Recently in Reviews; Music Category

Another week, another gig.

Last night Sean and I went to see Jools Holland and his Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall.

Our view of the stage - no zoom required!

After a subdued start the house was soon having a ‘boogie’ to use Jools’ term as a constant procession of first-rate singers and musicians stepped forth to perform. Tom Jones, Jay Kay, Mica Paris, Dave Gilmour, Ronnie Wood, Jeff Beck, Mica Paris, Beverly Knight, Ruby Turner, Mark Almond, Sam Brown and Suggs – being just some of the people to grace the stage, with just a very drunk Shane McGowan disgracing it.

Most of the songs were ones that Jools had written himself – and he would insist on singing them - which seemed a shame when you’ve a roster of singers like those outlined above. Whilst I would have preferred to have heard more standards and more of the vocal talents of some of the guests stars, it remained a good evening.

Special mention must go to Solomon Burke who seated in a great throne showed everyone how it should be done. His voice remains amazing and his ability to work a crowd undiminished. Closely behind this was the highlight of Mr Jones’ unexpected turn – and I thought I’d have to all the way to Vegas to see the man with the big voice from the valley’s sing…

If you’ve bought any of the recent albums which this band brings out in time for the Christmas market then you’ll know most of the songs and artists which were on display – but unlike the records which I find hard to listen to after about 20 mins or so, on stage with these musicians the music comes alive – let’s boogie!

24 hours on and I'm still buzzing from having seen The Who at The Forum on Wednesday night. They were amazing - totally fantastic.

Was it the best gig I had ever been to? Quite possibly.

Actually, I'll say now, YES!

Why, lots of reasons - here's some:

-We didn't know we were going till the day before, so it was an unexpected treat.
-The venue is a beautiful old theatre holding c1000 people.
-The crowd were up for it.
-From the moment they hit the stage the band didn't hit a note wrong (although Roger did forget the lyrics a few times).
-Even if you think you don't know many of their records, you do. Any show that starts of with Who Are You (CSI theme tune!) Can't Explain and Substitute can't be bad. Plus they've been doing this for 40 years (minus a few line up changes) so they're as tight a musical unit as you could want to find.

Otherwise written as: Great Venue, Great Songs, Great Band.

And finally, there is the man himself. Pete Townsend is now the official Guitar God (sorry Brian!). He blew me away. His playing is mesmerising - it's not just the swirling arms and the dramatic jumping up and down, he plays the guitar harder than anyone else I've seen. It's not always pretty, and it doesn't mean that the lady always sings, but it sure as hell rocks.

The encore which include an awesome Tommy medley includes a massive ten minute instrumental section with the guitar at the fore and even now I can't get over it. Sean tells me that you can replicate the experience if you buy the Live at Leeds album, turn down the lights, turn up the amp so that it's so loud you can't here environmental health when they beat down your door.

Amazing! Awesome! I don't have superlatives to sum it up - if you get a chance to see them on this tour - GO!

Had a very nice evening on Friday night after my long trek back from the SW - with some old BBC friends. We went to a new jazz place on the corner of Wood Lane and Shepherd's Bush Green, called The BlueJay Jazz Lounge.

Great decor, very attractive serving staff and decent enough food.

The jazz however was pretty terrible - Jazz latino style is just not my thing. Plenty of people seemed to enjoy it however - getting up and showing off their salsa skills, but for me jazz needs a double bass and proper drums. It also doesn't feature vocals in Spanish and a flute, but there you go...

It was too loud as well to have a conversation with friends that I've not seen in ages - I prefer my jazz a bit more circumspect. Dinner jazz if you like.

Still the decor and atmosphere is such that I'd go again - but next time I'll make sure more trad jazz is on the venue.

That’s the question on my lips, if not everyone elses after seeing the Oxford band play Earl’s Court last week.

They’ve got the light show, and great guitar riffs and solos (e.g. on High and Dry,) and then several awkward albums (like Kid A) which they and the die hard fans clearly like, but of which everyone else is not quite so sure.

The band played for just over two hours and put on a good show. The older music from the mid 90s is superb – Creep certainly one of the finest records of that decade, and other songs such as Paranoid Android just sound better now thatn they ever did when they were first released.

The newer stuff is interesting – but more Underworld than Britpop. Lots of 10 minute long records with little or no vocals, clashing chords and John Simm lookalike Tom Yorke dancing like he’s having a mild seizure, were perfectly fun, but I for one thought they sat a little uneasily with tracks from The Bends…

Make no mistake though – they look good, sound good, and have a great back catalogue, but the sooner Radiohead ditch the dance act and get back to pulling out the riffs that made the famous in the first place, the better.

When this came out a couple of years ago everyone (i.e. the music press) raved about it, and the band were heralded as being the next big thing.

So, I was quite excited when I got it out of the library yesterday to listen to it.

That excitement lasted until I actually heard the CD.

Terrible, repititive, derivative rubbish. It's just noise, no melody, harmonies or great guitar solos - and no stand out tracks either.

My reaction on hearing it was: Is This It?

Presumably not the reaction the band were hoping for when they chose that rather apt title?

The Observer recently launched a new music magazine running along fairly similar lines (in terms of layout, style features etc.) as the highly successful Observer Sports Monthly – and it’s less successful Food counterpart (innovatively entitled Food Monthly).

The second edition last month had an interesting feature on the return of Britpop – and an amusing article on Nudestock (a recreation of the infamous 1969 concert – but for naturists).

But, best of all, it had a fabulous article with the Pet Shop Boys. It’s witty, irreverent, and well worth a read. You can read the Pet Shop Boys' Ten Commandments of Pop by clicking here - it's the best piece of music journalism I have read in a long time...