Gigs with Ivan

Jesus Jones – live in Esher, Surrey

Jesus Jones at Esher Theatre (16.11.2024) with No Imlay supporting.

A first visit to Esher (it’s just out of southwest Greater London boundaries) to see a band, in the small, 300 capacity theatre, just off the high street, next to and dwarfed by Elmbridge Borough Council Offices, with a handy large car park.

It’s a lovely little place with a small but smart and well-staffed bar… but how on earth do a once chart topping band decide to wind up their 35th anniversary, world tour here? I have scratched around a bit but the band are originally from Wiltshire and I haven’t come up with anything. Maybe some of them live round here? Anyone know?

The theatre dates back to 1936 and it was refurbished and reopened in September 2021. Toyah’s played here and Bobby Davro heads the panto cast this season.

There’s a bank of about 10 rows of seats to the back and the rest of this high ceiling room is standing this evening – handy for a sit down and save a grey-haired gig goer’s legs for the main band eh. The capacity reduces to 250 when all seated. There must be about 200 here tonight – there’s plenty of room – and there is a certain Jesus Jones look about them. I could have done with a ponytail. At least I didn’t have a haircut this week.

(Here tonight with a friend Keith, rediscovered in last few years, from school, when I bumped into him at the Vive Le Rock awards event in Shepherd’s Bush.)

The bar is congested and the room slow to fill during the oddly named support band, No Imlay. They said who they were which made me wonder if I was already going deaf. I looked on the small merch stand off the front right of the room in a cubby hole – no clues. Friend Keith went and asked them afterwards. It was No Imlay. Really? I looked up later to find that a key band member left at some point called Simon Imlay so they changed their name to No Imlay. Well, well, well. The possibilities are endless for similar band naming traditions.

No Imlay enjoyed their slot – experienced and relaxed – as did those in the room. An easy rocking listen with some good guitar sounds (and smart guitars) that wouldn’t be out of place in a Nashville bar.

So, Jesus Jones: formed in 1988, two US top five singles in 1990 and a UK number one album in 1991 – Doubt. Two years later and a number six UK album, Perverse, and nothing else came close, either side of the Atlantic. Six albums in total. Such amazing and rapid heights and then they were gone, it seemed. They kept going though, with the same line up, aside from drummer, Gen, leaving and returning.

I bought Doubt when it hit the charts in 1991 – looking for something different and off the back of their hit single (it reached no. 7 in the UK), International Bright Young Thing. (YouTube Top of the Pops link.) That album is all I know, so I’m not entirely sure what to expect tonight. There are only a handful of living bands left that I have bought material by and that I haven’t seen live. Jesus Jones are one of them.

A chap comes on to repeat the fire safety warning that he gave before the support band, pointing to the way we came in and to another route out behind a side curtain. This has ever happened at a gig? Should I be worried? Pyrotechnics?

I am instantly surprised when Jesus Jones come on, as to what a guitar-look they have, when the term techno indie rock is what springs to mind – all those weird electronic noises and beats in their singles. Two guitars and a bassist up front, with lead singer Mike Edwards always with his guitar.

Jesus Jones in Esher: Mike Edwards (frontman); Jerry De Borg on guitar (right)

The keyboards and electronic sounds are important mind – Iain Baker is mid-stage and side on, described also as ‘programmer’ and at the laptop between songs and writhing over the keyboard during them. He’s intense and enjoying himself immensely. We are among 200 people and the band are all playing it like they’re doing Wembley. Impressive and grateful commitment.

The ‘real’ Jesus Jones fans in the centre are leaping about. I’m more reserved and on the edge, but it’s very danceable stuff – ankles and knees will suffer tomorrow.

One nice small venue feature was a member of the bar staff diving between legs to collect discarded plastic glasses. A mop was out earlier. Safety first eh.

I do find I am waiting for the Doubt tracks a bit, and there’s a good handful of them and all a great experience – so pleased I eventually made it to see them. Right Here, Right Now… you must know that one. Another signature Jesus Jones track and later Real, Real, Real and Who, Where, Why. Great tunes that I feel I am unpacking after many years. (Setlist link)

I enjoyed the set as a whole but no Doubt as to my top picks.

The band seem to enjoy this end of tour evening as do this nostalgic gang of fans and the inquisitive extras like me. Who’s next for Esher Theatre – it’s one to keep an eye on for more surprises maybe?

Amyl and the Sniffers – live in Bristol

Amyl and the Sniffers at O2 Academy Bristol (11.11.2024) with Upchuck supporting.

Huge anticipation for this. I have seen Amyl and the Sniffers a couple of times at festivals but this is my first tour gig and indoors; packed indoors; sold out sweaty and expectant indoors.

Glastonbury John Peel Tent 2022 and Victorious 2023 (links to my YouTube channel) were tasters of what was possible. Now the room is filled with punters who know the songs and have come for this band only. What a buzz.

