Yes... after ten years it's finally that time for a new Aqua single and album, and here is the former... now time to hunt down where I can buy the album from!
Saturday 24 September 2011
Thursday 22 September 2011
OMG RIP REM WTF
Posted on 04:15 by Unknown
Sorry for the lack of posts recently as I've been away practically living at work.
But I return with sad news that "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15011861" after 31 years and 15 albums, including their most recent, the excellent 'Collapse Into New'.
Though not one of my most favourite bands, their collection of singles including 'Losing My Religion', 'Bad Day', 'Everybody Hurts', 'UBerlin', 'Shiny Happy People' and lots more were excellent.
It truly is a bad day for music.
But I return with sad news that "http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-15011861" after 31 years and 15 albums, including their most recent, the excellent 'Collapse Into New'.
Though not one of my most favourite bands, their collection of singles including 'Losing My Religion', 'Bad Day', 'Everybody Hurts', 'UBerlin', 'Shiny Happy People' and lots more were excellent.
It truly is a bad day for music.
Saturday 17 September 2011
Rolling Stones at Fiftty
Posted on 15:16 by Unknown
"Mick Jagger: No plans for 50th gigs" he says, saying fans should not hold their breath.
A bit like the band themselves then...
A bit like the band themselves then...
Friday 16 September 2011
Can I Have Some Clothes? Take That!
Posted on 12:42 by Unknown
"Robbie Williams Launches His Clothing Range Farrell In London" is the latest news. So what clothes would be in it?
Slacks of the Border?
Socks DJ?
Socked up?
Rudesox?
Slacks of the Border?
Socks DJ?
Socked up?
Rudesox?
Thursday 15 September 2011
Wednesday 14 September 2011
A Racist Oops from Airport Security
Posted on 14:08 by Unknown
Racism is bad on any occasion, but it's probably best not to say it in front of, say, a famous worldwide singer.
If "Kelis upset by 'slave' insult in London" is to be believed, some frankly unbeliveable racist insults were targeted at singer Kelis.
Though I'm sure it's a rogue person, it does make you wonder about what people think they can get away with...
If "Kelis upset by 'slave' insult in London" is to be believed, some frankly unbeliveable racist insults were targeted at singer Kelis.
Though I'm sure it's a rogue person, it does make you wonder about what people think they can get away with...
Tuesday 13 September 2011
Snow Joke For Fans of Kate Bush
Posted on 14:27 by Unknown
"Kate Bush to release album dedicated to snow" reveals the BBC as summer turns to autumn.
Artists obviously take inspiration from a lot of subjects but snow is an interesting one. I suppose the album itself will come out once in a year, be a disappointment and never as exciting as you remember old ones to be.
Either that or you'll find it hangs around for too long to be fun anymore and causes you distress.
Something like that.
(Here's hoping she does a cover of 'Running Up That Hill' but renaming it 'Slipping Down That f&&&%$g hill').
Artists obviously take inspiration from a lot of subjects but snow is an interesting one. I suppose the album itself will come out once in a year, be a disappointment and never as exciting as you remember old ones to be.
Either that or you'll find it hangs around for too long to be fun anymore and causes you distress.
Something like that.
(Here's hoping she does a cover of 'Running Up That Hill' but renaming it 'Slipping Down That f&&&%$g hill').
Monday 12 September 2011
He Must Think It's Cliff-ness Come Early
Posted on 13:41 by Unknown
It's a debate that has been going on for ages as "Rock veterans win copyright fight". Following on from how books work, artists can now retain the copyright of their work for seventy years instead of fifty years.
Though it'll be bad news for those cashing in on selling cheap CDs of old songs, it's good news for the artists who'll still get support in their old age.
This copyright issue has always confused me. Surely, if you've done all that work on a song even fifty years ago you, and those who contributed to it, should get rewarded for it?
And anything to stop Crazy Frog coming out of copyright in 45 years and appearing on every CD around.
