What concert did you attend in 2018?

The Crystal Palace Festival is a great free one-dayer held in Crystal Palace Park each summer. This year's event, held on July 16th, was headlined by the mighty Stereo MCs. However, Ese & The Vooduu People were invited to play earlier in the afternoon, which they did (with replacement drummer Weiland, as Pharoah was on tour in America with someone or other).

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the backstage area, drinking free beer/wine and scoffing BBQ chicken...

Setlist: Alien - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Family Affair (Sly Stone song) - I Don't Mind - Grey - Up In Smoke - Peace of Mind - Police & Thieves (Junior Murvin song) - Silver Spoon

I have to admit that 'Wooden Ships' are a new band to me and I love a bit of pissquickdelic too.  The only 'Wooden Ships' I knew of was the Jefferson Airplane track that was later covered by Crosby, Stills & Nash on their first album (I think).

I had a little listen to these guys on Spotify and I love 'em - so thanks for mentioning them.  They do sound like any bands from the last 60s, early 70s but what the hell that was great stuff.  Yeah we want a psychedelic & prog rock revival and we want it now!  

Kevin-W posted:

The Crystal Palace Festival is a great free one-dayer held in Crystal Palace Park each summer. This year's event, held on July 16th, was headlined by the mighty Stereo MCs. However, Ese & The Vooduu People were invited to play earlier in the afternoon, which they did (with replacement drummer Weiland, as Pharoah was on tour in America with someone or other).

Everyone thoroughly enjoyed the backstage area, drinking free beer/wine and scoffing BBQ chicken...

Setlist: Alien - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Family Affair (Sly Stone song) - I Don't Mind - Grey - Up In Smoke - Peace of Mind - Police & Thieves (Junior Murvin song) - Silver Spoon

I love that venue, Kev. I used to walk up from my home on College Road via Fountain Drive and across the road to take in some great outdoor gigs at the Palace over a few decades. 

Big Bill posted:

I have to admit that 'Wooden Ships' are a new band to me and I love a bit of pissquickdelic too.  The only 'Wooden Ships' I knew of was the Jefferson Airplane track that was later covered by Crosby, Stills & Nash on their first album (I think).

I had a little listen to these guys on Spotify and I love 'em - so thanks for mentioning them.  They do sound like any bands from the last 60s, early 70s but what the hell that was great stuff.  Yeah we want a psychedelic & prog rock revival and we want it now!  

Cheers Bill, go and get some of their albums. While we're at it I would highly recommend Ripley's side project Moon Duo I'll probably play some of their stuff late tonight or tomorrow evening. ATB Steve

26th June - to Hammersmith Odeon (or the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo as I suppose we must call it these days) to see Jack White.

Gotta hand it to Mr White. Not only did he turn in a brilliant two-hour set that night, but the gig was the first I've been to in years which wasn't ruined by wankers filming it with their mobiles.

Everyone who attended the gig had to put their phone in a lockable pouch, which was released after the show finished.

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Kevin-W posted:

 

26th June - to Hammersmith Odeon (or the Eventim Hammersmith Apollo as I suppose we must call it these days) to see Jack White.

Gotta hand it to Mr White. Not only did he turn in a brilliant two-hour set that night, but the gig was the first I've been to in years which wasn't ruined by wankers filming it with their mobiles.

Everyone who attended the gig had to put their phone in a lockable pouch, which was released after the show finished.

This meant that everyone who was there could concentrate on enjoying the show, instead of watching it through a screen.

Now, can we have more artists following his example please?

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Oh, yes. Wouldn't it great if that was adopted as standard practice for all concerts.  

As anyone who's been there will tell you, the Union Chapel in Islington in North London is an absolutely beautiful venue with great sound, so it was an ideal place to see Bugge Wesseltoft, Dan Bergland and Henrik Schwartz doing their post-EST jazztronica. Great trancey show with good lights.

Union Chapel is one of the nicest venues I've been to. Saw Suzanne Vega perform their.  The roof is fabulous. The only thing I didn't like, as I have a skinny bum, is the hardness of those pews! Would still go again, though. 

 On July 6th it was off to Hyde Park to catch another date on Chuckles' intimate club tour. With an RW show, it doesn't matter where you sit or stand - in fact, the further away from the stage you are, the better. Because then you get to see all the trickery, and to be honest, who wants to watch a grizzled 74 year old (as he was then)?

 We were quite a way back (there were about 65,000 - 70,000 there) but in the middle of the sound system.

