LIVE REVIEW : NICK LOWE AT UNION CHAPEL 09/05/2014

What a change from my previous Nick Lowe gigs, just being able to board the tube and 40 mins later I'm in front of the venue. The gig was was the first of a series of 3 shows that Mr Lowe was playing at The Union Chapel (described by our host of the night as "The Ryman auditorium of North London". It was a rare occasion to catch Mr Lowe in solo mode as when he tours the UK he usually performs with his wonderful backing band.

We managed to find nice seats at the balcony top of the venue after I had purchased the limited edition poster made especially for that run of 3 shows (100, all signed by Mr Lowe himself). Opening act was american country singer John Doe who's signed to same record label as Nick Lowe in the US Yep Roc Records. I had watched a couple of videos on YouTube and was expecting to like him a lot but I was left a bit disappointed in the end. Maybe it was a combination of an early start (7.30pm), a set list relying quite heavily on ballads and a guitar sound that was a bit too quiet (in comparison to Nick Lowe's one later on). I must investigate his records to make a definite opinion.

Lowe came on stage at 8.45 and launched straight away into "Where's my Everything" followed by "Heart", a song first released on Rockpile's Seconds of Pleasure album. The song selection didn't stray too much from the one Lowe has been playing for the last few years but he kept it fresh with a few new additions. We were treated to "I'm a Mess" from The Convincer and a really good cover of "Travelin' Light" originally played by Cliff Richard and The Shadows. There was quite a few instruments set up on stage and even if the red Nord keyboard on left gave a clue that Geraint Watkins would be joining the proceedings at some point, I was wondering who would be playing the guitars on the left. The question was answered mid-gig when Lowe invited John Paul Jones to join him on bass for "Stop Light Roses". Jones stayed till the end playing bass, mandolin and guitar on all the songs (adding a really good mandolin solo to "Checkout Time"). Geraint Watkins joined on "House for Sale". The main set finished with a rousing version of a "I Knew The Bride When She Used to Rock'n'Roll". Watkins and Lowe came back on stage to play "Only A Rose" from Watkins's excellent "Dial W for Watkins" album which was followed by a surprisingly good cover of "Everybody's Talkin" (which Lowe introduced by saying "no safety net on this one") were Lowe and John Doe shared the lead singing. Last song of the night was Lowe's most famous tune "What's So Funny About Peace , Love and Understanding"

  

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

After coming back from Madrid I was thinking that now would start the long wait for the next Nick Lowe album and accompanying tour. Boy was I wrong. First there was the announcement of a joint European tour with Ry Cooder following two successful shows for a charity in San Francisco during the fall of 2008.  I managed to catch the tour at the Carre Theatre in Amsterdam. Tickets for this tour horrendously expensive, I remember paying something like 90 euros for a seat that was right at the top of the theatre. The gig mainly featured material from Ry Cooder's back catalogue with a couple of songs from Little Village (a short lived super group that Cooder and Hiatt were in at the beginning of the 1990's), a few Nick Lowe tunes and some covers. The gig was nice but if you were a Nick Lowe fan you ended up feeling a little short changed. The two highlights of the gig for me were a cover of the Eddy Giles song "Losing Boy" and a nice version of Lowe's 1984 hit "Half a Boy and Half a Man" with a tasty slide solo by Ry Cooder. The backing for the gig should have included long term Cooder collaborator Flaco Jimenez on accordion but he fell ill before the tour leaving just Lowe, Cooder and his son Joachim on drums and two female back up singers for some songs. I think that the gig would have been fantastic if they just added Ry to Nick's backing band with the same song selection. Nick band are such skilful players that I'm sure they would have adapted themselves to Ry's style without any problem.

