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 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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Apr 20

Reef @ O2 Academy, Birmingham, UK – 20th April 2010

Reef Ladies up and down the country clamour to obtain the miracle anti aging cream that Gary Stringer and the boys from Reef have evidently using during their self imposed hiatus from the music scene for the past 7 years... A spokesman for the band refused to comment on the boys lack of aging, although reports are now in that they have been adopting some vehicular method of cheating the space/time continuum. Evidently this vehicle must have been a 3 seater, as the aging process has been a little less kind to the Bass player Jack Bessant.


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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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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

Interview with The Joy Formidable, Birmingham, UK – 20 March 2010

Interview with The Joy Formidable Entering the reasonably salubrious surroundings of the Academy 3 dressing rooms we’re met by two thirds of The Joy Formidable. Lead singer Ritzy’s curled up demolishing a pot of hummus and packet of pitta bread and co-vocalist and guitarist Rhydian’s sipping a beer.  Drummer Matt joins us, wrapping bits of tape around what’s left of his fingers and we’re all set for a delightfully ramshackle interview (you can blame me for that...I’m no Alan Carr...I might look a little like him and I’m as camp as tits but that’s as far the comparison stretches). We start off by randomly discussing such pressing matters as floating poo, Rhyl, flatmates and Walsall before I remembered what we were there for and actually got my scrappy list of questions out.


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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 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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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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