Though it'll be bad news for those cashing in on selling cheap CDs of old songs, it's good news for the artists who'll still get support in their old age.
This copyright issue has always confused me. Surely, if you've done all that work on a song even fifty years ago you, and those who contributed to it, should get rewarded for it?
And anything to stop Crazy Frog coming out of copyright in 45 years and appearing on every CD around.
Sunday 11 September 2011
REVIEW: Kaiser Chiefs – Live at Kirkstall Abbey (10th September 2011)
Posted on 02:24 by Unknown
Once more I find myself on a Saturday amongst the familiar smell of spilt drink and grass, this time over at Kirkstall Abbey to see another band to tick off my live list, the Kaiser Chiefs.
After a pleasant journey over by train from Bradford then a bus journey over to the site (helpfully on a bus with ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ labelled as the destination and a relatively long walk through the beautiful park, it was through security and into the compound, which saw the abbey to the left, the stage ahead and a variety of eating out places to the right that all proudly declared to not produce fast food, but fresh food fast. We’ll see about that later.
I decided to get into the buzz of the place pretty early on and purchased a special event t-shirt for the, I suppose, reasonable price of eighteen pounds whilst also getting my barings about the place. The large bar was at the back of the venue, the food to the right and a few other extra touches such as a stand selling cigarettes – how desperate must you be for your cravings to have to buy cigarettes at a six hour gig? – and a cash machine, though I didn’t want to venture over to see how much they’d charge for this service.
I got to the site about a quarter past six so had missed the first act. As much as I wanted to get my money’s worth for the £32.50 tickets – in fact £65 as I’d bought too but no one else could come with me – I didn’t fancy standing around in another field for six hours again, so opted to come a little later.
Stage wise it was large with good clear sound that really showed itself off when the Kaisers would come on stage. The only thing really missing were some video screens showing off the action on the stage, as I imagine people further back than me wouldn’t have been able to see much. If Bingley Music Live can afford them at £35 for the weekend, surely this gig could for £35 a day for two days?
Second support ‘Pete and the Pirates’, who I managed to hear all the set of, were very good and poppy, if not at all pirate-y, and the banter with the crowd was good, even if the lead singer was very well spoken and sounded too posh to be in a rock band.
During this set I decided to head to the bar and, like going to Wimbledon, the service was eventually quick, but the queuing to get in was long, and at £4 a pint there would be no opportunity to get drunk at this gig either. At least I could distract myself by looking at the member of bar staff who had once had those large ear-studs in but had clearly chosen to remove them, and now had massive holes in his lobes that drifted about in the breeze. Hmm.
Back to hear more from the support, my mind drifted onto Twitter to catch up with some friends, many of whom were spending their Saturday in watching either the new series of Strictly Come Dancing or Doctor Who. With the drummer from the band appearing on the dancing show, a McFly was about the only type of food the comprehensive food stalls weren’t selling, and Doctor Who was clearly inspired by the queues at the bar with the title of ‘The Girl Who Waited’. The food was also apparently not inspired by the lyrics of the Kaisers’ own ‘Time Honoured Tradition’ song, as most of it involved chips in some form or other.
Though the weather had held out last weekend, it was getting to be a little drizzly and for ten minutes poured down, punctuated hilariously by the Pirates, led by Pete, giving an impromptu version of ‘Singing In The Rain’ which the crowd started singing back. Though the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant, I wasn’t complaining. The additional water was filling up my pint at a cheaper rate than the bar could provide and, as a tight-fisted Yorkshireman, it was either suffer in the rain with a £4 pint or give in and buy a stupid looking plastic poncho for £3. I decided I’d rather be wet and tipsy than looking like an idiot.
Also, whilst writing the notes for this review, ‘adds’ and ‘beer’ require the same key presses so it must be fate. Though I was, of course, drinking cider, but we’ll gloss over that.
