Music Reviews 2011

The Unthanks

St James, Piccadilly

The Levellers

Brixton O2 Academy

Seeing The Unthanks earlier this year at Shepherds Bush was a revelation. Their fragile music was far away from their clog-dancing personas that I had seen on TV last Christmas. It took no persuasion to see them again, especially in the glorious Wren setting of St James Piccadilly for their launch of the new album featuring the songs of Anthony & the Johnsons and Robert Wyatt. It was easier to envisage the Anthony songs, given that his own work is equally gossamer but the more pugnacious jazz of Wyatt seemed a more intriguing choice.

Having discovered that Unthanks fans are pretty serious we should have taken the precaution of arriving before the doors opened. Arriving at the advertised time saw us at the end of a queue stretching way down Piccadilly and relegating us to the balcony. Lovely view of the church, less good view of the band (band? Orchestra, I think as it featured a string quartet, piano, accordion, trumpet and drums). More seriously, the very echoes which gave the sound a gloriously live feel downstairs rendered parts of the works unintelligible in the balcony, and we lost all the banter. A long story frequently led to sustained laughter downstairs and bemused silence upstairs. So to that extend, despite its superb location, it was also a disappointment. I would take some persuading to go back to this for another concert.

They did Anthony before the break and Wyatt after, and perhaps surprisingly, I felt more comfortable with the Jazz section. The Anthony songs were much more a cover, while the reworking of some of the Wyatt songs I knew was absolutely brilliant. Much of the second part was better defined as contemporary classical music; one song, (obviously I never caught the title) was an instrumental and quite brilliant. Equally needless to say, each and every arrangement was superb.

The CD (£10 on the night, not bad!) I have already played numerous times. Recorded in the Union Chapel it is equally very live, but I am transported to the front row and can hear everything clearly. It is an absolutely wonderful CD and if you are prepared to listen to music which really belongs no-where and has no parallels, thoroughly entertaining. Or try and catch them on this tour; but be warned. Turn up early and get to the front!

And so to Brixton for our final gig of the year. We have deliberately eschewed the larger venues, largely because of the unpleasantness of attending Brixton. However it is still a place that builds atmosphere, and I have to say that the sight lines from the standing section were really pretty good.

I won’t spend too much time on this. It was the identical set to which The Levellers closed Beautiful Days (see below) with slightly worse sound but an even better atmosphere. On a bitterly cold night it was a great evening, thoroughly enjoyable and lapped up by the adoring faithful. As good a way to finish one of hte best years of live music in recent memory.

www.the-unthanks.com/

www.levellers.co.uk/www/en/home/

Manic Music Month

Sean Taylor, Jagz Ascot

Blockheads, Boileroom Guildford

Our last two gigs of this manic month were festival repeats. We picked up on the excellent Sean Taylor at Beautiful Days and were keen to see him in a more intimate environment. Jagz at Ascot was certainly that. This is the venue attached to the pub where Ken Bain plays at ‘open mic’ nights, and it is very.... provincial? Aside from Ronnie Scott’s I don’t tend to go to music venues sitting at cabaret tables complete with table cloths. Still, it did do real ale, the sound was good and we were just a few feet from the stage. A tiny audience had turned out to see the show, but if Taylor was disappointed by the turnout, he certainly didn’t show it, greeting us all with thanks for turning out on a Wednesday night to see live music.

Sean Taylor was good in the large Big Top, but seen up close he was mesmeric. I had failed to realise how bewilderingly good he is as a guitarist. Ken and I spent most of the set just trying to figure out how on earth he was doing things. He is a US style singer-songwriter and yet anchored in London (he claims to be from Kilburn but under close questioning from Amanda she reckons he is more St John’s Wood!). He sings in a slightly croaky sub voice, a delivery slightly reminiscent of Tom Waits. His lyrics are sharp, the tunes strong the delivery superb. The man deserves bigger audiences than this.

