missed it, but I thought I’d post my gigs of the year and invite others to do the same.
I’ve been to more live shows in 2016 than I have in some time – 40-plus – though a quick run through of my diary reveals my old fart tendencies.
1 – Edwyn Collins, The Roundhouse, January 29. Front row seats for my of my favourite artists, and we spent a couple of hours after the show with him and got Paul Cook’s setlist signed by everyone on stage. One of the highlights of my musical life.
2 – Lloyd Cole and the Leopards, Brooklyn Bowl, August 19. London’s worst venue, but a rare chance to see Lloyd do some old and I loved every minute. I bought a CD of the show and was delighted that my calculated shot at getting on the recording had worked. It’s the CD I’ve played the most this year, the man deserves more recognition. The Union Chapel acoustic show was just as good.
3 – Billy Childish and the CTMF, The Lexington, May 21. I’ve seen Billy do his R ‘n’ B thing dozens of times over the decades and it never gets old for me. He’s in love with basic garage rock and so do I. This was his first London show for eight years and the grin sat on my face for days afterwards, despite a refreshed Mark Riley getting the arse when I told him I’d seen him in The Fall and that I liked his work with The Creepers.
4 – Wilko Johnson, The Forum, April 23. I’m a Southend boy and I think Wilko was the first fella I ever paid money to see play the guitar. I’ve seen him pretty much every year for the last 35 and he’s always wonderful. This gig wasn’t any different from any of the others – he’s an old school pro and I just know I’m going to have a great night.
5 – Billy Bragg, The Lexington, December 7. One of a series of low-key gigs to celebrate Cooking Vinyl’s 30th birthday. I’ve loved Billy since Spy Vs Spy came out wen I was a sixth former, though the last few LPs have left me fairly unmoved. This was the setlist I would have chosen – mostly his hugely underrated early love songs, and loads from the usually ignored Brewing including From a Vauxhall Velux. Which I love.
I’ve been to around twenty this year, which is pretty standard. A lot of them were very enjoyable but fairly standard themselves, so I’ll restrict myself to three stand outs.
1) The Afro Celt Sound System at Colchester Arts Centre, largely because after a run of polite and understated gigs it was even more joyful to see an act who made it their mission to take the roof off the place.
2) The Unthanks at Warwick Folk Festival, because I love them and this was the third time I had seen them since Mountbthe Air was released, but the first full gig focussing on the album (the others being a short spot at Folk by the Oak in 2015 and a celebration of ten years of the band at Union Chapel last Christmas).
3) Ross Noble warm up gig at Colchester Arts Centre, if I might be permitted a comedy wildcard. We’ve seen him twice this year, and will see him again at Chelmsford next year, but this was as free inspired and consistently hilarious as I have ever seen him.
I was at that Unthanks gig too – it was stellar to say the least.
Less than normal for me, Ottawa sometimes gets bypassed for the bigger markets of Toronto and Montreal, already have tickets for a few shows next year with travelling involved, Wilco, The Zombies (doing Odessey and Oracle) and PJ Harvey. I digress, this year:
1. Bruce Springsteen and the E St Band – A near 4 hr show on one of the hottest days I have ever experienced. Not just the length but an astonishing roller coaster ride.
2. Radiohead – Another warm one in difficult festival conditions, easily transcended by a band on top form with a loving audience.
3 Steve Earle and the Dukes – A full Guitar Town followed by a roughly chronological guide through a 30 year career of one of the greatest songwriters.
4. The Monkees – Or Micky and Peter to be accurate. Great fun and my then 9 yr old daughter loved it.
5. Stiff Little Fingers – my second gig by them 35 years after the first one. Made it seem like not much has changed.
These were my favourite 8 gigs of the year.
All were good, but none was a real all-time mindblowing classic.
Difficult to put them in a 1 to 8 order, but here goes:
All venues are in Stockholm or Uppsala
1. Ludovico Einaudi at Cirkus (see him if you can, Afterworders. A quality artist)
2. Abdullah Ibrahim at Konserthuset
3. Jan Lundgren at Grünewaldssalen
4. The Necks at Fasching (not as great as the previous occasion)
5. Jordi Savall and Rolf Lislevand at Uppsala Konsert & Kongress
6. King Creosote at Södra Teatern
7. Ryley Walker at Bryggarsalen
8. Tomasz Stanko at Fasching
On much reflection, it having been a bumper year, it was Wilko Johnson at Bearded Theory. The circumstances were ideal, sunday afternoon scorcher of a day with good will flowing like lava. 2nd time I had seen him since leaving Dr Feelgood(!), the first seeming just a tick in the list, by comparison. Wonderful, with as much credit to the ever sweating Norman Watt-Roy.
