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Steel City Sinatra road-tests gorgeous new album at glorious Dublin gig

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Richard Hawley In This City They Call You Love (BMG) Out Fri 31 May, 2024

Live at the Dublin Olympia Friday 24 May, 2024

Few onstage utterings strike more fear into the heart of the seasoned gig-goer than the words “And this is off the new one that comes out next week…”.

But then this is Richard Hawley, a man whose nine previous impeccably written, arranged, played and sung studio albums are the dictionary definition of consistency and exemplary taste. On the evidence of the bulk of the 12 new cuts on his first new release for five years, In This City They Call You Love is destined to make it ten out of ten. Given the instant accessibility of most of the 50s and 60s infused sonic soundscapes contained therein, it’s also likely to be a shoe-in for my and I suspect several other AWers end-of-year Top 10s.

THE ALBUM

The big question for those who’ll have to wait a few more days to immerse themselves in ITCTCYL’s 12 tracks was had Our Richard lost his mojo in the lengthy gap since 2019’s Further? They needn’t have worried. Far from taking his foot off the pedal, music’s Greatest Living » Continue Reading.

Your Best Night Out of 2023

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We’ve had albums and TV, and I dare say books and films are to come, so what were your best nights out of the year? Thanks to my desktop calendar I know my list includes 34 nights out including the occasional afternoon matinee, with 2 more to come (The Unthanks winter tour at Earth in Hackney on Sunday and The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House on the Saturday before Christmas).

The largest category is gigs with 14 and my highlights of the year were Peat and Diesel at Chinnery’s in Southend on Sea and The Unthanks reprising 3 early albums in an all-dayer at The Barbican in London. Apart from both fitting the broad category of folk music there is not much to link Peat and Diesel’s sweatbox-singalong-ceilidh and the dark Northumbrian broodings of the Unthanks but they were equally rewarding in their own way, and both sent me home transported by the power of live music.

Comedy is next with 9 entries, and the funniest thing I saw all year was Ross Noble being interviewed for Richard Herring’s Leicester Square Theatre Podcast. Ross is the funniest man alive, and his improvisation technique meant that wherever it started the » Continue Reading.

Van Morrison earns a public apology – 3Olympia Theatre, Dublin 28/2/23

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Van Morrison 3-Olympia Theatre, Dublin Tues 28 Feb, 2023

The last quarter century or so of half-baked albums…

All those phoned-in, check-the-watch gigs…

The scant regard he shows for his magnificent back catalogue…

That crap duets album no one wanted and fewer of us listened to…

The announcement that his new album, Moving On, would be an aaaaaaargggghhhh! covers collection raking over much the same ground as his earlier the Skiffle Sessions…

The dodgy political views…

Sir George Ivan Morrison is guilty of all the above counts (and probably several more)

And then there are days like this; evenings like last night when he puts on a show so glorious, you’d forgive him anything.

Having finally sworn off his records in the early 2010s and been stiffed once too often with ‘will this do?’ live shows last summer, I vowed that I’d never again pay to hear or see Van doing his schtick.

Happily, someone I know had a spare ticket going for the second of his two nights at Dublin’s 3 Olympia Theatre (my favourite venue in Dublin) and I thought let’s give the old fucker one last shot.

I’m so glad that I did for the Van » Continue Reading.

The Many Saints of Newark

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Like many huge Sopranos fans, I’ve been eagerly awaiting this how and whyTony-got-to-be-Tony for quite a while. |

Finally got to see it last night and must confess to being a little bit underwhelmed.

The biggest drawback is that even at an economical (by latter-day standards) two hours the film drags on way too long. While the makers obviously have to include a fair amount of back story and expostion, the first hour of the film seems to go on forever. While fun to begin with, playing spot the character from the TV series begins to get a bit tiresome after a while. (“Is that young Artie Bucco? Why I do believe it is!:) Also, Alessandro Nivolo (Face Off, American Hustle) just lacks the charisma to be a compelling Dickie Moltisanti, while Ray Liotta unpacks his Goodfellas persona and phones in his twin roles as DM’s dad and uncle.

On the plus side, the film starts to move up through the gears during its second hour when the action moves from the Newark riots of 1967 to an early 1970s attempt by Afro-Amcerican gangsters to muscle in on the five families’ Numbers racket.

The casting is also » Continue Reading.

Pre and post COVID gig-going. Your last, your next and will you get (or even go) to see it?

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With restrictions on crowds at gigs in the UK set to end on July 19 “Freedom Day” – if only until something else horrible causes a return of restrictions – how confident are you guys about seeing more shows?

My last

Sturgill Simpson at Dublin’s splendid 1,200 capacity Vicar Street preceded by The Felice Brothers at the city’s equally excellent and much more intimate Whelans. Both were in their own way very disappointing. Last really good gig I saw in the Before Time was Richard Thompson at Galway Town Hall in October 2019.

My – hopefully – next

Grant Lee Philips (Whelans, Dec this year), Sparks (Vicar St) and Nick Mason’s SofS (Dublin Conv Centre) both April 2022. All bookings obviously subject to change with everything now routinely just shoved forward 6 and more often than not 12 months. The rescheduled Nick Mason gig, for example, is currently set to take place almost exactly two years after its original date.

How confident am I of getting to see more gigs?

Given that every country worldwide is divided re the wisdom of continuing to lock down/bravely opening up, and the ongoing spectre of “game changing” (God, I’ve come to » Continue Reading.

Jesus Jellett RIP – Post your memories of this fabulous mainstay of 60s and 70s rock shows here

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Know that there is an obit thread, but as almost ever UK-based ATMer of a certain age will have run into this genuine one-off at some point, it seems a nice time to look back at gigs we went to in the 60s and 70s.

For those callow youths who’ve never heard of him, JJ was as ubiquitous a feature of gig-going forty and fifty years ago (Jesus – the other one – is it really that long ago?) as army great coats and shouts of “Wally” or “Albatross!”

Pretty sure the first time I first saw him was at The Who’s May 74 Charlton gig – certainly remember his being at loads of big shows thereafter. He was such a fixture on the music scene at that time there’s even brief footage of him talking to Neil Young in Jim Jarmusch’s Year of the Horse and three decades later onto a Chemical Brothers album cover.

Anyone care to share their own recollections – fond or otherwise -of JJ?

https://www.loudersound.com/news/legendary-music-fan-and-naked-hippie-dancer-jesus-dead-at-72

Elizabeth, Above the Tree & Maurizio Abate – tonight in Peckham Rye?

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Anybody fancy coming along to this?

Elizabeth is a rather lovely semi-ambient offshoot of Nope, and the other stuff looks pretty interesting – and all for a mere five of your English pounds.

http://www.theninespeckham.co.uk/event-calender/2015/3/9/38b-presents-maurizio-abate-above-the-tree-elizabeth

http://www.theninespeckham.co.uk/event-calender/2015/3/9/38b-presents-maurizio-abate-above-the-tree-elizabeth