Simultaneously to his outings with Ry Cooder, Lowe toured the UK to celebrate the re-release of his two first solo albums (Jesus Of Cool and Labour of Lust) and of a new best of called "Quiet Please" covering the whole of his career from his days in Brinsley Schwarz all the way to his "At My Age" album playing a date at The Royal Albert Hall (sparsely attended unfortunately). Apart from his usual bouts of American touring, year 2010 was spent recording his next album The Old Magic that was finally released in September 2011. I must admit that I was surprised by the mellowness of the album the first time I listened to it but it definitely grows on you with the numbers of listenings. The album is short and to the point coming at just under 36 minutes with the usual ratio of covers and originals. As I said earlier on the album is quieter than its predecessors, only the lead single Checkout Time could qualify as a rock song. The rest of the album is made up of ballads (Stoplight Roses, House For Sale) and mid tempo of what I would call for lack of a better word "lounge rockers" (Sensitive Man, Restless Feeling). The covers blend in seamlessly with the originals (showing Mr Lowe's usual flair for choosing songs that suit his style), the high point being a really good version of Tom T Hall's Shame On The Rain that removes the country twang from the original while adding Nick Lowe's touch. The best track on the record for me is the last one Till The Real Thing Comes Along which somehow never gets mentioned anywhere in reviews and that was never played live during the tour that followed the release of The Old Magic. A fantastic song that ticks every box, perfect pace, spot on lyrics and arrangement. In one word : a masterpiece.

At the Time The Old Magic came out, I was living in the south of France and despite a date being scheduled in Paris, it made more sense crossing the border to Spain to see Mr Lowe and hi band in the beautiful city of Bilbao. In a remake of the Madrid incident a few years before, my girlfriend and I spent a couple of hours going round an industrial estate trying to figure which metal corrugated warehouse contained the venue. Thanks to a few Heineken neon lights that were switched on when the night was falling down we finally located the damn place. The venue called Santana 27 was a rock club from 8pm to 11pm and then a disco after the gig finished till the early hours, the room was far from being full but there was enough punters to make it look nicely attended. The opener was Geraint Watkins (Lowe's piano player for the last 20 years) playing a solo set. Despite a big faux-pas during the gig (message to people playing in Spain : never shout "Viva Espana" when you're playing the Basque region), he got a good reception playing songs from his three solo albums plus a few covers. Lowe came on stage just by himself opening with Stoplight Roses and Heart with the band joining him during What Lack Of Love Has Done. The set list had some nice additions compared to the Madrid gig with some older tunes that hadn't been aired for a while (Raining Raining, Ragin' Eyes) mixing in with newer tunes from The Old Magic and classics (Cruel To Be Kind, What's So Funny About Peace Love And Understanding, I Knew The Bride). If my memory serves me right Lowe put the whole audience in his pocket by saying a couple of words in Basque in between songs. The last number of the gig was a cover version of Alison by his old friend Elvis Costello.

Lowe spent the whole of 2012 touring The Old Magic and I would have to wait till July 2013 to see another live gig by Mr Lowe. He was announced on the line-up of a songwriter day  that was part of a series of concert organized in Hyde Park. Other acts scheduled the same day were in order : Elvis Costello, Ray Davies and Elton John. One week before the gig Elton John's appearance was cancelled which resulted in Nick Lowe being upgraded to the main stage (he was scheduled to headline one of the smaller stages) and as it was too late to find a headliner, the organizers declared that the admission would be free !!! Nick's set was short and concentrated on the "hits" but it was nice to see him play in this acoustic format with just him and his Gibson. I was hoping that we might get a Lowe-Costello duet during the latter's show but nothing happened. Shortly after the Hyde Park gig it was announced that Lowe would be putting out a Christmas Album called "Quality Street : A Seasonal Selection For All the Family". Apparently the idea of making a Christmas album was suggested by Lowe's American record label YepRoc. A bit reluctant to the idea for a start Lowe changed his mind in the end and recorded the album at the end of 2012 with his usual musicians. The result, a mix of Lowe originals, co-writes and rearranged seasonal standards though far from being as good as his recent albums is a pleasant addition to his catalogue. I had the chance of meeting the great man himself and having my copy signed at the Rough Trade shop in Brick Lane on the week before Christmas 2013.

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.