Two days later and it was time for The Blockheads for the third time in three months. First there was the main stage at Beautiful Days, then the cosy WeyFest. Friday saw us at The Boileroom, a pub five minutes walk from us in Guildford and – as I hope you can see from the photo - possibly even tinier than Cranleigh Arts Centre! So it was Blockheads close up and raw. We were instantly won over by the Boileroom’s atmosphere. Similar to the Half Moon, but with a cleaner floor and a younger audience. Hussey’s voice was in great form, and the band were running at full speed from the first moment. There was even a new song I didn’t recognise. Over the years we have been seeing them, the Blockheads set list has included fewer and fewer Ian Dury songs. These days the old material is very much in the minority, and they have the confidence to showcase their newer stuff. You’ll always have Reasons to be Cheerful, or Wake Up and Make Love, but this is a real band going about its business in full vigour. Great band, great venue, great evening.

Dr Feelgood – Half Moon, Putney

Otello, Electric Theatre, Guildford

Rhythm Kings, GLive, Guildford

Pretty Things, Cranleigh Arts Centre

November is just a mad month for us. Excluding festivals, we will have seen more bands in November that the rest of the year put together. Hence the amalgamated reviews!

The next set of musical experiences started a week after the fabulous Wilco set at the Roundhouse. The venue was a complete opposite, the sweaty, sticky back of a pub that is still the Half Moon in Putney, a legendary rock venue. We were there to revisit Dr Feelgood. And what a fine place to do so! Small, packed, loud, with lead singer Robert Kane, sporting a fine attitudinal glare and Steve Walwyn providing stunning riffs. Actually, the vibe was so positive even Kane’s frown softened as the crowd sang heartily back at the band. It is basic rock and blues music, and as good as anyone around. Great sound, great vocals, fabulous guitar. I could do a gig like that every night of the week if I could!

Tuesday night we were back in Guildford at the Electric Theatre to see what Guildford Opera were like. How good an opera do you get for £16 a ticket? The answer is a small and adequate orchestra, if a little scratchy on the quiet bits, a decent enough chorus and some astonishingly good soloists. We had some discussion about this on Facebook and I am happy to agree with Geoff Challinger that unless you are actually a world class and successful opera singer there is just no money it. So exceedingly high class singers are prepared to make money at a day job and sing at places like Guildford in the evening. It works for us!

Otello was Verdi’s penultimate composition and while I have never heard it, at least I knew the plot! There are rather more peasant drinking scenes than Shakespeare imagined, and Iago is undeniably the villain, holding centre stage and almost literally pulling the strings. The conventions of opera allow him to recommend Casio to talk to Desdemona, while then turning to the audience to tell them what a disaster this will be. Iago was excellently sung by Jonathon Barry, and Otello himself had a glorious and powerful Tenor voice. There were just half a dozen notes across the evening where he strained. Ludovico was a smaller part, but James Davis gave him a great quality of voice; a joy to listen to. But the star was undoubtedly Cara McHardy’s Desdemona. She was just fabulous. Note perfect, powerful, subtle and even an amount of acting. Frankly, despite the caveats above, once the principals got going I forgot about the defects. A really good night out.

Two days later, and a little further up the High Street, we were at GLive for Bill Wyman’s Rhythm Kings. I recall that a couple of years ago I decided Rhythm Kings was the best gig of the year, but having just declared Wilco as possibly the best in the world, how do they compare? I suppose the difference is that while Wilco are creating new work, pushing their boundaries further, Rhythm Kings are more musicologists. There is more that a touch of similarity between the Folk purists Waterson Carthy and Bill Wyman’s band. In general I didn’t know the tracks played, but each is given its full history before the perform it, who, when, what, where. Rhythm Kings are preserving not inventing.

The line up is suitably elderly, the talent on display awesome. Wyman, Georgie Fame, Albert Lee and Beverly Skeete were supported by Martin Taylor, Graham Broad, Frank Meade and Nick Payne. They play blues, gospel, R&B, country blues, a touch of soul, a bit of jazz.....  Material from Ray Charles is always prominent as well as the more obvious suspects such as Howling Wolf or Muddy Waters. Every number is simply superb. But Wyman likes a surprise guest or two. Last time it was the charismatic Eddie Floyd, this time we got Mary Wilson, who claimed to be 67 but looked 30 years younger and who happily flirted with the entire crowd while performing Baby Love, Stop in the name of Love and Stormy Weather as a duo with Georgie Fame. This was no token, tired, average churning out of material which surely she got sick of decades ago. These were sharp, exciting, vivacious renderings. In the second half Gary Booker joined the band for a few numbers including rather fine Whiter Shade of Pale. There was time for Bill Wyman to take centre stage (not something he does often) for Honky Tonk Woman. Words fail me really. This was just such good music, brilliantly played by a bunch of musicians doing it purely for fun. As Wyman said during the intro, leaving the Stones and forming Rhythm Kings was not a good career move!

