Recent gigs

[ColinB]

John Tams and Barry Coope played at Halton Mill near Lancaster last night. First time I'd seen them and as MrsB remarked, John seemed to spend as much time telling stories and making awful puns (are there any other sort?) as he did singing songs. But it was all very entertaining with John recounting the time he met a rather grumpy Laurie Lee in a London pub and Barry asked him to tell us about his encounter with Max Wall at a theatre production he was involved with. There were plenty of songs to sing along to and there seemed to be quite a few about The Great War.

It was a sell-out crowd at the Mill last night so hopefully they can build on that success and put on some more gigs in the new year. I spotted the guy who used to compere the Fylde Folk Festival in the audience though if you know who I mean, you'll know he's hard to miss! And they were selling pork pies in the interval which I don't think I've ever seen at a gig before.

Barry is coming back up this way next month when he, Lester Simpson, Jo Freya and Fi Fraser bring their Christmas show to Staveley in the Lake District.

[Paul]

Afro Celt Sound System, supported by Dhol Foundation, at the Wedgewood Rooms. The tickets were a birthday present from my son, so he came with us and made me drink too much.  

Both bands were excellent, with a lot of crossover between them. Jonny Kelsi must have been knackered by the end of it, being on stage full time with both bands whilst carrying a bloody grrat drum.  

Having only seen both bands at festivals, where they tend to play full on dance numbers, it was nice to see them do a full set with a lot of variety.

Thoroughly enjoyable evening.

Paul

[David V B]

Afro Celt Sound System, supported by Dhol Foundation, at the Wedgewood Rooms. The tickets were a birthday present from my son, so he came with us and made me drink too much.  

Both bands were excellent, with a lot of crossover between them. Jonny Kelsi must have been knackered by the end of it, being on stage full time with both bands whilst carrying a bloody grrat drum.  

Having only seen both bands at festivals, where they tend to play full on dance numbers, it was nice to see them do a full set with a lot of variety.

Thoroughly enjoyable evening.


Paul

Totally agree. Saw them at Reading on Saturday and they were brilliant. Long time since I have seen a support band get a crowd moving like that

[DarrenWilliams]

Soft Machine at a sold out Band On The Wall in Manchester last night. Some astonishing playing. John Marshall is about 75, and looked slightly frail as he walked on stage, but is still an absolute powerhouse on the drums. Their set mostly comprised material from their later 70s albums Softs and Bundles, but also delved as far back as Outbloodyrageous from Third.

Also had a brief chat with Gavin from Edward II who I think is CEO at the venue (Tee Carthy was working in the ticket office). Sounds like EII have some interesting gigs and projects coming up.

[Alan2]

Soft Machine at a sold out Band On The Wall in Manchester last night. Some astonishing playing. John Marshall is about 75, and looked slightly frail as he walked on stage, but is still an absolute powerhouse on the drums. Their set mostly comprised material from their later 70s albums Softs and Bundles, but also delved as far back as Outbloodyrageous from Third.

Also had a brief chat with Gavin from Edward II who I think is CEO at the venue (Tee Carthy was working in the ticket office). Sounds like EII have some interesting gigs and projects coming up.

I would have enjoyed this.  I especially like the Bundles era stuff.

I didn't know there was a band actually  touring as Soft Machine-  -thought it would be  the 'Legacy' band.

[davidmjs]

I didn't know there was a band actually  touring as Soft Machine-  -thought it would be  the 'Legacy' band.

Same band.  They just dropped the Legacy (as had been the case in Europe already).

[Bridgwit (Bridget)]

And so to The Globe in Cardiff, to see the Remnant Kings, Jon Boden’s occasional group. Having seen the 5-piece twice before, I was really looking forward to it. But, soft, what is this? Sam Sweeney and Paul Sartin were expected, but a squeezebox player, a girl on cello, a brass section, a guy on guitar?? Had I inadvertently time-travelled to a Bellowhead gig?
No I hadn’t. For reasons best known to Mr Boden, he has decided to recreate the sound of his solo albums in an 11-piece folk rock big band. And very good they sounded too, but not like Bellowhead. He played his new album Afterglow in its entirety, it’s good and if you like his music you’ll like it. He did photos & autographs half time, but the rest of the band were nowhere to be seen!
I once said I’d never forgive Jon Boden for breaking up Spiers & Boden, and then Bellowhead, but life is too short for bitterness so I’ll let him off. They were very good and I hope the tour is successful, but my God does he need to come off his pedestal and deflate his ego. IMHO of course  

[davidmjs]

Soft Machine at a sold out Band On The Wall in Manchester last night. Some astonishing playing. John Marshall is about 75, and looked slightly frail as he walked on stage, but is still an absolute powerhouse on the drums. Their set mostly comprised material from their later 70s albums Softs and Bundles, but also delved as far back as Outbloodyrageous from Third.

Also had a brief chat with Gavin from Edward II who I think is CEO at the venue (Tee Carthy was working in the ticket office). Sounds like EII have some interesting gigs and projects coming up.

There's a review here https://canterburyscenecom.wordpress.com/2017/11/24/soft-machine-band-on-the-wall-manchester-23-november-2017/

[Penny]

Colin Blunstone at Boom Boom Club, Sutton last night.  He still has the same voice, albeit in much older packaging.  They played all the hits as well as some newer songs.  Many highlights including 'Old and Wise' and 'She's not there'.  Great night.  Packed.

[Andy]

Not musical as such, although he did play a couple of songs, we went to see Phill Jupitus at Pontardawe tonight.

