Gigs with Ivan

Elvis Costello live in Bath

Elvis Costello and the Imposters at Bath Forum 17.6.2022 with Ian Prowse supporting

A first visit to Bath Forum and to see a man I’ve enjoyed listening to since I was 14 years old.

My early Elvis years

I bought the Elvis Costello and the Attractions break through single Watching the Detectives and albums followed, starting with the classic and my favourite This Year’s Model (from The Squeeze Inn at Ashford Common parade, near Bobby Davro’s dad’s discount store with some birthday money); backfilling with My Aim is True and being up the shops promptly when the next two were released (Armed Forces and Get Happy)….. and off I went, dipping in and out with CD aquisitions and with some fallow periods. King of America is one that passed me by initially later finding it one of the best. Knowing I was coming to this Bath gig, I’ve given the recent Boy Named If a good play and I like it a lot.

As for the live experiences, they’ve been a bit sparse, given my Elvis enthusiasm. I applied for tickets to see him, with the Attractions, at Hammersmith Odeon in the late 70s. It was the old stamped, self-addressed envelope, postal order and letter in my best handwriting. I waited. The instantly recognisable, self-addressed envelope arrived: I opened it in anticipation of what would have been my first ever gig. My letter bore a heartless rubber stamped ‘SOLD OUT’ and my unused postal order dropped out. A huge disappointment that left its mark. I moved on to other live band priorities.

It wasn’t until Glastonbury 1987 that I caught up with him. He played what seemed like a full but short set, including a memorable and passionate version of Tramp the Dirt Down, spitting the words out into a misty night. I was right down the front with my mate Sean (SMu). Returning for ‘an encore’, he announced “ladies and gentlemen…The Attractions” before a curtain dropped and revealed the full band, then they all continued for another set.

It was another seven year wait until I saw him in November 1994 at Wolverhampton Civic Hall (with mate Chris and our ex-wives) and then jump to May 2015 for a bit of a disappointing gig with Elvis solo at Salisbury City Hall (with wife Sally and a friend). Which Elvis will be at the Bath Forum tonight?

(Here in Bath with wife Sally as a warm up for gig buddy Dave’s BIG birthday celebrations – Dave and Big Gra are sat nearer the mixing desk with wives Ann and Hils.)

The Forum, Bath

This is a big, old and very grand art deco cinema building, which opened in 1934. A modest capacity of 1640 seats, not too distant to the back of the stalls and a large overhanging, steep balcony.

I like the ability to stand up at the back behind the seats, unchallenged, with a clear view and a convenient escape from nearby irritants. As we’re near the rear anyway this is very welcome. Tonight I have a tall couple, flown in from Love Island🙄, to sit in front of me on the end of the row – I peer through the regularly closing gap between them. They in turn endure the Yo-Yo family, a foursome with either an insatiable thirst for alcohol, multiple bladder disorders or both. Up and down. Up and down. Yes, the rear standing option is very welcome.

The bars are just about functional. They are upstairs – little more than large hall areas with several orderly long lines at both. The queues look terrible but move at a decent pace. Functional: nothing more.

Tonight’s Gig

I’ve been looking forward to this – Elvis again. I’ve just not seen him enough for it to be routine, despite my long-term admiration. I know he can be difficult live – reviews of his recent Liverpool appearance were terrible due largely to the sound.. Which one is turning up here?

Support: Ian Prowse

Support is from Ian Prowse, in a four piece band. The lead singer with bands Amsterdam and previously Pele; he’s a friend of Costello and has recorded a cover with him; supported him several times and his band was the house backing band on The Jonathan Ross Show when Costello appeared. A short easy listen of a set with some folky violin and a song that was worth some more plays later: Does This Train Stop on Merseyside. (Studio YouTube clip.)

Elvis Costello tonight

On comes Elvis. The excitement turns to horror as he starts with a car crash of a version of Accidents Will Happen. The sound appears all over the place with over-dominant keyboards in plinky plonk mode. Green Shirt is a big improvement but the sound is not good early on – I thought it improved as we went on but that wasn’t a unanimous view.

Costello live does have that deliberately breathy and hesitant style, pulling back from the mic making the vocal so quiet at times – hushes as we strain to hear – before bouncing back with that beautifully distinctive raspy voice. “Turn it up” screams a voice from near the mixing desk a few times.

Watching the Detectives is better – again a version, another song, Invisible Girl, injected into it but it works. What a classic.

The height of my disappointment was Brilliant Mistake, the brilliant opening track from the King of America album. Wrecked. Red Shoes – all a bit slow and slurred.

The relief as he just plays a song just like he recorded it. Clear and loud enough – Mr Crescent, from the latest Boy Named If record. Love it. There you go – just play the songs. I suppose he gets bored of knocking out the old stuff in the same way, so gives it the real live experience by experimenting. As every song starts there is that nervous anticipation of what’s happening next. He does comment about playing what he wants and hoping we like it.

He is chatty. Lots of introductory commentary. I was wondering about The Attractions and The Imposters backing band transition but as he points out there is only one of the Attractions that changed, and that was 20 years ago: it’s still Pete Thomas on drums and Steve Nieve on keyboards. They were all here back when Costello last played Bath…. in 1979!

Things do improve massively later in the set, and I do like the new album material live.

(I Don’t Want To Go To) Chelsea hits the spot along with another from This Year’s Model, captured here from my temporary rear standing position – Pump It Up.

It’s a two and a half hour set all told with the main set finished beautifully with What’s So Funny About Peace Love and Understanding – a song that need to find its place again.

He said he didn’t do encores but tonight proceeds to return a few more times, after bows and goodbyes.

The Man You Love To Hate he introduced as being written about himself. Another more conventionally delivered recent album track that sounded great. There was Wings cover in there Let Me Roll It, recognising Paul McCartney’s birthday this weekend.

