Hard Fi - Guildhall, Portsmouth - 19th November 2024

Back in the early 2000s, I'd really liked Hard Fi's upbeat, staccato guitar driven music, but I never got around to seeing them live. They seemed to have dropped out of sight for a long while, so when I saw they were playing at Portsmouth Guildhall, I bought a ticket.

The journey down the A3 was easy enough and I parked in the nearby station car park, making my way into the venue in plenty of time to see the support act.

This was a 4 piece group, led by a blonde woman, called Extra Joy.

Sometimes support acts are horribly misjudged for an audience, but they were an excellent choice for Hard Fi, delivering an energetic indy-rock set that attracted more people as they played.

As is often the case for support acts, the sound balance wasn't great with the instruments drowning out the vocals, but generally they were pretty good and got everyone in a positive mood on a freezing cold Tuesday night.

One of the best support acts I've seen in recent times.

There was a relatively short break until Hard Fi themselves came on stage at 9PM.

By then, the hall was pretty much full, although as I was right at the front, I can't be 100% sure it was completely so and there were seats taking up a reasonable part of the rear of the hall.

Around me, there were plenty of the 'faithful'. I didn't intend to stay at the front (right against the barrier) for the whole set, but in the end I did, so I can't comment on how the sound balance was around the venue.

Most of the set was crowd pleasing old stuff that the mostly 40 somethings (and the few older and younger people) lapped up.

They started with 'Middle Eastern Holiday' and 'Gotta Reason' before moving through a few lesser known, but still familiar tracks from their first 3 albums.

The tour supported the recent release of a 4 track EP and they, probably wisely, played those one after the other, in the middle of the set.

On the positive side, they held up well amongst the favourites, having the familiar hard driving guitar sound of the liveliest of Hard Fi favourites and 'Don't Go Making Plans' didn't sound a million miles away from the sound of tracks on Duran Duran's 2023 Danse Macabre album (which I say in a complimentary way).

After that, the main set rounded out with old favourites, 'Cash Machine', 'Suburban Knights' and 'Hard To Beat', which had the crowd singing along.

The inevitable encore started with front man, Richard Archer, alone on a guitar delivering 'Move on Now', one of their slower hits, but still a great track.

The rest of the band rejoined him for a lively final trio of old favourites, 'Unneccesary Trouble', 'Stars of CC TV' and 'Living for the Weekend'.

It was refreshing to see a band with the original lineup all present and the distinctive sound of Hard Fi is made up of all the group, which probably explains why they sounded so good all these years on.

The set was surprisingly short, only about 1h 20min, which I'm sure left a few people wondering where favourites like 'Feltham is singing out' were, but overall it was a highly enjoyable performance.

Of course, it was a cold Tuesday night, but Hard Fi had everyone feeling as if it was the weekend and I'm sure most people, like me, left feeling Hard Fi are great live.

One of my favourite gigs of 2024!

Setlist:
Middle Eastern Holiday
Gotta Reason
Stay Alive
Tied Up Too Tight
Good for Nothing
Better Do Better
Always and Forever
Don't Need You
Don’t Go Making Plans
Cash Machine
Suburban Knights
Hard to Beat
Encore:
Move on Now
Unnecessary Trouble
Stars of CCTV
Living for the Weekend

Rhoda Dakar - The Boileroom, Guildford - 25th October 2024

At the height of the Two-Tone Ska craze, I had gone to see The Selecter, along with the Bodysnatchers (and, oddly, Holly and the Italians, who were definitely not ska) and had come away much impressed with the fun and energy of the all female Bodysnatchters

Sadly, they were a very short lived band, never recording an album, but many of them went onto form the Belle Stars, who did have some success.

Rhoda Dakar, their lead singer, though, sang with the Specials and then had a solo career.

A few years ago, I'd seen her do an appearance at Banquet Records and liked her manner, so decided to see her live with a band if the chance arose.

It finally did, as a practical proposition, this year and so I went along to the Boileroom to see her and her band perform tracks from The Bodysnatchers and her more recent 'Version Girl' album.

There were two support acts, the first, Skye, was a young woman who sang R&B over backing tracks. Not really my thing, but she wasn't awful.

The second act, a 4 piece led by a woman called Cora, were definitely not my usual style, but I really enjoyed them.

Performing jazz, the singer had an excellent voice and the 3 musicians with her seemed pretty good as well - I thought their set was worth going to hear alone.

They, though, had come on around 8:30, so I knew I'd be waiting a while for Rhoda.

As expected, she didn't come on until around 9:40, which, if I'm honest, felt a bit late.

The venue was pretty full by then, though as I was at the front, I couldn't see just how full it was.

