Instead of the 'what music are you listening to' thread, I thought a separate thread for gigs and live shows etc might be a good idea.

It's a busy time at the moment, not only with John and Louis but loads of other bands playing that various people here are into.

This month I'm going to see
HAPPY MONDAYS - Southampton Guildhall
(I know, but wouldn't you with a complimentary ticket? :rolleyes: )
BABY DEE - Northampton Labour Club
(can't wait for this. beautiful songs, haunting voice. Long overdue)
WEDDING PRESENT - Portsmouth Wedgewood Rooms
(George Best, plus all the extras. Yaaaayyy!!!)

not to mention various pub bands etc...

Post yours here too.
And of course if you're IN a band and playing live, maybe this is a good place to promote your own show

HAPPY MONDAYS - October 9th, Southampton Guildhall

I went to this show courtesy of a marketing contact, and it was never going to be my cup of tea.
Which is always entirely the wrong attitude to start with and difficult to recover from. The support act helped - a stunning set from Sunshine Underground and their blend of PiL, The Weddoes, Buzzcocks etc. But too, too loud.
Mondays started badly. The sound was bloody awful and opening the set with a pisspoor version of Kinky Affro was a mistake. Ryder was unintelligible and the light show was blinding. In the literal, rather than Mancunian sense. It did improve and from the cacophonous sonic soup of the first half of the set they moved into a distinctly better second phase once the sound levels were sorted. The earlier material held the set together and included Hallelujah (best track), Loose Fit and Step On which was terminally bad, as well as a surprising (and competent) version of 24 Hour Party People to close the set.
And just a one track encore? "For Tony. The dead bloke." Ryder is as Ryder does and Ryder is an… Twenty years ago, Bez on drugs dancing his face off was a pretty cool gimmick. Now he just wanders to and fro across the stage looking ridiculous.
£25 for a 70 minute show? I don't think so! Thank heavens for the pink wrist band.
Of the new stuff, only Dysfunktional Uncle seemed to have any form, and most of the rest came over as rambling and ultimately pointless.

I did wonder how the transition from John Foxx to happy Mondays occurred!

Anyway your review doesn't surprise me. I always have, and always will, detest that band. I don't see the point!

Rant over.

Lol - thanks.
You gotta keep it varied though.

Don't tell anyone, but John Foxx is only one of about 500 other bands I listen to regularly.
Light and shade, always exploring. Blah- di-blah

In recent years I did narrow down my music collection to focus on the artists and bands I really love. I own around 400 CDs now - I used to have a lot more. Nowadays I tend to find that I go through phases of listening to an artist or band for days on end, sometimes for several weeks, before moving on to another.

But like you, John is one of many other favourites. He'd be in my top 5 though if I had to choose!!

Ive narrowed down my music collection too over the past few years, but still ended up with just about 500 artists. It was into around 800 groups from the year . til now.

I have narrowed down also but at the same time expanded, if that makes any sense.

Sure does. Less money, time and space used for groups you hardly play, more time and money to explore new ones.

I must live a sheltered life.

The only person I see live is John but that may change next year and see Gary Numan. Hemel Hempstead is such a dull town musically, no decent venues.

I don't have a vast CD collection about 250 but it's quite varied musically.

Peter

If Numan does his Replicas tour in February as planned Peter, you will have to go!! I might even see you there, which would be cool!

May be not on the 'mainstream circuit', but some of my best-remembered gigs feature the unsung heroes who start off in local pubs

I generaly work late shifts and really need to swao and save days off for gigs so I get dissapointed sometimes when bands come I'd like to see but just can't get the time off....
One such is the Up coming Glasgow gig of (We are)Performance..... really want to go but it's gonna be difficult to arrange the staff so I can be off that night
Here's hoping

thanks for the review, too bad it wasn't your cup of tea. i'm still a huge mondays fan, would be cool if they'd come to finland, bez was here last year as a "dj", or more like he was shouting things to mic while his friend played some classic 90's hits. still, i loved it!

I will fly in for it for sure

Last night's free gig at The Labour Club in Northampton was simply extraordinary. Andy Skank who MCs there is getting a BIG reputation on the scene locally and emerging nationally as one of the most innovative promoters on the circuit.
When a contact in Coventry called him up, unable to provide a venue for outstanding singer-songwriter Baby Dee, about to embark on a world tour to promote her new album "Drag City" Andy was brave, committed and insightful enough to recognise a unique opportunity and immediately put together an night of experimental performers at his local venue to accommodate a unique, and emerging international artist.

To say the the Labour Club is small would be to exaggerate its size by abour 200%. It's a pub, in a back street, in a nowhere town. The stage is about 12ft square.
We arrived at 8.30 and there were about six people there, two old men in flat caps, a hhee-owge dog and half a dozen long-haired children in wellies. The bar sold Pepsi in bottles for a quid, and two different sorts of crisps. And Andy, battling with a plethora in the instruments and worrying about how to mic up a harp.
Also present, freestyle drummer and experimental percussionist Alex Nielson , most famously known for his recent work with Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and performing first tonight as The Directing Hand.
Nielson looks like a young Scott Walker, so the fact that his three ten minute orchestral pieces sounded like nothing else on Earth should have been no surprise, and made The Drift sound like easy listening! The collective multitude of instruments he and his partner used, and their wailing vocals delivered in some weird wordless language is combined with over-sustained dronings, bells dragged over cymbals, bird-whistles and a whole orchestral cacophony. The result was totally wasted on the audience of thirty who just didn't get it and clearly hadn't come to be scared out of their wits.

Her voice is strong and she uses it imaginatively, but can she hold a tune?

Next on stage, local cellist Mrs Pilgrimm on familiar ground, but clearly uncomfortable with the terrible sound system and the ignorant background talking. Alone on stage she relied on the expert use of a series of delay pedals timed to perfection, filling the space with improvised live loops which she then accompanied to create dissonant, fragmented harmonies. Occasionally she drew a bow across the strings, but seemed much happier plucking and stroking them. Her new material is more experimental than her earlier work, but favourites like the quirky "Tickle my Fancy, Lovely" warmed the room up nicely for the main act.

Baby Dee defies description and is like no-one you have seen or heard before. Probably about 9ft tall, a transgender performer with Wild red hair, a fur coat, and the biggest hands and boots you've ever seen. And such a tiny, tiny voice. She was obviously pissed off with the venue and the inadequate sound, and again the people who chose to talk over the first song, the delicious hymn "Calvary". Dee is performing these songs with a band for the first time, tonight made up of a tall, bearded bass player and held together, reinterpreted and generally carried off by the incredible Nielson again. This guy is seriously good, and reputedly one of the best interpretive drummers in the UK right now.
After three numbers though, Dee began to cry and called the show to a halt until "those naughty people" who kept talking were 'encouraged to leave'.
Then the fairy dust was sprinkled, the harp was re-miced and her fingers worked their magic. A dozen or so songs from her back catalogue (Morning Star, Look What the Wind Blew In) performed to a hushed, dedicated and totally bemused audience of less than fifty. It was a real shame that her voice is so weak and delicate that we couldn't hear the lyrics or the vocal at all too much. Skank may have felt embarassed at the inadequacies of his venue, but those who understood were mesmerised and he deserves a medal for his achievements there.

Baby Dee was last night, is and can only become more unbelievable. Totally mesmerising against impossible odds. Extraordinary isn't a word I use lightly, but she is one of the most original performers I have ever seen and it is wonderful to see her Black Ship on the horizon at last. David Tibet, Anthony, Marc Almond, Pantaleimon and Bonnie Prince Billy have already made a berth in their harbours. Let us all do likewise, for with Alex Nielson on board this is a creative force with vision, energy and passion that deserve to be heard.

The Robins Tiny Throat is out now on Durtro Records, and Drag City will be released in January.

©birdsong 2007
Thanks for reading.
This isn't meant to be a self-indulgent thread

Well,got to see the (We Are)Performance gig.

Superb performance!, Joe Stretch is a great front man to the band,full of energy and the two girls are just beautifull
Thanks to our own Ian(he of the Merch stall at the recent gigs) for getting me on the geust list.Had a great chat with Joe after their show.
(heres hopeing they get the Numan Replicas tour slot )

Excellent pics, will. Thanks.

Are these the guys that supported Foxx recently?

Yes mate,at the Manchester gig,also supported Numan this year and back in Dec 06 for the teletour06 gig again in Manchester.

Great pics Will, thanks for them.

The two synths are more beautiful.
Not too hot on their names though, Korg and Roland.

Just passing by this thread, carry on.....

Dates for Gary Numan's Replicas tour are starting to filter though.

Nottingham Rock City on Wed March 5th 2008 seems to be confirmed (it's on the venue website anyway), and I've heard he'll play Manchester on the night of his 50th birthday.

AlEx and other interested, read this on MySpace the other day ..didn't think to post it all here, but here we go..

Then you noticed i was being good.

You always are.

Looks like whenever the dates are, the venues are always few and far between.

If he does Manchester on hes birthday, that will be the first time hes B.day as clashed with 'work' since '78. Excluding hes 'Flag Gig'.

Well it's another 'big' birthday I guess.

Thanks for this. I am hoping to make one of the shows.

Please everyone, continue to post the dates as you find out about them. I would appreciate it.

Well when would that be then? Don't tell me he's a Pisces !?!?!

I think it's 9th March. Or is it the 8th... one of the two!

I am pretty sure it is March 8

Pisces..

Lets just say its more known than Johns....

Its the 8th for sure, 1958.

No, not my Gary.
You must have meant to type 1968

you wish!

No, not me, I am not hung up on his age.

Funny facts time. Numan's birthday is exactly two months after Bowie's.

And Gary shares a birthday with Mickey Dolenz of The Monkees

And I was born 20 years and one day after Hitler died and 10 years and one day before David Beckham was born.

ALL THIS AND MORE
There are some bands (at least names) that are always there in the background, but somehow never seem to quite get noticed. My CD collection I have come to realise contains six albums by The Wedding Present, and my diary recalls having seen the band live previously three times between 1987 and 1989, and twice as The Ukranians in the early 1990s.
I seem to vaguely recall one of these shows in Oxford when they 'supported' the amazing Biggy Tempo(??) and the Bhundu Boys.
SImilarly, music venues that just 'hang on in there' are equally appealling, quietly gathering history and developing a pedigree that seems enhanced by the sticky floors and absence of new paint.
One such place that will always hold special memories is the Wedgewood Rooms in Portsmouth, and a chance to catch up with the Wedding Present again on the George Best 20th Anniversary Tour. But this is not nostalgia, this is now. Gedge has never gone away and is not making a 'comeback' via the 1980s Whole Album bandwagon clattering past his back door. Just as I haven't started going to gigs again - its something I've always done.

It's another expression of 'retro-future' perhaps, but it has never sounded as fresh and right as it did this evening.
The set was brilliantly compiled but surprised me at th ebeginning. Having not done my research properly I was expecting the album, and then some, but to open with an unfamiliar song surprised me.
A distant bell rings in my memory and by the time the song is over I vaguely recall my copy of SeaMonsters lurking in the back of the cupboard. I have never 'got' this one, and it remains one of those albums I have only played once and preferred to forget about. Then its straight into Brassneck, and suddenly the forty-somethings in front of me launch into one another and start moshing around as if its the most natural thing to do.
I stayed just behind the mass of bodies at first, trying to work out what was going on as Mr Gedge introduced a 'new song' called 'Don't Take me Home Till I'm Drunk' or something. Typically insightful witty lyrics but more Cinemera than Weddoes. His introduction was classic. "Don't worry. We are gonna play George Best, in full, but well, it's a bit short so we thought we'd throw in a few other things as well. This is a new song, so if you need the toilets…" Yeah Yeah Yeah
Then some solid, rhymic but still-quite-slow guitar work with his typical back to audience posture, slowly turning, smiling and waiting for those few seconds of silence as the needle goes down on Side One of the LP.
"Oh why do you..."
A huge roar, and two thirds of the room becomes a moshpit of elbows and pushing. I always have this self-conscience moment at gigs before let go of my head because my usually more reserved colleagues tend to make me feel rather like someone's dad at a wedding, dancing as if to deliberately embarass both myself and them. Didn't take long to throw caution into the very good-natured crowd of people and the rest of the gig was an absolute pleasure as the whole of the album was thrashed out in order with no mucking about.
Some of the old favourites understandly went down best, and for me that includes 'A Milliuon Miles', 'Shatner' and 'Anyone can make A Mistake'
Thankyou. That was George Best.
Only an hour then. Seems like we've been here all night.
There's ome banter with the audience, some noodlings and chordss when it emerges the drummer has put a stick thru one of his skins. A young attractive female roadie? Work that one out
"You've lost your love of life
Too much apple pie"
Listening to these songs again it is glaringly obvious that Gedge is master at what he does. His hand gestures draw attention to his stories of infidelity and arguments. In fact that's it - aren't all Wedding Present songs the scripts of break-ups and make-ups? The lyrics - simple thoughts, conversations and observations - fall effortlessly into the melodies and songs like the awesome "Kennedy" are genius in their simplicity. Haven't we all felt the pain of someone else's hand on our Favourite Dress?

And talking of great moments in world history, remember the Twelve Singles in Twelve Months record from 1992? Of course you do. Gedge and the band ended their set (we don't do encores, remember?) with another one, the fan-pleasing Flying Saucer.

It's refreshing to hear short songs live. Few of the songs from George Best last more than three mnutes, and they were reproduced faithfully tonight by musicians that didn't perform on the originals.
David Gedge is a master, and this tour is a lesson in how to do retrospective shows. To be honest, he blew everything else I've seen this year out of the water. One of the best gigs I have ever seen and I'm excited now at the thought of brushing the dust of that SeaMonsters vinyl.
I don't generally do recommendations, but I'd seriously consider catching up the Wedding Present during November if you can.
Faster, faster
…thanks, and GIve my Love to Kevin.

Five out of five. Top bananas

thanks for the review martin, sounds it was really great! i used to be a huge fan of the weddoes, way back in 87/88 or so but i've never seen them live and at some point mid-90's i stopped buying their records but maybe it would be time to dig george best or bizarro out again.

wasn't the ukranians a different band though, i guess gedge was never involved? of course it started with those peel sessions but anyway...

I'm gonna be sick..another childhood hero of mine on the same evening in the same city...only at 8:30 PM
Then again...life is all about choices huh?

btw..i mean Neil Arthur

Nouvelle Vague - the Brook, Southampton. 31st January 2008

Never underestimate the power of shoes

How often do you go to see a band and you don't know what they look like??

Lack of research on my part maybe, but it did add somewhat to the air of anticipation as I stood at The Brook waiting for Nouvelle Vague to appear on stage.
Loving the first album and disappointed by the second, I was also unsure what to expect from the set - and the tempo of the evening. Chilled, at the very least.
A third major ingredient in my anxiety was the presence of Mrs Birdsong beside me - we just don't agree on anything to do with music and have agreed to disagree on the subject for many years.

So in that respect, NV are a refreshing change - something we both like. Time to bury the hatchet with the management of The Brook, who I have struggled to forgive since they spectacularly failed to walk round the corner to my house personally in 1997 and announce the return of John Foxx...

But if I can teach you one thing, my son it is this – never assume!

Phoebe and Melanie (???) take centre stage and sing so well together, and separately, that only two songs in (The Hanging Garden ? and Ever Fallen In Love) was clear that this going to be a rare treat. Mind you, I am a sucker for tall girls, and shiny red shoes.

Phoebe has that beautiful light of madness in her eyes, and her performance of Human Fly (The Cramps) was breath-taking. She took the song to a whole new level, and introduced me to a much darker, Gothic and sinister side of the band. Her later dramatic interpretation of Bela Lugosi (Bauhaus) oozed credibility and confidence like blood from a coffin.
Perfectly followed by a rendition of Enola Gay (OMD) that practically brought the house down! This was Melanie's moment of glory, singing/talking/whispering with just a very low, melancholic keyboard humming in the background.

Other highlights of a set that was much more up-tempo and dance-worthy than I expected were the drum-and-voice solo of Grey Day (Madness) and the seven-minute jazz/baroque/bossa-nova heavy-on-the-double bass interpretation of The Dead Kennedy's Too Drunk (To F*ck)

Nouvelle Vague prove very effectively that experimental music isn't necessarily about making weird noises. You can muck around with arrangements and interpretation with the same effect - no-one is quite sure what to expect, and its a fairly safe bet they won't have heard anything quite like it before.

It's all in the shoes, and I Just Can't get Enough.

7/10. Surprising. Refreshing and sexy. Disappointing encore and over-priced at £16.50

©Birdsong, January 2008

Went to see Gary Numan perform Replicas at Wulfrun Hall Wolverhampton last night. This was my first Numan gig.

Daggers provided support. They sounded like an aggressive version of early Depeche Mode, very 80's. Seemed to go down pretty well.

By the time Gary came out the place was absolutely packed front to back. He certainly looks good for a 50 year old, and strutted across the stage with great confidence. He started with 'Replicas', followed by 'Me I Disconnect From You'. He continued through the entire Replicas album without a break. The standout track for me was 'We Are So Fragile'. In fact, the guitar led tracks were all pretty close to the originals. The disappointments for me were the tracks I was most looking forward to hearing - 'Are Friends Electric' and 'Down in the Park'. I wanted them to sound like the originals. But no, the keyboards and synths now seem to take a back seat role in the modern interpretation of these songs.

For the encore he moved away from Replicas starting with 'Cars'. A nice surprise, although lyrics apart, barely recognisable to the original.

Overall, an enjoyable evening.

Cheers,
Mike.

Thanks Mike

I'm looking forward to the show here on Friday night

Anyone off to the Numan gig at indigo2 Tomorrow (Sat)?

I'll be at the bar b4hand having a birthday drink!

Gary Numan - Replicas.
Southampton University, March 14th

Hot. First time I've actually seen people fainting in front of me.
And you there on the drums - too, too loud. Are there supposed to be that many red lights above the green bars, Mister mixing-desk-man?
Worries me when the set list is printed out in Times New Roman, complete with typos...

Q -How many 'numanoids' does it take to play an album that was originally recorded with three?
A - SEVEN
Three keyboard players. A bassist. A drummer. Two guitarists. And
a bloke to sing.

My fourth experience of Numan live, and as much as I love the music, I really don't mind being at the back and not being able to see much. His antics on stage make me cringe, and looking at the crowd is a great opportunity to spend the time Dancing with Myself. I'd always advocate another mosh pit at the back, us Foxx-fans are too reserved...
Took me until an extended version of 'We Have A Technical' to get into this, which comes about quarter of an hour into the set. Seems that while everyone and their dog these days is doing 'whole album' tours, Numan is at least prepared to update the tracks and play them in a different order. Good idea, really, given that putting 'Are Friends Electric' anywhere other than at the end would have been suicidal.
Agree absolutely that the best track of the night is the passionate, pumped up version of 'We Are So Fragile' which has to be the greatest B-side EVER recorded in the history of everything ever.

There's a guy behind Ade Fenton. What's he doing?
Playing keyboards.
As well?

Interesting 'encore'. I will never accept that 'Cars' fits into this set (although I thought it was closer to the original than any other live version I've heard - and no cow bells). Lacks imagination and suggests a lack of confidence in the other material. (Ever the insecure - hence the cheesy mike-stand waving)
But to follow with 'Every Day I Die' was genius, and this version of this classic song is absolutely superb.
I unstick pages and read
So why trash it with RIP??

Do I get this tub-thumping juxtaposition of songs and interpretations? Yes - it works.

Brilliant, brilliant gig.
Beats standing behind a keyboard with the master tracks blasting out of a computer anyway.

Its a Replica after all, not the real thing.

Was at the London o2 gig on the 15th

Great show, but in my opinion way too loud.
I wear filterplugs on concerts, thats not the point..
But you could hear it was high. And also the bass was ruling it seemed.
o2 is a great venue, no complaints on that.
I got the impression that there was a bit of "tour-fatigue"?

Anyway, i have a few hundred pictures again

Greetings,
fons

WOW! What fantastic photos, Fons.

I was at the Wolverhampton gig & it was too bassy. The live mix needed a bit more clarity, although I must say that Gary's voice was mixed very well. You could hear every word.

I wish Gary would stop doing 'Cars'. I'm sick to death of hearing it live. I don't understand why it was played as part of the encore. I think that he should have done "That's Too Bad' & 'Bombers', to tie in with the 30 years Gary has been in the music business.

I agree with Martin about these 'classic album' tours. I'd much rather listen to new stuff from my favourite artists.

Us Foxx fans are too reserved. I stand at the back aswell. I feel much more comfortable there.

Nice review and pics guys!

The main reason is because a lot of the audience dont go to many (or any before) numan gigs, and would like the chance to hear it live.

I thought that was the reason.

If you think that is the reason, why were you confused enough to wonder in the first place?


We didn't see anybody faint there but we must admit it has been very hot recently.

Thank you for your review Martin.
I enjoyed seeing Gary live at the O2. Great venue It's the first time I'd seen him live and I enjoyed the show. On a couple of tracks Gary's voice in my opinion got a bit drowned out with the music.

I sat up the back and it didn't seem too loud up there. I thought the lighting was well done.

Thank you Fons for putting the photo's on this site

Peter

Regards

Peter

Too bad I read this now Peter, would have bought you a beer!

The Telekon 2006 dvd is smashing btw! superb! great souvenir of a fantastic gig. Recommended!

greetings,
fons

It's the way my mind works, Maryann. :rolleyes:

Hi Fons
I assume that you stood up at the front judging by the wonderful photo's you took. I sat in the 1 n 9's. I don't normally drink alcohol but I'd have brought you one. I paid £2 for a bottle of water though.

I did purchase a DVD for Alex and I brought for myself the Telekon tour CD which is very good. It has been well edited and Gary's voice stands out very well on it. Hopefully there'll a CD and DVD of his Replica's tour.

Regards

Peter

Hi Peter,

would have gotten you a water with the same pleasure
I was on the groundfloor to the right yes, about 6/7meters from his microphone stand.
There was a leaflet downstairs saying they were taping the whole show and if you didn't like that fact you should see the venue manager.
Probably for a refund or relocation.
So I guess there will be a dvd for this one as well

Here some more pictures!
Regards,
fons

The manchester and london shows were recorded, with the possibility of them being released like the 'Fragment 1 + 2' dvds from a few years back.
And thanks for posting the best quality pics of the tour.

Agreed. Thanks much, fons.

I thought that you might like to see a couple of the pics I took at Gary's recent Replicas show (10th of March) at Wolverhampton's Wulfren Hall...







Enjoy...

Rob

Fab pics, Rob!

If I'd have known you were there I would've said hello. Shame I missed you.

Thanks - I'll see if I can dig some more out...

Likewise - maybe there'll be chance at another gig.

Rob

Great pictures, Rob. Thanks.

Here's some more pics ...

Rob

Excellent pics Rob, especially the composition of this one -

Very nice pics Rob!!
Of the earlier 3 I like the middle one most.
Only need to photoshop the head off :p

Greetings,
fons

Excellent pics Rob!

Excellent pictures Rob, fons and everyone.

Sorry, but I think Numan looks terrible in all of them...

Fantastic pictures Rob - well done. And thanks for sharing them with us.



Birdsong - indeed, you do have a point with how Gary has aged...

You guys must be joking, right? Gary looks fantastic.

Thanks much, Rob.

Karborn - Nature's Concrete Exhibition in Brick Lane Gallery, London.
April 3rd - 14th (Five exhibition pieces only)


London urbanism married into the Garden of Eden, exposing reflections of temptations, learned experiences and stories therein. Revealed right through from floral petals suspended in impossible pauses of time, to minimal urban constructions built on fractured sunsets, to Hidden doorways surrounded by the changing and the unknown that crackle colourfully with the anticipation of discovery awaiting...

His artwork is absolutely awesome. I've not seen anyone else whose work epitomises what I imagine my own stuff would be like if I had any kind of talent.
Which I don't.

Brilliant,, brilliant.

Cheers Martin - will go along on Sunday and have a look

Popped along to this on Sunday - can't really add anymore to what Martin said. Just to say the pieces are beautiful.

Co-incidentally, one of the pieces at the exhibition by Kaborn is being used to provide the artwork for a flyer for Cargo (where Metamatic was performed late last year).

I've managed to accquire 10 of these flyers, and just like last year, will happily post them out to the first 10 people who email me

Missed this thread,dunno why??
Anyway,some of you know I love taking live pics(I've posted some of JF elsewere on this site)so here are a couple of my Numan pics from the Replicas tour
Enjoy!

WOW!! All pics are amazing Will.

