Terri Clark @ Glee in Birmingham UK Gig Review

Terri Clark @ the Glee Club in Brum
Gig 32 - 26 June 2012


An interesting gig to choose here, I'd fancied coming along to see Terri Clark when I was browsing the listings of the Glee Club and saw her photo on her Roots & Wings album, which looked like Temperance Brennan from Bones in a white cowboy hat. This was followed by the slightest of elements of research (looking up a video, getting Dirty Girl and thinking this sounds pretty good and lodging the concert in the mind).

A few weeks later and England had just come through a thrilling match with Sweden, victoriously, I had come through with my mate numerous pints of San Miguel victoriously and we had debated the pluses and minuses of Woy's england team completely. We got onto music, I said that Terri was playing at the Glee club in a weeks time, then that evening the tickets were booked.

Around rolled tuesday, a full on day at work and I hadn't given much thought to the gig, met my mate and we descended to the Chinese quarter. A leisurely tea watching the world go by in the sunshine having a ploughmans. Lovely bar maid from Spain seemed very disappointed to receive the feedback that the Cheese wasn't the greatest (crumbly white) in a Ploughman's lunch, but both of us had to say the Cajun Chips were first class.

Into the Glee club, a venue I have waxed lyrical about in the past, and seated waiting for the gig. It was then, via smart phone that we did our research. We found out the support (Dan Whitehouse) that Terri had been out jogging the canals in Birmingham, had received a number of hit singles in Canada, had had quite a number of albums, and duh duh duh....was older than both of us (just in my mates case, comfortably for me). This would be interesting to reconcile.

At quarter to we had the gravelly voiced announcer running through the rules and reg's, he always brings to mind the jazz bloke from the fast show.....'NICE' and on came Dan Whitehouse. Interesting chap, incredibly softly spoken and played for the first few songs, and then got a bit more into the banter with the crowd, confidence grew he complemented us on being obviously good music followers as we had sought out Terri and warmed us up nicely by getting us to sing along to one of the tunes. A shameless plug or two about the bargain of album plus 3 ep's for £15 (to own his whole back catalogue). He also had cracking lyrics to listen to and had a few heckles from people who had followed him from Manchester. Overall a bit softly softly and breathy for my liking but good tunes and engaging with the audience.

A refill of drinks and we were waiting for the main event, the lights dimmed, then really dimmed, then really really dimmed, spot light on the stage, 2 guitars and a table and on walked Terri Clark. Dressed as above in the black and white photo above, definitely American, incredibly warm and decidedly one of the most pleasing on the eye singers I have seen for a while. First song rattled through, no pause before the next, straight into it and the only notice that it was a new song was the 'thank you' which cued applause from the audience. After the second tune, there was more banter between songs, we heard about the joys of getting around the UK by train (with only a tour manager for support), going for a jog around the Birmingham Canal's (I could see students so I thought I wouldn't get mugged), the ruining it all by having a Blue Cheese Burger (the lady enjoys her food and doesn't want to, or need to be a waif), the challenging issues and emotional types of relationship she has, and the poignant retelling of her Mom losing her life to cancer a couple of years ago inspiring a song or two.

She was clearly a little put off by the all seater audience at the Glee Club, I can imagine that her shows can get pretty raucous with a whooping and a hollering, which is difficult in an all seater comedy venue.

Then half way through and on came the white cowboy hat, sounds like its got a bit of a cult following, but in place looked the part. We also got a life story, the idolising of country music singers making her an outsider at school, in Canada and her Mom taking her to Nashville, the working in bars, the singers she emulated, the singing for tips all brilliant stuff, and mainly in the telling, you had to be there, each tale would have an instrumental backing track keeping it pacing along, lots of self deprecation in there, bursting into Adele's 'There's a fire' and the comment of what an export she is. All of this was done with a big beaming smile, we were all having fun.

We were treated to a great little medley of songs that inspired Terri, from the Grand Ole Opry - (well chuffed to have been there in Nashville myself, took me back), and the impression of Johnny Cash (blokes voice and all).

