Posts Tagged ‘rock’

7 Feb

The Groundhogs and Stray The Cluny Newcastle 3 Feb 2010

Posted by vintagerock in Groundhogs, Stray. Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , .

The Groundhogs and Stray The Cluny Newcastle 3 Feb 2010

Will and I went to see our old hero Tony McPhee with the Groundhogs on Wednesday at the Cluny. This was a true classic rock double header, with the Groundhogs sharing the billing with old favourites Stray. Tony suffered a stroke last year and hasn’t been so well; we were pleased that he was now well enough to play again and were looking forward to seeing him. He hasn’t yet made a full recovery in that his speech is still affected, and as a result his wife Joanna had become an honorary Hog and is deputising on vocals.

The Groundhogs are first up. This is the first time we have had a chance to see the new four piece line-up which includes Joanna on vocals, Tony (of course) on guitar, Dave Anderson on bass and Mick Jones on drums. Its at first strange to see Joanna fronting the band and singing. She really gets into the spirit of it, dancing all over the stage, and making a good fist of the vocal duties. Tony seems to be playing better than the last couple of times we’ve seen the Hogs. He takes over the vocal duties for Still a Fool. Last song is, as always, Cherry Red; the higher notes suit Joanna’s voice well.

After a short break, Stray take the stage. I’d forgotten what a great front man and guitarist Del Bromham is, and how loud a three piece band can be. He obviously loves being on stage, and is still an excellent and very under-rated guitarist. The old Stray tracks stand the test of time, and those from the new album sound just as good. Last up is old favourite All in the Mind, with Del, ever the showman, hanging his Strat from the Cluny ceiling and whipping it with the guitar lead. No strobes, or dustbins with flames and flares like the old days, but just as good all the same.

We have a chat with Del on the way out, and get a poster signed. We ask him if he remembers playing Spennymoor Top Hat in the early 70s (he does) and to pass our regards to our old friend Tony Rolfe who now lives near Del and sometimes plays guitar with him.

A great night. The old ones are still the best.

Groundhogs Setlist: (from memory; I might have missed some) No More Dogging, Eccentric Man, Garden, Still a Fool (Tony singing), Split 1, Split 2, Split 4, Mistreated, Natchez Burning, Cherry Red.

Stray Setlist: Included quite a few (great!) songs from the new album and old favourites Time Machine, After the Storm, Jericho, I believe it, All in your Mind.

Groundhogs website: http://www.thegroundhogs.co.uk/
Stray website: http://www.stray-the-band.co.uk/

ticket

31 Jan

Buffy Sainte-Marie The Sage Gateshead Jan 28th 2010

Posted by vintagerock in Buffy Sainte-Marie. Tagged: , , , , , .

Buffy Sainte-Marie The Sage Gateshead Jan 28th 2010

On several occassions I have gone along to see a legendery performer, only to be disapointed. Tonight wasn’t one of them. Buffy Sainte-Marie certainly fits into my definition of a legend. She started singing in the early 60s and was a contemporary of Dylan and Joan Baez, she’s written some great songs, a few of which have become standards. My first encounter of Buffy’s music was when I went to see the film Soldier Blue when it came out in 1970. Of course I’d heard Universal Soldier by Donovan, but wasn’t aware that Buffy had written it. More recently I bought a copy of her first lp on eBay, enjoyed it, and decided that it was about time I went to see her in concert.
The Sage was about 3/4 full downstairs for Buffy. I came along a little late and missed the support; he was autographing CDs in the foyer when I arrived. I took my seat near the back of the hall and about 5 minutes later Buffy took the stage. At 68 she looks great and is clearly still enjoying performing. The set is a mix of her well known songs and others from her albums. Her band are, like Buffy, of native American descent and between the songs she tells stories of native American life, still “a teacher” (her words) and passionate about civil rights. Her songs are all sung beautifully; many of them drawing from native American culture and music. It was quite a short set, but I sensed as I left that everyone had enjoyed it. Particular favourites for me were Universal Soldier (of course), Cripple Creek (great mouth-bow; I think that is what you call it?) and Until its time for you to go (Buffy proudly tells us how this has been covered by Elvis and Barbra Streisand).

Setlist: I don’t know Buffy’s songs well enough to list them all, but the set included the songs below:
Little Wheel spin and spin
Cripple Creek
Universal Soldier
Soldier Blue
Up where we belong
Until its time for you to go
He’s an Indian Cowboy in the Rodeo
No No Keshagesh
Starwalker

website: http://www.creative-native.com/

ticket

24 Jan

The Prodigy Bridlington Spa 22 January 2010

Posted by vintagerock in Prodigy, The Prodigy. Tagged: , , , , .

