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It was nostalgia that brought me here tonight and I’m sure I wasn’t alone in that. A chance to see Ocean Colour Scene play their 1996 album ‘Moseley Shoals’ could not be missed and I hoped I wouldn’t be disappointed. Having spent my teens in the Brit Pop era, I wondered whether tonight would live up to my memory of this local band, having never seen them play live before. |
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Adam “Owl City” young was at the HMV institute, violins and all to perform for his adoring teenage fans (and their parents of course.) Adam isn’t a charismatic character but sweetly shy and withdrawn. Throughout each song young announced how shy he was and how awkward it was to engage with the audience, at the start it seemed like this was going somewhere with this but it never did. “It’s hard to say that I’d rather stay awake” when I’m at an Owl City concert. |
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Tyler the Creator and his “Wolf Gang” were in Birmingham at the HMV institute, a small but cosy setting for such an aspiring group, armed with bananas and towels. Despite the small setting in Digbeth, Tyler and his broken foot made it all the way from Los Angeles to please his masses of fans with his homophobic and graphic detail on sex and drugs “Odd Future Wolf Gang definitely killed them all.” |
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While She Sleeps are a strange addition to this line-up, their metal tinged hardcore much more guttural and rough around the edges than the highly polished and produced sound of the other bands. However they take the stage by storm, it's clear there's a few people here that are already fans. |
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I’m duty bound to declare an interest with this gig in that before me I have a 1995/6 demo tape of Moseley Shoals prior to producer Brendan Lynch sprinkling on the career-changing fairy dust. |
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For the second time in my life I have struggled to find a willing person to attend a Gilbert O’Sullivan concert with me. The Birmingham Town Hall is host to the opening night of Gilbertville Tour 2011, and a willing reviewer or photographer is harder to find than the aurora borealis. However, I am happy to step up to the mantle, alone again, naturally. |
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Winter has finally arrived, it's a cold, wet and windy night - time to spend an evening in the delectable Symphony Hall - possibly the 'poshest music venue' in Brum. Refined, comfortable and cosy and a venue where you just know the sound will be stunning, even when you're up in the gods. |
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Hot on the heels of the Black Dahlia Murder’s Bonecrusher Fest last February, and the Aborted / Red Chord/ Rotten Sound tour that was sadly buggered up by a pesky volcano earlier this month, yet another package tour came along to give the hordes of Birmingham yet another value-for-money shot in the arm of brutality. This time it was the ‘Thrash & Burn’ tour setting up residence in Birmingham, the second annual bill with last year’s instalment boasting Darkest Hour and Bleeding Through. |
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Over the past few months, there have been a slew of top-drawer death metal concerts for fans of brutality to really gorge themselves upon, my musings on which can be found elsewhere on the site. This particular evening brought Birmingham one of the daddies of DM, none other than Florida’s Obituary, who in the summer of 1989 unleashed their debut album ‘Slowly We Rot’ upon the emerging DM scene. It won them instant acclaim, with its fetid-sounding Scott Burns production earning it a reputation as one the most ferocious releases of its time. |
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This could all have easily ended up massively confusing, most probably very off putting and more than likely end in a night to remember for all the wrong reasons. |
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Sound-check done, Birmingham Live repairs to the Rainbow bar, sans punters, for a jolly good goss with Colour Scene frontman, Simon ‘Foxy’ Fowler. The tape recorder’s running, yes, we still do things analogue at BL to placate the typesetters, when in comes manager/dad, Chris Craddock asking for the set list. 'Set list? Christ I still don’t know half the words to the new songs,’ chirps Fowler... |
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Despite the bill reading on paper like a misheard snippet of Black Country conversation, this colossal meeting of like-minded alchemists Sunn o))) and Om was quite possibly the hottest doom ticket in Birmingham for this year, and continues the time-honoured tradition of Capsule leading the way for top-drawer decibel abuse. The signs around the venue virtually imploring people to pop in earplugs gave as good an indication of what to expect as does the collective past exploits of the artists playing tonight. |
