The fact that Frightened Rabbit are an indie band from Scotland instantly means they have a lot to live up to. The country that gave the world deep fried mars bars and bagpipes has made up for this tenfold by producing some of the most important indie bands of all time. From the 80’s to the present day through The Jesus & Mary Chain, Mogwai, Belle & Sebastian, Teenage Fanclub, Idlewild to name just a few, it’s a rich musical history that the five piece from Selkirk have to follow. Maybe it’s unfair on the band to instantly make these comparisons but I guess it comes with the territory. Even if it’s just the music press drawing all the comparisons, the Scottish link will no doubt be made.

Onto the gig. The support came from Manchester band, Airship, a four piece who are apparently still unsigned. I found this quite surprising as they played their set which was overall pretty good, lots of energy to their performance. A couple of tunes reminded me of Snow Patrol and some of the guitar parts of the Britpop era but not completely in a negative way. They’re obviously just starting out and by the looks of their tour schedule aren’t doing things by halves. After supporting Frightened Rabbit they’re off round the country again with fellow indie rockers, The Joy Formidable, and even head back to this very venue on 20th March. The band’s first single, Algebra, is out soon so it will be interesting to see what comes of this after theses support slots. They certainly come at the indie genre via a more rock route and this was something that shone through in their set. The audience seemed fairly impressed with Airship and likewise the band thanked the audience for their support.

After a fairly quick change around (incidentally, tonight’s gig had a 9:45pm curfew) the headliners, Frightened Rabbit took to the stage to a big welcome form the Birmingham crowd. The band has just released their third album, The Winter of Mixed Drinks, so are touring the UK to tie in with this before heading off to Europe then the US. From doing a little research on the band it seems they already have a good reputation from touring and favourable reviews from previous American tours. Front man, Scott Hutchison, took pleasure in announcing that their new album was currently number five in the indie charts but also his shock in Simply Red being at the top spot. I know it’s pretty shocking, isn’t it?
There’s a maturity to Frightened Rabbit’s songs which, to me, stands out from so many other current indie bands. Scott Hutchison’s voice is powerful and it certainly came across to me that he’s the leader of the band, dictating the pace and tempo of the performance. I did think halfway through the set that he was almost like band leader or conductor. I would guess that the audience was made up of a mixture of old fans from their first two albums along with new recruits and people such as myself who came to see what the fuss was about. A lot of the audience knew the words to songs such as ‘Old Old Fashioned’ and ‘The Modern Leaper’ but even the newer ones such as ‘Swim Until You Can’t See Land’ had people singing along. The Academy 2 is a decent size venue for a band like Frightened Rabbit and I would say it was two thirds full which was positive.

My only real criticism of the show was there wasn’t a great deal of variety in the songs and most seemed to follow a certain structure of starting slow and gradually growing into something more epic. It’s a harsh criticism on my part to be fair though because what was possibly lacking in variety was made up for in passionate lyrics, a soulful, engaging voice and just seeing a band who are themselves and not trying to jump onto any type of band wagon. I’d only heard a couple of their songs prior to the gig and nothing had really stood out but after seeing them live I will be definitely seeking out their records and giving them a go. Many of the current crop of indie bands will come and go but I can definitely see Frightened Rabbit having a longer, more respectable career.

Review – Chris Thompson
Photos – Katja Ogrin

For those of you haven’t been living in a anti-mainstream cave for the last few years, Peter Andre needs little introduction. I want to clear one thing up from the start, nobody went to this gig to be in awe of Mr Andre’s musical wizardry, despite the desire to be regarded as a respected R&B artist. There’s simply no hiding from the publicity surrounding Peter Andre and Katie Price, anyone who’s ever caught even a glimpse of Andre’s reality show will know that Peter comes across as a fantastic father figure. As we arrived, we saw scores of teenage lads, mums, middle aged men, and (perhaps not as surprisingly) teenage girls. Most of which were donning some form of Andre merchandise.

The lights go down on Symphony Hall and, on queue, the girls scream. By “screaming”, I mean, every female fan smashing a thousand vocal high-hats, girls literally jumping at least one to two feet in the air with arms stretched to the ceiling, a silhouette appeared and… On came Peter’s brother, Micheal, to provide a short warm-up set. By no means were the crowd disappointed, mind. DJ Michael Andre provided a great little set prior to the big event.

Once again, the lights went down. We got kind of worried at this point after the last wave of excitement. A 60+ suit-donning, grey haired steward attempted to usher back the Team Andre army. The intro to Andre’s first (and perhaps most surprising) single from the most recent album, “Revelations” lifts the roof. A door placed centre staged (as in “Behind Closed Doors” – clever stuff) bursts open revealing a man in a white suit & aviators, with one finger pointed to the ceiling. It’s Andre (not Elvis).

After two songs, Andre returns to stage in an all red suit and some yellow, light up walking stick thing and begins his interaction with the die-hard fans. Two (brave) male dancers flip, skip and strip their way into the crowd to find a “volunteer” and are immediately mobbed by Andre Army. One girl is eventually retrieved from the crowd and awkwardly sits on a stool central stage whilst Andre sings to her and flirts on one knee. Her boyfriend watches helplessly, not sure whether to clap or cry. Andre then presented the girl with a bottle of Champagne, which hopefully means all is forgiven and we won’t see this situation come to life on Jeremy Kyle next week.

Throughout the night, there was a clear reference to the Michael Jackson school of entertainment (I’ve never been, so it might not actually exist). The show then dipped into a tribute to the King of Pop, and weirdly – it worked! Andre not only replicated a bunch of Jacko’s dance moves but also went on to cover “Human Nature” and “Man in the Mirror”.  The pace then slowed down with Andre ending the gig with the same song he opened with, “Behind Closed Doors”, except this time, the song was stripped back to an acoustic version.

Approximately (we lost count) 5 costume changes later and an encore Andre took it back to the 90’s whispering “perhaps there were a few songs that I missed out”. Immediately – I fist pumped and though “INSANIA!!” but it turned out to be a previous number one, “Flava” which was followed up by covering Adamski/Seal – “Killer”.