Song of the night? Hard to top Alison I guess, with the ‘other sticky valentines’ who were sat in front of us – I was stood at the back again by this stage thank goodness.

The end was a song I wasn’t familiar with, but a belter: All Cowards Now (2020 Hey Clockface album). It seemed like Costello was taking extra care to ensure the lyrics were right out there, clear and angry.

“The emptiness of arms
The openness of thighs
The pornography of bullets
The promises and prizes can’t disguise
We are all cowards now

They’re draping stones with colours
And a roll of stolen names
Except those we never cared about
And those we need to blame
We’ll extinguish that flame, just the same
We’re all cowards now……

…So, close the windows tightly
Lower lamps and shades
On the screen, silent rehearsals
For tomorrow’s parades
For tomorrow’s parades
For tomorrow’s parades
We are all cowards now”

(Elvis Costello 2020)

The Flaming Lips live in London

The Flamings Lips at the O2 Forum Kentish Town 2.6.2022 supported by the Heartless Bastards

Here at the O2 Forum Kentish Town, a venue I’ve been to several times – last time to see former Gene frontman Martin Rossiter’s farewell show. Some more notes on the venue and approaches to it there.

Here with gig buddy Dave (DPi), after a day at Lord’s cricket ground watching many wickets tumble on the first day of the first test match of the series between England and New Zealand. Great day but not the best way to build up for a gig. A fair walk from Lord’s to a Camden hotel and on up to Kentish Town. I was knackered but we are in just in time for the Heartless Bastards, supporting tonight.

Rocky, bluesy and a bit country: they are a pleasant listen and hold the interest. They’re from Cincinnati and have been going for about 20 years so they’re no slouches. Very much a supporting slot: quiet mellow and uneventful given what was coming.

We hold a space just behind those in early to lean on the rear of the mixing desk area, which sinks down into the lower standing area. A decent view but a while into the Flaming Lips I lose my spot on a mission back to the gents and the bar.

Now I’ve never seen the Flaming Lips and, other than the odd track on evening radio, they aren’t a band I’d listened to until recently. They are a band that I thought I’d see given the opportunity arose and given the reputation of their live shows.

They come from Oklahoma, formed in 1983, so a lifetime of building a following, dare I say a weird one, well certainly an eclectic one – I went walkabout in the venue so I saw a variety.

Cheers as people come on to the exceptionally well dressed stage, with large shiny bird cage-like structures to either side. This isn’t the band coming on amid the dry-ice though, it’s roadies to inflate a large plastic ball in front of the two drum kits. Cheers become a roar, as lead singer Wayne Coyne greets the crowd and gets into the bubble and gets on with the show.

The ventilation must have been good as it doesn’t steam up and the vocals still sound…OK. He is in there for a few songs before roadies are on again inflating a giant rainbow…. then tickertape starts shooting everywhere.

The set list for tonight takes a back seat to the extraordinary on stage distractions. Wayne Coyle is really good at building the atmosphere and reaction like an old music hall host talking up the act..but he and the band are the act. He repeats the possibility, given Covid and all the bad stuff, that what if this was to be the last Flaming Lips show we ever saw, then they were going to give us “the best f*cking show in the World”.

The album I’ve been listening to is Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots (2002) but it still takes me a while to work out what is being pumped up on stage. Ahhh. Penny drops.

As the pink robot deflates, I nip back to the gents, try and get anywhere near bar service and give up and return to find the crowd has sealed itself in, around where I was stood. Legs flagging I ask security if I can try and get a seat upstairs, separately ticketed. “Welcome to try but it’s pretty full up there”. I go up. It’s rammed. All seats taken, people standing in the rear aisles, but there are some places to lean up at the back and I sit on the back step for a bit. It’s been a long day. Not a great view with some legacy Covid perspex partitions up. It’s huge up here.

There is a bar behind the auditorium mid-way up and another one right at the top rear. I stopped at the middle one as no one queueing and DJ Jo Wiley appears next to me to which I do a bit of an animated double-take. She has that yes it’s me look without me needing to ask anything stupid. Radio 6 man Shaun Keaveny then appears behind. This band really do have a reputation then.

I stand, lean and sit in a few places upstairs, only getting a seat with a half decent view near the end. Front half of the balcony here would be worth chasing sometime. A lot ismade of a toy bird which Coyne builds a story on…. a flight out into the crowd. This was lost on me and I couldn’t see at this point.

Towards the end of the main set a young girl is introduced – I think Coyne said she was 12 – to sing while they played a cover of Nick Cave’s Red Right Hand. Great song although the performance and inclusion of it a bit abstract.

Coyne returns to the bubble for the end. The faithful clearly loved it. I felt like I had experienced their unusual and much heralded show but my lack of familiarity with their work hampered me. It was thanks and goodnight… some big bangs, more sparkly tickertape and some thoughtful bespoke ballons float out as I stagger downstairs for the walk back to Camden…..via the Bengal Lancer which does some good paneer dishes.

The Flaming Lips were in Q Magazine’s 2002 list of one of the bands to see before you die, at number 14. I can see why with all the distractions. I feel I’ve done it now though.

The Killers live at Southampton F.C.

The Killers at St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton 30.5.2022 with Blossoms supporting

This one was a long wait, with it being originally scheduled for June 2020, and we certainly gave it a good go. A boozy night at Southampton F.C. football stadium…to the extent that the detail maybe fuzzy. We were in the stands, under cover, with access to the Mike Channon lounge before and afterwards with the help of eagle-eyed ticket man Dave (DPi). This saved us from the rain but not the bar. Oh dear. Note to self, again, eating’s not cheating. I can’t hide from the fact I went too early and was found wanting at the end of the game.

I guess it was always going to be a big one with a group of six of us staying over in Southampton for two nights. We did it justice, starting with an extended lunchtime in the old Duke of Wellington pub – very good. I couldn’t do a replay.