Upchuck, a rip-roaring and relatively new (2018) American punk band, from Atlanta, do a really good job of stirring the excitement and keeping the wait tolerable. The drummer sings a few songs, to give the main frontman KT a break from his stage workout – very visual.

For this one I’m tucked in on the small, raised area at the rear of the right side on dancefloor – favourite spot. I don’t move from here – no drinks option – I just don’t need the hassle for what’s on offer – I’ve been in The White Lion beforehand instead. (More on the venue here in my venue blog.)

On they come. Bright white spotlights illuminate Amy Taylor and another creative outfit with essence of 70s New York Debbie Harry. The click and clunk of guitar jack plugs going in. Crash – we’re off with Doing in Me Head a full-on instant hit from the new album. The place just explodes.

Straight into signature tune, Freaks to the Front. They’re going a bit early, aren’t they? Will they run out of steam? I needn’t have worried. Amy continues leaping, swearing, bending, smiling, bobbing and gobbing her way through the set.

So early in the set, but just about the best is Security. Beautiful mayhem re-erupts on the bouncing floor. This is non-stop. What a great compact venue for it – it’s Ally Pally later in the week.

I am standing here wondering when I last saw and felt a gig like this. My mind wanders back, and back, and back. I stall at memories of The Undertones at Hammersmith Palais and on back to standing four rows in front of a white spotlight illuminated Johnny Ramone at The London Rainbow – it’s THAT good.

There may be an increased intensity from that feel of a rare visit from an overseas band, making it more essential to saviour. How many overseas bands of this genre can ever generate this reaction?

The new album, Cartoon Darkness, is still growing into me and taking hold, so the run of Security, Guided by Angels and then Knifey (creepy and confident), all from the 2021 album Comfort to Me is lapped up.

The lyrics are so important, blunt and you can hear them – so much to sing along, chant along to. She wrote these lyrics and the crowd can sing them back to order when the mic is turned on them, or not. Some fabulous sweary stuff and the whole performance has a wonderful ‘I don’t give a shit’ stance – this is us; this is me. The rest of the band don’t share Amy’s exuberance – it would get a bit chaotic if they did – they concentrate on providing the sound canvas she needs.

Quite heavy rock guitar riffs are exposed in some songs by Declan Mehrtens – Chewing Gum a good example, and a song that really has ‘stuck on me’ since they performed it in the calm of the Later with Jools Holland studio a few weeks back – incongruously alongside Dave Gilmour and his daughter.

Drummer Bryce Wilson almost gets a look-in

As a change from the moshpit wildness – just about all of downstairs was the moshpit – Tiny Bikini sees women emerge on shoulders, in bikini tops in a show of strength. The lyrics are along the lines of I don’t care about the grief and others’ reactions, I am going to wear what I want.

The age and gender balance in here tonight is perhaps surprising. It is all ages and there are a fair few grey-haired and no-haired gig goers in. Good news travels through the generations.

Are they punk rockers? Are they pub rockers? They don’t care, do they? They’re from Melbourne, Australia and they are having an absolute blast and everyone is loving it.

They play all but two songs from the Cartoon Darkness album and it all almost as many from the Comfort to Me album. They finish, after a brief and uneventful wait for an encore, with GFY from their first and self-titled 2019 album, then an even earlier single/ EP track, Balaclava Lover Boogie, from a few years earlier.

Gig of the year – gig of the decade? I’ve waited 40 years to witness this sort of gig again. Fantastic night……and now off they go to conquer London. I retire to get a pint in the Mother’s Ruin bar with friends and chew it over.

My copy of the latest album, Cartoon Darkness, was delivered as I finished writing this …

The Blossoms with Red Rum Club – live in Bournemouth

The Blossoms live at O2 Academy Bournemouth (8.11.2024) with Red Rum Club supporting.

Back at The O2 Academy Bournemouth to see some familiar faces over recent years – on the stage and in the crowd. (Venue blog here). It’s fair to say that it’s Sally, my wife, who keeps the Blossoms gigs coming and for me Red Rum Club are as much of a draw – so what a double act on a Friday night. It’s the seventh time I’ve seen Blossoms and it’s a sixth time for Red Rum Club live and a third time this year – neither have been around that long, in my grey-haired gig-going book. (Red Rum Club March blog link.)

Blossoms were the last band I saw before the first Covid lockdown (detailed here) and at this venue. I remember a man coughing endlessly while we watched from the first floor balcony. My wife caught Covid just after. It wasn’t long after Covid that we saw them here again. They must like the place.

We are down front left for Red Rum Club, just in front of Joe the Blow on trumpet. It’s a short and very sweet set. A handpicked selection of eight songs to warm up the audience, including faves Vibrate; Eleanor; Kids Addicted and Would You Rather Be Lonely. Glad we got in early.

