LIVE REVIEW : MIKE SANCHEZ AT THE 100 CLUB 08/12/2013

Back at the 100 Club just one week after the Dan Baird And Homemade Sin gig. Sanchez started with a band called The Big Town Playboys in the middle of the eighties. After leaving the band in 1999 he went solo while being a member of Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings (replacing Gary Brooker from Procol Harum). The gig at the 100 Club was billed as Mike Sanchez and his band which means you get to see Mike with Nick Withfield on bow fiddle, Mark Morgan on drums, Tom Bull on guitar, Martin Winning on tenor saxophone (also plays in Geraint Watkins's band) and Nick Lunt on baritone saxophone. He also tours solo and with a smaller line-up colled The Portions that doesn't include Martin Winning.

I had quite high expectations for the gig as all the reviews I had read on the web said Sanchez was an absolutely fantastic performer. The band came on stage just after nine (no opening act but after having witnessed the gig I wonder who would be crazy enough to open for this lot !!!!). After a short introduction where Mr Sanchez explained to us that he had woken up with a stiff neck 3 days before and that it would take him some time to get warmed up, he then proceeded to tear the place apart with a 45 mins set of relentless boogie woogie. The band was simply fantastic tight, special mention to the two guys fro the horn section (they must have lungs made of iron to sustain the sometimes lengthy codas that Mr Sanchez inflicts on them...). Mike's repertoire is almost entirely made up of covers ranging from the end of the 1930's to the 50's but he plays the material with such ease and passion that you would think he wrote the tunes himself.  The gig was made of two parts.. First a 45 mins set followed by a short 15 mins intermission  and then a lengthier second set that finished just before 11.30pm. By the time the gig finished there wasn't a dry patch left on Mike's jacket. He said that he would be back at the 100 Club next April. You can be sure that I will book my ticket as soon as the date is announced.

NICK LOWE : THE ROAD TO THE BRENTFORD TRILOGY AND BEYOND PART TWO

I don't know if it's the lack of major touring after the release of Dig my Mood but it took Lowe only 3 years to write, record and release The Convincer. The cover shot for the album is absolutely great (a kind of "still the Jesus of Cool" vibe emanates from it). As said in the previous part Lowe has now firmly established a pattern in which he makes his records. He hones the songs in his rehearsal space in Brentford till he knows them inside out (same process for the songs he decides to cover), then he proceeds to record them with his regular band and producer/sound man Neil Brockbank. Lowe often explains in interviews that he's not a very prolific songwriter and that he doesn't accumulate songs for albums and record them all in one go. He has to write a batch of 3 or 4 that he really considers good, records them and in return this process gives him the drive to write the rest of the songs to complete the record (The Convincer was recorded over a period of one year in different studios in London). As on Dig My Mood most of the songs deal with pain and heartbreak but there's the odd glimpse of light (the fantastic ode to new found love "She's got soul").

As usual the arrangements are top notch with just the right amount of little additional flourishes that enhance the songs but never distract the listener. Particularly impressive in that domain is "Cupid Must be Angry" (strategically placed after "She's Got Soul") with its clever use of strings and horns, "Homewrecker" with nice organ work courtesy of the "ever-soulful" Geraint Watkins. A few tracks on the LP have become staples of Lowe's live shows, "Lately I've Let Things Slide" which boasts one of his finest set of lyrics, the folk number "Indian Queens" (there's an excellent video of him explaining the meaning of it on you tube) and "Has she got a friend", a distant cousin from 1983's "Without Love" that features some great guitar parts from Steve Donnelly.

If The Convincer had come relatively quick after Dig My Mood, it took Lowe twice as much time to release it's follow-up "At My Age". Due to a series of events in Lowe's life, it was recorded in dribs and drabs. Far from suffering from it, the record feels incredibly cohesive. The mood is a little lighter than on the two previous efforts. Even the songs that treat about lost love do it in a cheerful way ("The Club", the cover "A man in Love"). The tunes are more about reminiscing than regretting. After doing an "anti-macho" song with "All Men Are Liars" on Pinker and Prouder than Previous, he does a tongue-in-cheek "pro-macho" one with "I Trained Her To Love Me" (co-written with long time drummer Robert Treherne). The album is just so consistent, there's no particular stand out tracks, all the Lowe originals are perfectly crafted vignettes with just the amount of words, chords and arrangements. If I was strapped to a chair and tortured, I might go for "Long Limbed Girl" but picking a favourite out of such a batch of good songs is tough. This record is a special one for me because it's the one that made me discover Nick Lowe. I liked it so much that as soon as I saw he was touring Europe I booked a ticket to go and see him play in Madrid at a venue called The Riviera (located surprisingly not far from a river). I spent a huge amount of time trying to find the venue (Spain doesn't do signposting for rock venues, more on that later...). I finally managed to find it (i'd been going past it half a dozen times over the last hour) to see just a few folks queuing for the ticket when the gig was due to start in less than half an hour. I was beginning to wonder if anybody was going to turn up when suddenly one thousand folks materialized behind me in the space of fifteen minutes. The gig was everything I hoped it to be and more. Nick opened with a few acoustic numbers on his own and was joined by his band for the rest the show. The audience was a bit boisterous which ruined some of the quieter songs ("You Inspire Me") but were enthusiastic enough to entice Nick to play a few extra acoustic numbers at the end ("Seven Nights To Rock" and "Heart Of The City"). If you want to check out what Nick is like live, I would recommended his Live at St Lukes show that was recorded for BBC4 (it's on you tube) or the extra DVD on the Quiet Please Best Of that includes a recording of a full band show at The Ancienne Belgique in Brussels.

LIVE REVIEW : DAN BAIRD AND HOMEMADE SIN AT THE 100 CLUB 01/12/2013

Another Sunday night gig  but this one couldn't have been more different than the Autumn Defence show last week. I had heard of Dan Baird and The Georgia Satellites previously as I used to read French magazine Crossroads that championed them pretty often. I was browsing gig listings a couple of weeks ago when I noticed him and his backing band Homemade Sin were playing two nights in a row at the 100 Club on Oxford Street. I checked a couple of songs on you tube and decided that at 15 pounds the ticket it was definitely worth checking them out.

I arrived at the venue just before 8PM thinking that as it was a Sunday gig, it might start early but discovered that I was there 15 mins before the opening act was due to start. The 100 Club is a bit tired looking, I was expecting something similar to The Jazz Cafe in Camden but it was a lot rougher. Opening act was a hard rock cover act (apologies to them, I forgot their name) that featured an ex Judas Priest drummer (recently recruited apparently). Apart from the last song ("Breaking the Law" by Judas Priest) I didn't recognize any of the numbers.

