What was your last concert you went to ?

Will you bloody stop that Miles I feel bad enough already?

Made worse by the fact of technology failure I managed to miss a ticket for sale at face value.

Tomasz Stanko Quintet at the Sage 2 Gateshead.

I was not expecting to be able go to this as I was in Oxford for the weekend and did not expect to be back in time for the gig. However whilst driving home I got a call from Diccus (of this parish), who asked me if I wanted a ticket, so Cinders got to go to the ball after all.

Sensational performance, great supporting musicians, a very good night.

Cheers Diccus.

Regards

Nic

My pleasure bud............ pleased you could come and enjoyed the craic (and nice stereo).....

Twas my first proper jazz concert and I thought it was stunning, great individual performers, fabulous as a group :-)

Gents - I went to see Stanko earlier in the week in Warwick and thought it was superb as well. My third time of seeing him and I think the best. Not a man of many words but he let his trumpet do the talking. Again, he has put together another fine band of young Scandinavian musicians. The new album, Dark Eyes, which is pretty much what they played live is possibly my favourite of the year.

I'd like to thank Jamie for more or less writing my review for me of Seasick Steve at the sold out Cambridge Corn Exchange last night, Sunday 15th November.

Clearly, at two concerts of the same tour there are going to be likenesses! Jamie has outlined very well, so I won't repeat.

We didn't have a guy being thrown out, but Steve sure has a certain way with the one heckler. "I hope that's happy sounds I hear coming from the back ... cos we don't 'atmosphere' do we now...??" and later, "Tell you what, if you know the story, why don't you just come up here and tell it??"

Enjoyed Amy LaVere in her agreeably small doses, to be honest, a bit more than Wishful thinking. And yes, that Dan Magnusson is a mighty fine drummer.

I hope it's not too cheesey to say it, but I have come away with a feeling, really, of privilege. I'm not so green to pretend that there is no well-worked stage craft, but still the clear impression comes through of a man who really appreciates the opportunity he has had quite late in life to bring his music to people ("Some music groups get confused about who's the boss, that it's a privilege for the audience to hear them. I know who's the boss, I know who's my employer, and so it's my privilege for me to play for you. I hope you enjoy it.") and who, bringing a lifetime's experience to this point, hasn't been ruined by the music industry.

quote:

Originally posted by JamieL_v2:
Seasick Steve at Leeds Academy 6 November 2009.

A very different show to the electro festival last weekend, but really enjoyable. I was not sure what to expect from Seasick Steve live, I thought it might get a bit samey, but I was very wrong.

There was a great deal of variation in his set, with solo, or lead performances by two of his fellow musicians, one of his sons Paul Martin Wold, aka Wishful Thinking (vocals, guitar, washboard, percussion) and Amy LaVere (vocals and bass), as well as Dan Magnusson on drums.

Some loud electric slide and drums tracks, some gentle acoustic country, solo tracks, duets, and the full band playing at times made it very varied. He played two sets, with an interval, and quite a long encore.

I think quite a few people left after the first set, and the atmosphere was better, as well as less crowded in the second half. I don't know what they were expecting, but if they didn't like what they heard, then their loss. It was packed in the first half, and those who left were mostly the ones drinking and talking through the songs. Perhaps blues and country was a bit too much for people more used to straight rock concerts at the Academy.

Seasick Steve's personality really comes across, he is a lovely man, and I get the feeling that he is enjoying what is probably an unexpected success at this time in his life.

There was an interesting incident in the second half of the show. I am not sure exactly what sparked it, but I suspect that a man in the audience shouted something abusive at Steve during one of his solo pieces, he stopped playing and gestured for the man to come to the stage, then he told him to get out. There was no response, so he put down his guitar and made a fist at him, still no response, so he went to the back of the stage and got his bottle of wine, and held it in his clenched fist, and made it very clear that if the man did not get out, he would go down into the crowd and remove him. The man was helped out of the crowd by the stage crew and left. Seasick Steve is not a man you would pick a fight with, he may be in his 60's, but he is 'built', and quite evidently takes no bad behaviour from people at his shows.

That might make him sound unpleasant, he really was not, and I suspect the man was drunk, or just being loutish, and good for Steve to kick out someone who was spoiling the evening.

If you can get tickets for the remaining dates, it is a great show, and I must say that Dan Magnusson is one hell of a drummer.