Front man Fran Doran is clearly restraining himself and respectfully delivering the support band role, without stealing the show. He mentions the ‘warm-up’ aspect of the appearance a few times, just in case anyone wondering. This is a double header in my book so I have to take the unavoidable disappointment of the short, half hour, set leaving me looking for more.

You know when the drummer is pushed forward and to one side that this really is the support slot. Going along to see a band you really like and are familiar with, in the support role, always requires some tempering of expectations…. but I forgot didn’t I 😉 Looking forward to the next one already.

Red Rum Club – Bournemouth November 2024

Rationing my standing, I go for a hike upstairs and find a seat in The Gods to wait for Blossoms. It is a lovely audience. Lovely = no beer throwing and a polite gathering with healthy gender mix and lots of ‘excuse me’ replacing drunken toe mashing stumbles through to the front.

The crowd sing along to The Human League’s Don’t You Want Me Baby, a pause and the lights go down. Blossoms are on and familiar tunes of Your Girlfriend and I Can’t Stand It to start off.

Tom Ogden still looking superbly 70s Top of the Pops set material and is his cheery self.

The set doesn’t feel overstuffed with the new album – albeit seven tracks from it – which I’m grateful for. Maybe it’s familiarity but I am preferring previous ones, best for me being the 2018 Cool Like You, I think.

The Blossoms poppy tunes are hugely better in a venue of this sort, a medium size, nothing too huge. I wander down and around the first floor balcony to get some pics – as usual quite hard to see much with the naked eye around that balcony – by this stage the front rail is a few deep.

Bit of a Queen, Bohemian Rhapsody moment at one point when the band huddle together.

Meanwhile, some of Red Rum Club watch from one of the private balconies.

The gorilla, Gary, is wheeled on for the encores bit. The title track of latest album, Gary, may be a little too quirky for me. Perhaps it’s supposed to be just a bit if fun. I’m sure I will be exposed to the other Gary tracks s bit more and my enthusiasm for this album might pick up. For now, it’s the gorilla in the room.

I get back down to the ground floor for a few crackers to finish and round off a good afternoon and evening out. Off to the M2 bus stop for trip home.

Tonight’s setlist – sticker added from guy at the bus stop after

The Cult – live in Portsmouth

The Cult live at Portsmouth Guildhall (1.11.2024) with Jonathan Hultén supporting.

Despite seeing Southern Death Cult in the early days – forty odd years back – it wasn’t until 2001, when The Cult, with a more conventional hard rock sound, and having reformed after a four-year break, that I saw Ian Asbury live again, then with guitarist Billy Duffy on board, at Reading Festival. The Cult had another four-year break prior to 2006, since when they have continued. Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy remain the long-term core, although drummer John Tempesta has had an 18-year stint.

Yes, I did see the more recent special Death Cult tour (Bournemouth Death Cult blog link) but an indoor Cult gig has been a long time coming for me….so here we are, having been driven from Poole by my rediscovered mate Graham, who I went to gigs with around early 80s London.

This is The Cult’s 40th anniversary tour.

2024 Tour with the London Roundhouse to add at the end

Portsmouth Guildhall is one of those semi-regular trips for me – about as far as I want to go for night out these days, without a stopover. More venue details in my Portsmouth Guildhall venue blog.

We are perched on the front row, centre, of the balcony. First time I’ve noticed the warning for the first two rows there, not to stand up. Ahh my legs have an excuse.

Support act tonight is Jonathan Hultén, a Swedish guitarist. An extraordinary visual image, while the music is not as weird as I was expecting.

Vaguely haunting music that sounds folky, maybe medieval. Something to relax to with a jug if mead. He sings as well as plays guitar and captures the audience. The eyes of the room are on him certainly.

The Cult live tonight

A good varied selection in the setlist tonight with three tracks being the most from any one album – both Sonic Temple (1989) and Love (1985) get three songs aired.

Ian Astbury skips around the stage and I have to admire his fitness as the set progresses. He’s a year older than me and I’d be in a heap after a few songs. At one point he sinks to his knees around the mic stand and I’m thinking, that would be me done and how is he going to get up…up he bounces.

Billy Duffy studiously gets on with his guitar playing and adopts a less energetic role, bringing that wonderful Cult sound to the room.

Not long before the tambourine is out and juggled by Astbury as he skips and sings. He has to tape up an early tambourine flipping induced finger injury, without halting the proceedings.

It’s loud and the sound is great but I don’t know the earlier songs in the set as well as I might – maybe the audience don’t as it’s quite restrained down there in front of me. Single, Resurrection Joe gets things moving.

I was wondering if the band had one eye on the big London dates that round off the tour at The Royal Albert Hall and The Roundhouse – do bands pace themselves at this stage of their careers? It is a special one to get them down here in Portsmouth, and not so long since the Death Cult Bournemouth gig last year.

Ian and Billy take a seat for a quieter acoustic Edie (Ciao Baby), the first of the three from the 1989 Sonic Temple album, picking up the pace with Sweet Soul Sister.

