News and Reviews: May 02, 2012

01 May 2012.i went to two events tonight.
6pm to 8pm.First was a screening of "Mission To Lars" that comes out in June.Film length is 77 mins.
The private viewing room is in Newman Street just off Oxford Street.It holds maybe just 30 people as the seating is huge luxury armchairs and sofas.
We have a few words from Kate who is the sister in the film.Tv and radio presenter Richard Bacon was here.
It was a very touching story and of course the Metallica clips in the film all totally rock as they are from three of their "in the round" USA shows.
‘Mission to Lars’ is an uplifting documentary feature film about Tom Spicer, a learning disabled man who, with his siblings help, goes on a transatlantic quest to find his much obsessed over hero, Lars Ulrich of Metallica.
Tom has Fragile X Syndrome, a sort of autism. All he's ever wanted is to meet Lars. After 20 years and 10,000 times of asking his journalist sister, Kate, when he was going to meet Lars, she finally cracked. This is a film that looks beyond disability, and uncovers the soul of a very cool guy.
Kate and filmmaker brother, William, break Tom out of his care home in Exmouth, and hit the road, from Bristol , to Heathrow, to LA, to Las Vegas and beyond. ‘Mission to Lars’ was made by William Spicer and James Moore. Both were veterans of music and brand promos, but complete movie novices. “We had this fantasy of hitting the road with Tom and recreating some of the magic of our teenage years cruising around in £100 cars, eating Burger King and listening to heavy metal on the tape deck,” says Kate. “We thought it would be fun, bonding. We wanted to do something good for our brother. We were also sick of him endlessly asking.” It doesn't take long before the hoped for dream becomes a nightmare as Tom’s disabilities, the dysfunctional family, and Metallica’s labyrinthine backstage world thwart the Mission at every turn.
At a fingernail destroying screening last summer (the night before Metallica headlined Sonisphere Festival), the Spicer family showed their film to Ulrich. The Mission to Lars production team squirmed with anticipation: would he like it? Yes, he liked it.
then
9pm The Hives live at The Borderline,London.
A totally rammed sold out show as this club only holds maybe 250/300.Another band who have been off the radar a bit the last couple of years.They have flown from in from gigs in Los Angeles,New York and the trendy Coachella Festival for this one off UK show.Its hot and sweaty in here.
The Hives play proper uptempo garage rock n roll.
The band arrive in full black and white top hat and tails suits so it is not surprising they pretty much end up sweating their nuts off tonight.
Even the roadies are dressed in masked overalls.
The singer still does his entertaining rants between every song.The set is a mix of older gems and a few off their new album "Lex Hives" that comes out June 4.
The set included their two perfect oldie singles "Main Offender" and "Hate To Say I Told You So" which send the whole crowd bouncing.The twin guitars riffing away for every song.A really good gig.
The band return to the UK later in the year.
The full setlist for the 65 mins on stage was
Come On!
Try It Again
Take Back the Toys
You Got It All...Wrong
Walk Idiot Walk
Main Offender
My Time is Coming
No Pun Intended
Wait a Minute
Won't Be Long
Hate To Say I Told You So
Patrolling Days
Encores:
Go Right Ahead
Tick Tick Boom



30 April 2012.7pm to 9pm.Kasabian live at The Box,Soho,London.
Invite only secret gig for 200 comp winners via
Absolute Radio at this super trendy club.
Kasabian on from 7.35pm to 8.10pm for a short seven song 35 mins set.Always good to see such a big band who usually headline arenas and festivals play such a small club show.
The set was good but too short for my liking.
Full setlist.
Days Are Forgotten,Lets Roll Like We Used To,Underdog,
Man Of Simple Pleasures(dedicated to Soho porn baron Paul Raymond),Goodbye Kiss,L.S.F.(Lost Souls Forever),
and Fire.
When Lenny Kravitz played here a few months ago for the same radio station his set was twice as long as Kasabians.
Free booze open bar for all here tonight.
Out of principal i downed half a dozen drinks in two hours as cocktails and JD and cokes were flowing.
Early start early finish gig which was handy as i could see second half of the big footie game nearby.
MAN CITY 1 MAN UTD 0.
SKY tv said it was the biggest game in their 20 odd years of premier league coverage with a worldwide audience of 650 million viewers.Man City now go top on goal difference.
A great win for Man City but QPR play away to Man City in a couple of weeks in the last game of the season.I fear QPR will be relegated.Hopefully Bolton will lose this Wed at home to Spurs.