We have some fine photographers on this site. All of the Numan pics have been excellent.

Excellent pics, Will!

Really good pictures. Thanks Will

Tomorrow night(well later today now) I'm off to see (We are)Performance
Good strong links with both JF and Numan and,as far as I can gather,Ian(he of the merch stall at Foxx gigs) is their tour manager.
I've managed to see them a few times now and everytime they've been great!!
Review will follow but untill then a pic from their gig here in Glasgow in October last year

I went to see David Essex at Wolverhampton Civic last night I can guess what some of you are thinking, but hey, my wife accompanied me to Metamatic so I guess this was pay back time :rolleyes:

Double pay back in fact, with the footy on the box as well

Crikey, I’ve never seen so many women in one place at the same time. I swear there were only a handful of blokes in the whole place. Everything must have started really early because we arrived about 7:45 and the support were already going strong (a bloke with a guitar – no idea who he was).

Mr Essex arrived about 8:20 and there was a sudden surge towards the stage (this was an all-seater event). I should make it clear that most of the ladies were of a certain age. I got the impression the majority of them wanted to leap up on stage and do unspeakable things with David Did I hear a scweeam??

Most amusing sight of the night was the harassed security staff trying to stop folk taking mobile phone footage. They would thwart one eager lady, only for another to thrust her arm upwards just yards away.

A pre-gig article in my local paper had mentioned that Mr Essex has achieved no less than 16 top 30 hits in the UK (and our John is forever stuck on a fat zero ). He dipped into these hits and mixed in a few tracks from his new album as well. Standout track for me was Imperial Wizard. He was the consummate showman, and had the ladies in the palm of his hand all evening. He may be 60, but apparently this was the 4th in a 48 stop tour. Where does he get his energy?

This was all very civilised; cushioned seats, a modest volume, all finished by 9:50. It all went without a hitch and my wife really enjoyed herself. Which I guess, was the point.

Last night I went to see Bjork at the Empress Ballroom in Blackpool.

This was my first time seeing Bjork live.

I only bought the ticket last week.

Glad to find when I got there that it was a case of running to the stage to get your place.

The ballroom is a beautiful old Victorian theatre,great venue.

The support act was some DJ woman making a hell of racket,not really my kind of thing.

Then at around 9.15 Bjork appeared with Earth Intruders.Excellent.

She played quite a few tracks off the latest album & some old ones.

Stand outs for me were Army of me with its laser light show & the closing with Declare Independance.

This was accompanied with masses of smoke,tin foil,party string & glitter being dispensed into the audience.What a party.

I've posted a clip of this on Youtube.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AxzmR0SgOV4

It was like being at a rave.

Overall the show was awesome.

I will be seeing her again

Here are a few pictures:-

Absolutely bl**dy marvellous!!!

Thanks for this - excellent stuff.
Obviously you had a great night!

Personally, I'm off to the gig I've been looking forward to for ages. It's seven years since I saw Marc Almond live, and in the meantime I have discovered Baby Dee.

Both of them tomorrow night at one of the best venues in the whole world.
Wilton\'s Music Hall The city's hidden stage.

I'll be putting in a word for John Foxx with the organisers...

Fantastic pictures! Army of Me is a great track.

Now I am sorry I passed up seeing her here in NY last year.

Hi Brian
Love the pics, they have come out very well. Sounds like you had a great time seeing Bjork. Te custumes look ever so colourful.

Hi Mike G
I took my misses several years ago to see Mr Essex and after the show she waited by the stage door and he refused to give her a kiss. :p

Peter

There's sexxy,and then there's Björk.

Takes it to whole new level.
I would.

And I make no apologies for that.
Talk about the Beautiful Light of Madness...

Glad you like the pics.Heres a bit more.

I posted another Video from the start of the concert.

Pagan Poetry.

She performs barefoot,which I never knew.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7tCdUMYpstw

Enjoy.

Brian

she cant afford shoes?

Yes, she's a fantastic experience in real life. Great pics Brian. *thumbs*

Human League, ABC & Heaven 17 are doing a winter 2008 tour: -

http://www.allgigs.co.uk/view/article/74...inter_2008.html

Just bagged myself a couple of tickets for the above show at Wolverhampton Civic

Tickets are £30 each.

Anyone going to see Yazoo? chances in the UK are a bit better :p
I'll combine it with a Berlin visit

No I'm not Fons. I've got one Greatest Hits album from Yazoo, and that's enough for me. If it was Heaven 17 ...
Boerruh!

Laurie Anderson - Salisbury City Hall, UK May 23rd

"The thing about stories, especially true stories - and let's face it, there's really no such thing... as fiction - is that every time you tell a particular story, you tell it differently. You remember different parts, and you relate them in a slightly different order. And you forget other parts. And every time an audience hears a story, they hear it differently. And every person in that audience hears it differently... at the same... time."
So she's telling this story, and there's this music playing, and I'm listening to this story and watching the bed of sound it's lying in moving around like water in the wind, and everyone around me is listening to the same story. Except it isn't the same story. It's a different story to each person, and none of them has ever heard it before. Even those that have.
And that's a lot of stories. Kinda like stars. Stories are like stars - you never quite know if they're real or not. Or how old they are. Or where they came from and how many there are. But you know it would be really, really dark if they weren't there.
And you'd get lost more easily.
You know how it is. You get up one day, for no particular reason, and you start to travel. Backwards, towards the future. And you look over your shoulder, or out of the window, and you're looking around for signs, for memory triggers, for something to tell you which way you need to go. To remind you that you've been here before. But today you can feel there's something wrong. Something is missing, and all the things around you, the pictures and the words you see every day are suddenly unfamiliar. It's too, too dark, and it's too quiet.
There's an emptiness you can feel. Are you moving through time - or space? Anyway, you look around, out of the car window, or the spacecraft, or the kitchen table you're sitting around with your friends and old relatives you haven't seen for years, and no-one is saying... anything. No-one has any idea where they are, or who you are, or why they are there. They are all lost, and broken, and silent. Like old photographs.
And then you realise what's missing. There are no stars. The stars just...aren't.. there. And it's quiet, and it's because there are no stories.
A discordant violin thunders past, like the only truck that's passed you on the highway for like, the last seven hours. The air around you stumbles for a moment and then recovers itself, swaying again, notes moving within it like a kelp forest.

And then a voice says "Hi", like as if you've just woken up after a post-operative, impenetrable sleep. Like as if you've just arrived somewhere.
"It's really good to see you. Y'know, I was kind of expecting you. But it's been a long, long time..."

And this is the time.
And this is my record of that time

© Birdsong, May 2008

Absolutely brilliant, Martin. Incredible review!

You've just raised the 'review bar' to another new level!!!

You sure you can't make Durham?

It's a wonderful review Martin. Absolutely outstanding.



All the best,

EG

Cant add anything to that really, great as always Martin.

http://www.chriswatson.net/

Founder of Cabaret Voltaire and sound recordist extraordinaire presents a two-day sound workshop in London next week

Finally got round to posting something about last Monday's Ladyhawke gig at the Rainbow 444 Club Digbeth,Birmingham

The place was a very darkly coloured pub with a kind of pre-fab shed out the back for the actual venue.

It was well attended but mostly by students.

Night didn't get started till afer 8 with the first of 3 support bands.All were Electro Rock.

The 3rd & final support band,Deluka were from Birmingham.

They were a great find.

http://www.myspace.com/deluka

Finally getting towards 10 the Lady arrived.



She performed quite a few tracks off her new album along with a B-side.

All were very good but all of the guitars were much louder than they sound on the CD.

Here is a clip of Paris is burning from the night:-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=-K4cPJWq7MU

And another short clip of Professional Suicide with the synth drowned out:-

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=XgfUpNJrikg



I can highly recommend going to see her if you get the chance.

Was also a really cheap night 6-7 quid for an advance ticket & some Ladyhawke freebies to boot.

Brian

Great stuff brian, thanks for that!

I attended the Wolverhampton leg of the Steel City Tour last night. Here’s how it panned out: -

First on, (bang on 7:30) were Heaven 17. Martyn Ware on keyboards, Glenn Gregory lead vocals, two female vocalists, one drummer & one on guitars. Always tough to come on first to what was about a 2/3 full venue, they gave a very polished and professional performance. Glenn Gregory was very charismatic in his waistcoat and fedora, gliding around the stage flashing an unbelievably white smile (may have been the ultra-violet light ). The whole performance was full of energy, and the female vocalists were superb. They played eight tracks, and I think I recognised seven of them. Here are the seven, hopefully in the correct order (sorry Martin - no pen and paper!)

1 (We Don't Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
2 Crushed By the Wheels of Industry
3 Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
4 I 'm Gonna Make You Fall In Love With Me
5 Penthouse and Pavement
6 Come Live With Me
7 Temptation

Of course they had to finish with Temptation. This version seemed to go on for about 10 minutes. They got a rousing send-off at the end from the now very full venue. A great start to the evening.

Quite surprised that about half the audience seemed to be women. Unlike my last visit to this venue, I was seated up in the centre of the balcony with a perfect view of the stage. Glad I was seated; I’ve had flu symptoms since Tuesday and a pounding headache had convinced me I was not going to attend the show. Managed to get some extra strong Ibuprofen at the last moment which just about allowed me to make the trip. Thankfully, my wife was driving.

The stage hands (apparently 25 in total) then worked furiously to remove the Heaven 17 gear and wheel out the ABC stuff. About 15 minutes later out they came. Martin Fry vocals, 2 on guitars, two on keyboards (one of these doubling up on saxophone) , one on drums and one lady who seemed to be very overworked: vocals, two sets of hand drums, tambourine, and some chimes, and probably something else that I didn’t recognise. I think they performed 11 songs, including Poison Arrow, How To Be A Millionaire, All Of My Heart, and finishing with When Smokey Sings and The Look Of Love.

The performance was more laid back and subdued than Heaven 17s, but Martin Fry’s voice seemed as strong as ever. Again a rousing send-off.

On with the stage hands again, but this time they cleared absolutely everything, including the stage carpet. On the now bare white stage, they just placed three mike stands.

Heaven 17 & ABC had been operating on the front half of the stage only, so all the preparatory action was going on behind very large curtains on the back half of the stage.

About 30 minutes later the curtains dropped to reveal a two-tier set with blinding neon backdrop. Out comes Phil Oakey in sunglasses and leather coat and opens with Seconds before being joined by Joanne and Susan for Mirror Man. You are immediately left in no doubt that this night belongs to the Human League. Adding to the main three, on the upper tier is a drummer, one on keyboards and one who covers keyboards and guitar. And so they went through a succession of their greatest hits covering most of thier career. Phil was on the move constantly, shifting to every corner of the stage and even climbing on top of some of the upper tier instruments at one stage. The girls exited the stage for Empire State Human (but Martyn Ware did not appear!). Phil did acknowledge the contribution of Martyn and Ian Craig Marsh to this song before commencing.

The back-drop provided superb images for each song. For the Sound Of The Crowd, it was political figures, whose faces would merge into one another, right from Margaret Thatcher to Barrack Obama. I think they did something similar on the Dare! Tour last year. Also, they used shots from the film Scanners as the back-drop to Being Boiled just as on the Dare! Tour. All in all another slick showing from the League.

The main set was completed with Don’t You Want Me Baby. After much cheering and chanting we were treated to a 2 song encore.

Here is the set list, (the middle part is almost certainly not in the correct order): -

1. Seconds
2. Mirror Man
3. Open Your Heart
4. (Keep Feeling) Fascination
5. Empire State Human
6. The Lebanon
7. Louise
8. The Sound Of The Crowd
9. Tell Me When
10. Love Action
11. Don’t You Want Me
Encore
12. Being Boiled (no Martyn Ware here either!)
13. Together In Electric Dreams

Apart from feeling as rough as a piece of sand paper, I had a great night. Thanks Mr Ibuprofen for making it possible.

Thanks for that Mike and well done for making it thru the night!

Sounds like a great night (minus your illness). Hope you are feeling better.

Thanks for making me jealous Mike ...
Three favourite bands on one night, sounds like a dream!
And to Mr. Ibuprofen: "science is making me happy" (Yuri Hulkkonen).

Nice review, Mike!

The Steel City Tour, Hammersmith Apollo 8.12.2008

Heaven 17 was top quality stuff as was expected by yours truly. They started very early and I missed the first song 'Fascist Groove Thang'. It spoiled the Heaven 17 gig a bit for me, because I like to see the whole gig if it's an artist that I really like (i.e. my "Official Favourite"). When I settled down my eyes followed rather delicious looking and sounding Billie Godfrey. I wish they played a longer set.

I've never seen ABC live before and finally to hear 'Poison Arrow' and 'Show me' live raised spirits high. In a way ABC was the peak moment of the evening for me. 'The Lexicon of Love' is one of the best albums ever made and for some reason it's always been sort of a "christmas record" for me. The good feeling during ABC may have partly been caused the fact how nice Martin Fry was ealier in the afternoon when he signed my CDs outside Apollo. Truly gentleman and not too hurry to do signings with dedications.

Start of The Human League gig was perhaps the most impressive I've ever experienced. THAT light show and 'Seconds'... (take a moment to think about it). Only contender I can think of is 'The Man Machine' starting Kraftwerk Minimum-Maximum tour in Helsinki. I've seen The Human League live twice (first time in 2001) and both times they have been better and more than I expected. During 'Louise' we went from near the stage to further back to see the light-show-thing better. It was even more striking from distance and I've never seen anything like that before.

See my Steel City Tour photos here: http://personal.inet.fi/cool/places/steelcitytour/

Thanks MikeG and Mr Normall for posting the Steel City reviews of Wolverhampton, and Hammersmith, (thanks also Mr Normall for the link to your great photo’s of meeting musicians at gig’s, I enjoyed seeing all of these )

This year, I'm looking forward to hosting Orland Jopling, Bob Pearce, Helen Shapiro and Yazz at the old church here in Southampton.

We're setting up a Friends group after Easter, which should open up the facility to 'other' performers and artists who don't 'wear the badge'... and gets two local art exhibitions in, as well as an evening of Polish folk music.

Just signed up international harpist, Robin Ward

http://www.youtube.com/user/seb25arpa?gl=GB&hl=en-GB

Went to see Ultravox at the Birmingham Symphony Hall last night. I won't post any details in case it spoils things for folks going to the later shows, but suffice it to say the guys were on fabulous form.

Not sure about this venue for gigs though. I arrived just after 7:30 and the support (Anne-Marie Helder) was already being piped through the tannoy system. What time did she come on Anyway, got a pint from the bar and went up many stairs to the Upper Circle hoping to take a look. Only I'm not allowed in with a drink This pint was meant to last most of the night. So I end up sitting in the Upper Circle reception area sipping my drink listening to Anne-Marie Helder over the tannoy.

Got slightly confused when other punters arrived (without drinks) and were not let in either. Then it dawned on me; they were only being let in between songs. What the ?!? Surely there are only a handful of people in the place? Would she not appreciate some extra fans?
Anyway the tannoy music stopped at 8:00 and she was gone.

Ultravox played to a full house from around 8:45 to 10:15. The atmosphere could be best described as reserved. I had expected the place to go wild when they first came on, but it was more polite applause than anything else. Maybe the ambience of the place was playing a part? And everyone remained seated.

It took until about song 7 or 8 for Midge to query if there was a house rule that meant "everyone had to sit on their arses" (I expect there probably was a rule). Anyway, at that point the atmosphere got more energetic and half the place was on its feet.

I left the place with mixed emotions. As I said, the performance could not be faulted, but it just didn't feel like a normal gig to me. Maybe being in the Upper Circle played a part. Plus I would have liked to have seen some of the support act.

Sometimes your expectations dictate the sort of evening you experience. For last weeks Ultravox show, my expectations were high, but for last nights Gary Numan show at Wolverhampton, my expectations were low. Not that I think Gary Numan is a poor performer. Its just that the most recent album I own is Exile, and I have yet to be won over by his 21 century work. I was expecting a night of unfamiliar guitar driven tracks. However, he was performing on my doorstep, so I reasoned it would be rude not to go.

SPOILER ALERT

Well, he blew me away. His new stuff sounded great, and there were generous helpings from the past as well. As you probably guessed, I'm not able to give a full set-list, so I pinched this one from one of the Numan forums: -

Jagged
Films
Crazier
Fold
Dream of Wires
Pure
Metal
The Fall
Blind
Down In The Park
Absolution
I Assassin
Haunted
Halo
Are Friends Electric?

Encore

We Are So Fragile
I Die You Die
A Prayer For The Unborn

Hmmm .... maybe now is the time to take a another look at his newer stuff.

Thanks for posting the review - I'm seeing him tomorrow night in Sheffield, so I'm trying to avoid looking at the tracks you mention!

What kind of merchandise was on sale?

I only noticed t-shirts at the end, but it was rather crowded and I didn't hang around.

Enjoy the show (I'm sure you will)!

Thanks!

I've really been addicted to Jagged Edge - probably his strongest album in recent years, so with the prospect of him also playing some new stuff, I'm very excited.

I suspect Dead Son Rising - new album of tracks leftover from Exile, Pure and Jagged - has been delayed as it was originally scheduled for April.

Anyway there's something exciting about hearing brand new songs played live

Yeah, have a great time Alex! I'm seeing him in Bristol on June - maybe he'll fill the evening with new songs from Dead Son.. as the album might be out by then :p !

I'll be back with a report tomorrow!

Well, I enjoyed myself. An interesting gig last night. Nothing new to promote, just a tour for the sake of it I think!!

Gary played for 2 hours, a very varied and almost random sounding setlist.

The rough tracklisting (can't quite remember order after the first few)...

Fallen
Jagged
Films
Crazier
I dream of wires
Fold
Metal (very cool version)
Pure
Bleed (new, unrecognisable version, no chorus!)
The fall (new song!)
Absolution
I, Assassin (a personal favourite I never thought I'd hear live!)
Down in the Park
Haunted
Halo
Are 'friends' electric?

We are so Fragile
I die : you die
A prayer for the unborn

John Cale in Venice

Ex Velvet Underground member John Cale will be representing his home country of Wales at the Venice Biennale arts festival this summer.

For Wales at Venice 2009, Cale will produce a new audio-visual work made in Wales, in collaboration with artists, filmmakers and poets. The work has at its heart Cale’s own personal relationship with the Welsh language and the issues surrounding communication. The installation will be gheld in the ex-birreria, a former brewery on the island of Giudecca from June 7th to November 22nd 2009.
Jonathan Jones in The Guardian describes the work as "a wonderful spoken-word recording, like a cross between Dylan Thomas and William S Burroughs played on an old radio".

Will def make an effort to go and see that.
( blogged! )

Betrayal - Pinter @ Nuffield Southampton

Press night - invitation. Studio 2 for pre-show drinks and noodling networks

The Nuffield Theatre Company's presentation is a contemporary interpretation of Pinter's 1978 play exploring the complex mathematics of infidelity and betrayal.
It is set in the present, beginning in 2009, and regresses to 2000 when the relationships began, tracing a web of infidelity, painful truth and deception.

Miranda Colchester presents Emma about as true to Pinter's intention as I would imagine its possible to get - from the bitter, haunted woman who meets her lover in the pub at the beginning of the play (the end of the story) to the fashionable, light and passionate lover she was when the affair began. For their part, Michael Colgan and Simon Wilson cleverly portray a relationship between the two men that seems to be ultimately stronger than either of their feelings about her.

Present throughout, and enhanced by the dark, often threatening score, are the long, motionless pauses that characterise Pinter's minimalist work, during which the audience feels as awkward and uncertain as the characters on stage, witnessing intimately their anxiety and their discomfort with one another, even in the most conventional moments. The forced, often comical and carefully contrived dialogue is delivered clearly and with effective control, and none of the underlying meaning and contrapunctal intent are lost, carried throughout the play as they are by the omnipotent and thick silences, rich with paradox and emotion, expressing all those things we can never find the words to say. We despair at the characters self-justification for the most fundamental of errors, and we hear the unspoken words with painful clarity.

Pinter's drama questions us throughout - Who is the 'victim' here? whose decisions and reaction the most justifiable? whose pain the least deserving?
We empathise with them all, and yet with none.
How did it happen? Where did it all go wrong? What happens now?

The story is presented in reverse, so that our knowledge of the consequences of each scene bears heavy on the following one. Knowing that we know that he knows that he doesn't know adds another layer to the myriad of meanings in this masterful script.

There are some wonderful audiovisual touches that add to the emotional experience too. The upturned furniture stays on set throughout in various non-arrangements serving as a constant reminder of the chaos and upheaval in the 'real' lives of the characters, representing an ever-present displaced awkwardness. I feel now I should have paid more attention to what was in the stack of furniture...
As well as the intense lighting, and Emma's constant fussing with the tablecloth, listen out for surprises in the soundtrack and the invasive, banal yet curiously engaging TV set, especially when its off, and the action on stage is reflected on its all-seeing screen.

A poignant and highly charged night of theatre. Beautifully directed and utterly engaging.

©birdsong, May 2009

On Thursday 30th July international harpist, Robin Ward will be performing in the magnificent Victorian setting of St. Denys Church, Dundee Road, Southampton, as part of his 2009 tour. The programme, entitled ‘From the Golden Age’, contains a wide variety of music from the 16th century to the present day, including pieces by Trabaci, Froberger, Buxtehude, Parry, and Glinka, amongst others.

http://www.earlyharps.com/Robin_Ward_Early_Harps/Home.html

This gives you a better idea of our building.
Blues Etc in action


©annmcgillivray/davidstjohn

That picture makes it look lovely & intimate, Martin. Intelligent use of lighting, also. And what a backdrop!

Come on John. You know you want to perform there.

Pics & short review of OMD & the Liverpool Philharmonic here: http://markmcnulty.typepad.com/

..and more OMD / Liverpool Philaharmonic pics by Innes Marlow here .

I see she did some Gary Numan too, Mirrorman

Magazine: The Soap Tour Edinburgh, 30 August 2009


At the HMV Picture House, as part of the Edge Festival, Magazine played to a large and very enthusiastic crowd, a mostly mature audience of fans highly appreciative in their respect and admiration of the band. It’s a long time since I would have properly called myself a fan, from back in my teens and buying their debut LP in ’78, and then fast forward to so many years later and buying the 2007 CD remasters when they were released. I had come by my ticket for this show rather unexpectedly, and a bit of a cheat really, getting it cheaply from the acquaintance of a friend of mine, who having bought it was subsequently unable to go themselves, but for that circumstance I otherwise would have missed what turned out to be a really hugely enjoyable gig.

After an atmospheric instrumental from a John Barry James Bond film score had played out, acting as an entrance theme, the band members came onstage, with Howard Devoto appearing last, dressed in a suit and a red shirt, holding aloft a vinyl copy of The Correct Use Of Soap, taking the record from out of the sleeve he said in a warm and smiling voice, “Twenty Years Ago…”
The gig started, and each song that was played was introduced by Howard with LP in hand, and speaking a few lines, which at first I took to be his own poetic words, there was I looking for a deeper meaning in that way so cleverly of the Devoto lyric, but amusingly he later intimated that he was quoting (or perhaps ad-libbing) from the pages of an old ‘guide book to taking care of your vinyl record collection’.

I’m not great at remembering playlists, so I wouldn’t attempt to recount any here, the gig was presented in two sections, and after the first part there was a brief ‘interval’. Early musical highlights for me were: 'Sweetheart Contract' and 'Thank You Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin' (perhaps all funk should be played this way, or more accurately, perhaps Magazine should have played more funk like this).

”but the brightest jewel inside of me glows with pleasure at my own stupidity”

I wasn’t able to go see Magazine on their ‘reform tour’ last year, but here they were now in my town, on one of the few gigs scheduled this year, and I have to confess to my embarrassment that I didn’t even know that this was actually ‘The Soap Tour’ that I was watching. This was later confirmed for me when Howard commented on his own reaction to performing a 'Soap Tour’, but by then I had already realised that I wasn’t hearing any of the songs that I’d particularly loved and played so much on vinyl, those sounds particular to the first two Magazine albums. In any kind of running order in my mind I would always have put ‘Soap’ at number three in my list of favourite’s, (don’t mention album number four), Secondhand Daylight with its gothic keyboard landscape and haunting sax, and Real Life with its sharp and bristly guitars, both still have the power to raise a hair or two dozen down my spine.

"I may love you out of weakness, is that what I was afraid of!"