I’ve not been at as many gigs this year as some other years but there were a few crackers!
1) Pieter Brotzmann / Full Blast at the Poetry Club, Glasgow. Ferocious and free and uplifting – a magnificent evening, and probably a top 10 gig ever (he says, without necessarily working out what the other 9 are, but it really was that mind-opening).
2) Jerry Lee Lewis (and family and friends) at the SECC, Glasgow. Still the Killer, getting frail now, but indomitable.
3) Radio Birdman, The Warehouse, Falkirk. The Aussie surf/garage/rock kings, in Scotland for the first time, and they put on a storming show, full of rocking brio.
4) Kamazi Washington at the QMU, Glasgow – the show was ABSOLUTELY PACKED and was 90 minutes of glorious jazz expression
I’m sure there are others, but here are four that stand out (in no particular order):
1. Tommy Halferty 70th Birthday concert at the Opium Rooms, Dublin WITH NORMA WINSTONE. Found out about this two days before and drover 100 miles down. I’d never seen Norma perform before, though I’d interviewed her for CD notes last year. One of the greats of British jazz. She and Tommy – an Irish jazz guitar wizz, whom I’d never previously seen – opened the show with five or six fantastic duets, full of adventure and daring and joie de vivre and still easy on the ear. Amazing stuff. Norma did one number with Tommy’s usual quartet – also fantastic – before the quartet did a few instrumentals. The second set was a set of seven septet settings of Tommy’s key tunes by Dublin jazz mainman Ronan Guilfoyle, also on bass, who had started out as Tommy’s bassist before becoming the king of the castle, running a music college and agency etc.
2. Wishbone Ash at Holmfirth Picturedrome in November – a frosty night, a balcony view, great atmosphere, and AW’s own ‘AttackDog’ in the room, making minmcemeat of the local hard men and sundry bypassers. Pure quality classic rock! There is no substitute.
3. Welsh Sarah’s Festival (can’t recall the real title), somewhere in Armagh – Wookalily headlining and a day full of NI blues, rock and country acts I hadn’t heard before, which was a lot of fun – as I hardly ever hear ‘new’ music these days. Much of it was great fun, the Wookas were superb, and I was quite taken by the strangely charismatic blues trio the Hardchargers. Which, two months later, led to…
4. A bar in Monaghan, during the Monaghan Blues Fest in August – I’d deliberately gone down (another long drive from Belfast) to see the ‘Chargers after not being able to get some of their songs out of my head from the show above. In between I’d bumped into mainman Chris Todd (‘Indecipherable’ Chris Todd being his blues name), hanging around at another festival – the excellent Hilden Brewery Festival in Lisburn – and introduced myself, asking when their next decent show would be. The Monaghan bar gig was astounding – pure, visceral rock’n’roll in a way – a crammed bar but with great sound and the feeling that you’re watching an act really ‘working’, fighting against a jostling crowd (sometimes literally), striving to get their music through to them – and winning. Fast forward to December, and I’m helping the ‘Chargers record a debut album – and delighted to be doing so.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0-BZDX5DmUM
For me it was Steven Wilson at the Hammersmith Odeon (it will always be the Hammersmith Odeon) – music was amazing, sound fabulous and on top of it all @neil-jung and I had a micro mingle in the bar in the interval. Perfecto!
Close behind is Gretchen Peters at Harpenden with @feedback_file. Sensational. FF is a grizzled Yorkshireman, unmoved by most things, but when she did “Five minutes” I swear the dust got to him.
Waiting excitedly for Hayes Carll on Boxing Day.
I don’t think we saw a bad gig this year – “good” would be the worst descriptor. So, in no particular order:
1. Emmy Lou and Lyle at Wolf Trap. Open air, music, humor, bring your own picnic, great seats at a great price. Can’t go wrong.
2. The live taping of “Wait Wait, Don’t Tell Me” was excellent fun.
3. Frightened Rabbit at the 930 Club. They get better every time I see them. Simply excellent.
4. Teddy Thompson at Jammin’ Java – I loved it. Small intimate venue, and he was in outstanding form. The support, Dori Freedman, was good to.
