What was your last concert you went to ?

Saw Tosca at English National Opera on Saturday night - a great evening's entertainment.

Quote by Miles : "Fantastic concert - Adrian, Howard, where are the pics?"



The best of mine unfortunately not very good. Low light is my excuse.

John Mayer - Wembley Arena

Managed to get into the arena just as the support act was leaving the stage, which was just perfect. Musically the gig was everything I had hoped for, brilliantly varied and whilst Keith Carlock was largely wasted behind the drum kit, he played perfectly for the music.

John himself was great both musically and as an entertainer. I've been bitten in the past with large stadium gigs being very dull (Sting at the MEN springs to mind), but no issues here at all.

The venue itself suffers from pretty savage slapback off the rear wall, even with the curtains in place. Depending on the tempo of the song this varied between being quite cool and bloody irritating. Engineer had too much bass drum in the rig and the backing singers were a touch too loud, but other than that it was pretty faultless, and I'd always go for too loud over too quiet!

Billy Budd at Glydebourne on Saturday night - simply stunning.

Mark Knopfler at the Royal Albert Hall on 4 June. Really excellent concert, although poor MK had to perch on a tall chair owing to a trapped nerve in his back. Didn't seem to diminish his playing though. His band are all exceptional too. The sound was particularly good we thought.

Marcin Wasilewski Trio at The Sage Gateshead last night. Very tight trio. This is the second time I have seen them, very enjoyable. Took the wife a mate and Diccus of this very parish.

None of the band seem to speak much English, but as this was part of the Polish jazz week, I suspect there were quite a few in the audience that could have conversed with them in their native tongue.

Got a goody bag from the festival organizers when I purchased a CD, that contained amongst other things three free CD's. These included two volumes entitled Exploratory Music from Poland that I am working my way through now. Bit of a mixed bag, but some interesting stuff.

Regards

Nic

Just saw Kate Rusby at Bradford St Georges Hall.

Great musicianship and all very jolly. I do wonder what she could do with that voice and some contemporary material, just felt a bit of a well-worn groove of a set to me.

Bruce

Loud and Rich, (Loudon Wainwright III & Richard Thompson). Festival Hall 19/6/10. An excellent concert by 2 fine entertainers.
No pics too dark.

Just to add we also saw an hour of Fishermans Friends, in the foyer/ballroom before the RT gig. Most enjoyable sea-shanties and allied works.

Tord Gustavson Ensemble and Tomasz Stanko Quintet here in Vancouver at the Jazz Festival.

Really, really good. We enjoyed it a lot. A great double bill.

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Originally posted by munch:

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Originally posted by winkyincanada:
Tord Gustavson Ensemble and Tomasz Stanko Quintet here in Vancouver at the Jazz Festival.

Really, really good. We enjoyed it a lot. A great double bill.

Was that concert out doors?

Indoors. Second row seats.

Buddy Guy in Manchester around 3 hours ago, now that guy knows how to play a guitar....

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Originally posted by FlyMe:
Saw Tosca at English National Opera on Saturday night - a great evening's entertainment.

What was the production like? Last December we took our younger daughter (14) to her first opera, ENO Turandot, to find that the new production had set the action in a Chinese take-away...

A bit late in posting, cos I've been away a lot lately, but Friday June 18th, Empirical at Cambridge Junction 2 (the 'shed').

Performed music from the wonderful 'Out n In' album (Naim Label- details).

Two sets of almost an hour each, and they invited us all to meet them afterwards, speaking to each person who chose to take up that invitation in an engaged and interested way.

Fantastic music, great - and very talented - guys.

James

Kula Shaker The Garage Last night. Awesome!!!

Lucky s*d!

Err yeah it was quite good. Plenty of old stuff mixed with the new stuff which is very good.

Check this out for an example

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C0I84tsKDcU

Thanks for posting youtube link.

I've had the pleasure of seeing KS four times. The Cambridge Corn Exchange gig (PP&A tour) March 1999 was quite simply one of the best gigs I have ever been to in 30 years of gig-going, certainly in my top 5, possibly even top 3.

The other gigs have been in smaller venues, where in fact I think KS really excel in their reconstituted form. Hopefully we'll get a full UK tour after they've been out East again.

I have also seen KS a few times. I know they have never been particularly hip within the music press but that is their mistake. Saw them I guess a year or so back at Koko Club but apart from last Thursday's gig they were also great at 100 Club in 1999. I remember the date cos I still have the T-Shirt!!! Their first album is also one of my all time favourites.
Let's hope for a full UK Tour in small venues for early next year.

The XX at Somerset House last night.

They were excellent but the set was quite short - no new material, which I think may be a worry.