Eventually, the climax came. Andre was still yet to play “Mysterious Girl” and Team Andre were going crazy. Andre briefly mocked the song. His band played the intro as Peter asked his dancers to sing the opening lines, one of which sang a Bob Marley track. Again, the banter was as clearly rehearsed as the dance moves but it didn’t matter. The moment Andre went into the chorus of “Mysterious Girl”, the resounding groan of “Woah-oh-uh-oh-uh-oh-oh-Mysterious Girl” from Team Andre could be heard for miles down Broad St.

By all means this wasn’t a musical masterpiece, but it was a show of nostalgia and family-friendly entertainment. I don’t think one “fan” left unsatisfied with Andre’s performance, although I was a tad MORTIFIED that “Insania” didn’t feature in the set list. It was an all round fun and light-hearted show with something for everyone.

Review – Chris Barber
Photos – Steve Gerrard

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. It’s churning, doomy riffs sounding like they were recorded on a dying walkman(made all the more remarkable considering it was recorded in standard tuning) and one-of-a-kind vocals akin to that of a vomiting zombie ensured it remained one of the most identifiable releases of the early age.

WARLORD UK opened the night being responsible for the attendance of many, having swamped cyberspace with flyers enabling punters to save eleven quid on the door price which in itself is laudable and should be a more common practise, certainly for shows with a few unsold tickets. Having being stalwarts of the local metal scene for a good couple of years, Warlord UK have always exuded a dogged determination and commendable work ethic. Sadly, it creeps into their music often, with very little in the way of variation between tracks and an omnipresent workmanlike air to them, despite the obvious conviction and enthusiasm with which it is performed. That said, it was certainly the best sounding outing I’ve seen from them, with the Academy PA really proving its worth yet again with a mix as crunchy as it was precise, and the band were tight and played pretty much flawlessly throughout. It’s just a shame that Warlord UK don’t grab me, as there are few bands more rewarding of a bit of success than these guys, although the fact that they are on stage at all having resolutely weathered recent lineup changes and personal tragedies is cause for praise in itself.

FURNAZE, from London-by-way-of-Belgium were next to take to the stage, and they were also blessed with a crystal clear, thunderous sound mix. Sadly, they also seemed to struggle to garner more than a murmur from the crowd. Playing a blend of melodic death metal with sizable elements of Slayeresque thrash, they laudably plugged away for their set with great energy, with bassist Andie Cayne in particular good-naturedly headbanging away for the duration of set in a mass of hair and smiles. Softly-spoken vocalist-guitarist Olivier Vermeersch performed with obvious care and love for the material (pulled mostly from latest album ‘No Stairway To Heaven’) although their roots as a covers band were exposed a little too often to really allow them to stand out, with constant nagging Slayerisms the main offender. An argument could also be made for a need for a second guitarist to really thicken the live sound, but for the moment they should focus on creating a more identifiable sound of their own to build upon the obvious charm and talent they possess.

If some of the more hardened death-heads at the gig thought that Furnaze brought the brutality levels down a couple of notches, then PERSEFONE had them weeping blood into their Deicide T-shirts, as the Andorrans managed to make little to no impact at all, certainly nothing you’d expect from a band acting as main support for fucking Obituary. Persefone peddled an uninspired melodramatic prog-metal sound which wouldn’t have been all that bad - albeit still undeniably ill-fitting on this bill – had it not been played with such an abject lack of stage presence and charisma. Granted, you could argue that the technical demands of some of the tracks needed 100% concentration to pull off, but when your singer is standing still with hands behind his back, we’re talking more about the star power of Tesco Value Pop than Iggy Pop. Demonstrating none of the hunger that both Warlord UK and Furnace displayed, the biggest reaction they received was announcing that the headliners were due next.

After what could be described as a lukewarm build up at best, OBITUARY really needed to liven up the crowd to avoid tonight’s show really falling short of expectations. Thankfully, John Tardy and the boys who, despite playing a set mostly weighted towards their post-reunion output, managed to keep the diehards happy and have us partying like it was the early nineties again. Indeed, with his signature mane dangling over his face and THAT voice, you’d have been forgiven for imagining that time had stood still for a few moments. Opening with a brace from their latest full-length, ‘Darkest Day’, the one-two of ‘List of Dead’ and ‘Blood To Give’ confirmed that whilst a member or two had changed over the years, the Floridians weren’t about to drastically start tinkering with all of the hallmarks that have made them so influential and beloved over the years.

With Ralph Santolla (ex of Deicide) replacing ex-guitarist and professional smash enthusiast Allen West, their guitar sound was as gargantuan live as it has ever sounded on record. Its patented slow-motion churn brought to mind the swamps of their homeland, that is, if their swamps were filled with the putrid sludge of a thousand human remains and the crocodiles the size of tractors. As mentioned earlier, the distinctively inhuman growl of vocalist John Tardy is arguably the most unique weapon Obituary have ever boasted, with vowels seemingly bouncing around his throat for weeks before they are belched out like phlegmy tennis balls. And with ‘Chopped In Half’ (or ‘Eeeyyobbbed in Hyeearrrve’ as Tardy would have you believe) belted out early in the set, it evoked a majestic roar as any fears the hits wouldn’t come were quickly dispelled and with ‘Turned Inside Out’, ‘Dying’ and a Celtic Frost cover coming in quick succession, it gave weight to the lofty status the band have as genre figureheads.

Whilst this was my first time watching Obituary, there was a part of me slightly saddened that this wasn’t just an hours run through of the classics, but such a selfish point of view was diluted swiftly by the way their newer material (that I have admittedly little to no experience of) meshed perfectly with material from their first four LPs. It was also encouraging to note that despite the tales of drunken sloppiness and in-fighting that plagued the first couple of tours after their reformation (most notably involving the aforementioned West), this was nothing like the ‘Rab C. Nesbitt meets Olly Reed and starts a band’ performance I was dreading. With a stable and professional line-up in place, they put on a show that a band as revered as Obituary deserved.

