Gig & Festival Reviews

Two Door Cinema Club - 02 London - 13th December 2013

Coming soon

Queens of the Stone Age - Wembley Arena - 22nd November 2013

Coming soon

Deep Purple - The Roundhouse - 16th October 2013

I took my best friends God son to the gig, 17 and never heard of Purple until this year (2013) and he loved it. That may have something to do with the fact that he was trying to pull a young woman all night!!!

It has to be said that after a number of years of listening to Smoke on the Water, Black Night, Burn and other great tracks - on vinyl - I was curious as to what a bunch of ageing rockers might be able to do for 100 minutes. 

What they did was rock, roll, entertain and that was all good.

They worked their way through some classic Purple and plenty of others besides, including:

Hard Lovin' Man, Strange Kind of Woman,  Uncommon Man, The Mule, Lazy, Hell to Pay, Space Truckin', Smoke on the Water, Green Onions, Hush and finishing with Black Night.

Good night had by all.

Roger Waters - The Wall - Wembley 14th September 2013

I saw the original gig way back when - thats the 80's for those who are not that old.
 - The band are a 60's progressive and psychedelic rock band who had a few notable vinyl album successes with releases entitled things like 'Dark Side of the Moon', 'Animals', Wish You Were Here' and surprisingly 'The Wall'. From the latter came one of the greatest rock tracks of all time 'Comfortably Numb'

I don't like going in to a run down of what it all means, but The Wall needs it. Weird in its delivery the concept is even more bizarre. As with the band's previous three LPs The Wall is a concept album. It deals largely with themes of abandonment and personal isolation. It was first conceived during 1977 when bassist and lyricist Roger Waters's frustration with the spectators' perceived boorishness became so acute that he imagined building a wall between the performers and audience. 

The album is a rock opera that centres on Pink, a character Waters modelled after himself, with some aspects based on the band's original leader, Syd Barrett. Pink's life experiences begin with the loss of his father during the Second World War, and continue with ridicule and abuse from his schoolteachers, an overprotective mother and finally, the breakdown of his marriage. All contribute to his eventual self-imposed isolation from society, represented by a metaphorical wall.

That all sounds extremely dull and should not work as a rock stage show - however it did in 1980 and it did again in 2013.

Some of the imagery displayed through the show, on the vast wall that filled Wembley from one side to the other, was disturbing and thought provoking but as I say the subject matter is not an easy going story and is there to make you think.

It is without doubt the greatest thing i have seen staged in the name of music - a bit like the Grand Canyon, the Great Barrier Reef or the Great Pyramid of Giza - you really have to have seen it to know just how good it truly is.

RW says "this is it for the tour" - and at the ripe old age of 70 and costing millions to tour with I sort of don't blame him. That said if he came back around next year with it I would fork out another £60 to witness this spectacle, and maybe grab myself some even better mind images.

What can I say except 10/10..................

The Killers - Wembley 22nd June 2013

The Killers, Wembley Stadium last Saturday were having to follow great gigs by The Flaming Lips, Kings of Leon and Bruce Springsteen in the 3 previous weeks so just how would the rockers from Vegas cope with my high expectations, especially as I have never thought of them as a stadium band, but as it turned out they coped most excellently.

I have always enjoyed their music but (possibly due to age) if you asked me to name a stack of them I would probably instantly reel off 2 or 3. As it happens, after 2 hours on stage, I realise now that I knew loads of them, apologies to everyone for the very loud singing.

They were well supported by James (Sit Down, She’s a Star, Destiny Calling) and relative newcomers Gaslight Anthem (American Slang, thats kind of it right now) who both delivered a very good 30-40 minutes each, setting the crowd up nicely for what was to follow.

With tracks from their albums (Hot Fuss 5, Sam’s Town 6, Day & Age 3, Battle Born 6) a couple of covers and a specially written song for the day they had the crowd on their side right from the off. The crowd was also doing their bit to get involved with the traditional throwing of beer (and for the doubters if it was urine then it must have been in the chiller).

My first real top of the voice singalong came with Smile LIke You Mean which was followed shortly by an interesting cover of Shadowplay (Joy Division). Human, Somebody Told Me and For Reasons Unknown were belted out by Flowers and the band who really looked like they were having a good time. Their obvious enjoyment was visible before, during and after they performed a song they told us was written especially for today (Yeah right of course it is Brandon) - Wembley Song, which was a trip down memory lane with moments both musical and other from the life of the Stadiums - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_fPHFLmAco - and it was very clear from the huge smile on their faces when they finished just how much it meant to them, as they joined legends of music that had gone before them.

Encore reached they wrapped up the show with a firework show 3 more songs and rounding off the night with a crowd pleasing Mr Brightside. 

I had a fantastic time and enjoyed my final June gig immensely, made more pleasant by the fact that I met up with my cousin who I had not seen for 35 years and also a friend I had not seen for 7.

So with the Flips scoring 9, KOL 9.25 and the Boss 9.75, could the Vegas 4 pull it off.......it has to be 9.75 as well, recommend you go see them even if you only know 2 or 3 songs!

If Deep Purple, Roger Waters, The Mission and Queens of the Stone Age, later this year, live up to June then 2013 will go down in history for me.

Bruce Springsteen - Wembley 15th June 2013

He is 63, he rocks and is apparently now on the 'laminated list'*** of my wife and sister. That aside this man is a complete legend and my words could never express just how good he is live, well I say him but he has a great band behind him who are kept on their toes as he picks and chooses what he does next on the spur of the moment.

If you have never seen him (and the E-Street band) live - you should! Just don't do it at Wembley Stadium, sad to say but it took us about a half hour to locate a decent part of the stadium (where the sound was not bouncing off the walls), but having made our way close to the stage we finally got what we wanted.