The Correct Use Of Soap album, fully out on parade in all its finery, with Howard and the remaining original members of the band, Dave Formula, Barry Adamson, and John Doyle, (Noko replacing John McGeoch), taking me back again through its collection of songs. As an album It’s undoubtedly more pop than rock, and for me some of the edges are slightly less bristly, but if the reviews of history are correct, it was Magazines most popularly accessible album. But I have to confess again, it was the first time that their work didn’t quite completely strike as huge a chord for me as the first two albums had, and perhaps that puts me amongst the few rather than the many on that point. 'A Song From Under The Floorboards' was never my first choice of anthem to get behind in any rally call or show of my allegiance to Magazine, but happily I can now say that hearing, or more accurately seeing ‘Soap’ played live in the HMV Picture House, was simply thus for me in the words of Devoto: “I know beauty and I know a good thing when I see it….

After the interval Howard and the band reappeared once again, and this time Mr Devoto had changed his shirt, gone was the red, replaced by a yellow/mustard, some deeper meaning here? or perhaps he just needed a change of clothing "…It's so hot in here, what are they trying to hatch? we must not be frail, we must watch...".

A church lectern had been set up onstage by the crew, and Howard pretended to flick through the pages of a large old book that had been set out, appropriately speaking out the words from 'The Book'.

"Hold my book for a minute, would you, while I get the door open!".

Scripture and lesson over, we continued on with the last section of the gig, during which we took a short diversion from the Soap Tour, and into Real Life and Secondhand Daylight territory with: 'Parade', and 'Permafrost', which Howard cheekily described as now being a song about ‘saving the environment’, well f**k me, the Green party need to use that one on their next party political broadcast.

'The Light pours Out Of Me' brought about a wave of pogo-ing from a dozen or so people grouped at centre front, I was also at the front, but at a reasonable distance from those outrageous jostling youngsters!, I chose instead to just let a rush of euphoria pour over me as I basked in the bursts of bright light that showered the stage while Howard sung out those indelible words, ”The cold light of day pours out of me, leaving me black, and so healthy…”

Throughout the gig Magazine as a band were just skillfully fantastic and everything flowed so perfectly, Noko on guitar really stood out for me, he is just great to watch playing away onstage. Howard’s timing and delivery left me with the impression that perhaps in another life he could have been a Stand-up comedian, he will always rank high as a master lyricist, speaking from someplace between the inspired spontaneity of a Beat poet, and the similes and metaphors of an Alien Emcee.

Now that's what I call a review & that's why I don't write them myself, they would never be as thorough & as insightful as Core's

Core, it really is a stunning review. You projected me there through your words. Wish I had been there.

Won't mention 'Magi.. oops, nearly did.

Any Peter Murphy or Bauhaus fans here..? I bought two tickets for Peter Murphy's Secret Cover tour in London right after they came available. I got good seats (I believe) but won't use the tickets after all. These two tickets are now for sale:

Venue: Indigo, The O2 arena, London
Time: Sunday 11.10.2009, doors open 19:00
Seats: Kings Row VIP , row E, seats 17-18
Price: 15 pounds or 20 euros / ticket

(Face value is £25 + £2,50 service charge)

If interested, e-mail me to jamta@hotmail.com

~ Tapio J aka Mr Normall

edit 23.9.2009: price reduced

More stuff from the Church project

Warming up for Laura Marling in early November (talented AND seriously cute!)

http://www.flickr.com/photos/shirlaine/2567581013/in/photostream/



following an evening with Paul Jones (yes, him off Radio 2) on October 24th.

Seems things is moving on...

Morrissey - Salisbury City Hall 2nd November

The best gig I've been to in a long time.

Long have I waited to catch Morrissey live, and it was worth it. Power, energy, passion, euphoria, admiration, respect, lighting, sound, provocation, humour, cynicism, arrogance, tenderness, fragility, brutality, intelligence, aggression...

The 'new' version of How Soon Is Now might easily feature among the top live tracks I've seen performed.

He's an enigma alright tho - very hard to know whether he is serious or cynical, condemning or approving. There are few showmen like him left on stage - he was utterly engaging, every subtle mannerism adding to his presentation of the songs.

If I had to criticise (for the sake of balance) I would suggest that 'Cemetery Gates' seemed comparatively weak and out of context, and 'First of the Gang To Die' was an odd choice for the only track of the encore.

But otherwise brilliant. For someone whose album's always attract, fascinate and then unceasingly disappoint me, I have to say that live, Morrissey is as Morrissey does and there are few to match him.

Fleetwood Mac, Sheffield Arena, 2nd November

This was the concert my wife had been waiting over 20 years to see. Ticket prices were through the roof, and I'm no fan of large arena gigs at at all. But what ever it took, we had to be at this gig.

And I can honestly say it was worth the money and the wait. Without a doubt the best live band I've ever seen.

Having seen the DVD of their 2003 tour, I was a little concerned that Lindsey Buckingham's vocals were past their best, but I was glad to be proven wrong. He gives those vocals some serious hammer, and though his upper range isn't quite what it was a decade ago, he is an incredible vocalist and an even better guitarist.

Sunday's well timed BBC One "Don't Stop" documentary, gave me a good insight into this band and seeing them for real the very next day, I had a greater appreciation of the individual band members and their often turbulent history. But with Buckingham and Nicks embracing and even holding hands, you might think that most of those personal complications are behind them.

The unspeakably tall Mick Fleetwood is the powerhouse of the band, thundering on his drums away like a towering madman.

This was a greatest hits tour - so we had the likes of "The Chain", "Dreams", "Rhiannon", "Second Hand News", "Monday Morning", "Big Love", "So Afraid" and plenty of other tracks from their most famous albums; their eponymous 1975 album and 1977's Rumours, as well as a smattering of other lesser played album tracks and even some early Peter Green material and a fantastic and rare airing of Buckingham's 1985 solo single "Go Insane".

I'm still on a buzz from it. And totally blown away. Too many thoughts going round my head to write a detailed review at the moment.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Playing the Piano, Teatro Comunale, Ferrara, Italy. 4th November 2009

Having 'followed' closely the progress of this European tour via the social networks Facebook and Twitter, which Sakamoto seems to have warmed to so well, I was already sort of prepared for what was to come...but then again I wasn't.
The 'gig' is what it says .. RS playing the piano, two pianos in fact as one has been pre-programmed as an accompaniment and it seemed as though it was triggered when he started playing his own. A bare stage, two pianos and some flashing LEDs .. what would come next?
The first piece - Glacier - really is something else. The spotlight is just on the first piano when a dark figure enters and reaches over to pluck and caress the piano chords, tapping on the woodwork over an electronic noise background and a treated voice - in Finnish? - explaining how climate change is affecting the landscape (words and images are projected onto the screen). For someone who likes 'experiematl' and 'ambient' it doesn't get much better than this.
This is the only piece of its kind though and after that follows over an hour and a half of RS playing his piano in a more 'conventional' way, sometimes with and sometimes without the second one. Said like that it doesn't perhaps sound too exciting, but believe me you are absoloutely transfixed by the music which comes out of those instruments. Each piece lovingly played by the maestro and each one a soundtrack to a tiny colour film (RS prefers European cinema).
I'm only a passing RS listener although was pleased to recognise some of the songs, including a rousing Behind the Mask from the YMO days, but mostly pieces of the latest albums Out of Noise and PTP. Merry Xmas Mr L /Forbidden Colours was dutifully played towards the end and I see from the setlist (already published on his site) there was even an 'untitled - newly written piece' which I think was played for the first time.
Unfortuantely no vocal interaction from the man (even though I saw a hand mike was at hand) although again it was the music that spoke for him together with the background projection films and animations.
I was of course tempted to think of similarities in style and presentation with our own maestro JF, and a possible collaboration..who knows.

I read from twitter afterwards that afterwards the entourage headed straight for Milan and slept on the bus .. phew...rock n roll!

setlist

There’s sure been a lot happening here over the last few days!
from the Mozz’ to the Mac’, and then on to the Sak’.
Great reading about it all
(OT): A Sakamoto/Foxx collaboration?
should we start a list/thread (or perhaps it’s already been done) of who we would like to see John work with

a few photos from the Sakamoto 'gig' .. from RS facebook

soundcheck:


the theatre:


playing Composition 0919

what a fantastic venue,

and I love the minimalist stage set.

Thanks Core .. yes Italian theatres are beautiful to look at but just a tad impractical .. I think there are usually about 20 seats where you can see and hear really well...
Yes the set was very nipponic-minimalist-zen .. reflected the music very well.

If anyone's interested the Sakamoto date for Birmingham (UK) has been cancelled, http://www.sitesakamoto.com/whatsnew/

'night all.

That's a real shame. I was really looking forward to seeing him.

As long as his Edinburgh gig is still on.

All that we are
Is all that we need to be...

Buy tickets to the Pleasure Principle tour.

Go see Numan - NOW!!!

Depeche Mode, FuturshowStation Bologna Italy - 25.11.2009

The last time I saw Depeche Mode was twenty five years ago almost to the week. The world was a different place then, I was a different person, and it thus follows that Depeche Mode are a different band. Last time I saw them in a glorified circus tent, this time we're big time basketball stadium. The dizzy Deps have come a long way and you can't knock 'em for that. They started in Basildon pubs, they lugged their own synths on the train to get to TOTP, and have proceeded to take on the world. The recent Synth Britannia demonstrated how they are effectively the only 'synth' band to have become so successful around the world and especially in the "all-important" U.S. There's no other band quite like Depeche Mode.
But back to the 'gig'. Well what can I say .. there was all the standard DM stuff we're used to by now: the obligatory 'new album' tracks - In Chains works well as an opener, Wrong came over particularly well, Truth Is didn't at all and, sadly, Peace has been dropped along the way. The big hits and crowd pleasers were there too: Enjoy the Silence, Never Let Me Down Again (complete with ritual arm-swaying), I Feel You, plus some lesser hits Home, Question of Time, Policy of Truth and more select album tracks Fly on the Windscreen, Insight,One Caress .. it was all there....but then again something was missing. I just found the whole thing a bit 'cold' ..Dave, Martin, Fletch (was he there?) and friends just going through the motions, like they've done dozens of times already on this tour, and in many tours before it. Dave prancing, pouting, crotch grabbing, mike stand twirling and even getting the name of the town right in his obligatory 'Good Evening (name of town)'....and the crowd go wild. Big screen, big lights, big music, big tunes but they just seem to have become the Big Mac of pop/rock .. standard product with same results in any part of the world. You'll enjoy it, it'll fill your tummy but that's about it .. it's not an experience that will change your life .. but then again you might still go back for more one day.
Despite all the bright lights and spectacle I've decided I'm not a fan of 'stadium rock' at all. Music for the masses?. Roll on the next Foxx/Gordon gig in dingy obscure, gothic-night club I say.

Just so long as it is not in a converted church! Heaven forbid...

Don

Great gig of Simple Minds/OMD yesterday in Hamburg.
Both bands played a mixture of tracks about their whole career plus Simple Minds played a couple of tracks from their new album Graffiti Soul too. It was a great atmosphere in the Sporthalle and it seemed both bands enjoyed it a lot. I met two people from Scotland there and we had a nice chat (and a nice beer... ).

But the absolutely highlight of the gig was the first track of the encore!

NEON LIGHTS - played by Simple Minds together with OMD. Great to see Jim and Andy and this wonderful female soul singer singing together!

Great gig - great evening (3 hours)


Now I want more.... Roll on Heaven 17 in March!!


Cheers, Andreas

Danke Andreas! I imagine there was no new OMD material played (perhaps just as well...), and yes Neon Lights had already been announced as a highlight - glad it wasn't disappointing.

Ryuichi Sakamoto - Queens Hall Edinburgh


A fantastic night. I had a front row seat & could almost touch him. Highlights for me were Tibetan Dance & Merry Christmas Mr Lawrence. Still trying to work out what he was doing first song as he seemed to just be leaning into the piano & playing from there. Also trying to figure out how he performed the 2nd smaller piano at the same time. Was it him or the guy who was sitting to the side behind the desk playing it? I thought after the first song it was going to be a sort of strange long concert but the time flew by & before I knew it he had done his 2 encores & was waving goodbye.

Quite right Scott .. at the beginning he sort of plucked and scraped the strings and tapped on the woodwork a bit. I believe some of the backing tracks on that piece are by Fennez.

Glad you enjoyed it.

I'm looking forward to seeing them on Saturday.

I would have hoped SM might have played more than a couple of songs from their new album - isn't that what they're touring to promote?! What are they scared of?!

Alex, I'm sure you will enjoy the concert. If I remember right Simple Minds played 1 hour and 45 min. and OMD 1 hour and 15 min. So there were a lot of time for S.M. to play their stuff. Incl. the pause between both bands (half hour) it was an evening of 3,5 hours!

If I'm right, S.M. played stuff from Sons and Fascination/ Sister Feelings Call onwards until today - incl. Graffiti Soul . I cannot say how many tracks were from Graffiti Soul , 'cause I'm more into the older stuff (until Neapolis ). But the new tracks were good too - real Simple Minds sound.
You are right; the Tour poster said Graffiti Soul tour , but they had made so many stuff in the past - I can say it was a good mixture and enjoyed it a lot.
For my opinion they could play more stuff from the very early days (pre Once Upon a Time).


But as I said; it was a good mixture - great concert!

The same I can say for OMD!


I wish you a great gig on Saturday!


Andreas

Thank you Andreas!

It was a good gig overall, but I have to admit, I came out of it feeling despondent.

OMD played for an hour, what was basically a greatest hits/singles set. It was nice to see them live - musically and technically they were excellent, although I found it incredibly boring. So many of the songs sounded dreary and, basically the same. So sadly, I'm not converted, and only genuinely enjoyed 3 or 4 songs.

The stage setup was great - lots of beam lights, including a central column of them which went right to the ceiling. Unfortunately the sound was not good - which for an arena gig, was a bit of a surprise. For both OMD & SM, the vocals were too low in the mix. Sound at SM gigs is usually fantastic.

This was the first time we'd seen SM since 2006, so I was hoping my interest would be renewed, but, I found myself feeling a bit bored. The set was largely a greatest hits package, with only 3 new songs (from Graffiti Soul, which they're supposed to be promoting), although there was a few surprises, including a medly of their early tracks - including "I Travel", "In Trance As Mission" and "Sons and Fascination" - a few years ago, I would have gone insane with joy at hearing these played live, but because of the poor sound, they didn't really work. But it was nice to hear them live anyway.

It was a bit sad to realise that a band I once hailed as my very favourite, no longer moved me live. I guess my problem is that I don't like their stadium-era music - I basically really, really like the stuff they did before making it big (Empires & Dance up to New Gold Dream), and that stuff probably isn't what the the majority of gig-goers want to hear.

The tour programme was impressive, although there's over 3 pages all about "Sons and Fascination/Sister Feelings Call" (my favourite album), which gives the impression they're going to play a lot from that double album, combined with new tracks - and that wasn't the case at all.

I half wondered if they'd had a grand plan to really give that album a good airing live, then chickened out at the last minute!

Simple Minds have so much to give, and such a vast back catalogue from which to choose, I think they've missed to many opportunities by resting on their laurels so much. Musically though, they were fantastic, although for me, I felt a spark had gone out somewhere for Jim.

It was also sad to see many people going to the bar/toilet during the slower/early songs, and even leaving the concert entirely during the encore.

On the other hand, my wife really enjoyed SM, so I guess it comes down to me being hard to please, wanting more of the early work.

It was certainly a busy week for me.
The 30th I got to see Depeche Mode in my hometown of Rotterdam.
Something I initially didn't want to see.
I fully agree with MemberD's review.
It's all on automatic, something I noticed while seeing a few gig's on the previous tour.
It's not bad, don't get me wrong, but it surely lacks "something".

Anyway, then it was off to London for the Numan gig at the O2 Indigo.
As for the support, "Dirty Harry" was completely miscast for this.
Had never heard them before and I came to the conclusion that I didn't miss a lot during that period.
First thing I thought was "No Doubt" but with even worse songs...good I use earplugs
Only plus, the front-woman is not that bad on the eye.
Suddenly I saw on the side a guy behind the curtains gesturing them to stop.
Bye Harry!

The first part of the Numan gig was all I hoped for, plain and simple.
No i'll-make-them-sound-bigger songs...
Although I am not that big of a fan of his recent stuff I have to say part 2 was good as well.
Numan dragged Chris Payne on stage to do some violin.
The whole thing was filmed, will be fun to watch that one again.
At the end his wife and kids showed up at the side, he said he "hated retro but this was f'ing amazing".
He has to say something positive for the end of the dvd I guess...
Good gig, it was worth the trip

Saturday I walk back to Liverpool Street station to get the train back to Stansted.
I pass Holborn viaduct, and as I engage this person...I think...It's...
...It's...
...Mr.Normall !!
So I wanted to be sure and asked him if he's "Mr.Normall"...well, he was!
What a coincidence to meet him in the middle of London on the street.
We had a small conversation on the pavement which I sadly had to keep short due to my plane waiting.
Was really nice to meet you there!

Overall a great week, next week please...

sad state of affairs there, have to agree, its the earlier songs from New Gold Dream backwards for me too.
what a great introduction to a complete stranger

Gary Numan: The Pleasure Principle Tour
Edinburgh, 26 November 2009

(with apologies for the very indulgently long, waffling and musings post ):

We Have A Technical

So here I was in the HMV Picture House for a gig, where tonight the audience would be beamed back to the future with the music of The Pleasure Principle album, and to a time when its modernist sound of 1979 was a highpoint in Gary’s analogue android art.

Like a homing pigeon, or someone with a compulsive behaviour trait, I stood amongst the crowd in the exact same place as the last time I saw a show at this venue, (Gary, as it turned out, would be performing about 20 feet from where I was standing, and where I would clearly see his face). So with a suitably robot-like stance for this evenings machine-music proceedings, I obeyed those self-imposed rules that we have, programming myself not to move away from this spot during the show, not even if later I urgently needed to go vent liquid through my front lower exit chamber.

With neither great expectations, nor serious doubts either about the entertainment level of the show to come, my pleasure circuits were fully set to - Enjoy!, and it was all going to be okay. I say okay, because at the eleventh hour I almost never got to this 30th anniversary album gig. The irony here for me is that I had a ticket for Gary’s first major tour during the original ’79 Pleasure Principle release, but sadly I didn’t make it to that Synth-Storming Glasgow Apollo show. Now in ’09 it had threatened to happen to me once again at this more modest, but rare performance.

I intended to see the show with a friend who has never been a Numan fan, but was being ‘open minded’ about an anniversary gig. Just before 6pm, a family situation occurred, and depending on the outcome I was now very uncertain if either of us would make it to the gig. By 8pm it was clear that my friend would not be joining me, and it was suggested that we contact a work colleague, (an almost total stranger to me, and also half my age), to step in and see the show with me. At first I was against this idea, but when I relented it turned out that that this person was ill with the flu, so was unable to use the freebie ticket.

It was just me on my own now, paying double for the pleasure of seeing the show, and having been spared the choice of an evening defending Gary from a non-Numan, or spending it with a total stranger, besides, my enjoyment of The Pleasure Principle had been a solitary experience back in my youth… so maybe it’s best just to continue to savour these things on your own.


So I Press ‘C’ For Comfort

Taking a cue from Gary’s Observer, ”as I stand here for hours” waiting for the band to come onstage, and doing the ‘lone watcher of human congregation’ thing at the other audience members, I see that regulation black attire is once again out in force tonight. Wearing black seems to be forever the colour of choice at gigs, its so prevelant as to be almost invisible, but it unites both the young and old alike, casually providing some degree of alternative credibility to the person wearing it while stating modestly that we are all still ‘in the know’ about something.

Gary, unsurprisingly, will be in black tonight in his tunic-style jacket. What’s your favourite album cover black look for Gary, is it Replicas? Telekon? Jagged? or heaven forbid, Warriors? No contest for me, it just has to be the Replicas look. In those early days of clone persona I pretended that it was me standing transfixed in a room under a lightbulb, all dressed up and nowhere to go, (its lonely being an android, but don’t you look good). Gary occasionally switched to no black in the past, he opted for a brown suit with tie on The Pleasure Principle cover as he pondered the practicalities of making love to a glowing pink pyramid entity, (well, he seems to be snogging it on the back cover), perhaps he’s absorbing it, trying to swallow it whole, do machines need food and water? and if so then ‘Do androids dream of eating sheep?’

The crew test the keyboard equipment, and with each burst of raw sound I think to myself: “ooh, that’s a bit like the start of Metal”, or, ”ooh, that one is just like Conversation”. Clearly I was no longer suppressing my geeky excitement about the show, and I was not alone in feeling this way, as the smoke machine onstage released a few jets of white cloud skyward, from somewhere behind me, I over-heard a stranger casually say to someone next to him: “we really should get one of those for the office…”.


Remember, I Was Just Like You

Random and Airlane both kick started the Pleasure Principle evening, two great up-tempo instrumentals placed neatly together introducing the show. Gary then spoke to the audience, and diverted from the original running order of the album by choosing to play Complex next. Undoubtedly its one of his most heartfelt of songs, the most beautiful one on the album, and for this tour it’s being fittingly dedicated to the memory and friendship of Paul Gardiner, in acknowledgment of his importance in the creation of The Pleasure Principle album. Gary humbly spoke his thoughts before the song began, and then, wow! there it was, a huge B/W head-shot photograph of Paul on the large screen projection above the band.

I wondered if this seemed just a little bit much to anyone else, as it did for me. Most people might have thought that when it came to making a dedication then just saying some well chosen words was appropriate enough, but the scale of that projected face looking down at the audience eventually dominated the whole of the song for me. Perhaps that was the intention, for subtle it wasn’t, and yet it also seemed very idiosyncratic of Gary, just another small part of the way he is, contributing to the endearment that we have (or have come to have) for him since the old days of the big bright hits, and his unforgettable character during those early years.

Its retro night, so lets take a moment to remember the young Gary, the first Poster Boy of Synthpop, back in '79 appearing from out of nowhere with a hit song of such strange beauty that even your parents were struck down by it. Very annoyingly for his critics, his songs with lyrics of mashed up sci-fi pulp and ‘simplistically produced music’, (as they termed it), were delivered with total sincerity by Gary while he tapped into a new avenue of youthful alienation. He created a place where his obscure but emotional confessionals made sense to its listeners, but just as quickly as he became a household name, he also became the target of tabloid misunderstandings, and of music journalist’s resentments. Eventually his own painful honesty, (some called it naivety), and naked youthful persona became trapped in the glare of pop stardom, giving the bullies even more cause to pelt him as he sat high on his glorious throne of electro achievement.


I Plugged My Wife In Just For Show

As the show progressed through the album with Metal, Films, M.E., and Tracks, the latter seemed to quicken the pace for the crowd, with more movement happening around me. Observer, was followed of course by Conversation, and here a sharper sound came into play lifting the overall tone of the music. Throughout the previous tracks there was something of a ‘grungy’ sound present, until Conversation brought a bit more melody to the surface of the gig.

Watching Gary at his keyboard was interesting, and I’m sure he wouldn’t have played it like he was now if he was back in ’79. Firmly fixed for most of the time at his instrument (save for a few tracks) he seemed to be bashing just a few keys at the left-hand end, bending forward and enthusiastically slapping that keyboard hard, it was almost like he was saying: ”take that you Synthesiser…” Whack!

Only two tracks left now as the end of the Pleasure Principle appeared to whirr away into the night, with the ghost of ’79 being exorcised before me. Was Gary thinking never again, as the assumption seems to be as regards his attitude to doing these old album shows? Well, I’d enjoyed this chance to be at a full performance of a retro classic work, it was presented well, and besides, my pleasure circuits were set to Enjoy!, and enjoy this rare moment in ’09 is exactly what I did.


Am I A Photo? …I Cant Remember

As Cars, and Engineers brought this first part of the gig to a close, I couldn’t help feeling that the bubbly Cars seems now almost out of place on this sober, inward looking album, or is it just that I’ve heard that song a million times by this point in my life, blimey, even John has felt the need to write a song about a million cars (but I’m sure there’s no connection there whatsoever!). During Engineers the stage went dark and the background light panels shone bright, taking on a very different configuration to what had been happening previously. Much more intense and animated, the effect was like being enclosed in the machine room of a Star-Trek stage set, ”Oy, beam us up Gary…”

The Pleasure Principle album is classic art music from start to finish, its only failing for me is the distinct unevenness of the album art design. Its good on the outside, but not so great on the inside, Gary looking like he’d nipped into Burtons for a suit, and came back with a curious display prop in his hand, is amusing, but the inner sleeve’s handwritten lyrics seem out of place. Worst of all, (and something that still brings a wince to my face), is that tacky artwork with the band emerging from a pink pyramid, like clones being born from a birthing machine.