With ‘Final Thoughts’ and ‘The End Complete’ rounding up the latter half of the set, a drum solo heralded the encore, which flitted back to the later days with ‘Evil Ways’ leading into a climatic ‘Slowly We Rot’ with its funereal tempo bringing an atmospheric close to the night. In retrospect, tonight was only really memorable due to the headliners ,who really gave the support bands a few pointers on how to generate their own identity. Admittedly, Obituary were aided by the fact that they helped define the genre twenty years ago, but it was the one or two unique elements they possessed that helped them get to the level they are at today. Looking back, it’s really time to give the newer albums a serious listen, although I was still a little gutted they didn’t play ‘Don’t Ceeyaaare’.

Review - Duncan Wilkins
Photos - Helen Moss

I heard an Interview with Mumford & Sons on the radio the day before embarking on their headline UK tour. There were two comments that struck a chord with me whilst listening; Neither Marcus, Winston, Ben or Ted came across as having a single serious bone in their bodies. Banter and honest joviality were the order of the day. The second related to the forth-coming tour. The name of one particular stop was singled out as being one they were really looking forward to playing as “the city has a lot of heart”. That city was Wolverhampton.

A solo figure ambles silently towards the mic stand carrying himself, an acoustic guitar and not an awful lot else. So unremarkable is the entrance that the audience including myself assume it’s merely another roadie going about their duties. It’s not until the roadie introduces himself as Andrew Davie do we take note, stop talking and conjure up a mild round of applause.

Andrew’s first song ‘Elysium’ is sung straight from the heart with a voice that carries a soft warble and caresses the ears of all present. I’ve always figured there’s a soundtrack for every mood. Andrew’s set fills the Sunday morning slot when you’re feeling hung over, in need of a mug of tea, a full English and something soothing to listen to whilst the sun melts the alcohol away. His lyrics tell of experiences encountered whilst battling through life. It’s not a tale of woe it’s just the way it is. Uplifting it isn’t but as a slow build up to a night promising faster paced Folk his set suits the bill perfectly. For an opening act he won the hearts of the audience over, with his self-demeaning personality, and of being ‘scared shitless playing in front of such a large crowd’.

Fanfarlo are up next. There seems to be a lot of marketing hype surrounding this band, walking up the steps to the venue I’m asked to sign a promotional mailing list. The first stall I spy sells Fanfarlo merchandise. Even now I still have a crumpled Fanfarlo sticker residing in the back pocket of my jeans. Fanfarlo are a five piece assorted instrument group specialising in a big, blown out Indie Folk sound. Imagine, five musicians jamming in the corner of your local and belting out a sound that’s capable of filling a venue double the size of the Wulfrun. Welcome to Fanfarlo…

The music of Fanfarlo came across like a soundtrack to spring, a rich enveloping sound of things waking after a deep slumber and a feeling that everything’s going to turn out OK. Although it’s still too early for the warmth of summer to penetrate. There was a feeling in the Wulfrun that Fanfarlo never fully connected with the audience, they were good, the set was faultless but I couldn’t help feeling they didn’t really get the crowd on side. All it would take would be a few more words, a touch of charisma and voila – An instant audience connection.

There’s a one area where the Wulfrun (and I assume the Civic also) wipes the floor with other Midlands Live Music venues. It’s a simple one but it matters most, 2 Pint glasses and a selection of decent beers on tap. It’s not a lot for a typical gig goer to ask for surely? It means less frequent trips to the bar, perhaps more frequent visits to the toilet but surely that’s a chore worth sacrificing?

Mumford & Sons take to the stage amid smoke, darkness and four heavenly lights from above illuminating the main members of the band; It’s a steady start to ‘Sigh No More’. Marcus’ voice sounds rich and pitch perfect supported by the harmonious tones from the rest of the band. As the pace quickens the audience begin moving more and more, from the back of the venue the illuminated screens of several hundred digital cameras begin to resemble the lights of boats bobbing up and down in a calm night time sea.

Vocal exchanges with the audience were frequent, sincere and were usually highly comical. Ranging from the usual “being really very, very happy to be here”. The audience being used as a “song board” for some of their new material which may or may not require “six feet of bullet proof glass if we don’t like it”. The local butcher, crowd surfing and numerous colourful metaphors.

‘Little Lion Man’ was easily the stand out track of the evening, raising a huge cheer as soon as the acoustic guitar intro is recognised. As the song builds and the pace quickens almost all of the audience are pogoing and re-enacting a good ole’ traditional hoe down. Whilst the crowd are singing, jumping up and down. I find myself fully absorbed in the melody, writing notes and tapping the screen on my iPhone in time with the music. Simply awesome! Little Lion Man eventually ends and deservedly receives a rousing standing ovation from the fully appreciative crowd. A small number of new material is played. Some of the new songs seem to have taken a slight detour away from their more recognisable sound. ‘Lover’ takes on more of Country and Weston feel and seems to search new territories. Hard pulsing country rock maybe?

My personal standout track ‘Dustbowl Dance’ was everything I hoped it would be. The slow drawn out piano intro and Marcus’ soft voice communicating each word perfectly caused the hairs on the back of my neck to stand in anticipation of what’s about to hit you. As the track builds Marcus’ voice begins to lose the soft, velvety feel and take on a harder, more aggressive growl. The crescendo was exactly what I wanted to see. It’s an awesome spectacle to witness an acoustic, folk group thrashing their respective instruments to within an inch of their lives. Instruments usually treated and played so delicately with kid gloves.

It’s easy to see why Mumford loves Wolverhampton. The calm after the storm of ‘Dustbowl Dance’ has an audience that’s relentless in their cheering and demanding more, more, more. The very last song of the night is a new one. It would have been easy and predictable to finish with Dustbowl or Lion Man but the chosen number – ‘Whispers In The Dark’ finishes the night off exactly how you’d expect the night to finish. A slow build-up eventually leading to fast paced thrash of blown out folk rock. A perfect end to an evening that was everything and more than what I could ever have expected and hoped for.

