Posts Tagged ‘music’

13 Dec

Status Quo & Roy Wood Sheffield Arena 6 Dec 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Roy Wood, Status Quo. Tagged: , , , .

Status Quo & Roy Wood Sheffield Arena 6th December 2009
This promised to be a great double bill: the mighty Quo with special guests Roy Wood’s Rock n Roll Band. Quo were due to come to my local venue, Newcastle City Hall, but Roy Wood featured at the Arena gigs only. Hence I decided to pass on the City Hall show and make the journey to Sheffield to catch Roy with my heroes. I hadn’t seen Roy Wood since his Wizzard days, when he played Sunderland Locarno several times. I was looking forward to catching up with him again; his shows are few and far between these days and he hasn’t ventured to the North East for many years.
I’d just arrived back from seeing Shift-Static in Edinburgh on Sunday morning; had a little break and then set off to drive to Sheffield around 4.30pm. Got to Sheffield around 6.30pm with plenty of time before Roy took the stage. The Arena was set out at half-maximum size and was pretty full; I would guess that there were around 3,000-4,000 people there. Roy Wood took the stage at 7.30 sharp and played us all of his Move and Wizzard hits. His band consists of a girl singer, guitar, bass, drums, piano, and a brass section. We got Fire Brigade, Blackberry Way, See my Baby Jive and he finished with (as expected) I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day. The crowd loved him and everyone was standing, clapping and singing along by the end. A great choice for support; they warmed up everyone for the main act.
There was then a very short change-over and soon we got the usual Quo Drone signalling that the guys were taking the stage. Caroline, as always, starts the proceedings; the set is very similar to last year’s Pictures tour. Francis has not been well with bronchitis and some gigs were cancelled last week. The rest has clearly done him good. He’s on top form tonight; he, Rick and Rhino own the stage and are Quo at their best: rocking, joking, cheeky with the crowd. For me you can’t fault them when they are on form like this. Theres been a lot of talk on the Quo message board about the need to change the set. I’m not so sure; I think if there is an issue it is that this band tours all the time (unlike many others of their era) so we are all spoilt in seeing them at least once or twice every year. So of course we get used to the set. For me they were great. I sneak out during Bye Bye Johnny to get out of the carpark early (around 10.30pm) and get home around 12.30am.

website Status Quo: http://www.statusquo.co.uk/
website Roy Wood: http://www.roywood.co.uk/

Set list Roy Wood: included (plus one or two I didn’t know) I Can Hear the Grass Grow; Flowers in the Rain; Blackberry Way; Fire Brigade; Angel Fingers; California Man; See my Baby Jive; and finished with : I Wish it Could be Christmas Every Day.

Set list Status Quo: similar to last year; something like: Caroline; Something ’bout You Baby I Like; Rain; Don’t Drive My Car; Mean Girl; Beginning Of The End; Hold You Back; What You’re Proposing / Down The Dustpipe / Little Lady / Red Sky / Dear John; Big Fat Mama; Pictures Of Matchstick Men; Ice In The Sun; Creepin’ Up On You; Living On An Island; In The Army Now; Roll Over Lay Down; Down Down; Whatever You Want; Rockin’ All Over The World
Encore: Paper Plane; Junior’s Wailing; Rock n Roll Music / Bye Bye Johnny

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programme

13 Dec

Shift-Static & Blank Canvas Forest Cafe Edinburgh 5 Dec

Posted by vintagerock in Shift-Static. Tagged: , , , , , .

Shift-Static and Blank Canvas The Forest Cafe Edinburgh 5 December 2009
Shift-Static took the next step in their career last Saturday with a gig in Scotland. The Forest Cafe is a volunteer run, not-for-profit arts, social and events space masquerading as a groovy veggie café in the heart of Edinburgh. In its own words: “Forest is people. People is Forest. You is people. You is Forest.”
Gordon hails from Scotland’s capital and had lined up this gig, so Laura, Gordon, Charlie, Will and Joe made the trip across the border to take the stage at Edinburgh’s groovy cafe. Marie and I decided to make a weekend of it and followed Lenny Henry’s advice and booked a room in a Premier Inn on the outskirts of the city.
We easily found the Forest Cafe; its not too far from Princes Street. The stage lies at the rear of the cafe, which has a nice laid-back feel to it, with art work all over the walls and comfy settees all over the place. We took a seat near the stage ready for the arrival of the band. A folk band were on stage when we arrived; they reminded me of early Fairport.
Next up came Blank Canvas, a local band which includes Gordon’s brother Douglass on bass. Their set was a set of some originals and some well-chosen covers from Talking Heads and Orange Juice. A great set, which went down well with the crowd. Shift-Static closed the evening with a set which was cut a little short as closing time came upon us. The set was very much the same as their debut Head of Steam gig; tonight they sound much tighter and are really playing well together. Their sounds echo around the cafe and the crowd give them a great reception. A great Scottish debut for the band, in a lovely venue.