Adrian,

Dark Eyes playing now. You are not kidding about him being a man of few words, makes Bob Dylan appear verbose! The only other Stanko album I had before last night was Litania, which I have always found heavy going, but this album is very good.

Regards

Nic

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Gents - I went to see Stanko earlier in the week in Warwick and thought it was superb as well. My third time of seeing him and I think the best. Not a man of many words but he let his trumpet do the talking. Again, he has put together another fine band of young Scandinavian musicians. The new album, Dark Eyes, which is pretty much what they played live is possibly my favourite of the year.

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Adrian,

The only other Stanko album I had before last night was Litania, which I have always found heavy going, but this album is very good.

Regards

Nic

Nic - a couple pf other albums that are well worth checking out are Soul of Things and Lontano.

Cheers

Riverside were supported by the fantastically named The Pineapple thief who were excellent.
The main event...Riverside are a superb live band if you get a chance to see them grab it.
We saw them at a new venue for me the 02 academy in Islington which is small and intimate with a very nice acoustic sound....much better than some larger venues i have attended and the tickets were £15 which i thought was very good for an excellent nights entertainment.

Thanks for the recommendations Adrian, more to add to the shopping list. Chatting to Diccus last night about the latter choice, I finally figured out where your nom de plume came from!

Regards

Nic

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Adrian,

The only other Stanko album I had before last night was Litania, which I have always found heavy going, but this album is very good.

Regards

Nic

Nic - a couple pf other albums that are well worth checking out are Soul of Things and Lontano.

Cheers

Yup. I strongly recommend Lontano (The album) :-).......................... and i've ordered 'Dark Eyes'. I was too slow to get it from the stall last night.

Adrian, great pic, I'm waiting for the one from tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Chatting to Diccus last night about the latter choice, I finally figured out where your nom de plume came from!

Regards

Nic

Yep, named myself after my favourite Tomasz Stanko album....

Anyway, done a few more shows this week as well.

Rickie Lee Jones - Cadogan Hall - nice set, laid back and a bit of fun. She is very talented, which certainly was not the case of the people who wanted to clap out of time to her acoustic tunes.


Steve Hackett - Shepherds Bush - on top form - all his best solo tracks and lots of Genesis tracks as well. Took my boys along and it gave me great pleasure to watch my 10 yr old sing word for word along with the band on Firth of Fifth, and to watch the maestro himself playing that awesome guitar solo. Yes, that is Nick Beggs from Kajagoogoo fame playing bass and he was brilliant.



And tonight, the beautiful Natalie Merchant. A charming, low key, record company hosted preview of tracks from her forthcoming double album due next March. Thoroughly charmed by the lady, she has a lovely voice. She played all her new tracks perfectly but kept forgetting the words to her old songs but it was all a bit of fun and really did not matter much. Cannot wait until the tour proper next year.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:

Who is the women on Guitar at Steves gig??
Stu

Amanda Lehmann - never heard of her until the show but she was great on vocals, complementing Steve's vocals. I think this is the best band that Hackett has put together. I never thought I would see a member of Kajagoogoo playing Gabriel era Genesis, but I have to hand it to the guy, his bass playing was some of the best I have seen in a long long time.

In Perth


great musicians playing their own compositions and eric dolphy
still one gig to come
uz should go and see them!

Adrian, more great pics - yesterday's show was amazing, can't wait for her new album to come out in March.

Nic and Diccus - a review of the Stanko concerts.

There’s something of a Polish theme to the London Jazz Festival 2009, part of the “Polska! year” celebration of that nation’s art and culture. Trumpeter Tomasz Stańko is by some margin the strand’s biggest name. The man who once explained the mournful, meditative tone of his (and his country’s) music in terms of the “melancholy light” he’d known since birth took to the stage in appropriately sombre attire: suit, shirt and hat alike in any colour as long as it was black.
Much of the playing was similarly noirish, in keeping with both the moody shadows of Stańko’s current publicity shots and the title of his new album on the ECM label: Dark Eyes. Yet that album also mines an edgier and – at least for him – exuberant seam, and this sense too was evident in the Queen Elizabeth Hall, the haunting, filmic playing punctuated by sudden explosions of energy.

