News and Reviews: 29th April 2005
Blondie drummer Clem Burke will be drumming with
Nancy Sinatra at her Shepherds Bush Empire show
this Sunday 01 May .........
27 April 2005 .Robert Plant And The Strange
Sensation , The Scala , London.
This was an invite only show for 500 competition
winners and 200 guests of BBC Radio 2 , Sanctuary
Records and the media .Great packed atmosphere
to see the Led Zep legend up nice and close .
The 95 mins set was pretty much the same as the
Royal Albert Hall show 3 weeks ago with a fair
amount of material from new album " Mighty
Re-arranger " . Robert still has that amazing
rock n roll blues voice that works well on old
and new material . Again they finished with a
stunning " Whole Lotta Love" . The show will be
edited to a 60 mins special to be broadcast on the evening of 21 and 24 May on BBC Radio 2
see aftershow page for this show................
23 April 2005 .Sex Pistols Experience ,Kings Arms
Pub , Acton , London. First of all chatting with
the band before the gig they tell me that their
original Sid cannot get the weekend off work to
do the gig so tonight they use a stand in Sid
replacement which of course is not as good but
he does a decent job. Its a hot and sweaty
St Georges Day atmosphere . The SPE do a superb
90 mins set of all the Pistols best known songs.
The Johnny singer is on top form tonight .
A stunning encore of " Silly Thing " , " God Save
The Queen " ,"Pretty Vacant " and " Public Image"
was just mega . Like i said if you like the
Pistols you MUST go and check this lot out......
22 April 2005 . Searchers + Merseybeats + Gerry
And The Pacemakers + Swinging Blue Jeans ,Royal
Albert Hall , London. Nice package of four acts
who were popular in the 1960s era .This was the
main show of their 3 month UK tour.Each band did
around 40 mins each with lots of fun on stage
banter.First up Swinging Blue Jeans set included
"You're No Good " and "Hippy Hippy Shake " (They
played this on the first ever Top Of The Pops).
Gerry And The Pacemakers were high on scouse
humour and their set inc "Ferry Across The
Mersey" ,"I Like It " and everyone swaying their
arms for " You'll Never Walk Alone" . Merseybeats
did too many cover versions for my liking but
"Hi Ho Silver Lining " went down really well.
Last on The Searchers were the best musicians of
the night and their set included " Sweets For My
Sweet" , "When You Walk In The Room " and
"Needles And Pins " .A pleasant night and quite
impressive seeing so many 60 year olds in the
crowd still keen on watching live music........
More and more bands are being added to the Download Festival on June 10, 11, 12 with over
50 acts over the weekend .Daily tickets and
weekend tickets are available from the usual
outlets. The Friday line up features Billy
Idols first UK show for a few years along with
Feeder and Garbage ....Sat headliners are
Black Sabbath and Velvet Revolver and Sunday
headliners are System Of A Down and Motorhead ,
more info www.downloadfestival.co.uk and tel
ticket sales on 0870-400-0822............
Dead Men Walking will be going on a month long
UK tour in October with the London show at The
Shepherds Bush Empire on Sat 29 October .....
As expected Bruce Springsteen two shows at The
Royal Albert Hall sold out within two hours ....
20 April 2005 . See aftershow page for a review
of The Loaded Mag relaunch party ............
18 and 19 April 2005 .Manic Street Preachers +
Delays , Hammersmith Apollo , London.
Delays were ok and finished their set with a
couple of their best known tunes.
The Manics completed a UK arena tour only four
months ago but here they are back again for a UK
theatre tour .Even early on the songs are great
"A Design For Life " , " Faster " ,"1985 " ,
"Everything Must Go ", "You Love Us ", " Stay
Beautiful" , " If You Tolerate This " .
The last album " Lifeblood " did not sell that
well and tonight they only played three songs
from it.The 10th anniverary re release of " The
Holy Bible " at the same time did not help .
A great acoustic version of "The Everlasting"
then superb versions of " You Stole The Sun From
My Heart " and " Motorcycle Emptiness " .