The Prodigy Bridlington Spa 22 January 2010
David and Laura have been telling me for some time that we should go and see the Prodigy. We missed them at Newcastle Arena last year, so when the chance came to see them in a small(ish for them) venue, I decided that we should buy tickets and see what they were like in concert. I’d read a lot about Bridlington Spa being a great venue to see a band, so a trip to the seaside seemed in order.
So it was that we set off to drive over the Yorkshire moors on a cold, wet and foggy night. Not the best night to make the trip, which took us almost 3 hours (lots of fog and traffic on the moors) but we got there safely and in plenty of time. We went straight into Bridlington centre and found a nice cafe where we sampled their finest fish and chips, which set us up nicely for the show. At around 8pm we went along to the Spa for the concert.
The Spa was already packed when we got in. I was pleased to find that there was a balcony where we could sit down (me being too old for the mosh pit). Luckily we managed to get three seats, looking over the side of the stage. A support act (not sure who) was just finishing; they were followed on stage by South Central, who had some great tracks; lots of sampling and pretty loud; they really got the crowd going.
The Prodigy came on and were something else again. I’d sort of figured what they would be like in my own mind, and they surpassed that; they were unlike anything else I have ever seen. The crowd went totally wild and were 100% into them. Lots of moshing, and crowd surfing; sweat dripping off the walls. Very (but not too) loud; relentless beats; lots of swearing. Keith and Maxim are great frontman; don’t know where they get all the energy from. They constantly run back and forth across the stage and work the front row along the barrier. To my shame I only knew one song fully (Firestarter) and sort of recognised a couple of others. But that didn’t matter; you don’t need to know the songs to enjoy a gig like this. The set was about 75 minutes, which is just about right; given the high energy nature of the whole show. David wandered downstairs for part of the show, and made his way back upstairs towards the end.
We all enjoyed it and thought they were great.
Rather than brave the moors I drove back via York which took around 2 hours. We got home around 1.15am.

website: http://www.theprodigy.com

setlist:
Intro
Worlds On Fire
Breathe
Omen
Posion
(Jaws Fill)
Warriors Dance
Firestarter
(Action Riff)
Run With The Wolves
Voodoo
Omen Reprise
Invaders
Diesel Power
Smack My Bitch Up
Take Me To The Hospital
Out Of Space
No Good
Their Law

ticket


programme

23 Dec

Hawkwind and Arthur Brown Newcastle Academy Dec 19th

Posted by vintagerock in Arthur Brown, Hawkwind. Tagged: , , , , .

Hawkwind and Arthur Brown Newcastle Academy Dec 19th
Will and I went to see this great double bill at the Academy last Saturday. Hawkwind are celebrating 40 years on the road, and Arthur Brown has been treading the boards for more than that.

We knew the gig was set to start early (the ticket said 6.30 start) so we left in plenty of time to make sure (we thought) that we were there to catch Arthur. We arrived at around 7pm and Athur was already on stage. He’s still a great showman with some mad dancing all over the stage, and great costumes including a sunflower. He did a wonderful version of Fire, backed by a guitarist and keyboard player.

A short break and Hawkwind took to the stage at around 8pm. They have obviously put a lot into this stage show. The lighting is super-psychedlic and the two girl dancers had endless costume changes, starting off as robotic androids, becoming grim reapers for Angels of Death, and transforming into sea creatures in another song. There were many more costumes changes, so many that I can’t remember them all! Hawkwind are playing better than ever these days, with Dave Brock and the band really seeming to enjoy themselves. The set was a mixture of old and new, including old favourite Silver Machine. A few more old favourites would have been welcome (I wanted Master of the Universe and Will wanted the full version of Space is Deep), but hey you can’t complain; its great that the band are still gigging and playing as great as this.

set list: (something like; may not be exactly right) : Lighthouse; Fahrenheit 451; Sentinel; Space is Deep (spoken); Angels of Death; Silver Machine; Green Machine; Wraith; Prometheus; Warriors; Magnu; Tide of the Century; You’d Better Believe It; Levitation; Right to Decide; Spirit of the Age; Encore: Hassan-i-Sahba

website Hawkwind: http://www.hawkwind.com/
website Arthur Brown http://www.arthurbrownmusic.com/

I hate print-out tickets

20 Dec

Steeleye Span Sage Gateshead Dec 16 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Steeleye Span. Tagged: , , , , .