Dan Baird and his 3 piece band came on stage rather casually, they just sound-checked and when everybody was ready started their set straight away. The rhythm section is made of 2 ex-members of The Georgia Satellites : Keith Christopher (bass and impeccably dressed) and Mauro Magellan (drums). The other guitar is played by Warner Hodges who also a member of Jason and The Scorchers. The venue wasn't full (150-200 people when the club can accommodate 350) , maybe most of the fans came to see the Saturday night show ? The sound in the club wasn't the best and Baird was struggling with his monitors and his mic for quite a few songs at the start of the gig. After a change of microphone, things were better but still a bit cavernous (I'd love to hear how they would have sounded in a place like The Half Moon or The Lexington). I'm not familiar at all with their back catalogue but I recognized the cover versions of "Don't Pass Me By" and "Quinn The Eskimo (Mighty Quinn)". The band definitely models itself on the Rolling Stones pre 1973 with a bit of Hard Rock thrown in. The chemistry between band members is is clearly evident, a fact that's highlighted by the great guitar interplay between Hodges and Baird. Their seemed to be a little tension between Christopher and Baird after the second told the first to bring down his volume after the first couple of songs (end of the tour nerves maybe ?). I've got a feeling that I should have gone to the Saturday night gig. The band comes to London every December so I'll make sure I see them again to form a final opinion (and I'll check out their albums too).

LIVE REVIEW : THE AUTUMN DEFENSE AT THE LEXINGTON 24/11/2013

 
A Sunday night gig, probably the perfect evening to enjoy an Autumn Defense show. Wilco is resting after quite the long tour that followed the release of their The Whole Love LP which means that all its members have got time for their side projects. John Stiratt and Pat Sansone have just finished recording the fifth Autum Defense LP that will be coming out in January 2014 and they were doing a short run of european dates at the end of November to promote while promoting their forthcoming album. Most Autumn Defense gigs outside of the United States are just Stiratt and Sansone with Keyboard and Acoustic guitars which is the configuration we got at The Lexington.

The Lexington is probably one of the best venue for acoustic acts in London. The room is the perfect size which means that in the case the turnout is small it won't feel empty. The audience is great. In all 3 gigs I've seen there, you could hear a pin drop during the songs with thunderous applause just after the last chord faded out. I only caught the last few bars of opener Leah Mason (I had underestimated the walking distance between Kings Cross and the Venue) but her and her two man band sounded pretty good.

Stiratt and Sanson are reluctant frontmans (maybe a consequence of being in a band where the main guy is quite controlling). Sansone seemed to get more comfortable as the gig went by but Stiratt seemed a bit more reluctant when handling banter duties. From what I recall of the performance, there was quite a fair chunk of the tracks from the Circles LP that were played with tunes from their eponymous record and "Once Around" interspersed. Biggest response was for "Swallows Of London Town" which was introduced by a very funny speech by Pat Sansone durig which he apologized fpr including the word rain in the lyrics. They also included a nice version of "It's Just That Simple" from the first Wilco record and a over of the Fleetwood Mac song "Sentimental Lady". They are both very gifted musicians but Sansone is a notch above Stiratt, his piano playing was fantastic. They came back for a couple of songs but had to call it a night after that because they didn't know any other songs to play. Stiratt promised that they would come back with a full band next year.

LIVE REVIEW : THURSTON MOORE UK + LEE RANALDO AND THE DUST AT THE GARAGE 21/11/2013

I bought Lee Ranaldo's first LP "Between The Times And The Tides" on the faith of a youtube video of "the lead single" of the album "Off The Wall". None of the songs were as good as this breezy slice of pop bliss but the album was solid and full of well crafted songs. I'd never managed to get into Sonic Youth's experimental sound and was quite surprised to see Ranaldo had opted for a rather classic pop sound for his first LP after the bands break up. A second solo LP, billed this time as "Lee Ranaldo and the Dust"  has just been released and from the few songs I've listened to it seems to be hearkening back to his Sonic Youth days with lenghtier songs featuring multiple parts.

This gig at The Retentless Garage in Islington featured three members of Sonic Youth in its line-up. Lee Ranaldo's band features Steve Shelley on drums and Thurston Moore was the opening act . Billed as Thurston Moore UK, Moore was playing solo with the help of an extra guitar player. The set was made up of 4 or 5 instrumental tracks. I must admit that although there was some nice parts here and there, the whole thing seemed a bit monolithic to me. There was one number announced as "Germs Burns" that was a bit more concise. The gig finished with a really good version of "Psychic Hearts" (with vocals) from Moore's 1995 solo album with Steve Shelley on drums. 

Ranaldo came on stage at 9.30 P.M with his four piece band. The gig relied quite heavily on songs off from the new record. The band opened with "Ambulancer" from their new record during which Ranaldo broke a string and had to keep on singing for a couple bars without a guitar in his hands (to say he looked uncomfortable would be an understatement). Most of the songs were preceded by a short blurb from Ranaldo explaining their origin and meaning. The few songs played from "Between The Times And The Tides"were welcomed like classics by the audience. Apart from a short sequence of bow playing on his guitar, the set was pretty conventional with the songs pretty similar tothe recorded versions. Two coers were plqyed during the set. A really good version of "She Cracked" by The Modern Lovers and "Rock'n'Roll" by the Velvet Underground (that I missed as I had tol eave before the encore). The gig was fine but from where I was standing there was a huge buzz coming from the ceiling each time Steve Shelley hit his bass drum which became a bit grating after a while.

LIVE REVIEW : TELEVISION AT THE ROUNDHOUSE 19/11/2013

The Roundhouse seems to be the venue of choice for bands of the first punk era. After seeing The Damned play here last December, Blondie in July, here I was back in the same venue for Television. Contrary to the other bands, this gig was not a first as I'd seen the band in 2004 at Le Bataclan in Paris (serious contender for warmest music venue in the world). At the time the band still had Richard Lloyd as a member and even though I wasn't really familiar with all their songs, I had enjoyed the gig a lot. I was particularly impressed with the way Verlaine and Lloyd seemed to be able to discuss sound issues while still carrying out their famous guitar interplay.

Fast forward almost a decade and Richard Lloyd has disappeared (tired of the lack of progress on recording a new Television album) and has been replaced by a long time collaborator of Tom Verlaine in his solo work called Jimmy Rip. This gig at the Roundhouse was part of a small English tour centered around an appearance at the last ATP Festival in Camber Sands where the band was scheduled to play its landmark album Marquee Moon in its entirety. Despite numerous announcements that all the other gigs of the tour weren't "Marquee Moon" shows, we still got the whole album at The Roundhouse (albeit in random order with other songs interspersed). 

Jimmy Rip is a more than able replacement guitarist but he definitely sounds better when he's given free reigns to play in his own style rather than replicating Richard Lloyd's original parts. Best example of that was his solo on 1880 or So, completely different from what Richard Lloyd used to play but it still suited the song. Bass player Fred Smith was absolutely spotless playing just the right amount of notes while still adding some nice flourishes here and there. Good performance of Billy Ficca on drums too. Tom Verlaine seemed to be in a good mood (not a guarantee) and regularly thanked the audience and even said that he hoped the sound was good. The performance was much more focused than the Paris show with less tune-athlons between numbers. Two unreleased numbers were aired, a quite lengthy song called Persia that the band has been playing since their 2001 comeback and an unreleased song from 1974 called I'm Gonna Leave You. Persia was the best of the two but could use some editing. Verlaine's vocals were much better than what I was expecting (there's videos on you tube of a Brazilian gig in 2005-6 that are quite painful to watch). All in all a really good performance that did the band's best album justice.