Previous encounters

This was the sixth time I’ve seen The Killers, the last time being at Glastonbury 2019, which fuelled this group outing – best I’ve seen them. The first two Killers gigs disappointed: O2 London 2012, with bad high up seats and Brandon’s sore throat, and Wembley Stadium 2013, on the pitch with poor sound and a poor view that got worse as places were lost. Hyde Park 2017 was a vast improvement to re-inject enthusiasm and that not long after the worse kept secret gig on the John Peel stage at Glastonbury 2017, which was exciting to be at but I was just outside the tent peering in (with back of my head burning).

The crowd are on the pitch… at Southampton’s football ground

Support band Blossoms are also familiar faces live: one of the first bands on at Glastonbury 2017, Victorious Festival 2021 and my last gig before Lockdown at O2 Bournemouth, indeed my wife probably contracted Covid at that one.

Blossoms

Blossoms played a good indie pop set including the singles that I would have thought would get a bigger reaction, rounding off with There’s a Reason Why and Charlamagne. Maybe their gentle sound isn’t punchy enough for a big outdoor stadium gig, but that wasn’t evident from their festival appearances I was at. Maybe a bit of rain had dampened things on the pitch and down the front… but the reception seemed a bit dampened to me. Enjoyed them though. ‘Half-time’. More Czech dark lager.

Killers live in Southampton at last

The crowd on the pitch packs more densely in anticipation of The Killers. It’s still light. On they come, starting with one from the Imploding the Mirage album – well it is the Imploding the Mirage tour – My Own Soul’s Warning. It’s not the latest album though, such is the Covid disruption. That is Pressure Machine, released a year later in August 2021 and with lots of talky bits between the tracks, from residents of the town Brandon Flowers grew up in (before he went down to Vegas). They only played a couple from that one. Maybe they’re saving it for another tour.

Some old stuff : the next four songs, from the first two albums, get people out of their seats, including Jenny Was a friend of Mine, and Smile Like You Mean it – two of the best. It was about that time I noticed the beer taking its toll. I popped down to the gents and returned to the stand and up the steps looking like I needed ropes and crampons. I made it. Maybe no one noticed. 😬

Several blasts of shiny tickertape pieces give it that stadium show feel. Must be a bugger to clean up after mind. Saints’ ground staff will be cursing come the pre-season.

I said it was all a bit hazy by this time but Shadowplay, the Joy Division cover, was a standout one and a regular Killers set appearance. Party in full swing now – particularly in our row.

As the gig went into extra time a popular if predictable finish. Nothing wrong with predictable if everyone knows them: Spaceman and the signature anthem Mr Brightside.

I understand they ran out of vodka down in the bars for the standing area. Maybe if the beer taps had run dry in the Mike Channon suite, I might have been saved from paying the penalty for this Killer session.

Pet Shop Boys in Bournemouth

Pet Shop Boys 25.5.2022 at the Bournemouth International Centre

I bought these tickets two and a half years ago in anticipation of a June 2020 gig. Then the plague came. You book these things looking at other events and gigs but now it’s all been shuffled. Well a Wednesday night isn’t so bad but I’m wondering why I bought these now. Curiosity, good tunes, the legendary syth-pop status and it’s on the doorstep…well a bus ride away.

We are quite late in, five minutes to spare before the 8pm start, to dodge the BIC bar drink offering and take full advantage of the new Brewdog pub in the nearby BH2 complex – here with wife Sally this evening. There’s no support act.

The BIC, mainly seated tonight – looking back from front right of standing area

The seating set up tonight in the Windsor Hall is with the bank of seats coming down from the balcony, leaving a smaller standing area at the front – so a capacity somewhere between the 6,500 all ground floor standing and the 4,045 all seated capacity. We go to the front right. With the speakers elevated the view is decent, close, yet at an angle and ears don’t get a blasting like the old days of a giant stack of speakers either side of any stage.

The show starts with a minimalist look – just Neil Tennant and Chris Lowe on stage, both wearing some unusual glasses the meaning of which is lost on me. Suburbia is a good start. I like any anthem to the suburbs – my roots – however mocking.

The Pet Shop Boys are represented by a long string of hits that have filled radio play lists for decades, especially the 80s and 90s – Tennant is 67 now, but the voice still works.

After a while the interim backdrop lifts to reveal a more elaborate set with a band of sorts – backing singers, more synths and percussion – no guitars although Tennant plays an acoustic one at some point. Initially I’m sceptical about what I’m watching but it is a party, quite an irresistible one.

Always on my Mind is one of the top songs to really hit the nostalgia button. I only have a greatest hits CD from a bargain bin to go on so it’s the big hits for me.

Tennant does a few costume changes; coats seem to be his big thing. He’s good at wandering the stage so all the audience gets a look – I’m sure it all looks better from a central viewpoint but we are close and we were late in.

The Village People cover Go West is the anthem I associate most with The Pet Shop Boys, adapted to terrace chant ‘one nil to the Ar-sen-al’ for over use by them and others for years. There’s a bloke in front of us with an Arsenal football shirt on – how very ungig-like. I took a phone video of Go West which is here on my YouTube channel.

The best song for me from the setlist tonight is It’s a Sin. Anything starting ‘When I look back upon my life…’ is going to feel nostalgic. Yes, glad I came.

The stage set shrinks back to the smaller front part with the street lights of ‘suburbia’, leaving just the two Pet Shop Boys, Tennant and Lowe.

The near two hour set of greatest hits whizzed by and it was soon encores time: West End Girls, another highlight. To end, a tongue-in-cheek choice maybe, Being Boring. A low-key finish but they’d done enough to feed the party.