website Shift-Static: http://www.myspace.com/shiftstaticmusic
website The Forest Cafe: http://www.theforest.org.uk/
website Blank Canvas: http://www.myspace.com/blankcanvas1

29 Nov

Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) Birmingham NIA November 23rd 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Cat Stevens, Yusuf. Tagged: , , , , .

Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) Birmingham NIA November 23rd 2009
Its been a long time (33 years) since we’ve had a Cat Stevens tour. For me its been 35 years since I saw Cat Stevens at Newcastle Odeon. My memories of that show are still strong; I remember very clearly listening in awe at the beauty and purity of his voice and his wonderful songs. The atmosphere that night was almost cathedral like, with everyone in the massive hall hanging on to every word that Cat sing.
Things are different 35 years on. There is no longer a Cat Stevens, but there is a Yusuf Islam, and on Monday Laura and I took the train to Birmingham to listen to his beautiful voice and hear his wonderful songs again.
We sort of knew what to expect. The show was going to be in two parts; the first being a preview of Yusuf’s (I have to get used to calling him that) musical “Moonshadow” which he hopes to take to the West End next year. And the rest was going to be a set of Yusuf singing a selection of his songs new and old with a small number of the hits. We’d read the reviews of the Dublin show which hadn’t gone well with people walking out during the preview of the Musical “Moonshadow”. Yusuf had promised to rethink the show as a result of the experience in Dublin, and indeed he did.
We entered the NIA at around 7pm. This is the second time that Laura and I had been there, the first being for Paul McCartney a number of years ago. Laura bought a t-shirt and lovely Tea for the Tillerman mug, and I bought the programme. We then took our seats and found that a card with the running order had been placed on everyone’s seat. This was a development from the Dublin experience, to try and make it clear to the audience that the first half of the show was the musical, followed by a short interval and then the secodn half was to be Yusuf and his band. The running order had been changed from Dublin, where the musical was presented during the show, which upset some of the crowd who were unsure if Yusuf would be returning.
After a little wait Yusuf took the stage at aorund 8pm and introduced the musical Moonshadow. It is a tale of a boy who lives in a dark world and is searching for meaning and, I guess, spirituality. It includes a number of Cat Steven’s songs from the 60s and 70s. The graphics were outstanding and the cast did a great job. Yusuf appeared now and then in a sort of narrator role, but left the cast to sing his songs, which was a bit frustrating for the audience.
After a short interval, Yusuf returnded with his band at around 8.50. The set was as expected a selection of old and new songs, including a few hits and a lot of album tracks. If you were a Cat Stevens fan, you would be very happy with this set, I suspect those who only knew the hits would have enjoyed it, but may have been a little disappointed. Yusuf’s voice sounded exactly the same as it did all those years ago. The well known songs sounded great: Wild World, Moonshadow, Morning has Broken, Father and Son. And the others, including the new ones, were also great; in fact his new songs are actually very similar to his 70s classics. The crowd loved him, this is a very different reaction to Dublin; he must have been delighted.
Laura declared it one of the best concerts that she’s been to. I wouldn’t disagree with that; it was wonderful to see him again; something I thought I’d never be able to do.

Set list:
Moonshadow musical

World of darkness (Yusuf)
Maybe theres a world
Matthew and Son
Remember the days of the Old school yard
When a door closes (Yusuf)
Father and Son
On the road to find out
A bad night
Wild World

Yusuf set:
Lilywhite
The Wind
Where Do The Children Play
Thinking ‘Bout You
Boots & Sand
Bad Brakes
Oh Very Young
Tea for the tillerman instrumental/talks to audience
Roadsinger
Wild World
I Think I See The Light
Miles from Nowhere
Morning Has Broken
Don’t Be Shy
Glass World
Moonshadow
Peace Train

Encore1
Sitting
All Kinds of Roses
Tuesday’s Dead

Encore2
Father and Son

website: http://www.yusufislam.com/

ticket


programme

21 Nov

Yes Newcastle City Hall November 20th 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Yes. Tagged: , , , .

