Gigs with Ivan

Heaven 17 live in Bristol

Heaven 17 + Pete Wylie 6.11.21 at Bristol O2 Academy

A tortuous five hour train journey to Bristol Temple Meads, changing twice and going via Southampton and Reading, from Poole, and before I know it a day had gone and was sat in the Hatchet Inn in Bristol, over the road from the O2 Academy. It’s a 67 mile journey by car. Perhaps a focus on public transport is the sort of thing to think about up at the climate conference going on right now.

Some notes on tonight’s venue and facilities nearby can be found here in my blog on the O2 Academy Bristol.

Heaven 17 are a band I liked back in the day but didn’t see them or have any albums. They would get a lot of play while out and about. It wasn’t until 2018 I saw them, twice on The Luxury Gap anniversary tour, at Bristol and Bournemouth O2 Academies. Then they supported Squeeze in 2019 at Bournemouth Pavilions. These induced second hand vinyl purchases of Penthouse and Pavement and The Luxury Gap albums.

We are in early for the soundcheck which is a novel treat and enables me to take a few snaps with ease.

Glenn Gregory and Martyn Ware pre-gig at O2 Bristol Academy

Posed pre-gig socially segregated photo opportunity: Heaven 17 + 1 grey haired gig goer

Tonight Pete Wylie of The Mighty Wah and the various versions of WAH! was the support act. I was pleased to see him live at last – don’t think I’ve ever seen him. Some great 80s singles which get an airing: Sinful, Heart as Big as Liverpool and the excellent Story of the Blues.

He’s funny and talks through his song selection. It’s him and a backing track and, as he points out, the only guitar in the building given Heaven 17’s presence.

Not much spent on illuminating his performance and he appeared in a gloomy blue light. I’d like to see one his own gigs sometime.

Heaven 17 open with Height of the Fighting. The band are originals Martyn Ware and Glenn Gregory accompanied by two backing singers and a second keyboardist (a different one to a few years ago) to keep Martyn Ware company and heighten the 80s electro beat.

Tonight’s setlist, given it’s a greatest hits tour, is a top selection of electro-pop tracks – ones I knew so well but forgotten I did. Fascist Groove Thing was introduced as having its 40+1 year anniversary in five days time…. good ole Covid has screwed around with a lot of anniversaries eh.

Come Live With Me remains something of favourite for me with its eyebrow raising opening line ‘I was 37 you were 17’.

There’s a cover thrown in mid-set: ‘Heaven 17’s cover of Human League’s cover of You’ve Lost That Lovin’ Feeling‘.

The last three songs of the main set underline the strength of their material: Let Me Go, Penthouse and Pavement and Temptation… so brilliantly 80s.

For an encore it was Bowie’s Let’s Dance and finally Being Boiled, the debut single by The Human League which Martyn Ware wrote while in The Human League….a cracker. Another good night of electronic pop hits with Heaven 17.

An early curfew and it’s all over and out by 10.30pm. Time to for more live music up the road at the Smoke and Mirrors bar. 😎

Gig Venue: O2 Academy Bristol

Frogmore Street, Bristol BS1 5NA (Last updated 11.11.2024)

These are my observations from my experiences of various visits to the O2 Academy Bristol over recent years. (There are links to some of my blogs from gigs here at the end of this piece.)

I’ve only ever known this venue under it’s O2 Academy banner, having been travelling here over about the last 5 years. As well as those visits featured in my blogs (links at the end), I’ve seen Heaven 17 here a few years back; The Psychedelic Furs and The Hunna.

Once inside, the merch stand is set up on the left. There is a small bar beyond the merch, and an area with a few seats around which can be shut off sometimes – it’s just beyond a wall of historic notes.

Usually as you enter you will swing right and through the heavy glass doors that keep the sound in and into the main auditorium. It holds 1,650 people – all standing – and that’s if the balcony is open. It isn’t always.

Looking back up – the balcony and bar below – handy raised platform for a good view

It is one of those balconies which is fine if you are hugging a place at the rail – otherwise it can be difficult to find a gap to peer through. There is a bar upstairs also. People tend to try clutter the stairs for an elevated view but security put pay to that these days and all in all I’d rather be downstairs. The best spots I find are the slightly raised platforms to the rear left and rear right of the main floor of the auditorium.

It’s ‘side on’ to the stage, if you get my drift, so no one is that far back, even if opting to stay on the raised part in front of the long bar at the back.

Lightening Seeds at Bristol O2 Academy 2021

The array of drinks is fine – O2 Academy usuals but fridges have some decent bottles of ale usually.

This venue always has the appearance of being busy which does often make for a really good atmosphere.

Amyl and the Sniffers – November 2024 atmosphere at its best

It’s one of the better medium sized venues I’ve been to and they are a circuit regular for many tours. Unfortunately it’s not that convenient by car or train from Poole.

