Your 2014 Concerts

Congrats, Bart. I hope you enjoyed the show as much as my family and I did. The Albany show?

Neil young and Crazy horse in mönchengladbach, front of Stage, my wife had tears in her eyes to hear and to see them so near, Great, Great concert!!!!!!

Yes Randy that was the Albany show.  VERY enjoyable, and a thrill for me as my wife has been a huge Beatles fan her entire life and she'd never seen Macca live.  (I've seen him a few times starting in the mid-1990's.)  She was worried that he'd appear old and ruin her image of him; I knew she was wrong about that and she agreed after the show!  We highly highly enjoyed the show.

I just acquired tickets to Neil Young solo in Boston -- "pit" seats in the 4th row.  I saw him last winter solo in New York, but he's one of those artists like most of us who won't be around forever.

If only he wasn't quite so cranky on stage.  But he does genuinely appear to enjoy performing, despite said crankiness.

This evening jazz at the lake, close to my home. With German Jazz stars...., let's see

Thanks. I appreciate it.

Next up for me is Rab Noakes and followed by Kate Rusby. We don't get many decent acts coming our way.

Thanx for the link, One of the best concerts i've ever seen, and very relaxed and mixed audium! People from 8(?) to 70!

Just got tickets from pre-sale for Ryan Adams - Manchester - Albert Hall. Should be another special Manchester night from Ryan.

3rd July - Stevie Wonder at the Rockhal, Esche-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg. Despite an alarming "ballad sag" midway through, a better set and performance than the one on Clapham Common a few days previously, but again the sound was poor. This may be because the Rockhal is a bit of a barn (although when I saw Massive Attack there five years ago, they were fine).

Setlist:

*  How Sweet It Is (To Be Loved by You)
*  Master Blaster (Jammin')
*  Higher Ground
*  Maybe Your Baby
*  You and I
*  Lately
*  Overjoyed
*  Ebony and Ivory
*  Don't You Worry 'bout a Thing
*  Living for the City
*  Part-Time Lover
*  Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours
*  Sir Duke
*  I Wish
*  You Are the Sunshine of My Life
*  My Cherie Amour
*  I Just Called to Say I Love You
*  Superstition

We very much enjoyed seeing Shahim Novrasli at Templin Jazz in Avignon two nights ago. It was even better because I'd never heard of him and only realised the festival was on as we wandered to the hotel from the train and saw a poster on the way. So no preconceptions whatsoever. We bought tickets from fnac and tipped up for the concert. After a delay due to. A torrential downpour it went ahead, and was simply stunning.

Next up is A Winged Victory for the Sullen on 17 October in Brighton, followed by a deferred Martin Carthy gig in Havant in November.

Eels, at Barbican Centre, 24th July.

Thanks to the quickfire efforts of my mate, we managed to get third row, dead centre tickets for an evening of what Mark E described as "slow sad bummer rock". They were great - best I've ever seenthem I think, and the band came back for about six encores! Sound was superb, as were the backing band. Bizarrely, E was presented with the Freedom of the City of London, becoming the first ever rock singer to be awarded this honour.

Setlist:

1. Where I'm At
2. When You Wish Upon a Star (yes that one!)
3. The Morning
4. Parallels
5. Where I'm From
6. A Line in the Dirt
7. It's a Mother****er
8. Daisies of the Galaxy
9. Lockdown Hurricane
10. Agatha Chang
11. A Daisy Through Concrete
12. Fresh Feeling
13. I Like Birds
14. My Beloved Monster
15. Grace Kelly Blues
16. Gentlemen's Choice
17. Mistakes of My Youth
18. Where I'm Going
19. That Look You Give That Guy
20. ****er
21. Last Stop: This Town
22. 3 Speed
23. Jennifer Eccles (a very poignant cover of the old Hollies number)
24. Turn On Your Radio  (cover of the Harry Nilsson tune)

Burt Bacharach, Symphony Hall, Birmingham last week. Superb and not unlike his live at Sydney Opera house Cd.

A sort of gig - I went to the Faber Social on Monday for the launch of Future Days, my friend David Stubbs' book on Krautock. After a screening of the famous film of Can's 1972 free concert in Koln, and an author Q&A, we were treated to "Krautrock Karaoke", a selection of tunes by Can ("I'm So Green". "Uphill", "You Doo Right" etc) and Neu! ("Fur Immer", "Hallogallo", "Leb Wohl", "Negativland" etc) performed by a floating pool of musicians including Colin Newman (Wire).

Ear-spilttingly, arse-quakingly loud, and thoroughly enjoyable.

Winky -- more cellphones at concerts in the news.  Reports of Peter Frampton having an unpleasant cell phone encounter with patrons hit the news yesterday.  Google it up

Eric Bibb at the Fringe by the Sea in North Berwick on Tuesday. Joyous!

Only a few months away!

Pollini willl be back ( hopefully ) with Schumann and Chopin program.

Really looking forward to this.

• Schumann Arabesque
• Schumann Kreisleriana
• Chopin Sonata No. 2 in B-flat Minor
• Chopin Berceuse
• Chopin Polonaise No. 6 in A-flat Major, Op. 53

Urban Voodoo Machine at th O2 islington in september. Mucho looking forward to this gig.

Have seen them before and they are outstanding in every respect.

Donald

Tedeschi Trucks Band

September 11th

Saenger Theater, Mobile Alabama

Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers ( with Steve Winwood in support - though who ever mixed his vocals needed to be flogged ) at the Saddledome, Calgary last night.  The place was rocking.

Some heavy duty Frappage last night at the Greenwich Music Time festival in the stunning surroundings of the Old Naval College in Greenwich. Behind the stage lay the Thames, and beyond that, the glittering lights of Canary Wharf and The Shard.

It was a chilly night, but Alison (dressed rather skimpily given the temperature) and the band soon got everyone warmed up with a stonking (if slightly truncated) set:

1  Jo
2  Drew
3  Alvar
4  Annabel
4  Clay
5  Yellow Halo
6  Little Bird
7  You Never Know
8  Thea
9  Number 1
10  Ride a White Horse
11 Train

Encore:
12  Utopia
13 Clowns
14 Lovely Head
15 Strict Machine

The sound - mixed by Will, it was rumoured - was absolutely superb, as clear as a bell and pleasingly multi-dimensional. The light show was great as well. Alison herself was in magnificent voice, demonstrating her full range, particularly on "Stranger" and "Lovely Head". Highlights for me were a spine-tingling "Clowns", the gorgeously lush "Yellow Halo" and a psychedlicised "Little Bird", which seems to get more epically Floydian every time they play it.

I hope this new festival (it was the Aussie Pink Floyd on Wednesday night, the LSO Friday and Jools Holland's All-Star Band on Saturday) becomes a fixture. It was a highly civilised affair, with a good audience mix of peacock gays, glam lesbians, chin-stroking musos, electro-moshers, hardcore Frappheads like me, middle-aged popsters and a few curious locals. Hell, they even had a "gin chalet", a champagne tent and a pulled pork stall.

So lucky to get tickets to Kate Bush at Hammersmith Apollo. I've never seen such an incredible, emotional and truly amazing performance. I can use the word amazing and mean it. The whole audience were deadly silent throughout and I didn't see one phone camera go up. I think everyone was mesmerised. Hard to describe the shear brilliance unless you have been (or go), I now wonder if an artist standing there churning out hit after hit in front of me, is going good enough in the future. She's in a different class. Truly superb.

Steve Hackett at The Lowry in November