I once jokingly posed a question in a post on this forum, saying: ”Is John’s Automobile better than Gary Numans Cars?"
Well, no, and apart from the historical importance of Cars as a knockout pop song, Gary will always zoom into first place with it in any race! But seriously, John as we all know has over the years garnered the title of ‘the Max Ernst of electronic music expression’, but back in ’79 with that one song Gary was clearly the uncrowned Andy Warhol of electro, (and stealing one of Bowie’s lines for a moment) ”Gary Numan looks a scream, hang him on my wall”

With Cars his talent at ‘communication through modernism’, (or something like that!), was such that with this song he had effortlessly created an iconic Pop Art image of the 20th century. Joking around here, if it had been a painting instead of a song it might have been called: ‘freedom of individual movement within industrialised society through personal transport habitat’, now I’m sure there’s a more pretentious Arty title I could find to use instead of that over-loaded one, but I’m just too lazy to think of it, so that ridiculous long one will just have to do.


And What If God’s Dead

The front keyboardist is swapping his instrument for a guitar and plunging headfirst into an industrial rock assault, there’s no doubt about it, we are now knee-deep into metal rock, and this last part of the gig also throws a few Replicas era tracks into the mix. A good performance of Pure heralds the nature of the work to come, and Gary’s lyrics were reasonably clear here to me at this point, (I was prepared for otherwise, having read the comments about the singing at previous gigs), but as we continued onto The Fall his words sadly were more or less lost in the sound.

Down In the Park briefly switched us back to the classics again, before we were dragged forward to more recent times with tracks from Jagged, but now Gary’s voice was completely gone in the storm, but, I rather liked what I heard, and was content to be bombarded with the drone and power of these almost instrumental versions of his songs, and if anything, I just wish it had been even more of an industrial onslaught. Although his work now is not necessarily innovative like the old music of the earlier part of the gig, I’m sure there’s a lot of scope for Gary to further hone and continue to claim a particular place in his new world of sound.

Switching back and forth between one style of music, and another, as we went from two or three industrial tracks to a classic track, wasn’t as shocking as I’d expected it to be after an evening of The Pleasure Principle. But one thing does jar for me with Gary’s music now, and that’s his performance of it, as his body language morphs into those sub-stadium rock pose’s, arms outstretched, head bent down, crucified T-shaped torso, all those highly unoriginal looks that are a standard of many a metal singer.

I just wish Gary would bring a difference to this music by creating a more individual body style while singing, particularly as he really does seem to enjoy putting his emotion into the songs he does, and its clear that he has to roam around the stage to build up the energy, but I don’t want to see his mike stand lifted up and hung behind his neck like any other old rock act. After four or five songs I felt that these generic moves drew too much attention to the inherent clichés involved, and when being performed in a small venue they were hard to ignore.


I Was The Best, I Worked them All

More of an eyesore were the naff images being projected during the last part of the gig, thinking about this afterwards it occurred to me how unnecessary it was for any established artist, particularly of Gary’s reputation, to be saddled with these tatty sub Goth visuals. He can’t be that attached to them, dump them and please let someone who works with him get in touch with a local college and enlist the talents of some aspiring film or art students, and create something much more interesting, Gary really needs to get that Karborn chap on the case, (c’mon Mr Foxx, help out an old contemporary).

After the Jagged tracks, Gary chose to almost act out a performance of Are Friends Electric. With a smile on his face he emoted the words and gestured slightly, and musically it reached interesting highs and lows, but I’m not so sure I liked his expressive manner with this song, As we headed towards the end of the show, A Prayer For The Unborn stood out for me for good and bad reasons, good because its an excellent song, done well here, but the clumsy back projected image of an ultrasound scan repeating itself didn’t add anything of interest, if only we’d just had some low key lighting lending a more sympathetic atmosphere. The show ended with We Are So Fragile, and this rocking little number (strange how I never noticed that before), went down very well with the majority of the audience.

I have to confess I was glad it was at an end, this had nothing to do with Gary, it was a good long show, and never once did I question the fact that I’d paid double to see it, but I was tired, and its hard work making yourself stand in one place all night.

One ‘laughable’ memory towards the end sticks out, during the second part of the gig a small group of young women in their early 20’s (intriguingly enough, not dressed in black!) squeezed in near to me, and between them they seemed to have a competition with each other to see who could scream out the loudest: ”Gareee F**king Numan”, and "Gah-reee!, Ah luv Yuu…”.

It's almost in line with the Quiet Man / Grey Suit theme.
He wasn't exactly a stranger to me as we met very briefly before the Hammersmith Ultravox gig

Oh, and thats really a BIG review...

Peter Gabriel is planning a small number of select live dates early next year - with an orchestra!

The first of these is at the O2 Arena.

http://womadshop.com/detail/573

I get the distinct feeling this tour will either be too expensive, or come nowhere near me. Anyway, eyes and ears are open!

Cheers for the heads up again Alex.

£150 & £100 a seat he can keep it.

We are in the middle of a recession.I've got much better things to do with my money

Brilliant review and write up Core..thanks.
Hope you've published it somewhere else too .

cheers MemberD, as an old fan I just wanted to express something about how much the album and Gary really are special. Great music never dies, it has the potential to be re-discovered afresh all over again...

Always wondered what shocked that monkey...

:rolleyes:

I was to London few days two weeks ago. Originally I was going to see live two of my most left field favorities Sheep On Drugs (which I liked in early '90) and Martin Degville's Sigue Sigue Sputnik.

Sheep On Drugs gig was cancelled but there was "invitation only" Marc Almond gig for the same night. I had a very good luck and got a free access to the gig (Thanks to Michelle and Wesley D).

The gig was at the 100 Club which is a small place and there was maybe 150 people in. The crowd was surprisingly enthusiastic given that they were not the fans who had bought their ticket to see their favourite artist. Marc Almond looked very good and seemed to have fun on stage. He even walked off the stage into the middle of the audience on one point. Neal X (Sigue Sigue Sputnik) played guitar.

Here's my pictures:
http://personal.inet.fi/cool/concert/almond2009/

Sigue Sigue Sputnik was my #1 favourite band for years. It all started when I saw Love Missile F1-11 video on TV in February 1986. I was sold.

I didn't see SSS live first time around but saw them in December 2000 when the lineup was Martin Degville, Tony James & Neal X. I was going to see that lineup again in September 2003 but the band split up just before their UK tour. Tony James & Neal X did the tour without Degville. It just wasn't the same.

Martin Degville gigs and releases "internet only" records under the name Sigue Sigue Sputnik nowadays. The main reson for my recent trip to London was to see Degville live on stage again. He is on stage like no-one else. The night was like SSS song says: Success!

See pix here: http://personal.inet.fi/muoti/mrnormall/sputnik2009/

~ Tapio aka Mr Normall

ps. One more thing.. as fons mentioned ealier on this very thread we met by accident in vast London town. I was walking from Tate Modern towards Covent Garden, minding my own business and someone said "Are you Mr Normall". "uh.. yes I am". And here we are: http://personal.inet.fi/musiikki/futu/Fons.jpg

Hi fons

Hi back!
Nice picture Tapio, thanks for posting that one!
About meeting on the streets of London, the more you think of it, the stranger it gets! The chance of getting hit by a meteor are about the same I guess

greetings!
fons

The Swell Season - City Halls Glasgow

A fantastic concert as part of the Celtic Connections. Glenn & Marketa were joined on stage by The Frames , Glenns band for a wonderful evening where Oscar winning song Falling Slowly brought the house down.

On the 'news' front well-known 80s combo called Ultravox (whose hits include songs like Vienna, Dancing With Tears in My Eyes and All in One Day (?)) have added new dates to the Return to Eden 2 tour, with lots in Europe too .... molto bene!

http://www.ultravox.org.uk/tour-dates.shtml

Stood at a gig from MARC ALMOND yesterday in Hamburg at the Docks.

Three words: BRILLIANT, FANTASTIC, SUPERB!!!

What a great show. He played some new material from his forthcoming album in June along his many hits.The highlight was the last song of the second encore; Tainted Love.
He is a wonderful singer. I enjoyed the concert from the first to the last minute.

5 points from 5 for this concert!

Hope he comes back soon.

How good to know someone I know was there.

Glad you enjoyed the show Andreas.
Marc Almond is my Number One live act and I have seen him perform countless times.
Always engaging, powerful, passionate charming.

I'm looking forward to the two shows I am plannig to see this year, and anticipating the new album too.
He is, as you said, an amazing artist, and one of the few people who can still be described as unique.
Thanks for sharing

Saw Heaven 17 doing a gig, well...2 out of 3 of them last night at Paradiso Amsterdam.

Always was fond of Heaven 17 record-wise so this was a nice chance.
As said it was only 2 of the original 3, Ian Craig Marsh bailed out a while ago.
They mentioned it was their first mainland gig of the anniversary tour, those seem obligatory these days.

And so it was the 30th anniversary Penthouse & Pavement tour.
They had additional support from a drummer, a guitar player and a very good female vocalist called Billie Godfrey.
It was a nice combo, Gregory still sounding like he used to (one of the best vocalists in the genre in my opinion).
For all I could hear a fair amount of actual keyboard playing by Ware.

I use pro earplugs these days on gigs (employer supplied ), with filters in them.
These basically filter out the distortion of the volume.
And one thing that struck me was how 'plain' the music sounded.

To give you an idea of the atmosphere.
I went only to see them play, but since they were on stage in the middle of a regular "80s party" I think most of the audience had no clue who they were.
One girl yelled at me "is it ok to dance on stage?", I said yes (who am I to say no )
She immediately followed up her first question with "is that a band on stage??? "

All in all it was a nice mix of Penthouse & Pavement, recent stuff and "Being Boiled" as the finale.

Thank you for your review, fons!

Now you made me much more curios of them as I was before (and this was a lot ,too) .

I will see them on Tuesday in Hamburg at the Fabrik.
I read in an article Mrs Godfrey is a real band member since 2006. Shame Ian Craig Marsh is not there too, but after your comment I think it all work fine with this line up.
AND I really looking forward to hearing BEING BOILED live!!!

Cheers, Andreas

Well Fons,

I'd also planned to go, but reading your story I'm glad I didn't attend the H17 show.
I knew it was not a 'normal' gig, but in the middle of an eighties party. You described my worries about it that I had in advantage.
It's like when I attended a Bomb the Bass gig in London during a DJ night ... I was about the only one who seriously watched Tim and co doing their thing!

So no Glenn Gregory live for me, yet.

Heaven 17, 23rd March in Hamburg at the Fabrik

A great concert. They played the whole Penthouse and Pavement album within 3 or 4 early B.E.F. tracks and Glenn Gregory played an accoustic guitar version of Human League's Don't you want me in the first part of the gig.
After a short pause they came back and played the second part which incl. Are Everything (Buzzcocks), I'm your Money, 3 tracks from The Luxury Gap - Come live with me, Let me go and as the final trackTemptation.

They came back for the encore with Being Boiled - which was fantastic (my personal highlight).
After it I guessed the gig was finished, but the people gave a massive applause - so they came back and Glenn Gregory played an accoustic guitar version of Geisha Boys and Temple Girls - and all people sung together.
The end of the second encore was an club mix version of Temptation.

The people in the sold out Fabrik enjoyed this concert a lot (incl.me!) and it looked like the band did too!

A fantastic night. Hope they come back for The Luxury Gap 30th anniversary tour next year....

Jealousy

Reading Andreas review, this was the one I wanted to attend.

Hehehe
Andreas, so this was a "gig only" event?
From what I read from you they did a shorter version in Amsterdam.
We didn't get "I'm your Money" for sure, one I hoped to hear as well!

next gig!

Yes it was a "gig only" event, though there was some music before - I think it was early B.E.F. stuff. There were a big screen behind the stage which looked like a mirror with many little silver shining lights. There were some visuals at the screen. It looked nice. But I cannot call this an eighties party 'cause there was no dance music. Seems the show in Hamburg was different to the one in Amsterdam.

But as I said it was a great gig. So if they come back one day - don't miss them! They are really worth the money!!

BTW. fons and Lody Herst: Are you going to the Roundhouse gig in June? Would be nice to meet us for a pre concert pint...

Good idea Andreas! (me back from work bein' very thirsty right now)
I'll check my agenda if I can make it the 5th.
But how do you get your tickets?
Perhaps Fons knows ...

Ein prosit!

I pre-ordered the tickets and get it on the evening at the Roundhouse. My friend Peter (Metal Beat) had managed it for me.

Lucky you Andreas!

I'll check if a friend o' mine, who regularly visits London, can manage a ticket for me.

To be continued ...

Back from a german talking trip to Sachsen-Anhalt, I was prosit'ing all weekend.
Including a bit of kopfschmerz nachher

I'll be at the Roundhouse as well, you can be sure of that!
And even though it's not made according to the Reinheitsgebot we'll have that pint! ( time to organize that Foxxgate in the other thread btw )
Will be great to meet a some old and new faces from here, that's half the fun!

As for the Roundhouse tickets...
The Roundhouse doesn't ship tickets outside the UK as I noticed.
You order a ticket and they reserve it somewhere at the entrance, you pick it up and pay on the spot.
I heard of 2 more dutch foxxfans going there

fons

I guess the 5th beer has gone... :p

It's nice you come to the Roundhouse too. I hope Lody Herst can work it out too. Yes it's time to organize the meeting. I will be there for sure! Looking forward for a pint of Guiness...


Andreas

Wooden Shjips, Stereo, Glasgow April 17th 2010.


We Ask You To Ride…

First time I’ve been to the Stereo venue, it’s a great little place tucked down a lane, and when we arrived we tried to eat at the tables of its packed café/bar, one of those bare looking alternative places, but a half-hour wait till our order was ready meant missing the support acts, so we reluctantly left to go find a take-away.

But our fast food search turned out to be not so fast afterall, and on our return we’d missed the first of the groups. The second act was Trembling Bells and their late 60’s folk-psych style, with a strong female singer their range covered ballads, country, and rock, but what they produced as a band had no appeal for me, or for my companion at the gig. I could see how it fitted in with the evening in offering a contrast with what was to come, and when the Shjips eventually did perform their own distinctive blend of psychedelica the sheer power of their sound and their extremely tight playing just blew away all else before it. In Stereo’s compact gigging area we placed ourselves just a couple of metres from the front, where an eager crowd had completely filled up the underground performance space, a place with stone walls and a high ceiling above the stage and an aged interior that lends itself to the sense of rawness and intimacy that you get in a small venue.

The Shjips didn’t so much sail onto the stage (excuse the pun), but just slowly drifted into view at the edge, taking their ease to check equipment and positions. At stage left from our viewpoint the keyboard player Nash carried with him what looked like a large silver chunk of rock, this was his instrument covered up in BacoFoil. I don’t know if it’s decorated out of necessity, maybe its all beaten up, but wrapping it like that made me think about Mambo Art, and with its Lava Cave look it had a Kitsch pop style that wouldn’t have looked out of place on an old B-52’s album cover. Omar the drummer got behind his kit, looking like he had a head full of bed-hair, and the sloppy Joe vest and trackie bottoms he was wearing completed the illusion that he’d just woken up moments before. Vocalist and lead guitarist Ripley Johnson, together with Dusty Jermier on bass positioned themselves both to our right of stage. In visual style they are the two members of the group who most look like they have one foot in the past and the other in the present, with Dusty wearing his Lennon specs and flowing mane, and Ripley with a ZZ Top beard that’s clearly a work in progress, and for all the fashionista’s reading this, he was wearing levis red tab jeans! (as was pointed out to me by my fashion savvy gig companion).


Shine Like Suns

Their casual manner, or was it rather ‘the confidently professional manner’ with which the Shjips began their show disguised momentarily the fact that they are a Fantastic Foursome of pulsating rhythm and hypnotic beat, and from the very beginning they drove forward a powerfully engaging sound that never let up for a single moment throughout the length of the gig. Prior to the show I was slightly apprehensive about seeing them live, a while back I’d read a positive review of one of their albums, but the reviewer had felt the need to qualify enjoying the album with stating that seeing them live was in his opinion just ‘loud and repetitious’. As I was going along with someone who’d only heard, and liked, a few tracks of an album, there was the possibility that one or the other of us was going to be disappointed that night.

Fortunately for me it was a great show from the word go, and even better, my companion loved it and was completely enthusiastic about the sound and the performance. The only down-side to the gig was that as it’s a small place and we were standing only a few metres away from the speakers our ‘sonic high’ left us with a dull ringing sound in our ears for at least the next 24 hours, I can honestly say that’s the longest spell of post-venue deafness I’ve ever experienced.

The Shjips is a sound of retro future, it takes you back to something that never quite was, defining a fantasy from music past, suspending those ‘far-out’ moments of 60’s experimentalism and 70’s cosmic rock, restructuring acid-trance-inducing moments back into the present via similar routes through 80’s and 90’s alternative guitar and dance grooves, in fact, groove is firmly at the heart of their mission. I think what’s also fun about them is that you can throw a few cheesy old hippie descriptions up into the air that in another time, another place, would be completely apt: cosmic, mind-bending, trip-inducing.., but at the same time they are also thoroughly modern, and aware enough to hone down any relationship with latter-day progressive experi-meandering, turning it into a sleek production that’s precise and sharply cut into shape almost as if a machine took all the musical elements that inspired the band and turned these into a beautifully polished creation.

The truth is though that there’s no machine, it’s all down to sheer human musicianship, and during the set I became transfixed by Ripley, his body language, the sheer commitment to his instrument, and Dusty Jermier’s guitar playing was often as intense. I’ve never been a big fan of the guitar, but I was surprised by what felt like an industrial onslaught, completely overwhelming and transporting me into a fantasy of sound that echoed an abstraction of seasons past, and much further, to a period when I would have been a child oblivious to the alternative music of the time. Its music I would love to fully have experienced as an adult, but with the Shjips I’m given a modernist synthesis of it, a distorted Doors, a hazy Velvet Underground, and the misheard rumble of many an unknown garage band of past times. Watching Ripley and Dusty play I couldn’t help but be aware of the irony that this fantasy was being generated by guys younger than myself, take away the hair and beard and Ripley and Dusty seem so very much younger, just two guy’s on guitar, and all hail electricity and the guitar, a fantastic synthesiser of sound and emotional shock treatment straight to the heart and the psyche.


Blue Sky Bends

There's two modes of song for the Shjips, the gently rocky toe-tapping style, great for travelling on a journey to, and then there’s the laid back dreamy style, great for drifting off to, and both fitted neatly together at the gig to create one long tapestry of sound being mapped out by occasional changes in guitar riff, and Ripley’s hazy vocal style, a voice that teases you with its momentary discernable lyrics that are quickly snatched away into a cloud of reverberated wonder.

Critics of the band suggest that they have just three songs and everything else is repetition, but the Shjips are skilfully in control of the subtleties of the sound they make, which in the hands of lesser artists would just fall flat. Prior to the present line-up the band formed and began playing together as untrained musicians with this philosophy: ”the idea is that anyone can create music, and maybe training just gets in the way of true expression”, and Google a bit and you get what amounts to outrageous admiration for them, such as this fantastic description written by a fan: ” The experience of Wooden Shjips has been equated to that of the Japanese phenomenon called maboroshi, which is somewhat similar to seeing a mirage or hallucinating in time. In the context of imagination/dreams, maboroshi is attributed to past occurrences and can take on a meaning like 'phantoms.' The group's songs seem to exist in a dream state in which anything is possible”

For me the sound of the Shjips is mesmerising and uplifting, and I’d definitely put them in that category of ‘musicians who make you feel like you are dreaming while you are awake’, and if an artist can do that for me then I’m a happy bunny…

Tempted to go along and see Eddie & The Hot Rods in a couple of weeks time...?

Anybody had recent experience?

OMD - History of Modern

Tour dates now announced and tickets on sale tomorrow (today if you are on their mailing list).

http://www.omd.uk.com/

Bought two tickets for Hamburg 19.11.10 at the Docks today ...!!!

Nick Cave's Grinderman 2 is released September 13th, on Mute Records.

Followed by a UK tour:-

25th Nottingham - Rock City
27th Leeds - University
28th Glasgow - Barrowlands
29th Manchester - Academy
October 1th London - Hammersmith Apollo

I've never seen cave live.
Looks like that could change this year...

Marc ALmond's 'last' album out on Monday.

new interview here:

http://entertainment.timesonline.co.uk/tol/arts_and_entertainment/music/article7143631.ece

Just spent a random Sundy evening at the local GigSwap enjoying the creative energy of Zimbo Hook.

http://www.thetalkingheads.co.uk

An excellent student band wherein David Byrne meets The Copemeister with backing tracks from The Cramps, the Blockheads and the Bare Nekkid Ladies.
Energy, creativity and humour over-ruling a disgraceful lack of technical ability.
But who cares...?

And I tell you what. Really made me reconsider the next time I spend £40.00 and 3 hours getting to London...

Life is all around you. Just turn over a few stones...

me again

Now here's a thing. I have lots of early material by Band of Holy Joy but have only just realised they have a new album out!!!

MUST get this in the next couple of weeks

http://thequietus.com/articles/04661-band-of-holy-joy-paramour-review

*****

Also, an event in two weeks time that looks fun:

Exotic Pylon Live at The Vortex in Dalston
Friday August 13th

hosted by
jonny mugwump

and starring....

Position Normal (live)
Woozy sounds and weird dadaist junkshop collage-pop unveiling a through-the-looking-glass London- an England that is more real than you realised. Position Normal put together a highly acclaimed show for Exotic Pylon in late 2009.

Cindytalk (live)
Now working with Editions Mego, Gordon Sharp has reinvented the always beautiful and mysterious Cindytalk into an extraordinary improvising unit unravelling an idiosyncratic and abstract cracked ambience pitched in a twilight zone of eerie bliss and searching melancholy.

Doug Shipton (DJ set)
From global sonic detectives Finders Keepers Records and mutant psychedelic party specialists B-Music Doug will be bringing a good-times party overload of Persian funk- folk, Turkish rock, Spanish psychsploitation, cosmic Parisian prog, Lollywood electronic pop and a bunch of genres that you didn't know ever existed.

Exotic Pylon Radio Orchestra
An ever-mutating tag-team of special guests (to be revealed on the night), the EPRO will be intervening throughout the night with visuals, poetry, instant composition and Djing.

China Crisis - Abc Glasgow


Gary & Eddie were on top form here. The old songs still sounded great & Eddie always has a smile on his face for the whole evening. The only bad thing was that they came on at 9.20 & there was a curfew at 10.30. There was 2 support acts which in my opinion could have been cut to one to give the Chinas more time on stage. Spoke to Them both after the show & also to Will who was/is a member here too.

Moon Duo, Stereo, Glasgow July 26th

Moon Duo I caught completely by chance and right at the last moment, as on the Monday of their gig I just happened to be browsing the internet at home, in fact I should have been a few hundred miles away in England staying with a friend, but we’d cancelled the trip a few days before due to him being ill.

Ripley Johnson from the Wooden Shjips is one half of Moon Duo, its his side project, and as I’d enjoyed the Shjips gig earlier this year I was wistfully hoping that they might return to my neck of the woods again soon. It was coming up for 5pm when I got the happy surprise and discovered that Moon Duo were actually playing that very evening in Glasgow, so a crazy period of dropping everything and trying to reschedule my evening ensued, and a mad dash by train got me through, with much time to spare as it turned out, as the whole gig started late (due possibly to there only being a tiny audience at the beginning) and it was nearly 10pm when the main act came on.

Earlier on there were about eight audience members including myself, and even during the support act that number had only grown by a couple of dozen. During the wait beforehand there was plenty of time for me to calm down with a beer or three, and reflect on the fact quite a few people also waiting around me were passing the time by texting on their phones, even I joined in. This must be the new pre-gig ritual, so much so that I became aware of a figure standing by an open doorway across from me who was also texting, it was Ripley Johnson, so even the band members pass the time in this way!

Mugstar, the support act, turned out a really good industrial guitar sound, and by the time Ripley and the other Moon Duo band member Sanae Yamada appeared I think there were now at least 70 people in the audience, so I guess that’s not too bad for a little known group, and it felt like there was a genuine level of appreciation being given out with applause during the set.

Moon Duo produced a really enjoyable show of Shjips style psych-rock throughout their act, playing through their two EP’s, (and possibly also one or two other things which I didn’t recognise). As a unit they are as tight as the Shjips, though perhaps somewhat less dynamic to watch. In the Shjips there’s a great visible rapport going onstage between Ripley and fellow guitar player Dusty Jermier, here though Sanae stood behind her tiny keyboard with very little light on her, and her fringe hung totally over her eyes as she played. I’m going to expose my complete musical equipment ignorance here and say that her petite keyboard had quite a few little boxes attached to it, and it really gave out a powerfully effective sound.