LIVE REVIEW : THE PRETTY THINGS AT THE HALF MOON PUTNEY 08/11/2013

This gig was my second visit to The Half Moon since I moved to London. I came last year to see The Kast Off Kinks, a Kinks tribute band that's made up of ex-members of the actual band. I was quite surprised to see that the gig was sold out in advance and even more by the rapturous reception the band got during their performance (they were really good but still a tribute band). I had seen The Pretty Things once previously at a small free festival in Andoain (small town just under San Sebastian in Spain). The setting was rather drab : a makeshift stage set up on a concrete square with 3 huge tower blocks encircling it. Adding to the misery, the weather was rotten with a thick mist gathering round the hills that surround the town. The band was headlining which in the UK would mean a a stage time of 9pm. As it was Spain, headline means the band went on stage at midnight. As I had quite a bit of travel to do to go back to France after the gig I had to leave before the band finished their set. I promised myself that I would catch them when they would play a club date in London. I missed them twice as they played a gig at the 100 Club during the Christmas period last year and at The Borderline last August for The Record Collector Psych Festival. When I noticed they were playing The Half Moon I booked tickets straight away.

Only Phil May (lead singer) and Dick Taylor (lead guitar) are left from the original line-up of the band. Frank Holland (lead and rhythm guitar) joined when Parachute era guitarist Pete Tolson defected while the band was rehearsing for their end of the 1990's comeback. The young rhythm section of George Perez and Jake Greenwood joined when drummer Skip Allan and bass player Wally Waller had to stop touring for health reasons. As soon as the gig started with a superb and loud version of “Honey I need” from their first album I knew that the Half Moon was the perfect setting to see a band such as The Pretty Things. The gig's setlist was a mixture of their early albums R'n'b albums and tracks from their SF Sorrow LP (fantastic version of "Balloon Burning"). Not much from the post SF Sorrow era, only "Cries From The Midgnight Circus" from the Parachute album and a rarity in from the late sixties track  "Alexander" originally released under "The Electric Bananas" moniker. Roughly midway through the gig, there was a short acoustic set where Taylor on acoustic and May (accompanied by Holland on harmonica) paid hommage to there blues roots while recalling the first times they jammed together at Sidcup high school. Further reference to their musical roots followed with 2 Bo Diddley covers ("Mona" and "You Can't Judge A Book by Its Cover"). The gig finished with an impromptu appearance by former drummer Skip Allan who duetted with Phil May during the final song of the evening.

LIVE REVIEW : JASON FALKNER AT THE ISLINGTON 24/10/2013

This was quite an event for all London Power-pop fans. Organised by the Lojinx label (UK label of Brendan Benson and Ken Stringfellow and plenty of other interesting bands), this show was Jason Falkner's
first appearance in London since 2002. Announced just one month ahead of the gig, it sold out in 2 days. The venue was a new bar near Angel station called The Islington that has a separate room with a a small
stage. The room is nicely arranged with red curtains covering the walls. It provides is a nice setting for solo shows. A special poster was offered to every person who attented the gig and you could even order a limited edition T-shirt by subscription before the gig !!!

The room was full of middle aged bearded guys that probably know every lyric of the "Bliss Descending EP" by heart. Falkner announced after a couple of songs that he had no particular setlist which resulted in several members of the audience trying to request every single song he had ever put out. The set-list covered the different periods of his career. He even included a couple of songs from The Grays ("Very Best Years" and "Both Belong"). The audience member that yelled for "Both Belong" had a similar voice to Marlon Brando in The Godfather which prompted Falkner to say that was the coolest voice he had ever heard and that we would only answer requests from that guy from now on. The songs from this first couple of albums got the best response but the hardcore audience knew all the songs anyway so... I wasn't expecting Falkner to be as entertaining, the moment he yelled "What A wanker !!!" after he had just started playing the solo in "She Goes to Bed"  was priceless. He also quipped that his songs were big hits then adding "for all the people in this room". The gig went by in a blast and finished with a four song encore containing an excellent cover of "Wichita Lineman". All we can hope for now is that this association with Lojinx will mean more UK gigs and maybe a UK release of his latest record in this country (only available as an expensive Japanese Import at the time being).

LIVE REVIEW : THE ELECTRIC SOFT PARADE AT BUSH HALL 23/10/2013

 That gig was a bit of a last minute affair. I'd been humming and hawing about it for a while. I wasn't very familiar with anything ESP had put out since their first album and I had the Jason Falkner the following night. I made my mind up on the day of the gig and decidedto skip the 2 opening acts (not very nice I know but I needed some rest before the gig). I arrived at the venue round 8.30pm halfway through set of second opening act "Cold Crows Dead", I won't say anything about their set as I wasn't receptive at all to the music they played. Apart that they seem also to come from Brighton, they didn't have anything in common with ESP.

ESP came on stage at 9.30pm with the White brothers accompanied by a four piece backing band with a female vocalist on a few numbers. The brothers seemed genuinely pleased by the turnout. I recognised quite a few numbers from the new record but the new numbers from recent LP "Idiots" sustained the comparison pretty well with older songs. The show was marred by quite a few sound issues, the sound in the venue was really cavernous and Alex White seemed to be really struggling with his monitors. Thomas tried to cheer him up during the gig but he seemed to be really pissed off about it (things took a turn for the worse when Thomas pinched his brother's backside halfway through the gig). The backing did a great job, they all seem to be long time collaborators of ESP. It would definitely have been a mistake not coming to that gig and I highly recommend the purchase of their latest LP which is their best record to date.

LIVE REVIEW : LLOYD COLE AT UNION CHAPEL 17/10/2013

Back at Union Chapel  almost one year (save for a week) after the Michael Nesmith gig. The venue is definitely one of the nicest in London and is particularly well suited for solo singer songwriter gigs (Nick Lowe is playing a solo show there next march). Apart from a short reunion tour with The Commotions in 2004 to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of Rattlesnakes, Cole has been playing solo shows whether promoting new albums, archive releases or touring for the sake of it. I first saw him in 2009 in a small venue in Vienna called Cafe Szene. He had just released the 2 Folksingers LP's showcasing the solo performances he'd been doing for the past decade and a boxset of Out of print and unreleased songs called "Cleaning Out The Ashtrays". I remember a fine gig with a fine performance from Lloyd that was maybe missing a little bit in spontaneity in the interaction with the audience (some of the jokes are repeated from the live CD's) but that could be linked to the fact that the audience wasn't made up of English speakers. The songs were performed flawlessly though without as missed note in the whole set. Fast forward 3 years and Lloyd was touring Europe again but this time promoting a new album "Broken Record" and was touring with 2 guitar players (Matt Cullen and Mark Schwaber) billed as "The Small Ensemble". I had the chance to see that line-up playing in Rennes and again the gig was a flawless, perfect singing from LLoyd, immaculate guitar playing from all three. The set-list could have used a few more up-tempo numbers but a very good gig by all accounts. 

Which leads back at Union Chapel where Lloyd is playing solo again on the back of the release of his "Standards" LP. The gig sold out in July (maybe thanks to all the "return to form, best album since Rattlesnakes" reviews in the press) and another London date was announced for January 2014 but this time with a backing band. The show was pretty similar in format to the ones I had seen before. It was divided in 2 sets with a 30 mins break in the middle. There was quite a few tracks of Rattlesnakes (Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken, Perfect Skin, Forest Fire, 2CV). I was expecting more songs from "Standards" but Lloyd said that we would need to come to the full band show in January to hear most of the songs. We got a cover of "Chelsea Hotel" originally written and sung by Leonard Cohen. Lloyd seemed pleased with the audience reacted to the show (incredibly quiet by London standards) and even though he kept complaining about grooves on the tip of his fingers, his playing didn't suffer from it.