If coming by train it’s a 1.1 mile walk from Bristol Templemeads and a three hours job with changes. If driving, the large old multi-storey Trenchards car park is just next to the venue….if you can navigate to find it. Parking on upper floors near the exit floor can speed your way out afterwards – I’m usually staying over when in Bristol as the drive is tortous and extends to 3½ hours too often. Rush hour Bristol is chaos. Parking is expensive and then there’s the Bristol congestion charge so diesel car drivers may think twice.

Pre/Post Gig

The obvious spot for a pre-gig pint is the oldest pub in Bristol, The Hatchet Inn, handily just over from the O2 Academy. Deceptively spacious but often busy of course on gig nights. A wide variety of ales on tap. They do food also.

More recently I have enjoyed a trip to The Golden Lion Hotel beforehand – Bristol’s smallest pub.

A regular pre-gig meal spot is the practical and speedy Wong’s Chinese restaurant round the corner, up Denmark Street from the Hatchet Inn.

If you’re hanging around afterwards, especially when at one of those early curfew weekend gigs – where they get the grey haired gig goers out early and let the kids in for a second sitting – then I recommend a visit to the Smoke and Mirrors bar further along Denmark Street from Wong’s, away from The Hatchet. Late licence and more live music.

That’s my O2 Academy Bristol round up. I’ll update this next time I visit.

Some of my visits are covered here:

–W.A.S.P. 2023

–The Stranglers 2022

– Heaven 17 2021

– The Lighting Seeds 2021

– Gary Numan 2019

Bauhaus return – Live at Ally Pally

Bauhaus + Hope 30.10.21 at Alexandra Palace, London

Bauhaus return to London on the night before Halloween. Just one UK date. This is huge. My most anticipated gig of the year. One of my favourite bands of the early 80s – as a student in Birmingham I wore my Bauhaus Ziggy Stardust t-shirt to shreds – but after a few years of doing their dark stuff, Bauhaus split. The bats left the belltower. Tonight they returned.

There was a 1998 ‘resurrection tour’ which passed me by and the band worked together again prior to a last 2008 album (Go Away White), which I only found out about recently (I like it on a few listens). Tonight was their resurrection in my eyes.

Bauhaus in my youth

I was in my last year at school when Bauhaus released their first album In the Flat Field, in November 1980. I remember exactly where I was when Bauhaus were first brought into my consciousness – I was sat in a Maths lesson next to my friend David (Chelsea fan DBa) when he revealed records he’d recently purchased. (X-Ray Spex was another revelation at the same time).

By June 25 1981 I was squeezed in down the front of the Lyceum, on the Strand, waiting for them to come on stage, after seeing Nick Cave’s Birthday Party, and Subway Sect support. I still have my scrap book of tickets and cuttings, freezing the moment in time.

I actually thought they got much better with later albums and tours and I remember being uncertain about this more artistic and dark performance, at a time when I was happier with a good old thrash from The Ramones, The Undertones or Buzzcocks.

By the time the 1982 The Sky’s Gone Out album arrived, with full goth pomp and dark glam rock, I loved the whole thing. Three gigs in quick succession, relatively for me then: Birmingham Odeon July 1982; Warwick University five days later and back at Birmingham Odeon in July 1983.

At the first Odeon gig I remember Peter Murphy peering out into the stalls dramatically and exclaiming ‘It’s a long way back there’ in his best ghostly voice. It was indeed. We were in row HH.

My old Bauhaus tickets plucked from a scrap book page full of Brum Odeon tickets

Shortly after, Bauhaus split up. I never got into Peter Murphy solo stuff in the same way – bought the odd single – but started enthusiastically absorbing it when I booked tickets to see him 30 odd years later in a disused mortuary in San Francisco, The Chapel, in February 2017. As the trip approached Murphy, then living in Istanbul, failed to get a visa to enter the USA after an anti-terrorist clampdown. Updates on Twitter built hopes up after early shows were cancelled but these then evaporated and I was long gone elsewhere on my US trip by the time Murphy was allowed in to play.

I did make the long drive one December night on my own in 2019 to the home of Bauhaus, Northampton and the legendary Roadmenders venue, to see Murphy with David J in his band. It was the night Pete Shelley (Buzzcocks) died – I remember seeing the news in a text as I waited for Murphy to take the stage. A dark but brilliant night. I stayed in a dreadful pub in smoky ‘cell’ that night. Glad I did it though.

On to Ally Pally

Alexandra Palace: not a venue I’ve been inside before. I did go to an all day Beat the Blues Festival back in 1980. That was outdoors…The Pop Group, The Raincoats, The Slits and John Cooper Clarke (I got him to sign my ticket afterwards – it too is in the old scrapbook).