This was thanks in no small part to his new Nordic quintet, hailing from an area of the world Stańko regards as sharing that same “melancholy light” and which certainly shares Poland’s ability to create a model of jazz indebted to, but distinct from, the African-American tradition. Swing rhythms were implicit at best and there was no post-solo applause, while folk and classical music (rather than blues) served as prime source material. Indeed, the music seemed far more linear than the predictably circular, head-solos-head template so beloved of the jazz mainstream, perhaps a hangover from Stańko’s soundtrack work.

Featuring electric bass and guitar alongside piano and drums, the group boasted a propulsive zest in its collective arsenal alongside an aptitude for more contemplative explorations. Drummer Olavi Louhivuori was particularly strong in this context, exploring the full dynamic range from softly bowed cymbals to kinetic, muscular beats. Guitarist Jakob Bro impressed too, avoiding both rockist axe-heroics and the semi-muted, smooth tones of much guitar jazz. His restrained, sustained playing instead owed something to Bill Frisell, though he deserves credit as a voice in his own right, not least for his highly imaginative employment of the much-abused and now near-ubiquitous loop pedal.

Yet, despite now being in his late 60s, plenty of the momentum came from Stańko himself, driven to fast-fingered runs and even shrieking overtones as well as nuanced, understated atmospherics. With the threat of such mood changes helping to steer the group well clear of the security, and consequent blandness, that can mar the most tasteful of performances, this was surely among the jazz highlights of the year to date. Exquisite

By complete contrast to the Stanko gig on Sunday, tonight I saw Rise Against an American punk outfit. The crowd were definitely into it, the average age was about a third of mine.

To be honest, I went with a mate who takes me out of my comfort zone with some of his choices. Although they were clearly all accomplished musicians and performers, there was little originality that would make me seek out their records.

Too anthemic and formulaic for my taste, but an evening out none the less.

Regards

Nic

Went to see Bill Wyman's Rhythm Kings on Tuesday night with Gary US Bonds as their special guest. Great concert and good fun , Beverley Skeete has one hell of a voice .

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
By complete contrast to the Stanko gig on Sunday, tonight I saw Rise Against an American punk outfit. The crowd were definitely into it, the average age was about a third of mine.

To be honest, I went with a mate who takes me out of my comfort zone with some of his choices. Although they were clearly all accomplished musicians and performers, there was little originality that would make me seek out their records.

Too anthemic and formulaic for my taste, but an evening out none the less.

Regards

Nic

Yup better than pipe and slippers :-)

I should be at The Unthanks in Chichester tonight, but laid up with manflu. Never mind.

Nigel

Wednesday night I went to see the John Surman 65th Birthday concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. First John Surman solo with his electronics, then with Karin Krog and finally full band with Drew Gress, John Abercrombie and Jack Dejohnette. All good stuff, well played but not a "wow" concert for me.

That came last night when MilesSmiles and I went to the excellent Kings Place venue to see the Stefano Bollani Trio with Enrico Rava. This was a special concert, a real wow. I have been an Enrico Rava fan for years and to finally see him was special for me, but to watch him perform with this quartet and with Bollani was superb. The chemistry and connection between these two guys was spectacular. The piano playing of Bollani is out of this world and they come across as having fun. And we all had a lot of fun, as they were real jokers as well with a great sense of humour. I will remember this one for a long time.

quote:

Originally posted by Lontano:
Wednesday night I went to see the John Surman 65th Birthday concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall. First John Surman solo with his electronics, then with Karin Krog and finally full band with Drew Gress, John Abercrombie and Jack Dejohnette. All good stuff, well played but not a "wow" concert for me.

That came last night when MilesSmiles and I went to the excellent Kings Place venue to see the Stefano Bollani Trio with Enrico Rava. This was a special concert, a real wow. I have been an Enrico Rava fan for years and to finally see him was special for me, but to watch him perform with this quartet and with Bollani was superb. The chemistry and connection between these two guys was spectacular. The piano playing of Bollani is out of this world and they come across as having fun. And we all had a lot of fun, as they were real jokers as well with a great sense of humour. I will remember this one for a long time.

One of the absolute highlights for me this year and another great Lontano pic.

quote:

Originally posted by MilesSmiles:
and another great Lontano pic.

Cheated on that one - can't lay claim to it. My few pictures were not good last night.

quote:

Originally posted by munch:
Adrian,
I am green.
You have had some great gigs over the last few weeks.
Stu

Yep been to some good ones this last few weeks. There is another good one tonight but I am going to spend the evening in front of the TV instead. But tomorrow night last one for the month with the Tord Gustavsen Ensemble.

