Jun 04

The Destroyers + Urban Voodoo Machine @ The Crossing, Birmingham, UK – 4 June 2010

The Destroyers So it's the "The Summer Gypsy Ball" and first on Urban Voodoo Machine... They lived up to their "bourbon soaked gypsy blues bop 'n' stroll" moniker during their performance initially but really came alive during the on stage antics later on in the performance. Most notable was a dynamic double drumming display by the green bearded Booshesque lead drummer and his sidekick. Other delights of their ensemble included the intermittent appearance of a sort of 1920s ‘gong girl’ dressed in a minuscule eastern inspired costume along with Valentinoesque headdress. Her image reminiscent of an old black and white movie still.


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Jun 01

Villagers + John Fell @ The Glee Club, Birmingham, 1 June 2010

Villagers Whilst the name may conjure up an image of a huge band of angry country folk waving pitchforks and burning huge phallic symbols made of straw Villagers is, essentially, just one bloke, Conor J. O’Brien. Attracting gushing reviews for his/their debut album, earning comparisons with such greats as Laughing Lenny Cohen, Elliot Smith and king of the cabin blues Bon Iver, he’s got himself well and truly stuck on the tastemakers ‘ones to watch’ lists. First up tonight though someone who’s in a band that’s well and truly on my own personal ‘ones to watch’ list (smooth link eh...I should be on local news), it’s John Fell from Goodnight Lenin.


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May 16

Bellowhead + Jackie Oates @ Town Hall, Birmingham, UK – 16 May 2010

Bellowhead Having previously thought of 'Folk' as being synonymous with quant country fairs, even in its most modern reinvention a genre that lends itself to being played in a natural setting (such as our very own Moseley folk festival). I was surprised and pleased to learn that a whole weekend devoted to folk, was being held at Birmingham's Town Hall. 'English Originals' a 'mini' folk festival, over a weekend in May featured the likes of folk greats Scott Mathews, Beth Orton and new to the scene Graham Coxon. I went for the Sunday helping, with performances from Jackie Oates and the band they call Bellowhead.


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May 15

The Graham Coxon Power Acoustic Ensemble @ Town Hall, Birmingham, UK – 15 May 2010

The Graham Coxon Power Acoustic Ensemble Old Albarn may be the most famous Blur-ite but GC’s been putting out all kinds of good shit over the last decade or so, culminating in 2009’s 'The Spinning Top' – an ambitious concept album that tells one man’s story from birth to death (actually, as Graham pointed out tonight it doesn’t... not really... he just said that in an interview and now it’s all people talk about... and I’ve just gone and compounded this misconception... balls).


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May 14

Grace and Danger: The Songs of John Martyn @ Town Hall, Birmingham, UK – 14 May 2010

Grace and Danger: The Songs of John Martyn Part of the English Originals Weekend tonight saw a veritable cornucopia (yep, I’ve been reading the dictionary again) of artists pay their own tribute to a man who, in my humble opinion, is hugely underappreciated. Of course John did himself no real favours during his 40 odd year career... what with all the drink and drugs... and more drink... and... oh go on... just a few more drugs. Having his leg lopped off in 2006 probably didn’t help matters either, but the overwhelming feeling that you got after he passed away last year was that John well and truly lived life to the full. Inevitably if you’re going to do that you can expect massive highs and crashing lows and listening to John’s songs it’s clear that’s just what he got. Anger, love, hate, bitterness, regret, joy... he covered pretty much every emotion under the sun and tonight’s gig gave us a chance to see how others manage to interpret what are, often, intensely personal songs.


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Apr 19

Boy George @ The Town Hall, Birmingham, UK – 19 April 2010

Boy George It’s hard to appreciate just what a big deal Boy George was back in the early 80’s. First of all the ‘is he a she debate?’ was, I recall, something of a national obsession, helping to catapult Culture Club into the big time all over the world. Then the drugs took hold and George was all over the papers again, this time literally fighting for life (at one point he was even outed by his own brother who claimed George had just days to live...looking at footage of the time he had a point). In recent years it’s been all about his battles with the law, culminating with what he tonight called his ‘holiday’ at her majesty’s pleasure last year. The fact that he’s arguably better known for all this other stuff right now than he is for his music is a real shame. Strip away the fuck ups (and boy, George has made his fair share) and there’s a lusciously rich vein of classic pop and dance anthems to get stuck into. Tonight, happily, George decided to do just that, covering all bases from early Culture Club through to his early solo stuff on to Jesus Loves You and right up to date with current single ‘Amazing Grace’.


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Apr 18

Robyn Hitchcock + Mike Heron and Georgia Seddon @ The O2 Academy 2, Birmingham, UK – 18 April 2010

Robyn Hitchcock In a world that (quite rightly) holds the psychedelic ramblings of Syd Barrett in such high esteem why the chuff isn’t Robyn Hitchcock much better known and respected? It’s a mystery to me, just like some of his lyrics in fact, but as I’m discovering, that’s part of the charm of a man who has, for over 30 years, seemingly ploughed his own sweet furrow through the musical landscape.