But tonight it’s 2021 – 41 years later and we are getting on the Bauhaus Shuttle Bus up to Ally Pally from just round the corner of The Nag’s Head pub, opposite Wood Green tube station.

Tonight I’m here with Andy (a fellow Brum Bauhaus-ite) and Dave (DPa), the orchestrator. We’d spent the afternoon on stationary double decker bus serving craft ale with pizza from an adjacent wagon. (The Earth Tap, Bluehouse Yard. Excellent spot.)

Ally Pally stands in the middle of a very dark Alexandra park. Up the wide steps, Covid jab apps flashed, and it’s into a huge entrance hall, a beer and food hall where we calm our excitement with a few pricey beers.

Tonight’s Gig

What a magnificent selection of fans have been arriving – a spread of ages but overwhelmingly Bauhaus fan originals. Even in my unusual Lockdown studded trouser aquisition, I still feel I’ve blended into the darkness compared to many of the ornately adorned that arrived passing us in the entrance hall.

The main auditorium is very large, wide rectangular, high ceiling hall – an exhibition hall but with some character – the building is old (1870s) with a refurbished inside. The hall can hold 10,000 and as set up tonight they must have around 6,000 in with a bar and toilets to the rear.

The crowd file in during Hope, the support band: an excited, expectant crowd. It’s a big one. I paid little attention to the support band, unusually, but they complemented the build up.

It’s the original four back on stage: Daniel Ash (guitar); David J (bass); Kevin Haskins (drums) and the master of the darkness Peter Murphy (vocals).

From the opening words of Rosegarden Funeral of Sores this was going to work….the grand surroundings, the simple lighting, the wait and Peter Murphy’s stage presentation. Fantastic.

“Virgin mary was tired; so tired
Tired of listening to gossip
Gossip and complaints…“

A wander down the front right to see Peter Murphy

Tonight’s Set List link.

The set builds and not long after first album title track In the Flat Field * we get to Spy…in …the Cab. It’s so familiar now but it seemed so mad when it was released. (*YouTube clip from tonight’s gig.)

The set moves into a string of classics: Terror Couple Kill Colonel; She’s in Parties and Kick in the Eye before the peak of the darkness: the immense goth anthem Bela Lugosi’s Dead… 10 minutes worth. I have a wander an try and get some snaps and some different views.

The bats have left the bell tower – Bela Lugosi’s Dead

It’s hard to take your eyes off Peter Murphy, not that David J and Daniel Ash are any less cool – but Murphy is the master.

It’s all going a bit quick but a wonderful set. Not much chat from Murphy. It’s not needed. It’s a very visual presence he has to accompany the songs and they need no introduction. It would break the flow.

Murphy disappears up behind the drums for a while and fiddles with an unusual instument he picks up from the wings at some point.

The main set ends with the frantic Dark Entries. (YouTube link.) Excited chatter – what next?

The first encore is three songs including the longstanding Bauhaus covers Telegram Sam and the unmistakable ripping Bauhaus version of Ziggy Stardust – one of the best cover versions ever in my book and it has grown with the decades of live absence.

That’s it. Off they go. “This is NOT the last Bauhaus tour” is hanging in the air… ‘what did he say?’ people ask each other for reassurance.

Will they come back on… what more can they do? They do return once more with a calming All You Ever Wanted was Everything – we near as dammit got it. (YouTube live clip) A wonderful performance that absolutely met the nostalgic expectations.

The Ramonas – live at the Wedgewood Rooms

The Ramonas + Slady 31.10.2021 at The Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, Portsmouth

Back at the Wedgewood Rooms again. Third gig in three days so flagging a bit. I came down from London direct after train chaos enveloped Waterloo connections.

Bit of time to explore some more places to eat and drink pre-gig in Southsea. The Merchant House craft ale bar first with a huge choice (glad we have a hotel. Wife Sally has driven to meet me). It’s only a few hundred yards east along the main road, Albert Road, that the Wedgewood Rooms is on. Next and about 100 yards west from the Merchant House is Nicholsons for tapas… very good. Smart but reasonably priced.

We are in the venue quite early and it doesn’t fill up much tonight even later on. Maybe 150 in by the time the bands are on. Easy to wander around taking pics.

It’s all female tribute bands tonight, Slady (Slade) and The Ramonas (Ramones) and Slady are up first. Their sound has some problems that irritates the lead singer over several songs.

The vocals weren’t that clear and while I’m no Slade aficionado, I know the extensive hits, I’ve seen Dave Hill’s Slade in recent years and I wasn’t recognising much. Given they were advertised as a double bill they were a bit of a disappointment. Anything was a bonus though – I was here for The Ramonas.

I was a big Ramones fan and The Ramonas (band website link) bring an alternative way to enjoy it all over again, while having their own material as well – I’ve bought their albums and there’s a new one out this November.

