The Physical Product: O2 Academy

Showing posts with label O2 Academy. Show all posts

Tuesday, 2 April 2013

On this day in History #2 (a bit of) Take That!

On this day in History #2

Music is definitely in the ear of the beholder, and there is no guarantee to what you will like, which is why 8 years ago in 2005 I found myself in the bar at the O2 academy Birmingham waiting for Mark Owen to come on and rattle through a short set of his solo material. Now you may be laughing here, thinking its a wind up, this is obviously some cool folk singer with the same name as the cute one from take that, but no 'twas he. It's quite odd, I can absolutely say without any fear of being wrong that at that time I hated, with a passion every song that Take That had previously done. A fact born out when I went to see them with Mrs P a couple of years ago, the set of new stuff and the stuff from Robbie was great but when the boys got together round a piano to sing the old songs, the old feelings of revoltion were awakened.

But back to Mark Owen, he always (with Robbie) seemed to be a laugh in interviews, then post break up decided to record an album of Britpop indie tunes. In those days I loved Britpop indie tunes, still do. Loved Clementime the second track off his album then he rerecorded the song 'I am what I am' off the album and charted at 29 before he was dropped by his record label, this again was a tune I really rated.

5 years later after winning celebrity big brother he was able to get another record deal, and 4 minute warning was the single off it he released, another cracking tune.

Concert wise, this was not too memorable, an early curfew meant he was finished by 9:45. He's not got the strongest of voices, but the singles were good old fashioned Indie Pop tunes. However I did find something that the earlier me penned 8 years ago, to go in my scrap book (it never got past 2003 though)

The new album!

'As no one's likely to review this, a homemade review will have to suffice. Me and Lyn were shepherded into a side door, the academy 2 was 2/3 full and with largely medium ladies. Mark Owen came on at 8:45 to Take That screams, lots of camera flashes & played predominantly songs from the new album. Within these ones sounded a quite Bees ish, mockney tune. Mark chatted between songs, introduced the band & the soundmen! thanked us twice for coming and complained about the school disco next door. Stand out tracks were Clementine, 4 minute warning & kill with your smile. All over by 10 and then home'
People know I love my music, and know I love to see bands live, they always raise an eyebrow when I admit to enjoying the work of Mark Owen, but I am comfortable in my musical skin.......

Saturday, 23 March 2013

The Stranglers - Not just for Christmas

The Stranglers: Birmingham O2 Academy
16 March 2013

Reflecting back on last nights Stranglers gig, it was quite a rum affair, third time in 12 months I had seen them, including a set at V Festival employing the sun to come out with Always the Sun and Golden Brown which worked brilliantly.

Yesterday was a Christmas Pressie from my mate, me, Mrs P, quiz teamers and wife met up, after I had seen Annie at the Garrick with the kids and they had seen England thrashed by Wales in Walkabout, questionable who had the better afternoon.

Going to Rodizio Rico for a bite to eat was interesting, the Brazilian equivalent of a Harvester © Paul. Basically you get a bit too much from the salad bar then (if you set your coaster to green) every 20 seconds or so these nice Brazillians bring you a different slab of BBQd meat, which is very meatilicious.

Great, if somewhat filling meal and we were off to the O2, wandering in we got the usual waft of Hotdogs from the corner, which didn't sit well on top of the meat feast, neither I suppose did the fact that I had been to Cheltenham the day before, drinking Guinness from 11 until bed time, punctuated only by strong lager with tea, a hip flask then a night cap then bed.

So you get the idea, jaded, then on came The Stranglers, who provided a great set, there is no other band I know that lead so strongly with the Bass, which makes the songs I don't know pretty listenable compared to the normal bands fillers, mind you as the countdown (up) at the start of the gig showed. They have been around for a number of years, and years, and years.

Touching moment for Baz, No Cheese No Gig Warning

The expected stand out tracks were there (with the exception of all day and all of the night cover which got me into them in the first place) and when I see them pigeon holed as old punks, then listen to songs like Golden Brown and Always the Sun it shows it's lazy to do that.

A few things, it was the Feel It Live tour, and bassist Jean Jacques Burnell decided we should feel the bass which with booming feedback left the chap in front of me, already with ear plugs in, grab his ears in pain, it was also the 500th gig of 'the new guy' (Baz Warne) and he was presented with a framed montage which was a touching band dynamic, 13 years and still the new guy. Finally Jet Black came on for the second half of the Gig replacing his young understudy, he's a big man and loved by the audience.
A great evening, but now knackered, thank goodness for small children waking me up at the crack of dawn.