Steeleye Span Sage Gateshead Dec 16 2009
Another band celebrating 40 years together with an anniversary tour. I was never a massive fan of Steeleye, but I did see them a few times in the 1970s, the first being as support for Jethro Tull on the Aqualung tour at Sunderland Empire. I also recall seeing them at Newcastle City Hall (with the great Amazing Blondell as support), the Grangemouth Festival in Scotland in 1972 or 73 and a wonderful night at Middlesbrough Town Hall around the time All Around My Hat was in the charts where Maddy danced up and down the aisles, big skirts twirling, to the delight of the packed hall.
So some 30 years or more on from my last Steeleye encounter I was in the cheap seats upstairs in the Sage to see what the band were like now. The show was in two halves with an interval, and the hall was pretty full with levels 1 and 2 packed and level 3 quite full. The set was just what I had expected and hoped for, a good mix of their own particular brand of folk-rock. Maddy Prior looks great and dances just as she did all those years ago (she didn’t venture into the aisles this time). The rest of the band are all great musicians and the sound was clear and crisp as it often is in the lovely Sage concert hall. I can’t pretend to have recognised many of the songs, but I enjoyed them all the same. The encore was All Around My Hat to which we all sang along. A great evenings entertainment, which relived some old memories for me. It was nice to see them again.

website: http://steeleye.freeservers.com/

ticket

programme

13 Dec

Ian Brown Newcastle City Hall 14 Dec 2009

Posted by vintagerock in Ian Brown. Tagged: , , , , .

Ian Brown Newcastle City Hall 14 Dec 2009
Laura and I arrived pretty early to an empty City Hall. We were a bit worried at first that no-one was turning out to see Ian Brown on such a cold wet night. We needn’t have been concerned; all of the Ian Brown fans must have been in the City Hall bar and the local pub, as the hall was packed by the time the god-like genius took to the stage.
A DJ warmed us up with some great 60s music: Love, Terry Reid, Hendrix, Northern Soul; pretty cool stuff.
First up were the Shoks who played to a pretty deserted hall; but were OK and went down well with those who were there watching them. Then after a short break the main man took to the stage.
This was only the second time we had seen Ian, the first being in the Newcastle Academy a year or so ago. If anything he was on better form at the City Hall. He connects with the crowd in a way that no-one I have seen does. Lots of great patter and joking with the crowd, and he succeeded in getting us all to join in with his dance moves; seeing the crowd all doing shoulder shuffles (you have be there to understand) is something else.
The set was all pretty new to me; Laura seemed to know most of the songs. She remains fascinated by one of his new songs “Stellify” which is a great track and has the line “Ribbon in the sky” in it. Laura and I went to see Stevie Wonder last year in Manchester and Ian was sitting a couple of rows away from us. At the show Stevie got us all to sing along to a song which had the lyric “There’s a Ribbon in the Sky”. Soon after Ian must have written Stellify; influenced by the Stevie song. So seeing him sing it has a particular connection for Laura and me. The only Stone Roses track was Fools Gold which was one of the encores.
I can see a blend of influences within Ian’s music: 60s, northern soul, dance, psychedelia; they are all thre in varying degrees. And the guy himself is ultra-cool and seems on top of it all. A great night; Laura and I vowed to go and see him every time he comes to the North East.

Setlist: (something like):
Love Like A Fountain
Golden Gaze
Time Is My Everything
All Ablaze
Longsight M13
Keep What Ya Got
Save Us
Crowning Of The Poor
Corpses
Laugh Now
Vanity Kills
Own Brain
Marathon Man
Sister Rose
F.E.A.R.

Encores:
Fools Gold
Stellify
Just Like You

Website Ian Brown: http://www.ianbrown.co.uk/
Website The Shoks: http://www.myspace.com/theshoks

ticket

13 Dec

Madness Newcastle Academy 12 December 2009

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

Madness Newcastle Academy 12 December 2009

Madness. The Nutty Boys. The Toon. Saturday night. Lots of beer; some drunk; some thrown around. The Academy; packed and hot. Me and Laura standing at the back safe (and boring?) away from the crush. Lots of mddle aged men wearing a fez (or a pork pie hat). Black and white checks. Bootlace ties. Very loud. Lots of fun. Lots of dancing. Start off with One Step Beyond. Baggy trousers. House of Fun. Finish with Night Boat to Cairo. Great night; great fun.

website: http://www.madness.co.uk/

Setlist:
One Step Beyond
Embarrassment
The Prince
NW5
My Girl
Dust Devil
Sun & The Rain
Iron Shirt
Clerkenwell Polka
Bed & Breakfast Man
Shut Up
ERNIE
Forever Young
House Of Fun
Wings Of A Dove
Baggy Trousers
Our House
It Must Be Love

Encore:
Tarzan’s Nuts
Madness
Night Boat To Cairo

programme


I hate print-out tickets

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

ticket

 

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

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