What concert did you attend in 2018?

An evening of brass at the RCM. The RCM Brass Ensemble with Nigel Black and Jack Pilcher May playing Walton's Spitfire & Fugue, Mozart's Horn Concerto No.3, some older short pieces by Riedl and Corelli, and then finally Mussorgsky's Pictures At an Exhibition arranged for brass by Elgar Howarth.

It was a most enjoyable concert, although our usual front row seats were probably a bit close for so much brass - we got quite a blasting at times!

The opener of Walton's Spitfire & Fugue was great to hear live, and earlier in the day I had been out walking the dog across the fields at home when we got buzzed by a Spitfire that regularly flies over us from Headcorn airfield.  Hearing its Merlin engine clawing through the sky is music in itself!

Saw Travis at the Regent, Ipswich, Suffolk this evening... great band, great music,  great atmosphere, great venue..

Clive B posted:

kuma posted:

I stopped following Tyner's work for a long time ( last album I picked up was Latin All Stars '99 release ) but nice to hear he's still playing.

I’m not sure how much longer he’ll be playing though. He’ll be 80 this year. His playing is fine but he moved very slowly and had to be helped down and up the stairs, which was sad to see. 

Pretty soon, Herbie is the only one standing from the real Mccoy Blue Note era...

He's 78 but last year he had more stamina than when he was younger jumping around with a hand held keyboard.

Just returned from the Dominion theatre.     Now I know what wouldn't be done for love.

Very talented performers and awesome set ups.

Last night we went with friends to hear Prokofiev's Romeo & Juliet played by the RCM Symphony Orchestra conducted by Howard Williams.  Much of the music is very familiar to many, particularly the opening Montagues & Capulets (thanks to that reality TV show), however, hearing it live and played by a full symphony orchestra, rather than as part fo the ballet, really does feel like listening to the music afresh.  

Opening the concert was an interesting piece; Bach's Harpsichord Concerto No.1 arranged for two Marmibas. Gina Hyungi Lee and Andre Camacho were the Marimba players supported by members of the RCMSO with Vicente Chavarria conducting. In places it was entrancing to watch and hear this otherwise familiar music take on a different feel altogether. The Marimbas were beautifully and skilfully played throughout.

My own.

June 29th and 30th Music Legends Festival 2018 in Bilbao, Spain. In order of appearance:

Mavis Staples, Wilko Johnson, Steve Winwood, John Cale, Glenn Hughes and Jeff Beck

2 bad shows (Wilko and Cale), 2 good to very good (Mavis and Hughes) and 2 great ones (Beck and Winwood). One amazing thing, none of them really look their age (well, maybe John Cale). I wonder how many more concerts/tours they have left... I hope a lot

Looking forward to next year`s festival

Roger Waters at the Glasgow SSE Hydro a couple of nights ago playing tracks from "Dark Side of the Moon", "Wish you were here" and "Animals" as well as a few tracks from his recent album "Is this the life we really want".

An impressive Battersea Power Station which appeared for the tracks from Animals, an amazing giant flying pig (no support lines or tethers) and lots of anti DT references - what more could you want? (apart from maybe Dave Gilmour, Rick Wright (RIP) and Dave Mason.)

Absolutely fantastic! 

Roger Waters, Manchester last night.  First he points me out in the crowd "Hey you!".......... then I meet him afterwards and shake hands. Class night.

Getting behind again! Good Friday, and it's off to 229 in Greast Portland Street for another show by those ageless old lags The Pretty Things. The usual mix of greasy R&B, psych and acoustic blues played with enormous energy and aplomb. It's said that they're jacking it in at the end of the year, which will be an enormous shame.

3rd April. to the tiny Lexington in King's Cross to see the Sun Ra Arkestra, led by the remarkable Marshall Allen (he's 94 and still touring, still blowing) perform two sets in front of a wildly appreciative crowd.

This is jazz at its most cosmic, most liberating and most messy - the music constantly threatens to collapse into chaos but never quite does.