They won the new band competition with their own material in 2019 at Butlins Minehead Alternative Music Festival which gave them a main stage slot the following year (linked). As well as those two gigs I’ve seen them at The 100 Club in Oxford Street, in the tiny Winchester Gate pub in Salisbury and at Bournemouth Anvil – more times than I saw The Ramones then.

Rohnny Ramona (Maxine) and Cloey Ramona (Lisa)

They put so much energy into their shows. Every bit as frantic as an old Ramones gig and before long we are punching the air again to those classic Ramones choruses… ‘Rock Rock..Rockaway Beach‘… ‘Sheena is…a punk rock-er‘ etc etc.

Pet Semetary is a particular winner tonight given it’s Halloween, which the band have got made up for. It gets better and better that one: ‘I don’t wanna be bur-ied, in a pet sem-et-ary…‘

They slot in some new songs – must be from the new album – into the middle of the set but it’s mainly Ramones covers tonight. A great way to round off the week… or is it starting the week off.

Nick Lowe – Nell’s Jazz and Blues Club

Nick Lowe + C C Adcock 29.10.2021 at Nell’s Jazz and Blues Club, West Kensington, London

Nell’s Jazz and Blues Club is a new venue for me. A short stroll up the street from West Kensington tube station, out of the station, turn right and head for the Sainsbury’s Local.

Go a few hundred metres beyond the club entrance and in what appears to be something of a pub desert and you find The Cumberland Arms. Great food and decent ale selection – I was taken with the Timothy Taylor’s Landlord Bitter.

Pub postcard – the original is on the pub wall

A good find by my gig buddy Dave. After a few pints (plus fish cakes and padron peppers) we return to join the queue for the doors opening at Nell’s. This is worth doing as it is unrestricted seats that need to be grabbed. We manage to rock up at one end of the front row in the polite scramble.

This is one of a series of Nick Lowe gigs here throughout the Autumn. This guy is such a legend, as much for his producing as his performing.

My lack of Lowe history

I was first interested with his Stiff Records years and production of Elvis Costello’s This Year’s Model album in 1978. I bought the Cruel to Be Kind/ Little Hitler single back then and have a Stiff Records live compilation with Nick Lowe on but I just admired from a distance.

In June 2019 I finally went to see him with masked backing band, Los Straightjackets, at The Engine Rooms, Southampton. Shortly afterwards his biography was published which I read to further expand my appreciation of his musical influence and history.

….back to tonight’s gig

There is a raised area to the rear, where the bar is, and the prime seats seem to be several tables that can be reserved at the front of the raised area. I’m thinking the 350 stated capacity must be if the rear standing area is packed. All the seats are full anyway.

The support act tonight were a really good watch but depite numerous references to their home city of Lafayette, Louisiana by the main man I didn’t find out who it was until looking up the next day. It was CC Adcock with Jason Burns on double bass and … ah yes.. the young lad on the drum Roy Lowe. I thought he had a familar face – it’s Nick Lowe’s son!

A good start which grips the audience – no idle chat here, it’s a jazz and blues club. Their blues rock genre I see is described as ‘swamp rock’ or ‘cajun rock’ so I see the regular mention of ‘Lafayette Lousiana’ holds some importance.

And so to the master – the headmaster of UK rock ‘n’ roll – Nick Lowe. Just him, with his guitar. Lovely set …. Set List will tell you.

Lowe is so cool. Cool is an often over used word but he really is just Mr Rock ‘n’ Roll. Great to be here. I don’t know all of it but it doesn’t matter. My favourites are the big hitters like Cruel to be Kind and Peace Love and Understanding but there’s so much more…Bee Gees cover Heartbreaker, Tokyo Bay, Blue on Blue and Trombone.

Relaxed, rock ‘n’ roll. This is good.

A hugely enjoyable set and the highlight of the encore was When I Write the Book. I enjoyed it.. Mr Rock n Roll.

Afterwards we met Nick and got some merch signed… it’s that sort of casual place. What a lovely night.

I bought an album – a 20th anniversary re-release which he signed

..and when I mentioned the biography I was pointed in the direction of the author. Will Birch…that was a bonus.

So there was a good night. See you again soon Nick.

Fontaines DC – live in Bournemouth

Fontaines DC + Altered Hours 26.10.2021 O2 Academy Bournemouth

If I was only allowed to go to one venue for a year it would probably be this one – the O2 Academy Bournemouth, or Boscombe rather. The old Opera House is a lovely venue – not totally without its shortcomings but generally it has a decent programme of touring bands, in an attractive historic building. The downside is the lack of pubs around and the druggie and beggar honeypot the high street has become, especially on a busy night at the O2.

This is a biggy. Fontaines DC on top of their game, two albums in and a sellout Tuesday night. That extra expectation is there.