Finale was a neat Guns And Roses " Paradise City"
and a mental " Motown Junk " with the usual no
encore policy .Always a great live band . On the
last night we got a couple of extra songs inc
Johnny Thunders " Cant Put Your Arms Around A
Memory " dedicated to Richey Edwards their
missing presumed dead guitarist .Also on the
last night Nicky Wire smashed his bass guitar up
and gave it to a couple of loyal female fans
down the front..........
15 April 2005 . Sex Pistols Experience , Standard
Pub , Walthamstow , London. At last the countrys
top Pistols tribute band play a London show .
They play an 80 mins set that was just superb.
All the classics "EMI " , " God Save The Queen " , "Bodies" ,"Pretty Vacant " , "Holidays
In The Sun " with all the sneering vocals and
wall of sound just like the originals . If you
are a Pistols fan they are a must see band .
You will be surprised at just how good they are .
They play in Acton on Sat 23 April 2005 and
they play a special River Thames Boat gig on
Sat 11 June 2005 . See you at both of them......
......www.sexpistolsexperience.co.uk .........
14 April 2005 . Tony Bennett, Royal Albert Hall,
London. Now that Mr Sinatra has left us Tony
Bennett has stepped up to take his position as
the worlds top crooner . Incredibly his first
hit records were some 50 years ago . He is well
into his 70s but shows no sign of slowing down.
Some good laid back tunes like " For Once In My
Life" , "The Good Life " , "If I Ruled The World"
and of course "I Left My Heart In San Francisco".
A stunning version of " Fly Me To The Moon "
without a microphone got a standing ovation and
flowers galore from admiring ladies . Yep the
boy from Astoria , New York has done good ......
12 April 2005 .Tony Hadley And Martin Fry ,
Royal Albert Hall , London. The big London
show of their lengthy 3 month UK tour . Pretty
much the same show as Reading a month ago but the
crowd were a bit more into it. Spandau classics
like " Gold " , " True" "Instinction" and Tonys
fave " Through The Barricades " and ABC classics
like " Poison Arrow " , "When Smokey Sings" ,
"The Look Of Love " and a superb " All Of My Heart" . Again loads of crowd pleasing covers
with the best coming at the end with Roxy Musics
"Let Stick Together" and David Bowies
"Suffrajette City " . This older crowd just got
into party mode and it was a great night out.....
The Sex Pistols will be playing two London shows
this month . Well not the real thing of course
but the countrys best SP tribute The Sex Pistols
Experience play The Standard , Walthamstow on
Friday 15 April and The Kings Arms ,Acton on Sat
23 April ( St Gerges Day) see you there........
08 April 2005 . UB40 + Goldie Lookin Chain , Royal
Albert Hall ,London. GLC are reduced to only 10
members tonight . They are good fun but more in
a novelty way .They play "Guns Dont Kill People
Rappers Do " and go down pretty well tonight.
Last show of the five Teenage Cancer Trust gigs
here and like last year with Madness they closed
the week with a good time dance party band.
Incredibly i saw UB40 supporting The Pretenders
25 years ago in 1980 and they are still going
strong . In fact all eight original members are
still playing in the band. For nearly two hours
they got everyone dancing and swaying to their
brand of pop reggae .With over 20 Top 40 his
the set was full of familiar tunes." If It Happens
Again" , "One In Ten " , " Food For Thought" ,
"Please Dont Make Me Cry" were all excellent .
As stated on the ticket Eric Clapton came on for three songs including EC singing a brilliant
" I Shot The Sheriff" along with his new chum
John Mayer ( guitarist from across the Altantic).
Sadly Roger Daltrey did not come on as stated.
A couple of new UB40 tracks also get an airing.
Then it was back to more UB40 hits "Rat In The
Kitchen " and their two number one hits " Red Red
Wine " and " I Cant Help Falling In Love With You"
which went down a storm .As did encores of
"Dont Break My Heart " and " Cherry Oh Baby" .
A good time was had by all ............
07 April 2005 . Keane ,Royal Albert Hall, London.
Keane had the second best selling album in the
UK in 2004 with " Hopes And Fears " which sold a
cool 1.5 million . With not a guitar in sight
their radio friendly Coldplay type tunes appeal
to the masses with a wide range of people here
singing along loudly to all the words . They
have come a long way together as the singer pointed out that himself and their headbanging
keyboard player used to paddle naked as toddlers
together and now they are selling out this great
venue . The three or four big hit singles from
the album go down a storm but their brand of
warm melodic rock is not my cup of tea really....