Ripley on guitar, was dressed from neck to foot in white, with tee-shirt and trousers, and the spot lighting was entirely focused on him, and it soon became clear that his mode of dress and Sanae’s dark attire was quite deliberate. Throughout the gig there was a swirling and streaked black and white light pattern being projected onstage, a completely simple thing really, but it worked with Ripley’s white in the light, and Sanae in the shadows to his side.

All in all, a good straightforward gig, great music for me, and a psychedelically visual feeling to the show that was neither laboured nor cheesy, I’m so glad I happened to learn that they were playing, it was definitely a case of not having time for any expectations beforehand leading to an unexpectedly enjoyable evening.

The Besnard Lakes, Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh August 17th 2010.

Its been something of a whirlwind romance for me with The Besnard Lakes, I bought this years new album during the summer, (it came out back in march), then quickly got the previous album, and noticed straight after this that they were due to play in my town within weeks.

I’ve never been to Sneaky Petes before, it’s a pub which is part of an old tenement building and I was really surprised at just how tiny the whole place was inside, in fact its probably smaller than some of the enormous livingrooms that you can find in a few of the large old Georgian tenements in the (once) posher parts of Edinburgh. I went along to the gig with a few other people, and the pub very quickly filled up to bursting. It was a humid kind of evening, and during the Besnard set I thought that it must have been raining outside as something wet kept dripping on my head and I assumed that the old building above us was most likely leaking, but in fact it was the condensation being produced by all of us folks crammed into there.

The venue very annoyingly has a thick column slap bang in the middle of the floor (presumably to hold up the roof) and we were stuck at the back when the first of the bands came on with this structure in front of us, obscuring half of our vision and completely blocking out the right-hand side of the stage, we put up with this for the entire duration of the two support bands.

Penguins Kill Polar Bears, and Heart Beats, the supports, were both very good post-rock acts. I particularly liked Heart Beats, just two guys who made a fantastic sound. The vocalist in Penguins’ was extremely good natured about the main act, clearly he’s a fan, and made some nice comments about the Besnard Lakes in the breaks between songs, quite a pleasant attitude between fellow artists, and in such an intimate venue it created a nice atmosphere for us audience.

After the supports acts had finished, I squeezed through the sardine-tin-like conditions and found that down at the front there was surprisingly a good pocket of space just feet away from the stage, and a guy standing there with his girlfriend started cheerfully talking to me about the Besnard Lakes, seems that they too were newbie’s to the bands music. After a bit, four guys shoved through as (as you do) but now there was an extremely tall guy plonked right in front of us. As myself and the guy I’d been talking to, together with his small girlfriend, all struggled to look over this guys shoulder and not bump our noses on his back, the three of us could only shrug our shoulders in dismay at each other, I’d now swapped a stone column that had been blocking my vision for a big male galoot.

The Besnard Lakes were superb live, really polished, and just great people at their craft, and heard live they are as engaging as their actual album material. Many of their songs have fleeting moments of great emotional delivery, and Jase Lasek together with his wife Olga Goreas, and the band, lived up to my expectations and performed beautifully in their singing and playing.

After the first song there was a short break while Lasek replaced one of his guitar strings that he’d just broke, this led to some nice banter between himself and a fellow band member, and later on there were a few more similar moments of sociable exchange between the band, naff as this sounds, it was a really sweet atmosphere to share in.

I think we had quite a mixed attitude amongst the crowd that night, for me I’d had a nice conversation with a total stranger, but I suspect that there were a few boorish types amongst the audience. When the Besnard Lakes had finished playing their third song of the evening I noticed some space to my side, and during yet another impromptu break I went off to the back to get one of my companions, a small woman in height, and I brought her to the front where she was finally relieved to see the band, she hadn’t even been able to see Olga onstage. Later on though she told me that a guy, taller than us, had given her a ‘where do you think you are going’ look as I led her through the crowd, and he had actually made a point of saying to her in a very serious tone “you cant do that”.
Those alpha males eh, I wonder if that same guy would have said that to that big guy that blocked my vision earlier.

Several times during the early part of the show Olga Gorea’s had to say something to a guy who was right at the front of her, he was over-zealous with a camera, god knows why, the Besnard Lakes are hardly photogenic, but he was continually trying to get his shots, and at first Olga made some well handled jokes about it, but when the guy actually got up on stage during another long break between songs Olga had to physically ‘guide’ him back down again.

At the end of the gig while we were slowly getting out from the place, Jase Lasek was amongst the crowd and heading to get behind the merchandise stall, he sounded like a really appreciative guy as people complimented him about the gig, and I even managed to blurt out something to him myself as he crossed my path. Later when walking back to the car we all agreed that we’d seen three good bands that evening, and all for the price of a tenner.

Just ordered my tickets to see The Charlatans at Brixton Academy - can't wait.

Jean Michel Jarre - "In-Doors 2010" tour, Manchester MEN Arena, 09.10.10

Best known for his one-off outdoor spectacles in unusual locations, touring is something of a rarity for Jean Michel Jarre, so to get to see the man live, playing a smaller scale, "indoors" version of these shows is something very exciting indeed.

The lights went straight off, just after 8pm and Jarre made his entrance through some of the stand doors, and made his way to the stage through the crowd, met with rapturous applause.

Accompanied by just four musicians, including long-time collaborator Francis Rimbert, and banks of analogue synthesisers and instruments from all eras (over 70 according to the tour programme), the show opened with "Oxygene 2"; perhaps Jarre's second best-known piece. With not a digital synth in sight, the vast array of analogue equipment and intricately played sequences laid to rest the rumours in fan circles that Jarre didn't perform everything live – the odd mistake here and there gave a much more human touch to the purely electronic music.

The PA system was hidden out of sight behind the enormous projection screen which spanned beyond the stage boundries – upon which a wide range of animated sequences from travelling around a giant Moog synthesiser to an animated version of the "Equinoxe" album cover. Combined with laser lights and other lighting effects, every song had it's own unique visual identity and colour scheme as the small but hard-working JMJ band performed all of Jarre's greatest hits; tracks from Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields and Rendez-Vous to name just a few.

One of the show's main highlights was the famous laser harp - luminous beams of green light grew from out of the stage and soared up to the ceiling, as Jarre donned special glasses and gloves and impressively began to play the lasers. Cameras on stage and built into Jarre's glasses gave a unique band perspective during some songs thanks to live image mixing.

Jean Michel worked very hard at trying to get a rather inanimate crowd animated, and eventually succeeded. Although looking around the arena, it soon became clear that Jarre's music has an appeal to all ages, from young teens to some people clearly well over 70!

For me, there has always been something life-affirming about Jean Michel Jarre's music. It feels somehow personal – perhaps because there are no lyrics, so a piece of music becomes your own, to interpret in your own way, giving some songs a whole new meaning. And given that I've been fascinated with the man's music from an early age, there certainly is something extra special in seeing him perform so many of these epic instrumentals right in front of me. Encore!

Sounds brilliant!

Did you get any photos etc...? I've seen some youtube footage from MEN last year and it looks pretty amazing

have to agree, sweet review Alex, and I love the 'life-affirming' description of the music.

I got some good pics, by my standards! Hope this works...

W. O. W.!

Thanks for sharing these - super stuff

Been to his Indoors concert last year at the HMH in The Netherlands.
Your description and photographs bring back good memories Alex.
It's live music that works best for me while seated.

Thanks ALex - fantastic stuff. Lurve the Equinoxe backdrop thang.
Hope there will be a DVD I can put on my wish list.
What was the live interwebby thing last night all about? - I missed it, of course.

Cheers Martin!

Visually it was very impressive, starting out as something quite stark and gradually building. Typically Jarre!

I didn't see the tour last year, but from what he said in a recent interview, this was a progression from that tour.

It really was analogue heaven!

Thanks Alex S! After seeing those pics I also want to hear & see Jarre live.

Well there are plenty of dates in France coming up and one in Rotterdam if you have the time and money!
JMJ tour dates

His London gig at the O2 was streamed live from a stage perspective last night... just investigating an audio rip of it.

After a career that has almost spanned over 30 years, it's strange to realise that this is his first world tour. His previous indoor tours have just been around Europe. And, I never thought I would get to see Jarre live once, let alone twice (the other show being the Oxygene tour at the Royal Albert Hall in 2008), so it's quite exciting to see him in this kind of setting putting on this kind of more personal show.

He's also been writing/recording his new album whilst on tour, which given that they're using mostly (if not entirely) vintage gear (the original equipment he recorded Oxygene with), then that should be interesting.

Hugely enjoyable pics of the JMJ gig Alex, thanks for posting. I particularly like the one of the laser harp going up to the roof.

Thanks! I was quite impressed with that one too - not sure how I managed it! At least it does give you an indication of the scale of the laser harp - it is an amazing piece of kit. I want one!!

Makes such a wonderful, deep sound too

The tour has already been filmed for a 3D DVD release.

And the Equinoxe background was superb - very hypnotic. Somebody's posted a video from there gig here.

One of the show's many highlights.

The "10-10-10" thing last night was a live broadcast of the London show from the on-stage cameras. Black & white, grainy and generally not worth watching!

The Youtube video of Equinox 4 is stunning!!

It doesn't do it justice! The screen was enormous, so the effect of the dancing, moving observers (I used to think they were owls!) was quite mesmerising. Almost hypnotic!

Not a gig as such but I was lucky enough to see John Simm perform Hamlet at The Crucible in Sheffield last week. I'd never been to The Crucible before - fantastic venue - I was about 4 rows from the front - quite an impact when you consider there isn't actually a stage as such.

Superb performances from John Simm and also John Nettles (yes, Bergerac!), I thought Michelle Dockerey was under-used but alas, (Yorrick) not her fault in the role of Ophelia - it's just the way the part is.

Just playing catchup.I've been working out of hours a lot recently so not had much free time.

Brilliant pics Alex.Thanks for posting.

Wish I'd gone to one of these shows now.Looks stunning.

Next time I will for sure.

Alex,
Fantastic pictures! Enough to make me say "Why didn't I fly over for this?"

Great descriptive too - glad you enjoyed it, but jealous I couldn't be there!!!!!

I WISH I was in Shoreditch Church for this tonight

On Saturday, 16 October Frieze Music moves to Shoreditch Church for a night of ethereal music. For this one-off candlelit concert, Baby Dee – a classically trained harpist and pianist – will be performing with The Elysian Quartet, one of the UK’s most innovative young ensembles and the only British quartet of its generation focused exclusively on 20th-century contemporary and experimental music.

Tonight I went to see Killers frontman Brandon Flowers in Birmingham.He was excellent.Did a really surprising cover version which I will upload later.Set was a tad short.They came on at 9 and were of by 10:10.A few grainy pics.I was a quite a distance away.

Brandon Flowers Covers Bette Davis Eyes:-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ioo0-i_kxGA

Brian, when I saw your pics this morning and noticed the two female backing singers I honestly thought 'the surprise cover' you were going to reveal later would turn out to be a version of Enter The Angel, or Stepping Softly - How likely was that, still, you never can tell...

Moving on…

Wire have announced plans to play live in Oxford for the first time in 25 years.

http://www.nme.com/news/wire/53514

I'm already on the bus

This looks to be about as cool as it can get.

It's not often "I wish I was there" but the recent TG shows are an exception to that

http://www.flickr.com/photos/eatmorechips/sets/72157625108556139/show/

And then this happens:

Press release from the band

"Yesterday evening, Genesis P-Orridge, founding member of the avant garde legends Throbbing Gristle informed the rest of the group (along with their associated managements) that he was no longer willing to perform in TG, and had returned to his home in New York. Carter, Cosey and Sleazy have concluded from this that the group is, once again, no more.

As far as forthcoming live dates go, the performance at Archa Theatre in Prague this weekend has been cancelled.

For November dates in Bologna and Porto, the remaining trio have offered to perform live under the name X-TG. They are awaiting confirmation from promoters as to either this is okay, but full refunds are available for all shows if required."

O.M.D - Glasgow Royal Concert Hall 2/11/10


What can I say? Amazing show. Andy never stopped dancing the whole show. I've saw them a few times before but thought that now he's getting on a bit (aren't we all) that he'd slow down a bit but no , he gave everything he had. The crowd were on there feet dancing as soon as they came on stage & never sat down all night. They started off with New Babies New Toys from there new album & everyone loved it & it set us up for a great night. All the old favourites were played even Bunker Soldiers got played.

Just a quick note about support act Villa Nah. They were outstanding. It was one of a few gigs where the concert hall was almost full to see the support act. They went down a storm & I hope they have great future success as they deserve it.

Klaxons live @ HMV Institute Birmingham 20/11/2010

They were excellent,fantastic lighting.Mostly backlit which made it hard to take pics.

The other difficulty was that I was against the crashbar at the front.The crowd seemed to be made up of under 20s,pogoing,crowd surfing,covering me in lager.In short it was wild.

New Rave was alive and well.

My sore ribs are testament to that

Despite the manic Moshpit i really enjoyed the show.

Slideshow:-

http://s293.photobucket.com/albums/mm79/...mview=slideshow

never mind the music - I would LOVE to at this

http://www.vintagesecret.com/2010/11/wiltons-vintage-christmas/

Christmas at Wiltons - magical

looks lovely, count me in

Last night I attended Heaven 17 at the HMV Institute Birmingham.My 3rd visit in 6 weeks.

It started with a DJ set from Mark Jones.He started with John Foxx's Underpass.Nice start.Gone were the leopord skin pants of the Roundhouse replaced by a very pink outfit.





Then onwards with Penthouse & Pavement followed by a few surprises.

Glen sang Whichita Linesman,then did a version of Human Leagues's Dont You Want me on accoustic guitar.They did a brilliant cover version of the Associates Party Fears 2 and ended it all with a stonking version of Being Boiled.They also did their bigger hits Temptation and Come Live with me.

I only took one video.I was too busy enjoying the show:-

Come Live Me:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cyAoIulj8pU

The Human League - Wolverhampton 4-12-10

*** Spoiler Alert ***

I'm guessing when this tour was originally planned it was meant to coincide with the new album release. That having gone out the window, I was wondering how much new material they would risk. Well, we got two new songs - the show opening with the instantly catchy Electric Shock, and the new single Night People in the middle of the set. From memory, here is the set-list: -

Electric Shock
Open Your Heart
Mirror Man
Heart Like A Wheel
The Lebanon
Louise
Love Action
Sound Of The Crowd
Being Boiled
Empire State Human
Night People
All I Ever Wanted
Fascination
Tell Me When
Don't You Want Me

Seconds
Electric Dreams

They gave their usual polished performance, Phil starting with a hoodie for the first song. Nice backdrop of five hung screens giving some interesting images.

The reaction to the new songs was fairly subdued, and I was left wondering how many people had actually heard Night People prior to the show. Maybe they were right in sticking mostly to the old favourites?

One little bonus for me was the inclusion of All I Ever Wanted. New songs aside, this was the only track I hadn't heard 'live' before. Nice to hear a 'Secrets' track at last. Got the same subdued reaction as the new tracks though, and I was again left wondering how many folks knew anything about this track and its parent album.

The show opened with the Performance who sounded impressive. Another little bonus - the 25 minutes or so of music between the bands included Dislocation - the first time I have ever heard John's voice at a gig where he hasn't been playing.

I wonder if THL will tour again when the new album comes out? I hope so, and maybe they can include a few more new tracks in the set-list.

I've just found out the HL's Sheffield gig which was cancelled on Wednesday has now been re-scheduled to Sunday 12th Dec in a totally different venue - the O2 Academy. Surely you re-schedule a gig to the same venue, not one half the size. How can a gig which usually fills Sheffield's 2000-capacity City Hall possibly work there?!

I imagine there will be a lot of angry HL fans in Sheffield at the moment! Personally, it would have made more sense to move the homecoming concert to early next year, closer to the release of the new album.

Thanks for the set list Mike. A fairly good spread and "All I Ever Wanted" was a nice touch but "Electric Dreams" a disappointing closer ..Human League song not!
:rolleyes:

Mesh, De/Vision and Iris have announced a U.S.A tour comprising around 21 shows.

http://www.mesh.co.uk/

You lucky, lucky people

The Smoke Fairies play at The Joiners in Southampton on May 24th

Worth a shout, I reckon

Xeno and Oaklander at The Lexington, 6th July

Benge reports:
http://myblogitsfullofstars.blogspot.com/2011/07/bubbles.html

This is the one you want...

Fantastic news that 2007's Foxx support Rubicks are finally back with a second album

The Rise of the Giddy is released on Sharp Attack on August 8th

http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/html/giddy.html

I had the pleasure last week, celebrating my birthday with a few pints and a band at the local. Not my vid, but I was sitting not far behind the guy with the camera:

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xk7nl5_rubicks-at-the-talking-heads-southampton-2011_music

Shake your head look up look down look around. Riding fast
we‘re on you now...
I so want to see Vanessa and co "make it"

This recently from twitter

Eyeless In Gaza + Kevin Hewick, The Musician, Sunday September 18th 8-11pm, £7 advance, £8 on door, our first show together since 1983!!!

Haven’t commented here for a while, the first gig I attended this year took place back in May, and I’ve been to a few other gigs over the summer which I hope to post more about.

But first, is it okay to mention a gig from end of last year? ‘Close my eyes I know its been a long time’, old news and something of an indulgence, but I always meant to mention this particular gig as it was a superb electro performance –

Laibach, Classic Grand, Glasgow 16th December 2010.

I’ve many albums by Laibach but I’d never seen them live and wasn’t quite sure what to expect from either the band, or the audience, if this had been the late 80’s or early 90’s I might have imagined rubbing shoulders with a lot of scary young skinheads in big boots and dark uniforms, however, although the Classic Grand crowd were mostly dressed in black I was one of the few (albeit natural) skinheads present there, and the audience atmosphere was completely of a mature and serious appreciation of the bands art.
In the midst of our unexpectedly cold winter the venue was totally freezing inside, making it the first time at a gig that I’ve ever wanted to stand close to strangers just for their body heat. While keeping my gloves on for the duration of the performance I was blown away by the sound of the keyboards and the rousing percussion, the music often had me leaping up into the air with my gloved hands clapping above my head in time to the beat.

A choreography of sound and projected visuals conveyed the worldview of Laibach in a powerful show of some of their earliest songs that they’d updated and reworked, (to coincide with an album they released via their website), and tracks from their more recent albums such as Volk were also played. I think I’d been prepared for perhaps a brash live show punctuated with growling vocals barking out stern commands, but it was to the contrary, granted, there was the occasional futurist instruction shouted out by megaphone from the bands very attractive female backing vocalist, but musically it was ‘orchestral industry’ rather than thrashing industrial. For me though the real surprise was from Laibach’s vocalist Milan Fras, the man with the distinctive raw voice, as I stood just a few feet directly in front of him he was one of the most pleasing elements of the evening, in the flesh he appeared to have the most serene and gentle face, there was no growling or barking, just a graceful and thoughtful countenance as he sang in his emotive way.


I’m stealing a line here from our John’s musical pals Rent-a-Ghost Box and Company, and thus its time to journey forward now with that beautiful descriptive term of ‘moving through old daylight’ and return back to 2011 –

Moon Duo, Captains Rest, Glasgow 14th May.

Yet another Moon Duo gig, and yet again (considering I’m a fan) I didn’t discover this was taking place till just before the event, it was sold out, but I managed to get hold of a reserve ticket. Guessing that the band must have made the big-time or something unexpected to merit the lack of available tickets I was surprised to discover that the venue was in fact underground in a pub cellar and therefore had a limited audience capacity. The Captains Rest looks like a tatty featureless drinking den on the outside but inside it’s a comfortable enough old place serving good food, I totally recommend a visit here as it s one of the main spots in Glasgow for seeing Indies bands and its particular clientele popping in for a drink seemed to reflect that ambience.

Ripley Johnson and Sanae Yamada (Moon Duo) were sat just five feet away from me having a meal, something they were also doing the first time I saw them before they went onstage at the Stereo venue gig last year, maybe this is a pre-gig ritual for the band?
As I sat there eating my own meal within almost arms reach of the band I began to suffer from that shy, or maybe presumptuous dilemma of should I say ‘Hello’ to them, or: ‘I love your music’, ‘I’m a huge fan, I’ve got all your records’, or perhaps ‘can I join the band’, ‘I can’t sing or play an instrument’, ahem, ‘Sanae, will you go out with me?

However, I decided instead not to bother them.

Ripley’s guitar rhythms and Sanae's Keyboard melodies and drum beats form the structure of Moon Duo, and this is still the best gig of the year so far for me, I love their onstage musical and visual dynamic. Ripley’s voice floats over the haze of his guitar sweeps and riffs as you momentarily grasp the lyrics before they are snatched far away into the ether, meanwhile Sanae buoy’s up the foundation of the magic with her playing, looking downwards at her keyboard her face is constantly obscured by her long hair as she blissfully grooves away at her synthesiser.

A quick mention here for the support act, Kim Ki O, two women from Turkey on keyboard and guitar who gave a very enjoyable performance. Sadly they appear to have some poor examples online of their music being performed live, but this song is one of their better moments:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nijg0ezuW9Y&feature=related

How To Dress Well, and Grimes, Arches, Glasgow 8th August.

Having arrived too early at this gig I decided to leave the venue for a while, when I returned the show had started and the intriguing sounds coming from one of the Arches cavernous areas had me racing towards the music, when I got to the source there was a woman onstage frantically moving from side to side behind a makeshift table on trestles, as she sang she kept swapping her mike between hands whilst tweaking some effects boxes and playing keyboard. My first impression was that it all seemed a bit haphazard and I wasn’t quite sure if this was just going in an experimental direction, particularly as the performer seemed like a lanky mad professor with windmill arms manipulating her set-up as her long hair bobbed about around her head. But after a few minutes I found I was responding to the beats and rhythms as lovely dreamy soundscapes were breaking through amidst the atmospheric singing and effects, and without doubt appearances had been deceptive and there really was something very good going on here. ‘She’ as it happens is Claire Boucher, otherwise known as Grimes, and so taken was I with her that in my mind the next day after the gig she overshadowed the performance of the main act.


Tom Krell is a young Brooklyn performer going under the name of How To Dress Well, he started the show by creating a sense of intimacy, and (as I later realised) fixing the mood is vital for his lo-fi style, allowing him to focus on his vocal and emotive performance. He came onstage casually at the beginning of the gig and mumbled a few quiet words almost to himself, then went back off to the side from where he sang slowly in an introspective manner to pre-recorded music which sounded like an old 80’s ballad, it took me a moment to figure out that he was singing parts of Tracy Chapman’s Fast Car.

”I want a ticket to anywhere, maybe we make a deal, maybe together we can get somewhere”, “anyplace is better, starting from zero got nothing to lose”, “Be Someone, Be Someone, Be Someone..”, are the words of a song I’d not choose to hear ever again as it never fails to bring back memories from the time of its release, in 1988 during a period of unemployment and living in a shared London house I had to listen to it being played over and over by one of my housemates shut away into the privacy of her room in a lonely dope-smoking mood, however, in the world of How To Dress Well things take on a blissfully deconstructed reality. Tom Krell’s art is the sound of a lost in the ether soul singer from someplace in the wires, distorted and partially re-animated, a ghost in the machine that’s been given human emphasis through the presence of his surprisingly excellent singing, and this start to the gig was all part of setting the scene, returning onstage his performance continued in a wistful and self-reflective vein.

Tom’s physical appearance almost seems not to match his heavenly voice and his sophisticated art, bespectacled and with an almost sloppy look he reminded me at times of one of those unlikely contestants that appear right at the start of the televised auditions for XFactor, usually they’ve popped in from their day job completely convinced of their talent, but their cringe-making efforts are cruelly derided by the judge's. Tom however, has a great voice, and he really puts his heart and soul into it, on one song he quite literally caused a lump in my throat, this was the last thing I’d expected at what I thought would be an electronic gig, but was actually more of an acoustically charged one.

There was one oddly amusing moment to witness that would have been more in place in a stadium rather than an average venue, when Tom, who’d spent much of the show apologising to the audience for a physical set-up at the front of the stage put there by the organisers - one which created an awkward distance between performer and audience - he suggested that we move this barrier. To my surprise almost all of the young audience around me responded enthusiastically, they practically embraced him in a group hug of sorts, requesting that he sing to them! And they all stood huddled together while he sang an improvised song minus any music.