After the usual ambient preamble, the band got underway. The start was slightly marred by a) it still being light and b) the first couple of numbers being a bit quiet.

However after that it was go all the way - particularly outstanding were "Pig", "Dogs", "Welcome to the Machine" and "Smell The Roses" and "Picture That" from his last solo album.

The band was excellent and the sound was absolutely jaw-dropping. Someone I know who's in the live sound business told me afterwards that it was the biggest sound system ever assembled in the UK. It was completely immersive and absolutely flawless, with the trademark sound FX whizziing around one's head. Three moments particularly struck me: "Welcome To The Machine", during which the ground at Hyde Park actually shook; the synth/vocodered dogs section of "Dogs" which was just about the most immersive thing I've ever heard at a concert; and after the interval, a huge Battersea Power Station started emerging from the earth, first on the screens, then physically from behind the set. This was accompanied by a rumbling/cracking sound that - literally - felt like an earth tremor, thanks to that remarkable sound system.

The visuals were pretty amazing too - super hi-def video, lasers, fireworks, drone-controlled pigs and other props.

Waters' shows are unusual in that the bigger they are, the better they are. Thanks to his embracing of cutting-edge tech, his commitment to 'electronic theatre' and his 50 years' worth of experience with the Floyd and beyond, e seems to have the mega-show market pretty much sewn up.

Interestingly, this 'Us & Them' show seems to work better outdoors than in (daylight permitting).

Downsides? Well, apart from the slightly slow beginning, there ws the curse of the mobile phone (I didn't take any of the pictures in this post, I knicked them all off the internet) and the rather beery crowd RW seems to attract these days.. The segment of stuff from Is This The Life We Really Want? lost a large element of the crowd (as did a lot of the more ovrtly political stuff), although I enjoyed it and would applaud its inclusion.

This was my thirteenth time of seeing Chuckles solo and I think it was the best. If Us & Them comes to yor part of the world and this kind of show floats your boat, I recommend going to see it.

There's a rumour going round that RW will be occupying the headline 'Legends' slot at Glasto next year, which could be a canny choice by the organisers.

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Excellent and interesting write-up, Kevin, which makes me want to see Mr Waters perform live.  

MDS posted:

Excellent and interesting write-up, Kevin, which makes me want to see Mr Waters perform live.  

Seconded, it seems like a great gig and the sound seems to have been tremendous. 

Yesterday morning my wife said she fancied going to a concert in the evening. A search on the ipad turned up a few possibilities that didn’t involve traipsing up to London. Two folkies we’d never heard of, one of which turned out to be a crooner when located on Utube, a female rock band called Never the Bride who I’d have been delighted to see at a bike rally but they were rejected, that left Sheku Kanneh Mason at Dorchester  (unsurprisingly sold out) and Junko Kobayashi at the Holywell Music room in Oxford. I didn’t take any pictures but here’s an image of it somewhat fuller than it was yesterday.

This was an early evening recital:

MOZART, Piano Sonata in B flat major, K570
BEETHOVEN, Piano Sonata no. 14 in C sharp minor "Moonlight", Op.27 no.2
CHOPIN, Nocturne no. 17 in B major, Op.62 no.1
CHOPIN, Impromptu in A flat major, Op.29
CHOPIN, Ballade no. 1 in G minor, Op.23

The venue is a rather small by modern standards but it’s old enough that George Frideric Handel has performed there. The piano was rather too modern for the Mozart making for a rather weighty impression. It was better in the Beethoven and Junko had warmed up a bit as this was much more enjoyable but when it came to the Chopin the way she inhabited the music put the performance on a different level, to adapt a hifi cliche the piano just got out of the way. I’ve yet to listen to the CD I bought on the way out to hear if anything of that can survive the recording process and replay on the ND555.

Quite a bit it seems.

Hmmmmm...

Jason Mraz -  Feb. in Niagara Falls

Roseanne Cash - Feb. at the Burlington Performing Arts Center

Jonathon Wilson - Feb. at a little club in Toronto

Cowboy Junkies - May at Massey Hall in Toronto

Whitehorse - April at a little club in Oshawa

Dead and Company - 4 shows in June / July...  Camden NJ,  Knoblesville IN, The Gorge in WA state, and in Eugene OR

Tash Sultana - July in Toronto

Blue Rodeo and other bands too numerous to mention - Riverfest - Elora Ontario

Other stuff on the books for the remainder of the year...