As revealed on this site a couple of weeks ago
Bruce Springsteen has confirmed two solo shows
at The Royal Albert Hall on May 27 and 28. Tickets
on sale sometime next week ........
6 April 2005 . Peter Kay And Guests , Royal Albert
Hall , London. Just to prove PK is the Robbie
Williams of comedy this TCT show sold out quicker
than all the big music shows here this week.
A long 2 hous 30 mins show over two sets with six
guest comedians doing 15 mins each including
Noel Fielding and Ed Byrne . Peter Kay did comedy
for about an hour off and on but it was not as
good as his own solo tour last year .Most
of the crowd i felt expected to see more of
Peter Kay but overall a fun evening........
5 April 2005 . Franz Ferdinand + Graham Coxon + Kaiser Chiefs , Royal Albert Hall , London.
Wow what a cracking 3 band line up this was .
They are tagged as this years Franz Ferdinand but
Kaiser Chiefs did a 7 song 30 mins set that was
just incredible . Perfect indie guitar tunes like
"Na Na Na Na Naa " , "Everyday I Love You Less
And Less " , "Oh My God " and " I Predict A Riot"
all from their superb debut album " Employment".
They were confident and just totally stunning.
The crowd gave them a deserved standing ovation.
Graham Coxon and his band failed to match the
power of The Kaiser Chiefs set although the
last song the NME Award winning single " Freakin
Out " was superb . Franz Ferdinand had the crowd
on its feet from the start and were brilliant.
This was their first UK show since they picked
up BRIT and NME awards earlier this year .
Opening with " Micheal " and including "The Dark
Of The Matinee" and a mental " Take Me Out " .
The drums and guitar just sounded perfect .
Even with four new songs included that all
sounded as good as first album material they
only played for 65 mins but overall this was
a quality night out........
04 April 2005.Robert Plant And Strange Sensation
+ The Bees + Rooster . First of the five shows
here this week at what is a great annual event.
Up first are Rooster who usually play to hordes
of screaming girls but their set was full of nice
rockers and i actually liked them which is more
than can be said of The Bees whose take on
country rock bored me silly . Robert Plant and
his great band did a neat set that featured half
a dozen Led Zep classics like " No Quarter " ,
"Morning Dew" , " Heartbreaker " and "Black Dog"
as well as tracks from his soon to be released
album " Mighty Rearranger " .His voice still
sounds great and newies " Freedom Flies " ,"All
The Kings Horses" and " The Enchanter " went down
well .A stunning encore of " Whole Lotta Love "
sent everyone home happy...........
02 April 2005. Pink Martini , Royal Festival Hall ,London.Just two weeks ago i had
never even heard of this band but there has been a very healthy buzz about them over
the past fortnight that has snowballed into a must see event .The buzz must be
spreading as the venue is totally sold out . This 10 piece big band from Portland ,
Oregon, USA play a musical style mix of salsa , jive, swing and others and half
the set is sung in French,Greek, Turkish and Portugeese. Their debut album "Sympathique "
has sold over half a million copies worldwide and this first ever UK show was to
promote the new album " Hang On Little Tomato " . The band were all fantastic musicians
and this crowd of mainly Guardian / Independent reading newspaper types loved it and
gave them a full on standing ovation .It was a very enjoyable night and unique in many ways but really nothing more than background music to a middle class dinner party .
This event was part of La Linea - Londons Latin Music Festival that runs to April 28.............
01 April 2005 . Feeder , Brixton Academy , London. Feeder are on a European Tour
to promote new album " Pushing The Senses" which is full of Coldplay type radio
friendly songs . I much prefer when they rock out like a UK version of The Foo
Fighters with that great bass and drums section really going for it . 85 mins set
inc " Stumble And Fall ", " Just The Way Im Feeling " and a mental version of
"Buck Rogers " . Really good encore of " Forget About Tomorrow " and "Just A Day " .
Always a good live band to watch.............
Posted 29th April 2005