Set List:
Sigh No More
Winter Winds
Roll Away Your Stone
White Blanc Page
Talk
Awake My Soul
Little Lion Man
Lover
Thistle and Weeds
Talk 2
Timshel
The Cave
Dustbowl Dance

Encore
I Gave You All
Whispers in the Dark

Review - Lee Hathaway
Photos - John Bentley

Salutations such as, ‘John Betjeman with a guitar…intense virtuosity,’ are not to be dismissed lightly and so first things first I put it to the sound engineer that a set list would come in handy. ‘Too right!’ He replies, sanguinely, ‘Have you got one?’ So, songs referenced are sometimes by context more than title. Welcome to a Nick Harper gig. Expect the unexpected: the unpredictable will surely happen.

We start with a delicious fantasia of dissonant harmonics but shuffle a bit uncomfortably because there’s a feeling he’d left his guitar the night before in the airing cupboard because of the frantic fiddling with the tuning pegs. But, Harper has a cunning plan, the tease. He’s one the most breath-taking, passion-pushed guitarists I’ve ever seen. Think of the subtle, textured tapestries of Bert Jansch coupled with the roller-coaster, pithy wit dexterity of Richard Thomson, oh and a side order of Leo Kottke. Mid song banter has us howling with himself being the foil to his confessional follies.

So, you let your guard down and he emotionally mugs you with the lingering, ambiguous refrain, ‘You and me in shadowland.’ Well, alright, you had to be there. We had a song in tribute to a Bolivian president, ‘Evo Morales’ that shivered with gentle, Latin cadence, as did the evocative ‘King of Spain’. ‘Field of the Cloth of Gold’, referenced the five hundred year old regal lovie smarm-fest in France; infer allegories as you will. These were followed by a political polemic that had the enigmatic metaphor, ‘…where my shadow is my only shade, I am the wanderer.’

But he really got to the heart of the matter with ‘Bloom’, a raw, sombre reflective number that drew a palpable, collective hush including the bar. Likewise, with his 2004 album titled, Blood Song(s). Still, it was only a matter of time before it all went a bit bonkers with him jumping on to the tables with Spamalot abandon. Evidently he’s got wireless gizmos aplenty because he banters about the room with pristine sound quality. It needs saying again what a consummate musician Harper is. I was told that Lowden customise his guitars and that he has specially tuned piano strings fitted.

As mentioned earlier, my informant said that he has tuning pegs instead of the standard machine heads enabling rapid shifts in tuning modes. Aspiring guitar hopefuls in the audience must’ve gone home and wept into their Bert Weedon Play in a Day beginners book because we saw Harper engage in chord structures so complex it was like watching an ‘E’ crazed squid on steroids. Criticisms? Did he really have to abuse his hospitality rider and drink red wine, a bloke, from a glass? Goodness me, we’re talking Saturday night in Kings Heath with a Weatherspoons only 200 yards away and about to kick off. That’s your cutting-edge devil may care troubadour for you. And yes, he had let it breathe, the Jessie. Closing numbers included a sing along Monty Python ditty, ‘1 of the 38’ and ‘Build your own Temple’ by which stage we were expecting his poor guitar to explode. We disperse in to the freezing night a little bit warmer and much, much happier.

By the way, Nick’s dad, Roy, made a bit of a name for himself in the 60/70s in that Led Zeppelin, and a considerable potion of the western hemisphere, thought he was the best thing before, during and indeed, after sliced bread.

Review - John Kennedy
Photos – Ian Dunn

The XX have been much hyped over the past 12-18 months by all the music press and tonight Academy 2 is ram packed with only a few spaces left before the exit door at the rear of this large room. The other reason is their beautifully crafted CD having done well in the charts thanks to songs like “Crystalised”,”VCR” and “Heart Skipped a Beat”.

On CD The XX sound much more laid back and soothing with the softly spoken lyrical exchange between Romy Croft and Oliver Sims, But live they lose a bit of that laid back chilled sound, and the backing DJ/Percussionist is the main reason for this. The bass he was producing was enough to have any teen boy/girl racer in their supped up Citroen Saxos salivating. It was in fact so strong that when I was photographing the first 3 songs from the security pit, when the bass kicked in it was hard to stand still as it was pushing my legs backwards with its ferocity.

Romy and Oliver’s soft vocals and soft guitar exchanges sometimes failed to blend well with the beastly bass and made them go from relaxing sound of their CD to a more of a club based sound. Although at times the crowd was singing loud enough to hear them over the thunderous bass.

It was a pleasant set consisting mostly of songs from the debut CD and also a great XX style version of Teardrops by Womack and Womack neatly placed into the set for good measure.

Personally I prefer the chilled Yazoo meets Joy Division sound of their CD to the live experience but I think I was in the minority considering how much the crowd seemed to enjoy themselves

Stand out moment was the spine tingling “Crystalised”.

Review and photos - Andy Watson

Political correctness is basically a term for minimising social offense. Thankfully, there’s none here tonight. Stephen Lynch, the king of YouTube musical comedy is in town to sing the kind of songs you laugh at in private, maybe in the pub, but never in polite society. Think of him as the Marilyn Manson of melodic humour. If it’s there to be poked as a subject for human shock value in song form, then it’s fair game, and nobody does it better than Lynch.

As usual, no topic tonight seems immune or too taboo, the “Three Balloons” tour name itself is a reference to a method of concealing a certain illegal substance somewhere delicate. On the outside it all seems so innocent, if you walked past the tour poster it’s just a man holding 3 red balloons, after the first song of the night you realise it’s so much more than that!

Lynch, to us Brits is somewhat of an internet phenomenon, his top 5 YouTube videos have nearly 16 million hits in total. With very few UK TV appearances to his name it’s testament to the power of the “forward to my friends” button that this is a sold-out show with tickets selling on eBay for twice face value. There’s a famous quote which says that it takes 10 years to be an overnight success - and this is year 15, it’s great to see he’s getting some pay-back.