A day’s break and it was down to the Cranleigh Arts Centre for some more aged bluesters, The Pretty Things. A tiny but highly civilised venue, close enough to the stage for great pictures, Paul Jones somewhere in the audience and a very blues oriented set list from the band in particularly good humour. Pretty Things have never been anything other than excellent when we have seen them, but I think this was a particularly superb set. Just a great evening to finish another 8 days of live music.

A Weekend in Three Parts

Wilco – The Roundhouse

The 16 – Guildford Cathedral

Rev. Peyton Big Damn Band - Cargo

I see that it is increasingly common for Wilco to be referred to as ‘the best live rock band in the world.’ While we don’t do quite enough gigs to support that definitively, they are by far the best band we see on any sort of regular basis. They are phenomenally powerful, technically astonishing and play sets of proven winners to adoring fans. Two band members stand out as exceptional. Nils Cline the guitarist is a phenomena. He has half a dozen guitars, a suite of pedals and his own mixing desk on stage. Such technical proficiency seems strange when allied to his eccentric, violent and demented playing style. A Cline guitar solo may be a thing of beauty or an awesome assault of unimaginable power. Feedback is just another controllable feature in his armoury.  Drummer Glenn Kotche is also phenomenal. Yes, he can hammer his way through the cacophony, but he uses brushes often, can play the most subtle riffs, happy to shake a rattle or explode into action. At no stage is the drumming ‘ordinary’. This is not to say that the other band members aren’t equally exceptional, but these two stand out at a live event like this. The leader, of course is Jeff Tweedy. His songs are the lynchpin, but he is also the controlling force. At the finale, as the band hurled itself around the stage in an orgy of chaotic cacophony during Dawned on Me, Tweedy remained calm at the centre, simply indicating to the drummer when it was time to move on. He is generally at the acoustic centre of things, singing strongly in a slightly sub-Dylan manner (is he getting more like Dylan, or was it just his hat?). Jeff is famously reticent with audiences, but for me struck a nice balance here, with a few friendly comments. Generally, though, the band moves swiftly and hurriedly on, giving the impression they just have so much good music to play.

The last two albums have been good but unexceptional, quite easy listening. Hearing the songs live is a different thing entirely. Wilco were confident enough to start with a track from the new album, Art of Almost, a long, interweaving suppressed version which is already way ahead of the recorded version. Songs which are pleasant and easy listening on CD become challenging masterpieces when played live. They are a really fine live band.

There was even a surprise at the encore when Tweedy brought on Rob Lowe for a version of ‘Gotta be Cruel to be Kind’ to rapturous applause. The Wilco audience seems impossible to characterise. Almost as many women as men, and around us anyway, almost as many over 45s and as under. Possibly rather a lot of beards on the younger members of the audience, whatever that means! They are dedicated fans however, attentive during the music and full of adoration when given an opportunity.

So while I can’t say that Wilco are the best live band in the world, I can say that I know of no one better.

As we inched our way tortuously out of the Roundhouse it was hard to recall that the evening had started with the excellent Jonathon Wilson. I was going to say that they left you in no doubt where they were coming from with their five guitars and one drummer format. Only later I could only find five band members. Apparently this is because Wilco guitarist Pat Sansone guested on the first couple of numbers... The first track sounded exactly like the Allman Brothers, and nothing sounded later than 1975 to my ears. Contemporary old fashioned US guitar based rock.... Very retro, but for those of us of a certain age... very enjoyable!

Friday night had been rather different. This was our third visit to Guildford Cathedral and we are getting used to the unnaturally stark interior, not adorned with tablets, plaques, coats of arms, burial brasses or any of the usual medieval flotsam accrued by most of our cathedrals. Its subdued creamy stone gains in its austere charm each visit. And the acoustics are fabulous.