The rain passed quickly enough and the band came off stage, so it was a twenty minute wait for the next support ‘The Neat’. I thought about the security at the gigs and, like at the Bingley event last weekend, people had managed to get in with substances not entirely legal as the smell of weed drifted around the place.
The third support were also good on stage. More arty and casual than the poppy pirates, they had a good line of songs, even if track ‘House With No Mirrors’ consisted of the title repeated over and over again to infinity. Overall they were an enjoyable band to chill to as the sun went down and Kirkstall Abbey was plunged into darkness, especially on their song ‘Stay With Me’, a beautiful composition. They concluded on a top track as well that got the crowd going, which I shall call ‘gerdy’ in lieu of knowing the actual title, due to that word being repeated at the end at different speeds. As the planes flew over the Abbey from the local airport the band could be summed up as entertaining the crowd with their sing-along favourites.
It wasn’t long before it was almost time for the Kaisers – finally, you say, having read so far on this review and we haven’t even got to the headliners yet – but first we had to endure a comedian coming onto warm the crowd. Well, when I say endure they were actually relatively witty, batting back some heckles from the crowd, and some funny observations about the nature of the venue with people buying noodles and hats. They even, as they listed songs to expect, reacted to a sound check of ‘two’ with ‘yes, even ‘two’’. Aside from being a little sweary for my liking, they warmed up well. I recognised the voice but without the video screens it was impossible to say who it was, only knowing when he back-announced himself as Chris Moyles. Then I hit myself for laughing at some of the jokes of the annoying radio DJ. That said, though, it was a good warm-up with some genuine chuckles but I did wonder how much he was getting paid for his three-minute appearance.
And now it was time for the main act. Starting with an impressive recorded intro and light show, with smoke, lights and laser-effects, the band came on to loud applause to launch into ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’, a big favourite that got the crowd going, and setting the bench mark for a band that were very tight throughout the evening. It was the sign of a band’s skill that the tracks recreated the feel of the recorded tracks really well, down to the individual synth bits which were clear and crisp, but with the energy that only comes from a live performance.
Personal favourite ‘Never Miss A Beat’ came next and was excellent live, with ‘Little Shocks’ from their new album next. Though the couple next to me scoffed that they ‘didn’t like this one’, it was slightly speeded up live and was great, even if not as powerful as their early party singles.
‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ followed and showcased once more the delicious mix of lighting effects hitting key points in the songs perfectly, with the energy of front man Ricky Wilson, who did some great stage antics including throwing the mic and mic stand amazingly high and catching it and often running across the stage at great speed.
The best thing about the gig was how the backing vocals were recreated. It’s a bugbear of mine that live the vocals of other band members mic-ed up are never as loud so when songs have lines or repeats down by other members they’re very quiet or get lost in the mix completely; a key example being like ‘Our Velocity’ by ‘Maximo Park’ at Bingley Music Live where the secondary vocals at the end could be heard but were very quiet. Here, though, there were none of these problems with second vocals as clear as anything and really added to the songs being played.
‘Problem Solved’, a downloadable track from the new album but not actually appearing on the CD release, was next and to me was an admission that the catchy tune should have appeared on the main release. Not many in the crowd knew it but as my favourite of their new pool of tracks, I was really glad it was included.
More great tracks followed with ‘Modern Way’ and ‘Good Days, Bad Days’, with a curtain drop and some more impressive lighting effects for new single ‘Man On Mars’. Though not a great track, and a questionable inclusion for single status in my opinion, it was nicely delivered live by Nick on drums and was a pleasant change. The nicest part was how the lights lit up the old ruined abbey in shades of red and blue.
After a quieter track that the crowd weren’t so familiar with, the two-punch of ‘Ruby’ and ‘The Angry Mob’ got everyone going and driven by the usual energy expected from the band and Ricky Wilson. The extended ending of ‘The Angry Mob’ which saw the crowd clapping and chanting along to a minimal backing track and the return to full song punctuated with a massive ticker-tape explosion was a sight to see.