LIVE REVIEW : TONY JOE WHITE AT THE JAZZ CAFE 23/09/2013

Since buying Tony Joe White's "Live in Austin TX" album (which I HIGHLY RECOMMEND) a few years ago, I've always wanted to check out how he sounded in person. This gig at the Jazz Cafe in Camden was part of a small European he's currently doing to promote his latest LP "Hoodoo". The venue is quite small and seems to be White's regular venue when he stops in London as it was there he played when he last toured the UK in 2011. 

Even though his level of popularity is lower in the UK than in some other countries (France, The Netherlands), it was nice to see that the gig was sold out in advance. I managed to catch 2 songs from the opening act Boss Caine but that wasn't enough to make an opinion on his music (a bit of a "Johnny Cash" balladeer mood). Tony Joe White's touring set-up is a rather basic affair. Usually it's only him and his long term drummer Bryan "Cadillac" Owens (with sometime a keyboardist added to the line-up). The crowd at the Jazz Cafe was mainly long tern fans (spotted the actor Bill Nighy at the balcony), there's was still a decent amount of people under thirty which proves that White's music appeals also to a younger generation. He came on stage and played a couple of numbers just by himself before being joined by Owens. At 71 years old, White plays sitting down which added to his ever present Black Tuxedo and shades gives an definite "bluesman" appearance. 

Songs from the back catalogue were played at much slower tempos (the version of "Polk Salad Annie" from the "Live in Austin" LP sounds like The Buzzcocks compared to the one played at the Jazz Cafe). The newer tracks of "Hoodoo" are very slow and bluesy, so the whole set was pretty coherent with tracks from different LP's blending nicely with each other. White was quite generous on the number of old songs played. "Roosevelt And Ira Lee" from his second LP "... Continued" was aired but "Rainy Night In Georgia" (his most covered song) wasn't aired. Two of the songs he wrote for Tina Turner's "Foreign Affair" : "Undercover Agent For The Blues" and "Steamy Windows" bookended the set. There was quite a few technical glitches during the gig with Owens asking for more vocals in his monitors for a good half of the gig and a White's mike kept buzzing in between songs prompting him to tell the soundman in his laid-back drawl : "We need some help down here sir". In spite of this issues, White soldiered along playing lengthened out versions of his most famous songs showcasing his trademark Wah-Wah rave ups.

LIVE REVIEW : BRENDAN BENSON AT DINGWALLS 21/08/2013

 Back at Dingwalls for the second time this year (after the Geraint Watkins gig in March, just in case you start looking for the review it doesn't exist...). It was my third seeing him live. First time was a gig in a small town called Alencon in France during the "Alternative to Love" tour, the turnout was absolutely abysmal (80 people in the audience roughly) but the band was absolutely great and compensated the "inevitable" lack of enthusiasm due to playing in front of such a small audience with excellent musicianship and tightness. Second time was a different story. Playing to a packed "Nouveau Casino" in Paris 2009 (one hell of a shit sounding venue) thanks to his new-found rock celebrity as a member of "The Raconteurs", Mr Benson churned out a competent gig but something was missing and I found at the time that Mark Watrous wasn't on the same level as Dean Fertita that he was replacing on 2nd guitar/keyboard duties. I hadn't attented the tour promoting his latest LP "What Kind Of World" when it came out (partly due to the fact that no tour stop was in a 200 kms range from where I was living and also because on first listen that record was one hell of a disappointment for me). Nevertheless I welcomed the offer of another dose of Mr B live which might help me to revaluate the songs from his latest release.

Sonia and I were meeting up with our friend Chris and we made it inside the venue half way through the second opening act's set. After a really short break, Brendan and his band came on to a rather good welcome fron the crowd (he's definitely more popular in London than in Alençon...). Opening with two tunes from "What Kind Of World" : "Light Of The Day" and "Happy Most Of The Time", I was pleasantly surprised to see that in a live setting these songs gained the extra-oomph that's missing on the record. The Set-list relied quite heavily on "What Kind Of World" and "Lapalco". Only one measly tune from "Alternative To Love" and "My Old Familiar Friend". Nevertheless a welcome addition to the set was the addition of two songs from The Raconteurs ("Hands" and "Steady As She Goes"). Mark Watrous made a better impression on me than 4 years ago and so did Brad Pemberton the drummer. Brendan was his usual quiet self, not saying much between songs and even asking Watrous to imitate a Croatian promoter they had encountered during their travels (providing some much needed inbetween song banter). A good gig that could have benefited from a few extra songs from his back catlogues (gig lasted just over 1h15 mins)

LIVE REVIEW : THE NEW MENDICANTS AT THE LEXINGTON 10/07/2013

I think that you can qualify The New Mendicants as a "Supergroup". Their launch has been slightly more subdued than the fanfare that accompanied the debut of  "Blind Faith" some 44 years ago but Joe Pernice and Norman Blake's song-writing prowesses in their main outfits (Pernice Brothers and Teenage Fanclub) are the guarantee for a night of excellent music. 

Pernice and Blake started the band last year. Both moved to Toronto to live with their partners ("They married us, we didn't marry them" said Pernice during the gig). They had crossed paths before while touring in the UK but this new proximity meant that they developed a friendship that became "The New Mendicants". They started played gigs in Toronto last year followed by recording and a tour of Australia and New Zealand at the beginning of this year. So Far they have only released an EP to coincide with that tour (imaginatively titled "Australia 2013 E.P) but an LP is supposed to be released in the first half of 2014. 

I had caught Joe Pernice live last October in a small pub and had found him a fantastic performer with terrific in-between song banter but Blake's presence at his side gave him an extra boost on both fronts (performance and banter). The set-up for the gig was pretty sparse, just the two of them with their guitars and a glockenspiel. They introduced a couple of tunes from the forthcoming album explaining that many of the album were written to be used on the soundtrack of the movie "A Long Way Down" based on Nick Hornby's novel of the same name. Unfortunately they all the songs got rejected which means in Pernice's words that half of the album will be about "standing on top a building". These new snippets were interspersed with songs from their back catalogue. We got Teenage Fanclub b-sides, Scud Mountain Boys tracks, Zombies covers ("Butcher's tale", already played by Pernice at his gig last October)... Pernice was in fine form, recounting stories from attending an Hall and Oates gig in the mid-eighties in Boston (and telling that he had made up the whole story after finishing it). There was some really funny moments like when Blake messed up a glockenspiel part on one of Pernice's songs. Pernice retaliated by playing a wrong chord on purpose during the intro of "Baby Lee" while mouthing "fuck you" to Blake.

The audience was tremendously respectful, interacting with Pernice and Blake in-between songs but keeping religiously silent during the quieter numbers. The show was sold out and to adD to and already wonderful evening, Blake announced that straight after the tour he was going to Glasgow to continue work on the next Teenage Fanclub album. 