The Pet Shop Boys – back in suburbia, ‘being boring’ – Bournemouth BIC

Whitesnake live in Birmingham

Whitesnake at Utilita Arena Arena Birmingham 22.5.2022 + Foreigner + Europe supporting

I couldn’t miss this opportunity to see a rock band, I mean a good ole hairy, heavy, rock band, from the 70s and 80s – the last opportunity, as this appears to be the last blast for David Coverdale (now 70) as frontman and last remaining original in Whitesnake. Gig buddy Dave (DPi) came up with the tickets – Foreigner and Europe supporting… go on, it had to be done.

I associate Whitesnake most with going round my school mate Rich’s house (RTh) in Ashford (Middx) at the end of the 70s. School holiday rainy days immersed in heavy metal, rock, soft rock, prog rock – lots of Genesis – endless Genesis 🙄. I guess it gets engrained in you. Up that end of my music awareness I always leaned, if pressed to, towards the NWOBHM (New Wave of British Heavy Metal) with Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, Rainbow and Motorhead, the latter almost meeting punk at ‘the bridge’ and very much part of the punk ‘family’. But Whitesnake were that hairy rock, eminating from Deep Purple as David Coverdale did.

Come to think of it I came under a heavy onslaught of Ian Gillan at my mate Rich’s house. I don’t remember Deep Purple featuring though – maybe that was too historic for me to face up to (I was 1977+ with no rear view mirrors). In later life I find I’m embracing it though. I even turned up outside at a Deep Purple concert at Bournemouth BIC about 15 years ago to try and get a ticket – their last tour they said – but alas no one selling outside the sell-out gig.

So here I am (not again on my own) in Brum. Ready to rock, with a couple of other softer rockers (so I thought) of that era supporting.

Utilita Arena Birmingham

We’re at the indoor arena in the middle of Birmingham, by the canal junction, north of Broad Street party town and just up the towpath from the ‘Black Sabbath Bridge’.

They keep changing the sponsored name of this place (what was the National Indoor Arena) and ‘The NEC’ (that’s the one out near the airport and currently known as Resorts World Arena, Birmingham). Easy to confuse and unsettle as you double check en route.

The 10,000 plus audience (only the back curve of the arena is blacked off with cloth) is using a standing floor area with the usual seating on the banking. The audience looks heavy rock with jeans, hair, leather jackets, sleeveless jeans jackets and appropriate t-shirts. I did see a Crass one though. Heavy rock bands do attract a loyal following and these ones live up too my stereotypical expectations.

Europe

Europe are on first. I thought they might be softer rock than this but no, good ole solid rock. Lead singer is a big mic swinger – the stand and all being thrown all over the place. He’s been doing that a while. I’m pretty sure it’s still the original singer Joey Tempest looking at photos – Swedish.

Rock the Night and Carrie were the hits I knew, with a bit of a Spotify refresher in the weeks earlier. I enjoyed the set overall and there was no doubting the big one awaited: The Final Countdown. It’s huge. Everyone’s heard of it surely and what a big song to hear live in a 10,000 crowd. I recorded the moment and saved it on my YouTube channel: The Final Countdown.

Foreigner

Looking up Foreigner, the lead singer is not the original guy, indeed I’m not sure if any of the band are original members, not that this bothers me as don’t know any of them either – they rock on and everyone’s happy. The first song I can name is Cold As Ice – third song, again I captured this for YouTube . This is early but on they go. They do like a drum solo… and a keyboard solo and there are a few of these; maybe a bit over-prominent in a short support set.

When Dirty White Boy is introduced I’m thinking this sounds like classic, deep in heavy rock territory. I haven’t delved into the lyrics. Before the last song of the main set, Juke Box Hero, we get a mammoth keyboard and drum solo – they are both on a raised rear stage area.

“You want some more: you gotta make some more noise” is the rockers’ call at the end of that part of the set. Crowd obliges and there are three more songs, one of which is the soft rock monster hit I Want to Know What Love Is (link to my YouTube mobile recording); a chance for a hearty chorus singalong, with phone waving. Again, great to hear such a big song belted out live in a big arena like this.

Time for an interval…the toilet queue, a beer. This is going well.

Whitesnake

I’ve been giving the remastered 1987 self-titled Whitesnake album a fair bit of attention in the ‘revision period’ for this, my heavy rock ‘exam’. The setlist tonight has a few rock love songs from this album – a good heavy listen – including Is This Love, Give Me All Your Love but the rock love song that stuck in my mind most from the early 80s was Fool For Your Loving which comes mid-way through the set. I’m not sure if Slide it In qualifies for this rock love song category.

David Coverdale – the Whitesnake original

Coverdale’s voice sounds good considering his age (70) and he is taking steps to save it, with plenty of strong backing vocals coming through from others in the band. Also the set isn’t that long, around 80 minutes, so he’s giving himself a chance on this big tour.

The rest of the band are presumably selected from the best to join Coverdale in a band with a reputation like this. The guitarists throw in a few solos, big one after Fool for Your Loving, along with a keyboard tinkle, and all seems technically top drawer (I’m not a musician but its impressive) with some subtley choereographed stage wandering – handy for even my distant camera.

One hell of a drum solo – Tommy Aldridge

Drummer Tommy Aldridge produced an eyewatering drum solo at one point, there’s a clip here of him in London on this tour. As the solo reached its apparent final blows tonight, he chucks the sticks and continues the mayhem with his fists on the skins. Exhausting. I can’t remember seeing any drum solo as good as that – OK I’m not exposed to them generally.

There’s a short extension at front of the stage where Coverdale can get right out into the crowd – he is a real out-frontman. Here I Go Again (….on my own) is the best song of the night, that’s the one in my head on the train south the next morning. After that, one more (1987 single Still of the Night) it’s the last song and it’s a Deep Purple one, Burn, to end. That’s it. No encores – perhaps the only rock cliché that’s missing.