Sheer ignorance prevents me from writing a great deal about this concert, given the rather forbidding title of Hail Mother of the Redeemer. Previous concerts by the 16 have included pieces by Tomas Luis de Victoria, a composer I had been entirely unaware of. But each piece we have heard was as notably moving as the Tallis or Byrd. So we could hardly miss this evening devoted to his Marian compositions. Victoria was composing in the late sixteenth Century and is considered an early pioneer of polyphony. He spent a very successful time in Florence and Rome before returning to sing and compose at a royal monastery in his native Spain. The content very much reflects the counter reformation time he was living through.

It is easier to concentrate when each piece is by a different composer, comparing and contrasting, so I have to admit that the majority of the evening flowed past in a sort of warm and glorious mediation. Not knowing the music, even the Latin was largely unfamiliar to me, I can’t really say which bits were the best. The sound was glorious however, in particular the stunning sopranos, and we bought a box set of CDs at the end so we can learn more.

Cargo is a venue under a railway arch just round the corner from Curtain Road where I once had an office. So this is an area I know well, and so I had to meet fellow revellers to Graham’s 60^th birthday in The Bricklayers Arms. It is not what it was, the pinball machine is long gone, but it is still pretty scruffy if even more trendy – a bit like the whole area. Cargo was quite a civilized venue for this part of town. No drinkable beer of course, but snack food was reasonable, and the sound half way decent. Our inexpensive tickets covered three bands. We only saw the end of Rangoon but they seemed respectable enough. Next up, the rather eccentric Jack Roberts. This three-piece intermittently sounded like Tom Waits or Bruce Springsteen, both fine by us. We were eating while they were on so heard rather than saw them, but they were certainly interesting. However we were actually there for the Reverend Peyton’s Big Damn Band – drummer, female washboard and guitar. Peyton has clearly sold his soul to the devil, for his ability to play two (or more) guitar lines simultaneously is surely demonic! He is one of the most startlingly original guitarists I’ve ever seen. The drummer was almost as demented, and I haven’t even mentioned the beard. The music was anarchic bluegrass, the words minimal and the entertainment high. It was a great night, but being serious, such excellent musicians should surely manage to fit in a few more serious numbers. They ought to be more than simply a novelty band, even if a very good novelty band!

Three nights of music, in wildly different styles in very different venues. A great week, but we didn’t get up early on Sunday!

Links:

http://www.myspace.com/wilco

http://www.the-sixteen.org.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/therevpeytonsbigdamnband

http://www.jackroberts.net/

The Oysterband & June Tabor

Queen Elizabeth Hall

Just three weeks previously we had seen Oysterband in the intimacy of the Big Top at Beautiful Days doing their most passionate gig, full of anger and audience participation. How different to be in the South Bank, tiered seats to receive the first outing of the new album collaboration between the Oysterband and the First Lady of Folk (well, maybe the second...) June Tabor. This was their first gig with the new material and it was a very different experience, being at a gig which is 80% new material.

And in that sense the QEH was good; the sound is immaculate, the sight lines perfect and it was a great opportunity to hear the songs in almost studio precision. And many of these first hearing were very, very positive. They played a fascinating collection of material. Although traditional music, unsurprisingly, is the main feature and several of these were fantastic, they also performed songs by Joy division, JP Harvey, Bob Dillon, Jefferson Airplane and Velvet Underground. Eclectic they certainly are.

They had also added a member, Al Scott the producer of the new CD, who added some bass and guitar lines. Generally the band were musically sharp and precise, John Jones really enjoyed having June to play off and she herself is a confidence and hugely experienced performer. The quality of the whole event was first class.

The caveat, which I am sure you could spot coming, was simply the atmosphere. The formality of the concert Hall created an unbridgeable gap which even this great band were unable to cross. Whereas the Big Top event was a meeting of equals, this was a divide between the audience and the performers. Even the stunning Bells of Rhymney failed to get the place going. We appreciated the music rather than feeling part of it.

That said, it was a first playing of new material and so not all bad; but we would love to get to a later gig in the tour in a more cosy environment and see how it is developing.