Yes Newcastle City Hall November 20th 2009
Yes are a special band for me. The first concert I went to over 40 years ago was the Bonzo Dog Band at Sunderland Empire with Yes, Roy Harper and Mad Dog (?) as supporting acts. At the time Yes were a new band who had just released their first album. Since then Yes and I have seen a lot of changes over the years. I’ve seen lots of different line-ups and lots of different tours; including most of the 70s tours, the Buggles line up, Topographic Oceans (yawn), a show at Stoke City Ground which was stopped short because of terrible rain, headlining Reading in the mid-70s when they were simply majestic and at the top of thier game, up to the last UK tour at Manchester MEN arena (which was OK). Once again a new line-up is touring the UK, and Yes are back at the City Hall.
The current line-up features long timers Chris Squire (the only remaining member from the really early days), Steve Howe, Alan White, Oliver Wakeman (yes Rick has been replaced by his son) and a new singer (can’t remember his name; I need to look it up!) replacing Jon Anderson. To be honest I wasn’t sure what this was going to be like or what to expect; but hey its Yes, its the City Hall, and its Friday night!
I dropped a guitar off to Laura and arrived at around 7.35, took my seat and Yes took the stage about a minute later! Wow! An early start; that’ll do me ; I thought!
The set was a best-of-Yes including some songs that I don’t think I’ve seen them do for years. If I had to write down my favourite Yes songs it would have pretty much been this. So we get Yours is No Disgrace, Astral Traveller (great; takes me back to the late 60s! and seeing them play the Time and a Word lp supporting The Nice), Roundabout, Heart of the Sunrise (probably my favourite), Steve plays Mood for a Day, And You and I (I’m back in the field in Reading in my mind, but actually I always thought this one was a bit over-rated), and Starship Trooper.
And they were absolutely great. The new members have brought new life into the band. The new singer is excellent, he sings faultlessly. Of course he isn’t Jon and thats sad, but actually he does a wonderful job. The older guys area clearly enjoying it, Steve plays great, and Chris is as in command of his bass, and the band as ever. It is of course, a home coming for Alan White. The crowd love it and the band get standing ovations for many of the songs, and some even run down to the front and are dancing along to Roundabout (does seem a bit strange seeing 50+ and 60+ year olds behaving like kids again, but also great; I’m not the only one reliving rock memories).
Awesome. The best concert I have been to for some time. I’m tempted to drive to Manchester tonight to see them again.
Next gig is Yusuf (aka Cat Stevens) in Birmingham on Monday. That should be interesting.

Set list:
Siberian Khatru
Your Move – I’ve Seen All Good People
Tempus Fugit
Onward
Astral Traveller
Yours Is No Disgrace
And You And I
Steve Howe Acoustic Solo including Mood for a Day
Owner Of A Lonely Heart
Southside Of The Sky
Machine Messiah
Heart Of The Sunrise
Roundabout
Encore:
Starship Trooper

ticket


21 Nov

Arctic Monkeys Newcastle Arena 16 November 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Arctic Monkeys, The Arctic Monkeys. Tagged: , , .

The Arctic Monkeys Newcastle Arena 16 November 2009
New songs, big arenas, long hair, can the Monkeys still do it? Of course they can. Their hair may be longer and the new album explores some new territory, but they are still a great rock band, and the Newcastle crowd knew that on Monday night. This was our second Monkeys experience, our first being at their Lancashire Cricket Ground gig a couple of years ago.
We took our seats which were at the front of a side block, facing the crammed crowd standing on the floor.
Support came from Eagles of Death Metal, who seemed a pretty standard rock band. The crowd seemed to enjoy them and gave them a good reception.
But everyone was of course there to see our heroes from Sheffield who came on stage at around 9pm to a great reception. The set was a mix of songs from the new album and old favourites. The old songs (Dance Floor, Sun Goes Down, Mardy Bum), of course, go down the best, but everyone (except perhaps me) seems to know the new ones too. It looks pretty wild down on the floor; lot of people are pulled out of the crowd at the front, lots of shoes (?) are thrown onto the stage (pleased that we had seats). Laura, David and I agree it was a good gig (and that the set was just the right length!).