Whitesnake – The Farewell Tour – we’ll see these four again somewhere though

Well I enjoyed that, another rock’n’roll night to savour: seeing a heavy rock legend like David Coverdale front the latest and last Whitesnake. A couple of other rock legends thrown in supporting. Maybe it’s time I sought out some other heavy rock and metal legends (or tributes) …don’t tell my old mate Rich🤫

My Chemical Romance play the Eden Project

My Chemical Romance at the Eden Project, St Austell, Cornwall 16.5.2022 with Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls supporting

The Eden Project stage amid the biodomes

This a novelty…. and what a place for My Chemical Romance to embark on a UK tour from, their first appearance in the UK since 2011.

The dome-shaped stage nestles between two treble biodomes, surrounded by greenery and rocky edges: it was a massive quarry once. The all-standing area, holding around 6,500 people, sweeps back and up in a crafted bowl. To the right-hand side is a ‘calm’ viewing area with loads of space amongst blossoming trees: the antithesis of a mosh pit, with a decent view. Our vantage point is up on the rear platform, stood behind the mixing desk below (here with gig buddy Dave). There is freedom to wander it seems, although on a photo taking amble I was asked to put my larger camera away as it was too big for non-media pass holders. I declared it on the entry search but hey-ho I do what I’m told – I still have my pocket zoom which is ‘allowed’.

It really is a lovely place to see a band, providing it’s not raining or blowing a gale I guess. The civilised end of rock’n’roll.

Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls

Punky-folk Frank is perhaps an unusual choice to warm up for My Chemical Romance (MCR) but he does it, and more. The front is bouncing with the opener Four Simple Words.

Frank getting the Eden Project crowd going

Frank Turner is a great at crowd interaction – this is his 2,622nd go at it. Frank keeps a close eye on how many gigs he’s played, as evidenced in his autobiography in which he traces his history from Eton school days (!) through his hard-core punk band years, drug-fuelled waywardness and on to playing at the GB Olympic opening ceremony.

Plain Sailing Weather is another appealing one mid-set – ‘I could f*ck up anything’ – as his 45-minute set races by. This is the sixth time I’ve seen him, not always with a band or the Sleeping Souls; all since Reading Festival 2012, and it’s always a good time. He’s boisterous and would never let an audience just watch; they have to take part.

I’ve acquired a fair range of his CDs and if I had to recommend one it would be Tape Deck Heart, but maybe Songbook is a good bet as it has new songs as well as his pick of the best of his first ten albums…yes 10.

They finish upbeat with Recovery and the heavy acoustic strum of I Still Believe. A good start to the evening. A really lively, engaging, compact set. It’s still light but with a heavy cloud blanket overhead so the lights start to show, from the stage and in the biodomes.

My Chemical Romance (MCR)

The stage is ready. The final roadie gestures to the mixing and lighting desk are over… then a loud distressing buzzing and clicking starts… it gets louder… are they coming on? This is exciting stuff: when a band of this influence, on fans if not the music industry, return after 11 years. But what’s this noise…. aha, The Swarm logo on some of the merch stand stuff (including the £100 coat). A bee related new album coming out?

It gets louder and on they come. It stops. They start.

They open with Foundations of Decay, a new song and single that hasn’t been played live before. The packed front section is a little static – the new song stops everyone going nuts, which was what it was building to.

MCR front man, Gerard Way – Eden Sessions

The second song Helena is from their 2004 album, detail I have to check out later on the setlist. I can’t claim any early MCR credibility. It was the 2006 album The Black Parade that I came in on.

My Chemical Romance – among the big greenhouses

I went over to Belfast to see them at Kings’ Hall in November 2007 on that tour (with previous partner Ellen, and fuelled by her enthusiasm for Gerard Way). They were just on the crest of everything – massive. I looked for some old YouTube clips but they’re all dreadful. You can just about get the mayhem and excitement from them in the blur of bright flashing lights. It was billed as the tour to put The Black Parade album to bed.

It’s a brilliant album that focuses on death – goth, emo, pop, post-punk rock…everything rock genius. The Welcome to the Black Parade track is the predictable highlight for me tonight – I’m so glad they played it (Phone clip on my YouTube channel). Teenagers, Mama and Sleep from that album also feature tonight to keep some familiarity for me.

(They don’t play it tonight but if you don’t know The Black Parade album and you want to take yourself to a euphoric low, play Cancer… “Baby I’m just soggy from the chemo, But counting down the days to go.” Just how Emo is that one.)

MCR just aren’t predictable and the pace of the songs varies hugely through this set and with some really rock/ metal guitars at times. On their return, the old eyelinered image, spikey dyed black hair and punk goth uniforms are gone.

Gerard Way now has a calmer less wild-eyed look, with artistic beard and almost a prog rock haircut, but a few songs in and he’s sweated up looking more like the New Jersey rocker he is; stooped over his synth pad and scrabbling around on the stage to find his hair brush, commentating on this incidental search.

Besides, the more relaxed approach to stage image didn’t last long as I read that two days later at Milton Keynes he came on with the dyed black hair and fake blood splattered white suit. Still got it Gerard… hopefully less messed up these days. Chemical romances can’t go on for ever eh.

The band, including brother Mikey Way on bass, look excited to be back and romp around the trashed city, war zone-like set. I guess we have a less hard core MCR crowd in – the Eden Sessions aren’t a handy choice more most. Hence the audience has its quieter moments, especially with the new or novel choice. It’s a set full of variety. The steam rises from the front crowd as the set draws to a close.

The first encore: Boy Division (2004, but first time played live apparently) followed by the familiar I’m Not Okay. Last song is from the 2010 Danger Days album: The Kids from Yesterday. The kids are back. Enjoy the ride as they rip through Europe like they’ve never been away. Some bands just bleed excitement more than others.

I’m Not OK ( YouTube link from tonight – not mine.)