I’m quite impressed when Ian Astbury whizzes a tambourine in the direction of a young woman on someone’s shoulders, who catches it with one hand…and joins in on beat. I notice a few being waved in the audience, still in a bag – they must be on the merch stand.

The place is buzzing now. Mosh pits shrink with the age of us all off course, but it’s off and running now. I wonder if I can work myself up for one of those again. Some more gig training required, I think.

The Cult – great view from balcony front row centre

It is, inevitably, the classics that win out – Rain and Spiritwalker (links to my YouTube clips). What fantastic songs they are. Real stompers, with the Duffy echoing guitar riffs and a howling Astbury. Another unmissable one from the Love album ends the show – She Sells Sanctuary (YouTube clip), played after they return to the stage for Brother Wolf, Sister Moon. Songs like these are worth a ticket alone and I am so pleased to see these big songs to end to the set – I’ve waited so long for my proper Cult gig and I left very happy, with ears ringing (I just had to take my ear plugs out for a lot of this one.)

The Cult – Sanctuary – Rain – Spiritwalker

Charlie Harper; The Mistakes: The Anvil, Bournemouth

Charlie Harper solo acoustic live at The Anvil, Bournemouth (25.10.2024) with The Mistakes.

The Anvil is a small venue – a few hundred fills the place – that sits in the small cluster that includes The Bear Cave and larger Old Fire Station just over the road. I did see The Mistakes here at the Anvil before, supporting The Professionals in 2019 (featured here in my 2019 blog ).

This evening starts with a few pints of Brewdog Black Heart, which I was pleased to find, in The Bear Cave opposite – Anvil shutters firmly down until doors open, indeed it looks quite intimidating when it’s closed.

(Out tonight with Poole mate Andy.)

A good combination this billing: Charlie Harper doing one of his solo sets with acoustic guitar, along with local punk band The Mistakes, from Poole, on first.

The Mistakes were guests at a UK Subs’ 100 Club gig in 2022, covered here along with my previous Subs gigs in an earlier UK Subs blog . It was around this time I bought the Mistakes’ Head Full of Damage CD (2021) and why it’s these songs that are most familiar for me. Charlie Harper guests on that album with vocals on one track and harmonica on another.

I will have to give their more recent album – A Good Hill To Die On – more of a go, not that much there is much of it to hear tonight. Just a couple of tracks – Heathens is a good’un ✊️

There is no hanging about once The Mistakes are unleashed, starting with Underdogs and then another, Brainstorm from their 2019 album, Upstarts and Heretics. It’s that album that provides two-thirds of the set.

Lead singer Ross is the only one afforded a bit of room to move about on this low, tight stage. Dark and sweaty down here but while busy it’s not rammed. I must have seen them five times altogether and it is live that I prefer to hear them. Their engine of sounds is perfect for a small venue.

The Mistakes are just back from playing some dates in Europe, I read on their Facebook page – Berlin, Stuttgart, Vienna get a mention.

Poole punks – The Mistakes – live at The Anvil

Never Be Quiet, to get the air punching really going, is my favourite of the set but maybe it’s because of its familiarity. Form Square – the only song played from the CD I have, another cracker, before another anthemic one: Self Control from the 2019 album. This is what Friday nights are all about eh.

Charlie Harper has been at the merch stand – I bought some Charlie Harper Christmas cards – and is wandering and moving forward to take up his stage seat.

He couldn’t have started with anything better – Stranglehold. I remember hearing it in bed one morning in 1979, on the radio, aged 16. I got up and went and bought it down at Sunbury Record Scene. That was me fixed on the UK Subs. 45 years later here we both are.

Just Charlie and his acoustic guitar – a run of faves – CID, I Live in a Car and shortly after, Tomorrow’s Girls. This is quite a treat for us old boys.

Charlie Harper – yes I can see if that chap keeps his head just there

A run of Charlie’s solo material and a few covers get us to the end of set that has us all transfixed on the master – lots of respect in the room.

Warhead to end the main set. Sing-a-long-a-Charlie. A bit of guitar support towards the end but it’s basically raw Charlie.

A few encores, of course, including a near Halloween special cover – I Walked With A Zombie, from the 1943 horror movie of the same name.

A very enjoyable night. £12. Keep rocking.

Gig Venue: Portsmouth Guildhall

Portsmouth Guildhall, Guildhall Square, Portsmouth PO1 2AB. (Last updated 1.11.2024)

Portsmouth Guildhall has a very grand exterior. It was built in 1890 but it was bombed heavily in WW2 and only the outer walls survived, with the interior being rebuilt and completed in 1959. Inside there is that 60s civic building feel which doesn’t match the grandeur of outside. Perfectly good for a gig though.

