Gigs with Ivan

The Snuts – live in Bournemouth

The Snuts at O2 Academy Bournemouth (26.11.2024) with Siobhán Winifrid and Grace Bar supporting.

I’ve been wanting see The Snuts again, since catching them supporting Kings of Leon in July 2022 at O2 Arena, London – what a huge crowd that was to play to. (Link to that blog here.)

Back at the familiar local favourite venue, O2 Academy Bournemouth (My venue blog here.) The top floor seats aren’t open tonight. I have been getting used to that area being open but not tonight. Middle balcony standing open and all ‘rail with a view’ occupied by the time we arrive tonight at 7.30pm.

There’s someone onstage already. Who’s this? Not mentioned on any billing I’ve seen it’s Grace Bar…and that took me until the next day to confirm. No, I couldn’t hear what she said. Anyway, sounded fine but I sat in the balcony bar for this one, peering through legs for the occasional stage glimpse.

The next support was a notch up: Siobhán Winifred. Great voice, clear and confident above the guitars and band. I remain in my leg saving seat before the wander down to stand for The Snuts.

There are so many new, talented, female singer song writers out there at the moment I just don’t know how they get that break. Still, I thought that when stood in front of Rianne Downey with 25 people at Teddy Rocks main stage, 2023 – now she’s playing arenas with Paul Heaton and his band.

At a predictable 9pm, The Snuts come on. I’ve found a pillar spot towards the back. Sound good – it’s not too loud and no ear defences needed; view good, leaning potential great; camera shots without blocking others’ view – easy; chatty youth murmer, level quite high.

They have a 2024 album out – Millenials – which I have been playing a lot and they start with Millionares from that. It’s a goodie. Associated Lotto style merch available behind me. The stage has old big tv sets piled up all over it and there’s a street light on one side. They don’t appear to want the spotlight…a bit Echo and the Bunneymen in that respect.

The band have been going for about ten years, having started at school in their West Lothian home town of Whitburn – half way between Glasgow and Edinburgh. (Lewis Capaldi is also from there.) They have worked hard for this – Jack Cochrane reflects on this in the set – and had the Covid plague years to battle with and they seem all the more grateful for that. Millenials is their third album. It peaked at no.2 in the UK album chart (!) and later in the set frontman Jack shares a story about Rod Stewart pipping them to no.1 and sending pictures of all his Rolls Royces.

Jack Cochrane’s voice is so distinctive – seems to come from the back of his mouth giving a sound that reminds me of Passenger, maybe a bit of Cast’s John Power and songs do have that Cast stomping bounce to them. Guitar sounds right up front on many songs but in discrete riffs and jangles rather than a wall of sound.

It’s an old meets new sound. A modern layer – sometimes that’s the only layer you get these days – but on a classic indie rock’n’roll base.

There’s polite crowd acknowledgement and gratitude, without much fuss or hysteria. Proper rock’n’roll cool. Just play the songs boys.

The Snuts in the classic O2 Academy Bournemouth surroundings – beautiful architecture

I grab a video of the 2020 single Always..now on my YouTube channel. Already an anthem and featured on their W.L. from 2021.

Somebody Loves You prompts Jack to hestitantly invite the crowd to put their arm around someone next to them. I have my wife Sally and a pillar next to me so no awkwardness there.

There’s a section where the drummer (Jordan ‘Joko’ Mackay) comes forward to sing and play a smaller conga type set on stage front.

Novastar is a great track near the end of the mainset and it’s not long before a wonderful trio selected for the encore. Circles is just about the best track on the lastest album. Next, Jack quips ‘I don’t know why I enjoy this song so much’, before playing Glasgow, then Gloria to finish. Gloria is on the latest album but was a 2023 single and surely a staple now of any Snuts set.

It’s another really good gig. Time to head out to the cold wet rain of Boscombe high street on a Tuesday. A band to stick with I’d say.

