What was your last concert you went to ?

It was.

We had great seats fourth row, good sound.

C.

This last few weeks I have done 4 shows. Roger Hodgson Breakfast in America tour at the Royal Albert Hall - it was a fabulous evening and made me realise just how important all those old Supertramp albums are to me - loved it.

This was followed by Springsteen at Wembley - a good show spoiled by the dreadful echo of the stadium. Bruce gave it his all, the full Darkness set and loads of requests. The guy is the best by a mile and gives so much and enjoys it so much night after night.

Next Neil Young and Crazy Horse - too close for me to Bruce and quite frankly a huge disappointment (apart from Cinnamon Girl) and why did he stand behind that stupid "cartoon" microphone all the time and the rest of the time just congregate with his mates on stage - it lacked a lot IMHO.

Next up Bruce Springsteen and the 'You've just seen...the heart-stopping, pants-dropping, house-rocking, earth-quaking, booty-shaking, Viagra-taking, love-making -Le-gen-dary E - Street - Band!", this time at Coventry. No echo, a much better stadium for shows and a fantastic set, including a full rendition of the Born to Run album. Impossible not to be amazed and moved by this - one of the best Bruce shows I have seen. Loved it.

Tonight I am due to see Laura Marling at the Secret Cinema but a Sunday Roast and an evening in front of the system are too tempting - only so many concerts I can take in one week and I am still on a high from Bruce.

Steve Forbert at Backstage at the Green in Kinross, one of the best venues I've ever been in. Tiny, intimate (capacity 120 or so - why he's not playing stadiums I cannot understand).

However it means you can see one of the most talented musicians of the past 35 years in what's probably his best environment i.e. so close you can almost shake his hand while he's on stage.

A superb repertoire to draw on, relaxed witty stage patter and overall one of the most engaging, sincere performers you've ever seen. I wish I could have gone for a pint with him and then had him stay at ours.

Don't miss the opportunity if he's round your way.

Tame Impala Hammersmith Odeon yesterday.

Far out maaan

Blackmores Night, G-Live Friday 5th July. What a great show a super collection of musicians obviously having a great time, 2 1/2 of fun.

Support ,Revillion also really good, 2 piece, one on drums Oud/Basouki the other on English bagpipes and Hurdy Gurdy.

LittleS liked it too:-

"Awesome gig in Guildford with Blackmore's Night - great atmosphere - will definitely go and see them again next time they are back in UK - Thank you to a great group of musicians"

Hofesh Shechters' Political Mother at Sadlers Wells last night.  

OK - it's contemporary dance, but Sadlers Wells have taken the first 20 rows of seats out to give it more of a gig atmosphere, and the 24 strong band (mainly guitars and drums) play at very loud gig volume.

It's an absolutely extraordinary show.  The dancers and choreography are world class, the score, also written by Hofesh, mixes unrelenting Metal with baroque and Joni Mitchell.  Lee Currans lighting is up there with Spiritualized for intensity.  

While the music and the staging hit you between the eyes like a steamroller on speed, it's the choreography and the dancing that elevate this to something very special indeed.  Shechters trademark style is everywhere, one minute relaxed and loose limbed, the next all 16 dancers huddled together, moving as one, drilled to perfection.

I'd urge anyone who's not experienced contemporary dance to give Hofesh a go.  I've cajoled half a dozen dance newbies to see the show, all have been blown away.  

Going again tonight. Haven't been this excited by a gig since, er, about this time yesterday.

Mark

BTW: Sound quality last night was superb.  The sub bass speakers brought in for the performance were seriously shaking the building.  Not for the faint hearted (I saw a few early walk outs - usually a good sign!)

The Who, Wembley Arena, Monday 8^th July 2013

I managed to get a last minute ticket as I was down in London.

I have seen The Who a few times since the early 70’s and I must say this was the best. The stage set, lighting and sound quality were top class as were the projections,   film footages and stories presented.  Apparently the stage presentation was designed by Roger.  

The old shots of Lambrettas took me back to a certain period of my youth.

Roger, in particular, was on great form.

They played the full Quadraphenia set which isn’t my favourite Who LP but the story and sense of teenage angst really came across with Rain On Me one of the highlights. They also showed and played some great footage with Keith and John playing and singing along – sounds corny but came across really well.

The Who then followed all this by a few of their ‘hits’ and Won’t Get Fooled Again and Baby O’Riley were a real tour de force!

Glad I got that ticket and went!

Richard

The deleted picture from my previous post - Roger Daltrey:

Paloma FAith in Manchester, it was fantastic, she is quite the performer, would definitely see her again 

The Rolling Stones at Hyde Park last night - the last concert of the tour. They were brilliant. Keef is slowing down and has put on a bit of weight but his riffing is still world class.

Of the support bands, I was very impressed with Public Service Broadcasting.

Rolling Stones last night as well ... a memorable concert. 

Jonathan Agnew and Geoffrey Boycott in Nottingham at the Royal Concert Hall days before the first test.

The Longborough Ring Cycle.

It was actually a series of concerts - the North Sea Jazz Festival. Such a great festival with so many acts to choose from, that you always regret about missing out on something.

