Arriving late to the gig despite racing back from London (mainly due to accident on the M42) and having to reassemble the leads at the back of the TV and sky box following a carpet fitting (penance for a pass out) I had missed the Brum support act. The Slade rooms were packed with a very Moddish crowd raring to hear the Strypes, a band I had decided to come to see having listened to them interviewed on Cerys's show whilst walking down a beach in Barbados, not owning a jot by them, but knowing that they had put on a fantastic show. I had my head down whilst waiting for them, glued to my iPhone whilst the condensation ran down the walls in a sweaty Slade Rooms, a cheer and they were on, straight into a blistering opening, one of the loudest rawest rock n roll openings I have ever heard. It just sounded of a bygone age, exactly what I imagine the crowd packed in in Hamburg to see the Beatles would have heard, or in the States surrounding Chuck Berry or Jerry Lee Lewis (but without the running off with 14 year old cousin stigmas). I imagine its the sound of youth with an average age (if you believe wikipedia) of 15 and 16. It took a while to get used to a band who were comfortably young enough to be my kids, ironic as I will be heading to see in The Who a band who are old enough to be my parentstomorrow. The band looked cool too, lead singer with Blues Brothers shades propping up a fringe, whipping out an incredibly well used harmonica, bass player, looking like a cool Weasley Brother playing the bass like a man possessed (none of the barely moving coolness from Temples bassist here), lead guitar with boy band cool, matching suit jackets, shirt and matching pocket square and drummer (probably cool looking but hidden from my vantage point so I will give him the benefit of the doubt). The set was a mixture of covers and original material, all delivered at blistering pace, delivering banter between tracks. A brief journey to see whether there were Wolves fans in the audience got a muted response, followed but 'well i guess we've got a mixed audience in tonight, some football fans and some Wolves fans' these youngsters have confidence and decent music taste paying tribute to Slade and Dave Hill (rather than the usual Sir Nod). Covers such as Judge a book by its cover (Bo Diddley) and See See Rider, probably close to the Animals interpretation of it. And so an encore of Route 66 complete with McCartneyesq shouts and whoops from Twist and Shout and they were off after a frenetic hour of rock and roll. Off no doubt to a rider of pop and haribos, whilst the crowd with ears ringing were given free posters when they stepped outside the venue, I doubt Mrs P will let me put it up on my bedroom wall, but hey. The final thought that I was struck by when walking to the car, was that's what Marty McFly was looking for when he wigged out on stage at the end of Back To The Future, both the sound and the reaction from an ecstatic crowd. My favourite new band.......I think so far this week.
So an impulse purchase - driven by Songkick, the revolutionary website tempting me to gigs daily led me to the Slade Rooms tonight. This impulse was all centred around various dipping in and out of Buzzcocks tunes over the years, from hearing them on Radcliffe and Maconie on a fairly regular basis (11 appearances on the Chain and counting) to record fairs, bargain compilation CD's but realistically to one song - Ever Fallen in Love.
I would love to claim (at 7) that I had fallen in love with the song in the Punk days, but I came to the song in the eighties through the Fine Young Cannibals cover, who were a fine band with whom I had a brief obsession. Listening back to the song it sounds quite pedestrian now, distinctive vocals from Roland Gift, but nothing more. But the song had got into my DNA.
Not sure when Buzzcocks came to the surface, but this is the version of the song that I leap to first in my mind, clicks up a pace, raw emotional, heart breaking, reflecting on a situation of young love. Blistering 3 minutes and 54 seconds. This probably surfaced again radically when, having heard about John Peels death a rerelease was made of the song with a cracking video reflecting on what Peely had meant to countless generations of music lovers. Now I had not sat under the covers listening to John Peels show back in my adolescence, but later, when Indie came to my life at Uni, his programmes, with their friendly enthusiastic approach suddenly made huge amounts of sense, and his later championing of bands like Pulp, Blur and the White Stripes aligned him to my colours.