Weyfest

Never again will I describe Cropredy as being ‘like a Village Fete writ large’. Weyfest  was like the Carlsberg Village Fete.... It is held in a rural life museum – so you can tour the exhibitions of vintage farm equipment, the replica old shops and wonderful collection of farm wagons, or indeed ride the narrow gauge railway. And as well as the usual festival food concessions, you can still drop in at the museum cafe for a cup of tea. This charming village fete, however, includes music from Newton Faulkner, Robin Trower, Focus, Dr Feelgood and the Blockheads! It was absolutely extraordinary.

However like our other festival visits this year, it started off by driving out in a downpour. The roads getting down to the Festival site just outside Farnham were awash. It did look pretty grim. We parked in a field less than five minutes walk from the entrance and wristband exchange took about 30 seconds. Sadly it was still chucking it down so we had to watch the indescribable Jon Otway from under our umbrella, wrapped in waterproofs. But who better to dissipate the miseries of the weather. He was fabulous! Taking the piss out of himself and his band and entirely dependent on his group of hard core fans. When he signs the iconic lines ‘Beware the flowers because I’m sure they’re going to get you, Yeah!’, the sky is filled with flowers; and more importantly, his dialogue version of House of the Rising Sun – There is a house.... Where? In New Orleans... What’s it called? It’s called the Rising Sun.... – is entirely dependent on the audience knowing what is expected. Add the Theremin solos, the rock God histrionics of Rock You and the disco dancing of Bunsen Burner and you have entertainment of the highest value. I liked the programme note: Polydor gave Otway a five album contract, thinking he was a punk rather than just eccentric.

Next up was Jackie Lynton, local boy made good – or as he himself put it ‘If I ‘ad been a success, I wouldn’t fuckin’ be ‘ere now, would I?’ Jackie is one of those great Rock unknowns who has played with everyone since about 1960, plays good honest R&B and has a surprisingly English style of risqué chat. Great fun and hugely enjoyable. Next up was a huge revelation, Dr Feelgood. I know the hits of course, but I had no idea what a fine blues band they are. The most non-rock god lead guitarist ever, Steve Walwyn, was on a different planet from anyone else we saw that day. Stunning, and well supported by a fine band. How can I have been so ignorant over the years? I think we’ll be seeing them again sooner rather than later.

I always like to pick up on people I have never heard of, so it was with enormous pleasure we watched the entire set of The Little Unsaid, a young band of highly technical and talented musicians. They do fit into a group of bands we have recently enjoyed, being acoustic in feel, creating quite complex music which crosses genres. The young lead many was astoundingly charismatic, the presentation of their songs was brilliant (beginnings and endings really well worked out), and total confidence in front of the crowd. Look out for them –and if the band don’t succeed, I am sure their lead man will. Another band I’d be happy to see again.

After some enjoyable Spank the Monkey we were near the front of the main stage for The Blockheads. Now it may be only two weeks since we last saw them, but this was so different. At Beautiful Days it was a languidly hot afternoon with the more lyrical Blockheads numbers playing over the fields; this was more like the 100 Club – close up, hot and sweaty. And yes, it was a different set. Close up the band looked tired, but were in great form, with legendary bassist Norman Watt sharing a lot more of the talking than usual. Great sax breaks, great play from vocalist Derek Hussey with the crowd and they built u a superb atmosphere.

And that was essentially it. We looked in on Wishbone Ash and watched the first few numbers of headliner Newton Faulkner – very good but.... just not our thing I suppose – and we were away. It was a fabulous afternoon; some mind-blowingly good music in such a tiny and friendly venue. We had 8 hours of great entertainment for our £40 – now that’s what I call value for money!

Beautiful Days

Levellers: 1. The Levellers were a political movement during the English Civil Wars which emphasised popular sovereignty, extended suffrage, equality before the law, and religious tolerance. 2. Brighton based punk Folk band founded in 1988.

The Beautiful Days Festival is the annual Levellers festival which takes place in a stunning valley in the Blackdown Hills between Exeter and Honiton. If you haven’t heard of it, that may be because although it sells out every year, it does not advertise. There is also no commercial sponsorship, and there are no major commercial names present on site. Ironically the festival was the same weekend as V, the most overly commercial festival weekend on the circuit. This is the Levellers attempt to show that for a few days a year the alternative society can work. And it worked for us!