Friday, April 6th... Back to the BBC (Balham Bowls Club, not the British Broadcasting Corporation) for an amazing set by Ese and her Vooduu People. They so got the crowd going that the band kept having to come back for encores - five in all, IIRC.

Setlist:

[Set 1] Lies - I Don't Mind - She Said (Plan B cover) - Police & Thieves (Junior Murvin cover) - Fairytale - A Change Gonna Come (Sam Cooke cover) - Peace of Mind - I Wanna Be Adored (Stone Roses cover) - Grey

[Set 2] Up in Smoke - I Cam't Feel My Face (The Weekend cover) - Alien - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Family Affair (Sly & The Family Stone cover) - Dynamite - Valerie (Amy Winehouse cover) - My Girl (Temptations cover)

[Encores] Silver Spoon - Fly Away (Lenny Kravitz cover) - Move on Up (Curtis Mayfield cover) - Smells Like Teen Spirit (Nirvana cover) - Crazy (Gnarls Barclay cover)

Sunday 8 April: To Brixton for a show by the wonderful Peter Parker's Rock & Roll Club. Husband and wife team Peter (guitar and vox) and Sakura (drums) specialise in super-catchy garage pop. For this show they were augemnted by occasional bassist Alfredo. The band have only just back into gigging after the birth of Peter and Sakura's first child. Baby Pheonix attends all the shows, strapped to his mum's back while she drums. Which is super-cute!

After the gig a chaotic jam, featuring Ese and the cream of Brixton talent, ensued.

Here's what PPRARC look and sound like:

E&TVP were due to play a how at The Founders Arms on the banks of the Thames on 12th April, but Ese was taken ill with a norovirus type thing, so we had to put together a last-minute replacement, Alex & The Vooduu People (Alex from Alex & The Wonderland, plus Pharoah and Basile).

Not quite the same thing, but the punters were satisfied.

Crystal Palace in South London has quite a fourishing music scene (there's even an annual festival, attended by 20,000-25,000 people), with plenty of bars, pubs, clubs and halls for up and coming bands to perform in.

There's an excellent bistro called Domali with a decent sound system, and on April 19th Ese & The Vooduu People played there, in order to test new material. The small crowd was very appreciative and the new stuff seemed to go down very well.

Setlist: 

[Set 1] New untitled song 1 - New untitled song 2 - I Don't Mind - Summer Breeze (Isley Bros/Seals & Crofts song) - Valerie (Amy Winehouse song) - Police & Thieves (Junior Murvin siong) - I Would Be The One (new song)

[Set 2] Up In Smoke - She Said (Plan B song) - Where Did I Go Wrong? - Dub - Family Affair (Sly & The Family Stone song) - Grey - Alien - Fairytale - New untitled song 3 - Peace of Mind - A Change Gonna Come (Sam Cooke song) - Silver Spoon - Crazy (Gnarls Barkley song) - I Can't Feel My Face (The Weekend song)

Retro-rockers The Blasters don't seem to play in the UK very often, so when someone offered me a ticket to see them at Under The Bridge (a venue actually under Chelsea FC's Stamford Bridge ground) on April 29th, I fair jumped at the chance.

They were, it has to be said, absolutely fantastic, with "Dark Night" outstanding in a corking set. Although I'm not too fussed about their records, live they are a revelation.

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Sarah Blasko is an artist I've heard of, but didn't really know. Someone had a spare ticket for her SRO gig at the Islington Assembly Hall in London on May 1. I was very pleasantly surprised. Just Ms Blasko and her piano and synth, she is a very decent songwriter with a good voice.  Reminded me a little of Goldfrapp. I must investigate her work in greater depth one of these days.

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A couple of great concerts on consecutive days at the SSE Hydro in Glasgow. 