The fantastic video is as below:
So it was largely this song that got me to part with the £18.00 plus all manner of booking fees and charges and to head over to Wolverhampton again. I was buoyed by the news from twitter that Bleech were supporting and the timings that were announced which got me to Slade rooms bright and breezy, missing bedtime story time with my boy in the process. Sadly on reaching the Slade rooms it turned out that Twitter had exaggerated the show times by half an hour (so I could have relaxed) and also Bleech were not the band Bleeched (who have a cracking single out at the moment) but a more grungey band, although I found I did have an album of theirs on the ipod so it wasn't all a loss.
With half an hour to spare I reviewed the best merchandise stall I have seen in a long time, T Shirts, Totes, Vinyl, badges catering for the crowd. This was a good point because its rare in this day and age that I see a crowd that that looks so tribal, but here we definitely had a huge number of 'ageing punks' with a number of Mohicans one indeed a red dredd mohican!
The venue filled up, to what is probably the fullest I have seen it in this 550 capacity venue, in fact my ticket was number 460 so it can't have been much off its capacity. Bleech gave an entertaining show, a couple of memorable numbers. The lead singer, be-hatted was pretty impressive, twirling her guitar with all enthusiastic rock posturing but then noticing the tiny hands producing the noise was a bit odd. The Drummer centre stage gave a good impression of Andrew WK with his moshing head action and stand out moment was in the final song 'Mondays' when getting to the end the lead singer screamed out 'Who's out there' to the silent audience (silent I believe due to the intensity rather than apathy, as everyone wasn't chatting) only for one wag to say pardon, another to say in broad yorkshire accent go on lass, to which a big beam broke across the face of Bleech and she came enthusiastically to an end of the set.
Listening back to the album nude now - its not a bad listen at all, I will have to revisit this one, must have passed me by at the time.
Another half an hour, refilled redstripe, accompanied by some of the most enthusiastic drumming checking of equipment. On shuffled the band, Pete Shelley in yellow sloganeered shirt, untucked around a medicine ball of a stomach. Steve Diggle tall with mod haircut, bright blue shirt and grey slacks. They were a band that looked chuffed to be there, heading off into a set with Boredom, Pete leading, which captured the crowd straight away, a crowd in the hottest venue in the UK at the moment. I had forgotten what heat felt like this winter/spring. Shortly after this came Autonomy, lead duties over to Diggle, enthusiasm ensued, whirling Who guitar arms and big beaming face (I did get quite a lot of Phil Tuffnell look alike vibes). That was the order of the gig, no banter, blistering tune after tune, band loved by audience, providing the songs that were desired. An hour later they wandered off, much applause, wandered back finishing with 4 songs, the last 3 being 'Ever Fallen in Love' which fulfilled my ambition, Orgasm Addict and Oh Shit!
At the end, the band didn't want to leave, Diggle shaking hands & hugging every member of the front row, the sundry members of the band lapping up the applause. For me, brilliant to see such a legendary band performing such a legendary song.
Public Image Ltd: Wulfren Wolverhampton 3 August 2012 - Gig 36 of 2012
A week later and another legend to watch, how would John Lydon's performance with PIL compare to Morrissey?
The first obvious difference was the fact I could see Lydon close up, which was brilliant, but given it wasn't the main venue in Wolverhampton, but the Wulfren (capacity of roughly 1,100), the draw for this legend was obviously not quite the same.
The Band kicked off the first song, with John doing his typical rolling of r's, launching into This is not a love song, with lyric sheet illuminated before him. After each song was a familiar routine with a gargle of Martell Cognac to be spat into a big dustbin. The arctic coat was then removed, still plenty of hiking gear worn.
There wasn't much banter to be seen inbetween the songs, nothing commenting on the Olympics and the pogoing punks in the opening ceremony, a brief confirmation that the band weren't Florence and the Machine - check - and that we had managed to let the smoking ban laws be passed when he wasn't looking living like he does in LA. This allowed a reckless law breaking fag break (behind the curtains).
The first thing that struck me from the set was that the songs would be getting an airing, at about 2 hours that would be getting on for 8 minutes a song, especially as there wasn't a great deal of banter. The songs (with 2 exceptions) were largely a really solid rhythm from the bass and drums, with interspersed Guitar and lyrics from Lydon that were described pretty well on twitter by @christoff3000 as 'a trapped animal screaming into the urban wasteland of Wolverhampton', really apt, and yes not Florence and the Machine at all.
