What was your last concert you went to ?

I like the RFH, it's probably my favourite venue, then the Barbican.

Re:Rush S&A tour sound was so much better at Wembley than the R30 show, not great but certainly better.

Yes mate, Friday 22nd. Sally's choice this one, I'm glad she chose it though.

Nick Lowe at the Brook in Southampton. He was in his perenial good spirits and played crowd pleasers and good new stuff from At My Age , plus a great encore duetting with his support Ron Sexsmith and then playing with his band again.

Chris

I recently visited the Shetland Folk Festival with Mrs. 555 + sprogs.

I enjoyed Hat Fitz - the 'wild man' of Australian blues.
He hails from Queensland and plays guitar (usually a metal-bodied resonator),
stomps his foot and sings the blues with a physical presence and power that reminded me of Son House and Charley Patton.

Madison Violet were also excellent.
Think Americana loaded with harmonies, guitars, fiddle, banjo, mandolin, harmonica and beautiful lyrics.

Top of the bill & top for me was Cara Dillon. We saw her four times!
Each show was fantastic & her voice never fails to delight.
Sam Lakeman played his usual red hot standard on guitar & electric piano.
Equally excellent were James O'Grady on Uillean pipes, whistle & fiddle, plus Ed Boyd on guitars.

Cara mentioned she now enjoys home baking. Oh for a nibble on those bear bere bannocks.

quote:

Cara mentioned she now enjoys home baking.

Perhaps she will bring some along next Thursday.

Sadly she only bakes when not on tour.

Russian Tribute

SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No.1
MUSSORGSKY orch. Ashkenazy
Pictures at an Exhibition

Vladimir Ashkenazy conductor
Sasha Rozhdestvensky violin

"Is it true that only the Russian-born can truly get under the skin of Russian music? This program embodies the authentic Russian sound. Sasha Rozhdestvensky brings his intelligence and musical intensity to Shostakovich’s eloquent First Violin Concerto (which he recently recorded with his father, Gennady).

And Vladimir Ashkenazy conducts his own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition. After years of playing the original piano version, Ashkenazy set about transferring it to an orchestral canvas while staying completely loyal to Mussorgsky’s Russian idiom. If you know Ravel’s version you’ll hear how these newly coloured pictures are darker, richer and more deeply felt, without losing any of their intrinsic brilliance."



SENSATIONAL all around, the way a concert experience should be.

Dvorak Carnival Overture
Brahms Violin Concerto
Tchaikovsky 5th Symphony

Excellent evening at the Festival Hall. Superb orchestral playing with conducting from Paavo Jarvi.

I have wanted to see Viktoria Mullova for a long time now so was delighted to see her perform one of my favourite Violin Concertos.

The Tchaikovsky Symphony was very powerfully and masterfully performed.

Concertgebouw Amsterdam (Kleine Zaal)

Beethoven Op.1, No.1; Op.1, No.3; Op.70, No.1.
Frank Braley (piano), Renaud and Gautier Capucon (violin & cello).

Immaculate Beethoven playing. Gautier was as passionate as ever on cello, and the piano playing drew comparisons with Pressler. Excellent acoustics and a standing ovation, but no encore.

Cara Dillon 21/05/09 Chequers Mead,East Grinstead.
A superb evening, from the support, a couple, guitar,and fiddle/recorders, doing old folk tunes from the baroque to modern(ish) European, all instrumentals.
Cara and her band were terrific, she has a clear and wonderful voice, good reparté superb musicians. A good mix of dance and classic folk story telling, using guitars, piano,whistles of all sizes and Irish pipes, I can't spell Uillean.

Glad you had a good night Howard. I'll be seeing her next month.
How long was she on for? Some friends saw her earlier this year and she only played for about an hour and a quarter.

Mark

Mark ,she played for about an hour and a half. With her voice I'm not surprised she keeps a check on time,it looked like she started a stop watch/timer.
Quality over quantity?

Last night we saw Jackson Browne at the Royal Albert Hall. Forumites who saw him earlier on this tour were less than impressed so I was a bit apprehensive. However, he and his stellar band delivered an absolutely fantastic show. I believe it was the last night of this 3 month European journey so they really let rip. Loads of old favourites and some stuff from "Time the Conqueror", which was very good. Highlights included "For a Dancer", "Late for the Sky", "The Pretender", Running on Empty", a blistering "Lives in the Ba;ance", "Take it Easy" and the last song "Stay", done as it is at the end of the "Running on Empty" album.

An amazing show by a great musician and lyricist.

The London Symphony Orchestra at Lincoln Center in March performing their 'greatest hits'. Mildly disappointing. That was waaay too long ago. Time to get some more live music.

Just back (well a long detour through the HiFi room) from Wembley and Jean Michel Jarre, an excellent show a couple of hours long,all the usual suspects for tracks. Theremin and Laser harp used, no floor light organ.
Good sound, some really LOW bass notes and excellent light show, no lasers but some very laser like spotlighty things.
Almost changed my mind about Wembley, now if they moved it near the isle of dogs.....