Setlist from Here

Intro - Waltz In Black

Toiler on the Sea

Goodbye Toulouse

(Get A) Grip (On Yourself)

Norfolk Coast

Time Was Once On My Side

Thrown Away

Peaches

Relentless

Duchess

Midnight Summer Dream

European Female

Genetix

Bitching

Skin Deep

Encore:

Something Better Change

No More Heroes

Encore 2:

Tank

Sunday, 17 February 2013

NME Awards Tour - Birmingham

NME AWARDS TOUR starring Peace, Palma Violets, Miles Kane & Django Django

Whilst in the middle of my gig fest last year I had booked this, as I slavishly looked through the listings for the best gigs here was one I couldn't really pass up, four for the price of one it felt like. Local boys Peace, the new Vaccines hype in Palma Violets, Miles Kane - I've bought tunes of his in 3 different guises at least and then Django Django - a band I missed due to going on holiday - it was meant to be.

So the gig rolled round, my mood not the best having seen the beloved Birmingham City get 'Spanked' (technical term) by Watford 4 nil. When I wandered through the middle of Brum I started feeling old with the number of youngsters congregating around the Floozy in the Jacuzzi with back packs, one dressed as Rimmer from Red Dwarf. Then surreally there was a Brass Band playing outside the town hall. Wandered down John Bright Street only to find the once hub of everything in the 80's which has been empty for years now has a very trendy bar 'Brew Dog' in it, bizarre to see how things come around.

Heading into the o2 the Police were very good to confirm that there were pickpockets in the venue and we should keep our wallets and phones (and sweets judging by lots of members of the queue) safe.

Entering the venue in time for the first song to start from local indie hopefuls Peace. I have heard a little about them but they looked a good bet for a break through. Lots of swagger and confidence no doubt helped by a core of home fans in the mosh pit. This being the NME tour 30 minutes in and they were gone. But like busses wait a few minutes and another quality band will come along.

Lights dimmed and the Damned's New Rose blasted out of the PA, quite a cocky song for a band to come onto, but for the first 3 or 4 songs they lived up to it, shared guitars and vocals from the front 2 led to a wondering of 'this must have been what the Doors were like' as we had screams and wails (from both singers, guitars and accompanying keyboards through red smoke) and wondering whether this was what the Stones would have been like in the 60's with a song which lifted heavily from the last time.

My ears definitely were given a thorough work out and are still ringing with another stand out track 'Step up for the cool cats' sounding like the best track Baby Bird never made (this is a massive compliment, I love Baby Bird). The set did lose its way a little, with us being implored to raise our hands, we were assured we knew why, song started, we lowered them, I am none the wiser but hey. They wrapped up an enjoyable set with 'Ode 14' apparently the first song they wrote which was pretty impressive considering....

Another little wait entertained by Twitter and facebook (what did we do before them.......oh yes, the bar) and on came Miles Kane. We knew it would be him as the back drop announced in 6 foot high lettering ALA Elvis Presley 'MILES KANE', so we were prepared. Interesting set from Miles, his ego is very much aligned to the lettering. When he strutted onstage my mind wandered and I couldn't help wondering if he was the result of a Britpop cloning experiment which extracted the jacket, swagger, songwriting and haircut of Liam Gallagher and spliced the rest into John Power of Cast.

Now I like John Power - I have even bought his solo albums in the past, and I have enjoyed Liam too, but its not the cream of Britpop. I enjoyed the songs, but didn't come away with the buzz of the Palma Violets. The highlight was the finale Quick Sand, which was superbly milked, we got a disguised intro, sing alongs, false ending, bows, further sing alongs, exit stage right, run back on to milk applause, and finally off. Now that was (as the kids say) 'mint'.

Finally on came the headliners, and from the off you could tell they were different, all in matching shirts (first band since the Hives that I have seen) and they launched into their set. This included multi instrumentalism (I don't recall seeing coconut shells outside of a primary school before) on percussion and really thought through lighting, first song with black and white imagery beamed onto the blinded windows at the back of the stage - very Hitchcockian, the second with stripes horizontal dark and light projected - never seen that before either.

They were really enjoying themselves on a Saturday night at their biggest ever gig, the electronics were thumping round but interestingly the crowd seemed to have visibly thinned - now maybe many of them had to leave as it was past bed time at gone 10pm but more realistically this 'Art Rock' may well have jarred against what was served up by the first 3 acts. Less sing alongs were present too. We were introduced to the band from Derry, Dundee, Leeds and Edinburgh I think - suggesting they had maybe met at Uni - and this came out in the sound through precise thought through stuff rather than thought up in mates bedrooms.