I love it when you see a band and the first thing you think is that you want to see them again.

Gary Numan live in Plymouth

Gary Numan at Plymouth Pavilions 6.5.2022 + Divine Shade supporting

Only my second ever visit to Plymouth Pavilions, last one being Morrissey. Quite a big venue holding up to 4,000 or 2,500 all seated. It’s a hybrid tonight with front standing section and seats sloping down from where the balcony usually starts.

We are here a few rows up from the front of the seated section which give a great view across the standing crowd at the front to the stage – a wander in the standing area seems to be allowed, well no one stopped me. It’s quite busy tonight but there’s room. Bars not too busy – bottles of Tribute available – sound. (Here with gig buddy Dave – DPi and our wives and met up with Glasto Nige, currently masquerading as ‘Plymo’ Nige for a bit.)

The standing bit of the crowd awaits Numan

We are in for the support band Divine Shade: hard to see in the backlit gloom but not hard to hear. A very full-on heavy synth sound – shades of heaviest Killing Joke at times but the repetitive heavy beat overwhelms the rest of the sound. I try and avoid letting a support band wreck my ears before the main band is on and my ear pieces are in early. This heavy trio from France are giving it a right old thrash. I can see how they’ve got on the Numan tour, with the heavy synth sound – they get a good reception but they wore me down.

I’ve seen Numan several times, all this century, the last time and earlier experiences documented here at my last Numan gig in October 2019.

The new album Intruder is up to the standard set by the last one Savage and it’s the title track of Intruder that is the opener tonight…then straight in to I Die You Die to get all the crowd going. Love it.

The sets Gary Numan is playing on this tour vary a little but all have a clear contribution from the new album (4/5 songs) and other tracks are chosen from across a broad selection of his extensive range of work. (Setlist link). It’s My Name is Ruin from the relatively recent Savage (2017) album that I have in my head after the gig. There’s always one song that is suitably contagious to infect the mind above the rest.

I forgot my camera this evening 🙄 so I’m reliant on a few from my phone. I took a phone video of We Are Glass, one of the bigger hits from the old days. That was the end of the main set.

The lighting is excellent and complementary not over-blown, although it’s pretty dark. There is so much more weight to a live Numan song these days – the keyboards more industrial than in the electro-pop of the late 70s and early 80s.

Numan and his band certainly put on a performance rather than play the songs. There is almost nothing said throughout the set, just one utterance of thanks near the end which was a bit odd. I don’t recall such silence from his previous gigs. This underlines the performance with its rehearsed dance moves – Numan back arches with one arm held up and the interchanging bassist-guitarist moves. I’ll get you photo next time eh if I don’t leave my camera behind again. 🙄

Here in the Black (from Splinter – 2013) and finally Are Friends Electric are the encores. It’s hard to imagine not hearing that these days, or Down In the Park, which they also played tonight.

Cracking night. Great sound, set and performance. As the venue empties you can see the seating arrangement – a good comprise.

Red Rum Club live in Southampton

Red Rum Club at The Joiners Arms, Southampton 4.5.2022 + El Rey + Ruby J supporting

Wednesday night in The Joiners Arms, Southampton. It’s our third Red Rum Club gig in seven months – drove over with my wife Sally. That illustrates that they’re a newer band I like and previous blogs from The Cavern, Exeter and The Madding Crowd, Bournemouth give some background on the band.

It is surely time for Red Rum Club to step up a bit from the smaller venues – this hat-trick of gigs are in the smallest of places and tonight’s 200 capacity is a sell-out. It’s packed and roasting and we haven’t started yet. (More details on The Joiners venue at the end of my last Spear of Destiny blog .)

We go down the left hand side at the front – I like that view and it’s a few steps back out of any jostling – getting in and out via the toilet corridor is easier than a scrummage through the whole crowd that funnels back to the bar via a narrow section where the small mixing desk is.

Also the idea is I take some photos but yet again the minimal (but appropriate and in keeping) lighting and highly mobile band mean decent Red Rum Club shots remain elusive after three trips – I forgot my trusty pocket zoom last time I saw them.

This was another fine performance, with that fabulous trumpet as the defining ingredient to their Mexican/Wild West sound and danceable tunes and lyrics to sing along to – or mumble and mouth to in my case, mostly.

They play Kids Addicted early, one of their best and so the place is bathed in sweat – I hope Covid isn’t in tonight. Sufficiently warm for some of the band to look distressed later on and bottles of water are shared with the crowd – a mix of ages but largely 20s, likely students, and a noticeable number of women. I so often end up in gigs full of old blokes eh.

Lead singer Francis Doran gets around the small Joiners stage a lot – rarely still and full of dancing – checking up on his five band mates and keeping an eye on the trumpet for cues. Lots of hand gestures to illustrate lyrics – especially on Love Me Like You Want To Be Loved. I’ll have to work on that one.

Eighteen from the latest album has some lyrics to think about (YouTube):

“Do you ever wish you could wake up …18… Would you be happy if you woke up 18?”

Now there’s a question to a 59-year-old.

I grab a phone video of the title track of their latest album How to Steal the World. I don’t like waving my phone about in the air but reckon it’s alright from up against a wall or pillars, or in front of your face, well my face. Same with the camera – which tonight is just about redundant and bathed in condensation too quickly.

Every gig has a surprise somewhere – so what is it tonight, on a visit to a recent regular haunt to see a band for the third time in quite a short period? It’s Ruby J, the first of two support acts. She is an exceptional talent. A Winehouse style voice and a range of musical styles that she tries out on us – just her and her guitar. Any irritations met with a smile and swearing – any lack of overt enthusiasm with a confident, or is it nervous, shrug and another smile. “Do you like Blues?”…..”oh… well I’m playing this anyway.”