LIVE REVIEW : BLONDIE AT THE ROUNDHOUSE 07/07/2013

Blondie was a band I'd always want to see live. They sound quite fantastic on record but the live reviews I had read through the years were sometime a bit lukewarm. I remember one in French magazine Rock'n'Folk where the journalist said he had never seen a gig by such an experienced band with so many bum notes !! Added value to attending that gig is that the missus is a Blondie fan, which means that for once I wasn't just by myself :). The Roundhouse is a venue I really like because you're never far from the stage wherever you're positioned in the venue.

I don't remember anything about the opening act apart from the fact that is was rather...err...unmemorable. Blondie opened the gig with "One Way Or Another" to a good crowd reception. Only three members from the original line-up remain :  lead singer Debbie Harry, rhythm guitar player Chris Stein and drummer Clem Burke. Other members are : Leigh Foxx (bass) who joined the band when they reformed in the late nineties , Matt Katz Bohen (keyboards), Tommy Kessler (lead guitar) who joined respectively in 2008 and 2010. They're all good musicians but they sometimes lack the "punk" vibe that was at the core of the original line-up (Kessler used to play guitar in the musical "Rock of Ages" before joining Blondie).

The set list relied quite heavily on songs from their forthcoming LP with a few classics mixed in (Heart of Glass, Dreaming, Hanging on the Telephone, Call me, Maria, Atomic). The new songs are ok but I can't see any of them sticking in the set list the way "Maria" from their comeback album "No Exit" has done. Of all the original members, Clem Burke is the one I found the most enthusiastic in his performance (which Debbie Harry doesn't seem to appreciate much... deduction made from the angry stares she gave him when there was one too many roll during the intros and the fact he was the only band member she didn't introduce. Mrs Harry put on a tremendous performance considering that the temperature mid gig was almost oven-like but she doesn't react too well to other members taking center stage, at one point putting her hands on Tommy Kessler's fretboard while he was doing an extended solo (during "Atomic" if I'm not mistaken). Chris Stein was in the back strumming, not seeming too concerned by the proceedings (for some reason he seems to favour using alternate tunings and using a thumb pick which means that most of the time he was drowned out by Kessler). They threw in a couple of covers for good measure, one of "Relax" by Frankie Goes To Hollywood (Why ???) and a rather cool one of "You Can't  Put Your Arms Round A Memory" by Johnny Thunders. That last one was dedicated to Arturo Vega, the recently deceased, designer of The Ramones' logo.

LIVE REVIEW : BURT BACHARACH AT THE ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 26/06/2013

This gig is one that I had been eagerly awaiting for months. I bought the ticket in February and I wouldn't go as far as saying I was ticking the days on the calendar but there was a sense of something special about seing one of the greatest songwriters in the history of pop music. The show was an early start with the doors opening at 7pm and the gig starting at 8pm. It was my first time at The Royal Festival Hall and the venue proved to be as nice inside as it is ugly on the outside... Spent a couple of minutes in the lobby before climbing upstairs to access my seat, during which I managed to spot Jarvis Cocker, killing time before the gig by reading a paperback. My seat was quite far back (tickets weren't exactly cheap) but I still had a good view.

The gig started right on time with the band coming on stage and setting up and Bacharach joining them after everybody had finished tuning up. Still sporting his trademark blazer, he strolled on a stage in a relaxed manner greeting the crowd and thanking everybody for coming over. He said that he was pleased to come back to London and that he was grateful to Britain as it was here that records with his songs on them had first started selling. The show was very slick but Bacharach's demeanour is so laid back that something that must be a very "tightly scripted" performance comes off as relaxed. There wasn't any orchestra backing him contrary to his last London show at The Roundhouse but his backing band was quite impressive nevertheless : three singers, bass, an extra keyboardist, trumpet, saxophone, vibes, and a violinist. I think an acoustic guitar player would have been a good addition as sometimes the sound was a bit too "casio-ish" (if that makes any sense).

Rather than play a limited selection of songs from his back catalogue, Bacharach prefers to play lots of songs and compress them in medleys. I must admit that although I'd prefer to hear less songs but have them in their entirety, I didn't find the medley presentation as frustrating as I was expecting it to be. The medleys were done kind of thematically. One comprised the songs he had written for movies (with Bacharach singing lead on "Alfie"). One featured his early hits in the 1950's with songs such as "Magic Moments","The Story Of My Life" or the theme song for the movie "The Blob" that Bacharach said that even though it was a flop, both him and Steve McQueen's careers managed to recover from it. The three singers had quite a hard task on their hands having to cover for such great singers as : Dionne Warwick, Aretha Franklin, Dusty Springfield, Gene Pitney, BJ Thomas, Jack Jones, Chuck Jackson, Cilla Black and the list goes on... The two females were really good but I'm a bit more reserved about the male (a bit too X-Factor-ish for my taste). The rest of the band was fine and I enjoyed the vocal performance of the keyboardist on "My Little Red Book". The appearance of Bacharach's son Oliver to play keyboard during "Make it easy on yourself" was a nice touch, even though request for him to come back on stage came to a dead end as "he only knows one song" dixit Bacharach. That evening was a rare chance to witness a fine performance by one of the best songwriters of the twentieth century.

LIVE REVIEW : TIM BURGESS / LAMBCHOP AT THE BARBICAN 23/06/2013

I must admit I had a very limited lnowledge of tonight's two acts repertoire when I attended this gig. I have one measly Lambchop LP and I had never listened to anything put out by Tim Burgess or his band The Charlatans. Nick Wheeldon, mastermind of Paris Garage combo "Os Noctambulos"(shameless plugging : https://www.facebook.com/os.noctambulos?fref=ts) convinced me that he was a night not to be missed so I purchased a ticket.
The Barbican is quite an impressive place, spotlessly clean, it gives the impression of being teletransportated back to the seventies when the venue opened. The concert hall is all seated so it's a bit sedate for a rock gig but ideal for a band like Lambchop that requires a lot of attention from it's audience as they play very quietly. The Evening was billed as a collaboration between Lambchop and Tim Burgess with equal stage time provided for both bands.

Lambchop was on first at 7.30pm and played what was billed as a "set of classics" (Best of luck to the guy who might get saddled with compiling a Lambchop best of...).  As I said earlier they play very quietly, Kurt Wagner's guitar is so low that it's almost inaudible. Kurt Wagner has some funny exchanges with piano player Tony Crow. Tim Burgess comes to join on one song, sitting on top of one the monitors while duetting with Wagner. This gives Wagner the occasion to give the audience some insight on his friendship with Burgess and how they had met. Their set finished at 9pm and after a short fifteen minute break, Tim Burgess came on stage with his 4 piece band let by Charlatans guitar player Mark Collins (I wouldn't mind him lending me his Gibson Jumbo...). I must admit I came to the gig expecting to enjoy Lambchop's set the most but came out of it having like Tim Burgess's one even more. The gig was indeed as special one as Burgess was joined by a string quartet on a few numbers (with only Mark Collins remaining from the band) and Kurt Wagner reciprocated by duetting with Tim on one song (pianist Tony Crow joined for a few numbers too). Two female singers joined on backing vocals for a punchy version of the album's single "White". After Tim Burgess finished his set. Both bands came back on stage to perform Lamchop's "Up with People" and an anthemic version of "A Gain" from Burgess's latest album "Oh No I Love You". Truly great night of music which lasted for almost 3 hours.