The band consisted of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, keyboard player and a saxophonist.

Rhoda appeared, looking trim, in a black and white dress (very Two-Tone) which she commented she hadn't worn in 12 years and so was a little tight (it looked fine to me)and also apologised if she didn't hit all the high notes as she had a cold.

The setlist was a mix of old and newer tracks, from the Bodysnatchers era (The tour accompanied a new release of her 'sings the Bodysnatchers' album, which is as close to a Bodysnatchers' album as exists, unless you count the Peel Session recordings) and her more recent 'Version Girl' album which features covers of non-Ska records in a ska style (a very good album it is too).

The setlist began with a track called Mule Jerk, which I didn't recognise, and then 'Walking After Midnight', 'Easy Life' and 'Ghost of the Vox Continental' (the latter a particular favourite of mine) from the Bodysnatchers era.

As the set progressed, she chatted easily (as she had at Banquet Records) and the songs progressed into some from the Version Girl album, notably 'Every Day is Like Sunday', 'Peace, Love and Understanding' and 'Man Who Sold the World', while Bodysnatchers songs 'Private Eye', 'Ruder Than You' and the encore finale, 'Rocksteady' also featured (full setlist at the end).

Rhoda sounded good to me and the band were both energetic and skillfull and the set buzzed along well, with the audience joining in as things went.

The saxophonist, especially, was very good, although the band all played well and definitely captured the Two-Tone sound well.

For a moment, I was (almost) back at a Bournemouth nightclub in 1980!

I left happily humming the songs in my head, which is what you want from a nostalgic gig - I'd enjoyed myself.

Setlist:

Bastille - Pryzm, Kingston - 20th October 2024

I'd seen Bastille live before and been a bit disappointed, but when the chance to see them launch the '&' album at Pryzm, courtesy of Banquet Records, I decided the opportunity was too good as I like their recorded material.

They had put on two sessions at Pryzm and I'd booked for the later one, which stated a door time of 7PM.

I arrived in time, but I could see people queuing, so I did what I often do at Pryzm, popped into the Wetherspoons across the road and waited for the queue to start moving while I enjoyed a well priced, quality half.

7 came and went and there was no sign of the queue moving, but when I finished my beer, I headed over and joined a very long queue, extending past a row of reclining phone boxes, at around 7:30.

Luckily, the queue moved pretty quickly when it did and it probably took less than 15 minutes to get in.

I made my way down to the floor, but this was probably a poor decision on the day.

Two large screens displayed a new 'stage time' of 8:15 around 8:05 and the band appeared, led by a small string section and then Dan Smith and Charlie Barnes, who I recognised from the time I'd seen them live before, plus a woman on a guitar who was introduced, but whose name I've forgotten.

The '&' album is a bit of a side project for Dan (who is really Bastille), with some of the musicians on stage and is a collection of songs about people from history (real and literary - Leonard Cohen, Oscar Wilde and Adam and Eve, amongst them) who he finds interesting.

With a mostly acoustic lineup (there was an electronic keyboard and some electric guitars), the sound of the songs was both familiar and different to those I'd heard live and on albums before.

Not having heard any of the songs before (the gig comes with a CD or vinyl album for a very reasonable price, but the album isn't released until 25th and I'd not sought out any of the tracks online), I can't say how the live renditions match up to the recordings, but Dan told us that the album has a very raw sound, with scratches, breathing and the sound of chairs moving on it, so I'll expect something different.

Dan's slightly spoken vocal style was present on many of the songs, although in one (The Dutchess and the Drawbridge) he sang incredibly high and I was impressed at how he sustained the notes at that level.

As a nice bonus, we got a slow-ish rendition of classic hit, Pompeii, probably their best known track, which the audience appreciated.

I was impressed that the set ran a full hour, albeit with a fair bit of chatting between songs, as previous gigs have topped out at 45 minutes, which probably explained the late start for our session.

I enjoyed the gig and, although the songs didn't strike me as immediately memorable as tracks from earlier albums, I suspect some will be 'growers'.

Edit: Writing almost a week later, 'Eve & Paradise Lost' and 'Emily & Her Penthouse in the Sky' stick in my mind.

I look forward, to hearing the album versions to see how closely they relate to what I heard live.

One negative, though, was that most of the set was performed sitting down and I couldn't see the performers on the low stage most of the time from my place on the floor. Luckily the two screens provided a view throughout, so I didn't just get a view of other punters.

