Recent gigs

[davidmjs]

Almost a full house at the Brewery Arts Centre which was good to see but Kendal is one of those places with a sizeable retired population with the cash to spend on these sort of gigs. She said this was the only venue they've played twice.

I do like the Brewery...was it standing or sitting?

[ColinB]

Almost a full house at the Brewery Arts Centre which was good to see but Kendal is one of those places with a sizeable retired population with the cash to spend on these sort of gigs. She said this was the only venue they've played twice.

I do like the Brewery...was it standing or sitting?

It was in the main theatre so all sitting. She asked for a show of hands to see who had been at their previous gig there and by the smallish number I'm guessing they probably played in the Malt Room last time.
 

[Andy]

Nick Mason's Saucerful of Secrets were pretty bloody great at Cardiff's Donald Gordon Theatre, housed within the Millennium Centre.

A word about the venue: relaxed, no bag or body searches, amazing amount of legroom and I recommend this venue to anyone. No worries about cameras or videoing. Really excellent. No Guinness at the bar for Wendy, though.

The repertoire has expanded since their last tour and is all the better for that. Nick's old jokes are still present. I especially liked his dissing of "the two ornery bass players I've had to play with my whole career". There was a lot of laughter on the stage and their camaraderie was evident.

Standouts included the Nile Song and Remember Me

The full setlist can be found here.

Great to see Bridget and Mike Box there, too!

Also, a thank you to the Merch organiser. All t-shirts available in 3XL. They know their demographic!

[Nick]

Nick Mason and Co were excellent at Oxford. I took the Chap to see them as a post - exam present (except he still has 2 exams to go     ) and he loved it.

Now we're at that Cardiff ourselves, getting ready to see Foo Fighters  

Cheers

Nick

[Andy]

Prince of Wales is a good pre-gig pub for pie and a pint.

[Nick]

Prince of Wales is a good pre-gig pub for pie and a pint.

Walking down Westgate/Great Western Way was quite a buzz. Every bar thumping out rock and roll, rammed to the rafters and good cheer spilling out across the town. Excellent - how a rock gig should be.

Now we've got golden circle passes and it's time to see Wet Leg...

[davidmjs]

I am literally floating in another realm ….a dream came true last night, when we saw Rufus Wainwright at Eden Court, Inverness…For me, a transcendental type experience to even hear this man’s voice, live!

I will tell more when I have come back down to earth.

You could have seen him even closer to home.  Have you seen his social media?  Walking with his fella and his dog at Quiraing in the North of Skye.

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

I am literally floating in another realm ….a dream came true last night, when we saw Rufus Wainwright at Eden Court, Inverness…For me, a transcendental type experience to even hear this man’s voice, live!

I will tell more when I have come back down to earth.

You could have seen him even closer to home.  Have you seen his social media?  Walking with his fella and his dog at Quiraing in the North of Skye.

He mentioned in his show that they were heading for Skye…imagine hearing that voice at an Open Mic night! But unfortunately I haven’t been to any, due to working…and also, I just love his voice and music, I am not a stalker!

I can’t do the review as I can’t find the words…still on Cloud Nine a week later!!

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

PS Not suggesting he was doing open mic nights…just imagining it ♥️.

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

Better tell more about Rufus Wainwright’s concert, at last:

We couldn’t get tickets when I first found it was on…then a couple of cancellations must have come up as I saw two seats smack in the middle of the stalls, so we found ourselves half way back and level with the centre stage…First time at Eden Court, a lovely little venue by the River Ness. We were able to stroll along the river to it,  from where we stayed.

The support, Alice Faye, a brilliant pianist, lyricist and singer and so sweet…blown away to be there, it was a very wonderful support set including very touching songs written for her sisters.

Rufus Wainwright himself performed mainly solo, one man, one piano or  acoustic guitar. He came on, with his ethereal interpretation of Agnes Dei, then performed a well curated selection from across various albums and projects, including the beautiful song about his relationship with his father ‘Dinner at Eight’. He had a guest for two songs, local operatic soprano Janis Kelly, who has worked on previous projects with him and sang at his mother’s funeral…they sang ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ which had been performed on that occasion and she joined him for a cover of ‘Hallelujah’ after his encore song ‘ Going to a Town’.

It was such a beautiful, spiritual experience…Rufus gave the best vocal performance I have ever witnessed in many years of live music….so each to his, her or their own…but I shall hold it close to my heart forever.

[hendo (Dave)]

Better tell more about Rufus Wainwright’s concert, at last:

We couldn’t get tickets when I first found it was on…then a couple of cancellations must have come up as I saw two seats smack in the middle of the stalls, so we found ourselves half way back and level with the centre stage…First time at Eden Court, a lovely little venue by the River Ness. We were able to stroll along the river to it,  from where we stayed.

The support, Alice Faye, a brilliant pianist, lyricist and singer and so sweet…blown away to be there, it was a very wonderful support set including very touching songs written for her sisters.

Rufus Wainwright himself performed mainly solo, one man, one piano or  acoustic guitar. He came on, with his ethereal interpretation of Agnes Dei, then performed a well curated selection from across various albums and projects, including the beautiful song about his relationship with his father ‘Dinner at Eight’. He had a guest for two songs, local operatic soprano Janis Kelly, who has worked on previous projects with him and sang at his mother’s funeral…they sang ‘The Last Rose of Summer’ which had been performed on that occasion and she joined him for a cover of ‘Hallelujah’ after his encore song ‘ Going to a Town’.