Not that the weekend started well. For a start we drove down on Thursday afternoon through torrential storms wondering if the site would even be accessible after so much rain. We were held up by an accident on the A303 and when we finally arrived, had found a good pitch and got the tent out, only to discover that we had brought the wrong set of tent poles, so our lovely big, standing-up tent was useless, and we had to panic-buy a tiny basic tent from the wonderful Love Camping stall on the site. Not an ideal start. But thereafter, it all mellowed excellently.

As an enthusiast I often return from a gig or festival feeling that it was the best one ever.... So perhaps some more analysis is needed. What makes for a good festival? And how did Beautiful Days measure up?

Ambiance:

The organisation was exceptional. The information was clear and provided in good time, signposting excellent, no queues getting into the site, lots of stewards all of who were efficient but friendly, a minimal and very low key police presence.... The site was glorious; camping is largely on one side of a valley, and you cross a bridge to the Festival site which is on the other hill. The main arena is in a large natural bowl, and the other major venue is a red Big Top. There are also several other smaller venues for Dub, Dance, Comedy etc. A good range of festival stalls, and good food outlets – I noticed none seemed to be doing bottled fizzy drinks! Our own haven of peace was the converted Routemaster bus, the Teastop, selling decent tea and really good chocolate brownies. There are four bars, all run by the local Otter Brewery, and we were drinking Amber at £3.20 a pint, cheaper than our local. The children’s area is extremely good and creative and right in the middle of the site, rather than off at a tangent somewhere. There is art installations everywhere – wooden mushrooms, 10 foot tall brushwood musicians, a shiny metallic skeleton angel which slowly filled with tin cans; and artists are walking round with huge puppet characters. As for where the man with the bicycle driven piano comes in I don’t really know! But the very best part was the people, fellow festival goers. They were sociable, responsible, dressed with an edgy eccentricity I haven’t seen in years, sported an exceptional number of tattoos and paid great attention to all the music. On Sunday we had been requested to wear spots or polka dots; as you can see from the photos, people really took this theme to heart and created a range of amazing clothing, mostly home made. This was a Big Society more cohesive and responsive than anything Cameron could dream of.

Music:

The music was generally quite folky, but if you want a more subtle description I would say that the bands were committed and individualistic. Pop Will Eat Itself and The Beat, for instance are not that musically related but perhaps have attitudes are common. Highlights for me were The Oysterband on Saturday night – the best I have ever see them. Their current work with June Tabor seems to have re-energised them and recent events have sparked their political side as well. We normally see the Blockheads close up and sweaty, so sitting back on a sun drenched afternoon gave us an opportunity to appreciate their quirky rhythms and sultry sexiness in a different way. 24 hours later we were in the same spot and mood as The Beat showed their 80s Two-Tone stance has plenty of currency twenty years later. We also caught Adrian Edmonson with the Black Shepherds doing their folk/punk thing. It was similar to when we last saw them, but the audience reaction was extraordinary. Every song was being cheered to the rafters, leaving Edmonson looking slightly shocked! Roddy Womble, lead singer of Idlewild, did a fine set on Saturday night. There were times when I wondered if the rock singer would oust the folk singer, but the excellent lady violinist kept them just about within the Scottish folk genre. Very enjoyable set, though perhaps a little too smooth.

On Sunday we also saw Alabama 3. The last time we saw them I thought they had turned into a parody of themselves. Totally off their faces they trundled through their greatest hits in a sleepwalk. Here they were stripped down to a four person band – with a stunning black girl singer – and with just guitar, harmonica and tape loops. ‘Rob Love’ was full on, angry, foul mouthed and in full support of rioters everywhere. Many of the old songs have been reinvigorated with references to Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya and there was new material as well, which sounded great. Then the incredibly schmaltzy interlude when his daughter came on with a birthday cake so we could sing Happy Birthday – we were screaming Fuck the Police during the next song! Needless to say his daughter was the highlight of the show and – as others agreed with us later – she seemed so normal! The set ended in anarchic disarray with Rob refusing to leave the stage claiming he was too high and drugged up to go and having the sound shut off by the stage crew. No doubt all an act. But edgy and uncomfortable nonetheless.