Setlist:
Intros & Narrators
Seasons & Narcissus
Eve & Paradise Lost
Drawbridge & The Baroness
Leonard & Marianne
Pompeii
Telegraph Road 1977 & 2024
Red Wine & Wilde
Emily & Her Penthouse in the Sky
Blue Sky & the Painter

My Life Story - Boileroom, Guildford - 11th October 2024

I must admit, I'd never heard of My Life Story until I saw they were playing at the Boileroom

As I often do, I watched a few YouTube videos and, in this case, liked what I heard and it had been a while since I'd been to a live music event, so I bought a ticket.

It turned out that they were a contemporary of the Britpop era bands, but not 'premier league', barely troubling the UK Top 30, despite Jake at one point mentioning "the time we started having hit records" in a between songs anecdote.

So, there I was on a Friday evening, a little tired after a day's scuba diving, back at the Boileroom, a tiny venue, which I enjoy visiting very much, often taking a punt on bands because it's close.

The support act was a threesome (apparently usually a foursome, but one was ill) called the Velveteen Orchestra.

The 3 were a male singer with a guitar and two women, one with a violin and the other a double bass.

The singer joked his way between songs and they certainly made an interesting sound (and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way).

Jolly, they weren't, but they sounded different in a good way, the sound balance was good and they were a good support act to warm the audience up and appreciated.

They hadn't come on until almost 8:30, so it was no surprise that the main act weren't on stage until well past 9:00PM.

By then, the place was pretty full and it was obvious that a lot of the audience were more familiar with the band's history than I was, although I'd done some listening to their back catalogue after buying my ticket.

Reading about the band (and from some of Jake's anecdotes between songs), it seems that they were known for their 'orchestral' music in period and, indeed, there were comments about 'taking an orchestra around Europe' on tour, but these days, the band is Jake Shillingford, the front man and a group of young musicians.

I have included a setlist at the end of this post which is from gigs in April of 2024, but if it's not 100% accurate to the Boileroom event, it's very close.

They definitely started with "Tits and Attitude" from their most recent album (unlike a lot of these older bands, they are still putting out, good, new material, rather than relying entirely on nostalgia).

It's a strong, upbeat track in stark contrast to the support act and definitely got the audience in the mood.

Next was 'Motorcade', which I vaguely recognised, followed by 'Broken', which I didn't.

The next 3 on the list ('If You Can't Live Without Me Then Why Aren't You Dead Yet?','Running Out of Hearbeats' and 'Numb Numb Numb') were definitely in the set and a mix of new and 'classic' songs. All sounded pretty good and were energetically performed.

The rest of the gig continued in the same vein, with a mix of tracks from the latest albums and older ones. I was equally familiar (or unfamiliar) with all of them and found the songs pretty good and certainly the band performed them with gusto, although I could only imagine what they'd have sounded like with an orchestra backing them.

The main set ended around 10:30 with 'NoFilter', a ballad, but the lights didn't come up and, despite Jake saying he had a sore throat, they were back to perform the same Encore as at those April gigs.

It started with just the keyboard player and Jake on stage for two songs, where Jake's voice sounded pretty good (and the keyboard, like all the band, seemed like a very competent musician).

They rounded out the set with the slightly manic 'Naked' (inspired by East German naturism, we were told!) and then finished with their best known song '12 Reasons Why I Love Her', which is a strong 'shout along' song to finish any gig on.

I came with few preconceptions, but My Life Story put on an entertaining and energetic performance and definitely left the Friday night crowd happy.

I may never have heard of them in their heyday, but that's probably my loss as they still put on a great show - If you get the chance, they're worth seeing!

Setlist:

Tits And Attitude
Motorcade
Broken
If You Can't Live Without Me Then Why Aren't You Dead Yet?
Running Out of Heartbeats
Numb Numb Numb
Taking on the World
Walk/Don't Walk
It's a Girl Thing
Strumpet
Sparkle
#NoFilter

Encore:
Bubblewrap (stripped back, piano only)
You Can't Uneat the Apple (stripped back, piano only)
Naked
12 Reasons Why I Love Her

R.E.M. by Stipe - Harlington Centre, Fleet - 11th May 2024

I would never claim to be a big R.E.M. fan, indeed at one time I disliked them, but over the years I came to appreciate and even enjoy them, tastes change, and when I saw Stipe, a well regarded tribute act to R.E.M., were coming to my closest venue, I quickly snapped up a ticket.

The Harlington Centre is in my hometown, so it was a 5 minute drive into town and a 5 minute walk from some free parking to the venue.

I arrived about 8:10, with an expected on stage time of 8:30, having watched the much delayed Spa 6 Hour race coverage first.

I grabbed a decent pint of beer at an affordable price (no exploitative O2 venue prices here!) and made my way to the, bizarrely picket fenced-in, standing area.