LIVE REVIEW : THE UNDERTONES AT KOKO 24/05/2013

Oh the drawbacks of living in London !!! There's so much stuff happening that you sometimes wish that you could split yourself in half and attend different gigs on the same night ! On that particular evening  I had to choose between seeing The Undertones at Koko or  the recently reformed Dream Syndicate at Dingwalls. Despite having seen The Undertones once a few years ago in a festival in France, I choose to go and see them (probably because I'm more interested in Steve Wynn's solo records than the ones he did with The Dream Syndicate). The show was advertised as an early one with support bands The Wolfhounds on at 7.30 pm and The Undertones at 8.30 with a curfew at 10. When I arrived at the venue at 7.15, the place was almost empty and The Wolfhounds were forced to play to a very sparse audience. Their gig almost didn't happen due to the bass player not managing to get his instrument working. After 15 minutes of coming and going off the stage with the dodgy bass, the problem was finally solved with Undertones bass player Michael Bradley lending his bass. They then proceeded to play a half hour set of material that sounded like a cross between Wire and The Buzzcocks (with less memorable songs). The Undertones came on stage at 8.40 to a (at last) packed room. Faces have a few more wrinkles and singer Paul Mcloone's beer belly has gained a few inches since last time I saw them (beer belly + low waist jeans = no good) but the band seemed on good form and plunged straight into a great version of "Jimmy Jimmy". The set list was centered around their eponymous debut LP and complemented with songs cherry picked from the rest of their records (including the two they have put out since reforming in 1999). Paul Mcloone and Michael Bradley did most of the inbetween song banter but unfortunately for me my ears are untrained to the northern Irish accent so most of the time the jokes were lost on me. The revelation of the gig for me was how good a guitar player Damian O'Neill is, he definitely gives Mick Jones or Steve Jones a run for their money !!!  Despite playing for just just one hour and twenty minutes they managed to cramp thirty songs in their set. If the Undertones are playing in your town go and see them, they're definitely put on the best gig of all the punk bands of the classic era that are still touring.

LIVE REVIEW : JOSH ROUSE AT ISLINGTON ASSEMBLY HALLS 22/05/2013

This was my second visit at the Assembly Halls, the first one being for the Zombies last October. Josh Rouse is touring to promote his new LP "The Happiness Waltz" which sees him return to the sound he developed on his most successful albums ("1972" and "Nashville"). Before Josh Rouse came on with his backing, we got a small opening act courtesy of Sean Rowe, singer-songwriter from New-York (state not town, he insisted on the difference). Mr Rowe has a fantastic voice (a bit similar to Chris Rea) and is a very committed performer. He did a short set of his songs and finished with two covers (one being "Long Black Veil" made famous by versions by The Band and Johnny Cash).  Rouse came on stage after a short break accompanied by his 3 piece band. He choose to open the gig with a song from his first LP "Dressed Up Like Nebraska".He introduced the song by saying that each time he played it, he was reminded of feelings of being jet-lagged and of a promoter who one disliked the song and told him in no uncertain terms. This was followed by "Domesticated Lovers" (from "Country Mouse, City House", his best album after Nashville in my opinion, sadly a bit under-represented in tonight's set list) and by a few tunes from the new LP, including new single "Julie (Come out of the rain)". Predictably it was the songs from "1972" and "Nashville" that drew the biggest crowd response. Rouse seemed in good spirits if a little tired (can't use the jet lagged excuse now that he leaves in Spain !!!). He's not a hugely communicative performer but he did attempt a few jokes  including one weird one about how bad the weather had been that the day when it had been quite good (albeit by British standards). To round off the proceedings we got a couple of tunes from Subtitulo, El turista and the Long Vacations album. The backing band was good, shining on the harmonies with every member contributing. The guitar player seemed a bit tense on a couple of solos attracting a couple of raised eyebrows from Rouse. A good gig, that by bringing together songs from almost all his albums highlighted the high standards of Rouse's songwriting through the years

ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN / PRIMAL SCREAM AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL 21/03/2013

Two weeks after seiing Ron Sexsmith, here I was back at the Royal Albert Hall to see Primal Scream playing within the Teenage Cancer Trust week of gigs curated this year by Noel Gallagher. To tell the truth I wasn't planning on going at first but the addition of Echo and the Bunnymen as the opening act convinced me to buy a ticket (not cheap by the way, 45 pounds for a seat right at the top of the arena, no standing tickets left by the time I had made up my mind). The gig was advertised with at 7.30pm starting time and bang on schedule Echo and the Bunnymen took the stage. Playing half the show in semi darkness (didn't manage to catch a glimpse of Will Sergeant face for the whole gig), the band stuck to the tried and tested with tracks from their 80's heyday with only one song from there reformation period ("Nothing lasts Forever" from their 1997 comeback album "Evergreen"). Mcculloch' s singing was impeccable and the band the epitome of tightness. I'm a big fan of their second period so I don't mind the slight rearranging of their 80's song in a more classic rock way but some fans might miss the "post-punk" edge that the Les Pattison-Pete de Freitas rhythm section. I'll never understand why they're not held in higher esteem when you see how many great songs they've written ("Back of Love, "The Cutter", "Killing Moon", "Lips like Sugar", "Seven Seas" anf the list goes on..). They played for just over an hour, leaving the stage at 8.30. A short break for setting Primal Scream was followed by a short speech by Noel Gallagher thanking both bands for playing that night.

I had seen Primal Scream only once prior to this gig in 2005 at the transmusicales festival in Rennes. They were going to release Riot City Blues album and had Kevin Shields from My Bloody Valentine on rhythm guitar. The show was fantastic (especially after a dismal performance by The Brianjonestown Massacre) and the tunes from the new record settled in nicely with the old favourites  ("Movin on up", " Swastika Eyes", "Jailbird"). The show at the Royal Albert Hall was also good but the the tunes from their forthcoming album "More Light" paled in comparison to the older numbers. New bass player Simone Butler is good but filling Mani's shoes is a tough job. Bobby Gillespie was his usual self, running from one of the stage to the other (I wonder how many miles he does each night). High point was a fantastic version of the bluesy ballad "Damaged" off Screamadelica. The show would have benefited of being slightly shorter but overall a good performance from the former Glaswegian rockers.

LIVE REVIEW : RON SEXSMITH AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL 07/03/2013

I first Ron Sexsmith in 2008 in a really small venue called "La Maroquinerie" (he seems to be playing there every time in Paris). At the time he was touring his "Exit Strategy of Soul" album and due to lack of funds he was touring in a 3 piece format without a drummer. The gig was good but you couldn't help feeling that he seemed to look a bit flustered by his lack of commercial success. Fast forward four years and here I am in the Royal Albert Hall to see the last night of the UK tour that has seen Sexsmith promote his latest release "Forever Endeavour". That show was first advertised almost one year ago but without the rising record sales that Sexsmith enjoyed with his previous effort "Long Player, Late Bloomer" he never would have been able to dream of playing in such a place.