We had good memories of him from Spamalot and he mostly lived up to our expectations, with a first half reprising his "Porky the Poet" act of many years ago and a second half taken up by tales of his getting an honorary Doctorate; the love he has for the Chips with Cheese and Curry sauce from the Cafe Picante in Edinburgh where he now resides and a routine about being father to two daughters and the trials of both of them and his wife being "in step" via their body clocks.

However, he was quite fragile in some respects and ended both halves prematurely after getting comments shouted out from the audience. They weren't heckles as such and that's why I don't describe them as such.  Describing one audience member as a "bell-end" for his comment and really having a go at a bloke making comment - including asking him to look on the ticket and see if the audience member's name was on it or his.

Having crashed and burned in this manner at the end of the second half, he then read a poem by Sean Hughes out loud, visibly fighting off tears after the recent death of his friend. That was the end of the evening.

I should add that he showered the audience with Tunnock's Tea Cakes and Caramel bars during the interval and allowed many selfies with the fans, plus he autographed just about anything for people.

A conundrum and I suspect a very tired man, almost at the end of his tour.

[Will S]

Went to see The Foxglove Trio on Friday at Oxford Folk Club (which for all the name, is about 30 people in the upstairs room of a pub).  The band were late on, as the singer got caught up in the travel chaos getting out of London.

I hadn't come across them before until friends invited us to the concert, but they are three young musicians, playing mainly melodeon, cello and voice, but with a bit of swapping around of instruments, so there was also another cello, a guitar and a whistle which came out for a few songs.  Two of the group are Welsh, so we got a number of songs sung in the language of heaven, as well as others in English.  There was no PA, but they managed to balance the sounds very well, so there were only a couple of occasions where the instruments overcame the voices.

Well recommended.  I particularly enjoyed their rewrite of The January Man as The January Girl, but that was only one amongst a number of highlights.  I bought the new album but haven't listened yet, but will do this week.

[Alan2]

I didn't know there was a band actually  touring as Soft Machine-  -thought it would be  the 'Legacy' band.

Same band.  They just dropped the Legacy (as had been the case in Europe already).

Ah I see.  

[DarrenWilliams]

I didn't know there was a band actually  touring as Soft Machine-  -thought it would be  the 'Legacy' band.

Same band.  They just dropped the Legacy (as had been the case in Europe already).

Ah I see.  

I think legally they could have done this some time ago. What prompted them to do it was to avoid sounding like a tribute band (which some uncharitable folks might claim they are anyway cf. a load of other 60s/70s bands with hardly any original members).

Whatever they're called, they put on a great show and were worth more than the admission price.

[Tony Pim]

Robert Plant and Sensational Space Shifters / Seth Lakeman Liverpool Olympia 25th November.

Outstanding,  short set from Seth to begin with some old favourites,  then Mr Plant & Co.  I've seen him with this band maybe 3 times and always forget how they rock it up compared to the more chilled feel on their albums.  Some tremendous versions of Zeppelin tracks as well.  I thought I'd been to very venue in Liverpool yet had never even heard of this one.  Fantastic venue,  freaking freezing queuing to get in and once in , at least until Seth came on - £4.50 for a can of Tetleys but I guess that's about the norm these days.   On the bus route too !

[Alan2]

I didn't know there was a band actually  touring as Soft Machine-  -thought it would be  the 'Legacy' band.

Same band.  They just dropped the Legacy (as had been the case in Europe already).

Ah I see.  

The Legacy CDs I have, one of which is live, are very good.  

I think legally they could have done this some time ago. What prompted them to do it was to avoid sounding like a tribute band (which some uncharitable folks might claim they are anyway cf. a load of other 60s/70s bands with hardly any original members).

Whatever they're called, they put on a great show and were worth more than the admission price.

[mickf]

Just back from seeing Steeleye Span in Abergavenny. With the trend for performing entire albums as part of a tour I suppose it was inevitable that Steeleye would eventually do it. They did (almost) all of 'Hark, The Village Wait' in the first half and jolly good it was too. The second half also offered up some classic oldies that haven't seen the light of day in a while - including a couple that I've never seen performed live before.  The new 7 piece line up seems to have gelled pretty well, with everyone seeming comfortable on stage. Plenty of humour and as always, great musicianship. A great concert, well worth the 90 mile round trip.

[mikec]

Robert Plant and Sensational Space Shifters / Seth Lakeman Liverpool Olympia 25th November.

Outstanding,  short set from Seth to begin with some old favourites,  then Mr Plant & Co.  I've seen him with this band maybe 3 times and always forget how they rock it up compared to the more chilled feel on their albums.  Some tremendous versions of Zeppelin tracks as well.  I thought I'd been to very venue in Liverpool yet had never even heard of this one.  Fantastic venue,  freaking freezing queuing to get in and once in , at least until Seth came on - £4.50 for a can of Tetleys but I guess that's about the norm these days.   On the bus route too !

Same gig, similar comments. I thought Planty was outstanding and as you say Tony he and the Space Shifters certainly rocked it up!

[Andy]

Is Seth part of his band now?

[davidmjs]

Is Seth part of his band now?

He's certainly playing with him - there's some good photos of the 2 of them around.  Is he on for the whole set?

[mikec]

Seth was billed as the support act and played solo for about 30 mins. He went off and Planty and band then appeared shortly afterwards.

Seth did play on a number of songs during RP set and from memory I would say he played on roughly a third of the numbers. (could have been more-I wasn't counting).

My thinking on the way home was that he had been picked as a support act who would complement and add something to some of the numbers in the RP set rather than a full band member. (he didn't play on everything)

Seth playing violin on Whole Lotta Love is something I will remember for a long time (in a very good way I hasten to add!)