With more tracks following that kept the crowd going, newish track ‘Kinda Girl You Are’ was a particular highlight of the set for me as an energetic track in the style of their old material, but it was the track before of ‘I Predict A Riot’ that burst the venue into life, and was a fantastic interpretation of it.
What happened next was a surprise to the crowd. Disappearing off stage for a while, Ricky re-appeared in a window of the abbey for the next link, before continuing to scale the walls of the building to deliver old b-side ‘Take My Temperature’, in a move that must have had the health and safety people sweating.
Ricky continued back onto the stage to show off more energy, reflected in the sweat down his t-shirt, running between both sides of the stage, to inspire a Mexican wave. Then it was off stage whilst we waited for an encore. I felt sorry for the couple to my left who went at this point, not expecting them to do much of an encore.
But, they came back on to do three songs, starting with a welcome but by-numbers version of ‘Child of the Jago’ from ‘The Future Is Medieval’ but ramping it up with a rockier, more satisfying version of ‘Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)’ and a lengthened version of ‘Oh My God’ which saw a massive amount of crowd interaction as Ricky got the audience to sing the chorus in a variety of ways, challenging different areas and, as the band returned to finish off, an explosion of fireworks, which wrapped up a fantastic evening of entertainment.
Though the trip back wasn’t exactly smooth due to the buses not being able to come pick people up for another forty minutes, it was at least a good time to reflect on the evening’s entertainment.
It was the first time I’d seen the Kaisers live and they didn’t disappoint, delivering an energetic stage performance with flawless versions of their songs. In fact there was little to criticise. If I was being very harsh I would say I’d like to have heard some more tracks such as ‘Heat Dies Down’ and ‘Half The Truth’ rather than a few of the newer tracks, and maybe a set of only eighty minutes was a little on the short side, but overall the show was very entertaining, the lighting complimented the songs excellently and throw in the ticker tape, fireworks, the stage antics of Ricky, all the favourite songs and some great crowd interaction, and it was difficult to think of something better to do on a Saturday night.
Setlist:
Everyday I Love You Less and Less
Never Miss A Beat
Little Shocks
Everything Is Average Nowadays
Problem Solved
Modern Way
Good Days, Bad Days
Man On Mars
Ruby
The Angry Mob
Na Na Na Na Na
Starts With Nothing
I Predict A Riot
Kinda Girl You Are
Take My Temperature
- Encore -
Child of the Jago
Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)
Oh My God
After a pleasant journey over by train from Bradford then a bus journey over to the site (helpfully on a bus with ‘Kaiser Chiefs’ labelled as the destination and a relatively long walk through the beautiful park, it was through security and into the compound, which saw the abbey to the left, the stage ahead and a variety of eating out places to the right that all proudly declared to not produce fast food, but fresh food fast. We’ll see about that later.
I decided to get into the buzz of the place pretty early on and purchased a special event t-shirt for the, I suppose, reasonable price of eighteen pounds whilst also getting my barings about the place. The large bar was at the back of the venue, the food to the right and a few other extra touches such as a stand selling cigarettes – how desperate must you be for your cravings to have to buy cigarettes at a six hour gig? – and a cash machine, though I didn’t want to venture over to see how much they’d charge for this service.
I got to the site about a quarter past six so had missed the first act. As much as I wanted to get my money’s worth for the £32.50 tickets – in fact £65 as I’d bought too but no one else could come with me – I didn’t fancy standing around in another field for six hours again, so opted to come a little later.
Stage wise it was large with good clear sound that really showed itself off when the Kaisers would come on stage. The only thing really missing were some video screens showing off the action on the stage, as I imagine people further back than me wouldn’t have been able to see much. If Bingley Music Live can afford them at £35 for the weekend, surely this gig could for £35 a day for two days?
Second support ‘Pete and the Pirates’, who I managed to hear all the set of, were very good and poppy, if not at all pirate-y, and the banter with the crowd was good, even if the lead singer was very well spoken and sounded too posh to be in a rock band.