There were quite a few empty seats at the top level of the Arena but the venue was more full than what I expected it to be. This time Sexsmith was playing with a full band (with long-time drummer Don Kerr present contrary to the Paris show in 2008). Set list relied heavily on material from "Forever Endeavour" and "Long Player, Late Bloomer" (half of the almost thirty songs came from these two records). Particular highlights were an extended version of "Snake Road" with nice guitar work from Sexsmith and "Believe it when I see it" (my favourite song on LPLB). We got a sprinkling of songs from the back catalogue which included the usual staples "Secret Heart", "Strawberry Blonde" and "Whatever it takes" (covered recently by Michael Bubble which brought a few welcomed pennies to our friend Ron). It was nice to hear "Lemonade Stand" off the "Destination Unknown" collaborative LP that Sexsmith put out in 2005 with drummer Don Kerr, a good song that brought a much needed up-tempo rhythm to an set list rather heavily reliant on ballads.

I'm a big fan of the "Time Being" and "Whereabouts" albums so I was a bit disappointed that only one song from these 2 records was aired that night ("Not about to loose"). Apart from these couple of minor gripes the gig was really good with immaculate musicianship from the band and nice interaction between Sexsmith and the audience (one reviewer said that he answered every heckle from the crowd which is not far from the truth).

LIVE REVIEW : ROBYN HITCHCOCK AT THE VILLAGE UNDERGROUND 28/02/2013

This was second time I'd seen Robyn Hitchcock live. First time being in Aberdeen 3 years ago when he was touring on the back of his then current release "Propellor Time". The venue was so empty that they had to put tables in front of the stage to populate the place !!! Despite this rather slight turnout, Robyn and his band had put on a good show and he seemed pleased to have his childhood hero Mike Heron from The Incredible String Band opening for him.

Fast forward 3 years and things couldn't have been more different, the Village Underground was packed and there was no opening act due to the particular nature of the show. The gig was billed as a celebration of Hitchcock's 60th year on planet earth and a launch night for his latest LP "Love from London". Hitchcock was planning on playing one song from every album he has put out and the basic guitar-drums-bass line-up was "beefed up" with a cellist, 2 back-up singers and a keyboard player. While working his way anti clockwise through his back-catalogue, he was joined by some musician friends, the most well known being Nick Lowe. Though being nice in a kind of "pat in the back" way, the guests didn't bring much to the proceedings. The gig would have been as good without them but maybe they brought extra people through the door.

The set was divided in two halves, first one going from 2013 to 1991, ending with Nick Lowe's appearance on two songs (one of them described by Hitchcock as "a Beatles song I wrote in 1990") and the second one ending with a track from the first Soft Boys album. I'm not familiar with Hitchcock's catalogue but I managed to find a couple of songs on the web afterwards that. There was a really good version of "Ordinary Millionaire" from the "Propellor Time" album. My favourite performance of the night was a song written about his wife called "Queen Jane Approximately" which featured a nice coda with Hitchcock duelling with former Soft Boys guitar player Kimberley Rew. Most of the songs where introduced with with a short speech, "Brenda Iron Sledge" from his first solo album was described as having been written after seiing Captain Beefheart's last London gig in Victoria.

BERT JANSCH / ACOUSTIC ROUTES AT THE ICA LONDON 01/03/2012

It will be 2 years next October since Folk Singer Songwriter (and masterful guitar player) Bert Jansch has passed away. This documentary first shown on British Television in 1992 is being re-released this year in DVD in a remastered version with extra footage. Prior to the DVD release, the new version is being shown in cinemas all around the UK and I managed to catch it at the Institute of Comtemporary Arts last Friday. Far from being a movie centered round Jansch's life, it is more about his peers and the way he was perceived by them. Almost all of the protagonists in the movie get a small humourous introduction by the narrator of the documentary : scottish comedian and musician Billy Connolly. Interviews are intersped with musical performances, either by Jansch just by himself or duetting with other musicians. The range of interviewees covers pretty much every period of Jansch's carreer. We get Jansch duetting with his teenage hero Brownie Mcghee, playing "Blackwater Side" with Ann Briggs while reminiscing his days at the Howff Folk in Edinburgh, writing songs with John Renbourn in his own kitchen... and the list goes on. The highlight for me was the visit of the former site of The Howff folk club in Edinburgh where Jansch first learned to play guitar. Overall a very good documentary with just the right amount of talking, playing and humour.

COTTON MATHER : THE BIG PICTURE

Cotton Mather, America's answer to Teenage Fanclub (without the shoegaze side). Formed in Austin in the first part of the nineties, the band put out their first LP "Cotton is King" in 1994. That first incarnation of the band imploded soon after the release with only singer and rhythm guitar player Robert Harrison and lead guitar player Whit Williams left. The second album was recorded in dribs and drabs over the next two years, first by Harrison and Williams and in a later part with the help of producer Brad Jones. The album almost suffered the fate of its predecessor but thanks to the Gallagher brothers pitching the record in their interviews circa the release of "Be Here Now" (maybe to avoid discussing the shortcomings of their own release ;)), the band started getting quite good airplay on British radio and the sales picked up (not as many as "Be Here Now" but definetely an improvent over "Cotton is King").

 

 

The band spent the next couple of years touring and got to record their 3rd album in better conditions and with more time and money. Although the record hasn't got the charm and "homemade appeal" of its predecessor, it still showcases what a fantastic band Cotton Mather was. The LP starts with "Last of the Mohicans" a fine blast of power pop (not too dissimilar to "Camp Hill Operator" the opener from Kontiki) followed by a mid-tempo rocker "a la Oasis" with "Marathon Man". Although the rockers are uniformally good, it's on the slower numbers  that Harrison's songwriting surpasses itself. Songs like "Baby Freeze Queen", "Monterrey Honey", "Pine Box Builder" and "Condo Lights" belong to the same category as "Here, There and Everywhere" or "You've Got to Hide Your Love Away". There's only one slightly weaker number on the record with the half sung in Italian "Story of Anna" that still manages to redeem its corniness by its catchiness. The record ends with the anthemic Waterfalls followed by a hunting instrumental called "Running Coyote Advances". The high quality of this album is enhanced by a really good sequencing of the songs and the little snippets that link one song to the other. Following a reformation gig to celebrate the re-release of Kontiki, the band members recorded a new song. Hopefully "The Big Picture" will get a follow up.

 

NICK LOWE : THE ROAD TO THE BRENTFORD TRILOGY AND BEYOND PART ONE

The middle of the eighties was a difficult period for Nick Lowe. After honing his skills with Kippington Lodge and Brinsley Schwarz from 1967 to 1975, he had managed to become a central figure of the punk and new-wave movement by the end of  the seventies. He scored a couple of solo hits (Cruel to Be Kind, I Love the Sound Of Breaking Glass), formed Rockpile with Dave Edmunds and recorded and produced several Punk and New Wave acts (most notably Elvis Costello and The Damned). However by the middle of the eighties, everything had gone wrong. Lowe was putting out albums with too many filler (to keep up with the contract he had with his record company) and albeit a couple of songs that he put out charted during this period ("Half a Boy and Half A Man", "I Knew the Bride"), his audience was diminishing and he was wondering if he still had a future as a recording artist.