Looking at the queue tonight it’s obvious that he’s better known here than you might give him credit for. The punters outside in the freezing night are all chatting about which of his highly offensive songs he might play, it’s a bit like an underground meeting of “NPCA – Non Politically Correct Anonymous”. There are favourite impromptu lines being shared amongst the queuing throng and the excitement is clearly growing. Even a 20 minute delay to the start time doesn’t dampen the upbeat attitude inside.

Tonight’s subject matter covered in Lynch’s songs includes waiting for your AIDS test results, people with special needs, “queer” tattoos, gay robots, his wife’s fake breasts, a karate-trained octopus, having a girlfriend who is actually a closet Nazi, and a song about Jesus’ brother (Craig Christ – the one with the drug habit).

As if that wasn’t enough we also had jokes about Anne Frank’s Diary, Rhianna and her recent domestic abuse, Christopher Reeve and his penchant for horse riding and one about Michael Jackson’s doctor – political correctness might not stop Lynch from singing about it but it forbids me naming the exact nature of that tune!

There was also a charming little number about medieval pubic hair topiary, teaching kids via the medium of melodic (and swear-word-ridden) tunes, and a brief swing at Dungeons & Dragons players (and how they’re all virgins, with cardboard swords). By far the best one for me was the duet with David Josefsberg about the positive merits of the Dirty Sanchez. The normal sidekick of Jeff Daniels is missing tonight after a family tragedy but the show goes on without really missing a beat with Stephens brother Drew pulling “backing singer” duties instead.

The closing number was by far the show-stealer, a fantastic version of Prince’s “Purple Rain” – a reference to a much earlier comment in the evening entertainment, again featuring David Josefsberg. It just goes to show that Lynch’s stint in Broadway’s “The Wedding Singer” wasn’t wasted as there was some fine acting on display!

I actually left feeling guilt-ridden but somewhat cleansed on exit, it was a hell of a cathartic experience. You have the unique opportunity to laugh at things that just “aren’t funny” in normal society, the things which 20 years ago we all used to tell jokes about before the fun police told us that we’d all get sued for thinking it. In the meantime my ribs still hurt hours after leaving, I haven’t laughed so hard in years.

There should be more Stephen Lynchs in the world – catch him on the rest of his UK tour if you can!

Review & Photos - Matt Pargeter

Jazz is not my usual cup of tea. I’m more of a rock and metal fan, but having been introduced to Courtney Pine in the mid-90s, it would have been rude not to see him in the amazing setting of Birmingham Town Hall.

First up tonight is violinist Omar Puente. Hailing from Cuba, but now living in Bradford, Omar has been playing violin since he was a child, and it shows! His skill with a violin is amazing to watch and listen to, and tonight he plays a mainly latin jazz style set, with some tracks coming from last year’s album “From There to Here”, which was produced by headliner Courtney Pine and released on Pine’s new label, Destin-E World Records.

Puente is backed by Mercury-nominated pianist Zoe Rahman, bassist Darren Taylor, drummer Robert Fordjour and Oscar Martinez on the congas, who are all allowed time in the spotlight with their own solo spots.

Puente’s set starts with two tracks from “From There To Here” - “My Mrs.”, a track named after the first electric violin that his wife gave to him, and “Somebody Backstage”, dedicated to his wife. I really enjoyed the fact that during some tracks, he’s quite happy to leave tradition behind and use electronic effects. Wah-wah and octave changers give his violin a sound that I’d never heard before, and the use of delay allows him to layer strains of violin on top of each other for a fuller sound.

After a short change-over, the lights dim, and Pine’s backing band take the stage, and they look very familiar - everyone who was on stage for Puente’s set, including Puente himself, are back, with the exception of Martinez, who has been replaced by Cameron Pierre on guitar. Pine appears on stage, dressed in black, and is straight away in showman mode - using circular breathing to play continuously for at least three minutes, and for the majority of that time playing one handed, with his fist raised in the air!

Pine, from London, is here tonight in support of his most recent album, last year’s “Transition in Tradition”, which is his homage to New Orleans’ Sidney Bechet, who was one of the first important soloist in jazz. The setlist follows the album track listing closely, but without the 80 minute constraint of the CD, the tracks are hugely elongated, allowing Pine and his band to travel through different styles of jazz and also giving the band their own spots to flourish.

After opener “Haiti”, which was less jazz and more reggae, the set moves through the different types of jazz that are featured on “Transition In Tradition” - ragtime from New Orleans, bebop from South Africa and danzón from Cuba.

“Le Matin Est Noir” sees Pine, playing bass clarinet, battle with Pierre on guitar, leaving Pierre to play a beautiful Spanish-esque section, while “The Tale Of Joe Harriott”, a song inspired by one of the worldwide pioneers of free jazz, sees Pine pick up the alto flute. This was a massive surprise to me, as I had always thought that Pine played just reed instruments, but his expertise on the flute showed that he had obviously been playing it for a while.

The night concludes with the band paying homage to Michael Jackson and playing a beautiful rendition of “Heal The World”, before their last track, where Pine somehow makes the whole jazz-loving audience stand up, clap and dance in celebration of a great night of UK jazz, played by a great group of people, who have their final solo spots, and leave the stage one by one.

Review - Tony Hackett
Photos - John Mason

“No-one was supposed to turn up for this one!”

Recession, unemployment, and the (potential) rise of the Tories mean that the 2010s have a fair bit in common with the 1980s so it’s quite fitting that Heaven 17 have climbed onto the seminal album bandwagon with the almost 30 year anniversary of the recording of Penthouse and Pavement.

It’s also fitting because of the political nature of the music, Songs like …Fascist Groove Thang and Lets All Make A Bomb were controversial enough in 1981 to raise the blood pressure of renowned stuffed-shirt and self appointed protector of the moral majority Mike Read. He eventually banned the former from the Radio 1 play list.

