News and Reviews: 19th September 2004

18 Sept 2004 Blondie + Glen Matlock And The Philistines ,Southend Cliffs Pavillion. Here we are at the seaside and its raining but its always nice to go to venues outside of London.Glen and band do their full set as Blondie are late arriving at the venue so we get all the great solo material tracks and 2 extra songs of "Steppin Stone" and a stunning "Pretty Vacant ". Blondie have sound problems from the start where the PA just appears very quiet . The songs are there but real gig atmosphere is missing .All of a sudden all the power cuts out and the band go off for 5 mins .They come back again and do " One Way Or Another" and the power goes again. In total frustration drummer Clem Burke gives up and gives his cymbals to the crowd .The 2 hour Bush Empire set is reduced to 90 mins with no encore and as a band this was a gig that Blondie will want to forget. 16 Sept 2004 Blondie + Glen Matlock And The Philistines, Shepherds Bush Empire ,London. Glen and his band did a really good 40 mins of only solo material with songs like "Piece Of The Action " and "Ok Kiddo " from the soon to be released album "On Something" .All of them are great catchy rockers. Glens fellow Sex Pistol Paul Cook was in the crowd tonight . Blondie back yet again in the UK. i think this time its for press related to new DVD out "Blondie Live By Request ".They did a 2 hour set full of well known hits mixed in with lesser known stuff.Deborah Harry looks great and they also played 2 Ramones songs as a tribute to Johnny Ramone who died yesterday . Great first encore of "Union City Blues" ,"Rip Her To Shreds " and "Heart Of Glass " but the 2 songs played in the second encore were a bit shaky shall we say . Overall a really enjoyable evening. 15 Sept 2004 PJ Harvey ,Hammersmith Apollo, London. For an artist like PJ who has little radio play or tv exposure it is quite heart warming her loyal fans can still fill a decent size venue like this one. She looks fab in a sexy short dress and the songs are all well crafted but her 90 mins set did not really grab me . Like a Nick Cave show i came away thinking it was just a pretty average show . 14 Sept 2004 Make Trade Fair Concert ,Hammersmith Apollo, London. I missed Razorlight and Jamelia so first up for me was actress Minnie Driver who is fronting her own alt country band who did 20 mins of slow tempo tracks inc a version of Springsteens "Hungry Heart " pretty average to be honest . The Thrills did a really impressive 35 mins with great tracks like "Big Sur " " Corey Haim" "One Horse Town" "Santa Cruz" ,excellent. Ricky Gervais did a very funny 10 mins stand up comedy routine even though i had seen him do most of this material before. REM did a 7 song 40 mins set feat 3 new songs inc "Leaving New York " .Opener "Losing My Religion" was great and for a stunning "Man On The Moon" they were joined by Coldplays Chris Martin on vocals. On Sept 15 REM play a small invite only show for their fan club that i think will be put out on Radio 2 in a couple of weeks. 11 Sept 2004 ,Glen Matlock And The Philistines ,Plough Inn ,Walthamstow ,London. This was a warm up show for Glens new band before their dates next week with Blondie . The bulk of the set was from Glens new album "On Something " which comes out on EMI on 04 October with great tracks like "White Knuckle Ride " "Piece Of The Action " and the album title track .The band seemed slightly under rehearsed tonight but it was great to hear Glens stuff with a full band behind him again .Great encores of "Steppin Stone " and "Pretty Vacant ". 08 Sept and 09 Sept 2004 ,Rush ,Wembley Arena , London. I went to both these great shows by Rush these Canadian rock legends who last played the UK 12 years ago . This was part of their 30th anniversary world tour . On stage for nearly 3 hours over 2 sets they are amazing musicians and drummer Neil Peart must be one of the worlds best . He has a huge drum kit that spins around and he got a standing ovation on both nights for his amazing drum solo. Most songs were 10 mins long with superb classics like "Spirit Of Radio " and "Zanadu" .A couple of tunes were a bit muso heavy but there were plenty of lasers and fire columns in this big production show to look at .

Posted 19th September 2004