New Music Reviews
Robbie Williams, O2 ArenaFriday, 23 November 2012
Frustratingly, the ramshackle rail service from Brighton deposits me at the crammed O2 20 minutes into Robbie Williams's set. After the eerie quiet of the airport-like walkways around the perimeters, the torrid atmosphere inside the gigantic arena is a shocker. It's packed to the rafters with women shrieking and waving their arms in the air while their men sit beside them, sheepishly mouthing lyrics. Read more...
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Squeeze, The Dome, BrightonThursday, 22 November 2012
Any gig is partly defined by its audience. Brighton audiences, particularly Brighton Dome audiences, are usually a lively bunch but tonight’s crowd, at least until beyond halfway through, are still as dummies in their seats, quiet as mice. Looking around is uncanny, like observing a theatre watching a Strindberg play or some such. True, they’re mostly in their fifties but that’s a poor excuse. The last time I saw the Dome this dead was when Ultravox played a couple of years back. Read more... |
Band of Horses, Hammersmith ApolloWednesday, 21 November 2012
Even their name, Band of Horses, conjures up something exotic. The Carolina five-piece’s lyrics may occasionally veer towards the angsty but their sound is firmly anchored in their sumptuous sweeping Americana. It earned their last album, Infinite Arms, a Grammy nomination. This year’s Mirage Rock takes that formula and shakes it up with a handful of grit. Read more... |
Shuggie Otis, Jazz CafeWednesday, 21 November 2012
A decade ago I was wearing a T-shirt branded with the cover to Shuggie Otis’s Inspiration / Information album when an American woman approached me, loudly declaring “Shuggie Otis! His wife used to be my best friend! Read more... |
theartsdesk at the London Jazz Festival: Heart beats on the fringeTuesday, 20 November 2012
Squeezing nearly 300 events into the 10-day dash that is the London Jazz Festival, which has just ended required dozens of venues – many not regular presenters of jazz – to open their doors. From the 606 Club in the west to Oliver’s Bar in Greenwich in the east, the Finchley Arts Depot in the north to the Hideaway down south in Streatham, it is in the pubs, clubs and community venues of London that the jazz festival’s heart beats. Read more... |
Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls, Picture House, EdinburghMonday, 19 November 2012
Gig-going in the winter can be a difficult business. Plummeting temperatures call for layers, thick coats and scarves - none of which are easily stowed away at your average club show. As the venue starts to fill up with similarly clad bodies the place gets sweatier and sweatier, but by the time you realise you really should have coughed up a couple of quid and the extra wait for the cloakroom you’re probably already hemmed in. Read more... |
Motörhead, O2 Academy BrixtonSunday, 18 November 2012
As Ian “Lemmy” Kilmister heads towards his 67th birthday does he ever reflect on the strange and fabulous journey his 50 years as a professional musician have taken? I doubt it – navel gazing not being something Stoke On Trent’s most famous son is known for indulging in. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: The Jam, Ray Stinnett, Sandy Denny, The ServantsSunday, 18 November 2012
Thomas H Green Read more... |
Crossfire HurricaneSaturday, 17 November 2012
What a year for great British institutions. Sixty years of Elizabeth II, 50 years of James Bond, and a half-century of the Rolling Stones. To recycle an even older cliche, we will never see the like of any of them again. Read more... |
Noisettes, Oran Mor, GlasgowFriday, 16 November 2012
There is something so otherworldly about Shingai Shoniwa, the vocal powerhouse who fronts Noisettes, that it is unsurprising to see the band play on it. Shoniwa arrived onstage in a blaze of light, in a spinning gold-hooped skirt that seemed to mimic a flying saucer in the chaos, before launching into a storming rendition of the band’s “I Want You Back”. Read more... |
The Jam: The GiftPages
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