It’s just a couple of hundred metres from Portsmouth and Southsea train station and plenty of parking nearby – I’ve often ended up in the Isambard Brunel car park – I don’t think he built this concrete multi-storey (!), just 150 metres from the Guildhall. (You can pay for your parking at the box office on arrival for a swifter exit later – this can also be pre-paid for and box office validate your exit ticket – check still available on Guildhall website getting to us pages.)

Brunel was born here and the nearby Wetherspoons on the edge of the Guildhall square also bears his name. The Wetherspoons is extremely convenient, just over the road from the queues to get into the Guildhall.

When staying over, the Premier Inn does the job and a very short walk to the venue, near the station.

The Brewhouse and Kitchen brewpub is another spot I’ve visited beforehand, just a few hundred yards off the Guildhall Square and along passed the closer Wetherspoons option.

The bars in the venue are fine if heading straight in. Nice bright bar with some seating off the main auditorium downstairs (featuring old photos from performances last time I visited) and a spacious standing bar upstairs, behind the balcony entrances.

Inside the auditorium there are the options of upstairs reserved balcony seating, to the rear or down the sides; downstairs standing usually or unreserved seating to the rear on a first come first serve basis.

It is a superb view from the front of this venue’s balcony. Not much knee room but hey, it’s good and this grey-haired gig goer is into saving his legs a bit these days.

I noticed a sign on the front of the balcony on my last visit, requiring those in the front two rows to remain seated, as well as some caution from inadvertently showering the crowd below with your drinks.

There are also those unreserved seats downstairs at the back of the standing area if saving your legs mid-gig with a standing ticket. Capacity is 2500 with downstairs standing and the seated balcony.

The room is wider than it is deep and view and sound are good.

It’s just on the limits of an evening out by car for me, from Poole, but I have always enjoyed my trips here.

Previous gigs here have included these:

Bit of a run on Decembers there and other visits included The Reytons, The Stranglers and Beady Eye when Liam Gallagher was cutting his post-Oasis teeth.

Tom Robinson Band – live in Southampton

Tom Robinson at The Joiners, Southampton (18.10.2018) with Rob Green supporting.

This was a gig I waited about 47 years for and then nearly missed out on. An email about an altered doors opening time the day before alerted me to the fact that only one of my ticket purchases was being acknowledged – I whizzed back through messages and bank records to reveal my intial purchase of two tickets was never completed. Arrgh! Schoolboy error. Braced for an embarrassing confession to two old school friends who I was meeting up with, I was relieved to find there were still a handful of tickets left on that night beforehand, and I was saved.

My previous Joiners visits have led to me detaling more on this smashing little venue here: The Joiners venue.

Support tonight is Rob Green, a solo singer – great voice with acoustic guitar and a lot of smiley personality. We head up from the bar area, making our way down the toilet corridor to stage left. I politely ask a chap to let us push by…. oops, that was Tom Robinson.

Rob Green gets the full house crowd singing along, gently – proper mood lifting warm-up of pop with soul. He has a new EP out, Manhood. He’s loving touring with TRB and he’s involved in the main set as well, later joining in with encores and before the brrak, on stage merch selling – just the sort of supportive touring relationship you’d expect from Tom Robinson.

It’s a long time since TRB (Tom Robinson Band) had their two big albums: Power in the Darkness (1978) and TRB Two (1979). At the time they had a huge impact and I remember so many people at school having the albums, walking around with the albums, wearing the badges. TRB were the ultimate protest band – gay rights, social justice, dodgy policing spotlighted.

(I’m here tonight, after a series of concidences, with two guys from my school, both into live music still and both I went over 40 years without seeing, until they turned up in the Dorset area.)

Tom Robinson is 74 now. He’s had a career in broadcasting – Radio 6, World Service, loads of programmes, but TRB as a band was quite short-lived, 1976-79 and then just a few brief returns to playing. The band with him tonight, not from the original group, are Andy Tracey on drums (Faithless’ drummer); Jim Simmons (keyboards); Lee Forsyth Griffiths (rhythm guitar/vocals) and a jaw-droppingly good guitarist, Adam Phillips. What a fantastic ensemble of talent here in this 200 capacity venue. Tom, as ever, is on bass.

Tom’s voice still has that gravelly protesting tone – I bet he sounds great with a megaphone in one hand at a demo. Bully For You and Too Good To Be True are familiar early ones to gently start tonight’s nostalgic protest, not that most of these issues have gone away over the years.

There is that clenched fist as part of their band logo and so many of the songs come with a clenched fist feel – there is still room for light heartedness mind, in songs like the ‘talkalong’ number Martin from The Rising Free EP from 1978 or Grey Cortina, about ‘the cars and the men that drove them that he used to lust after’.

Tom has explanations and introductions to contextualise his songs – it is a set of tracks nearly all from the two original TRB albums. After part one of the set there’s a 20 minute break (we all need one – it’s an old crowd, well my age and upwards largely) and the band push back and forward through the sweating bodies, disappearing into the Joiners’ inner sanctum somewhere.