A particular hi point was the 'over Cairo' song - sounding very Egyptian we were asked (as boys) to dance like Mark Anthony and the girls like Cleopatra - 'Are you with us' screamed the lead singer - not too sure I think was the muted response - ........but then everyone was 3 minutes later, penultimate song, and single 'Default' was a definite crowd pleaser, with the chorus

Take one for the team you're a cog in the machine,
it's like a default
Take one for the team you're a cog in the machine,
it's like a default

Being shouted by the masses - they had won every one round.

Rounding off with WOR - another great single allows the gig to be wrapped up by the pun of, that was a long gig, 'WOR and Peace' - I was pretty pleased with that if I do say so myself.

Cracking value for money.

Sunday, 20 May 2012

Lets be Friends at the 02 Academy

Friends Birmingham O2 Academy
Gig 25: 12 May 2012

So this was the 3rd night of seeing hyped up bands locally and I was jaded after a week of work surrounding the gigs too. As such I decided to forego the support band tonight, sorry, and also to miss the queues outside for the Happy Mondays and Inspirals gig (on in the larger room and where if I am honest I may have rather been).

Arriving at the gig I knew 2 songs by Friends, as ever by way of finding out through listening to Radcliffe and Maconi and was interested to see them come on. It was a relatively poor turn out in the 200 capacity room, but when the band came on it was good to see that they put this to one side and cracked on.

The first thing you couldn't miss was that this was an arty band (well they are from Brooklyn) and each member of the band have their own clear identity. Singer Samantha Urbani was keen to get some involvement from the audience, and quickly, she kicked off with compliments, including that the Birmingham Audience (they would all try to pronounce Brummie better later) were able to scream better, after which she kicked off a combined scream for all in the room which (as amplified for the band) must have caused Shaun Ryder a raised eye as he polished his new teeth whilst waiting to go on.

The band also had a nice approach to their instruments, swapping them regularly, with the bass being passed around quite a lot. Lesly Hann the main bassist and backing singer was a very striking individual, standing mid stage, starting with an incredibly bright Eighties jumper and and going through 95% of the gig without providing any facial expressions at all. She cracked a smile only when the 'Birmingham' pronunciation contest kicked off.

Third song in and Friend Crush was unleashed on the audience, Samantha then popped down into the audience and had a proper dance with many, I ensured that I shuffled backwards with typical British restraint and watched the trendies dancing as groovily as they could to impress the band.

The songs were all pretty good, but I was captivated probably more by them because of the spectacle of the band, who with the golden Samantha and jumper stripped off Lesly were flanked by keyboardist John Belushi look alike, Shaggy from Scooby Doo on drums and a pirate with a 'Fat Possum Records Oxford Mississippi' T Shirt on, (looks a nice shop - Click Here!).

This was definitely a feel good gig, really arty songs that cracked along and I left with a big grin on my face, set list in hand, scrawled on the back of immigration form instructions for Australia.

Ranking the 3 gigs of Hyped bands, probably Howler, then Friends, then Alabama Shakes......all worth the entrance fee though.

Black Sabbath Return Home Gig Review

Black Sabbath: 02 Academy Birmingham
Gig 26: 19 May 2012

So to start with, before tonight what did I know about Black Sabbath, well

1) a legendary name in Heavy Metal,
2) a Brummie band,
3) a cracking couple of tunes in War Pigs and Paranoid
4) the carnival that is Ozzy Ozbourne and
5) Tony Iommi who has a star on the Broad Street Walk of Fame and sliced his finger tips off the day he quit work to join the Sabs.

Why did I buy the ticket? well curiosity as this was Black Sabbath's first gig, homecoming gig, for umpteen years and Ozzy was back (although Drummer Bill Ward wasn't able to make the show due to contractual terms not being appropriate, and a youngster was drafted in, although I would have thought at his age this would have caused a coronary for Bill).

Having followed Ozzy's career on reality TV from a distance I was intrigued and was one of the lucky 3,000 to get a ticket. Arriving at the venue, you could see this was going to be a different affair from the normal at the Dome. For a start there was an official merchandise truck outside, doing reasonable business and the security to get in was tight, spread your arms please sir tight. I queued up and was thrown into the world of Wayne, party on!