The Clause – live in Southampton

The Clause at the Engine Rooms, Southampton (21.11.2024) with Tom A. Smith + Auden supporting.

It’s freezing – proper zero degrees. Weather reports and social media reaction has been hysterical for half the day, after some morning snow but a clear run on glistening roads across the New Forest to Southampton gets us to The Engine Rooms. (More notes on the venue here in my venue blog.)

I get a bench behind the mixing desk pen, once in, saving the knees and ankles for the main band. There are three bands tonight and I confirm who the supports are from the framed stage time listing near the entrance.

Auden are first up. Without the written clue I never would have fathomed what they said their name was. They are from Romsey, Hampshire… so, local and their set rumbles along nicely without me getting too involved. Just parked on the bench with a can of Guiness Zero. This isn’t a wild night – just glad to get here. Auden’s indie sounds good for a first hear mind.

(I catch up with Francis this evening, one of the friends who mentioned The Clause to me – thanks also to Tony and Tim – a good shout indeed. )

The Engine Rooms – behind the mixing desk

Next on is Tom A. Smith, from Sunderland who oozes confidence, with his band alongside. He’s just 20. On a browse I later I see he is playing a young Dave Stewart in a Eurythmics film coming out soon.

He is a notch up on quality and I peer over the mixing desk inquisitively. There’s something happening here and he deserves a bit more of a listen, but this half hour introduction is good.

I even forgive him an early introduction to Christmas (bah humbug) with his new seasonal track, This Christmas Time (Tom’s official YouTube link). “Sorry, it’s not December,” he apologises, before advertising his associated Christmas tree t-shirts on the merch stand, to make yourself look like a car air freshener, he warns.

The two opening bands hung together well – brief sets, long enough to find out about them, and complementary to the main act. No undue waiting about on a cold, alcohol free, mid-week for this grey-haired gig goer.

The Clause are from Birmingham and started out playing in 2016. It’s a long road – a trail of singles since 2017 but no albums to date. The Weekend Millionaire 5-track EP looks to be their most recent and significant release so far. They play all five tracks from it tonight.

Liam Deakin (guitar) and Niall Fennell (drums)

Initially, when the band start, I stand back a bit from the left speaker stack, against the side wall. Handy for pics but the sound, especially bass, was booming a bit, well a lot – maybe off the wall – and I moved back to the mix desk after a few songs and it sounded good so not sure if the sound got a tweak or what.

Frontman, Pearce Macca, is quick to rally the crowd – the place is about half full, maybe 300 in – with “are you ready, Southampton!” ..and “come on, Southampton, let’s hear yer”. It works. Everyone seems eager.

There’s some intricate guitar work (lead guitarist Liam Deakin) amid the choruses to get hooked on. This indie rock has variation – great guitar sounds and the delivery must come from their recent years developing a local Birmingham fan base – they know how to play to a crowd.

When I video bits at gigs, if I do, I generally just pick a couple of songs and try it, camera or phone. If I’m in the way, I don’t. Hence, I like side wall or the cover of pillars. Here, the mix desk rear barriers provide me with a sort of giant rock’n’roll Zimmer frame…a supportive lean. No one watching from behind so also convenient for a video. Tonight I grab one of the anthemic track, Time of Our Lives and, as it happens, it is one of my picks of the set. There’s almost a Liam growl in there somewhere. (Link is to my YouTube channel.)

It a bit surprising an album hasn’t emerged yet – plenty of really strong singles though and now this latest EP. It’s going to be worth having when it comes.

The Clause at The Engine Rooms, Southampton

They already have a clutch of firm crowd favourites to fit into this hour or so long set. Bassist, Jonny Fyffe, is up on his monitor enjoying the moment by the end.

I look forward to seeing this lot again. There’s plenty for me here.

They finish with In My Element, a single from 2019, which has a distinctive opening riff of fuzzed guitar – have a listen to the official video. (YouTube link). Love it.

Pearce Macca; rear Niall Fennell on drums

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.