The big tunes roll in through the second half. I’d forgotten I knew so many of these. The Winter of 79 (YouTube link to old recording):

“When all the gay geezers got put inside
And coloured kids was getting crucified
A few fought back and a few folks died
In the winter of ’79“

Tom introduces Blue Murder. “Who remembers a band called the Angelic Upstarts?” A rumble of yes from the audience. He referred to hearing their song, Who Killed Liddle Towers, and looking into the detail to discover the horror of a man beaten to death in police custody, before Tom wrote his own song. Tom is still spitting out words when needed.

Two more from the Rising Free EP: Don’t Take No For An Answer and the infamous Glad To Be Gay – groundbreaking stuff in 1978. To finish, is the highest charting TRB single, 2-4-6-8 Motorway. (I was surprised that the Rising Free EP with Glad To Be Gay on only managed number 18 in the UK chart.)

Adam Phillips’ guitar is fantastic throughout – the whole band is superb but Adam is over my side of the room and it’s hard not to get tranfixed on his playing. I looked him up later to see the impressive array of artists he has performed with: Celine Dione; Richard Ashcroft; Tina Turner and on recent Cher albums, for example.

The inability to leave the stage easily means a pause for encore level applause and then a restart. “This is the second of the..two hit singles we wrote” before arguably their finest work: Power in the Darkness. I thought that would be it – my old legs were tired – goodness how Tom was feeling up there, aged 74…. but there was more. Rob Green was back on stage to help out with a ‘disco’ song Tom wrote with Elton John: Never Going To Fall In Love…written to show solidarity with the disco movement in a time when a lot of negative, rascist, homophobic anti-disco stuff was flying about.

Lastly, a Tom solo number, War Baby, from 1982, after TRB had split up.

So glad I could see Tom Robinson live after all these years, decades. Respect. A man who has always been prepared to speak out, sing out, for causes and when he was up against the old 70s culture of Britain.

[No camera tonight – just a few phone pics.]

Johnny Hates Jazz – live in Poole

Johnny Hates Jazz in the Theatre at The Lighthouse, Poole (5.10.2024)

Clark Datchler fronts Johnny Hates Jazz – Poole Lighthouse

A bit of 80s nostalgia. I say nostalgia – I didn’t remember them aside from the appealing name…..until I heard the songs off course. THE songs leapt out when I put their greatest hits album on Spotify. (We can knock Spotify, but I wouldn’t be here without having had a Spotify reminder.)

Three top twenty singles in 1987 and one in 1988. These are, to jog some memories: Shattered Dreams; I Don’t Want To Be A Hero; Turn Back The Clock and Heart Of Gold. Their big album was in 1988, Turn Back The Clock (a UK number 1 album). As soon as these songs are played the reactions are intensified. That’s not to say the other material isn’t appreciated but those songs are just so familiar to the casual Johnny Hates Jazz listener.

I have never seen them before and this opportunity may have passed me by, but for interest from our visiting Plymouth gig buddies.

Johnny Hates Jazz play as a five-piece tonight but the original core of this short-lived late 80s band are Clark Datchler who is lead singer, spokeman, keyboardist and songwriter, and bassist and producer Mike Nocito. Datchler gets behind some keyboards for some early half songs but the touring band has a keyboardist, drummer and gutarist, giving a really full sound, while still gentle and poppy.

Clark and Mike both continued their careers in music but not playing or recording as Johnny Hates Jazz.

I was expecting to possibly see just a duo and the gig to be more minimalist and quiet. It was in the theatre (not the main auditorium) and the first time I’ve seen a band in here, with its steep sloping seating (669 capacity and it’s mostly full) and cosy feel. I’ve seen comedians, chat shows, ballet, panto and some Covid well spaced out gigs but never a normal band gig in here.

We’re in the front row so a wonderful way to experience my first Johnny Hates Jazz gig. I occasionally look round to check the view and what people are up to.

Clark Datchler engages with chat to contextualise some songs. It’s a pop history to be proud of and he’s enjoys reflecting.

The set is in two halves and my post-gig setlist grab gives the split.

Tonight’s setlist – complete with guitarist’s footprint

As you would expect, the second half builds, with more audience participation encouraged, until by the end and Shattered Dreams (echo Shattered Dreams) everyone is up.

After that final song Datchler asks for a band selfie – the result looks like a less relaxed scene than in fact it was for most of the gig. I can’t imagine anyone not going home happy from this one.

Merrill Osmond says farewell – live in Ringwood

Merrill Osmond live at The Barn, Ringwood on 28.9.2024

The Barn

A new venue for me – lots of tribute acts play and events that are often mirrored even closer to home for me, in Poole or Wimborne. Last night Shaun Ryder was here. Coming soon Martin Fry, Geoff Hurst and Harry Redknapp.