28 April 2012.Placebo live at Indigo,London.
This show was part of The Sundance Film And Music Festival weekend at The 02 complex.
Legendary actor Robert Redford was in London a couple of days ago to open it.
This was the first time he had brought it over here outside of his annual event in Utah,America.
Fourteen films made their premieres here including The Placebo documentary "Coming Up For Air"
which was shown a couple of hours before the band came on at the cinema near the venue.
Hard to believe it was way back in 1996 that Placebo's stunning debut album was released.
They are on stage for 95 mins.Some stripped lighting and strobes.
The band are just the right side of loud and the sound quality is brilliant.
Whenever i have seen a show here at this venue that holds around 2000 the sightlines are perfect whether
you are standing downstairs or sitting in the very plush seats upstairs.
The bouncing Placebo hardcore fans front of stage remind me of the loyal fans Manic Street Preachers have.
Singer Brian Molko is great on vocals.He got a bit upset halfway through when a couple of fans
were jumping around down the front a bit too wild and causing distress to others so he gave them a talking too.
Placebo are massive in mainland Europe and he even spoke in Spanish a couple of times tonight.
Their shirtless drummer with his chest full of tattoos certainly looks the part.
The band played a great selection of tracks from their albums and this gig rocked.
Placebo play lots of Euro festivals this summer but not any of the UK ones.
The full setlist was "For Whats Its Worth","Ashtray Heart","Battle For The Sun","Soulmates",
"Every You Every Me","Special Needs","Breathe Underwater","Without You I'm Nothing",
"Black-Eyed","Meds","Bright Lights","Teenage Angst","Special K","Song To Say Goodbye"
and "The Bitter End".Encores started with a cover of "Running Up That Hill" by Kate Bush
then "Post Blue","Blind","Infra-Red" and "Taste In Men".
See aftershow page for this gig.




27 April 2012.Ian Anderson live at Hammersmith Apollo,London.
Ian Anderson was massive worldwide in the 1970s with his band Jethro Tull playing Madison Square Garden on a regular basis.
Of course being a punk rocker in the 1970s i pretty much hated the prog rock types of Jethro Tull,ELP and Yes with their overlong songs of muso twaddle.
Having said that i ended up seeing Jethro Tull ten times between 1978 and 1991.All the shows were at Hammersmith Odeon and most were when i was working there front stalls on security.
Tonights two hour show over two sets featured the 1972 album "Thick As A Brick" in the first set and the 2012
album "Thick As A Brick 2 - Whatever Happened To Gerald Bostock" in the second set.Yep its a prog rock concept album.Arrrrrrrghhhh.
In 1972, Ian wrote the music (and the lyrics which were credited at the time to the fictitious character, 8 year-old Gerald Bostock, whose parents lied about his age) and recorded with Jethro Tull, Thick As A Brick. The record became a number one Billboard album in America and enjoyed huge commercial success in most countries of the world. The album featured only one song, lasting nearly 45 minutes. To accommodate the album on LP vinyl and cassette, the seamless track was split on both sides of the record.
His band are top notch and the sound is perfect.
There are some funny clips up on the big screen.
Ian still has that eccentric British chappie about him that the Americans loved in the 1970s.
The UK dates are the start of a world tour that continues until the end of the year.
The first five mins of "Thick As A Brick" is ok then the flute and keyboards get a bit too prog for me.
He still plays the flute on one leg every now and then.
Ian is now aged 64 so as expected a mainly older crowd.
As stated on the gig advert and what was played at earlier gigs on the tour he stuck to just playing the two albums.
He could have slipped in "Living In The Past" and "Too Old To Rock And Roll Too Young To Die " but that was not to be and there were a few boos for not playing an encore.
Overall not really my cup of tea but the crowd loved it.