On gaining entry to the gig it was great to see a rammed venue chock full of, well mainly old blokes in black T Shirts, more hair and beards than normally and a penchant for raising their hands in the air, pointing their index and little fingers in the air and shouting yeah. This behaviour was being instigated by the roadies who would do this on stage while black light shone around and classic metal tracks were fired off.

I wedged my way into the crowd, got as near the front as I dared (without a Black T Shirt) and sipped my cooking lager. Around me were some of the tallest blokes I have ever seen, Metal must attract giants, and virtually no ladies at all. Around half eight, as advertised the band came on (I was surprised as I would have put money on Ozzy not being organised from my preconceptions). He came out with proper Sabbath Hair, Black top with silver cross, flanked by 2 of the most dapper looking 60 year olds in Tony Iommi and Geezer Butler and the YTS lad bare chested on drums (I'm sure he is probably very well known, but he wasn't a pensioner so he's the YTS man).

Boom and the riffage starts with 'Into the void' and Ozzy is nothing like what I was expecting, he's not a shuffling around barely coherent brummie on reality TV, he is in fact a Metal God, head bowing forward and back with gusto throughout the set, screaming out the lyrics, running side to side arms outstretched with mad eyes and F'ing and blinding at every opportunity. The piece de resistance was however the use of the water at the back of the stage, I didn't notice how he got drenched going into the second song, but it was really effective, whipping around the rats tails of hair and throwing his arms in the air to fountains of spray, turns out he's got a bath back there. This was the most theatrical way of keeping cool that I think I have ever seen, and topped off with a few bottles thrown into the mosh pits coupled with roughly 2 bath fulls at different instances.

Riffage - I have never seen anything like Black Sabbath for it, the way the songs build on Iommi's brilliant guitar playing, explode mid way through the number at pace with a wall of drums bass and Ozz in support. Its not surprising that someone was holding up at every opportunity their 'I belong to Iommi' TShirt which Tony casually acknowledged with one of the coolest nods I have seen. In fact Tony was getting a lot of hero worship with football chanted 'Tony, Tony' ringing through the venue, if there ever was a better message to someone recovering from cancer that they are adored I would be surprised.

After getting on for 2 hours the band started winding down, they popped off stage and the drummer got the crowd going with a drum solo and 3 beat duet with the audience getting faster and faster before it erupted into another solo, just to prove he wasn't just here for the ride and had earned his place.

Ozzy then confessed we had one more song and if we went mental then they would come back for an encore, everyone went mental, particularly the little metaller beside me who was swinging his hair all over the place in brilliant moshing interspersed with fingers aloft guitar playing eyes closed.

They left the stage, and we were led in a chorus of one more song by Ozzy until they came out to start that final song, the first chunk of which left me a bit disappointed as it wasn't the start of Paranoid, conspicuously absent throughout the set, and then a change in riff and suddenly I jumped to the striking chords of Paranoid, and the set finished in blistering fashion. After that I wandered out, past the incredibly expensive black Tshirts and onto the street ears buzzing.

Good Gig then? yeah, bloody great gig and this morning I still had War Pigs going round and round my head, a phenomenal bloody gig. 5 Stars I would expect in the evening mail and no mistake.

Set List: Into The Void, Under The Sun, Snowblind, War Pigs, Wheels Of Confusion, Electric Funeral, Black Sabbath, The Wizard, Beyond The Wall Of Sleep, N.I.B., Fairies Wear Boots, Tomorrow’s Dream, Sweet Leaf, Symptom Of The Universe (intro), Drum Solo, Iron Man, Dirty Women, Children Of The Grave, Sabbath Bloody Sabbath (intro), Paranoid

Wednesday, 18 April 2012

Back to the Eighties, Howard Jones:

A gig it was impossible to turn down, 27 years on from seeing the Dream into Action tour with Mom and Dad for my 13th Birthday, he was back in town to play the full album and humans lib at the dome.

Posting this fact on Facebook also revealed a lot of love for Howard and memories being rekindled from as far away as Thailand.

Getting there we were greeted by large merchandise banners telling us about the £35, £30 and £20 box sets on offer, a little rich for my taste no matter how well remastered the albums sounded.

Settled in with cooking lager, on walked Howard, but actual fact it was a baldy man reemphasising the value of the box sets, and telling us that real Howard Jones fans felt his new album was the best he has ever done - the inference being I suppose I am not a real fan, pah

Then on came 2 chaps behind a bank of electric drums and computer, neither Howard but they played a mash up of the first album, leaving me concerned that the actual album would be reinterpreted, but no, on bounced Howard, looking mad professor, large forehead and red leather jacket - back to the eighties is on.