It was such a beautiful, spiritual experience…Rufus gave the best vocal performance I have ever witnessed in many years of live music….so each to his, her or their own…but I shall hold it close to my heart forever.

……and that’s what music does. Brilliant.

[RobertD]

On the same night as their decisive win against Panama in the COPA, I was introduced to the Colombian sound of bullerengue. The band comprised 6 singers and 2 percussionists. It is Afro infused folkloric call and response music-very emotional, very powerful. One could definitely feel transported back in time. I enjoyed it very much! The second band was also Colombian and also had a Afro-Colombian sound, but were a high energy dance band. My wife was in her element, singing and dancing her culture the entire night!!

[David V B]

Weekend spent at Lytham Festival. Saturday was Rick Astley - surprisingly good and very entertaining, worked the crowd very well - and Madness. Have seen them better but still very good. Some of the crowd disappointed they played a few songs from their new (good) album, but they still got the classics in.

Sunday was better. Johnny Marr was excellent, playing mixture of his own songs and several from the Smiths, which sounded so much better without the usual whining delivery. (Highlight of the weekend was seeing the signer at the edge of the stage translating “Hang the DJ”!). James doing their orchestral set took a while to get going, but when they did they were excellent. Don’t know their material well enough to say how the songs were affected by orchestral backing, but some of them sounded very good and will look forward to hearing the album.

[Jim]

Last Saturday (6th july) we went to see the mighty Saw Doctors at Manchester's Cadtlefield bowl.
Support from The Undertones and Billy Bragg
Altogether a fabulous show, The 'Tones opened up with a set crammed full of more bangers than the Standard fireworks factory well on bonny night.
Billy was on good form what with England scraping through to the quarter finals and the most despised government of decent years having been unceremoniously dumped.
The Docs were as fabulous, as ever
I paid £57 for a round of 8 drinks in a pub near the arena😱

[hendo (Dave)]

Last Saturday (6th july) we went to see the mighty Saw Doctors at Manchester's Cadtlefield bowl.
Support from The Undertones and Billy Bragg
Altogether a fabulous show, The 'Tones opened up with a set crammed full of more bangers than the Standard fireworks factory well on bonny night.
Billy was on good form what with England scraping through to the quarter finals and the most despised government of decent years having been unceremoniously dumped.
The Docs were as fabulous, as ever
I paid £57 for a round of 8 drinks in a pub near the arena😱

Glad you found a cheap pub!!!!😇😳🙄

[Adam]

Just back from seeing Stevie Nicks at Hyde Park. I really regret never seeing Fleetwood Mac live, and wasn’t sure what to expect from Stevie. She was fantastic, and played a great mix of songs from her solo albums, Mac songs and a couple of unexpected covers. Highlights for me included a barnstorming Gold Dust Woman, a full-on Edge of Seventeen and Rhiannon. Harry Styles (who I didn’t immediately recognise but my teenaged daughter nearly passed out!) joined her for a very emotional tribute to Christie McVie (Landslide), on what would have been her birthday. A top night out!

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

Wow I can’t beat that, Adam!

But we had a great mini break and saw Anna Massie, then The Old Blind Dogs, in the Under Canvas Festival at Eden Court, Inverness. Anna Massie is from The Black Isle and sings solo with her guitar, mainly her own compositions, but also some well known songs such as ‘I think we’re alone now’ and has great repartee.

The Old Blind Dogs had their fiddler missing, unwell,  but performed some great traditional-influenced numbers with the pipes, drums and guitar.  I realised they have appeared at Cropredy and on investigation found it was in 2003, I didn’t remember this but they would be good on a Thur or Fri afternoon.

We also went to Inverness Highland Games where we discovered a great electronic accordianist called Ruaridh Maclean…aka Rumac…he was absolutely amazing with his own very individual ( hilarious in some cases) take on some well known songs such as ‘Delilah’ and ‘Donald where’s yer troosers?’ He has a very powerful voice and a great personality.

[Poor Will (Bill)]

Campfire Festival, Uckfield, East Sussex.
An annual one day affair with around 200 attendees set up by Naomi Bedford and Paul Simmonds.
Music very much centred around The Men They Couldn’t Hang and Naomi and Paul’s Ramshackle Band with full band and solo performances.
Other entertainment included juggling, tightrope walking, fire eating and a man dressed as an ostrich riding a unicycle!
A truly unique little festival with a wonderfully relaxed atmosphere.

[PaulT]

Fat Freddy's Drop at Oxford O2 last night... reggae, funk, house, jazzy inflections, and a techno encore featuring a sousaphone solo. Bloomin' marvellous party band.

[John From Austin]

Last week -

Pretenders at ACL Live! Chrissie Hynde was amazing as always. Fairport-adjacent guitarist James Walbourne was her secret weapon all night, ripping off spirited leads and dancing all over the stage. Martin Chambers was absent, as was "Brass in Pocket." Otherwise, she did all the hits and tons of new stuff. Great show.

10cc at ACL Live! This was a treat. They said they had not toured the U.S. in 46 years. The venue was about half full, but they were enthusiastic fans and I think we showed 10cc a good time. I remain largely unfamiliar with their tunes, but they had great stage presence, great chops, and we got our money's worth for sure.