Most of the hall (I'm here most often to donate blood!) was set out as seats around tables, I guess reflecting the age of most of the audience, but a few of us are still mobile and energetic enough to stand for a couple of hours.

At 8:30, the band appeared, followed by a shaven headed man, looking not unlike Michael Stipe in latter years.

I must admit that most of the early tracks were not ones I was familiar with, but musically and vocally they did sound very like R.E.M.

The first song that I recognised was actually the 6th, "Reno" and the majority of the first set were tracks I was unfamiliar with. I do have a couple of compilation albums by R.E.M, but none of the early tracks I remembered (like "Radio Free Europe" and "Rockville") were there (with the exception of "So. Central Rain"), so I guess the set featured some lesser known tracks (looking at old setlists, they do seem to mix up the tracks they play a lot, which must be good for regular fans).

After about an hour (and 11 songs) the band took at 30 minute or so break.

When they returned, it was to a set of song I definitely did know, starting with "Orange Crush", "Cuyahogo" and "The One I Love".

These were easier to compare to the originals and, I'd say that, they do a very good job of sounding like R.E.M.

The set rounded out with more hits and ended on "Man On The Moon", by which time the audience were warmed up enough to loudly call for more.

Of course, they returned for 3 more hits, ending on the ironically bouncey "End Of The World".

If I want to find fault, I'd say the balance between guitars and vocals was wrong early on in the first set, with the former drowning out the latter, but it did seem to improve and I had no problem with the second set.

And, of course, there were personal favourites missing, notably "Night Swimming", but equally they didn't play "Shiney Happy People", which is the song that caused me to once dislike R.E.M, so it was swings and roundabouts. Judging from comments by the band, they switch the playlist around a fair bit, which would make another visit to a gig more rewarding.

The band play the songs well and the singer does a very passable job of sounding right, so I'd say, if you've even a casual interest in R.E.M., Stipe are worth searching out for an evening of live R.E.M songs which you'll probably never get a chance to hear from the originals, given that they recently denied any chance of a reunion.

Setlist:

Kindly provided by the band.

Jess Glynne - Pryzm, Kingston - 26th April 2024

Back in 2018, my daughter and I had been to see Jess Glynne at the BIC in Bournemouth and greatly enjoyed the show (and it was very much a show, with a large stage, string section and big screen backdrop), but Jess had been very quiet since then.

I'm not entirely sure why, but clearly, from some of her comments at Pryzm, there had been some turmoil, personal and professional, that had kept her from the limelight.

However, I was in Kingston on a Friday evening because she had finally released her third album, the eponoymous "Jess", and was playing a couple of 'album release' mini-gigs.

I first discovered this concept just a few years ago, when I was here to see Wet Leg, but they're great, as you get an album and a short gig, for a very reasonable price (£17 in this case, including the CD version).

I arrived about 7:15PM, with a predicted stage time of 8PM, but the place was already pretty full.

I decided to go down to the floor this time (I'd watched Wet Leg from near the bar, elevated above the floor and stage) and found myself mostly surrounded by young women (Being in my 60s, I did feel quite conspicuous, although there were some people closer to my age scattered around).

A fairly large group of people, 3 backing singers, 2 brass section and other band members appeared at 8PM prompt and then Jess Glynne joined them a moment or two later.

Back in 2018, she had a very 'yoof' style, jogging bottoms and crop tops, but it was a far more sophisticated looking Ms Glynne who took to the stage in a tailored red trouser suit. Frankly, she looked great.

My CD hadn't arrived before the gig, so I didn't actually know any of the songs I would hear on the night.

We had a very short track first, called Intro, which made me wonder if the setlist would be made up of abbreviated versions of songs, but it is short on the album, too.

This was followed by a couple of great tracks, I thought, "Silly Me" and "Friend of Mine", Jess' voice sounding soulful and good and ably backed up by the 3 excellent backing vocalists (Two women and a man).

Other tracks from the album followed, "Save Your Tears", "Enough", "Do You Know About Love?", "Lying" ("We all lie to ourselves sometimes", Jess said as way of introduction to this song), "Promise Me", the final track on the album, which she said was the first she wrote and where she originally imagined the album would open, but the sentiment of "Promising Love" was a great one to end the album on.

Unlike Jess, I suspect most people never listen to an album start to finish and so the flow of the songs is lost to them - For a young woman, she has a refreshingly old school take on albums and influences (recommending the audience to listen to Joni Mitchell for songs with a story) and finishing on "Easy".

The band were great, the backing singers excellent and Jess was in fine voice.

