News and Reviews: 12th September 2005

08 Sept 2005.Glen Matlock And The Philistines live at The Rhythm Factory , Whitechapel Road , London. First UK date of the year for Glen and his band at this trendy new venue.Loads of support bands meant that tonights set had to be cut short to just 7 songs in 30 mins but it was still really good. The band on top form finishing with stunning versions of "Piece Of The Action " and " White Knuckle Ride" from the superb recent EMI album "On Something" ...... 06 Sept 2005. GQ Mag Men Of The Year Awards , Vilar Floral Hall At The Royal Opera House, London . Shame tonight had 2 major awards on so i had to miss The Mercury Music Awards for the allure of bigger names promised for the GQ Awards party with celebs from music , film, fashion, tv and even a couple of chefs. About 500 are here with most seated at tables . 7pm drinks and food in this beautiful venue. 9pm awards event hosted by Rory Bremner who as usual was very funny indeed . 11pm to 1am excellent aftershow in the upstairs balcony bar area .Those here included Robbie Williams , Bryan Ferry , Bob Geldof , Burt Bacharach, Simon Cowell ,Matt Lucas and David Walliams from Little Britain, Chris Moyles, Robert Elms, Jay -Z , Pierce Brosnan, Eva Herzigova, Carol Vauderman , Nancy (Svens chum) , Nicky Haslam , Paula Abdul , Charlotte Church (won Woman Of The Year) ,Rachel Stevens , Louise and Jamie Redknapp, Jenson Button, Davina McCall, Timothy Small , Jerry Hall, Gordon Ramsey ,Daniel Craig, Dale Winton, Danni Minogue.All winners and presenters were given a goody bag which inc an Armani watch . Totally superb night from start to finish...... 02 Sept 2005. Iron Maiden live at Hammersmith Apollo,London . This venue (The Odeon) was their home in the 1980s where they played a total of 21 times. I went to a staggering 18 of them inc their Judas Priest support slot way back in 1980. So a perfect venue to end their current world tour and judging by all the flags there are many that have come from all over Europe to be here. Most of the massive Reading Festival stage production is here and it is fantastic to see them indoors. The setlist is the same 1 hour 40 mins as Reading based on the best tracks from their first four albums. Bruce is running all over the stage and the guitar riffs are a plenty. "Santuary" , "Run To The Hills " and "Number Of The Beast " are highlights . After they played a stunning "Iron Maiden " with Janick having a mock fight with Eddie the band brought out original drummer Clive Burr who is in a wheelchair due to MS. All tonights profits were given to him. A touching moment as he thanked band and crowd. A fantastic live band and f*** Sharon O ........ 30 August 2005. Iggy Pop And The Stooges live at Hammersmith Apollo , London. This was Iggys first gig in London with the Stooges for over 30 years. Although he played good sets in the UK at last summers Download Festival and Reading Festival a couple of days ago they were outdoors afternoon sets in daylight. Iggy indoors to a sell out crowd of 5000 Iggy fans was the real place to see this punk rock legend in full flow. As promised we got the " Funhouse" album track by track all 7 of them in 37 minutes inc great versions of " TV Eye" , "Dirt" , "1970" and "Funhouse" .Iggy is stripped to the waist from the start and is in awesome form as his skinny body jerks and dances around the stage. The band go off after the album and come back to play tracks from "The Stooges" album "1969" , a mega "I Wanna Be Your Dog " with the moshpit going wild .For " Real Cool Time" and " No Fun " Iggy invites over 50 punters on stage for some punk rock choas as Iggys poor stage manager tries to stop everyone grabbing at Iggy as he tries to sing. Two newer songs after this were a bit of an anti climax but overall the 70 mins set was just totally superb and there was a real buzz as you came out of the venue that you had witnessed a very special night.............. 26, 27, 28 August 2005. Reading Festival Weekend. Another massive weekend of live music. While backstage hospitality is not as good as the V Festival there is still 1000 guests in the backstage garden but everything you still have to pay for unless you get access to the dressing room portakabins area which we do .A great addition this year backstage is the Tiscali tent which holds about 100 people and a few bands play 20 mins sets right in your face so to speak. The sound is fantastic as they are using top of the range equipment here and its much better than the similar tent used by Virgin Radio at the V Festival.We arrive later than expected on the Friday .First band we see is The Subways in the Tiscali tent who do a good 7 song set and finish with a mega "Rock And Roll Queen" ...... Next up its out to the main stage for Queens Of The Stone Age who play all their best tunes and thankfully do the decent thing and cut out the twaddle from the Brixton show and are pretty good......The Killers draw a massive crowd which ended up being bigger than The Pixies which was a surprise. They play all the tunes from their album and go down a storm .....loads of quality tunes in the Pixies set like "Monkey Gone To Heaven " and "Where Is My Mind" was more to my liking than The Killers though.....Next day we saw The Editors do a decent set of tunes that leaned heavily towards Joy Division.......Roots Manuva on the main went down well and "Witness " and "Dreamy Days" were superb......Back in The Tiscali tent for all girl band The Suffrajets are ok ....The Charlatans are messy and look bored out of their heads .Their singer reads the lyrics to 2 new songs from bits of paper. "Love Is The Key" and "North Country Boy" are good but not one of their best shows.....Back in the Tiscali tent to see Roots Manuva a coupls of hours after his main stage gig. He does a 20 mins set with a magical version of " Dreamy Days " where they substitutute the drum kit for bongos......then Nick Oliveri plays a 20 mins set of rocking tunes with some of his mates and Dave Grohl is watching from the side of stage.... Kings Of Leon are boring, boring, boring ...... Headliners The Foo Fighters are just fantastic. One of the greatest live rock bands around with a whole bunch of great songs "Learn To Fly" , "Stacked Actors" a stunning " Breakout" . This was Dave Grohls seventh time at Reading . For the encore Dave sat on drums for one song and after they ripped into " DOA " and "Monkey Wrench" .Excellent set.........Sunday starts with Turbonegro and their party panto set which was good fun even though all the songs sounded the same.....love em or loathe them The Towers Of London were easily the best new band of the weekend with 30 mins of high octane Motley/Poison type tunes mixed in with some punk rock attitude .The singer gets a direct hit to the head from a punters bottle of water but just takes a bow and smirks......Rakes are ok but as their singer is ill they produce guests from Bloc Party ,Maximo Park and Towers Of London during their set..........NOFX and their crazy lyrics wixed in with fun on stage banter go down a storm ..........Iggy Pop And The Stooges do a 50 mins set. Iggy is in great form and they play "I Wanna Be Your Dog" ," TV Eye" ,"No Fun " and "1970(I Feel Alright) " but the show at Ham Apollo a couple of days later will be indoors and more suitable.......next a real treat in the Tiscali tent as we catch legends Echo And The Bunnymen" do a five song set .One newie and "Sugar Kisses" ,"Nothing Ever Lasts Forever" , "Bring On The Dancing Horses" and "The Killing Moon" excellent stuff......next Marilyn Manson does an hour of his theatre rock .Its all harmless fun of course with his three cover versions going down a treat "Personal Jesus" , "Tainted Love" and "Sweet Dreams" .Also played were "The Fight Song" , "Dope Show" and "Beautiful People " .A very good set really.... Iron Maiden brought a monster stage production with them and did a superb 1 hour 40 mins set of material from the first four albums only inc "The Trouper" a superb "Run To The Hills" , "Wrathchild" a superb "Number Of The Beast " and "Iron Maiden " . Great encores of " Running Free" and "Sanctuary " Great stuff ..........

Posted 12th September 2005