5. The one I was most excited about, because he’s one of my musical heroes, was Greg Dulli at The Synagogue. You can tell how well his songs are written by the way that they can be rearranged for such a setting. Sharon enjoyed it, I loved every minute he and the band put on.
Some highlights for me include;
Manic Street Preachers doing their Everything Must Go album at Leeds Arena.
Pet Shop Boys at the Royal Opera House.
Ulrich Schnauss at the Trades Club in Hebden Bridge.
Also enjoyed Editors and Roisin Murphy at the Sziget Festival in Budapest.
Oh, I forgot The Cure at Manchester Arena, only the other week!
I saw 45 this year, mostly small venues. No duffers, and best ones were:-
Jason Isbell at Manchester O2 Ritz in January
McGoldrick McCusker & Doyle at Bury Met in Feb
Ryler Walker & The Great Danny Thompson at Clitheroe Grand in Feb
Josienne Clarke & Ben Walker at Ramsbottom Folk Club in May
Gretchen Peters at Sage Gateshead (Summertyne Festival) in July
Ron Block & Sierra Hull at the same festival
The splendid Della Mae at Nell’s Jazz & Blues, that there London in August
Live music is my favourite pastime. Hopefully I’ll be pursuing it steadily in 2017
A pretty good year for gigs.
Ryley Walker (twice) – in Birmingham in February with Danny Thompson and again in August in Nottingham with his trio. If anything, the playing with the trio was more exploratory and free-flowing, although I am a major fan of Danny and his bass playing.
Lucinda Williams at The Plug in Sheffield. She has a great band and was on top form. Her drummer is Butch Norton, ex Eels and her guitarist, Stuart Mathis has played in many bands, including with Jakob Dylan. We met Richard Hawley’s bassist and producer, Colin Elliott on the way out after the gig and he was enthusing on what a great gig it had been.
Agnes Obel at Birmingham Town Hall – sublime.
The Three Ring Circus – Sheffield – Richard Hawley, John Grant and Bill Ryder Jones racing from venue to venue to play their gigs. It meant that the audiences in each of the three venues heard the performers in a different order. Was pretty good, although we got Bill Ryder Jones last and he seemed somewhat ‘refreshed’ by then!
Sunday afternoon on the West Holts Stage, Glastonbury Festival – Kamashi Washington, Michael Kiwanuka and Anoushka Shankar one after the other – absolutely fantastic.
End of the Road Festival – amazing and eclectic range of performances, but real highlights were Phosphorescent, Imarhan, Dawn Landes, Throws and Steve Mason. I enjoyed Goat, although I got seriously wet. I even managed to stay for the entirety of Joanna Newsom’s set, although I can’t say it was enjoyable. Caught some great comedy with Phil Kay, Stuart Lee and Simon Munnery. Unintended comedy when parakeets flew over the Garden Stage and dropped a payload on the crowd. Sam Beam and Jessca Hoop were stopped in their tracks by that!
Martin Stephenson – Eyre Chapel, Chesterfield – a tiny chapel with seats for about 40 people. Virtually unamplified. Intimate. Funny. Marvellous.
I was at the Lucinda gig with Mike and I will put it second on my list – was 5th or 6th time I have seen her and the best.
My gigs of there year:-
1) Iggy Pop – Austin Texas (SXSW).
He played a storming set at the Moody Theatre – full adrenaline rush from start to finish with a fabulous band.
2) Lucinda Williams at The Plug,Sheffield. The band rocked. Prior to gig I emailed her asking for Side of the Road and Those Three days to be played – she played both. Love you Lucinda!!
3)Hayes Carll – Glee Club Birmingham.
Opened with my favourite song of his Beaumont. Went on to play a stupendous set with superb backing from the Gulf Coast Orchestra including Linval Travis on the best slide guitar this side of Ry Cooder.
4)Patty Griffin – Glee Club Birmingham – She doesn’t like Donald Trump you know
5)Danny and the Champions of the World – The Donkey, Leicester. Always great live.
6) Jimmy LaFave – Saxon Pub,Austin. Brilliant.
7) Van Morrison – Liverpool Philharmonic – surprisingly affable, Unsurprisingly great music from a master (Don’t listen to Colin H).