26 April 2012.Cockney Rejects film premiere and gig at Koko,London.
8pm.Film "East End Babylon".
The story of London's toughest and poorest part as told through the eyes of its most iconic band. From the bombs that flew in World War II and from the greatest industrial docks the world ever saw, to the formation of the original and best Terrace Band of them all, the battles, living outside the law, the wilderness years of both the band and the area that spawned them, and eventually to the rebirth and transformation of the band into a worldwide cult.
The Cockney Rejects heyday was late 1970s and early 1980s.They were helped by Jimmy Pursey and also by Garry Bushell of Sounds magazine who mentioned them countless times until they got a record deal with EMI.
I have seen them a couple of times since they reformed but never at their famous local hangout The Bridgehouse Pub in Canning Town where they played back in the day.I did see other bands at the venue between 1979 and 1981 who were Secret Affair,Jimmy Norton Explosion feat Glen Matlock and Danny Kustov,Lene Lovich,Wasted Youth and Darts.
The bands love of West Ham United F.C. made them legends in their local manor but this caused problems when they played up north as punters from rival footie teams would come to fight the band rather than listen to the music.
They ended being banned from playing.They then moved on to a more rock sound where they were produced by Pete Way of UFO.
The film was produced by Cadiz Music who brought out the excellent "Oil City Confidential" film based around the Canvey Island scene and Dr Feelgood in the 1970s.
"East End Babylon" was really enjoyable and well worth seeing when it comes out soon.
See www.eastendbabylon.co.uk
Then 9.45pm was Cockney Rejects playing a very lively 60 mins set.Not many songs lasting over three minutes so its fast and
the catchy lyrics get the crowd jumping around wildly and singling along down the front of stage.
Tracks played included "We Are The Firm",
"East End","We Can Do Anything","West Side Boys","The Power And The Glory","Where The Hell Is Babylon","Join The Rejects", "Unforgiven","I'm Not A Fool","On The Streets Again","Police Car","War On The Terraces" and their West Ham anthem "I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles".
The current line up has two original members and for the encore they were joined by their original bassist for "Flares And Slippers" and "The Greatest Cockney Rip Off".A great gig and an excellent event.


Roger Waters’ tour, The Wall, has broken attendance records on its South American leg and has seen the largest number of stadium shows ever played in the territory by an international artist on one tour.
The record-breaking run comprised of 15 open-air stadiums shows in Chile, Brazil and Argentina, with Waters playing to over 750,000 fans.
Within that, there were nine sold-out shows in Buenos Aires, River Plate Stadium, exceeding the previous record of five nights, held by the Rolling Stones.
The Wall has so far played 150 shows for a gross of US$218M in 27 countries.
In May 2012, due to demand, The Wall returns to Mexico, the USA and Canada for another 41 shows, including nine baseball stadiums, including two nights at New York’s prestigious Yankees Stadium.


24 April 2012.BARCELONA 2 CHELSEA 2.
Champions League Semi-Final second leg.
Chelsea lead 1-0 from the first leg.
Live on SKY tv.Chelsea win 3-2 on agg.
What an incredible result for Chelsea.
John Terry sent off in the first half.
Barcelona scored twice but somehow Chelsea pulled it back with ten men.
Messi missed a penalty in the second half.
Even £50m misfit Torres scored for Chelsea at the end.
Ten men Chelsea hang on against the mighty Barcelona.Amazing stuff.


Check out the debut video from my mates from Gosport/Portsmouth on www.youtube.com
Night Of Treason "This Is My Town".
Their debut album "Gentlemen And Hooligans" is out now via Amazon.
There is also a great video on youtube when they were joined on stage by Clash legend Mick Jones for a version of "I Fought The Law".


23 April 2012.Jack White live at The Forum,London.
Debut solo UK show from one of the coolest rockers around.This gig was to celebrate his debut solo album "Blunderbuss" that came out today and ties in with his quick promo visit that includes the following nights recording of two or three songs on the Later With Jools Holland tv show.
Over the past week the album has got four and five star reviews from all the press.
One of those shows where id and email ticket on the door had to be shown to exchange for a wristband for all paying punters.
On stage for around 90 mins Jack was dressed all in black with an all female band.His guitar sound was nice and loud and the set was solo album tracks and older tracks from his three previous acts The White Stripes,The Raconteurs and The Dead Weather.
Opening with The White Stripes "Dead Leaves And The Dirty Ground" then three great tracks from the new album "Freedom 21","Missing Pieces" and "Love Interruption".Other gems included "Hotel Yorba","Blue Blood Shoes" and "Ball And Biscuit".Encores included "Sixteen Saltines" and superb versions of "My Doorbell" and "Seven Nation Army".An excellent gig and Jack White returns to London for more shows in June.
I bumped into my old mucker Noel Fielding from The Mighty Boosh and other stuff.
In the five minutes we chatted lots of people kept asking him for photos but Noel did them all without any fuss.


Motorhead with guests Anthrax play a UK tour in November that includes Brixton Academy on Sat 17 Nov 2012.For tix see www.livenation.co.uk
Pretty amazing how many times The Sex Pistols have been mentioned on tv and in the written press the last couple of weeks.
The Sex Pistols "Anarchy In The UK" picture disc was the third best selling vinyl on Record Store Day of the 300 plus releases.
Noel Gallagher was top with Arctic Monkeys second.