Land of Hope and Dreams, Jackson Cage, Radio Nowhere..........then following a trip to the crowd and gathering banners they proceeded to take requests for the next 7 songs (including selections from old and new albums) before asking the crowd "Do you want us to continue with the request show or hear Darkness On The Edge of Town from start to finish?"- It was in all fairness a question they really didn't need to ask, so as cheers rand at around the stadium they knocked out one of his/their best albums of all time.

Having delivered DOtEoT they went on with another 4 songs to end the show - well actually not -  1st encore was headed with Bruce telling us that we will all be dancing and shaking our bodies and (apologies once more for the dancing) he did with an 8 minute version of Pay Me My Money Down which featured huge amounts of horn!!! Born to Run, Bobby Jean, Dancing in the Dark Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out and a 7 minute version of ("I hope they don't pull the plug") Twist and Shout ended the show - well actually not - he sent the band off stage and finished with an acoustic version of Thunder Road, just him a guitar, harmonica and us.

Its been a great week for gigs but could this be better than KOL?

9.75/10 - I want  to give him 10/10 but that leaves no room for improvement......!

*** 'laminated list' refers to a fictitious list (created by the cast of Friends) that means you can shag without getting in trouble with your partner.



Kings of Leon - 02 - London - 12th June 2013

Where do I start? I have never seen them play live, I have waited to see them play live and have been viewing this as one of my potential 2013 highlights. The downside - potentially - was that it was at the 02 and I had been disappointed with sound quality last time.

So how did that all turn out? Brilliantly in short. This wee island is the bands success story - with album and single success greater than their homeland - but they have not been to the UK for 2 years. How did they kick it off? Radioactive, Taper Jean Girl and My Party. I was dancing and singing (sorry about that).

They had bags of energy and their stage presence was immense, they moved from song to song with ease and threw in a couple of newbies (from their next album) and we lapped it up. They were genuinely pleased to be back touring and to be fair I was genuinely happy to have booked a mid week gig and the small group I was with were of the same opinion.

I appreciate these reviews are my own opinion, of what I took from the night, but believe me they were pumping out hit after hit - okay so in real terms Sex on Fire and Use Somebody were the biggies - but give these a listen (on iTunes, Spotify or some other streaming source) and tell me you are not sold on just how big they are - [Back Down South, Molly's Chambers, On Call, Pyro, Knocked Up, Closer, Black Thumbnail].

All in all this was my gig of the year 9.25 out of 10.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GFVMEAmfc8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XZwI_Lmbcoc


The Flaming Lips - The RoundHouse - Camden - 27th May 2013


The Flaming Lips have always come to the UK with a big party - lasers, giant balloons, huge party poppers and massive confetti cannons, light hearted (with a meaningful message to some songs) it has been pretty much the same kind of gig, in its feel, for a few years now.

2013 saw the release of the latest studio album 'The Terror', a dark and moody piece - with a message, which takes some listening to (even as an avid fan) appreciate the content. So I was somewhat concerned as to how they would translate this to a stage event or if they would simply not bring this on tour. I need not have worried as the gig was a mix of the new stuff, a couple of crowd pleasers (including a version of David Bowie's Heroes) and some really old stuff from the late 90's.

OUT - The hugely fun elements
IN - Massive stage and light show

Wayne was still his caring and sharing self and even held things up for about 15 minutes so that someone up front, who had an epileptic fit (such was the intensity of the lights), could receive treatment. His advice "This happens quite a lot. My advice is simple if you feel as if the lights are intense and you feel weird just ****ing shut your eyes, put your hands over them, seriously its that ****ing simple"

Fantastic gig, still love this band. It's a 9 out of 10, cant give them 10 otherwise what do I have to look forward to :-)


Status Quo - Hammersmith Apollo - 15th March 2013

This was one gig I really didn't want to be disappointed by, first saw them about 35 years ago and most recently at The Fairport Convention Festival, they had a lot of good memories to follow up on.

The band of 4 have had a number of years a part thanks to all manner of bad blood and disagreements and so this coming together was an important tour for them as much as the fans. This series of gigs in Wolverhampton, Glasgow,  Manchester, London and Wembley is probably the last time the 4 will tour together.

Comprising of Francis Rossi, Rick Parfitt, Alan Lancaster and John Coghlan and with a combined age of 257 the old boys certainly delivered.

From the opening number Junior's Wailing, through to Bye Bye Johnny and passing through In My Chair, Most of the Time, Forty-Five Hundred Times, Rain, Down Down....I could go on, but I wont, it was a great gig and I can only say it would have been a 10 if they had just done another 30 minutes. 9/10


John Boden & The Remnant Kings - South Street Reading - 5th March 2013

As a regular member of the fantastic folk band Bellowhead John Boden has a number of side projects, The Remnant Kings are just one of those.

Given that I own a number of the aforementioned Bellowhead's albums, and seen them live, I was keen to see just how this would go down.

So entering a room and being told that it holds 250, seeing the stage just a few feet across I was sceptical about how the night would pan out. No problem, first song in and the 4 piece band had all present tapping toes and feeling good with the folk beat warming the body.

Taking a short 15 minute break the outfit that include double bass, accordion, drums, old barrel record player and wine glasses - amongst an array of violin, fiddle and other wonderful stringed instruments - they finished off with some old and new numbers as well as a few surprising covers including Kate Bush and Whitney Houston.

All in all a good night and I came away with a new vinyl album for my collection. 6/10



Coming Soon
Bruce Springsteen - 15th June
The Killers - 22nd June
Rewind - Henley - 17th August
Roger Waters - The Wall - 14th September
Deep Purple - 16th October
The Missions 18th December