During this set I decided to head to the bar and, like going to Wimbledon, the service was eventually quick, but the queuing to get in was long, and at £4 a pint there would be no opportunity to get drunk at this gig either. At least I could distract myself by looking at the member of bar staff who had once had those large ear-studs in but had clearly chosen to remove them, and now had massive holes in his lobes that drifted about in the breeze. Hmm.
Back to hear more from the support, my mind drifted onto Twitter to catch up with some friends, many of whom were spending their Saturday in watching either the new series of Strictly Come Dancing or Doctor Who. With the drummer from the band appearing on the dancing show, a McFly was about the only type of food the comprehensive food stalls weren’t selling, and Doctor Who was clearly inspired by the queues at the bar with the title of ‘The Girl Who Waited’. The food was also apparently not inspired by the lyrics of the Kaisers’ own ‘Time Honoured Tradition’ song, as most of it involved chips in some form or other.
Though the weather had held out last weekend, it was getting to be a little drizzly and for ten minutes poured down, punctuated hilariously by the Pirates, led by Pete, giving an impromptu version of ‘Singing In The Rain’ which the crowd started singing back. Though the weather wasn’t particularly pleasant, I wasn’t complaining. The additional water was filling up my pint at a cheaper rate than the bar could provide and, as a tight-fisted Yorkshireman, it was either suffer in the rain with a £4 pint or give in and buy a stupid looking plastic poncho for £3. I decided I’d rather be wet and tipsy than looking like an idiot.
Also, whilst writing the notes for this review, ‘adds’ and ‘beer’ require the same key presses so it must be fate. Though I was, of course, drinking cider, but we’ll gloss over that.
The rain passed quickly enough and the band came off stage, so it was a twenty minute wait for the next support ‘The Neat’. I thought about the security at the gigs and, like at the Bingley event last weekend, people had managed to get in with substances not entirely legal as the smell of weed drifted around the place.
The third support were also good on stage. More arty and casual than the poppy pirates, they had a good line of songs, even if track ‘House With No Mirrors’ consisted of the title repeated over and over again to infinity. Overall they were an enjoyable band to chill to as the sun went down and Kirkstall Abbey was plunged into darkness, especially on their song ‘Stay With Me’, a beautiful composition. They concluded on a top track as well that got the crowd going, which I shall call ‘gerdy’ in lieu of knowing the actual title, due to that word being repeated at the end at different speeds. As the planes flew over the Abbey from the local airport the band could be summed up as entertaining the crowd with their sing-along favourites.
It wasn’t long before it was almost time for the Kaisers – finally, you say, having read so far on this review and we haven’t even got to the headliners yet – but first we had to endure a comedian coming onto warm the crowd. Well, when I say endure they were actually relatively witty, batting back some heckles from the crowd, and some funny observations about the nature of the venue with people buying noodles and hats. They even, as they listed songs to expect, reacted to a sound check of ‘two’ with ‘yes, even ‘two’’. Aside from being a little sweary for my liking, they warmed up well. I recognised the voice but without the video screens it was impossible to say who it was, only knowing when he back-announced himself as Chris Moyles. Then I hit myself for laughing at some of the jokes of the annoying radio DJ. That said, though, it was a good warm-up with some genuine chuckles but I did wonder how much he was getting paid for his three-minute appearance.
And now it was time for the main act. Starting with an impressive recorded intro and light show, with smoke, lights and laser-effects, the band came on to loud applause to launch into ‘Everyday I Love You Less and Less’, a big favourite that got the crowd going, and setting the bench mark for a band that were very tight throughout the evening. It was the sign of a band’s skill that the tracks recreated the feel of the recorded tracks really well, down to the individual synth bits which were clear and crisp, but with the energy that only comes from a live performance.
Personal favourite ‘Never Miss A Beat’ came next and was excellent live, with ‘Little Shocks’ from their new album next. Though the couple next to me scoffed that they ‘didn’t like this one’, it was slightly speeded up live and was great, even if not as powerful as their early party singles.