A nice heckle came in the tale of the song which she said she had written when she was 25 (last week shouts my mate!) and by the end of the gig I had fallen in love with country music again, not sure when I will see some more but I have to say that the show was, in the words of Terri herself 'Brilliant' her new favourite word to replace awesome. A couple of the standouts for me,

 
This was an amusing tune cracking lyrics that brought a smile to everyones faces and finishing on the following was brilliant, before I hadn't heard of Terri and wasn't a fan, now in my top 5 country artists of all time, who says you can't be swayed by a white cowboy hat.

Ladyhawke rocks out at Glee

Ladyhawke @ Birmingham Glee Club
Gig 22 Sunday 6 May 2012


Another trip to the Glee club, another week missing the pub quiz, but the promise of another great gig awaited. I must admit to being slightly disappointed that there were no chairs tonight (not because of anything more than feeling knackered from a trip to the Gym) but on entry the smell of hotdogs (on sale at a hot dog stall of course) and at the bar the smell of fresh sweetened popcorn soon ensured that I was distracted from the lack of chairs.


The venue was rammed (Ladyhawke was later to mention she was surprised with how many were there to see her) and a big queue at the bar but the bar staff rattled through until the person in front of me got caught out by the more than £15 to use cards rule. They searched the menu for something worth topping up their 2 San Miguels but failed and slunk off - a couple more San Miguels and some popcorn would have done it, but I wasn't about to voice this).


Armed with my San Miguel I settled in (front and centre 2 rows back) to await the support, provided by She's so Rad (or as they were from New Zealand, she's so Red... which caused confusion over here). This young band were really chuffed to be here, thanked Ladyhawke 'heaps' , and were enjoying the tourist bit around the UK. The music blasted out loud and droney, a bit like when I saw the Dandy Warhols who, in between the hits, would play loads of loud droney noise. Here we had no hits though, just drone although every now and then there was a tune trying to peep out. We got a twin peaks cover Rockin back inside my heart, although Angelo Badalamenti's tune still didn't connect, the vocals hidden. It was an interesting set up of the band, vocals either side with a bass player in the middle to strike poses and to swing his hair, with plenty of knee playing guitar riffs. They finished and plucked some quality out in Circles, cracked through at pace and saved the day.


On came Ladyhawke, who I haven't listened to a lot of in the past, I was expecting a folky type, but she proceeded to electro rock out with her band (including Tom from Brum, who looked suitably lost for words and embarrassed when this was bought up). Ladyhawke spent the gig being very polite and chuffed with her support, she noted that we were a little closer in and intimate than normal and this led to a great atmosphere.


It was a mix of new and old songs, with some cracking chorus's 'Na Na's' in Blue eyes and 'Bang Bang Bang on the wall' elsewhere  which kept things easily interactive. We treated to a wig out ending to one of the songs too, which was again a surprise, in fact the inbetween song banter did include a revelation that one of the songs was about Zombie Apocalypse so quite a few surprises. Although I did find my mind wandering a couple of times, whether to reading the names of the instruments (Fender's for Tom and Ladyhawke, very fetching too) or that the other guitarist must be pretty hot in his grey sweatshirt which might not be a good sign of being totally absorbed in the songs.


Then the gig came to a close with My Delirium, a real crowd pleaser and I wandered out thinking that this rock out must be what going to a Pat Benatar gig must have been like back in the day, however as I haven't really heard her songs that much, she may well have been folky!


A last note. Once again the coming in, no tickets, plus the well stocked pile of flyers and free mags makes the Glee Club a cracking venue to visit.

There's no such thing as a free lunch (with the Futureheads)

Futureheads, Nottingham Glee Club, 12 April 2012

There's no such thing as a free lunch the saying goes, but sometimes the 'free' lunches taste so nice you don't begrudge paying a bit for them.

Why's this relevant for gig (16) of 2012, well because the fantastic Glee club, fast becoming my favourite venue, offered free tickets to see The Futureheads new gig. This was perfect because whilst liking the FH, accapella is not really my bag, compared to indie rock, but my record collection is eclectic, so why not, Glee also sorted out the ticket on the door when I couldn't do the code on website bit.