Setlist: The Jeweller’s Hands; Brianstorm; This House Is A Circus; Still Take You Home; I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor; Potion Approaching; My Propeller; Crying Lightning; Sketchead; The View From The Afternoon; Cornerstone; If You Were There, Beware; Pretty Visitors; Dance Little Liar; Do Me A Favour Play Video; When The Sun Goes Down; Secret Door Play
Encore: Fluorescent Adolescent; Mardy Bum; 505

ticket

15 Nov

Malcolm McLaren The Baltic Newcastle 13 November 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Malcolm McLaren. Tagged: , , , , , .

Malcolm McLaren The Baltic Newcastle 13 November 2009
I was seeped in rock music throughout the early days of punk, and caught all of the major punk gigs in the North East: The Pistols, The Clash, the Damned, the Jam, Vibrators, 999, Siouxsie, Ramones, Television, Iggy, Buzzcocks, and too many others to mention. So when I saw that Malcolm McLaren was coming to the Baltic Art gallery to present his new film and talk about his work I couldn’t resist getting tickets to go along and hear what he had to say. I was hoping for some insights into those great days which are fasting becoming fading memories. So Laura, David and I went to this event last Friday to hear what Malcolm had to say.
The evening had been sold out for some time and was held in the exhibition space in the Baltic, which holds around 300 people (I would guess). The main part of the evening was the first showing of Malcolm’s new film: Paris. Paris is in 21 sections; each section is a collage of old French commercials overlaid with McLaren speaking, singing and other music. After the film Malcolm was interviewed and then he took questions from the audience.
I usually enjoy most things that I go to and always look for the positives in a performance; and almost always find some. On Friday I am afraid I didn’t really see anything positive. The film seemed to go on forever and I’m afraid I either didn’t get it at all; or it really isn’t very good at all. Similarly, I didn’t enjoy the discussions with Malcolm, which focussed on his contributions to art over the years. I had been hoping for more insights into his role in the Sex Pistols and the emergence of Punk. Still it was interesting to see him, but not an experience I would wish to repeat.

The Baltic : http://www.balticmill.com/

maclolmmclarane

ticket / flyer for the event

7 Nov

Shift-Static Head of Steam Newcastle 5 November 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Shift-Static. Tagged: , , , , , .

Shift-Static Head of Steam Newcastle 5 November 2009

Shift-Static are a new band from Newcastle. All of the band members are students at Newcastle University, all coming from different musical backgrounds and with different musical tastes, who have come together to give us some wonderful music. Although the band have been together for some time, and have caused quite a stir with their recent demo which was rated demo of the month by Narc magazine, this was their first performance.
The Head of Steam was pretty packed for their debut gig, with Shift-Static taking the stage second, sandwiched between local bands The Cut and Sword Attack. Most of the crowd had clearly come along to see Shift-Static, many of them being friends of the band. They took the stage to a great cheer from the crowd and launched into their five song set. Shift-Static music is difficult to categorise; they blend some very complex sounds with strong guitar and basslines. Laura’s lovely vocals weave in and out of the sound textures, almost like another instrument. Its sort of Portishead meets New Order meets Enya but its not really like any of those. For a first gig its pretty wonderful, in fact its pretty wonderful for any gig. The crowd love it; give them a great reception; their short set is over all too soon.
Shift-Static are back at the Head of Steam next Wednesday 11 November supporting Foot Village; if you can make it go along and see them.

Setlist (may not be in the correct order) : Green Knees; Haystacks; Fathers Footsteps Part 1 & 2; Give you all.

myspace site: http://www.myspace.com/shiftstaticmusic
another review on wordpress: http://musicfromagreenwindow.wordpress.com/

shiftstatic

Shift-Static Debut at The Head of Steam

shiftstatic

1 Nov

Fleetwood Mac Sheffield Arena Nov 2nd 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Fleetwood Mac. Tagged: , , , , , .

Fleetwood Mac Sheffield Arena Nov 2nd 2009
Fleetwood Mac were on great form last night. Went along with Norm to see them. This was probably the best I have seen them. The set list was a greatest hits which drew mostly from the Rumours period. Lyndsey Buckingham was the star of the show, he’s a great guitarist and a human dynamo. Steve Nicks’ vocals were very strong; much better than last time I saw them in Manchester. The crowd loved it and sang along with every word. Well worth the drive to Sheffield.

Setlist : Monday Morning ; The Chain ; Dreams ; I Know I’m Not Wrong ; Gypsy ; Go Insane ; Rhiannon ; Second Hand News; Tusk ; Sara ; Big Love ; Landslide ; Never Going Back Again ; Storms ; Say You Love Me; Gold Dust Woman ; Oh Well ; I’m So Afraid ; Stand Back ; Go Your Own Way
Encores: World Turning ; Don’t Stop

mac

ticket

1 Nov

Green Day Manchester MEN Arena October 30th 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Green Day. Tagged: , , , , , .

