Jul 19

Nas & Damian Marley @ The 02 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 19th July 2010

Nas & Damian Marley The front of the o2 Academy has a different feeling outside it than usual, 3 metal detectors, snarling steroid injected dogs being held back by fat coppers, 4 x more security than normal and an extremely chilled mixed crowed queuing to get in to see Nas & Damien Marley. This is the first time since the smoking ban has been put into place, that I have walked into a venue to see a slight fog. The opening song "As We Enter" has Nas spitting "I got the guns" Mr Marley... "and I got the ganja”... which it then appeared, so did half the audience, as the weed was burning well tonight.


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Jul 13

Converge + Kylesa + Gaza @ The O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 13th July 2010

Converge Converge, just never seemed to touch Brum, every single time they’ve come to the UK. More the pity, as they’re arguably the one band from amongst their peers who have managed to successfully traverse the years since that first boom period almost a decade ago with their integrity and identity relatively intact. Until today, so for those who’ve been waiting for Converge since ‘Jane Doe’ or before, this gig really had a real air of anticipation attached to it. It also boasted a carefully picked undercard in the form of Kylesa and Gaza.


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Jul 05

The Black Keys + The Features @ The O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 5th July 2010

The Black Keys I love this time of year. Hot sunny days, long warm nights, shorts and BBQs… And if you’re a music lover or Gig Junkie it means music festivals going off up and down the country every weekend. Of course there’s the biggie, the one every band wants to play – Glastonbury. By far the greatest asset of Glastonbury is it’s sheer power in bringing some of the worlds greatest bands to these shores. And whilst here why not turn one festival appearance into a mini tour and play a small handful of gigs in the few minutes you have spare. Taking this into account means that London, Bristol, Manchester and Birmingham get the chance to see alternative Blues / Rock duo ‘The Black Keys’ before embarking on a full US tour.


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Jun 16

Keane + The Helio Sequence @ O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 16th June 2010

Keane It was much of a surprise when I turned up at the venue to find a crowd of all walks of life and more surprisingly ages at this gig. This band obviously attract the masses so it seems. From the moment the doors opened, the crowds got bigger and bigger... Keane evidently have evolved over the years into a band who have an affinity with everyone. Their radio friendly tunes appealing to all has definatly proved successful for them this evening as I can only assume that ticket sales have been rewarding for them tonight...


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May 22

Fuzzbox + [dweeb] @ The O2 Academy2, Birmingham, UK – 22 May 2010

Fuzzbox From scuzzy punk schoolgirls to glossy pop vixens, Fuzzbox crammed a fair amount in to their brief career (just three years from first album ‘Bostin Steve Austin’ to their demise not long after scoring a string of top 30 hits with follow up ‘Big Bang’). In fact I’m struggling to think of many other bands who went through such a rapid change of sound and vision – which might partially explain their disintegration at the height of their powers. I’ve no doubt that, had they carried on, they’d have settled into their own distinctive style and it’s one of pop’s great tragedies (if you can have such a thing) that they didn’t. But dry your tears pop kids. Put down that tatty copy of Smash Hits and bin that scratched to buggery Big Bang CD ‘cos they’re back, back, BACK!


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May 16

Dinosaur J. + Built To Spill, O2 Academy1, Birmingham, UK – 16 May 2010

Dinosaur Jr There seems to be a bit of an indie revival going on at the moment. What with Slint marking the release of their landmark album 'Spiderland' last year by playing it live, and with Pavement currently hitting the road, now it's the turn of Built To Spill, who sound eerily like Stephen Malkmus and co, although a three guitar line up gives them a lush edge to their jangly antics, with their Hendrix-esque freakout moments. Frontman Doug Martsch is a low key but steady presence at the microphone, but then the crowd weren't here for flashy.


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May 09

Hole + Little Fish + Tiffany Page @ O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 9th May 2010

Hole I don’t think I’ve ever been excited about a gig as I have tonight. I’ve idolised Courtney Love since around the age of 15, and now at 27 years old and 6 and a half months pregnant, actually getting to see them play live was just one of those events that I’d resigned myself to believing I’d missed out on forever.


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Apr 12

AFI + Sick Of It All + The Dear & Departed @ O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 12th April 2010

AFI Bit of a contrast tonight at the Academy in Brum. In the main room, a mixture of punk, rock and hardcore, in the form of AFI, SOIA and The Dear and Departed, and in the Academy 3, Joshua Radin? I hope they have good soundproofing as I have a feeling Joshua won’t be loud enough to sing over tonight’s line up in the main room!