She has some tracks on Spotify and here’s one on YouTube, Game of FIFA. There’s a Black Keys cover and she played her new single Try – released Friday 13 May (Played live in Hanley, several months back)

She has played with Red Rum Club before but I haven’t looked up much about her. Surely one for the up-and-coming pile….surely. Ruby J.

UK Subs at The 100 Club + The Mistakes

UK Subs with The Mistakes supporting 30.4.2022 The 100 Club, Oxford Street, London

It’s only seven days ago since I saw The UK Subs in Glasgow at Scotland Calling, but I was up in town anyway. The added interest comes from The Mistakes, from Poole where I live – I did see them support the UK Subs in the unlikely surroundings of The Allendale Centre, Wimborne in April 2019. Bought their quite recent album (CD) A Head Full of Damage (2021) and here I am walking down into the historic subterranean venue that is The 100 Club on London’s Oxford Street to see them.

I was here a few weeks ago for Luke Haines and Peter Buck but this is only my eighth visit and all have been since 1999, so no I wasn’t here back when I was a suburban London youth. (More about the venue and previous visits here in my Spizz blog from 2019.)

As for The UK Subs, I didn’t see them until 2011, at Champions in Bournemouth, twice more in Dorset and last week in Glasgow. Despite buying my first UK Subs record – Stranglehold – about half an hour after I heard it on the radio on a Saturday morning in 1979 (Sunbury Record Scene), I waited 42 years to see them live….and now I’m catching up and frontman Charlie Harper is 77. Where did that time go?

I’m here with gig buddy Dave and we are in just in time for The Mistakes, after a pint in The Champion, our new favoured pub in the area, a few blocks away, to the north of Oxford Street.

This five piece Poole punk band have three albums that they’ve put out under their own steam in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The Mistakes describe themselves as ‘balls to the wall’ punk. It’s fast and furious with the pace slowing a bit when the ska influence comes in.

The sound is really good in here tonight. We pitch up front left. People are still coming in at 8.15pm when they start so plenty of room at the front at this point.

First few songs are the first two from the latest album which gives me a familiar start. Fourth song in is Kev, introduced as being about their number one fan ‘who’s just had a great day out at Millwall’ and is dancing at the front in a UK Subs t-shirt. My brain starts whirring and I remember bumping into this Millwall fan in the Nelson pub on Poole Quay a few years ago while a big FA Cup tie was on. It’s him, confirmed by scrolling through old phone pics to find a selfie with Kev and his Millwall flag after I told him I was a West Ham fan, after he’d given me a one fingered gesture, smiling.

The Mistakes are buzzing – enjoying the venue – what an iconic place to play. They go down well as the place fills.

I pop to the bar – decent selection and price given we are in Oxford Street – and fight my way back to my place. It is now packed as the UK Subs come on. Packed with blokes of an age mainly. The decorated leather jackets are out and band t-shirts galore. The UK Subs at The 100 Club is a punk pilgrimage.

The mosh gets going and there are some youngsters in there as well who can’t be older than 20. After one song a young bloke with a mohawk haircut and an Anti-Nowhere League emblazoned leather jacket leaps on the low stage for a selfie with his arm round frontman Charlie Harper. What’s the reaction?….smiles for the photo “10 out of 10 for f*cking front” and the lad jumps down. Charlie’s beaming. He loves it and remarks on how good it is to see new generations appreciating the music. Youth in general gets a clap.

Great sound with a set laced with UK Subs gems Barbie’s Dead, Stranglehold, Tomorrow‘s Girls … and Warhead is the old Subs song of the moment sadly…. we rock on while we can eh. (YouTube Top of the Pops version)

“There’s a burning sun
And it sets in the western world
But it rises in the east
And pretty soon
It’s gonna burn your temples down

Warhead, warhead, warhead
Warhead, warhead, warhead”

The UK Subs keep the old punk flag flying once again. But tonight it was great to see The Mistakes coming up here to the legendary 100 Club and bringing their newer sounds… and Kev.

(On YouTube you will find a recording of the whole gig posted by YeAuldMetaller. 36m30s in for a rousing rendition of Warhead✊. 30m20s for the young punk grabbing a Charlie selfie 😁)

Scotland Calling: punk day in Glasgow

Skids, Cockney Rejects, Rezillos, UK Subs and more 23.4.2022 at O2 Academy Glasgow

A trip to see The Skids in Scotland with some extras. The one-day punk-fest that is Scotland Calling has a hint of Scotland about it – maybe some of the bands on earlier are Scottish but otherwise it’s left to The Skids and The Rezillos to fly the flag.

Our punk last of the summer wine trio (me, Dave and Big Gra) amble across the suspension bridge over to the south of the Clyde and head on south down Gorbals Street passed…. well, nothing. It’s a wasteland of derelict and near derelict buildings, rubbish and a few gangs of kids hanging about. At least it’s sunny…and not dark! This can’t be right. We are heading for the O2 Academy Glasgow, which isn’t the O2 in Glasgow I’d seen on a previous trip – the O2 ABC Glasgow, on the much more inviting and central Sauchiehall Street. A group of aging punks head past us back into the city centre giving reassuring advice that we can’t miss it and it isn’t far. Oh well at least we must look the part even to these ‘hard cores’.

After we locate the huge old cinema, we also head back into town as there really is nothing here except a closed pub just over the road, The Laurieston. I’ve seen the posters and I can’t believe all these bands play here. Do people come in armoured cars or with police escorts? It turns out later to just be safety in numbers and the walk back across to the City Centre isn’t far (I wouldn’t fancy the suspension bridge late at night.)

We return back across the river a few hours later. The all-day gig starts at noon but thoughts of £6 lager make the previously absolutely dismissive looking Laurieston pub suddenly hold some appeal. I brace myself and dive in… the bar appears to be largely full of Cockney Rejects fans and we opt for the spacious lounge. It’s a classic retro 60s feel, remembering that in the 60s in this area a southern stranger would have been terrified. Lager, strong lager and even stronger lager: they have the lot. I have a Guinness brought through from the bar.. cash only. It is a historic friendly oasis in a desert.