The vocals were a bit weak (they are on the LP too) but the songs flow well and they reached an excellent climax on the last song. Lighting simple but effective, ending with four spotlights shining through the smoke with their beams crossing to make 'XX'.

The 'support acts' were pretty rubbish though watched through the gaps between the umbrellas, but the rain stopped before The XX came on.

I went with seagull jr(21), I was one of the oldest there (one reason I like going to gigs with old codgers like Nick Lees, Simply Grim, DenisA etc. it makes me feel young ), he was amongst the youngest.

I hate London gigs though - ticket touts outside, the continual chatting throughout the set, counterfeit tee-shirts afterwards etc. (Their's isn't the most difficult logo to copy - a White X on a black background).

Last weekend I went to see the Pat Metheny Group at the Barbican.

A class act. Stupendous musicianship. Drumming beyond belief from Antonio Sanchez - he has to be as good as it gets.

The setlist was fabulous - all the old faves were there. Standing ovations from all in the house and when the houselights came on at the end, half the audience refused to budge and kept cheering and asking for more. The band duly obliged.

Pat is a genius and this was far better than his Orchestrion concert earlier this year. Worth every penny of the £65 ticket price.

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Worth every penny of the £65 ticket price.

Really sounds like a rip off, why should he command such a price?
We have just bought tickets for Mary Chapin Carpenter at the Barbican, £32 each including P&P and insurance.
Pat Metheny really rated twice as good or twice as costly to put on, as MCC?
We ain't going to pay anywhere near £65 for Richard T band in January either.
I wouldn't say so, but then I'm a tight wad when it comes to these things, but that £65 does sound a little over the top.

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Really sounds like a rip off, why should he command such a price?

I knew you would reply to that

Rip off, no way to see talent like that - that is the going rate in London for world class, multi million selling jazz musicians. You can charge more if you noodle John McLaughlin was the same price. The market thinks it is worth it.

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We have just bought tickets for Mary Chapin Carpenter at the Barbican, £32 each including P&P and insurance.

expensive if you ask me - I wouldn't pay it

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Pat Metheny really rated twice as good or twice as costly to put on, as MCC?

I rate him many more times as good as do many others - twice as costly, I doubt it but this is all about market value and MCC's market value is much lower than Pat's

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We ain't going to pay anywhere near £65 for Richard T band in January either.
I wouldn't say so, but then I'm a tight wad when it comes to these things, but that £65 does sound a little over the top.

I wouldn't pay £65 for RT but his big fans will and he will sell out. I am not a tight wad when it comes to things I have a real passion for and will always put my money where my mouth is. Have you been to the opera - an ordinary seat can be £200+ - they still sell out.

I see this as a VFM argument as apposed to who one likes (or not).

I just wonder how the pricing is arrived at.

Not sure there is a difference in the "popularity" levels between PMG, JM ,MCC or RT, not exactly the biggest sellers on any label, so I would think(in my tin pot way) is they would command around the same ticket cost, especially at the same venue.

It appears we have spend £42 for Tori Amos to-night, (Victoria Theatre) this is about the most I like to spend.
£200 is way way too much for opera IMHO, maybe with those sorts of prices it's no wonder people like me don't get opera, or even get to see/hear opera?

Howard,

It is not a VFM argument. Only you can decide what is VFM for you. YMMV and does.

This is about market worth, what the promoter has to pay Pat for his services - his market value that he is able to command, just like in the real life/world for jobs, cars, Naim hi-fi etc. These things all have diff market values for many reasons.

The promoter has to decide whether he wants to take Pat on that price and then whether he can sell the hall then or not.

There are a few artists in the jazz world that are jazz megastars (not rock megastars) - they can sell out a hall like the Barbican at £65 a ticket. Pat is one, Keith Jarrett is another as is Sonny Rollins who is selling tickets for his upcoming show at £75.

They sell out, so it is what the market will bear and there are enough people providing the demand that have made the decision that, for them this is personal VFM - I am one of them and would actually pay more if I had to - for PMG £65 is not my breaking point. For MCC £20 is, although I think she is a lovely talented lady.

Pat (and Keith soon) are now touring round all the jazz festivals of Europe selling to full houses at similar prices. You might be surprised just how big some of the jazz big league are in terms of consistent album sales over long time periods (35+ years for Pat and longer for Keith) and the desire of people to see them perform live. They don't sell as many as Take That, but a half/million seller album is not unknown.

As for opera, you can get some cheap seats if you sit at the back in London. Or try something locally where prices will be far cheaper and the music just as good. Operas are beautiful and a lovely way to spend an evening.

This might be a nice thing to see - Petworth Park Aug 6th, La Boheme or Aug 7th The Magic Flute. Two very nice, easy operas.

Tickets at £25 a piece - take a picnic and sit in the magnificent grounds listening to music. A lovely way to spend an evening.

Petworth Park