At the end of the gig Tom gestured to a bottle he’d had in his hand (which I’d never noticed before), making light of the fact that he’d consumed the entire contents of his Jack Daniels during the show, something about this intrigued me, and stuck, making me analyse the performance afterwards. I began thinking that maybe the person who’d been onstage with that amazing voice and the ghostly sounding musical effects had actually been a persona, and that the ethereal How To Dress Well was really a constructed character, one performed with heartfelt sincerity.

How To Dress Well: Ready For The World -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-aR0zxA4lK4

Gary Numan - Dead Son Rising Tour: Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 18th Sept 2011.

Warning!! SPOILER ALERT

I attended last nights (Sunday) show at Wolverhampton. This was the fifth time I have seen Gary, and the fourth at this venue. As usual I positioned myself near the back but actually had a very good view - I think the attendance was down slightly on previous occasions.

Gary seemed to really enjoy himself in this performance, perhaps more so than on previous occasions. The lighting was superb throughout and really added to the atmosphere. He did his usual mix of old and new, with a good smattering from Dead Son Rising. The audience semeed to receive it pretty well, including the new stuff. Personally, I only got my copy of Dead Son Rising on Saturday so wasn't that familiar with the new material. I would have preferred it if I could have had a few more listens prior to the show. Highlights for me were The Fall, I Die You Die and Absolution.

Here is the setlist (I think): -

Resurrection
Down In The Park
The Fall
Haunted
When The Sky Bleeds
Films
Big Noise Transmission
Every Day I Die
Dead Sun Rising
Absolution
For The Rest of My Life
Noise Noise
'??????? - no idea on this one
Jagged
I Die You Die

Cars
My Shadow in Vain
Are Friends Electric

Overall another entertaining performance.

P.S. I notice that Dead Son Rising has entered the UK album charts at 87 - I imagine he will be happy with that considering it can only be had from Townsend and the shows at the moment. I wonder if he would have been better making it widely available straight away? (sorry I digress)

Nice to see Absolution back in the live set

The song you didn't know, from what I understand, as I haven't seen the tour is one of the new songs form the next album. I think it's called "Everything Comes Down to This".

Ulrich Schnauss, Electric Circus, Edinburgh 23rd August.

Having missed Ulrich’s previous show in 2008, I was looking forward to hearing some of his classic pieces, experiencing the live impact of the blisteringly anthemic Stars, and losing myself in a shoegaze haze with On My Own, or Blumenthal, and surely the spine-tingling Goodbye would appear like a glorious burst of radiant sunlight, its gently penetrating music caressing the listener in a warm embrace – ideal for underscoring that feeling of an unbreakable bond existing forever between the mysteries of nature and the human soul - fanciful stuff indeed..!
But, as it turned out none of these tracks were featured, nor was I entirely familiar with what appeared in the setlist, maybe he’d adapted his work for the set, either that or I’m too dumb to recognize something I should know - I usually have this type of problem with the Cocteau Twins, I know the music, I’ve seen them play, but I often struggle to put the correct name to the tune, or perhaps Ulrich took an entirely different path that evening. I think it’s the latter, having read afterwards about a new album in the making.

The Electric Circus is a compact venue, during the support acts the place filled up, as I stood at the back of the performance area it occurred to me that a stranger next to my elbow had more than a passing resemblance to comedian Frank Skinner, so much so that he could probably make a living being a ‘celebrity Lookie-Likie’. A brief moment of fanboy, or more accurately, fangirl worship occurred later when it was confirmed that the stranger was indeed the man who’d once been the TV & radio fantasy football host and had sang about Three Lions back in 1996, a woman came past me to tell Frank enthusiastically that she’d spotted him. Well, the gig was taking place during the height of Edinburgh’s annual Arts & Comedy festival, so it’s fortunate there was no sudden rush of paparazzi to spill anybody’s beer. I was more interested in checking out Ulrich when he appeared. As he waited patiently for the stage to be ready he didn’t conform to the fantasy image I’d had of him. I’d expected a younger man with longer hair, an indies jeans and tee-shirt wearing kind of guy existing in some endless state of summer, a cool secret place where the evening sun never goes down - like those adverts you see in the pages of hip music and lifestyle mag’s aimed at people who never age beyond their twenty-ninth year. Instead, he was dressed in an informal jacket and trousers, his hair was short, and he looked more like an office worker, and although he didn’t speak to the audience there was something about his manner that gave me the impression that he was a nice guy.

Just as Ulrich's set was about to start, Frank the comedian moved forward into a good spot I’d already targeted for myself, causing me to unexpectedly spend the rest of the evening standing shoulder to shoulder with the only man who’d ever made me willingly watch and enjoy a telly show about football. Meanwhile, Ulrich sat down at a small desk with the left side of his body positioned towards the audience. He checked to see that he was able to turn his head slightly to his right from where he could view the screens that covered the entire back wall of the modest stage. Set out before him was a small keyboard, together with an open laptop and mouse.

I was slightly thrown by this sight, I wasn’t expecting this, didn’t foresee him sitting with a MacBook in front of him as if about to compose an email, particularly as we’d just had two support acts that hadn’t broken with any old-school convention when it came to a live show - Miaoux Miaoux, a guy who’d played guitar and keyboard and seemed to need to perform from beneath his synthesizer as he lay down on the floor to twiddle knobs on an effects peddle, or Jonnie Common, a duo whose drummer was relying on painkillers to fight a mountain bike accident he’d had that morning while he bashed his drums for good. I wouldn’t say I’m a traditionalist, but this was my first ‘laptop performance’, and for a moment I felt my enthusiasm begin to falter.

As the first number began, Ulrich played the keyboard before him and I felt a sense of relief, this was the kind of activity that got my attention. As he continued into the second piece I made a compromise in my mind, okay, he’s sitting motionless at a desk and not engaging directly with the audience but at least he’s actually playing an instrument, and a laptop is hardly an instrument, it’s a tool. But suddenly the keyboard was abandoned completely after the second number, and as Ulrich stared intently at his laptop screen his reliance for the remainder of the evening was on that mouse clutched in one hand, and a knob on a box being turned continually with his other hand. This was the gig.

Throughout the show an endless panorama of images flowed across the screens behind Ulrich. Buildings, cityscapes, and rural areas unfurled, glimpses of travel as seen through the window of a moving car or train, passing by in a collage of ceaseless motion sometimes changing rapidly, sometimes slowly.

The music for the set was presented as a continuous piece without interruption, or it would have had it not been for one moment of real drama, for a few seconds it all suddenly came crashing down and there was nothing. It was as if Ulrich had accidentally closed or forgotten to open a file on his laptop and the music stopped completely like someone had pulled the plug. He winced, half-smiled, and quickly recovered continuing the momentum away from human error or the betrayal of pre-programmed co-ordinates tripping up a good plan. From within the audience I also hurried on from dwelling about the artificiality or fragility of the situation, lest the illusion of performance remained broken in my mind.

I swayed along from time to time to what Ulrich was producing, I can’t fault his professionalism, and there were quite a few musical highlights, but mostly I lost myself in the visuals that added so much depth to the set, and in truth when it was over I felt disconnected from what I’d heard. The pictures on the screens left more of an impression in my mind than any emotional appreciation of the music. I couldn’t shake this thought that if I’d had a venue quality sound system at home then I could have saved myself a trip out, inviting Ulrich to my place to sit in front of the computer and cut and paste his work through itunes. Something had been missing for me, and despite the activity on those screens behind Ulrich the show had lacked animation, it was as if I’d been hearing beautiful sounds from afar, heard through the window of a vehicle as I sat there within, passing by the distant sight of something I could see, but couldn’t reach.

Marc Almond - Bristol St George's 7/10/11

My first time at a Marc Almond gig. Can't quite think why it has taken so long - he has been with me since I was 7 or 8. "Bedsitter" was one of my favourite songs at that age, and so it remains. Years passed, vague memories of "Torch", and I remember liking "Tears Run Rings" (one week at number 40, was it?). The Gene Pitney duet was of course unavoidable at the time. Purchase of the Soft Cell Singles collection. More years passed. "Tenement Symphony" (which has survived the passage of time incredibly well). More years. "A Virgin's Tale Volume 2". "Child Star". A couple more years until "Absinthe" became another slow excursion backwards. Then "Cruelty Without Beauty", then finally by the time of "Orpheus in Exile" I am buying them as they come out and simultaneously venturing back to the likes of "Mother Fist" and "Stranger Things". There are still a number of gaps in my collection which may explain why I didn't recognise some of the selections played. You won't hear the likes of "Say Hello, Wave Goodbye" on this tour but Marc suggested we come along next year for them so that's my first plan of 2012 right there. Backed often by just piano and sometimes just guitar and sometimes just harp, Marc was on tremendous form tonight, amusing, chatty, and in superb voice (often deciding to forsake the microphone altogether for a few bars). If you have read the flyer you will be able to guess some of the songs he performed (and I believe it is the same setlist all tour), but a few particular highlights: "Big Louise" followed by an "In My Room" underpinned intriguingly by the "Moonlight Sonata", a few songs from "Variete", a brace from "Absinthe", "I'm Coming" (in which you could see the stage actor he has (recently?) become), and "I Have Lived" from "Stardom Road". The second half was naturally a bit less "gloomy" than the first half (I overheard someone mentioning wrist-slashing as we filed out at the end) and was pretty celebratory and communal at times. The acoustic nature of the gig made for a really intimate atmosphere and at many times I was taken back down the years, but realising once again, afresh, like the rest of the audience, that this is NOW, this is still the present, pregnant with possibilities. Marc mentioned seeing both Charles Aznavour and Juliette Greco recently, both of whom are in their eighties, not least because he felt he could still learn from older performers. And it made me think, wouldn't it be wonderful to have another 30 years of Marc Almond?

Excellent Mark, thanks for sharing! I read this the night before I caught up with Almond for the tenth time on Wednesday evening.

He was better than I've ever seen him before, which must put this among my most memorable gigs.

Triumphs, tantrums and tears
Marc Almond at The Brook, Southampton – October 19th 2011

Almond at the top of his form is easily one of the best performers around, not to mention affirming his place among the UK’s most consistently gifted songwriters of the past 30 years.
Belittled by a lack of confidence in his own abilities, Almond has always insisted that his own songwriting is vastly inferior to those of his influences, and that he prefers singing other people’s songs. And no-one does this better than he – but I doubt that anyone unfamiliar with this opinion would ever be able to tell where he ends and the likes of Jacques Brel, Sandy Denny, Charles Aznavour, Julie Driscoll etc begin.
During a ninety minute set – curtailed by problems with his mic at the beginning and a suitably diva-esque tantrum in response – Almond mixes, matches and surpasses songs from all over his own catalogue, punctuated with ‘versions’ of eclectic and unfamiliar gypsy, torch and romance pieces from across the world’s stage that he's never recorded. From Jobriath to Piaf and Bowie, he makes them his own, utterly absorbed in the songs, passionate and honest beyond compare, milking every drop of theatre from the words with practised and perfected gestures, glances and intonation. Is it fair to say that only the Sandy Denny penned "North Star And The Ravens" didn't quite flow freely??
All this matters so much to Marc and his audience, and builds a relationship enhanced by this packed and intimate venue. And because it matters, the hissy fit that followed his microphone breaking during only the third song prompting a stomp off the stage, is quickly understood and easily forgiven.
He came back with a spiteful vengeance, tearing Chrysanthemums from a vase and spitting the lyrics to Brel's "J'Arrive" to clear his head. The perfect antidote to the crisis.

Himself part Exhibitionist, part Cabaret Clown, Almond has certainly lived the life he sings about in his sin songs. He’s always been an artist, not a saint…
And it’s this artistic quality that prevails tonight, as at every show he performs, shared with a band that includes the ever-present Martin Watkins on piano, Neal X on guitars (the rock that Almond winds his string around) and the delicious and bizarre circus that is Baby Dee on Harp and Accordion. All these musicians have artistry in bucket loads, and it’s this quality that magnetises them and draws us in. No-one talks over the songs, and hardly between them – on stage he is the master, the one in complete control, with the crowd hanging off his every word.
He plays this well too, engaging with grins, waves and anecdotes at every opportunity, not afraid to sigh, to smirk and to give in to the inevitable forgetfulness that now too trademarks his more personalised shows.
Among the earliest songs in his repertoire, we were treated to Terrapin (Syd Barrett) and his own composition, the esoteric ‘Indigo Blue’ (Marc and the Mambas) brilliantly mixed with Lou Reed’s Walk On The Wild Side, thought he forgot the words to both a couple of times. But we love him for that as he shrugs, smiles and with a nod to the ever-supportive Neal requests they ‘go again’ as he determines to get it right. This was Reed's second appearance in the set - earlier Marc brought the author to tears with his presentation of The Bed, which (followed with Terrapin) was so beautiful it hurt to hear.
Marc closed the set with one of his finest songs, the wonderful I Have Lived from Stardom Road, and you really feel that he has, and very much still is. For the beautiful losers, broken people and brilliant creatures that make up his audience this song brings everything together in a moment of pure triumph – arms aloft, ever the showman, squeezing the breath from the chorus.
Emotionally, it’s exhausting to watch, taking us on a journey though life, love, despair, frustration, grit and glamour – drawing it all together for a storming encore of three songs including a gospel gem echoing I Have Lived ('The Life I Sing About In My Songs') with Dee bashing out the piano, a never-ending rendition of Sleaze, and the finale -
a rapturous singalong of Bolan’s Hot Love.

Magical, flashy, tragic and trashy – a boy with soul on fire and desire in his skin – giving so much in every show, and each time better than ever.

SET LIST
The Exhibitionist (from Varieté)
Be Still (Jobraith)
Sebastian (Steve Harley)
??? (abandoned during first verse)
Chrysanthemums (J'Arrive by Jacques Brel, retitled by Almond)
The North Star Grassman And The Ravens (Sandy Denny)
The Devil, OK (Jacques Brel)
If he Swing By The String (John Addison, for Marlene Dietrich)
Indigo Blue (Marc And the Mambas)
John, I'm Only Dancing (Bowie)
The Bed (Lou Reed)
Death's Diary
The Sea Still Sings
The Season Of The Witch (Julie Driscoll)
Terrapin (Syd Barrett)
Cabaret Clown
I Have Lived

*****
I'm Gonna Live the Life I Sing About In My songs (Mahalia Jackson)
Sleaze / Walk On the Wild Side
Hot Love (Marc Bolan)

Hi folks....long time no post!!

I'm now lucky enough to be able to shoot gigs on a regular basis and managed to shoot the opening night of the Interplay tour at Leamington.

If you want to see my review please follow this link

http://www.brumlive.com/john-foxx-and-the-maths-leamington-assembly-13th-october-2011/

If you wish to see more photos, please follow this link

http://www.kdharrison.co.uk/gallery_456233.html

All the best

H

Superb reviews Mark, and Martin both. Enjoyed reading them. Your love of the artist really shines through.

So I had better go and see him in two weeks when he is out here?

Human League - Tokyo, 2011/10/17 (first session)

I hadn't bought a ticket. Various reasons, mainly domestic, but nevertheless I hadn't bought a ticket. Slip back 30 years, and I recall filtering through the albums in Rag Records, and Reproduction staring out at me. Had heard on the grapevine that the Human League were a great synth band, but hadn't heard any of their stuff yet. Whe I did hear, I instantly fell in love. It was the synthesized sound I loved with such an originality that it really did take my breath away. Thinking back to that era, The variety of music available to us all was quite amazing.

The tracks that stand out for me in their early period were Only After Dark, Crow and a Baby, Path of Least Resistance, Almost Medieval, Touchables, Marianne, and so on. But I never got to see them live. Then Dare came out and they transformed into a very fine pop band. I don't dislike Dare, and the original version (non Linn Drum) is superb, but it just sounded non-raw and over produced. I remained a fan, but less fanatic!

So, I hadn't bought a ticket. I knew the old stuff was consigned to history and being in Japan, I hadn't even caught on to the fact that they had just released a new album!

The venue is odd. It is a live-house with a difference. It has tables in chairs where most places have a mosh pit. People eat food shortly before the show and are asked politely but firmly not to stand so as not to disturb others views! I arrived and despite the venue only holding a few hundred people, I can still buy a ticket at the door. I make my way to my seat (!) on the 5th floor, and wait patiently. I'm wondering what I'm doing here.

Lights off, band walk out, Joanne and Susan strut out to a back beat, and then Phil walks on stage and grabs everybody's attention. He is clearly a star. Full of charisma, and wearing the most incredible hooded leather coat I've ever seen. Voice as clear and distinctive as it was in the seventies, he and susan belt out a song I've never heard before, "Never Let Me Go". It's a great opener, from the new album Credo. I'm now deep into the show. I'm having fun.

Later we have Sound of the Crowd with live drummer (thought it was impossible, but he did a great job), Lebanon, then back to the old days (ladies exit left) for Empire State Human. Not the choice I'd have made, but the crowd loved it. More new stuff with Night People, then Human, Love Action, Don't You Want Me, and a later rounding off the main set with Mirror Man. Phil had gone through several changes of clothes by now, the ladies too, and seemed to be lapping up the atmosphere - what did he think of this venue?

It was slightly embarrasing to realise I was the only person on the 5th floor standing up (against the rules) and dancing. I didn't really care because I was genuinely having a lot of fun.

The rather small crowd couldn't seem to generate much clapping and I got concerned that an encore may not happen. Luckily it did, and a good choice too. The Human Leagues first ever song, Being Boiled. Fine version, slightly updated to suit new instruments, but the original (?) Travelogue sound was there. Enormously lifted by this, I began whopping and shouting, which again, seemed to be against the rules! Final song of the evening? Well, not exactly the Human League anthem I was expecting - Electric Dreams. I sat down (not out of disappointment, but my enthusiasm was dampened slightly, however the rest of the crowd all stood up!!! Very odd experience being the complete opposite to everyone else at a gig! I decided to join them - it wasn't a bad rendition, and had pace and energy.

I left with a smile on my face. I had waited thirty years to see them, and I went armed with the wrong setlist in my head. I have a new respect for Phil Oakey. He certainly has an aura. I didn't get to hear what I wanted, but deep down I knew I wouldn't, and that is why I hadn't bought a ticket until the last moment. I only decided to go about an hour before the gig, my workplace is just around the corner (10 minute walk) - otherwise I may have missed it completely, and looking back, that would have been a pity.

7.5 out of 10 - Great pop show, and human dynamics came over very strong. Venue detracted from complete enjoyment, and at the end of the day, it was a pop show, and I went to see something else!

Great review Sols! It's great that you just turned up like that and did everything by chance.
I'd also have felt disappointed about closing with Electric Dreams (hate it!..not even a Human League song!) especially after a stomping Being Boiled. Never mind.
It's a good mix of old and new though, not unlike what Foxx is doing now in a way.
Thanks.

Erasure, Civic Hall, Wolverhampton Sunday 23rd October.

I attended the Wolverhampton leg of the Tomorrow's World tour last Sunday. It was a packed-to-the-rafters night and a fantastic atompshere. The guys had a gothic themed stage set complete with gargoyle keyboard arrangement for Vince Clarke. The stage show was one of the best I have seen and quite original.

Andy Bell looked something else, entering the stage in a sequinned jacket and matching Roman helmet. The years seem to have been kind to Andy and he managed to maintain a frenetic pace throughtout - loads of pirouetting and jumping about in virtually every song.

New material from the Tomorrow's World album was mixed with the old classics, finishing with an encore of Oh L'amour and Stop!

They were always going to have a difficult time pleasing me as I am not a hard core fan - but they succeeeded handsomely and I have to say Andy's voice is as good as I have heard in a long time.

OK an old review but a chance to get acquainted with two brilliant female artistes
Please feel free to ignore my inane ramblings and its ledzeppelin 4 -esque title from 3 summers ago which featured on the now defunct whenskiesaregrey site However do not click on the links at your own peril !!

first up arctic bodhran basher MARI BOINE (her trumpeter giving Hugh Masakela a run for his money )
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xg_RuE5Ye_4

The lovely MS Levy "Me in the slammer "
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQEeof7QtGg


LAPP DANCING TILL LA LEVY BREAKS
“Festa di frontiera” Lavagna


The IB clan spent all July down in Lavagna between Genoa and La Spezia in the heart of Sampdoria country . Fans were jubilant when they reached UEFA proper by means of Intertoto .So was I as I could handle a 50 minute /40 mile train trip to Genoa to see the mighty Blues some time this Autumn . Anyway I digress , the purpose of this article is to give you an insight into “La Festa di Frontiera “ an Andy Kershaw wet dream featuring “World Music” The concerts are sponsored by La Lampara restaurant and take place in a picturesque alleyway with about 300 seats . The first flag flying was an Indian one. The group MUSAFIR AND THE RAJASTHAN GITANES, were both sound and vision A kind of superior Gypsy Kings meet Billy Smarts circus, frenetic Rom/ Bollywoodesque rhythms accompanied by a bloke who ate fire , walked on broken glass and deftly balanced objects on his head whilst whirling like a dervish…sign him Moysey ! Like Owen Hargreaves they gave a solid performance but failed to excite. Not wishing to get stuck in the traffic on the East Lancs ,* I left 10 minutes early . Not so bad so far . . The following week got better and regaled us with SECKOU KEITA QUARTET , the eponymous Senegalese musician playing a kora (Guitar type instrument held like a harp) accompanied by a Gambian percussionist , Egyptian violinist and Italian double bass player. Very infectious “shake yer ass type” music it took me back to watching The Beat all those years ago even if it could not be strictly defined as between ska/2 Tone . The singer was a real gent , his spitting compatriot El Hadj Diouf would do well to go to him for some lessons in good manners .
The following week brought us MARI BOINE A Norwegian flag was fluttering in the alleyway .I was half expecting her to arrive in a redundant open top bus wearing a 6 times champions of Europe hastily modified to 5 Instead we got a shapely woman in her early 40’s like one of the better ones , one’s lustful and desperate teenage self might have tried to get off with at “The She” back in the 70’s now she could be my slightly younger sister (*Cries* Morrisey was right about the passage of time and its crimes)) It turns out she’s a Sami ( Lapp). She has an amazing voice , something her vastly overrated fellow Arctic Circle dwelling consoeur Bjork would sell her soul for and can only dream about .Her vocal range was breathtaking and she was backed by tribal rhythms ( a softer Killing Joke/Adam and The Ants type vibe ) as she danced away occasionally knocking seven shades out of a bodhran type instrument made from reindeer skin . Apparently discovered by Peter Gabriel in 1990 This could account for the incongruous mid -set reworking of the Billy Paul classic “Me and Moribund the Burgermeister** , we’ve got a thing going on “ Each act was better than the previous one and the best came last .On the final night the Star of David was fluttering in the alleyway in honour of YASMIN LEVY from Jerusalem Try and imagine . if you would fellow Blues , a sultry slightly taller dark eyed Mediterranean Kate Bush in her mid 20’s .The voice was even better and deserves just as many if not more superlatives than her Lapp counterpart. :It transpires she is descended from the Sepharic Jews who were chased out of Spain in the late 15th century . She spoke in Spanish throughout and her songs ,so I discovered from the CD which I rushed to purchase at the end , are in 15th century sepharic Spanish. Most of the themes were pretty harrowing or outré , an example being “A kinze anyos” “(Since the age of 15 I’ve been making love to an outlaw)
An eye/ear opening experience which got me through most of the close season , I can now retreat to my electronic ghetto a little richer musically

*Goes of to buy rare CD of two Hippopotami mating in Burkino Faso whilst sister Liz dances round handbag *

*Author apologises for Geographic licence
** for the sake of the non coffin dodgers who frequent the board B side of the incredible Solsbury Hill (1977) Billy Paul was a sleazy sounding mid 70’s medallion type man beloved by the incredibly bland DJ’s on Radio Shitty in ,of course , in the mid 70’s
Mr Paul’s lawyers pleaser take note I said “Sounding” I’m sure he’s a top bloke and does loads of work for charity .

Nice review Chris, what an interesting gig experience, and it’s often better to do these things on the spur of the moment.


I’m not exactly a World music type person myself Ivan, but your review for Festa Di Frontiera sounds like fun, I agree, its good to have a worthwhile diversion from the old electro ghetto, I spent the journey back from the heights of John & the Maths gig listening to Midlake's Van Occupanther, not an album I'd ever gotten into, but it really suited the moment.


Cheers, she has a great voice


Didn’t schoolgirl Britney Spears have a hit with that very song in 1999?


http://www.whenskiesaregrey.com/

Ivan, I clicked on it, but I couldn’t buy anything, the site was not open for business, by the laws of Global Capitalism I’m going to have to report this consumerism failure to Team America: World Shopping Police.

