Mar 03

Beardyman + JFB + David Hopkinson, The HMV Institute, Birmingham, UK – 3 March 2011

Beardyman What's the world coming to? I'm in The Library Room at the HMV Institute for a gig put on by BirminghamPromoters.com. Usually, Birmingham Promoters fill their calendar with up and coming bands as well as established artists with just a small dedicated following. Something about this gig isn't making sense. Instead of the usual band associated instruments; drum kit, guitars etc... Tonight there's nothing, not a jot. Unless you count a pair of decks, notebook pro, Kaos Pad and a microphone as instruments. Oh yeah! And a bare foot judge presiding over the scene. If you're a working roadie, I'd imagine a job with Beardyman must be considered an easy gig.


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Nov 15

Kele + CocknBullKid @ The HMV Institute, Birmingham, UK – 15 November 2010

Kele Kicking off with ‘Walk Tall’. The clap along drum beat and Kele’s crystal clear vocal in no way prepares you for the sub-bass onslaught about to be delivered. It’s the type of synthesised electric bass line that makes you feel as though you’ve swallowed a rabbit at some time in your life. And Kele’s here to replace the batteries. ‘On The Lam’ delivers the second wave bass assault of the evening. Mixing up a smattering of House, Ground shaking Dub and Dirty Drum Breaks. As far as euphoric hands in the air music goes the whole set will take some beating. If Bloc Party were the subject of a technological science class, I’d imagine the results to be very similar to the direction Kele’s now taking his band and his sound.


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Nov 04

Apocalyptica + Pain Of Salvation + Awake By Design @ Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton, UK – 4 November 2010

Apocalyptica As my age progresses I find myself experimenting with different music and becoming much more open-minded. There was once a time I detested metal, there was even a time I could just about handle the sound of a real guitar. And even that was Dire Straits - Money For Nothing! But here I am many years later in the pit of a rock gig at Wulfrun Hall, and loving every second of it. Only this one has a twist. For those that know Finnish Metal Band Apocalyptica, will be aware that guitars do not feature in any of their stage shows. Instead their chosen instrument is the humble Classical Cello. Cello and Metal how can that possibly work?


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Oct 30

Betty and the Id + Dark Hearts + Voodoo Barry and the Black Tooth Grin @ Wagon and Horses, Birmingham, UK – 30 October 2010

Betty And The Id Tonight is the night when dead leaves fly, Like witches on switches across the sky. Before clocks turn back Voodoo begins, Dark Hearts releasing their soulful sins. On this ghouls night eve a well hidden Digbeth boozer plays hosts to a Wacky Weird and Wonderful night of Garage Blues, Rockabilly and Misplaced Messthetic Aesthetic (blame Betty and the Id for that description!).


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Oct 12

Crystal Castles + HEALTH + Team Ghost @ Wulfrun Hall, Wolverhampton – 11 October 2010

Crystal Castles Is it the onset of boredom settling in or is a gradual feeling of anticipation creeping over me? If it is the former then it’s a feeling that had better dissipate soon. And the latter, well that’s surely a good sign. Considering the 11pm curfew I find myself clock watching, observing minutes slowly disappearing into the depths of... Ahh, finally Crystal Castles are here.


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Jul 27

Off The Cuff Festival @ The Flapper, Birmingham, UK – 24 July 2010

Pulled Apart By Horses As a venue, The Flapper has to be one of my favourites; it's small, dark and hovers just the right side of not being a total shithole! The sound isn't usually unnecessarily loud and has just the right level of intimacy. Not a full on in your face assault, but a more feeling of warmth as you enter the dimly lit dungeon. At least these were my prior thoughts before heading into day two of this three day mini music festival, Off The Cuff.


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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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May 10

The Drums @ The Civic Hall, Wolverhampton, UK – 10 May 2010

The Drums Is too much hype a good thing? According to the NME The Drums are "New York's official coolest new band". Thankfully I had no idea of the hype or the NME statement proclaiming them to be so cool when watching them warm up the Civics crowd prior to the emergence of Florence and her ever-expanding Machine.


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May 04

The Temper Trap + Sarah Blasko @ O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 4th May 2010

The Temper Trap

Over the years there have been quite a mixed bag of bands emerging from Australia. From the great: AC/DC, INXS, Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds to the truly awful: Ermmm, this includes pretty much anything involving daytime soaps and the talents that soon emerge onto the popular music scene with voices you’d rather forget. Obviously this list excludes Kylie and maybe the other Minogue but has to include Australia’s very own version of the Hoff – Stefan Dennis and who could possibly forget Craig McLachlan?



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Mar 16

New Young Pony Club + Is Tropical + T3eth @ The O2 Academy 3, Birmingham, UK – 16 March 2010

New Young Pony Club This makes for a refreshing change, making it to the venue at a reasonable time and finding the first of the two support acts already mid set. By no means was it planned to miss any of the bands, I just find waiting around for the first act can sometimes be a rather tedious affair. Anyway enough of my tale of woe it's time to move on.


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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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Jan 12

Interview with Tim Nordwind from OK Go, Birmingham, UK – 12 January 2010

Interview with Tim Nordwind from OK Go, Birmingham, UK - 12/01/2010 This is the interview that almost didn’t happen. GigJunkies photographer Wayne Fox was having car trouble and only at the death did the garage give it a clean bill of health. I happened to be battling my way through road closures, snow and typical winter traffic on my way down from York. Worst of all though Damian Kulash – Lead Singer and Lead Guitarist was pronounced unexplainably ill upon our fortunately early arrival. Nobody seemed to know quite what was wrong with him (there was even talk he may be pregnant) – Whether Damian would be fit enough to even do the show was uncertain. Fortunately, bands do interviews as a duo. Damian may have been too ill to talk but it didn’t stop Tim Nordwind taking to the stage and battling along solo.


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Jan 12

OK Go + Malpas @ O2 Academy 2, Birmingham, UK – 12 January 2010

OK Go I’ve been really struggling to write what I hope is a decent intro for this review of OK Go. A band that could wrongly be described as an Internet phenomenon based purely on the amount of hits their videos get via YouTube. Whether or not you’ve heard of the band or can picture at least one of their records. I’d stake money on you having seen one of their videos or at least seen blatant rip offs on TV. But before we get to OK Go...


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