But tonight was more than just an exercise in nostalgia for 80s synth-pop and a different political era. A casual observer would have been forgiven for thinking that the gig was a celebration of British Electric Foundation rather than an anniversary of Heaven 17’s first album.

In 1981 these guys were underground heavy-weights; like The Human League, which Ian Craig Marsh and Martyn Ware had left prior to No.1 chart success, but with loads more street cred and a power to revive flagging careers for the likes of Tina Turner.

Glenn Gregory was one of the coolest guys back then and he has still got it now. But even he admitted to “bricking it” about what was to come tonight. This is not really surprising as Heaven 17 had never played the whole of the album live and in fact didn’t play live at all properly until 1997! Plus there can’t have been many more precise albums to replicate on stage. The mix of drum machines and synthesizers was always a sparse backdrop to the vocals and played live the songs left the band no where to hide.

Perhaps that’s why the output of BEF was so well represented. The connection between Heaven 17 and British Electric Foundation is an obvious one, but maybe not one that was too obvious for the fans in the Assembly, who didn’t really seem to know what to expect.

Essentially Heaven 17 became their own disembodied support band with three large screens pulsing along to a British Electric Foundation mix from Music For Stowaways including Groove Thang, Decline of the West, Music To Kill Your Parents By and Honeymoon In New York. This was unannounced and strangely unstructured with stops and starts and long pauses, This “performance” was met with indifference for the most part and complaints from a few who didn’t appreciate the finer points of sound and light experience.

When the band eventually appeared the songs from the Penthouse and Pavement sides of the original vinyl acted as the bread to a filling of covers originally heard on the BEF album Music of Quality and Distinction Volume 1.

For me this is what made the whole night as the album itself was obviously going to be predictable and it was the unexpected that stood out.

It’s easy to forget how intricate some of the songs are; the convoluted bass solo in …Fascist Groove Thang had never been played live before and the vocals were just as taxing, or “so wordy”.

Things didn’t go quite to plan due to a faulty kick drum pedal and at one stage Glenn Gregory picked up a guitar to fill in with an acoustic Geisha Boys and Temple Girls imploring the audience not to tell anyone we had seen him play guitar because it would “ruin his electronic credentials”.

Soul Warfare ended side one and it was back into BEF territory with Perfect Day and Wichita Lineman, originally covered by Glenn Gregory for Craig Marsh and Ware, and Ball of Confusion with Billie Godfrey taking the Tina Turner role. The surprise of the night was the appearance of Claudia Brucken for These Boots Are Made For Walking.

Then it was back to side two with the crowd being asked which song was first on the second side and someone shouting “Love Action!” - cue much mirth on stage. Of course it was Geisha Boys and Temple Girls followed the excellent Let’s All Make a Bomb. The band made a fuss of Heaven 17 uber-fan Sumo “he even went to Canada when we didn’t turn up” for his favourite The Height of The Fighting.

The encore was more familiar territory for the majority of the audience with Let Me Go and Temptation before going off on one with Buzzcocks’ Are Everything and the first song Martyn Ware ever penned Being Boiled.

The crowd might have got into the whole thing a lot earlier but they did seem to go home happy in the end.

Set list - in vague-ish order - the memory is not what it was!

(We Don’t Need This) Fascist Groove Thang
Penthouse and Pavement
Play to Win
Geisha Boys and Temple Girls (Acoustic)
Soul Warfare
Wichita Lineman
Perfect Day
Ball of Confusion
These Boots Were Made For Walking
I’m Your Money
Geisha Boys and Temple Girls
Let’s All Make A Bomb
The Height of the Fighting
Song with No Name
We’re Going To Live For A Very Long Time
Let Me Go
Temptation
Are Everything
Being Boiled

Review - Ian Gelling
Photos - Steph Colledge

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. Tonight, Birmingham Academy is hosting two gigs featuring acts from complete opposite ends of the musical spectrum. The largest of the three rooms hosts an evening of Thrash Metal with headliners ‘Machine Head’. The middle-sized room hosts the very current darlings of daytime Radio. Hailing from Owatonna, Minnesota the not nearly as new as you think newcomers Owl City. There are queues and people aplenty outside of the venue so pause for one moment and imagine you’re unfortunate enough to have found yourself in the wrong room. It could be just enough to put you off live music for life!

Lights the original support act have pulled out of tonight’s gig due to illness which allows acoustic duo The Elements to step in at the absolute death and fill the vacant slot. Only tonight one half of the duo is missing leaving the other 50% playing solo. Confused? Me too… The self confessed local boy, used to performing in pubs plays several well-received bluesy, rock and roll tracks. Some of which seem heavily influenced by Elvis’ Blue Jeans era. By around the fourth number the crowd really start warming to him as arms are lofted into the air like daffodils swaying in the wind and the applause after each number gets louder and longer.

It has to be a nerve racking experience volunteering at the last minute, performing solo and playing to a sold out academy crowd when you usually play the Actress and Bishop every Wednesday. Suffice to say it was pulled off with elements (pun intended) of style and not a sign of nerves. Having searched for more information on The Elements I’ve not been able to find a single thing apart from the weekly Wednesday Actress and Bishop show.

Tonight’s crowd is pretty young and evenly mixed it seems, although scattered around the venue are small clusters of teenage girls wearing an assortment of fairy wings and teddy bear back packs. Add to the mix a reasonable selection of parents standing lonesome at the back and you gain a good insight of your typical Owl City fan. A touch younger and more female biased than anticipated but I presume this is expected when you’re an early twenties emo male having recently topped the UK singles chart.

As the clock strikes 9:00 five black and white dressed figures stride out onto the stage amid high pitch cheers and commence playing an elongated intro to ‘Umbrella Beach’. Moments later Adam Young, the insomniac youngster and the reason Owl City exists skips to the mic front of stage surrounded by even louder, higher pitched screams.

