LIVE REVIEW : GERAINT WATKINS AND THE MOSQUITOS AT THE WHEATSHEAF TOOTING 16/03/2014

I'd been on the lookout for a Geraint Watkins gig announcement for the past couple of months as the man was releasing "Moustique" his first solo LP in 5 years on the 17th of March. Suddenly out of the blue last week came an announcement that he would be playing a Sunday afternoon free gig on the 16th of March in a pub called The Wheatsheaf located just beside Tooting Bec tube station. The event was organized by London based Irish musician Niall Kelly who regularly plays at The Wheatsheaf. The pub is also close to Gravity Shack Studios where Neil Brockbank operates Gold Top where "Moustique" was recorded (and Nick Lowe's Christmas record too...).

The back room of the pub was almost empty when I arrived so I managed to secure a table just near the door that leads to the beer garden while Geraint and his band were finishing setting up. Niall played a short with his wife Caitlin accompanying him on fiddle. Really nice songs and some good singing from both. I'll make sure I listen to some of Niall's records in the near future. Geraint was accompanied by most of the musicians that play on the records that are made at Gold Top : Robert Treherne on drums, Matt Radford on stand up bass, Martin Winning on Tenor Sax and Clarinette and newcomer Oliver Darling on guitar. The line-up was less extensive than the last Geraint Watkins I reviewed on this blog (http://craigchaligne.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/geraint-watkins-underbelly-hoxton.html) but it was still a treat to catch such a bunch of talented musicians for the price of a couple of pints !!! Geraint opened as usual with Easy To Say Bon Temps Roulez from his 2008 album In A Bad Mood. The song started with just him and his piano and the band joined him in the middle. Several tracks from the soon to be released Moustique were aired (House On The Prairie, No Longer Required, All Around The World, Shine A light) and showed that this record might be his strongest to date but all his LP's were covered with particularly good versions of My Happy Day (from the Bold As Love album) and Champion (from In A Bad Mood). Oliver Darling took lead vocals on a couple of number and a impressed Watkins jokingly asked him if he could join his band. The rhythm section of Matt Radford and Robert Treherne was perfect as usual and Martin Winning's sax playing was absolutely fantastic. Niall made an announcement that Geraint and the band would play every two weeks at The Wheatsheaf from now on, make sure you catch them !

LIVE REVIEW : SLIM CHANCE AT THE ELGIVA THEATRE CHESHAM 08/03/2013

To celebrate the purchase of our new car the missus and I decided to make a trip to Chesham to see Slim Chance perform a gig at The Elgiva Theatre. For the people who aren't aware of Slim Chance, they were the band that used to back Ronnie Lane when he went solo after quitting the Faces in 1973. The line-up was quite prone to changes and though most the musicians playing in the band were in the band at one point or another, they hardly were at the same time !!! The band started playing again in 2010 and has been playing small venues all over the UK ever since. The core of the band is composed of  Steve Simpson on lead guitar, mandolin and fiddle, Alun Davies on acoustic guitar, Charlie Hart on fiddle and keyboards and Steve Bingham on bass. They're augmented by keyboard master Geraint Watkins and drummer John Lingwood. I invite you to check the list of musicians they've worked with over the years on the Slim Chance website (http://www.slim-chance.co.uk/pages/slimchance.html), it's pretty impressive.

The Elgiva theatre is located right in the centre of Chesham and  also doubles as a cinema. Sonia and I made it to the venue just before 8pm and had time to buy a drink before heading into the auditorium where a DJ was playing a selection of nice records to an almost empty room. Thankfully most of the punters came in five minutes before the opening act The Good Men In The Jungle started playing. Made up of Alun Davies and his daughter Becky Clowes with the help of Steve Simpson on a few songs, they played mostly sixties and seventies era covers (really good version of The Weight by The Band). They seem to be playing in this duo format or with a full band every now then in London. I will make sure I catch them before the end of the year. After a short break Slim Chance came onstage and spent the next two hours playing songs from all of Ronnie Lane's post Small Faces career. All his most famous solo tracks were played (How Come, The Poacher, Kuschtye Rye...) without forgetting his time in The Faces (Debris, You're So Rude) and his collaboration with Pete Townshend "Rough Mix" (Silly Little Man). Every band member took his turn singing lead vocals and introduced each song with a short anecdote about their time playing with Ronnie Lane. The quality of the playing coupled to these heartfelt reminiscences made this evening the perfect celebration of Ronnie Lane the musician but also Ronnie Lane the man.

LIVE REVIEW : MATTHEW CAWS HOXTON SQUARE BAR AND KITCHEN 05/03/2014

Matthew Caws is a busy man. He managed to squeeze a couple of solo shows (one in London and one in Valencia) in-between writing sessions in New York with Ira Elliot and Daniel Lorca, his two Nada Surf band mates and flying back to the US to appear at The South By South West festival in Austin. When that is finished he will come back to Europe and will be touring with his side project Minor Alps for one month.