A fantastic double bill of Bonnie Raitt followed by James Taylor & his band on Tuesday. I had seen Bonnie Raitt live before so I knew that both her band and her performance would be fantastic, but wasn't quite so sure about what to expect from James Taylor. I needn't have worried. He was very much more engaging as a person with the audience than I had expected & he played a wonderful set including both new and classic tracks. James also joined Bonnie for one of the tracks on her set and Bonnie Joined James and his band for a couple of encore numbers including a great cover of Chuck Berry's "Johnny B. Goode".  A wonderful and great value for money double bill.

Paul Simon's concert at the SSE Hydro on Wednesday got off to a slightly shaky start. His first number was a vocally fragile version of 'America', and I was initially worried that Paul might be unwell or that his singing voice had totally gone. Luckily things improved dramatically when he moved on to his more upbeat & more recent numbers, and his voice and his very engaging & witty rapport with the audience returned to exactly what I would have expected. I was initially a little disappointed that he focussed too much on his upbeat later catalogue to the exclusion of much of his earlier acoustic classic numbers, but I needn't have worried. Towards the end of his set he and his band played superb renditions of 'Diamonds on the soles of her shoes' and 'Graceland', and Paul returned to the stage on his own with his guitar for the second encore and gave us simple acoustic versions of some of his classic songs such as 'The Boxer', 'Sound of Silence' and 'Homeward Bound'. His singing voice perhaps isn't quite what it used to be, but that didn't matter at all. Just to get to hear such an iconic set of numbers on his farewell tour was more than good enough for me. A couple of very nice new numbers in the set as well. 

What a wonderful week!

Paul Simon yesterday in Hyde Park. A very special concert and he was wonderful. Yep, at 76 his voice isn't as perfect as it was but my goodness there were moments of incredible fragility and beauty throughout. His new arrangement of Bridge Over Troubled Water is stunning and one that he now owns rather than the one we all know and that he had let go to others. He was now taking it back. 

He was preceded by James Taylor and his fantastic band and Bonnie Raitt and hers. Ms Raitt rocked and after her recent illness showed she is recovered and then some. Mr Taylors band is very special. 

And Shawn Colvin was on her own before all of them and was again very special. Not often on these shores and although a short set was clearly delighted to be here too.

The sound was excellent through out and although other Hyde Park gigs have been a bit 'lost in the crowd' last nights were excellent. Just sorry I couldn't do Eric Clapton/Santana and in particular Steve Winwood'

The Kimpton folk festival.

Me and the mem sahib and a couple of friends were at Hyde Park last night (15/7/18) to see Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor and Paul Simon and it was awesome.  Just imagine in one night seeing James Taylor doing 'Fire and Rain' and Paul Simon doing 'The sounds of silence'.  Bonnie Raitt was pretty awesome too, I guess her and Ry Cooder are best slide guitarists still around, her playing is just so 'down and dirty'.

Great concert but boy was it hot!

Altan at the Centenary Centre, Peel, Isle of Man last Saturday (14/07/2018).

Superb musicians playing jigs and reels with real verve and drive.

They were ably supported by Ruth Keggin and Malcolm Stitt, who were so good as a support act that they were persuaded to come back out to perform an encore!

It was a really enjoyable night.

Lanesra posted:

Altan at the Centenary Centre, Peel, Isle of Man last Saturday (14/07/2018).

Superb musicians playing jigs and reels with real verve and drive.

They were ably supported by Ruth Keggin and Malcolm Stitt, who were so good as a support act that they were persuaded to come back out to perform an encore!

It was a really enjoyable night.

Altan are just great musicians, always a joy to hear them.

I’m lucky enough to be on holiday in New York and saw Radiohead at Madison Square Garden on Saturday night.  It was an outstanding show with a near-perfect setlist covering more or less their whole career.

For a minute there, I lost myself...

count.d posted:

It was Kuma. Being that close, transformed the experience into something very special I shall never forget.

I am simply not well-enough connected to get good concert tickets for big acts. I have given up on ever being able to see Radiohead again.