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Mar 26

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip + B. Dolan + Sound of Rum @ The O2 Academy 2, Birmingham, UK – 26 March 2010

Dan le Sac vs Scroobius Pip You say ‘rap’ to a lot of people and they still think of some blinged up moron banging on about how much pussy he’s had for breakfast, and I ain’t talking about no Whiskas munching ball of fur here neither. Either that or they’ll single out wannabe gangsters threatening to pop a cap in the ass of anyone who disses ‘em...other rappers, cops, their grandmother etc. Yawn. Happily of course there’s an equally rich seam of artists out there who use the genre in far more positive and creative ways and tonight was jam packed with them.


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Mar 20

The Joy Formidable + Baddies + Airship @ The O2 Academy 3, Birmingham, UK – 20 March 2010

The Joy Formidable In the week in which I discovered that Birmingham’s last remaining independent record shops (Swordfish and Tempest) are to close, tonight’s gig proved, once more, that both the live scene and new music in general is as healthy as ever. There’s something about gigs featuring new bands (by which I probably mean a band on its first album) that’s hard to beat and each one of tonight’s groups still had that mixture of excitement and freshness that, I guess, often gets knocked out of you when you’re on album number 6 and making appearances on The One Show (in between a feature on men who dress up as their favourite vegetables and a salutary warning – presented by Dom Littlewood naturally – of the dangers of sticking parts of your anatomy in food blenders).


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Mar 05

The xx + These New Puritans + Glasser @ O2 Academy 2, Birmingham, UK – 5 March 2010

The xx Somewhere across town this evening cheeky, chirpy Irish chappie Ronan Keating is getting ready to entertain a no doubt packed NIA with his tales of life being a bit like a rollercoaster. Actually I reckon (WARNING: Cheesy link ahead) life’s a bit more like tonight’s openers, who didn’t actually bother to announce who they were (I later discovered they were called Glasser).


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Feb 20

Hot Chip + Casiokids + Grovesnor @ O2 Academy 1, Birmingham, UK – 20 February 2010

Hot Chip If there’s one thing that’s guaranteed to warm the cockles (and other body parts for that matter) on a cold, cold February evening it’s some quality electro pop...and it doesn’t get much better than Hot Chip. Creators of some of the catchiest electro classics of the past few years (step forward ‘Over and Over’ and ‘Ready for the Floor’) 2010 sees them celebrate their tenth anniversary (good grief... tempus fugit) with the release of their rather fine new album ‘One Life Stand’.


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Feb 11

Shockwaves NME Awards Tour 2010 featuring The Maccabees + Bombay Bicycle Club + The Big Pink + The Drums @ O2 Academy 1, Birmingham, UK – 11 February 2010

The Maccabees Shockwaves. Yeah. Hair gel! Yeah. Rock n’roll! Corporate whoring. Whoop! Yeah! I shouldn’t mock, after all music and sponsorship go back a long way but nowadays it’s just that little bit more IN YOUR FACE! I’m only jealous, I’ve never had the kind of hair that could be teased into silly shapes, although I do now sport a ridiculous moustache that benefits from a great wodge of hair wax to keep it under control (otherwise it runs riot you know...getting drunk...drawing on toilet walls...shouting abuse at Traffic Wardens...shocking...or SHOCKWAVING...eh? Eh? EHH? See, I’m getting the hang of this corporate sponsorship thingy now. I’ll expect 12 cases of hair gel by the morning).


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Jan 28

Feeder (Renegades) + LightsGoBlue @ O2 Academy 3, Birmingham, UK – 28 January 2010

Feeder (Renegades) Is this really a sign of the times? It's early 2010 and Feeder is headlining Birmingham's O2 Academy 3, a venue with a maximum capacity of 250! Surely it wasn't that long ago when they were playing the main stages at some of the country's most prestigious festivals: Glastonbury, Download, Reading and Leeds as well as headlining their own much larger international tours. Perhaps this is a good indication of the life span of the modern music band? One minute you feature heavily on Radio 1's playlist, riding the crest of a wave, as it were. Then the next, you're scrabbling along trying to get back to those glory days when your brand new Jaguar had a CD player (player, player, player…) and you drank cider from a lemon (lemon, lemon, lemon…).


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