The queue to get in the only bar I know in the area (Chaplins – a good spot) and no desire to start wandering these intimidating looking streets tonight means it’s in early through the phone fumbling Covid app and ticket checks – I’m obviously looking too old and infirm to warrant a search tonight… but then my gig buddy this evening was waved through unpatted also (I’m with Ben who I think may be classed as my step-son which seems quite an amusing label…best behave ourselves). We’ve already been spat at by a woman whose begging approach we dodged.

Inside, the new addition of Shipyard Pale Ale on tap is good to see but just a pint this evening so we can hold our place in the centre with the mixing desk barriers to lean back on. Bar queues are always bad here after everyone is in.

Support band tonight are Altered Hours from Cork. A five piece with vocals interchanging between a male and female. Thumping rumbling drums. There is mention of The Velvet Underground in their on-line blurb and I can see that in their slightly chaotic ‘rough’ and roll approach. There’s a bit of early Jagger in there as well.

I can hardly see them the lighting is so arty…but it works. I haven’t delved. They finish with ‘Fuck the Police‘ ..really?…..not looking for radio play then, but keen to announce that one.

The place has filled up now… to the third floor ‘the gods’ seating and the rafters above. Lads and dads. Students, old John Peel disciples, curious and supportive Irish. Worn Dr Martens, Idles t-shirts, Irish sports kits, hoodies, wild beards and all ages 20 to 70. The boys from Dublin are in town.

I saw them earlier this year at the Victorious Festival and this is so much more intense and absorbing, as it always is when your audience has paid to see just you rather than passing through on a hopefully barmy Summer’s day.

Grian Chatten paces around, seemingly uncomfortable with the gaps between the songs – frequently walking around in tight circles, mic stand in hand. Everyone is with him, singing, no..chanting, the lyrics back at him but not a word from him throughout unless it was part of the song.

A ‘thank you’ at the end and that’s it. He doesn’t have to do any more to package up the performance, a performance that the audience and its participation is a very important part of. I watched a livestream performance in Lockdown and it was lacklustre without a crowd to bounce off.

The chant of Televised Mind… Televised … Televised Mind, from the more recent album sounds almost disturbing – Joy Division with urgency.

Every song is greeted with similar enthusiasm, some then facilitating more shoulder riding and air punching than others. It’s pretty full on. I’m happy with the mixing desk behind me – I can hold a camera up without pissing anyone off and ankles are protected from a forward surge.

Boys from the Better Land remains the anthem and the one they finish with tonight, returning for an encore of Liberty Bell.

The steamy O2 Academy empties after another top gig and it’s off home to get the Lateral Flow Tests ready. Great to see a full house to see a band on top of their game.

Acoustic Britpop at The Engine Rooms

Chris Helme, Mark Morriss and Nigel Clark 23.10.2021 The Engine Rooms, Southampton

This was intriguing. Three lead singers from different bands play solo acoustic sets and join up for a final set: Nigel Clark of Dodgy, Mark Morriss of The Bluetones and Chris Helme of The Seahorses.

It was only a matter of weeks since my last Bluetones gig in Bournemouth and a few months since seeing Dodgy at a festival in Poole. (Background on those bands in the links.)

The Seahorses though were I band that I’d missed. Formed in 1996 by John Squire after The Stone Roses split up, with Chris Helme as lead vocalist. They made just one album, Do it Yourself, which got to number 2 in the UK charts and I’d probably say was my album find of the year so far.

The Engine Rooms has become a more familiar destination in recent years and rather than repeat venue notes I’m starting to create updated blogs for my more regularly visited venues: Venues – The Engine Rooms.

First on this evening was Nigel Clark of Dodgy. A 35 minute set of 10 songs – five Dodgy, one cover and four from his solo material.

As with all three of these guys, it’s one man and his guitar. Talented, experienced and self-effacing, delivering their songs with some context and humour.

Of course he plays Good Enough and Staying out for the Summer. It would be too much to resist, and If You’re Thinking of Me was another notable Dodgy number. But these solo performances are a careful balance between showcasing some lesser known solo stuff and not losing the crowd by throwing them some hits.

From his solo album, for sale on the merch stand, Make Believe Love, the stand out pick was You Can Hold My Hand.

The level of hum drum chat from the audience, increased nearer the bar, was pretty loud but the PA sound was beefy enough to mask it mostly. I wondered if with artists from three bands most people had one they’d come to see and listen to and thought they’d chunter away irritatingly in the other two….a move nearer the front helped.

Next was Mark Morriss of The Bluetones, someone I’ve seen many times with the band but never managed to catch solo but wanted to. He started by spilling water everywhere from ‘the haunted’ stage bar table and it was upwards from there.

I was more interested to hear the solo stuff but it was a welcome treat to hear the solo versions of Bluetones classics like Marblehead Johnson and that wonderful pop hit Bluetonic.