Three concerts this weekend, and a warning. Gary Numan, Gong and Yes.

Friday was Gary Numan at Corporation in Sheffield. Numan was good, but the venue is a s**thole.

DO NOT GO AND SEE ANY BAND AT 'CORPORATION' IN SHEFFIELD.

It is just a goth club, with all the charm, or lack of it that implies. It was full of drunken louts shouting to each other through all the songs, plus a few middle aged people who had liked him thirty years ago and the tickets were cheap so they went along to hear a couple of hits they remembered.

Twice I asked three drunken idiots to stop shouting over the music, and they called security telling them I was a nuisance. Security said it was OK to talk during tracks. Had I been on my own, I would have left and asked for my money back, I was with a couple of friends, so that was not an option.

In addition the sound was poor, bad venue acoustically, and the support act Dirty Harry were dreadful, imaging Joan Jett and the Blackhearts without the ability to write a tune, and even less originality.

Numan is touring 'The Pleasure Principle' and the first half of the set was that album in its entirety, and still great after 30 years, but he really came alive playing the more recent material from 'Jagged' and 'Pure', plus 'Down in the Park' and 'Are Friends Electric'.

My girlfriend enjoyed the music, and thankfully has bought got tickets to see him in a couple of days at a music venue, Academy in Leeds, where hopefully we can hear the music.

I just wish Seasick Steve had been there as security, with his wine bottle in hand to 'explain' to people what a concert is for, to listen to music. Someone else I know was at the show too, unknown to me, and had exactly the same opinion of the night. Avoid this venue at all costs.

Well after a night of drunken assholes in Sheffield, it was Gong in Manchester on Saturday, and an audience of lovely people at the Academy II in Manchester (where Numan was playing next door at Academy I, which certainly had a much nicer bunch of people in the queue for that show).

Steve Hillage's band played a set for about 40 minutes, including a couple from 'Fish Rising', really good, then Daevid Allen, Gilly Smith, and Theo Travis joined them after a short break, to form the full Gong. So much fun, a strangely sweet smell in the air, and a lot of people enjoying some really fun music.

Gilly smith may be 76, and Daevid Allen 71, but they can still put on a good night. I could make comments about their age, but it does not bother them, and I hope that in 30 years time I have that energy and sense of fun.

A lot of 'Flying Teapot' a few from the new album, and a great versions of 'Master Builder' and 'Oily Way'. A lovely night with a lovely audience.

The real treat of the weekend was Yes at Manchester Apollo. Steve Howe, Chris Squire and Alan White, now with Rick Wakeman's son Oliver on keyboards and Benoit David on vocals.

Benoit David vocals have certainly come along way since the recording I heard of the US tour, perhaps some vocal coaching. With two new members, the three members from the 70's were making a real effort to put on a show.

Steve Howe's playing was outstanding, some of the best playing I have ever seen by a guitarist, in fact possibly the best performance I have seen by a guitarist, and I have seen quite a few good ones over the years.

There were two tracks from 'Drama' and 'Owner of a Lonely Heart', the rest of the set was from the 70's albums, with 'Fragile' heavily featured. 'Tempus Fugit' and 'Machine Messiah' were real highlights

Setlist:
Firebird Suite,Siberian Khatru, I've Seen All Good People, Tempus Fugit, Onward, Astral Traveller, And You And I, Yours Is No Disgrace, Steve Howe solo (Mood for a Day and one of his solo tracks), Owner Of A Lonely Heart, Machine Messiah, South Side Of The Sky, Heart Of The Sunrise, Roundabout

I had my reservations about seeing this line-up of Yes, but this was the best I have seen them play, I have only seen them four times from 1989 onwards, and avoided the Rabin line-ups. They felt more like a band, and had made an effort with the setlist, to cover a wide selection of their music, but happily avoiding the recent dull material.

Although I am sad that Jon Anderson is not in the band right now, the energy this band had makes me hope they will try and record some new material together. I enjoyed the 2004 tour, but they were not trying as hard as this version of the band. Perhaps not having Anderson made the band really try to show the audience this was a valid band, and I think the 2,600 people there certainly agreed when they all stood up and cheered for more at the end of the set.

Really worth seeing of you get the chance.

It is a pity that Gong and Yes clashed with Steve Hackett's tour in the North. I am tempted to drive down to Leamington Spa next week to catch the last show of this UK tour.