8) Bruce Springsteen – Ricoh Arena,Coventry. Great gig but awful venue that I would entertain going to again.
Brian Wilson was surprisingly good – particularly delighted to see him joined by Blondie Chaplin. Rikki Fataar was in town around the same time with Bonnie Raitt, but sadly didn’t make it/wasn’t invited (early 70s Beach Boys being my ‘thang’).
The Unthanks did a couple of gigs with Charles Hazewood and his symphonic Army of Generals. I caught them at St George’s Bristol, a gig which is supposedly being released on CD at some point. It was a great night, with Becky being completely overcome with emotion at the audience’s enthusiasm. Lovely evening.
I saw Michael Kiwanuka in Oxford, which was fabulous. He’d reworked some of his first album material to match the vibe of Love and Hate and he’s clearly a lovely guy, still coming to terms with his new audience’s enthusiasm.
It was good to see Martin Stephenson and the reformed Daintees recently recreating his first album (well, most of it – we arrived late). In particular, his audience seems to have swelled of late – the 100 Club was packed, whereas the last London gig I saw him, he was barely filling out a pub function room.
Finally Cody Chesnutt was pretty mad, but glorious. I was surprised at what proportion of his audience were full-on hipsters. The scratch band had played with him in rehearsals only, yet did a great job of keeping up.
Just listening to the reworked anniversary edition of Boat to Bolivia and very good it is too. Anyone seeing Martin live either solo or with the Daintees is in for a treat. He is one of the most engaging performers I know.
Once met him when he was doing a New Year’s Day gig in a museum in Edinburgh. We were both slightly fragile, but bonded over a few “hair of the dogs”. Nice guy
Two or three good ‘uns of particular note.
Jane’s Addiction at the O2 Kentish Forum. Only the second time I’ve seen them but a fantastic show with all the usual ingredients that make a JA’s show great.
At the other end of the spectrum and a first time for me, This Is The Kit at the Musician in Leicester. A really intimate show and I don’t think I have ever seen a performer look so genuinely amazed at the reception she and her band got as Kate Stables did. Thoroughly deserved it was too.
Also, Scott Matthews at the Bodega Social, Nottingham was another great intimate show (the little shows seem to be the best these day).
I really enjoyed Suede at the Leeds Academy. The first half was Suede playing their new album behind a cinema screen, showing the accompanying film. It wasn’t as arty-farty as it could have been and Brett gave a decent performance, with the band being visible at certain points.
But in the second half he gave a hip-shaking, tambourine-bashing, bass guitar roadie-bollocking, rock frontman masterclass. All the hits were present and Mrs W was surprised how many she knew, before declaring how impressed she was with the singer. But what is it with singers ripping their earpiece out and bellowing out a number without the use of their microphone (with or without optional acoustic guitar) these days. Is it some sort of show they put on to prove they’re not benefitting from any sort of autotune trickery? Either way, I don’t think I’d risk standing next to Ian Brown if he tried it.
Really looking forward to Kraftwerk, Pet Shop Boys and Sophie Ellis-Bextor in 2017.
Blimey 2017 must be costing you a wad…..Suede live are a treat ain’t they?
My best live shows this year;
Low x 2
Ezra Furman
Lloyd Cole
Meilyr Jones x 2
Beverly
Wire
Monochrome Set
Mexrissey
PINS x 2
Haley Bonar
Wussy
Marissa Nadler x 2
Sunflower Bean
Micah P Hinson
Grant Lee Phillips
Parquet Courts
…strangely enough very similar to my top albums – coincidence eh?
Too right. We’ve got Elton John and Penn & Teller to look forward to as well, although I can’t imagine Teller will be doing much singing. Plus we’ve got tickets for the missus to take our daughter to watch Olly Murs for a Christmas box and I am taking her to watch Swan Lake in Sheffield. And we have tickets to Danny Baker’s one man show in Barnsley, as Barnsley is famous for it’s love of loudmouth Cockney know-it-alls!
And we wonder why we are absolutely skint!
I only made it to a handful of gigs this year.
My fave by a long chalk was Helen & the Neighbourhood Dogs set at my local village fete, with a guest appearance on flute by my 13-y-o daughter. I haven’t heard of anybody who didn’t think they were ace. Even Mrs F could see why I store a PA system in our garage, instead of a car.
I’m hoping to feature more AW acts at next year’s village fete, if you happen to be around South Cambs on 11th June.