Morriss openly explained how he had opted for the one Bluetones then one solo track option to avoid people getting bored.. ‘you bastards’ he laughed. Consuela was good enough to prompt me to go looking for it later on a 2013 album and Rimini also very much earned its place in this eight song set.

….and his ‘parting shot’ was Bluetones number Parting Gesture.

The final solo slot – the notional headline role – circulated between these three Britpoppers on this tour. Tonight it was Chris Helme’s turn… perched on a stool, with his guitar.

Helme didn’t disappoint by including the two songs that I most wanted to hear most: the excellent Blinded by the Sun and Love is the Law. The latter he credited as a John Squire Seahorses’ creation before suggesting that it was actually plundered from an old George Formby album, with a quick scratchy guitar strum and a line from the ‘when I’m cleanin’ windows’ song…”turned out nice again”.

You Can Talk to Me and Moving On are other Seahorses tracks I noted. Faces track Ooh La La was introduced with a story of when Helme’s son was working in a bar and Rod Stewart walked in – “are you Rod Stewart?” “All day” Rod replied. Helme’s son said his dad was in a band and liked his songs.. The Seahorses.. doing well at the time. “Never heard of ’em” said Rod. So Ooh La La was dedicated to ‘Rod the nob’.

The final slot was the special bit in this unusual tour… all three of tonight’s Britpoppers: Chris, Mark and Nigel. I don’t think they have a name as such but they announced that they would be supporting Shed Seven (or now Shed 5 as Mark put it – two recently left) together on tour and had been writing some material together as a trio. Interesting.

Mark Morriss, Nigel Clark and Chris Helme at The Engine Rooms

Four or five songs to round off this quite unique evening and Neil Young’s Old Man was a welcome inclusion to finish.

The near last song was introduced by Mark Morriss and I misheard but later listened and learned that it was a John Prine number. Something of a now dead, American folk legend who I knew nothing about but the song they played of his to finish has been my record of week (if I have one): The Speed of the Sound of Loneliness . I found a Lemonheads version I really like as well.

The Acoustic Britpop tour comes to Southampton

A novel evening seeing these three solo and moreso on stage together. I’ll be interested to hear their new collaborative work.

Gig Venue: The Engine Rooms, Southampton

The Engine Rooms, Unit K, West Quay Induatrial Estate, West Quay Road, Southampton SO15 1GZ

Last updated 21.11.2024

Venue details from my experience of recent gigs (with links to those blogs at the end).

This venue is in an even less likely location than Southampton’s 1865 and looks even more like a light industrial unit – this one on the inside as well – ventilation pipes and all – it is an industrial unit, smartened up and using the look rather than disguising it.

It is Unit K on the Quay Road Industrial Estate, just beyond IKEA down towards the docks in a street off to the right. A 0.7 mile walk from Southampton Central train station through the retail park or if driving there is some on street parking on the main road but there are meters so may as well use the surface car park (Quay South/North) opposite the big Carnival building… just left after IKEA if heading East. It is also just over a roundabout from The Moxy and Premier Inn hotels – both sound value choices if staying over, with The Moxy being my pick as it’s a bit more interesting.

There is the bar in TGI Fridays just up the road in the retail park, on way from the train. The Quays South car park does give the Moxy Hotel bar option which is a better one (0.3 miles to venue).

Wetherspoons (The Standing Order) down the bottom of town is a bit more of a walk away weaving through the old town walls (0.5 miles). Check out The Dancing Man Brewery (0.4 miles): well worth a walk with top ale choice brewed on site.

The Engine Rooms venue holds between 400 and 800 people (says the website) and there is a divider curtain that can make the bar area bigger or gig area bigger to suit. It is all on one floor. With a band on I would think 600 max with the stage up. For Inhaler and The Hunna – both packed – there was no divider curtain, just full back to the bar.

I am relieved to see some pub benches appearing between the mixing desk and the bar on recent visits. If I get there early, a sit down for a bit while waiting for the first band, that can be the difference between aching legs or not.

The drinks stocks can be highly variable and usually disappointing – cans and bottles were it at last look. Haven’t seen any ale for a while. The 0% options have appeared, including Heineken 0.0% and the most welcome Guiness Zero. Various cans and bottles of cider – at The Hunna, Red Stripe was the only beer. Wine appears to be an occasional treat.

Inhaler at The Engine Rooms – October 2022

A packed Charlatans gig here in February 2016 opened my eyes to the place – how they landed that one I don’t know. They get some good medium popularity acts and older well known acts. I’d heard the sound wasn’t that good but this seems to depend where you stand – I’ve been a fair bit now (The Hunna, Inhaler, China Crisis, Undertones, Ride, Nick Lowe, Sleeper, Altered Images, Graham Parker, Red Rum Club). Last visit was for The Clause on 21.11.2024.