Wooden Shjips, Kazimer, Liverpool 11th September.

Annoyingly there were no dates in Scotland for this tour timed for release of new album ‘West’, the only gigs north enough for me were in Leeds or Liverpool, but by a happy coincidence I was due to spend a few days of September in Blackpool not far from either of those cities, so I contrived my trip to synchronise with the Liverpool show at the Kazimer, and it turned out to be a great choice of venue. The Kazimer is nothing to look at from the outside, just an anonymous featureless warehouse building, inside however it’s unexpectedly full of character and fantasy with wooden beams and a hexagonal shaped interior. Its a good-sized but intimate place where staircases lead up to a gallery and various niches are decorated with antique bric-a-brac, and in a corner above designed as an eclectic living-room resides a fun feature in the form of a scaled-down ‘Wild West Stage Wagon’ booth that can seat a small group of people. I was completely entranced and wide-eyed as I texted a friend, saying that I felt like I was inside a grungy Disneyland-type park attraction.

I’d definitely made the correct choice of destination for the gig, on the train out from Blackpool North an older (but surprisingly youthful looking) gent struck up a conversation with me for the journey, he was on a holiday trip to the UK and making a visit back to his old home town of Liverpool after having emigrated from it decades before as a nineteen year old teenager ”he’s young again, nineteen again!”, and he was a retired ex-tram driver from San Francisco, which was quite a sweet coincidence as I’ve not only been there on holiday a few years ago, but bizarrely, the Wooden Shjips also hail from there. When I told my traveling acquaintance I was en-route to see a modern-day Psychedelic band from San Francisco it unsurprisingly left him blank, in return, he talked about having seen the Beatles in his youth playing in Liverpool in their pre-superstardom days, to which he contrasted this with the fortune he’d recently had to pay for a ticket to see Sir Paul in concert. After exiting Liverpool station I felt disorientated, so I made my way to the local Tourist Information Office where a friendly guy got enthusiastic when I asked about the Kazimer, he not only gave me recommendations for places to eat and drink on Parr Street near to the venue, but my mention of the Wooden Shjips didn’t leave him blank, instead he obligingly wrote down some bands for me he thought I should check out.

Having been early and amongst the first of a dozen people at the Kazimer’s door when it opened I seemed to be the only person who’d come armed with a ticket, those in front of me stated they were on the guest list, fair enough, but on having heard this the people behind me jovially enquired aloud if there was a ‘friends of the guests’ list. That’s a new one, I’d never heard of this kind of list before! With barely an effort they blagged their way in just by hinting that they knew someone working at one of the nearby bars and café’s. Clearly there’s a lot of social cross-pollination going on locally. The Kazimer eventually became so crowded that I was unable to move lest I lose my perch, quite literally stood on a platforms edge, seems the Shjips have now become so popular that they fill a place to bursting, and boy, was it a long evening of standing. Whether lead guitarist and singer Ripley Johnson is with the Wooden Shjips or at his other project in Moon Duo with groovy keyboard effects wizard Sanae Yamada he always starts the gig late (this was the fourth time in 16 months I’ve seen him play live) and the Kazimer was no exception when he came onstage after 10.30pm. I’d already foreseen that I’d miss the last train of the day and have to hang around Liverpool’s wet and windy streets for hours till 3.30am when the station opened and the earliest train would eventually get me routed back to Blackpool - just 50 miles away and down a magical rabbits tunnel that would take a ridiculous four hours dragged out via Manchester to get anywhere - and to further compound the pain of that inconvenience I almost got fined around 2am when a Police patrol car pulled up alongside me and I was given a telling off by an Officer half my age just as I had (fortunately) finished my desperate need to go to the toilet at what I thought was a quiet deserted area behind the closed railway station.

There were two support acts at the gig, the first was Mugstar who I like, having seen them as support before, but the second act The Fresh And Only’s played their set for as long as if not longer than the main act. Honestly, they were kicking the arse out of it. At first I enjoyed a few of their numbers in the overall context of the evening, they put their heart into it and excitedly thanked the Shjips for inviting them along on tour, but their music quickly became too ‘folksy’ and boring, and really, should an unknown support act who I eventually went from politely accepting to grudgingly tolerating garner as much stage time as the main act? I was knackered, thirsty, and stuck there unable to budge, I honestly think the Shjips are so laid back that they just let The Fresh And Only’s run on, and on, and on, (a bit like my reviews!).

Okay, back on track, onto a darkened stage the Shjips appeared amidst a psychedelic snowstorm of swirling white lights that furiously swept the band as if they were caught up inside a snowglobe blizzard, they played the first song from their new album and It was quite an entrance: ‘most psychedelic man!’ At long last the evening had began for me, shame, no drink left, couldn’t move, and barely room to shake my thang to the music, but so glad to be immersed in the sophisticated cosmic space rock. The Shjips music has nothing in common with wistful and redundant tie-dye and joss-stick hippy clichés, and as a child born in the 60’s I was unaware of what that Summer of Love thing was exactly, though I do have vague fleeting childhood memories of seeing on my hometown streets denim clad people with rainbows, moons, and stars painted on, of course I’ve certainly vivid memories of that time after when people reversed the groove and wore ripped clothes, chains, spiky hair, and safety-pins through their ears. Ripley and the Shjips capture a far away beautiful hypnotic sound, its both an echo of a past that never quite was and also one from a place existing in a sideways time stream. Best musical highlight of their set for me was Flight, and on their new album it’s seven minutes long, I’m not sure just how long it was when they played it live, it could have been seven minutes, or it could have been fourteen, either way it was timeless, and I think that the saying: ‘far out man!’ is the appropriate expression for that moment of perfect bliss...

Harold Budd / The Necks - Exeter Phoenix Arts Centre 23 November 2011

Having lived many a day and night with Harold's music since 1992, this was unmissable. Just last weekend I played Luxa, The White Arcades (twice), The Serpent (in Quicksilver)/Abandoned Cities, Lovely Thunder, The Pearl, and The Plateaux of Mirror. Music that suits every season, if only in the wishing for the opposite season to return. It was somewhat fitting to be sharing the gig with the friend who introduced me to Harold's music, plus another friend.

But I also knew The Necks, from their album "Drive By", which sometimes accompanied me home from a night shift, in varying shades of dawn. As the repetitions slowly evolved, another part of the labour peeled off and whipped down the road (thanks Bill C), the next street was crossed, the light grew a fraction like an enormous natural energy-saving lightbulb, and more importantly I was a few steps nearer lying down. I heard they never play the same thing twice, but that's about all I had heard.

A suitable silent reverence (except for the obligatory occasional coughs, which I find just add to the atmosphere) was maintained throughout. Just the applause as musicians entered the stage and a louder applause as they left. The silence continued even after the music was no more, until the artists shifted and relaxed, clearly done, and thus permission was given to displace air between hands.

There were just two pieces - one each. Lost all sense of time. Forty five minutes each artist? Haven't a clue. Thanks to this wonderful (and frankly more coherent and informative) review, I can tell you that the chap accompanying Harold was Werner Dafeldecker. After several minutes setting the scene with what I remember as a constant rumbling rhythmic vinyl crackle, Harold started to play. His playing was then manipulated by Werner. If I'm being completely honest, I would say that there was a little too much trial and error in obtaining the treatments, one might even have heard some of the changes as mistakes? But it added to the fragility of the sound, plus you have to speculate to accumulate (I am certain) so no matter and, once settled onto a theme, everything clicked into place, sounded great. Having the musicians on show below us couldn't have helped - no-one needs to see the technique. Certainly I felt less nervous for the performance when I focused instead on watching the projections (apparently courtesy of Russell Mills) - softly shifting and reminiscent of Mark Rothko, but with clearer boundaries to the rectangles, albeit subsequently blurred, some thin as skyscrapers, and occasional suns I seem to remember, very effective and perfect accompaniment. I want it. One wonders how much the glow of the shifting colours behind them subliminally affected the mood of the players (The Necks played to the same backdrop). I would have liked to have heard a little more of just Harold on the piano and even something familiar (the temptation to holler for "Balthus Bemused By Colour" during a particularly quiet bit was almost evil) but it is always a delight to hear Harold in a room. And if Harold is actually in the room it is an honour and a bonus.

After a short interval to refuel (us not them), The Necks came on. A line up of drums/percussion, double bass, and pianist. The pianist Chris Abrahams began things briefly (sounding even more like Budd than Harold did) then ducked out, silently looking down, waiting for a different moment. You would perhaps expect an improvisational trio to be facing each other, in order to facilitate visual signals of an individual's intentions to make a change. None of that here - all is done based on the sound. What followed was, frankly, astonishingly good, full of building tension and slight releases, a marathon of control and restraint. It was also flawlessly consistent - not a join in sight. How they knew what time it was God only knows. Was a particularly golden piece of stage lighting a hint to wrap things up? If so it took a good 15 minutes to achieve. Or it felt like 15 minutes - I didn't have a clue what time it was. A number of Necks releases were on sale afterwards but, blimey, I'd have needed a good few notes with me, which I didn't. That will have to wait for next time, which I truly hope will come.

Great review Mark - thanks so much for this.

I was lined up to see this gig at The Holywell Music Room in Oxford last week, but it sold out before I got my a*se in gear.

Sounds like I missed something really special. I know you've admired Budd for years, so I'm glad you caught up with him.

Good review. Would have liked to have been there.

Very good review Mark, being an occasional Budd fan myself you really made me feel I'd have enjoyed seeing that show.

Agnes Obel, Stereo, Glasgow 10th November.

Thought I'd better quickly fire this one in, as like all my other previously late posts I've been meaning to do so but never had 'the time for the time' as it were, and as that invisible clock ticks down now to end of year it seems somehow apt that my very first ever taste of Agnes Obel's music was her sublime cover version of John Cale's 'I Keep A Close Watch' - in which the pulsating ticking heartbeat style of her playing underscores the pacy delivery of the singing, in fact shes extremely good at interpreting the work of other musicians, towards the end of the gig she announced a song originally written by Elliott Smith (a musician whose work I was unfamiliar with and a bit of googling the next day led me to discover his amazing legacy, influence, and story of his unfortunate life).

A different kind of gig for me here at Stereo, no light-show, no back-projection, no roaring speakers dominating a straightforwardly illuminated stage that was bare except for Agnes Obel's grand piano and the seats the performers sat on, this together with various unidentifiable objects belonging to the venue discarded at the rear. The crowd seemed to be split equally between people in their twenties and the rest of us much older types, there was a high volume of young women in attendance who I suspect given the nature of Agnes Obel's music were perhaps classical music fans, I certainly detected this kind of audience was present from a group of middle-aged men stood next to me, one of whom was visibly 'conducting' with one hand in the air during many of the songs. The lasting impression on me from this gig is the amount of friendliness shown towards the audience by all of the performers that evening. Agnes on piano was accompanied by her female band members consisting of a cellist and harpist, perhaps they were balancing a faint nervousness in anticipation of the evening as each in turn seemed eager to engage us in conversation during the breaks between songs, with hindsight I wish there had been a few more direct verbal hooks thrown out from the stage to latch onto as I’d have loved to respond in return to the band, not that I probably would have of course.

Agnes was a really lovely person, casually chatty and gently funny, it was quite sweet the way in which she tilted her head slightly to one side and adopted a wistful faraway look in her face as she "whooo, ah,hoo, ah, oooh'ed" for a song, and how she playfully apologised midway during the gig for us all having to stand so long during the set, saying "maybe get some seats for next time", or suggesting that her songs were "too long", and, "I'm sorry", "its hundred percent my fault" she said in her surprisingly broken English, I use the word 'surprising' in relation to her clipped speaking as just like her perfectly executed playing on the piano she's also perfectly English in her singing and you easily forget shes Danish.

There was an obvious camaraderie onstage and the depth of this was illuminated further for us when Agnes joked about how they'd all become a family during this tour. Along with the three women there were also two men on the journey, the tour organiser and the support act Martin John Henry. Like the harpist and the tour organiser Mr Henry is a Glasgow native and (as I later discovered) the frontman for Rock band De Rosa, with 'Rock' not being my thing I’d never before heard of either him or them, he has a terrific voice and his songs are well composed, but with 'folksy' not being my kind of thing either I politely applauded and not long after deleted from memory.

At one point Agnes playfully name-checked her tour organiser who was stood at the back, jovially thanking him for 'forcing' the three women to get up after little sleep at the crack of dawn that morning, but also highlighting his coming to the rescue in eventually getting them on the road that day and sorting out a transport problem. In what was either an in-joke or a barely disguised vein of (mutual) flirtatious admiration Agnes mentioned Mr Henry quite a lot (just as he had also done with her during his set), she had a problem with his full name, to which he obligingly corrected her from within the audience, seems they'd made a tour game out of Agnes continual and I think deliberate faux-pas. From her chat about looking forward to enjoying Glasgow it appears that Henry had also built her up in expectation of this extremely non-tourist city (though she has actually played here before in April). Maybe all this love in the air was a result of the special bond that had grown between the traveling musicians and fortunately it shined through in the performance for which the Philharmonic's album was played in all of its thoughtful, tender, and effortlessly uplifting manner. There was a great segment with an absorbing instrumental piece that flowed at its end straight into Close Watch, quite amazingly done, and there were a few other highly melodic pieces that had me tapping my foot eager to burst into a dance, although you could hardly describe the music of Agnes as dance it does irresistibly move your mind and spirit, and maybe that's why your body just wants to follow where it leads...

Orbital at the Royal Albert Hall April 10th, I'll be booking tickets for their next tour - very memorable gig with brilliant use of what looked like a Jupiter and an acid box, I'd like to find out their kit list but can't find it on the web.

I heard the new album with the live tracks .. sounds really good.

Tara Busch is premiering her electroI Speak Machine symphony at Sensoria in Sheffield this Sunday 22nd April.
An experimental piece especially commissioned for the show.

Commissioned by Sensoria in association with PRSF Women Make Music, Tara Busch has built a synthesizer and created an innovative ‘sci fi symphony’

Tara explores artificial intelligence and her relationship with the machine – performing using a vocal effects processor to represent an android named G.E.N.A.

Trafalgar House, Trafalgar Street Sheffield

http://2012.sensoria.org.uk/featured/tara-busch-scanner/

Tenek - Robin 2 Bilston (Saturday 28th April)

Tenek were in my vicinity last night and having followed them for the last couple of years this was too good an opportunity to miss. It wasn’t actually a Tenek show; they were one of the support acts for the Toyah Changling Resurrection tour. Strange choice to be honest: Tenek’s electronic music didn’t really fit in with any of the other acts, not that I was complaining.

They played a mixture of songs from their two studio albums and the new EP 2. Songs included Higher Ground, Submission, Losing Something and they finished with No Time For Fighting. On for about half an hour and all thoroughly enjoyable.

We stayed for part of the Toyah show although I wasn’t familiar with any of her material.

Here’s some footage from the Tenek set: -

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wL_4FqDH_lQ

Tenek are performing here http://www.essex-live.co.uk/tickets/d2267/bas-ii/basildon-the-bowers-sports-and-social-club/

Hi Mike I was there as well last night

Will post some pictures when I get a moment.

I was manning the Tenek merch stall for a bit as well.

Nice video BTW


Brian

A few of my pictures of Tenek & Toyah @ Bilston











And Electro artist Andi Fraggs was also supporting:-

Wow - great shots. thanks.

But THIS really is news of what promises to be an amazing show.

Torment and Toreros is (probably) the best album of all time:

Marc Almond, another artist who shot to fame in the 1980s, presents a rare live performance of Marc And The Mambas groundbreaking 1983 release Torment And Toreros (9 August - Royal Festival Hall). Antony has said of Almond, "Marc laid out a trail of subcultural breadcrumbs and aesthetic tenets that more than any other single influence formed the artist that I would become. Ten years before I would hear Nina Simone make a similar affirmation, I read Marc saying that he didn't care if he hit the notes, for it was only the feeling that mattered." Also, critically, it was on Marc And The Mambas first album that Antony first heard a cover of Lou Reed's masterpiece Caroline Says, which 20 years later Antony would personally accompany Reed himself in reprising.

Tickets go on sale at 12 noon on 8 May to Southbank Centre Members and generally at 12 noon on 10 May.

Great - I have tickets for the above

And now this has come along. SHould be interesting

http://www.dlwp.com/event/we-can-elude-control

On Saturday June 9th 2012 the De La Warr Pavilion hosts We Can Elude Control a free day of sound and experimental electronic music as the closing weekend event for the Cerith Wyn Evans exhibition.The event features a headline performance by Chris & Cosey presenting a live remix of Throbbing Gristle's final album Desertshore, as well as sets by cult British artist Russell Haswell and analogue tape experiments by Napalm Death vocalist Nicholas Bullen.

An excellent gig at the Palladium, managed to get front row seats and some camera phone pics/video. I'd definitely see them again.


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Burnt Out Car
http://youtu.be/ymq65leaxiA

He's On The Phone
http://youtu.be/6VrNV0Xy3u0

Blimey! Great pics John!

It was a really good gig indeed, if Sarah Cracknell had remembered all the words, I'd of been disappointed - glad she's keeping up a St. Et tradition!

Did you notice the TOTP Band names on the screens during Popular? - Don't know if you could see them from the front, anyways they were very funny

Yes I saw those TOTP video clips.As for forgetting the words,that was funny, I have video for Sylvie & Tonight, when I'm next in the office I'll upload - I think Sarah forget the words in Sylvie too.

Yeah she did! Ha! Let's face it - not the most difficult song in the world! Heh!

I hope they do more dates - they're doing a few festival things here and there but I'd much rather see them at their own event.

Thanks for these. I've read lots of good stuff about this gig and now feel I need to 'discover' more about St Etienne

It's just been confirmed that Jim Thirlwell (aka Foetus) is going to appear with Marc Almond at the Torment and Toreros show in August.

He features, as 'Clint Ruin' on the orignal album, and appeared with Soft Cell several times back in the day.

At the risk of building up for a fail, I am anticipating this gig with more excitement than I have any other for years.

Elizabeth Fraser @ Meltdown.
Royal Festival Hall, 7th August

http://flipsideflipsidereviews.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/live-review-elizabeth-frazer-meltdown.html

Paul Pledger (allgigs)

**WARNING** Self indulgent twaddle alert

The Untouchable One

Marc And the Mambas : Torment And Toreros
Royal Festival Hall : Thursday, 9th August 2012

On each of the last three occasions I have seen Marc Almond live, I have come away feeling that not only was his performance better than ever, and that I have just experienced the'best gig' I've ever been to, but also further convinced that his music is an intrinsic part of my DNA. Almond's songs reside in the farthest reaches of my life and experience, every time I look in the mirror or talk to particular people. There is a song in his repetoire somewhere that is connected to everything I am.
And it has also been apparent that many of these are present on the Torment And Toreros album, though I confess to finding that very difficult to admit, to accept and respond to. These are bitter songs, emotionally overwraught, yet defiant and challenging - albeit shambolic and not perhaps fully realised.
Until tonight.

The album is a torrent of anger and vitriol, tears and heartache. Torment, if you will. Feelings I recognise well and swam amongst as friends when this was first released in 1983. On first listen, this masterwork instantly struck a chord with me as something very special, really deep and personal - a connection was made with a performer who has gone on to soundtrack my life. And thirty years later, I still feel these things. I still connect and It Still Matters.

So as the moment for Marc to arrive on the stage at Royal Festival Hall got closer, I was sorting out feelings of love and excitement with trepidation and anxiety. How would I react? Would it be as 'good' as I hoped? Would Marc be able to 'do it well' knowing that he too has matured and 'moved on' ?

Introducing the evening's performance, Meltdown host Antony Hegarty. Nervous, shy, touching and visibly moved by the sense of anticipation, importance and 'artistic sacrifice'. He read well, hitting more or less all the notes I would have written, and then shuffled off quickly to his seat - in front of me! Antony is Not a Small Person. Either artistically or physically,

but's its quite something to watch half the show through his hair...!

Almond strode on to rapturous applause immediately the Venomettes (including Anne Stephenson, Gini Ball and Martin McGarrick) had assembled and just moments after the drums began to pound the rhythmic introducton to Mamba - one of the 'associated tracks' I was certainly not expecting to hear tonight.

But if you are going to wallow, wallow deep...

No-one commands a stage like Marc Almond in top form. Prowling, cruising, weaving. Utterly at home and in control. Conducting his band, and crashing cymbals - we are immediately transfixed. Miaow - oh Wow!!
The Bulls is presented in white light, back lit with hi-impact images of toreadors, Spanish dancers and gruesome bullfights, Almond is playing the matador now, teasing and enticing Martin Watkins on piano, posturing and living the drama, parading around the stage in a bulls head as if in some kind of satanic ritual.
One of my personal stand-outs is the next track Catch A Fallen Star which I have seen him perform before, but never with quite so much flambouyant and poisoned flouncing and posing. Neal Whitmore' s guitar too is ever present. Threatening, venomous and penetrating.

Almond is a master of stage craft, and he brings everything inwards and downwards in the blink of an eye and a flick of the hand for the second movement. Tears start to run rings around my heart and the memories flood on in. Remember way back when you were so young and naive...?
It's in his ballads and torch songs that Almond is at his critically most accomplished. And wherein I am at my most vulnerable. If there was to be any catharcism this evening, this is where I began to feel it. He looks so small too, with his back to the audience facing the string section and moving across to the choir. A cabaret clown.

And I'm so wrecked that my eyes bleed.

Part two (Side Three) opens with a crazed Anne Stephenson dancing with a tambourine, whirling dervishly in front of Neal and co-Mamba Lee Jenkinson having a wonderful guitar face-off during Blood Wedding, building everything up to the boil for the album's best known signature track, the Mamba's single Black Heart.
It's fascinating to experience this new fashion for 'whole album' shows, to which Marc Almond has hitherto not succumbed. I've been to three or four now, and its definitely enhanced by knowing what is to come next. Even when you don't want to hear it. Holding the mirror up to My Former Self in readiness, I just closed my eyes and let Narcissus / Gloomy Sunday and Vision do their worst, rising to my feet as the wonderful solo sax pierced my soul at the end. All over the Hall people were standing in isolaion, weeping, waving and generally overcome.

And of course we all knew where this torment was going. Up, out and over the top! Enter Jim (Foetus) Thirlwell, and cue the stampede into the aisles and down to the front. A Mega Multi Million Mania Mix segues into the self-indulgent flesh volcano of sordidness that is Slut!
I can't write any more notes - everything is going so, so well and 'stuff' is pouring out of me and off the stage. All around are beaming, wide-eyed faces, transfixed and enraptured, sharing their own moments of exorcism. And sharing the joy of Antony on stage, mild and humble, doing his very best to feel worthy of his place in the Little Book of Sorrows.

Exhausted and beaming, Almond picks up the cymbals again and closes the show that no-one wanted to end. He speaks for the First Time, having wisely chosen earlier not to interrupt the flow of the album. Thanking everyone involved, he himself is overcome with the emotion of the evening and his gratitude and genuine love for host Antony is honestly touching.
After some persuasion (in what seemed to be a genuine surprise) Hegarty is invited to join Marc on stage again for Caroline Says - the Lou Reed classic at which their relationship began. By his own admission he 'warbles something (beautiful) in the background', and shuffles away into the crying light.

In advance of the show, Almond expressed concern on his websites about the complexity of these songs, the arrangements, the history - and remembering the words. He does struggle with the lyrics to familiar songs since his accident, so that part in particular must have been Of Some Concern. I noticed only one slip, and that's live and forgiveable.
Recalling that accident now, it's little short of miraculous what Marc Almond has achieved in the past eight years. A fitting tribute to Antony, without whom perhaps this evening's show may have indeed never have happened.

With that thought at the front of my mind, I cheer and wave and weep and clap and take my exhausted heart back to Waterloo. Uplifted, re-invented and having come to terms with the things I Have Lived.

Life is affirmed, and I was there.

So the seasons roll on
And my love stays strong...

That's a lovely piece, Martin, thanks for posting and glad you enjoyed it. To my shame, I am still to assimilate Torment into my essence. But it will come, it sits patiently on my "play next" shelf in anticipation.

Benge and Stephen Mallinder (Cabaret Voltaire) are performing live at Café Oto as WRANGLER 20th October.

I’ve posted this elsewhere on the forum* but sticking it here in case anyone misses it

Here’s the blurb:

Formed by Benge and Phil Winter, Wrangler have been recording pure ground-breaking electronic music for a number of years. Utilising an amazing range of analogue and sequencing equipment they are at the cutting edge of the ‘synthetic’ sound which breaks a few boundaries but also pays homage to the sounds of electronic music’s past.