Apart from being in Nottingham rather than Brum, a minor oversight, and running a bit late, and it pouring with rain, torrentially, all was great for my freebie. Sitting down on came the support, the Cornshed Sisters, I waited with cider in hand and it was 4 lasses, all with personality, banter between tracks and sharing lead duties on all the folky but beautifully sung feisty songs. There was even a run out for their joke 'I had a drunk Spanish actor in the pub last night, Havier Bardham?, no he's just had a warning' best said with a Mackem accent.

A Mackem accent was important, because the middle singer (obscured by the end singer as I watched, who looked like Mrs Doyle from where I was sitting, in a good way) looked very familiar, and as this progressed it became clear that she was Marie Du Santiago from Kenickie and Rosita, having seen Kenickie a few times I even recognised the swaying side to side action whilst singing, and style of banter.
After the support set, I had to run out the venue, get some cash and run back (Glee has very helpful bouncers) to attack the merchandise stall, buying my first new vinyl for a long long time, Cornshed Sisters new album, and this was nice white vinyl, with download code, happy days. I also had it sold to me by Marie, and entered my usual star struck mode, merely commenting how ace they were and how well she had aged, to the comment of how young she had been in Kenickie. Mrs Doyle made sure that I got my free tote bag with my vinyl which was much appreciated.

On came the FH's and I was looking forward to it given Marie's reassurance that it would be brilliant. The first thing that was brilliant was that they were surrounded by many and varied (acoustic) instruments, so we were out of solely accapella territory, secondly here were 4 really witty chaps who seemed to be best mates having a laugh in between superb songs, challenges about the number of bottles of water consumed, showing nipples, ripped trousers, being the best on stage, quizzes to win sweaty towels all made for a Jarvis style audience interaction.

The Futureheads also were very good at dealing with hecklers, well one heckler from Chester Le Street, who was very keen to give us a running commentary and join in. This was topped off by the lead singers off the cuff comment in McIntyre of 'I'm getting pretty McIntyred of you' a superb put down, and Chester Le Street went quiet, and his made got up shakily, fell onto the wheelchair lady behind him and they exited stage left.

The set was really varied and mixed, Blackeyed peas and Kelis covers, FH songs done folk and old traditional songs. They all came together fantastically with the highlight for me being a cover of Sparks 'number one song in heaven'.

An encore and finish with the Hounds of Love (Oh Ah Oh) and it was back to the merchandise stand for the Rant album.

Whilst not a free lunch in the end, definitely worth while.

Ren Harvieu creates Glee

Gig 14 of the year was Ren Harvieu, an incredibly bargain £6 from the Glee club, with no pesky booking fees etc from what I can recall. Another new singer who came to light on the back of Rad & Mac's cracking show.

Support for the night, having legged across the city juggling needing to find an open cash point with needing a leak was provided by Fossil Collective. A pretty good band from what I can remember for a support. Lead singer with loads of charisma and a light beard, with the rest of the band having successively bigger beards. One importantly must have grown his beard due to his incredible likeness to Jimmy Carr, which mainly meant I spent the performance thinking how much he looked like Jimmy Carr with a beard. The bearded Jimmy Carr had a plethora of random instruments, including a mini keyboard you blow down and a mini guitar, all added nicely to the tunes. The other band member of note being the keyboard player (beard and sweat band round head) and the group rounded off by bass player (with beard) playing double bass, which being electric only had the strings rather than the wooden bit. Good band I wouldn't mind seeing again.

Overall - Fossil collective - Nice Harmonies, strumming guitar, good beard action.

Ren came on from behind the set doing a cover of Roy Orbison's Crying I think, seductively slinking on to grab the G of GLEE and then proceeded to rattle through a short set. The main thing about Ren seems to be the pipes, fantastic vocals, live she will run anyone very close, the power that came out of all of the songs was phenominal. Which given the GLEE club's brilliant policy of unrestricted all seating (perfect for a single chap to sneak in between polite people who leave a gap) meant I had Ren's voice from 1 row back.

The other things that I noticed were the crutch which came onstage (she has had a real issue, potentially never to walk again), the nice white pumps - which didn't really fit with the little black dress (back related?) and the fact that Ren looks exactly like one of my mates wives, well a younger version.

Value for money and a half watching Ren, and an album to purchase in due course.

Stand out track - Through the night for me, unsurprisingly a single, as below!