At loose ends, Lowe received a call from American singer John Hiatt at the beginning of 1987 to enquire if he would like to play bass on his forthcoming album "Bring the Family". Joining Hiatt with Ry Cooder (lead guitar) and Jim Keltner (drums), the whole album recorded in a very spontaneous way over a week showed Lowe that there was still life in producing records in the "old fashion way" without spending a whole week pondering on the snare drum sound ! That group of musicians went on to form the short lived Little Village group over 1991-1992. Reinvogorated by the sessions, Lowe recorded 2 albums that signaled a return to form ("Pinker and Prouder than Previous" and "Party of One") that showed a return to form and were pointing towards the direction he would take from the middle of the 90's.

In 1993 Lowe had everything in place for giving the direction he wanted for his carreer, he had written songs that he felt comfortable singing, found musicians that were sympathetic to his new style. The only thing that he was needing was money to record an album and tour without the pressure of a big record label. Money supplies arrived thanks to the million dollar payment that Lowe received for the royalties of the cover version of "What so funny about peace love and understanding"  that appeared on the multi-million selling soundtrack to the movie "Bodyguard" starring Whitney Houston and Kevin Costner. This enabled Lowe to finance the sessions for his next 2 lp's ("The Impossible Bird" and "Dig My Mood") and the accompanying tours that followed them. 

 The songs written for "The Impossible Bird" were written and rehearsed in the function room of a pub in Brentford where Lowe has been living for years. Released in 1994, the record is roughly divided in between ballads and up-tempo blues-rock numbers. Highlights are abundant, from the uptempo opener "Soulful Wind" (which features a nice little chord progression in between verses and choruses that gives you the impression of hearing the wind) to the rollicking "I'll be There". In between these 2 songs you get a series of well executed ballads of which the highlights are the perfectly paced  "Drive Thru Man", the lament of midlife cris "Where's My Everything" and the barebone tale of madness "The Beast in Me" (well-known for its cover version by Lowe's ex-father in law Johnny Cash) . As usual we get a couple of covers that include great version of "True love travels on gravel Road" (originally sung by Elvis Presley : one hell of a benchmark) and "Trail of Tears" written by songsmith Roger Cook. Musicianship is excellent and the band contains two musicians (Robert Treherne on drums and Geraint Watkins on Keyboards) that still tour and record with Lowe to this day. Guitar player Bill Kirchen only played and toured with Lowe but his idiosyncratic guitar playing distinguishes "The Impossible Bird" from it's follow ups.

 "Dig my mood", the follow-up was recorded over a one year period (from June 1996 to June 1997) and was released on January 1998. This album sees Lowe finally making the transition to "rock-crooner" he had started on his previous outing. The mood Mr Lowe wants us too dig here is definetely a mellow one, tales of  sadness abund with one single ray of light tossed in for good measure (the fantastic ballad "You Inspire Me", later covered by Englebert Humpferdink). You've got another number that's crying to be a covered by Johnny Cash with the misantropic "Man That I've Become. Fantastic songs about heartbreak and lost love ("What Lack of Love Has Done", "Lonesome Reverie", "High On a Hilltop, "I Must be Getting Over You"...). Covers are expertly executed as usual, with a spine-tingling vocal performance on "Failed Christian" that was penned by former Wings guitar player Henry McCullough. Too cut a long story short, apart from Freezing that's a bit slight, every song on the album is great. Dig My Mood sets the template for all the following albums. 

JOHN NIVEN : KILL YOUR FRIENDS AND SECOND COMING

 

 

 

I discovered John Niven's books in a peculiar way. Last October I went to see Joe Pernice play a gig in a small pub called the Wilmington Arms in the Clerkenwell area of London. At some point Pernice introduced a song by telling a story that John Niven (a friend of his) had told him prior to the gig that night. The story dating back to Niven's days in the record industry involved him choosing too sign long forgotten britpop combo Menswear instead of taking some shares in Yahoo. A Month and half later I was down in Brighton for the week-end. While we were waiting in the cinema before the screening of Art Will Save The World (review here : http://craigchaligne.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/art-will-save-world-film-about-luke.html), who enters the cinema with Mr Haines : John Niven (he's one of the talking heads in the movie too). I said to myself if this guy keeps popping up everywhere with musicians that I like, his books must be worth a read...

I went for the two novels featuring music mogul Steven Stellfox : Kill your Friends and Second Coming. 

 

The first one features Stellfox as an up and coming AR guy struggling to get a hit record. The book is set as the end of the 90's just before the music industry meltdown. We follow Stellfox in his crusade for fortune, which includes murdering colleagues, securing a distribution for a rather "crass" german dance record and spending an entire music convention locked up in a hotel room in Las Vegas taking drugs. Niven's insider knowledge of the music biz is really what makes the novel works. His description of the Midem convention that takes place every year in Cannes is mightily funny. Even though, the music business is described through Stellfox cynical eyes, you get the feeling that his views on the workers and artists must be pretty similar to Niven's (minus the musical tastes and absolute lack of any sense of morality). A very enjoyable read.

 

Second Coming is a different beast altogether. The main protagonist in the story is Jesus Christ sent back on earth by his father (God) to try and sort out the mess made by humans while he was away on a fishing trip (7 days in heaven time, 450 years on earth). We follow Jesus as he tries to spread his "Be Nice" theory while being an unsuccesfull musician in New York City. One Day he gets convinced by his bandmates to enter an "American Idol" like show where the main judge on the pannel is Steven Stellfox... Although quite differemt from Kill Your Friends, it shares one similarity with it : Niven doesn't mince his words with what he doesn't like (mainly about religion in this opus). You get plenty of music references (I'm sure Joe Pernice will appreciate the one on the Scud Mountain Boys) and it's still very funny (albeit slightly less than Kill Your Friends as the subject matter is less trivial)

I've just bought Amateurs, hope it's as good as these two.

LUKE HAINES : OFF MY ROCKER AT THE ART SCHOOL BOP

This album as Haines explains in his book "Post Everything" was written and recorded while a musical he'd been working on for two years was getting axed by The National Theatre. On top of that the release of the record was delayed for one year as the label that had agreed to release the album in the first place failed to pay Haines his advance. Even though the record came out only in 2006, it has been out of print for several years already which is a shame as it is one of his most satisfying solo releases. The lyrics display Haine's usual interest with sixties and seventies topics. On Leeds United he manages to combine references to Elland Road stadium, the yorkshire ripper and seventies surburbia lifestyle set to a fantastic tune (really nice piano parts on this song especially in the way they work with the bass line). Opener "Going off my rocker at the art school bop" is quite different from the rest of the album with its dance beat and blips (it wouldn't have sounded out of place on Black Box Recorder's "Passionoia" album). You get songs on underage discos (Walton hop), seventies glam rock star turned paedophiles (Bad Reputation), rock revisionism (Heritage rock Revolution), dead sixties gangsters (Freddie Mills is dead), suburban hooligans (Fighting in the city tonight) etc... you name it. It is a difficult thing to pen lyrics that are meaningful, funny and still manage to fit the melody without sounding forced, Haines pulls that off on every single song on this album. If you're a foreigner like me, it also brings to your attention parts of British culture and history that aren't... how we could put it...mainstays in history books. In fact you could almost say that this album is an early version of Haine's "North Sea Scrolls" side project" minus the plot and the narratives. At the end of the day a really good album that deserves to be discovered by the masses.