Right, at this point I’m going to apologies to all those that loved the show and thought travelling up from Weston Super Mare was a more than worthwhile trek. Since the inception of Owl City in 2007 there have been several well documented articles suggesting Adam Young is a blatant rip off of ‘The Postal Service’ I was really hoping not to mention TPS but it’s difficult not to. There are obvious similarities although scratch beneath the surface and the similarities soon widen. Both bands main focus is without doubt on the synthesized elements and the breathy, soft male vocals. Whereas TPS manage to tread a fine line and maintain their Indie pop sound. Owl City manages to cross that invisible marker line and produce a live set that’s almost nothing but mainstream electronic pop. Adam’s on stage movements appear forced and orchestrated; Violinist Laura Musten and Cellist Hannah Schroeder become awkward backing dancers when not playing their respective string instruments. In truth, I was disappointed. Both Owl City recorded albums are electronic pop but manage to avoid sounding overtly mainstream. Live, that feeling just gets lost in the well rehearsed, orchestrated performance.

There were a small number of moments when songs did take on an emotive feel, although none of these moments featured Adam. The voice of Breanne Düren has a cute, angelic pitch that finally brings a much-needed emotion to the show. The strings of Laura and Hannah bring an extra depth to the tracks and fortunately enable Owl City to lose the tag of being ‘Just another Pop Act’. Some tracks featured some really good live drum breaks that brought out extra hidden depths. Musically, all the elements are there to really bring the songs alive and inject that vital missing element - Soul. Instead, the show came across as being soulless, artificial, synthetically grown for a live audience rather than allowed to mature organically and allow genuine heart felt interaction

I had a really good feeling going into this gig, hoping to hear a successor to the brilliance of TPS. It’s not fair to write Owl City off just yet, it’s still early days and they most definitely have the potential - they just need to tap into it. Know which part of the band brings the soul and allow it to shine through. Owl City hatched from the egg long enough ago to know how to fly. Only time will tell how far that flight takes them.

Review Lee Hathaway
Photos Keith West

It’s been a few years since I heard Jim Moray live so I’m really looking forward to this evening. Jim Moray, of course, is the singer who burst on to the folk scene back in 2003 with his debut album, Sweet England winning the BBC2 Horizon award for most prestigious album of the year and winning him the accolade of best newcomer. I still remember my first hearing of his reinterpretation of the traditional song ‘Early One Morning’ and my incredulity at discovering that there were so many things still to discover in such a well-worn song.

The Red Lion folk club filled up well before 8 pm, with a couple of dozen people standing at the back and sides. The crowd was an all-age one and the atmosphere was relaxed and informal.

The evening kicked off with the support act Cole Stacey. Stacey is a promising young singer-songwriter from Devon. Although he often appears with multi-instrumentalist Scott Ward, he is accompanied tonight by his father on the drums, playing guitar and keyboards himself.

Many of tonight’s songs come from his new (and first) album, ‘Changing Faces’. Most were intense slow ballads, although there were a few up-tempo numbers which had the crowd — or some of it at least — swaying and tapping their feet. ‘Coconut Skins’, accompanied by guitar, mouth organ and shakers is a definite favourite with the group of students in front of me. He has a pleasant, husky voice — made a bit huskier, I suspect, by a cold! It’s difficult to hear the lyrics which I think is a shame, but as far as I can tell, most of the songs are about love. I’m less certain about ‘Talking Old Soldiers’, a song about growing old — I’m not sure he’s convinced me that he really knows what growing old is all about, but I’ll have to read the lyrics/listen to it again to be positive.

Cole is comfortable with the audience and chats easily. He finishes his first half with a nice rendition of Paul Simon’s ‘Me and Julio down by the Schoolyard’. He asks the audience to sing along but gets little response. Undaunted, he gets them going during the chorus and ends his set with a flourish.

Although Jim Moray has been billed as ‘The Jim Moray Trio’, there are only two of them tonight — Jim and Nick Cooke, a melodeon player. The fiddle player James Delarre is missing tonight — no idea of why.

Jim launches into ‘The Rufford Park Poachers’, a lively traditional ballad from Lincolnshire, accompanied by guitar and melodeon. As is usual with Moray, he has reinterpreted the song, making the rendition an interesting blend of old and new. You can hear every word clearly which is a pleasure — folk song is very much about storytelling and there’s not a lot of point in telling a story if the audience miss most of the words! There’s a nice instrumental interlude in the middle and I am struck already with how well the two musicians work together.

The evening moved through a mixture of old and new material, some traditional, some more recently composed. The Bella Hardy night-visiting song, ‘Three Black Feathers’, telling the story of a young woman visited by the ghost of her dead lover was striking, as was ‘Long Lamkin’, a story of a stonemason who kills the child of his employer in revenge for unpaid wages. As Moray joked, some of his songs are depressing, some are more depressing! It was clear throughout the evening that he has a genuine love for the material he sings and the stories that lay behind it. That’s underpinned by good musicianship — his guitar playing is, in my opinion, particularly strong although he’s comfortable on a range of instruments.

‘Dives and Lazarus’, a ballad originally collected in the field by Ralph Vaughan Williams, is complex and interesting, both musically and lyrically. Moray’s version of ‘Poverty Knock’ is much more downbeat than many versions I have heard over the years — given that it’s a song about the oppressive working conditions in the Northern mills, that seems fitting. Although often thought to be a traditional song, Jim told the story — new to me — of how it was written, a verse at a time, by Tom Daniels, who would show up at the local pub each week having ‘remembered’ another verse of the song.

Jim Moray has matured and mellowed since I saw him last. I’m pleased — he could either have developed as he has or could have been a brief shooting star. I’m glad it’s the former. He’s also more comfortable chatting with the audience than I remember from the previous occasion.

There’s an interval, with the usual weekly raffle, and then Cole Stacey returns for the second half. His second set seems to me stronger than his first. Again, it’s a mixture of slow ballads and a few more upbeat songs — the upbeat ones get the better response from the audience. At the request of an audience member, he sings Simon and Garfunkel’s ‘The Boxer’, calling Jennifer Clark, a friend of his, up from the audience to sing it with him. He moves on to the powerful Van Morrison song, ‘Rough God Goes Riding’. He sings other people’s material well, and I think it’s a good thing that he mixes the set.