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Apr 15

LaBrassBanda + Fistful of Dynamite + Gurdan Thomas @ The Hare and Hounds, Birmingham, UK – 15 April 2010

LaBrassBanda Whilst the rest of the nation is witnessing the first historical (or should that be hysterical?) debate between our three ‘glorious’ ‘political’ ‘leaders’ the Hare & Hounds is playing host to a different (and much more enjoyable) brand of insanity in the form of Bavaria’s number one brass/dance/euro pop/mariachi band. Okay, admittedly there aren’t that many Bavarian brass/dance/euro pop/mariachi bands, but even if there were I think you’d have to go some to beat the sheer joyful exuberance of LaBrassBanda.


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Mar 21

Frank Turner + Chuck Ragan + Crazy Arm @ The O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 21st March 2010

Frank Turner It’s been a couple of months now since I last spent an evening enjoying the company of Mr Frank Turner and it’s fair to say he’s obviously gone up in the world since his autumn 2009 tour. Back in 2009 I went to see him in Wolverhampton with a couple of songs in my head and a budding interest in the self proclaimed ‘Skinny, half-arsed English country singer’ and his unique brand of folk/punk. Since that show, I’ve become a bona-fide Frank Turner fan, and Sunday’s gig in the more prominent venue of Birmingham’s O2 Academy 1, was absolutely phenomenal!


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Feb 22

First Aid Kit + Goodnight Lenin + Jodie and the Jet Plane @ The Rainbow, Birmingham, UK – 22 February 2010

First Aid Kit Plane Isn’t it Summer yet? You know I really don’t mind a bit of Winter...log fires, hot toddys, newsreaders wetting themselves with excitement at all the chaos that a list dusting of snow seems to cause...but this one seems to be going on foreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeever. Enough I say. I’m taking a leaf out of that nice Mr Billy Bragg’s book and holding back my taxes until the Government puts a cap on minimum temperatures (not that I really pay taxes at the moment...being only semi-employed and all that). Perhaps our lovely PM, ‘Basher’ Brown, could bully the weather into getting warmer in between giving that Cameron fellow a well deserved ‘wedgie’?


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Jan 21

The Imagined Village + Chris Wood @ Town Hall, Birmingham, UK – 21 January 2010

The Invisible Village Crossing genres, cultures and generations The Imagined Village really shouldn’t work (the basic idea is to take a bunch of traditional folk tunes and reinterpret them for 21st century Britain). In fact it should come across as some awful mish mash of sounds, like two competing car radios (one playing Radio 4, the other 1 Extra) at a set of traffic lights. The fact that it does work says a great deal about the musical talents at the core of this project and the openness of everyone involved to really mess around with what ‘folk’ music means these days. In truth, although the first Imagined Village album (released in 2007) won ‘folk’ awards, this stuff is closer to ‘world’ music than anything else, given the strong Asian and Middle Eastern flavours running through some of the arrangements. Anyway, that’s the musical analysis over with (there’ll be questions at the end).


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Dec 11

Scott Matthews + Jo Hamilton + James Summerfield @ Town Hall, Birmingham – 11 December 2009

Scott Matthews Do you ever wonder why some experiences stay with you for a long time yet others are forgotten the very moment they end? Well I’m still pondering that very question since attending Town Hall, Birmingham to see Scott Matthews play on Sunday night. For me I’d been looking forward to the gig for a while, and yet with some quite high expectations I was niggled; niggled that the live performance might not live up to his two recorded albums ‘Passing Stranger’ and this year’s release ‘Elsewhere’. Or that his live persona would be haunted by comparisons to the likes of Nick Drake and Jeff Buckley.


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Oct 26

The Twilight Sad + Mutineers + Goodnight Lenin @ The Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, UK – 26 October 2009

The Twilight Sad Are you sitting comfortably? Right, then I’ll begin. Once upon a time in a magical kingdom far, far away (oh alright then, it was Birmingham) there was a rather fine band called The Allies. They had more than a touch of the Arctic Monkey’s about them (no bad thing), but one or two tracks hinted at a more unusual Celtic flavoured direction. For some reason they split up (‘musical differences’ no doubt). Now several of them (there seemed to be about 97 people in The Allies) have returned as part of a brand new five piece, Goodnight Lenin.


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Oct 19

Frank Turner @ Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton UK – 19 October 2009

Frank Turner A large crowd of sweaty, friendly, enthusiastic fans were there to greet him and his 2 supports of the night. The first, a comedy-musician going by the name of ‘Beans on Toast’ warmed the crowd up nicely with a fantastic blend of gritty, down to earth comedy and some truly melodic songs, a lot of which echoed the semi-anarchic folk-punk we were all waiting to hear from Frank.


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