We stay in here and let most of the early bands that we haven’t heard of pass and head over to the O2 Academy in time to watch Gimp Fist. We hadn’t heard of them but the name alone deserved a look.

A three-piece easy listen punk band that started us off well.

We had pitched up at the front of the balcony to start with in unreserved seating. Standing room downstairs with various tiers and stairways giving a good variety of vantage points – I had a wander around and checked out the numerous merch stands, smaller bands upstairs. The upstairs area has some seating and tv screens show the stage. There’s a bar up there as well as the ones on the ground floor. (Actually there are some special offers so you can get a pint for £3.50.)

The capacity with downstairs standing is 2550 making it 200 more than O2 Kentish Town and I’m yet to go to a bigger O2 Academy. Today not many in the balcony but for what could be an 11 hour stint it makes a good hideaway with a great view. There are little standing side balconies. Each holds up to ten people and give a great vantage point over the downstairs and the deep stage.

The Anti-Nowhere League are first of the better known bands with their fast and rasping more rocky punk anthems, including their Streets of London cover and single So What. Yup, enjoyed that and on to the UK Subs, still upstairs wandering.

UK Subs – Charlie Harper – O2 Glasgow – Scotland Calling

Charlie Harper is 78 this year and he’s still at it. Amazing. It’s been hard to keep pace with their material over the years but the set has enough well-known ones to keep us happy, including Stranglehold, Party In Paris, Emotional Blackmail and Warhead (which we ended up singing later that night on the walk back to reality).

It’s 6pm by now: a bit of a lull in the drinking. The advertised food arrived in the form of white baps with ham or cheese. These ran out just as Steve Ignorant (Crass) was about to start. Feeding of the 5000 was their big album but the feeding of the, what, 1750 was now the need. Well, I’d eaten my two baps and perched in the front row of the balcony, unfamiliar with all but Crass’s album covers, I managed to nod off mid-set. This must be a first. It’s been a been a tiring week….but in a set of Crass songs? They’re not exactly lullabies.

Time to liven up with The Rezillos and I go downstairs to see them. I never saw them back in the day but after they supported The Stranglers in 2015, I saw them several times. Always lively, a bit crazy and some good sax. I like that 50s sci-fi and cartoon imagery stuff – Flying Saucer Attack, Destination Venus – they revel in. I’m wearing my luminous Rezillos t-shirt today but the lighting isn’t exploiting its full ‘glow in the dark luminous capability’ fully.

Fay Fife and Eugene Reynolds – The Rezillos at Scotland Calling

Plenty of room at the front for this early evening session. It’s loud and the sound a bit chaotic for this band. The sax is ripping and my ear protectors are in – I’m using two varieties at the moment, both very good – sound still good but tempered. The thing is not leaving it until the sound screws your hearing up before putting them in, tempting though it is.

Top of the Pops is unmissable of course as their hit single. The 50-minute set maybe a bit rushed with no time to chat but I’m still up for seeing them again. I retreat upstairs as the travelling Cockney Rejects fans move down the front from the bars, or maybe they’ve been back over the road at the pub.

The Cockney Rejects are listed like a joint headliner in the ads for today and they’ve certainly brought a lot of fans in. It is an onslaught – Oi Oi Oi – what a handful. I’ve got a couple of singles by them, almost inevitably as a West Ham fan, and live they are quite mesmerising. You can’t take your eyes off them in case something happens. Jeff, no longer known as Stinky, Turner (aka Geggus) spends to whole set in his Lonsdale gear shadowboxing his way through the songs. Full on. Brother Mick Geggus maintains some stability on bass.

Jeff Turner, Cockney Rejects fighting himself – O2

Mick Geggus – Cockney Rejects – Scotland Calling

Coming up to Glasgow and playing We are the Firm and their version of I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles must, over the years, have led to its moments but it’s all good spirits these days…. whether that’s always the case I don’t know. (I capture one on my Bubbles YouTube clip).

Amid the mayhem Jeff thanks everyone for their support and announces that 2023 will be the last Cockney Rejects tour.

Last on, after a long week of gigs for me, and a long day, are The Skids. This was the main attraction for us and we are all downstairs in the space vacated by the travelling Rejects fans.

The Skids continue their fusion with Big Country band members and after Bill Simpson’s departure as bassist it’s only Richard Jobson who is an original Skid. Father and son Watsons, Bruce and Jamie, are long-time recreators of the ‘Adamson guitar sound’ for both bands.

Bruce Watson – guitar – Skids at Scotland Calling

Jamie Watson – guitar – Skids at Scotland Calling – spot the UK Subs

As headliners tonight The Skids still only get 55 minutes so while the set is packed with the usual favourites – Into the Valley; Animation; Circus Games; Charade; The Saints are Coming; Charles – not so much time for Jobson chat and he usually gives some contexts to most songs.

Richard Jobson – Skids at London Calling

Jobson’s still dancing – I wonder how much longer the Skids have got on the road. They’ve been very active, pandemic aside, since their regrouping in 2016 and the 2018 worthwhile new album Burning Cities. I’ve seen them a fair few times since with the best being the Islington O2 last year, although the pilgrimage to their hometown Dunfermline was a great-all round experience.

There’s a cover to finish – it’s a corker – The Clash’s Complete Control, which appears on their 2021 covers album, Songs from a Haunted Ballroom.

It’s been a busy gigging Easter and a long day to finish. Hugely enjoyable and as we are freed to flow out and walk back along Gorbals Street and across the Clyde to the city centre, I appreciate seeing this sort of line up give this sort of energy isn’t something that can last forever – but in Scotland for tonight at least, “punk’s not dead!”