The songs didn't pull a huge reaction from the audience, as noted by Lydon 'Come on Wolves is that all you got' and my mind did wander a little at times. It was one such wander that took me to think how much the ageing Lydon looks like the fast show's 'Mark Williams' (Suits you sir). An actor who I will always have an affection for because of his portrayal of a Brummie in an advert in the early 90's which was probably the first time I had heard a Brummie accent on the box and caused all my mates at Uni to come up to me and amusingly say 'we wanna be together' for a term or so.
When Lydon went off for the encore he gee'd up the crowd, noting he was off for a fag break, hand to ear, the audience responded then, the cheers and he was back. Included within the encore was the difference in the set, when Rise started, a massive cheer went up, the song sparkled, and had some real real power to it, the sing along 'anger is an energy' moment was quality, not quite so the pogoing chap in the red T shirt taking all and sundry with him, and that was a real hi-light. Streets ahead of everything that had gone before it.
The gig finished with Open Up, again a quality tune, with a couple of fake ends into the bargain, a couple of bows and Lydon and Co were off, there had been some interesting bits, a guitar solo with a childs illuminated windmill, (not quite Hendrix playing behind his head) and the news that the guitarist was back from an eye op earlier in the day, which was much appreciated.
Its interesting how limited Lydon's comments were compared to Morrissey's, not really being particularly contentious, its amazing to think how he terrorised the authorities / establishment in '77, but then Morrissey's pet topics, vegetarianism aside, didn't really seem to cause anyone to do anything but smile a wry smile and note 'typical Moz' .
So to sum it up
Good value for money? to see a legend that close yes........
Schools of Seven Bells: Wolverhampton Slade Rooms: Gig 33 Friday 20 July 2012:
After a week of stress and crap at work I woke knackered on Friday, a long day at work and not in the right frame of mind really for a gig, but luckily caffeine'd up I made the way to Wolverhampton. Made slightly more challenging by the police closing the only road I knew into the town centre I pottered through housing estates, hoping to see the metropolis ahead, which finally appeared.
Delayed I got into the venue at a trot to a jolly big doorman who stamped my hand to tell me I had missed most of the first band, luckily I had 3 songs left to enjoy of local band Silhouettes whose 3 songs were a bit of a mixed bag, but really impressive was the falsetto on the penultimate song by the guitarist / singer, which worked great with 2 sets of keyboards either side. Baldy keyboarder on the right was very much into the gig, bouncing rave stylee whilst playing and interjecting inbetween tracks to fill with a very deep voice explaining why he wasn't allowed usually to chat. Other lasting impression was the random haircut of the singer, shaved at the sides, clump of hair on top and straggly fringe. I hope the start of the set had more falsetto singing in it, as Puressence style that really stuck out.
A pint of 'wife beater' and I was feeling pretty excited about the next band, Sylver Tongue, the venue had filled up a little more, so roughly a third full to see the new incarnation of former Ash, Nightnurse, KT Tunstell band and solo performer Charlotte Hatherley take to the stage. To be fair when I read about this support to School of Seven Bells it was a no brainer to book up.
First impressions were that this was a really well put together band, they had a concept, central to this was Charlotte, hair highlighted and slicked back, red guitar slung over her back and what looked like a short fake fur cape / shawl round the shoulders, reminded me of the sorts of thing Sigue Sigue Sputnik wore (but luckily no fright mask).
She looked futuristic and launched into the first song Creatures, which my first impression was of an electronic Kate Bush, high praise indeed. The songs were rattled through, lots of asking for 'more drums, not backing!' from the band. After two or three tunes I noticed the styling on the two ladies flanking Charlotte on keyboards and bass which was a bit Blue Peter, normal attire which was enhanced with 2 clip on fringes fixed to the shoulders, not quite as rock star as Charlotte but kind of fitted in. Probably the best support band I have seen in a long time and hopefully an album will come out soon. It's the first time that I've seen a stylised band in a long long time, probably since the hives, and in this world of infinite choice it was great to see, having picked up Bowie's Ziggy Stardust LP this week, you can see that a choice in image can really last the test of time, although I'm not expecting to be holding my commemoration of this band in 40 years, but who knows..... Really brave move from Charlotte but one well worth it. Last song of the set was a real highlight. Not sure of the title but it was superb, a building up with catchy chorus intense Charlotte of keyboards and guitar. Tried looking through the Youtube vids and still none the wiser.