As you will see Lontano had a "slightly" higher view.


Chris did you feel Jackson had an interaction with the audience? This where the earlier in the tour fell down, there was no vibe.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Got a spare ticket for Jean Michel Jarre tonight at Wembley if anyone wants it??

\
Thanks Stu - I had been toying with getting a ticket to see one of my first musical heroes but never got round to it so was great to meet up unexpectedly with Mike 7 and Big H for what was a superb JMJ show at Wembley. Wembley, despite the refurb, is still the same old s***hole - the O2 just knocks it for six. Why the hell do they build a national stadium in a place that is impossibly difficult to get to.

Great mixture of all the classics - the setlist was excellent from Oxygene, Equinoxe, Magnetic Fields. Concert for China, Rendez-Vous and so on. JMJ was like a bouncing bean jumping along and waving his arms to the music.

Thoroughly enjoyed it - last time I saw him was at the Docklands in the pouring rain. This was a little more comfortable.



Oxygene IV

Goodnight

And to think I turned the ticket down just to go to a Wedding

Last night Andy Sheppard Qunitet - Movements in Colour with Arild Andersen, Eivind Aarset, Kuljit Bhamra and John Paricelli plus The Dave Holland Quintet with Robin Eubanks, Steve Nelson and Chris Potter.

This was European Jazz (Andy) versus American Jazz (Dave). Two of the world's greatest bass players head to head for me and there was no doubt which hit the spot for me with the bass playing of Arild Andersen being absolutely phenomenal.

The Andy Sheppard set went down very well with the audience. Very engaging and a super band finding their way a little as it was obvious they had not played together a lot but the end result was excellent. Rich, inventive, melodic and exciting jazz to watch.

As for Dave Holland. Well this was my fourth time of seeing him. The best was years ago at Ronnie Scotts with the Extensions band and that was awesome. This, like my gig last year in Sydney, left me absolutely cold. I just do not like vibes with trombone, squeaky sax and over powering drums. This band wins award after award and is very big in the US. It represents for me most of what I find unexciting about American jazz. Had to leave after the third track as did quite a few others.

Andy Sheppard 8/10
Dave Holland 2/10

Saw Jean Michel Jarre in Manchester last night, I am afraid to say that after the fantastic tour last year where he played Oxygene in its entirety with the original instruments, this was a big disappointment.

I know a lot of people like greatest hits shows, but I don't, I like the atmospheric sections/tracks that were not played on this tour, alongside the hits. I found it all too samey, and I got sick of the synth cymbals/percussion pads he hit after every two bars of keyboard playing.

I know he is a showman, and perhaps that is not what I want from electronic music.

I must also add, the laser harp, very impressive, but not a musical instrument, he is miming. No receptors in the roof, and the notes do not quite match the movements of his hands. Technically it could be an instrument, but not how he has it set up at gigs at the moment.

I can also add that the audience in Manchester did not add to the event, we were sat next to a bunch of people who spent the whole gig drinking, talking loudly over the tracks, and singing along with the tracks they recognized (except singing implies being in tune).

Mostly I think the last tour was too much to live up to, and for me this did not.

Lots of electro gigs coming up this year, Orbital, Kraftwerk, Hampshire Jam (I hope).

Jamie,
The Hampshire Jam is on the 31st October...hope to see you there

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
Jamie,
The Hampshire Jam is on the 31st October...hope to see you there

Mike - thanks for that. I am very interested in seeing this, particularly as it is only 30 mins from my house. I do fancy trying out a few new electronic artists. I am going to have a trawl through the MusicZeit website. Any recommendations?

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:
Jamie,
The Hampshire Jam is on the 31st October...hope to see you there

Mike - thanks for that. I am very interested in seeing this, particularly as it is only 30 mins from my house. I do fancy trying out a few new electronic artists. I am going to have a trawl through the MusicZeit website. Any recommendations?

If you have not heard this kind of music before then i would suggest you wait for the discs i am sending you (will be in post first thing Tues).

However, have a look by all means but be careful

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:

If you have not heard this kind of music before then i would suggest you wait for the discs i am sending you (will be in post first thing Tues).

However, have a look by all means but be careful

Mike, I have a fair amount of electronic music but I always like to explore new and different artists and this is something that could really interest me. Will have a listen to some stuff later and thanks for the discs.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by Mike7:

If you have not heard this kind of music before then i would suggest you wait for the discs i am sending you (will be in post first thing Tues).

However, have a look by all means but be careful

Mike, I have a fair amount of electronic music but I always like to explore new and different artists and this is something that could really interest me. Will have a listen to some stuff later and thanks for the discs.

Ahh..i didnt know that..sorry
Ok good luck

try

Free System Projekt
AirSculpture
Under The Dome
Arc
Redshift

should keep you busy for a while!

George Thorogood & The Destroyers @ The Guildhall - Southampton - last night.

Well good - 1st time I've caught him live always thought he'd be even better and I wasn't disappointed - He's still got loads of energy - It was bloody hot though!