Benge has been releasing ‘pure’ electronic recordings through his Expanding Records label and as a producer with other artists (John Foxx, Tunng) and is currently working with John Foxx as The Maths; Phil is a long standing musician and DJ, most recently as a member of alt-folk group Tunng.

They have recently been joined by Stephen Mallinder who has a long history in music, most notably as a founding member of Cabaret Voltaire, and most recently with Ku-Ling Bros. and Hey Rube. Wrangler recently released the 7” single ‘Mind Your Own Sequence’ on Kudos Records and are working on their debut album due out early in 2013.

http://www.cafeoto.co.uk/ursula-bogner-jan-jelinek-andrew-pekler.shtm

*
http://www.metamatic.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/44907/Wrangler_Jonny_Trunk_Dj_8pm_Sa#Post44907

Wrangler performed a brilliant debut on Saturday night. Benge was on his Simmons Drums, Stephen Mallinder and Phil Winter on electronics. They did a few Cabaret Voltaire tracks; Crackdown, Sensoria and a very, dark dub-like version of Nag Nag Nag, which bore no resemblance to the original but still maintained its air of menace. Wrangler are off to Vienna this week, no idea yet if there’s further dates.

Thanks for that Rads ... look forward to hearing some of that some time..

Meantime, let's all board the Dazzle-Tardis for some classic OMD ..news via The Electricity Club:



full thing here: http://www.electricity-club.co.uk/blog/?p=10992


...also some videos from DS period have shown up on you-choob:

Souvenir: http://youtu.be/HIE4qSTjXDU
Telegraph: http://youtu.be/qfVWYTO9MjI
She's Leaving: http://youtu.be/xloxCQWWxSo

...not excellent quality but you can occasionally see a bit of the stage set ..

Blimey! Cheers! Sadly won't be able to hear it - does anyone know how to record these shows?

Choices, choices.

Sweet tonight? Only Andy Scott remains, but seems to be getting good feedback.

November/December in Tokyo?
Procol Harem (did they have more than one hit?)
Stylistics (will skip that I think)
and
Tony Hadley. The listing mentions "of Spandau Ballet" just for those who didn't know. Did he have a solo career? Anyone seen him in UK - not really tempted, but very curious.

Then January kicks bottoms with The Ventures, St Etienne, and the Robin Guthrie Trio.

Human League - Wolverhampton Civic Hall 02/12/12 ( **** Spoiler Alert **** )

Attended the sold-out show last night. I think this was one of the best crowds HL has ever had at this venue. Totally rocking from start to finish.

Set-list was (I think) as follows: -

1 Sky
2 Sound Of The Crowd
3 Open Your Heart
4 Heart Like A Wheel
5 All I Ever Wanted
6 The Things That Dreams Are Made Of
7 Seconds
8 The Lebanon
9 Louise
10 One Man In My Heart
11 Night People
12 Electric Shock
13 Love Action
14 Tell Me When
15 (Keep Feeling) Fascination
16 Mirror Man

17 Good Bye Bad Times
18 Don't You Want Me

19 Together In Electric Dreams

They managed to come up with another original and spectacular stage set. 3 tracks from Credo plus Good Bye Bad Times & All I Ever Wanted made it an interesting set-list. Still would have liked a couple of original line-up tracks though (I know I'm being greedy).

Interesting setlist. I don't know Good Bye Bad Times.

Alex: i can help you out on that one ... if you really want it! (Moroder/Oakey track..)

Thanks for the set-list Mike .. it's an absoloute stonker, although perhaps a pre-Dare moment or too wouldn't have gone amiss, especially as it's advertised as the "XXXV" tour, ie. 1977-present! Not even a "Boys & Girls"!

Gary Numan - Dead Moon Falling

Southampton Guildhall

Just a few notes on this opener last night.
It was a good gig. Not a great gig, but definitely one of the more interesting Numan ones I've been to. I have a growing affection for him on stage.

Very, very loud and he put a lot into it, which created a good atmosphere among the loyal die-hards, for whom the setlist seems intended this time round.
The new material (three tracks) works really well and sounds fantastic - I think probably the best songs of the evening.

He / it did seem to lose its way a bit in the middle though. The duet with Officers (Petals) is not a strong piece and there followed two or three indistinguishable noise transmissions that didn't do much for me as a more objective observer.

But he's great to watch (now that I have got used to it) and I guess I was in the right frame of mind for most of the aggression and 'arrogance'.

My only real criticism would be the inclusion of Cars in the encore. Again. It really now does seem dated and out of context - especially for a set that was otherwise aimed at the hardcore fans.

seven out of ten

Great ending to my year;

Dec 14 Orbital - superb gig in particular their rendition of Dr Who
Dec 18,19,20;The Prodigy, just amazing - the highlight,hearing a never played before new track 'The Day'

All the above at Brixton Academy, thats me done for 2012!

Several shows this year, and those here of which I'm commenting on as they fall neatly into the Good, Bad, and the Ugly, or should that be the Good, the Weak and Forgettable as I was disappointed by artists I’ve seen perform better before. Gigs mostly took place in Glasgow that inexplicably far off distant land that can take up to five or six hours round trip by bus, coach, and nightbus – apparently Glasgow is a mere 51 miles away from my home door as the googlemap crow flies, oh yeah? And pigs are flying also...

Most recently it was Moon Duo at Broadcast on 12th November and I’m being generous to my favourite band by blaming a weak show on the venue. Moon Duo usually work well in a small space, however there was a noticeably low ceiling above the performers which may have affected the sonic impact - just 18 inches over the head of Ripley Johnson the guitarist/vocalist, even the abstract visuals projected over the band were unable to fit the stage - two numbers in and the call went out from the audience “we can’t hear you singing”, neither we could and I was right at the front. Try as Ripley did to Up the level it didn’t much improve from then on, maybe the tiny pixies that live in Ripley’s beard ran out of magic sprinkle dust during rehearsals? Also I began to seriously doubt if the band’s other half the funky organ mistress Sanae Yamada was actually playing her instrument, her intense head-down-hands-rocking away at keyboard stance was missing, nor was she getting lost into the groove as she usually does with her hair obscuring her face in the manner of that creepy Japanese horror movie The Ring, well, the ring sure weren’t on fire that night (at least I hope that’s the correct random thought to insert here). Ripley Johnson playing live has never let me down before, but this wasn’t the gig to take any doubters along to, I’d have been given that eyes raised shoulder shrug ‘what’s all the fuss been about’ and struggled to defend my love for the music. Sadly this very same let-down applies ten-fold to Claire Boucher’s Grimes gig which I saw in the summer, a grimy sordid affair, but more on that one later...

Back in January 14th I saw A Winged Victory For The Sullen in the catacombs of the Oran Mor - a church that’s now a drinking and music venue and should have made for an atmospheric show but I couldn’t completely enjoy it as someone had either forgot or saw no need to put on the heating in the depths where the gig was, this was in the midst of a freezing winter. To compound the inconvenience it was also an open table and chairs affair taking up two thirds of the floor space, a large crowd in attendance meant that if you left your seat then chances are it was gone thus leaving you standing at the back with a poor view. The audience had to endure a very cold two and a half hour wait till the main act, drinking a chilled pint was a miserable experience. The musicians arrived dressed in heavy jumpers telling us they didn’t want to come out as it was lovely and warm in the dressing room, after the first number they apologised for the sound, explaining that the cold had affected their string instruments - a cello and violin that had been waiting onstage beforehand. Despite the bollocks chilling temperature the music was truly beautiful, the entirety of the self-titled debut album was played in order and the sad but uplifting music was surprisingly much more humanly warmer when played live, more so even than it is when listened to on the album.

Also in January, at the Arches on the 19th I saw M83, one of two artists I was hopeful for this year, Grimes (miss Clare Boucher) was the other one. Anthony Gonzalez’s M83 exceeded my expectations with the best show of the year musically and emotionally in spite of Anthony’s poor singing (he’s an average singer), he had me thinking that M83’s critics were justified but an explanation was given when he apologised for his inability to hit the high notes due to a sore throat. He and the band also commented on the rain we’d had that day, ha, those sunny California-based musicians make me laugh, don’t they know we Northerners live under a grey cloud year round. Highlights of the gig were undoubtedly all of the Hurry Up We’re Dreaming album, with some material from Saturdays = Youth blending in seamlessly, most notably the electro-rave juggernaut Couleurs had me (easily the oldest person there) jumping up into the air like a spring bunny alongside the 20-somethings and the generous sprinkling of 30-something bearded blokes (the type who hang round indie record stores with satchels over their shoulders). Some youngsters had rather sweetly dressed like extras from the cover of Saturdays = Youth, in their ‘Desperately Seeking Susan’ attire and big cute winter hats with animal ears, I really should have made the effort also.

28th August, and my only Edinburgh gig. At the Liquid Rooms Grimes seemed to have abandoned her solo DIY ethic on tour and had a band of sorts - a bald guy attempting cool in oversized shades on synth-drum - he seemed to contribute little. Also, I got that feeling of ‘is the music barely live, or is it all Memorex?’ Grimes often stood away from her keyboard/effects and focused more on singing out to the audience, maybe the new record label’s told her to connect more. Recalling how I saw her perform before, whirlwind hair and arms everywhere twiddling her knobs and flicking her presets in a mad frenzy, it was all but gone for this gig, thus also was the glorious impact of her distinctive style. I sort of enjoyed the music, but it wasn’t a patch on hearing it at home, I seriously thought about leaving early. One of the most anticipated gigs became the most disappointing, rapidly forgotten, then memorable for wrong reasons, but I could be alone in this appraisal as the packed house of a very wide age range and seemingly 50% female (Grimes has so many female fans these days) were loving it, mind you, when I placed myself beside the exit during the encore there were a lot of punters at the back stood by the bar seemingly not bothered. I’d had enough by then and wanted a speedy exit having spent the entire show being crushed down at the front, ‘never before in the history of this man’s kind at a gig have I had so many young women’s body parts constantly shoved into my person’, elbows and breast’s nudged into my back and under my chin, really, I go for the music, not the Ibiza Club 18-30 orgy, BBC radio roadshow jock’s would’ve been in paradise here, worse still, the women were all singing along to the songs, I’d unwittingly infiltrated a girls night out!

Two contrasting images sum up my year of gigs, the first from M83’s show which began mysteriously, dark empty stage, some vertical stick-like light’s arranged in a semi-circle starting to glow as a masked cloaked figure walks purposely out to stage edge, gazing silently at the audience for a minute or so before departing quietly. This figure was the strange-looking owl-Alien from Hurry Up We’re Dreaming’s album concept art, creating a brief but effective show starter that left a feeling of curiosity and anticipation hanging in the air. With the Grimes gig on the other hand, after a few songs in I suddenly realized that a guy had been onstage the whole time crouched down in the dark near to her when without warning he slowly stood up and began the lamest dancing. Revealing himself to be a lanky longhaired blond guy dressed in black it was an incongruous WTF moment. He continued his naff moves throughout several songs threatening only to detract and undermine the show as I willed myself to ignore his presence. Grimes must have owed this mystery dancing man big time for something or the other, either that or she was oblivious to him and he’d sneaked on for a dare.

Marc Almond - Ten Plagues

Oh yes!! Never mind all your electronic nonsense, backing tapes and reformed old bands...

Just been told that I have front row seats for Wiltons Music Hall on 4th May to see Marc in action at the best venue in London.

http://wiltons.org.uk/

Anyone get tickets for that German band Kraftwerk at the Tate?

Well somebody did, and here's what they had to say:

Kraftwerk's opening show at the Tate incredible, say OMD

Full article of OMD on Kraftwerk here: -

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-21361330

Mine was that linky too! ..

Perhaps the Quietus didn't get tickets and have to make do with this old one by a certain Wolfgang Fluer??

It's No More Fun To Compute! (link)

>>McCluskey described it as "the best multimedia arts project on the planet".

This actually got me thinking. The nest show I ever saw was Gary Numan at Wembley on his first farewell tour ('82 I think). He produced a show of sound and lighting that blew my 16 year old socks off because of its scale and presence. If Gary had access to the tech that is available now, what on earth could he have done? Sure, he can use it now, but I'm pretty sure he doesn't have the funds he had then - he made a loss on most shows.

Steven Wilson - Glasgow ABC

This was a fantastic gig. His new album is his best yet & his band line up excelled themselves. Guthrie Govan on guitars, Marco Minnemann on drums, Nick Beggs on bass guitar, Adam Holzman on keyboards and Theo Travis on woodwind. The set lasted 2.5 hours & he was off stage by 10pm. Some of his songs last over 10 minutes & Raider II comes in at over 20 minutes. The solos in this were awesome , especially Marco on the drums. The visuals were excellent too.

Thanks for posting Scott, I consoled myself on Saturday evening by purchasing more of his albums, and this week should see the new one arrive. A good long set and he still managed a 10pm finish, good grief I could have got back to my town at a reasonable time just for a change

Low - Bristol Trinity 29/4/2013:

It is over 10 years since Low stole my heart with their album "Trust". Since then I have naturally worked my way backwards whilst being dragged forwards. Suddenly at the age that life begins ...

New albums have followed - noisier and stranger, especially Drums and Guns with its at times completely separated stereo; then possibly misfiring on C'mon and now The Invisible Way.

They were the last of my "bands I must see". But it has taken until now. Life beginning ...

Bristol is the closest most visitors come to me, close enough to get the last train. Manic bliss. Always watching the clock. Some are powerful enough to stop the clock. Sapphire and Steel?

The voices of husband and wife Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker are quite different, both technically excellent* (*of course I may be wrong but if I was to define technically excellent, these voices (and their combination) would be my contribution). Alan on guitar, Mimi on drums, and Steve Garrington on bass and piano. How can they make so little noise and then so much??

Naturally, life having begun, I could not consume without needing the gents, which led to me losing my spot (ironically, the song playing was "Just Make It Stop") (although more ironically it could have been the astonishing "Pissing", one of many highlights). Losing my spot led to me adopting a more central position near the back, although strangely the clearing up of the bar staff and the creaking of doors did not distract. Thank Mr Cage perhaps?

The new album was well represented - "Plastic Cup", "On My Own" (with its rather anguished refrain of "Happy Birthday" - cheers guys), "Clarence White" and the, ahem, haunting "Holy Ghost".

A good T-shirt on sale declared the text "I'm Sick to Death of Low". How we chuckled. You could not be more absurd.

An excellent piece!!

Thanks for sharing Mark

I have to pick and choose gigs to go to these days, as the investment to get to the UK is getting quite expensive (just waiting for easyJet to start serving Tokyo!). I saw a Vimeo version of Depeche Mode live at SXSC and was COMPLETELY underwhelmed.

Depeche Mode Live at SXSC in Vimeo

It just sounded bland, particularly on the vocals. So I decided there and then to not bother with the upcoming tour. Last time I saw them was at Crystal Palace, with Sisters of Mercy (!) supporting. That was a god gig.

But then, on Facebook today, Matthew Dear announces he will be supporting DM on their European tour, and suddenly it now seems more attractive!!

Solenoid. Were you at the Kraftwerk gig (Computer World) on Tuesday May 13th? I saw a bloke that looked like you but he was too far away for me to get to.

Absolutely superb show by the way. If they are anywhere near you, I heartily recommend watching it.

That would have been me - in a suit, near the right side doors!

Maybe we will meet next time!!

Laetitia Sadier was doing a free gig at The Union Chapel just up the road in Islington.

I do like gigs in churches (who doesn’t – I’ve done two myself this year and they were acecakes: even managed to have a full-on Tangerine Dream moment during the first one as everyone else had bunked to watch the rugby) but this one was a bit...ummmmm...well...can you remember 70s sitcoms? Can you remember the bits where Terry and June would go to church and 'hilarious consequences would ensue'? Well it was a bit like that. Seriously - I time travelled.

The host was a good ten years younger than me, but he didn't look it. There's a look in the fashionable parts of London right now that can best be described as '1930s North Sea Fisherman'. It seems to involve having a beard - nowt wrong with beards - it's the clothes though that add to the scene - knitwear last seen flying as a last minute flag of distress outside Shackleton's tent, and trousers or...oilskins. Anyway, there was a lot of that going on - which I'm sure works in Shoreditch (PS - There's no shore in Shoreditch in case you're wondering why men dress as fishermen) but this bloke hadn't quite got it right, so he kind of looked like a 70s sitcom do-gooder type: knitwear crazy but minus the dufflecoat.

He was charming and very earnest - and the place was rattling with the middle-classes, who'd brought their children along (it was a free lunchtime gig) and there was an activity centre for the kids too (I only noticed on the way out - trail of cut paper and squashed crayons). The organisers were selling cake and mugs of tea and coffee - and they were decent-sized chunks of cake, and the mugs weren't new or uniform - they were old and new, all shapes and sizes - just like home.

And it all felt a bit - well - Terry and June, Keeping Up Appearances etc. And then Laetitia Sadier came on and played and it's still strange seeing her solo - without Moogs, Mellotrons, Farfisa's, revolutions, architecture and harmonies - and whatever else Stereolab would find in a skip or a Pelican book. But of course she's solo as Sadier and Gane have split up, so Stereolab have split up or as they say 'on a hiatus'.

The past has gone, really gone – people have parted and gone their separate ways and so a new form has emerged. Her songs are no longer thoughts on Stan Brakage or Free Design, but dreams of wicker submarines and relationships changing and separating. And I think about that, sat on a pew with some cheesecake* and coffee.

I'm not knocking it, honest - but, I get the feeling I may have crossed over into another kind of gig-world recently, and maybe it's just the shock. Really don't get me wrong - the organisers were great, the gig was heartwarming...but still - I may need to find a mosh-pit or two to cleanse my soul. I dunno though – I kinda like having cake at a gig.

*I’m not a cake fan per se – but: if the cheesecake looks to have the correct ratio of ‘stuff and base’ I find it’s usually worth a go. Still think the best cheesecake ever was the one IKEA used to do a few years ago.

Gary Numan - Splinter Tour at Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton 19/11/13

I made it along to the Wolverhampton leg of the tour last night. The Wulfrun Hall is one of Gary's regular haunts and he seemed right at home from the off. True to form he played plenty of the new stuff with just a smattering from the past. Here is the set-list (I think): -

1.Resurrection
2.I Am Dust
3.Metal
4.Everything Comes Down to This
5.Films
6.Here in the Black
7.The Fall
8.The Calling
9.Down in the Park
10.Pure
11.Splinter
12.Lost
13.When the Sky Bleeds, He Will Come
14.We're the Unforgiven
15.Love Hurt Bleed
16.A Prayer for the Unborn
17.I Die: You Die

18.Cars
19.Are 'Friends' Electric?
20.My Last Day

He went down a treat as usual. Funniest bit was at the start of the Encore where he attempted to address the audience on about 5 different occasions but each time was drowned out by a mass NUUMMAAAAAAAN...NUUMMAAAAAAAN...NUUMMAAAAAAAN . He seemed rather pleased with it all almost to the point of embarrassment

Karl Bartos 31.01.2014 at Gruenspan in Hamburg

It was a real pleasure to see this concert. Karl Bartos played a lot of stuff from Kraftwerk along with new stuff of his new album "Off The Record" and his earlier solo album "Communication". The new album sounds like the new Kraftwerk album. The tracks he played about his Kraftwerk time sounded fantastic as there were , Robots, Numbers, Pocket calculator,Computerworld, Tour de France, Neon Lights, The Model, It's more fun to Compute, Trans Europe express and others.
A real concert highlight in a sold out venue.5 points from 5 from me!

You're lucky. I am eager to see Bartos. I bought a pre-release ticket to Moogfest 2014 on the hopes that he might be playing there this year [along with a certain John Foxx fronted band]. Unfortunately, they booked Kraftwerk instead. Not that I didn't see that coming from a mile away. Sigh.

I only go to gigs of my own bands, -ha! -ha! -ha! Here's experimental environmental jazzband Verde, lead by analogue modular synth builder Mika Rintala. I play there bird voices:
http://youtu.be/WjaPItnOHnI

China Crisis, South Devon Arts Centre, Totnes, Friday 28 November 2014

Two gigs in two weeks? Terrifying, with Christmas around the corner. Still, at least I am building some tolerance.

China Crisis. My first time. Memories of 1982 – “Christian” on the radio, all hell at primary school. Over it now. But the song remains as a source of great comfort. In 1989, in the early period of my buying of music, I reached China Crisis. Had already picked (pocket-monied) my way through some earlier memories: Depeche Mode, Human League, Ultravox, OMD, all that eighties magic. And so I started with the album “Christian” came from – the first one. By the summer I reached “Flaunt the Imperfection” (their third) whose sleeve (silver on dark blue) always gave me a headache to look at. By autumn I started college and “What Price Paradise” (their fourth) made sense after a couple of false starts over that drought-ridden summer. Doing Physics homework, staring across town at the building where my new object of desire would be tomorrow and was today. Sharing her space without overlapping.

Later the 5th album, released that year, then nothing until 1994, something of a whimper (but check out the sleeve of the French version), then nothing. But they stayed together, gigging and that. And they are still here – new album “Autumn in the Neighbourhood” may not reach us until Spring but when you have waited 20 years …

Totnes. Where I did a year and a half of night shift work, even while doing a full-time job elsewhere. Insanity. Hadn’t been back since that all finished, summer 2010.

The combination was of course irresistible.

The same ritual I had then, except a few hours earlier. “The Pleasures of Electricity” and (Arab Strap’s) “The Red Thread” for the walk and the train then the walk around the town before I was due at work. Did the same route, saw the same Christmas decorations as 2009, felt the same feelings, made more mental notes for some project I started way back then. All good. Politely arriving a fraction after opening time, the place already quite full, not long before Shadow Factory, an unexpected support. Live bass for a pedal to loop then guitar, sax and a Florian Schneider look-alike on drums. Reggae, ska, and other genres I don’t understand but still get somehow. Ones to watch. Especially in their top hats strung with red lights.

I didn’t really know what to expect from the Chinas themselves, apart from the tunes of course. They seemed to shape shift their way across my 1989, some parts Steely Dan (like I knew that at the time!), some parts gorgeous atmospheric instrumentals, some parts new wave, some parts bonkers pop songs, other parts lyrics hard to decipher, all the time fascinating. Very strange album titles. But I hadn’t seen a video, hadn’t seen them in motion.

Gary Daly – singing – very chatty, stories old and new, something of Bryan Ferry about him, self-deprecating and playfully joking at the audience (from a “posh town”) who “are not f*cking Martin Scorsese, not f*cking David Bailey, so please don’t film this and post it on Youtube, it’ll look f*cking sh*t”. All said in the nicest possible way. Eddie Lundon on guitars and a bit of singing and plenty of smiling. Brian McNeil on keyboards/programming/whatever. Just the trio tonight – after what I heard I am intensely keen to hear the full band. Next year?

Two sets (“sponsored by Saga Tours who insist we have a twenty minute rest”) – album tracks, then hits. “Tragedy and Mystery” was the only one I really missed. Personal favourites “Arizona Sky”, “Seven Sports For All”, “Here Come a Raincloud”, “Best Kept Secret”. A couple from the new record, including the title track, sounding really quite fine.

Why aren’t this band (still) massive? Who knows – but at least we have them. I was as guilty as anyone of forgetting them, almost writing them off to the nostalgia circuit. Now I have seen they were and are too good for that. I think they realise too – hence the new album.

Left with an hour to kill I stayed on for the eighties disco that followed, standing not dancing of course. At work I would get the train home at dawn, but this time I was able to make the last train or could you call it the first train, the sleeper train, sat silent, in the travelling dorm of the insomniac and bedless, no views of the estuary, no rising sun. But still there. Four years on, or is it twenty five? Or thirty five?

http://www.pledgemusic.com/projects/chinacrisis

Thanks for the write-up Puds. Always been a Chinas fan, me, since about day one or thereabouts. Odd how when I saw them live in about 1983 they probably had a similar set up to what you saw the other night! We were also a very select bunch audience-wise then too. Small club affair (with Howard Jones supporting I might add), and obviously a much more limited repetoire.

Since then they've been to relatively big (80s) stardom and back although no new material since the rather disappointing Warped by Success in '94. To their credit they've always stuck together as a duo (save for some Daly-solo stuff a while back) and are addicted to touring albeit very much on the "Stars of the Eighties" ticket. And yes, on viddying quite a few live recordings I must admit that Daly does swear a little too much for my liking! Is that a Liverpool thing la?

Still let's hope the long awaited new album won't be too much of an anti-climax, even though they will never really achieve the greatness of 'Flaunt' or even 'Fire & Steel' again.


NEXT!