Category: Live Reviews
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The Who and Wilko Johnson: Live at The Royal Albert Hall
The Teenage Cancer Trust concerts have become a much loved staple of London’s live scene for over a decade. A week long series of gigs, including one comedy night, curated by Roger Daltrey, all to raise money for an organisation that helps teenagers who have been diagnosed with cancer. The cause is…
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Why You Should Hear The New Courtney Barnett LP…
2015 looks like being a big year for Australian singer songwriter Courtney Barnett, with her laconic, grungy, stream-of-consciousness style attracting strong reviews with debut album “Sometimes I Sit and Think, and Sometimes I Just Sit”. Barnett brought a three piece band to Rough Trade last night to launch the album. Barnett has built a good…
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Josh Tillman is a Rock Star: Father John Misty, Live at the Village Underground, East London
Don’t you just love it when you go to a gig that is so much better than you ever expected it would be? Father John Misty played an incredible show at The Village Underground in Shoreditch last night. Even if they weren’t converts before they arrived, everyone in the audience left a believer in…
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Father John Misty Live at Rough Trade East
“All the banter is lies… but the songs are true….”, says Father John Misty aka former solo artist J.Tillman aka former Fleet Foxes drummer Josh Tillman, under the glare of the solo spotlight of a packed Rough Trade East. On one hand this is somewhat of a disappointment when you have been regaled with amusing…
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Pond Play Rough Trade East to Launch New LP, “Man It Feels Like Space Again”
Pond played live in London today, in a packed Rough Trade East. Where reasons for delaying the start of a gig are concerned, Pond can now claim to be world class. Axl Rose? A mere amateur excuse-maker compared to Pond, whose legendary reason for delaying their Rough Trade East lunchtime show today for an hour…
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The Charlatans Debut Songs From New Album Modern Nature At Rough Trade East
It’s a good thing that Tim Burgess is such a positive, likeable frontman. His band, The Charlatans has experienced great highs, including three number one hit albums, and – whether by design or chance – was an integral part of two important musical scenes in Madchester and Britpop. Songs like 1995’s “Just When You’re Thinking…
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Every Record Tells A Story Photos of 2014
As the year draws to a close, it is nice to look back and reflect on the last twelve months. Did I really meet Johnny Rotten and was the one not wearing a tie? Was that really Metallica headlining Glastonbury, yet Dolly Parton was the one who drew the biggest crowd of the weekend? And…
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Augustines – Live In The Round: at Camden Roundhouse
When Augustines play live you witness not so much a rock show as a rock revival. Like indie-Narnian-lions, the band breathe life into the the stone-cold Camden Roundhouse, converting a freezing December audience into the hippest looking bunch of Southern Baptists you will ever see. Lead vocalist William McCarthy wears his heart on his sleeve.…
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Why German Heavy Metal Still Matters: Accept – Live at The Forum
As a veteran of several eighties Monsters of Rock Donington festivals, the odd Reading Festival, and a myriad of lesser gigs at Hammersmith Odeon, The Astoria, Dominion, Brixton, The Town and Country Club (now renamed as tonight’s venue, The Forum), et al, I have reached the point (or perhaps “age” is a better word) where…
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The National: The World’s Biggest Unknown Band – live at O2 Arena, London
When telling colleagues and friends that I was going to see The National last night, for their final show of their “Trouble Will Find Me” world tour, almost all of them gave me the same one word answer. “…….Who……???” On this evidence* it seems that The National might just be the World’s Biggest Unknown Band.…
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Jack White: Live at the O2 Arena
“Ten years ago I was in a band called The White Stripes and we were going to play the O2 Arena, but we had to cancel the tour, so that’s one reason we’re playing here tonight.” The world most important trinket-maker and blues guitarist, Jack White, returned to the UK and London’s O2 Arena last…
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Here Comes Johnny Marr – With A Lust For Life, Live at Southend – Review
It has been quite a year so far for Johnny Marr. Just as he was getting over racking up a half century of birthdays, in April Marr found himself in a New York post office performing his new soundtrack to The Amazing Spider-Man 2 alongside Alicia Keys and Pharrell Williams. It was a surreal contrast…
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Johnny Depp Joins Ryan Adams Onstage at Shepherd’s Bush Empire
Gig goers had a surprise during the encore to Ryan Adams’ show at Shepherds Bush Empire last night as Johnny Depp slung on his guitar and joined the band. Sporting a wide-rimmed trilby, Depp threw some impressive shapes and even pulled off a guitar solo during set closer “Kim”. Despite such a Hollywood stamp of…
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More Crowd Chaos As “Tray of Pimms Upset” at Costello Kew Gardens Gig
Just a week after 38 people were left injured with eight needing hospital treatment at The Libertines’ Hyde Park concert, crowd control has once again hit the news, this time at Elvis Costello’s Kew Gardens concert as part of the “Kew The Music” series of concerts. After just one song the show was stopped by…
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Faith No More: Live at BST Hyde Park
It is 25 years almost to the day that one of the best rock albums of the eighties was released. Faith No More’s “The Real Thing” sprang from nowhere and won huge critical praise at the time, finishing in Kerrang!’s Top Five Albums of the Year, with the likes of Def Leppard’s Joe Elliott, riding…
Every record tells a story 