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.