The gig kicked off with a personal favourite Automaton and the song took me right back to the days of lp heavy rotation, on Mom and Dads old stereo in my room, with clicks and pops and wirrs. A time when I had maybe 4 records to my name.

A nice touch to the songs were the backing videos. Not the most amazing but well thought through, Automaton launching with a video showing a massive Howard Head looking very Holly from Red Dwarf.

We got lots of discussion between songs, things like when recording Dream into Action, at the playback to the record company they slated it for no hits and HJ went home in a panic to write life in one day over night for a massive smash. Another touching story was how HJ's Mum (82 years old now) being part of the fan club and writing letters to fans, and particularly HJ being given a scrap book from a fan (clearing space) and finding letters from his Mom he had never read.

A massive part of the 80's was Jed the mime artist for HJ and he was there, in spirit with 2 of he films featuring him, the first a miming of eating dinner at a table in silhouette (Jed's a little more portly now) and then in the second half a cracking video where a split screen head of Jed was incredibly expressive, one all colourful, one black and white, both looking aged.

What else jumped out, the sing alongside, HJ would wander to the front Nd lead lots of sing songs and the crowd were transported back, as was HJ to the NEC, and the filming of LiF in one da live at the concert by the man who went on to direct Michael Jacksons videos.

After a half our interval, HJ was back with Humans Lib, after another baldy man sales pitch, and confirming from back stage that he had reached 10,000 followers on twitter.

Other things, a false start on one song to prove it was all live, the fat chap on keyboards playing media ski poles - bizarre and in line with HJ's experimentation in the 80's, that's one of he things hat grabbed me he was always so forward looking with his music, which when he came out for the encore with his guitar keyboard, cutting edge to retro in a mere 27 years.

The keyboard guitar encore was for New Song, not hard to guess the encore being the massive hit and only song missing from the run through of Humans Lib, HJ walked us through it in a slow appreciation the blasted out a massive sing along.

Ending on a high, I absolutely loved HJ way back when, and played Dream into Action and Humans Lib (a cassette copy) no end.

A real value for money gig and whilst not quite back to 1985 in a Delorean,

Was I tempted with the mega bucks box sets?

No I picked up Humans Lib on vinyl off eBay for 99p, which was the album and format I had coveted back in the eighties.

Sunday, 8 April 2012

A Cast of (well hundreds) in Brum

Cast - Gig 15!

Another trip to 1995 arises with the chance to get reacquainted with John Power after quite a long time. Having pottered down to the ticket office to save the 20% transaction fees incurred through Internet charges I headed down to the Dome, stopping only to buy my (and a homeless chaps) tea from the very reasonable eat for less (but try not to think what's in your baguette) chain 99p per baguette.

It was good to see Cast's name up in lights although I was brought back crashing into 2012 when they were playing in the smaller venue at the O2 Academy. Cast were supported by a couple of bands, first pleasant enough local lads Looca, followed by scousers Cold Shoulder who despite looking older than me were getting ready for their debut ep. They did have a number of good tunes though, good harmonies.

After a while Cast came on, each band member coming on and tuning up together before John Power came on to decent applause. JP warned all present that he would be playing a lot of songs from the new album, with a few older ones which seemed reasonable, although a greatest hits set would have gone down better with the keen mosh pit. The mosh pit was definitely a blade convention, so I felt quite at home, although happy to watch as ever from the edge.

The songs cracked on, JP launching into a new one, which sounded cracking, a real return to form, followed however by 2 or 3 which were definitely filler rather than killer. JP did however have a nice line in holding his guitar vertically for an impressive strum.

Then came an extended intro for Sandstorm, and I was back to 95 again. Britpop was in full flow and the crowd started bouncing. This was then repeated for the rest of the gig, couple of new, oldie bounce, then the run through to end and a run of singles reminding me how fine an ear for a pop single JP had.

Encore started off with one I think JP thought was a lost gem from the early albums, again so so, followed by Alright which was superb, and then the final song started with loads of weird keyboard noises being played out of a guitar....the song then cracked on as normal, finishing with each band member doing a solo....finally from the drummer, finishing on a drum solo was a nice unique approach and something I've not seen for some time.

It didn't matter that JP was losing his voice, the pop gems carried smoothed over this.

All in all, new stuff one choon, old stuff cracking pop gems.

Set List