I like the view standing next to a side wall – less pushing passed traffic and photos without getting in the way – but, as usual, hanging around the mixing desk area is a good bet.

Some neck straining to see sometimes but it goes with the small venue experience and this place is bringing the bands to Southampton with my recent visits being pleasingly packed and bouncing.

A selection of my Engine Rooms blogs:

The Clause (November 2024)

Red Rum Club (March 2024)

The Hunna (November 2022)

Inhaler (October 2022)

Altered Images (Mar 2022)

Acoustic Britpop (Oct 2021)

China Crisis (Sep 2019)

Red Rum Club – Exeter Cavern

Red Rum Club + The Hushtones 15.10.21 at The Cavern, Exeter

A new venue for me. In fact I’m a bit of a stranger in Exeter but it’s a decent destination city if looking for live music. Wandered in via the cathedral which I’d not seen before on my limited previous visits.

We are in town for Red Rum Club – there’s a poster on the way down the high street. I was recommended them in Lockdown (cheers Francis FCh) and got hooked. Here tonight with wife Sally and friends and gig buddies Dave and Ann, who found RR Club via another route.

The Cavern is a part of an old post office building – a basement bar and venue in a pedestrianised alley just across from the Guildhall Shopping Centre. Stone steps lead down to this neatly refurbished brick and stone hideaway.

The bar room is a good place to pitch up early to and you can take to the gig room just when a band appears – no standing around in a bland hall.

Not sure I’m fully ‘gig fit’ yet, or maybe I’m in post Lockdown gig burn out after last weekend’s three in three days, but all is not well with the aging lower limbs…. so I was relieved to find a handy corner with a table for us to pitch up at.

Yes we can even see the stage from this vantage point – it’s in a wide corridor between the bar and the brick arches through to the gig room – and delay the final commitment to standing until the last moment – I’ll remember this spot.

Great bar – could do a good party down here I’ll bet. Meantime pale ale and lager and Fightback IPA on the tap, fridges brimming with Brewdog.

Brick arches through to the gig room – support band are on

It opened as The Cavern in 1991 and the names that have played this 220 capacity venue include Muse, Kaiser Chiefs and Coldplay. So much character in this brick and concrete. Great choice for any smaller band – hard not to feel busy in the gig room with anything over a hundred.

Tonight’s support band are The Hushtones, fronted by Martha Goddard and Mick Campbell.

From Liverpool, pop with prominent keyboards and an easy listen. The ones in the pics, Goddard and Campbell write the songs.

Red Rum Club have had two albums since getting started 2016: Matador (2019) and The Hollow of Humdrum (2020) and there’s an acoustic 2021 Lockdown release. A new album is out in November: How to Steal the World.

They’re now on the same label, Modern Sky UK, as two bands I saw last weekend: Slow Readers Club and Sad Boys Club… what’s with the rise of the ‘club’ thing eh.

The defining sound of this Scouse sixpiece, on so many of their songs, is the trumpet. Nobody Gets Out Alive illustrates this beautifully…it’s almost as though you should cheer as the trumpet (Joe Corby) comes in. Live, it’s loud and rips in.

It’s reminiscent of Theatre of Hate’s Westworld era, in a poppier way, I thought and I see in the band’s blurb they describe themselves as ‘Tarantino-esque’. I get it. A sort of wild west feel to it all – music for a party in a Spaghetti Western. Have a listen: YouTube Nobody Gets Out Alive.

It’s an indie carnival feel in this dark basement with plenty going on from the six in the band – not a lot of room for them up there. The songs I listened for get an airing: Eleanor is something of a favourite and the punchier Kids Addicted , both from the 2020 album…. but it’s hard to deny Would you Rather be Lonely its place as their most popular Spotify play – that’s the line that echoes around later in my head.

There is a lot of film related stuff going on and the song Brando exhibits this. I love the James Dean line:

“….Tell me ’bout your Hollywood phase
Tell me ’bout your hit blue movie
I thought I knew that face
I think you’ll love this place, I know
Just get me in a state
I can be your Brando

Won’t you take my hand?
Won’t you leave with me?
You can be my Audrey
I’ll be your James Dean….”

Front man Fran Doran mentions the pressure of going out on tour just after Lockdown… playing a place called The Cavern… setting it all up and wondering if anyone is going to come out. He needn’t have worried. It’s bouncing.

I didn’t wave my camera about much but you get the picture – it’s bouncing

I’m really looking forward to see what the new album brings. With the uniqueness of the trumpet sound maybe they’re going big. Certainly a band I would have no hesitation in recommending to anyone who isn’t too entrenched in a particular genre.

Another gig in my personal post-Lockdown frenzy is over. 17 gigs and 5 days of festivals since the lifting of restrictions in July – no wonder my feet hurt. I’ve seen 71 different bands in 2021 and there’s plenty more to come hopefully 🤞🤞🎶 Keep it live….gimme my Covid booster.