‘Everything Is Average Nowadays’ followed and showcased once more the delicious mix of lighting effects hitting key points in the songs perfectly, with the energy of front man Ricky Wilson, who did some great stage antics including throwing the mic and mic stand amazingly high and catching it and often running across the stage at great speed.
The best thing about the gig was how the backing vocals were recreated. It’s a bugbear of mine that live the vocals of other band members mic-ed up are never as loud so when songs have lines or repeats down by other members they’re very quiet or get lost in the mix completely; a key example being like ‘Our Velocity’ by ‘Maximo Park’ at Bingley Music Live where the secondary vocals at the end could be heard but were very quiet. Here, though, there were none of these problems with second vocals as clear as anything and really added to the songs being played.
‘Problem Solved’, a downloadable track from the new album but not actually appearing on the CD release, was next and to me was an admission that the catchy tune should have appeared on the main release. Not many in the crowd knew it but as my favourite of their new pool of tracks, I was really glad it was included.
More great tracks followed with ‘Modern Way’ and ‘Good Days, Bad Days’, with a curtain drop and some more impressive lighting effects for new single ‘Man On Mars’. Though not a great track, and a questionable inclusion for single status in my opinion, it was nicely delivered live by Nick on drums and was a pleasant change. The nicest part was how the lights lit up the old ruined abbey in shades of red and blue.
After a quieter track that the crowd weren’t so familiar with, the two-punch of ‘Ruby’ and ‘The Angry Mob’ got everyone going and driven by the usual energy expected from the band and Ricky Wilson. The extended ending of ‘The Angry Mob’ which saw the crowd clapping and chanting along to a minimal backing track and the return to full song punctuated with a massive ticker-tape explosion was a sight to see.
With more tracks following that kept the crowd going, newish track ‘Kinda Girl You Are’ was a particular highlight of the set for me as an energetic track in the style of their old material, but it was the track before of ‘I Predict A Riot’ that burst the venue into life, and was a fantastic interpretation of it.
What happened next was a surprise to the crowd. Disappearing off stage for a while, Ricky re-appeared in a window of the abbey for the next link, before continuing to scale the walls of the building to deliver old b-side ‘Take My Temperature’, in a move that must have had the health and safety people sweating.
Ricky continued back onto the stage to show off more energy, reflected in the sweat down his t-shirt, running between both sides of the stage, to inspire a Mexican wave. Then it was off stage whilst we waited for an encore. I felt sorry for the couple to my left who went at this point, not expecting them to do much of an encore.
But, they came back on to do three songs, starting with a welcome but by-numbers version of ‘Child of the Jago’ from ‘The Future Is Medieval’ but ramping it up with a rockier, more satisfying version of ‘Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)’ and a lengthened version of ‘Oh My God’ which saw a massive amount of crowd interaction as Ricky got the audience to sing the chorus in a variety of ways, challenging different areas and, as the band returned to finish off, an explosion of fireworks, which wrapped up a fantastic evening of entertainment.
Though the trip back wasn’t exactly smooth due to the buses not being able to come pick people up for another forty minutes, it was at least a good time to reflect on the evening’s entertainment.
It was the first time I’d seen the Kaisers live and they didn’t disappoint, delivering an energetic stage performance with flawless versions of their songs. In fact there was little to criticise. If I was being very harsh I would say I’d like to have heard some more tracks such as ‘Heat Dies Down’ and ‘Half The Truth’ rather than a few of the newer tracks, and maybe a set of only eighty minutes was a little on the short side, but overall the show was very entertaining, the lighting complimented the songs excellently and throw in the ticker tape, fireworks, the stage antics of Ricky, all the favourite songs and some great crowd interaction, and it was difficult to think of something better to do on a Saturday night.
