New Music Reviews
Edwyn Collins, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 24 September 2010
Just before Edwyn Collins came on, the throbbing bassline of Chic's "Good Times" rumbled out across the packed South Bank auditorium. As a statement of intent it was pretty clear. Having suffered two debilitating brain haemorrhages followed by a bout of MRSA in 2005, Collins is understandably delighted to be gigging again. To paraphrase the old stand-up comedy opening salvo, he is probably delighted to be anywhere again. Some paralysis down his right side means he walks with a fetching... Read more... |
Josh Ritter, BarbicanFriday, 24 September 2010
This was a warm and convivial evening in the company of the American folky-rootsy-rocky singer and songwriter Josh Ritter. His band made a rich noise, and his voice was keen and true, almost every lyric clearly audible. At the end of this, the last night of Ritter’s UK tour, the crowd – he seems to have a strong female following - were on their feet, and there were several calls of, “We love you, Josh!” from the stalls. Read more... |
Jimi Hendrix, Snap Gallery/Handel House MuseumSaturday, 18 September 2010
A soundtrack of "Purple Haze", "Hey Joe" and other eternal Jimi Hendrix hits, is currently drifting out of the Snap Gallery along the swanky Piccadilly Arcade in Mayfair. A boutique exhibition space, Snap sits incongruously amongst purveyors of "fine" jewellery and gentlemans’ tailoring and its front windows are transforming the chi-chi mall with Gered Mankowitz’s photographs of the Sixties guitar genius, Hendrix. Read more... |
Wilco, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 15 September 2010
Rock music doesn’t get much better than this. For two hours, the raggedy Chicago band Wilco poured out song after song from a repertoire that stretches back 15 years, slipping effortlessly between gentle alt-country and avant-garde rock, between the whisperingly quiet and the crushingly loud. They were sensational, a band at the top of their game. Read more... |
Muse, Wembley StadiumSaturday, 11 September 2010
Some years ago I saw Muse playing at the Corn Exchange in Cambridge. Towards the end of the show, at a climactic moment (I think it might have been during their proggy epic, “New Born”), singer and guitarist Matt Bellamy reached into a bag attached to his microphone stand, pulled out a handful of shiny golden confetti and flung it into the air. It fluttered downwards most attractively. Read more... |
Archaos: Circus From Hell, BargehouseFriday, 10 September 2010
Archaos were the mad, bad and dangerous troupe who revolutionised circus back in the Eighties and early Nineties – their antics with juggling chainsaws, raunchy Galllic attitude and mayhem with motorbikes is celebrated with a pop-up exhibition at the Bargehouse in the Oxo Tower Wharf on the South Bank for just three days ending on Sunday. It’s also a tribute to the genial genius behind the troupe, Pierre Bidon, who died earlier this year, at the age of 56. Read more... |
Janelle Monáe, KOKOWednesday, 08 September 2010
The video for this Kansas fantasist’s new single shows Monáe in harshly lit close-up singing the adrenalin-charged “Cold War” directly to camera. But then halfway through the song her concentration goes and she starts laughing and then crying, leaving one wondering what the thinking was behind its release. Read more... |
The RunawaysWednesday, 08 September 2010
A drop of menstrual blood spatters the ground in the opening shot of The Runaways, an insolent enough metaphor for the unstaunchable female energy that drives writer-director Floria Sigismondi’s bracing biopic of the pioneering all-girl teenage 1970s rock band until it heads up a narrative cul-de-sac. Read more... |
Shea Seger, The Half Moon, PutneyTuesday, 07 September 2010
Shea Seger is a woman with a story. A story of a career interrupted. At the age of 20, the fragile and slightly dangerous-looking blonde from Texas came over here and made a record which sent ripples across the pond of the Americana scene. Shortly after, however, her father became crippled after a botched operation on an old Vietnam injury and she returned to Texas to care for him. During those 10 years she also brought up a little girl, Luna, and lived in a trailer. And now she’s back in... Read more... |
Caitlin Rose, The WindmillMonday, 06 September 2010
Last night was the third and probably last time this 21-year-old Nashville songstress will grace the humble Windmill pub in Brixton with her charismatic yet down-to-earth presence. Not because the gig wasn’t a sell-out and an unqualified success, but because of the radio airplay and unanimous critical praise she has received for her debut album Own Side Now from... Read more... |
Pages
Subscribe to theartsdesk.com
Thank you for continuing to read our work on theartsdesk.com. For unlimited access to every article in its entirety, including our archive of more than 10,000 pieces, we're asking for £3.95 per month or £30 per year. We feel it's a very good deal, and hope you do too.
To take an annual subscription now simply click here.
And if you're looking for that extra gift for a friend or family member, why not treat them to a theartsdesk.com gift subscription?
latest in today
Gold Digger, BBC One review - Julia Ormond tackles those mid...
A tip of the hat to Julia Ormond for boldly going where many an actress might have chosen not to. In this new...
ECO, Zacharias, Fairfield Halls Croydon review - green-finge...
Switch off for a phrase or two and it’s easy to miss the point in a ...
Le Mans '66 review - nicely revved up
For a sports movie to work for more than just the fans, it has to have drama off the pitch, track or field, with characters to root for, personal...
Pavlů, Prague SO, Inkinen, Cadogan Hall review - exhilaratin...
The Prague Symphony Orchestra are in town, their Cadogan Hall...
Ant Middleton and Liam Payne: Straight Talking, Sky 1 review...
“What is wrong with us? What are we doing here?” Liam Payne asked the camera, as we neared the end of his jaunt round picturesque...
Book extract: Second-Hand Time by Svetlana Alexievich
Between 1991 and 2012, Belorussian journalist and oral historian Svetlana Alexievich travelled the countries that constituted the former USSR...
CD: DJ Shadow - Our Pathetic Age
DJ Shadow, made famous in 1996 With Endtroducing…, an album made entirely of samples, and the originator of a sound that was...
'The Academy and I': composer and viola-player Sal...
I was 13. It was a Saturday, and Mum was working. On this occasion she asked if I’d like to come along and bring a book. I was wearing a dress I’d...
Vampire Weekend, O2 Academy, Birmingham review – clean-cut A...
By the time Vampire Weekend reached Birmingham on their latest UK jaunt, they had unfortunately managed to mislay their support band, the...