This year the Sunday was in my opinion too busy - crowd surfing.

Great concerts or parts of concerts:

Michiel Borstlap Trio - lyrical jazz, nice and exciting

Ibrahim Malouf - new to me, fresh sound in jazz mixing influences by adding a Arabic flavour

Next collective - more refreshing live then on record, as always Christian Scott exceptional

Chick Corea - pleasant surprise, combining old sounds and new sounds

E.S.T. Symphony - emotionally engaging, some sparkling moments

Talking Cows - refreshing different

Michel Camilo & Tomita - gooshbumps in the silent pieces, sometimes too much notes

Sting - solid, nothing unexpected

The Who at Wembley Arena- Superb

McCartney in Seattle at Safeco Field. Row ten on the field with wife and kids. Far exceeded my expectations. Did not want it to end. Thirty songs plus nine encore songs. Beautiful summer night, 80 degrees at start, moon rising over the stadium. Excellent audio, video, lighting, pyrotechnics. It's all my family talked about the next day! Wow. Hard to believe he is 71.

Goblin performing the soundtrack to Dario Argento's Suspiria live at the Civic. Quite a treat - Suspiria is a film that deserves a big screen for its art direction and cinematography and having a band playing the soundtrack live to a non-silent film explains how important their soundtrack was. And how often does one get to see Italian prog rockers from the 70s?

The mighty Goldfrapp last night at Somerset House in London.

Essentially a greatest hits set, with four songs ("Drew" being outstanding) from the forthcoming album.

Great sound, good lights, the usual friendly crowd, super atmosphere. Quite psychedelic. Lovely. Can't wait for the gig in November...

Setlist:

Neil Young and Crazy Horse in Biarritz, France

2 hours solid gold!

Bruce in Belfast on Saturday 20th July

Set list

1. This Little Light of Mine
2. The Ties That Bind
3. Jackson Cage
4. She’s the One
5. Reason to Believe
6. Johnny 99
7. Atlantic City
8. NEBRASKA
9. Prove It All Night (’78 intro)
10. We Take Care Of Our Own
11. Wrecking Ball
12. Death To My Hometown
13. The River
14. FADE AWAY
15. Open All Night
16.  Cadillac Ranch
17. Darlington County
18. Bobby Jean
19. Shackled and Drawn
20. Waiting on a Sunny Day
21. The Rising
22. Badlands
23. Rocky Ground
24. Born in the USA
25. Born to Run
26. Dancing in the Dark
27. Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out
28. Shout
29. This Little Light of Mine
30. Thunder Road (solo)

Good to see a fellow Bruce fan on here BlueKnowz 

I've just got back from 4 Bruce gigs over 6 days, Cardiff, Leeds and the 2 end of tour gigs at Kilkenny, all great gigs but as Bruce walked off stage on Sunday night in Kilkenny the realisation hit me that it was all over, looking around the pit there were many grown men looking pretty dejected, eyes welling up, faces that I had seen at many of the gigs throughout the last 2 summers, obviously they were feeling the same as me, when will we see Bruce again? will it be with the e-street band? will it ever be that good again?

This year alone I could easily pick my 3 best shows of all time from 70+ Bruce shows, I absolutely loved Wembley, Coventry, the last night at Kilkenny and then there was the magical night that was Cardiff, I still can't describe what was going on the night but it was very special indeed, then there was the 2nd night in Paris last year, all amazing shows.

I had seen most of my favourite Bruce songs live but 2 had always eluded me, Lost in a Flood and Thundercrack, needless to say Bruce delivered both in the last few weeks + we had classics like TV movie and Cynthia, songs I thought I'd never hear.

Although the tour is now over I am taking my mind of it a little by organising my Bruce day at my HiFi Lounge next weekend, so at least we have one more Bruce celebration to look forward to, please feel free to join us 

Here are a couple of pics that I took from the first night in Kilkenny -

Not exactly a concert, but we have just got back after watching the recording of a BBC Radio4 of Mastertapes episode with Natalie Merchant talking about and playing songs mainly from featured Tiger Lily album, she also debuted a new song too and played a couple of other songs. She has a very dry sense of humour and writes really sad songs, plenty of people "with something in their eyes" was noted by her.

Paul Gambaccini, Bob Harris  and Joe Boyd in the audience too.

Many thanks to John for the opportunity.

Tonight another not quite a concert. It was a live broadcast from the V&A shown in various cinemas country wide. It finishes up the very successful record breaking exhibition Davis Bowie is.......?

An excellent 90 mins on a unique individual, learned a lot and was surprised at what David did and how much of his stuff he kept and has allowed to be used to form the David Bowie Archive.

Oooh! Can you supply a few more details Howard? Was it a doc, live footage...?

Cheers

K

Hi Kevin it was a live broadcast from V&A covering the now closed David Bowie Is.........? exhibition.

Occurring to the hand out selected cinemas will be repeating this show until 20th Aug.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/a...onwide-cinema-event/

Maybe the link will help, if it gets wiped, mail me, addy in profile.