Setlist:
Everyday I Love You Less and Less
Never Miss A Beat
Little Shocks
Everything Is Average Nowadays
Problem Solved
Modern Way
Good Days, Bad Days
Man On Mars
Ruby
The Angry Mob
Na Na Na Na Na
Starts With Nothing
I Predict A Riot
Kinda Girl You Are
Take My Temperature
- Encore -
Child of the Jago
Love’s Not A Competition (But I’m Winning)
Oh My God
Friday 9 September 2011
New Electric Six samples!
Posted on 23:55 by Unknown
It's always a big day when you can hear 30-second samples of the new Electric Six songs, so here they are at http://www.amazon.com/Heartbeats-and-Brainwaves/dp/B005LTAW26/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1315637583&sr=8-2.
We have a bone to pick with Jessie J
Posted on 11:39 by Unknown
"Jessie J reveals she cancelled gigs after transplant" after she had to have her ankle bone reconstructed due to injury it after tripping on high heels.
Sounds like she fell over like a domino. If only she'd done it like a dude and wore trainers. Plus they're cheaper, so she wouldn't have had to worry about the price tag. Oh well, I suppose nobody's perfect.
Sounds like she fell over like a domino. If only she'd done it like a dude and wore trainers. Plus they're cheaper, so she wouldn't have had to worry about the price tag. Oh well, I suppose nobody's perfect.
Thursday 8 September 2011
So will he ever releasing anything else?
Posted on 15:54 by Unknown
On my radar today came "Open Letter To Justin Timberlake: Please Make More Music!" and it does make a valid point: when will he get back to making music instead of rubbish films?
I can't believe that it's five years since his last album and since then very little musically, which is a shame as he's a good artist.
Even when he's singing about his dick in a box. Quite.
I can't believe that it's five years since his last album and since then very little musically, which is a shame as he's a good artist.
Even when he's singing about his dick in a box. Quite.
Wednesday 7 September 2011
Today's Shameless Promotion Story
Posted on 15:24 by Unknown
"Animal lover Lewis backs sanctuary" is today's nomination for the biggest non-story.
Does she have a new single out?
Does she have a new single out?
Tuesday 6 September 2011
BREAKING NEWS: PJ Harvey wins second Mercury Prize
Posted on 14:39 by Unknown
"PJ Harvey wins Mercury Music Prize for second time" is the headline that has just come up.
Congratulations to her; I suppose it was inevitable that Adele and Tinie Tempah were too commercially succesful, but would have liked to have seen one of them win.
Congratulations to her; I suppose it was inevitable that Adele and Tinie Tempah were too commercially succesful, but would have liked to have seen one of them win.
Monday 5 September 2011
65th Birthday of Mercury comes into orbit
Posted on 14:37 by Unknown
Today, as mentioned in practically every media source around, would have been Freddie Mercury's 65th birthday and, so, on this big occasion "Don’t Stop Me Now voted top Queen lyric".
Personally I would go with the lines from 'Under Pressure': "Why can't we give love that one more chance / Why can't we give love give love give love give love / give love give love give love give love give love / 'Cause love's such an old fashioned word / And love dares you to care for / The people on the edge of the night', but that's just me.
So let's celebrate what would have been Freddie's birthday with something a little tongue in cheek...
Enjoy!
Personally I would go with the lines from 'Under Pressure': "Why can't we give love that one more chance / Why can't we give love give love give love give love / give love give love give love give love give love / 'Cause love's such an old fashioned word / And love dares you to care for / The people on the edge of the night', but that's just me.
So let's celebrate what would have been Freddie's birthday with something a little tongue in cheek...
Enjoy!
Sunday 4 September 2011
Bingley Music Live – Day 3 (Review) #bml2011 @kingheadlock @daleymusic @wretch32 @stereo_mcs @elizadoolittle @chaseandstatus
Posted on 14:52 by Unknown
Trying to get a train anywhere on Sunday is like trying to find a tasty looking bacon sandwich at your local greasy spoon on a quiet afternoon: eventually one will come along but it will take longer than normal. OK, it’s a rubbish metaphor for basically saying that the trains from Bradford to Bingley are pants on a Sunday so it was either arrive an hour before the first act was on or half an hour after. As I preferred my sleep and also wanted to catch up with Torchwood – thankfully a good episode this week – I plumped for the latter.