Hoxton Square used to be pretty close to where I used to stay but from my new flat in Harrow it's one hell of a trek. I'd been there once before to see Geraint Watkins at The Underbelly but I'd never been to The Square Bar and Kitchen. The venue is actually separated from the main area of the pub/restaurant and has it's own bar which greatly limits the coming and going of punters that you usually have in pub gigs. The gig room was nice and I manage to secure a spot right under a cooling fan which means I didn't sweat a drop for the whole gig :). I missed the first opening act Kafka Tamura (my apologies to them) but I managed to catch most of Monument Valley who were pretty good. Very good singer that sounds like a less mannered Morrissey, good songs and interesting arrangements (https://www.facebook.com/monumentvalleygo).

Their set finished at almost 9.30 pm so Matthew Caws came on stage almost straight equipped with his Gibson Jumbo and an Iphone. The song selection covered every album of Caws career with the exception of  Nada Surf's first album High/Low. The night started with "Weightless" from Nada Surf's Lucky album and was followed by a surprisingly good cover of a Simple Mind's song called  "Speed Your Love To Me" that Caws introduced by saying that songs you liked at seventeen years old stayed with you for the rest of your life. The rest of the set-list mixed a few Minor Alps tracks with Nada Surf Classics and rarities. Even if the few Minor Alps tracks played didn't have the immediateness and catchiness of Caws output with Nada Surf, they definitely showcased a side of his songwriting that was kept away from the public ear. Most of the Nada Surf songs were pulled from what I consider their best albums (Let Go, The Wight is A Gift and Lucky) with some rarely aired tracks that must have pleased the fanatics (End Credits, Are You Lightning ?). Only one song from The Stars Are Indifferent To Astronomy (Waiting For Something) and Proximity Effect (80 windows). Caws will be with Minor Alps at The Shacklewell Arms on the 25th of April.

LIVE REVIEW : LUKE HAINES AT THE ELGAR ROOM 17/02/2014

This was the first time I managed to catch Mr Haines since I moved to London. I saw him live in Manchester when he had just released his 21st Century Man album and lasr. At the time he was playing with two young guys on drums and bass but since the release of his concept album on wrestling he seems to be sticking to playing solo. The show took place in the rather nice and comfy Elgar Room that's located on the 3rd floor of the Royal Albert Hall. The room is half standing and half seated with nice purple subdued lightening. An ideal place for a show with one man his guitar. I arrived just in time to catch a few songs of opening act Jack Cheshire and I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard, really good singer that plays guitar in a really idiosyncratic  way (almost like he was plucking a bass with his four fingers). The drummer and double bass player backing him played in a suttle jazzy way that suited to the laid back nature of his music.

The setlist relied heavily on Haine's last two LP's ("Nine and Half Psychedelic Meditations on British Wrestling of the 1970's and the early 80's" (woof...) and "Rock And Roll Animals) and The Auteurs first album "New Wave" which has just been reissued. Haines started the gig saying he was doing a "Bob Dylan in reverse" (meaning going acoustic after being electric) and following it up with a dig at Mojo Magazine (not his favourite music mag apparently...).The gig was short (1h10 minutes) but good. I enjoyed the Manchester gig best but this one was a more relaxed affair with Haines stopping in the middle of songs to explain the lyrics (for example the "Rollers Show" reference in A Badger Called Nick Lowe). As said previously, the setlist featured a lot of new material. We got two new songs, one unreleased one called "Lou Reed, Lou Reed" that for 3/4 of it features the repeated chant of "Lou Reed, Lou Reed", slightly repetetive but as an hommage to the man and his music it fitted the bill pretty perfectly (good audience participation number too), the second one was "Alan Vega Says" that only 50 people got to hear as it was released on the limited edition LP Outsider Music.As sais previously, quite an extensive selection of tracks from New Wave (Showgirl, Home Again, Valet Parking, Housebreaker, How Could I Be Wrong...). It was nice hearing so many tracks from that album but with such an extensive back catalogue as Haine's you cannot help but feel slightly disappointed with so many albums omitted.

LIVE REVIEW : LLOYD COLE AND THE LEOPARDS AT SHEPHERDS BUSH EMPIRE 31/01/2013

Following the good reception of the recently released Standards and a sold out solo gig at Union Chapel last October, Lloyd Cole was back in the UK for a short tour with a 5 piece band (first band shows since the short tour he did with The Commotions to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the release of Rattlesnakes in 2004). The core of the band was Glasgow garage rock outfit The Leopards. I must admit I've had troubles finding anything about them on the web. Most of them seem to be veterans of the Glasgow music scene of the nineteen eighties. Lead guitar player Mick Slaven was a member of Del Amitri for a short while, bass player Campbell Owens played in Aztec Camera, drummer Jim Gash is Australian born but has played in Glasgow bands since the mid eighties, Douglas MacIntyre the second guitar player was the head honcho of the label Creeping Bent and Blair Cowan was the keyboard player in The Commotions and has been working on and off with Cole ever since.