The Barn opened in September 2022, on the edge of Ringwood town centre – parking a bit limited at the venue but a short walk from the large flat car parks of Ringwood. If waved on at the main Barn car park, to the leisure centre to park, you need to check your car registration in at the venue, not the leisure centre. There was someone outside waving a board with a QR code to deal with this. Internet reception was awful and I really don’t know what I did wrong, if anything, but I received £100 penalty charge a week or so later – the system looked like a recipe for irritation, which it duly proved, grateful though I am for The Barn getting my penalty charge lifted when I contacted them.

There isn’t much spare room inside The Barn, so outside there is a mobile bar and a large awning. Despite the numerous helpful staff inviting us to use another QR code arrangement to order interval drinks once again Internet and Wi-Fi reception led us to a chap with an iPad to deal with this.

Inside, a 600 capacity seated venue with the seats rising steeply behind a good space at the front, to give a good view from any seat I would suggest. What a friendly place – very much a local venue, perched here on the edge of the New Forest.

“We want The Os-monds!”

OK so what am I doing at a Merrill Osmond gig? I have to confess this is not an isolated dip into Osmond-mania, well a calmer later life form of it. The Osmonds were just so massive as I watched early Top of the Pops and read my Look-In magazines in my pre-record buying youth. In those years, when you could boldly say such things, The Osmonds were music for girls…. well they just were. Beneath the surface though they were pretty rocky. It was Donny, later with Marie, who was extracted for greater stardom and The Osmonds as a band fell away from the front line.

On a trip to Las Vegas in 2014, I just had to see Donny and Marie’s show at The Flamingo Hotel, on The Strip – didn’t I? Well worth it. You haven’t lived until you’ve seen Donny sing Puppy Love live – could bring a tear to your eye…. not mine, obviously 😬

On The Strip in 2014 – part of the 11 year Donny & Marie residency

Then in 2023, Donny Osmond played Bournemouth BIC on his UK tour. As we knew a longstanding Osmond loving friend I felt this was a great excuse for a get together…and go on then, I’ll come to see Donny.

What an entertainer. So much history to share. He made a lot of women very happy that evening, wandering up through the crowd facilitating hugs and kisses from beaming aging faces of the 70s. What a lovely lad eh.

Rock look Donny at Bournemouth BIC (I was very pleased with this photo)

Merrill Osmond live

Merrill was lead singer, bassist and wrote many of The Osmonds’ songs. He’s 71 now and although he announced his retirement last year, he is doing three last gigs in the UK. He has a connection with Ringwood through his current band and production team and hence his return to The Barn, the venue he launched live music at and helped fund.

As soon as the stage lights go on there is a rush of older women – OK I counted three blokes – to the stage as Merrill comes on.

Crazy Horses to open is one way to keep everyone happy…then ZZ Top’s Sharp Dressed Man. (Go on – remind yourself – Crazy Horses video from the 70s.) There are several covers in the set. Later there is Sweet Caroline and I Saw Her Standing There for instance, introduced with reference to personal stories about Neil Diamond and Paul McCartney (who gave Merrill one of his bass guitars and stuck up for them when the media were giving them a hard time).

He’s had a long spell on the country music scene since the peak of The Osmonds days. There are a few country songs but he does like a bit of the rocky stuff.

There’s a halfway break and in part two Merrill’s son Travis joins him and the band on bass. An extravagant drum solo finishes off Osmonds 1972 song Hold Her Tight. The set rocks along nicely.

Merrill shares a great story of Elvis calling them at home to congratulate them on their success. The Osmonds played at The International Hotel, Las Vegas, after Elvis finished his long residency there.

There are two standout Osmonds songs in part two: Let Me In and Love Me For A Reason…anyone growing up in the 70s knows those. Lots of arm waving and an encouraged mobile phone audience lightshow.

Merrill chats freely between songs – so relaxed – shaking hands with anyone who wants to. One thing I have never seen before occurs: a song ends and someone shoves forward an Osmonds LP and pen for Merrill to sign… he’s still on stage, about to play another song, but he just obliges.

He says it’s the end. The last gig is at the Concorde Club tomorrow (Eastleigh). “Is anyone coming to that one?”. This is greeted with an excited roar and a massive show of excited ladies’ hands…. they are going.

Cheers bring the encores – Born to be Wild and then the apt, 1972 Osmonds song Going Home. Just time for last blast of Crazy Horses once more.

An unusual one for me perhaps but a privilege to see The Osmonds’ frontman signing off on his UK performing career.

The setlists below – we were sat next to the mixing desk, up at the back.

Stiff Little Fingers – ‘Putting the Fast in Belfast 6’

Stiff Little Fingers live at Custom House Square (17.8.2024) with The Damned and The Skids supporting.