Hope to be back here sometime – an old punk band would be a good’un. There’s always the Anti-Nowhere League coming up in January 🤔

Slow Readers Club – Southsea

Slow Readers Club + Sad Boys Club 10.11.21 Wedgewood Rooms, Southsea, Portsmouth

My third gig in three days. Making up for lost Lockdown months. It’s a great period for live music.

Sunday night gigs can be a tricky one – a bit quiet – work tommorrow. I booked Monday off to soften that potential blow and a hotel overlooking Southsea Common to enhance the trip. Well worth it as Southsea is a great place to wander – good pubs and restaurants.

Here we are. 500 standing capacity in a square shaped room; bars off both sides, one just bar and a queueing area to the left of the stage and a smaller room and bar with a few seats off the other side (Fightback IPA on tap and draught Guiness).

The merch area on the way in is really good… a permanent feature almost like a shop.

Sad Boys Club – the support band – have just started and we’re in. Plently in without being full – it’s a Sunday after all.

This lot are instantly interesting. I can hear bits of Siousxie and tbe Banshees, and The Cure in there, which eminates from the guitar echo style but this is all placed in a more indie electro-pop rock context. My wife Sally mentioned The 1975..yes hints of them too.

A good set. They seem to have a string of singles available so far. They’re from London. I return from the bar in the break to find Sally chatting with lead singer Jacob – he’s from NW London and it transpires two of the band are Cure obsessives. Definately one for the bands to keep an eye on file.

Sad Boys Club – a taste on YouTube.

Slow Readers Club first attracted me, us, after being tipped off (thanks Ann P) to go see them at the 2016 Victorious Festival, a stone’s throw away (ok with a very strong arm) on Southsea Common at the Seaside Stage. Two years later and with the second album, Cavalcade, now familiar we saw both of their sets at Victorious 2017, noted here in an early blog.

We followed this with a trip to Glasgow School of Art to see them in December 2018 – an exotic trip I know – and here at the Wedgewood Rooms in March 2018. Always enjoyed the gigs a lot. Uplifting, bouncy indie rock and up the pop end.

The Wedgewood Rooms offers a good opportunity to stand in different places and snap a decent pic with my trusty pocket zoom. I particularly like leaning against the far left wall where you can get a good view of the stage and not be in anyone’s way….maybe with one ear plug in to prevent being blasted out by the speakers. Hence this piece is more of a photo gallery of my night than some, especially recently with some camera bans and gloomy light.

The band – from Manchester – are Aaron Starkie (lead vocals); Kurtis Starkie (brother on guitar); James Ryan (bass) and David Whitworth (Drums).

Aaron Starkie with James Ryan behind on bass

Formed in 2011 makes it sound like they are not new but it’s all relative when you’ve been gig going for over 40 years and I still see them as a new band. Four albums released in 2011, 2015, 2018 and the 2020 Joy of the Return and then a Lockdown special mini album 91 Days in Isolation.

This is the first tour since Lockdown and the 2020 Joy of the Return release so unfortunate timing and title, to which is added the fact that the band had not long given up their day jobs to give this rock’n’roll thing a real go.

The set is a mix heavier on the 2018 and 2020 studio albums with at least five from Joy of the Return – full set list picked up at the end. My favourite from that album is this one: Paris .

Build a Tower from 2018 remains my favourite album and as more familiar tracks they make a crowd pleasing end to the set with On the TV and Lunatic to finish. (The YouTube links to these are with a big home town crowd – tops).

The audience tonight has a good feel – a more mature leaning than for some newer bands – and plenty of ‘Readers’ t-shirts on parade so some loyalty in the room and a typically friendly Southsea crowd who are here for the music. I guess everyone’s a bit more focused on the band on a Sunday rather than shouting into each others’ ears.

Lead man Starkie’s high notes bring the band its distintive sound and I can’t help but be reminded of The Communards/Bronski Beat at the high bits. He’s very visual with trademark arm gestures chopping the air and carving patterns against the very atmospheric lighting and he likes a statuesque pose, eyes shut, head back.

Once again a great gig in this small venue. Originally this Covid induced postponed gig was to be at Portsmouth Pyramids but that is off the circuit now. It’s undergoing redevelopment with a large soft play area so maybe that’s the lot for gigs (?)…. an old punk band in a soft play area could be a goer.

That’s the three gig weekend over. Top entertainment from six bands in three cities. Just time for Sally to retreive a set list and buy a signed single from support band Sad Boys Club.

Signed Sad Boys Club single from the gig

Time for a last pint on the way back to the hotel and we stumbled upon The Pheonix. Great little homely pub on a corner of residential streets. Some further gems to try next time.