The Band first appearance was on Later with Jools Holland last October performing Myrtle And Rose and Women Studies from Standards and Perfect Skin from Rattlesnakes. Considering the band had just had a couple of days to rehearse before appearing on the show the performance was pretty impressive. Friday night's show was however at a different level, instead of sounding like a bunch of hired hands assembled in a short period of time, the band displayed a cohesiveness betraying its recent formation and revealed itself to be the perfect match for Lloyd Cole's music.

Coming on stage at 9pm to the sound of Lloyd I'm Ready To Be Heartbroken by Camera Obscura, the band launched straight away into a note perfect rendition of Rattlesnakes with the three guitars adding a "rockier" to the song compared to the version on the Rattlesnakes LP. Great care was put in the elaboration of the set list with almost every album of Cole's career covered (I think only Bad Vibes and Antidepressant weren't covered). Almost one third of the Set list was devoted to Commotions songs with most of the well known ones getting an airing (Rattlesnakes, Perfect Skin, Lost Weekend, Jennifer She Said...). The songs from Standards blended seamlessly in the Set list, proving that the excellent reviews the new album received were well deserved. If I had to choose my favourites in the tunes played I would go for the excellent versions of What's Wrong With This Picture from The Negatives album and Like Lovers Do from Love Story, the later one featuring particularly nice guitar lines from Mick Slaven that differed quite a bit from the ones on the recorded version. Though clearly enjoying himself, Lloyd Cole seemed a bit self conscious fronting a rock band after ten years of touring in solo folk mode. He made quite a few references to ageing in between songs even joking at some point that we would be better off closing our eyes so we could all be in 1984 again. Lloyd said that this might be the last time we saw him with a band, let's hope it's an "au revoir" rather than an "adieu" as the French would say.

THE PLIMSOULS : LIVE ALBUMS

The Plimsouls are one of my favourite bands. I discovered them following thanks to a short review that followed the re-release of their live album One Night In America on CD in 2005. I finally purchased the record a couple of months later and was totally blown away by it. It just seemed to contain everything I liked about Rock'n'roll, the songs are catchy, the band is tight but the playing is not flashy and Peter Case is a fantastic singer. After listening to that album I was eager to check their studio albums. They have released 3 LP's, two during the original lifespan of the band : The Plimsouls and Everywhere At Once and one when the band reformed briefly in the mid nineties : Kool Trash. I must admit that after the "blast" of One Night In America, I was slightly disappointed by what was on offer on these 3 releases. The Plimsouls sounded a bit thin on the ears and a bit flat, Everywhere At Once has the 80's sheen common to the year it was released (1983) and Kool Trash showcases a band that has mellowed a lot compared to its heyday. Don't get me wrong though, all have really goods songs on them, it's just that none of them have the drive and the swing of what's on display on One Night In America.

In the liner notes to One Night In America, Peter Case hinted that there was other live releases to come from the vaults so I sent an email to Oglio to see if anything was scheduled but I got a reply saying that despite that announcement nothing was on cards yet. Fast forward 3 or 4 years and we finally get an announcement from Peter Case saying that a new live album will be released, titled Live, Beg, Borrow And Steal and featuring a whole show recorded on Halloween Night 1981 at The Whiskey-A-Gogo in Los Angeles. Even if there's no information on where and when One Night In America was recorded, Peter Case has said that it might have been recorded in Cleveland in 1982. Even if the band seems a little stiffer than on ONIA, LBBAS is still an excellent album and showcases how good a live a and they were. It also enables to hear the songs from the first album with some extra oomph. It also contains of my favourite Plimsouls  : Lost Time. If you want to see a really good version of that song please check this youtube video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jz6nFTzbDm4. It's an extract of a show recorded for the French television show Chorus in 1982 and it features a fantastic Eddie Munoz solo. There's quite a few songs that overlap between the two recordings (7 in total) but the difference between the two gigs justifies the purchase.

After the release of  LBBAS, I wasn't expecting a new release to come out of the vaults but we got a final one with Beach Town Confidential, recorded at The Golden Bear Club in 1983. The raw edges of ONIA and LBBAS have been trimmed and the raw enthusiasm has been replaced by professionalism. As with all previous Plimsouls LIlive recordings there are quite a few covers, highlights of which are fantastic versions of Fall on You and Making Time (originally recorded by Moby Grape and The Creation). There's also a really good original Plimsouls song called Who's Gonna Break The Ice that was never recorded in the studio (I'm a big fan of the intro with all the interweaving guitar lines). This record features The Plimsouls at the top of their game. Unfortunately their studio album Everywhere At Once failed to reach the mainstream and the band disbanded in 1985.

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.