Ray Lamontagne - Oct. in Hamilton

Dark Star Orchestra - Oct. in Detroit

John Butler Trio - Nov. in Toronto

3 nights of Dead and Company on the beach in Mexico... Jan. 2019

Off to see Biffy Clyro unplugged at the Royal Albert Hall tomorrow night. An anniversary present for my wife. We are in the 6th row so hope to get a decent picture or two. Last time we saw them they were supporting Foo Fighters and they came close to upstaging Dave Grohl, so have high expectations.

My wife and I just went to see the Chick Corea Trio in St. Louis at a dinner club. I sat two tables away from direct view of the keyboard. Chick never disappoints and we loved the show.

In December I'll see see Hot Tuna, also in a small venue.

30th July, to Oval Space near Bethnal Green in London, to see the great Terry Riley (keyboards) and his son Gyan on guitar. Mesmerising stuff, as one might expect. Riley Sr is a quite breathtaking pianist.

Bumped into Denis of this forum, and bought a couple of CDs.

https://media.gettyimages.com/...picture-id1007925084

It was a short set, the penultimate one of the day, but Ese & The Vooduu People's set at the Tooting Folk & Blues Festival (2nd August, a glorious sunny Saturday) was an absolute monster. For energy, commitment and audience response (a crowd of about 3,500 people) it was just about the best gig I have ever seen them do.

Setlist: I Don't Mind - Fairytale - Up In Smoke - Grey - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Alien - Silver Spoon

CAVENDISH ARMS STOCKWELL 10th AUGUST 2018

Headline band was Pleasure Barge (above), a decent five-piece from Manchester. They all wore dresses onstage and bought quite an audience with them.

Support was Ese and her Vooduu People, with new backing singer Sheena.

Setlist - Alien / I Don't Mind / Grey / Up in Smoke / Peace of Mind / Where Did I Go Wrong / Dub / Family Affair / Silver Spoon

Couple of very nice solos from Ese on this particular night...

16th August - off to one of my very favourite venues, the Union Chapel in Islington, to see the mighty Sun Ra Arkestra under the leadership of Marshall Allen - still blowing his sax and twiddling his knobs at the age of 94 (we were informed that he has a brother aged 99, so the genes must be pretty hardy in that family).

It was the usual transcendant mix of hypnotic space-jazz and big band swing, often teetering on the edge of chaos but always pulled back from the brink.

Barbarella's Bang Bang, led by Barbara Pugliese, are a multi-national band who have built up quite a following in London pubs and clubs for their energetic live sets, which are characterised by a habit of chucking just about anything at the wall and seing if it sticks. I quite liked them when I saw them in Deptford on 17th August at The Bird's Nest, they reminded me a bit of Lene Lovich (they even did a cover of "Lucky Number").

But I liked the support act even more (I'm biased of course). With stand-in drummer Chrisy Finn, Ese & The Vooduu People did a short but extremely powerful set, thus:

Fairytale - I Don't Mind - Up In Smoke - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Family Affair - Grey - Silver Spoon

1st September - back to the Rebel Inn in luverly St ratham, SW16. Still buzzing from the sessions at RAK Studios for their debut album, Ese, Basile, Pharoah and Sheena did another storming two-set show.

Set 1: Keep On - Alien - Up In Smoke - I Don't Mind - Change Is Gonna Come (Sam Cooke song) - Fairytale - Peace of Mind

Set 2: She Said (Plan B song) - Grey - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Hotel California/Family Affir (Eagles/Sly Stone songs) - I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses song) - Lies - Police & Thieves (Junior Murvin song) - Untitled - Silver Spoon - Fly Away (Lennie Kravitz song)

Sunday, September 9th, and to Den Atelier, a really cool 1,200 capacity venue in, of all places, Luxembourg, to see Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets. A great show - they'd expanded the setlist since the UK dates in May, and the band had gotten a lot tighter.

It was a teriffic gig, with a really responsive audience that seemed to be from all over - US, Romania, Holland, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and, in the shape of me, the UK. Highlights of the set included the appearance of "Vegetable Man", a heavy "Funky Dung", a wild "Set the Controls" and "A Saucerful of Secrets" which caused a mass singalong by the audience of the choral "Celestial Voices" section (see video above).

Mr Mason was very pleased with this, as the pic below demonstrates:

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Monday 24th September, to London's famous Roundhouse to see Mr Mason again. The same setlist as in Luxembourg, but the event was on a much bigger scale.

Superb sound, and "Set the Controls for the Heart of the Sun" was astonishing, full of intensity and noise. I also really enjoyed a furious "One of These Days". Good to see [@mention:1566878603966915] of this forum there as well.

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