Onto the main event, the School of Seven Bells or SVIIB to give them their handy moniker, another band from New York turning up in the back end of nowhere looking a little shell shocked. Central members being the incredibly beautifully haired chap Benjamin Curtis (see pic above for proof) and the Egyptian Bob and ear ring sporting Alejandra Deheza. They came on to a whooping crowd, who looking round looked a proper muso audience, I felt at home, and I imagine most of those present will have come across SVIIB (I think more bands should have abbreviations like this) on 6 Music.
Songs cracked along, Alejandra combining her voice with harmonies from the keyboard player and songs building and building, when she was on guitar the blur of bangles on her right hand worked. For the hour they were on, I was pretty transfixed, songs (I think) were spread from the 3 albums to date and the set hung together well, support band Sylver Tongue had tweeted they were playing with the 'Lush' SVIIB and that's a good way to describe things, the vocals really are lush. A highlight for me was the opener for the new album Ghostory, The Night which is a cracking tune and has me bopping around on a regular basis. It was pretty difficult not to get caught up and bop in the gig and from looking around the audience, there looked to be quite a few whose default mode was not bop, myself included being caught up in the moment.
Another highlight was the Eighties feeling Scavenger, starting with a great bass drum booming, with dreamy lyrics circling with the Chorus of
to make you feel loved
to make you feel wanted
to make you feel fire
to make you feel like cracking......
This was followed by ILU from the second album, which takes a while to get going then, when its really embedded in your head it starts reinforcing the 'I want you to know that I loved you' over and over hypnotically. SVIIB are definitely a band you want on the side of good in the world, filling my mind with hypnotically evil messages would not be the way forward, as by the end of the gig I would probably have done anything Alejandra had told me.
Wrapping up the band played the again brilliant 6 minutes of Low times, another 'tune' as you may say, listening to it now again, you just can't stop moving to this band....
After what felt like no time for the encore they were off with a brief 'Thank you guys so much, sorry we haven't been here ever, this is the last one' and disappeared..........another favourite new band........BOOM!
Many thanks to whoever put this on youtube from Friday - as you can see - hypnotic, beautiful voice and far too good hair from Benjamin!
By now the merely going along to 40 gigs this year seemed eminently achievable and I am definitely enjoying the challenge or getting a little bit obsessed with going along to gigs, not having huge amounts of spare time, its taken the place of going to the Gym, another win!
So Noah and the Whale was selected by me and Planty from Song Kick to attend, and the date rolled round, having been to a leaving do for someone from work and stopped chatting a little bit too long, the journey to Wolverhampton was incredibly speedy, I played the game of beat the satnav to very good effect arriving in the usual spot and racing up and into the gig.
I was keen to catch the support and cooking lager in hand I got in to see Lucy Rose who I had researched a little on youtube and really enjoyed, singer, guitar, quirky songs, just my particular cup of tea, a bit like this Youtube clip:
Live however this cracking song writer had surrounded herself with a band who just didn't seem to be playing anything to do with Lucy's songs, and I was a bit underwhelmed.
May have been the big venue, the fact I was stood under the balcony at the Civic and the sound wasn't perfect or I missed the point, but I would give Lucy a second chance hopefully when she returns to the Little Civic in June.
The crowd was in good attendance for the support and gave a better response than me I suppose, whilst I finished off my cooking lager with traditional plastic glass.
It was clear that the audience were ready for Noah and the Whale, there was a palpable buzz going round and when the support music turned off, lights dimmed and the curtain at the back was lit up in Mondriane style the buzz increased. This was then brilliantly captured by the Noah's punctuating little messages in the squares building the anticipation, more and more, are you ready?, are you ready? here we go! NOAH AND THE WHALE, ending with the back drop as the photo above, a really impressive build up.
Coming on to Life is Life, I was immediately in, ooooooh I like this one mode, rocking back and forth on my heels (my preferred gig shimmying) to the songs, and venturing out from under the balcony to be greeted by a much better all round sound.