You're not going to get 'all the hits' at an album release gig, that's not the deal, but in contrast to 2018's extravaganza, this felt like an intimate, club gig (there were still quite a lot of people there!), which suited both Jess' style and the songs from the new album.

As I write this, I've been listening to the album which arrived in the post the morning after the gig and the songs sound good there, too.

Great to see and hear you back, Jess!

Setlist:
Intro (Jess)
Silly Me
Friend of Mine
Save Your Tears
Enough
Do You Know About Love?
Lying
Promise Me
Easy

Echo and the Bunnymen - O2 Academy, Bournemouth - 5th March 2024

I'd wanted to see Echo and the Bunnymen for some time, so when I saw they were playing the small O2 Academy venue in Bournemouth, I booked a ticket.

As it turned out, I was spending the night a few miles away, so it was a pleasantly short trip to the venue and back, although the £4 parking fee took me aback a little (and paled next to the £7+ for a pint of overly cold IPA at the venue!).

I arrived in plenty of time to catch the support act, a severe looking blonde woman by the name of Erica Nockalls.

She seemed a very pleasant person as she interacted with the audience between songs, but I'd have to say I found her 'experimental' music not to my taste and I wandered off to buy the aforementioned expensive pint a couple of songs in.

I could still see and hear her set, along with the guitarist/vocalist she performed with (who seemed to spend most of the time torturing his instrument), but I won't be making a trip to see her again, perhaps you'd enjoy it more.

After the usual on-stage sheenanigans, the band we'd come to see finally appeared about 9:10 (a few of the audience were getting impatient by then, but it's rock and roll, isn't it?).

While I was keen to see Echo and the Bunnymen, I certainly wouldn't call myself a diehard fan, only having their greatest hits album in my collection.

As the tour was dubbed the 'Songs to Learn and Sing' tour, though, I expected to recognise a lot of them, but having seen the setlist from Bristol, I didn't recognise all of the titles.

They started with one I didn't "Going Up", but the next one "All That Jazz" was an old favourite.

Oddly, I thought, they performed in two sets, with a 20 minute or so break in the middle, which I've rarely experienced and did leave most people just standing around, in fear of leaving a good spot, for a while.

"Rescue", "Never Stop" and "Bring on the Dancing Horses" featured in the first set along with a new song "Brussels is Haunted" (it was OK) and some others I didn't know, but others around me were singing along to, so were clearly known to them.

Between songs "Mac" chatted with the crowd. Sometimes he was a bit mumbled (he's a Liverpuddlian and joked about 'enunciating more clearly' at one point), but seemed in a fairly good humour.

The lead guitarist was a similar age and did a lot of the musical heavy lifting and a quick Goggle confirms he is an original band member, Will Sargent. The others on stage were all far too young to have been, but the overall sound on the songs I recognised was as true to the records as you'd expect a live performance to be, while retaining the energy that you want, so they all did a good job.

I'd heard criticism of Ian McCulloch's voice, but I don't think you'd ever call him a 'singer' and the distinctive sound of his voice was still there and still clear, so I have no complaints on that score either.

The lighting was a bit strange, plenty from behind the band, but very rarely were they actually lit from the front and only for a split second here and there. I've only ever really seen this at the tiny Boiler Room, where the spots tend to blind and roast the acts!

After the mid-set hiatus, they came back with another song I didn't know, but then debuted "Over The Wall" on this tour. "Seven Seas", one of their best known tracks followed, and most people seemed to know the words to "Nothing Lasts Forever", although it was a new one for me.

"Unstoppable Force" wasn't a song I knew either, but they rounded out with "Bedbugs and Ballyhoo", "The Killing Moon" and "The Cutter", the latter two their iconic songs.

After a fair wait, they did come back for an encore, an extended version of another old favourite, "Lips Like Sugar".

Overall, the sound quality was pretty good, the vocals were nicely balanced to the instruments, meaning you could hear both the tune and the words, something not everyone gets right and I've had reason to complain about at this venue before.

Perhaps, if I'd been a bigger fan, I'd have known more of the songs, but the ones I did recognise sounded pretty good.

I am glad I went and I enjoyed the gig, but, unlike many others there, I think once will probably be enough for me.

Setlist:
Set 1:
Going Up
All That Jazz
Flowers
Rescue
Brussels Is Haunted
All My Colours (Zimbo)
Never StopPlay Video
Bring On the Dancing Horses

Set 2:
Show of Strength
Over the Wall (Tour debut)
Seven Seas
Nothing Lasts Forever / Walk on the Wild Side
Unstoppable Force
Bedbugs and Ballyhoo
The Killing Moon
The Cutter
Encore:
Lips Like Sugar