The afternoon black cab political tour of The Shankhill and Falls Road areas set the historical scene and context for tonight’s gig – I say historical: the peace wall is still up and divisions still exist in part, but it is at least workable and non-violent. Several hours later I’m standing in a packed Custom House Square as SLF come on stage, the walk-on music stops and Jake Burns plugs his guitar in.

“How yer doin’? Alright?… We’re Stiff Little Fingers” ..and Jake’s ripping guitar throws out the first bars of Suspect Device. I’m standing there in awe. How did I end up in the middle of Belfast listening to this in 2024. No Englishman could have dreamed of this when hearing this song in 1979. Jake bellows out “Inflammable material planted in my head; It’s a suspect device that’s left 2000 dead…” and we are well and truly off. It’s emotional – an experience to treasure.

What was so good about this gig, an annual SLF led event (Putting the Fast in Belfast), is that aside from the first band on – a local band I missed – the line-up is of bands I’ve been listening to since they started and I have seen live around 30 times between them.

Richard Jobson – Skids – back in Belfast

T-shirts selling well as Jobson entertains

We were a bit late in so The Skids were first for us – I’m over here with gig buddy Plymouth Dave and Big Gra. Although we’ve seen a lot of The Skids in recent years, this is Richard Jobson’s new band who we’ve not seen before. Jobbo delivers, as ever, this time with robust yet unfamiliar back-up.

A short but familiar set that starts with Charade. Lots of air punching with Masquerade and even more for the song Jobbo just can’t shake off: TV Stars (Al-bert Tat-lock! Oo he’d be so proud if he knew). Clash cover, Complete Control is one of the belters Jobbo has added in recent years (and appears on the excellent Songs from the Haunted Ballroom covers album). Jobson recalls The Skids being one of the few bands brave enough to come to Belfast, after The Clash did in 1976.

Circus Games live, without the kids singing, is always one of my faves. It’s that Hammersmith Palais gig just after it charted that hooked me…44 years ago.

Before leaving us with Into the Valley, Jobbo reminds us that the song was written around the Northern Ireland troubles. (More on the new look Skids when I catch them later this year.)

Next it’s The Damned. Vanian looking as youthful and fit as ever and The Captain in his familiar, cheeky Denis the Menace colours.

You can’t accuse The Damned of playing the same old stuff and what a catalogue they have. This has its sticking points when an audience hasn’t come especially to see you. I’m happy, but tracks from The Black Album – my chosen Damned work – recent albums and Strawberries don’t have the same reception they would at a Damned gig.

Dave Vanian and Monty Oxymoron on keyboards

Wait for the Blackout and History of the World Part 1, for me hit the spot. Eloise the unusual big hit is familiar to all and it’s the end of the set choices that this crowd was hoping for: Love Song, Second Time Around and then maybe the best delivery of the set, Neat Neat Neat, as fast and chaotic as ever.

A packed Custom House Square looks on at The Damned

Then the golden moments – there are two songs that The Damned surely can’t miss out of any set, maybe unfortunately for them: the brilliant New Rose and the long version of Smash It Up – and we all still remember the Old Grey Whistle Test version don’t we?!

Stiff Little Fingers

As one of the first live bands I saw (twice on the 1981 Go For It tour) SLF will always be special. This is an icing on the cake gig, after the Crystal Palace Dog Day Afternoon last year (other SLF reflections in my Bournemouth gig blog). Perfect surroundings, the rain has stopped and a set load of familiar songs – with four songs from each of the first two albums: Inflammable Material and Nobody’s Heroes.

Jake looks so calm despite the ferocious sound of his guitar and vocals, as At The Edge screams out across the square.

The Hate Has No Home backdrop seems particularly worthy here – the newer than most single gets an airing early on, complemented by Love of the Common People (recorded here on my Grey-haired Gig Goer YouTube channel).

The angst returns with the classic, Wasted Life. (The full setlist is here.)

Before playing Strummerville, a dedication to Joe, Jake recalls meeting Joe Strummer in the Europa Hotel shortly after The Clash had to pull out of their tour due to insurance company wobbles. Joe promised they’d be back and they returned to play an infamous gig at the Ulster Hall…inspiring a city of young punks.

The Magners Cider was flowing by this point – partly medicinal on my part (no Guinness or nice beer located) – and the trio that finished the set was a belter. From the Nobody’s Heroes LP, the title track, followed by Tin Soldiers and Gotta Gettaway. Nobody’s heroes eh?

Room for an encore – the curfew beckoned. The Specials’ It Doesn’t Make It Alright and of course Alternative Ulster. A memorable gig this one, for the setting and the history. HANX!

It was back to our hotel bar to cement a lid on the evening…and early hours. A pleasure to bump into guitarist Ian McCallum in the bar.

Same again next year? Stiff Little Fingers crossed.

My gig-going has had a quiet few months, for me. After SLF and a few festivals in August it’s been a bit of a barren September. Elvis Costello cancelled his Poole gig. That leaves me with a solitary September gig left now…. Merrill Osmond 🤫