Jim Moray and Nick Cooke come back on and we have another solid performance from both musicians, with Jim variously on guitar, keyboards and Anglo concertina and Nick on melodeons. A song written by Moray, ‘Adam Ant in his Padded Cell’, about heroes and discovering their feet of clay, is odd but interesting. A solo set of three instrument tunes by Nick Cooke — one he wrote himself, a traditional one and the wonderful John Kirkpatrick tune ‘Jump at the Sun’ is frankly stunning. I wish we had had at least one slot by him on his own in each half of the evening. I’m not usually a great fan of jigs and reels as performance items, but this guy is really good.

The set ends, the audience call for more and Jim and Nick finish with ‘Valentine’, described as ‘a gentle Morris dance lullaby waltz’. I can’t see the back of the room from where I’m sitting, but I think some people were dancing!

In my view, Jim Moray has moved twenty-first century folk music in interesting ways while not losing touch with the traditions that underpin it. I look forward to future developments!

Set Lists

Cole Stacey
1st half
Just a Little Deeper
If You
Coconut Skins
Talking Old Soldiers
Traditional Lies
(Paul Simon song) Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard
2nd half
Sometimes It’s Love
Changing Faces
(Simon and Garfunkel) The Boxer (with Jennifer Clark)
(Van Morrison) Rough God Goes Riding
Something Ahead Worth Looking For
Walk to Midnight

Jim Moray
1st half
The Rufford Park Poachers
Sweet England
Three Black Feathers
Long Lamkin
The Lowlands of Holland
Dives and Lazarus
Poverty Knock
Young Collins + a Bleddington Morris tune
Early One Morning
2nd half
Billy, Don’t You Weep for Me
Lord Bateman
Gilderoy
Adam Ant Alone in his Padded Cell
The Wild Boar
(solos by Nick Cooke) Gerry the Frog + Three Firs + Jump at the Sun
Henry’s Downfall + Nonesuch Jig
April Morning
I’ll Go List for a Sailor
Valentine

Review and photos Betty Hagglund

After a month that has so far given me the brutal likes of Decapitated, Black Dahlia Murder and Morgue Orgy, as well as an unforgettably transcendental Mastodon performance, it was time for a brief respite. I headed to the Academy for a welcome relief after a fortnight of aural abuse for an evening spent in the company of Swedish hard rock titans Europe.

Support act Diamond Head were notable to me for being one of the Midlands’ leading lights in the then burgeoning NWOBHM scene (hailing from Stourbridge) and for being the originators of ‘Am I Evil?’, famously covered by Metallica with Lars in particular acting as a constant ambassador for the band over the years. Due to the early start for Friday shows, I arrived to find the band halfway through said song, so left the gig knowing precisely nothing more than the fact they were from Stourbridge and were the originators of ‘Am I Evil?’ Gutted.

Thankfully, the early start meant that the changeover time was kept to a bare minimum , and it wasn’t long before the prelude from their latest album, ‘Last Look At Eden’ bled into its title track to herald the introduction of Europe. From the get go, elfin vocalist Joey Tempest was a diminutive ball of energy, twirling the mic stand in a fashion straight out of the eighties that made a mockery of his advanced years.

Moving along quickly into ‘Superstitious’, it became growingly apparent that that through a combination of a great live mix and an almost telepathic tightness achieved only by years of playing together, that Europe sounded fantastic tonight. Often pilloried via accusations of being one-hit-wonders (you know, with that “do-do-doo-dooo” song), and for their tenuous associations with glam rock, tonight proved that both points are wildly off-the-mark. Europe’s music is worlds away from the soulless preening cock-rockers of yesteryear, owing more to classic hard rock albeit a particularly hyper-melodic strain of it.

The exhaustive setlist touched on all points throughout their career, from ‘Scream of Anger’ and ‘Wings of Tomorrow’ through to ‘Start From The Dark’ and ‘Gonna Get Ready’, and not a single note sounded dated, although a few of the newer tracks suffered a little bit from lack-of-recognition-syndrome as opposed to the tried and tested ‘Seventh Sign’ and ‘Let the Good Times Rock’, although all were played by the talented band with equal enthusiasm before ‘Carrie’ became a real centrepiece of the evening.

With Tempest on acoustic guitar and keyboard wizard Mic Michaeli playing the opening section alone, it was left to the crowd to fill in the gaps, which they carried out with great voice. Tempest is still every inch the consummate frontman, giving thumbs-ups and winks to those he spots singing along, with those dazzling gnashers shining as bright as ever, no doubt sending a tingle of nostalgia to ladies of a certain era here tonight.

The closing stretch of the set was the real crowd-pleasing part, with the classics and fan favourites unleashed, with the one-two-three punch of ‘Ready or Not’(a song ostensibly about being rocked right down to the ground), ‘Cherokee’, and ‘Rock the Night’ a real gold-plated triptych of classics.
Returning for the encore, Europe gave nods to both present and future, with ‘The Beast’ representing the latest record once again, before the inevitable happened, and it was time for ‘The Final Countdown’, a more perfect slice of eighties metal you’re unlikely to hear. It was odd at this point to see everyone in the building suddenly pay attention, from security guys to the bar staff in recognition of a song you could argue has become even more immortal than the band who wrote it.

At the conclusion of the show, it was apparent that despite some of the barbs that have come their way over the years, Europe play hard rock led from the heart and soul, as opposed to radiating directly from their collective groin. Also, with the rejuvenated band now on three albums since their reformation in 2004 from a decade plus of inactivity, they have two distinct eras and bodies of work, namely ‘old’ and ‘new’. Their set meshed the two worlds together seamlessly, the pacing executed perfectly to keep the attention of both their die-hard fans and the nostalgia seekers, meaning that whatever you’re seeking from a Europe show, you’re not likely to go home disappointed. They did play the “do-do-doo-dooo” song after all.

Reviewer - Duncan Wilkins
Photographer - Ian Dunn