Green Day Manchester MEN Arena October 30th 2009

I had promised David and Laura that we would go to see Green Day when they returned to the UK. Although they have been around for some 21 years; I’ve never fancied seeing them until recently; largely because of the American Idiot album which we all liked, and their growing reputation as one of the best live acts in the world. So on Friday we braved the rush hour traffic down the A1 and across the M62 to the vast MEN Arena to see if they would live up to their reputation.

We got to Manchester in time for something to eat at Nandos in Printworks and went into the MEN around 7.45pm, having missed the support act Prima Donna. Laura was sitting with me and David was in the next block on his own (there was a limit of two tickets per person for this show).  Green Day were advertised as coming on stage at 8pm. Around 8.15pm a giant drunken rabbit took to the stage drinking out of two cans and started dancing to YMCA to the delight of the audience. I guess this was a sign of what was to come. Green Day took the stage at around 8.20 to a great roar from the crowd. Billy Joe worked the crowd from the start. Lots of singing along; several fans were brought up on stage to sing lead vocals and then asked to stage dive into the crowd. Lots of effects; explosions, flames, etc. And the show was very long at around 2 hours 40 mins. Underneath it all lies a great rock band. The favourites are all played, and played very well and we do enjoy it. But there is something of the pantomime to it, which the kids in the crowd of course love.  

We meet up with David at the end of the show; we all agree that it was good but perhaps a little long and too geared towards the kids in the crowd. We get home around 1.15am.

website: www.greenday.com

Setlist:

Song of the Century;21st Century Breakdown;Know Your Enemy;Viva la Gloria!; East Jesus Nowhere;Holiday;
The Static Age;Burnout;Are We the Waiting; St. Jimmy; Boulevard of Broken Dreams; Hitchin’ a Ride; When I Come Around; Give me Novacine; Brain Stew/Jaded ; Knowledge; Basket Case; She; Welcome to paradise;
King for a Day; Shout /Orgasim Addict/Teenage Kicks/Champagne Supernova/Satisfaction; 21 Guns; American Eulogy
Encore: American Idiot; Jesus Of Suburbia; Minority

Encore 2: Last Night on Earth; Wake Me Up When September Ends; Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)

greenday

my ticket

greendayprog

programme

1 Nov

Classic Legends of Rock Tyne Theatre Oct 28th 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Focus, Martin Turner's Wishbone Ash, Strawbs, Wishbone Ash. Tagged: , , , , , .

Classic Legends of Rock Newcastle Tyne Theatre October 28th 2009

Featuring Focus, Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash, The Strawbs

Went along with Will and Norm  on Wednesday night for our second dose of Classic Legends Rock. We saw the tour last year in Harrogate; this year it came closer to home at the Newcastle Tyne Theatre. The only change from last year was that the Groundhogs have been replaced by Strawbs. This is sadly because Tony McPhee has recently suffered a stroke, and although reports are that he is recovering well, he is not yet well enough to join the tour.

First up was the Strawbs who delivered a short set of classic folk-rock. Dace Cousins is, as always, the showman of the band delivering the songs with his own very characteristic vocals. After a short break Martin Turner’s Wishbone Ash take to the stage. Tonight they deliver the enitre classic Argus album, followed by a great version of Jailbait. Focus keyboard and all-round character Thys Van Leer joins them on organ for one song. I find it hard to decide which of the current versions of Wishbone Ash is truer to the original. In my view they both deliver and are well worth seeing. If anything Martin Turner’s band are closer to the original albums; tonight they could have done with a being a little louder for me. Coincidentally Andy Powell’s Wishbone Ash were playing the night before at Newcastle Academy. I decided to give them a miss this time, but have promised myself that I will catch up with them next time  they come to the North East.

Closing the show was Focus. Last time I thought their set was a little too long and some of the solos a little too drawn out. Tonight I felt it was just the right length. Thys is as eccentric as ever and plays his Hammond organ wonderfully. The guitarist is spot-on; musically this band can’t be faulted. We get great versions of House of the King, Hocus Pocus and Sylvia.

Verdict: Three great bands; all playing well and playing the songs we  wanted to hear. A good night.

classiclegends

i hate ticketfast printed tickets

classics

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