I wasn't the only person enjoying this, the rest of the audience were very much into it, as was in particular the lady in front of me, who was a dancing whirlwind, well when I say whirlwind, she danced like the dancing priest from Father Ted, not in time to the music, just really enjoying herself.
I loved this free spirit and emotion, reminded me of Phoebe from Friends when she went running through Central Park and ran like a 5 year old arms and legs going all over the place in abandon, I've tried this (admittedly running through a forest where no-one could see me and it is liberating).
The thing that struck me as we went through the gig was how tight the band were on stage and how far from the Mumford and Sons / Laura Marling twee folks they were, the gig was really rousing and cracking, upbeat and fun, and as a result there were great engaged sing alongs with the audience.
A nice touch was for Love of an Orchestra where an Orchestra was wheeled in, but virtually, where violinist Tom steps off stage right and then back into the orchestra in celluloid. A very nice touch which was Charlie Fink commented was made even more remarkable by this vortex being able to change all of Tom's clothes, but again a great tune.
The songs kept coming and I kept thinking how I like this one, I like this one, Noah and the Whale have secretly snook up on me without me knowing! Last song of the set was L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N which was a perfect way to finish, ensuring mass sing along and everyone was happy.
Having satisfied everyone, the encore was the indulgent wig out of The First Days of Spring, but I had already Lifegoeson lodged in my brain for the drive home and sleep. A cracking nights entertainment and well worth the entrance fee.
The first of 2 long bank holiday weekends and by Easter Sunday I am suitably chilled and up to see Beady Eye, or diet oasis (without Noel). Arriving in Wolverhampton not having managed to do my homework with the album, I wondered what Liam Gallagher would have in store, wandering towards the gig you could tell it was going to be a big one as the streets were filled with a beered up mod army, with amounts of hair on show that made me feel folically challenged for a change rather than simply old.
Getting into the gig I was very chuffed to find that I had booked a balcony seat, front and centre to see the gig, and even better the bar upstairs was one deep in queue and the bar maid asked me over the chap in fronts shoulder before I even had chance to get ready for a pint of Fosters. After 4 months enforced abstinence the beer was suitably lovely.
Settled in for the support, Steve Craddock from Ocean Colour Scene, he was ok, nowt to write home about until he got enthused about the last song which was a pretty good tune. What he didn't explain was the 10 years old kid sat next to the keyboard player not playing the sleigh bells in time, I sat their all Dad wondering if he had ear protectors on.
The build up to Beady Eye was very well done, a building of mod anthems, the Jam's that's entertainment, Sex Pistols God Save the Queen, and finally the Stone Roses I am the resurrection which whipped up the crowd into a frenzy, beery chants of Liam, Liam broke out, a huge intro tune followed by Liam and band walking on. At that point the crowd erupted in beer, loads of beer flew, and what made it more of a spectacle was that Wolves Civic Hall were serving beer in 3 pint pots.
The first 3 songs were very tight, banging songs, with Liam doing exactly what the crowd wanted and expected, having perfect attitude whilst standing immaculately in a Parker looking cool as fuck. Gem and Andy Bell flanked Liam looking quite assured and the tunes really bashed out of the speakers, and you could see this was going to be a first class gig.
A highlight Was the song Bring the Light with it's driving chorus of 'baby come on' and the piano being thumped out like it's supporting Little Richard or Jerry Lee Lewis. The piece de resistance was the backing film for it was impressive with 3 dancers looking like the 3 degrees bouncing round, cracking.
As the gig rolled on, it flew by, each song crafted either to sound like an Oasis song, or a song stolen from a classic band, Beatles, Stones, Who etc. But it really worked, and the band knew it, Liam seemed suitably impressed with the crowd, saying something that was met with cheers before the encore and then at the end, but for the final song he did climb down into the audience before leaving stage right, pretty cool.
All in all, a quality gig, with a really Hugh atmosphere. I only remember the Garbage gig there coming close ever (being their second gig in the uk when arriving for their debut album tour which was electric). Seeing Liam up close like this, without a football fields worth of people like Knebworth or V festival was great. Who cares this was Oasis light, I am quite a big fan of diet coke.