Sadly this meant missing opening act ‘Geek’ but I have it on good authority that they were good, but sadly I missed them. It’s a shame as I feel I could possibly relate to a band called ‘Geek’, in lieu of cause of a band called ‘Bloody Trains’ but instead I arrived on site just as the band on stage were singing a line about finding your sister is on smack. So, good omens there then.
The first band I saw were the intriguingly titled ‘Kingheadlock’ who mixed Jamaican-esque music with rock. Their music was very sunny in style, in complete contrast to the weather which, for the majority of the early afternoon was grey and miserable with two short spurts of drizzle, but it wasn’t anywhere near Leeds level of wetness. The band had a great attitude and bank of songs, with the rap-reggae style delivered brilliantly and offering something different to hear. They ended on a great track, though some of its greatness was due to their ripping off of the riff from ACDC’s ‘Back In Black’, but more on that later. I wish I’d got to see more of this band but what I did hear was great.
After this band finished I took the time to acclimatise myself again with the venue. The toilets were, thankfully, re-stocked with hand sanitiser, the ice-cream was cold and not too unreasonably priced and I had a quick nosey in the attractions nearer the entrance which included some static bikes for people to ride on; I’m not sure what they were there for, exercise or power, but I hoped they weren’t keeping the stage lights going. Oh, and by the toilets was the usual sexual health stand offering free condoms and tests. Most of the condoms, it seemed, were being inflated and used as projectiles and balloons, though if they were to be used for their original purpose then the round circle of free condom, pint at the bar, a quickie in the dark and then back round to be tested could well be achieved. Not that I attempted it.
It was noticeable at this time that the park was much quieter than the same time on Saturday, possibly due to a collective hangover, but the grounds were full of kids still collecting the cups for the rebate, some with stacks twice as high as they were with even some bringing them back in to the ground that morning on the train. With a quick bit of maths I worked out it would be 350 of them to get your money back for the weekend ticket and 34 per pint, so maybe they weren’t being daft at all. But it’s only the little kids that could get away with. Anyone over the age of eight trying to do it or the little girl in tiger face-paint on the shoulders of her father bossily directing him towards cups wouldn’t have a look in.
Next on stage was Daley. Possessing the weirdest haircut in the business outside of Lady GaGa – imagine a ginger Johnny Bravo – his mix of synth-production-heavy ballads sounded great and his song writing ability shone through with his Will Young-esque voice, though sounding a little more airy and ethereal than his. A promising performance, throw in some crisp drumming that sounded great on the sound system and it was a highlight of the early afternoon, even if he did occasionally wander into Mariah Carey-esque warbling at times which knocked a few points off.
He even had chance to perform a version of his duet (can you duet with a collective like Gorillaz? Septuet?) with Gorillaz from the special edition of their ‘Plastic Beach’ album – Doncamatic. This was well performed and, ‘Superfast Jellyfish’ aside, better than anything else from the album. The finale from the artist – who should not be confused with Tom Daley, there was no swimming on stage – took benefit from some additional backing tracks to create a really powerful finish. I took two things away from his set: firstly how I’d like to check out more of his music, and secondly how many times he plugged his website. But at least he was doing some promotion, tying in the heavier presence of Twitter promotion on the big screens for the festival in general, though it wasn’t used a massive amount looking through with only probably a score of people using it, including myself and a few others that seemed to find fault in most sets, begging the question of why they bothered even turning up in the first place, as well as a local complaining about noise from the crowds – but it is only once a year!
A lot of these tweets were put on the screens throughout the weekend so, along with train times, set lists and uploaded photos, as well as the great mix of music from the on-stage DJ between sets, there was always something to keep you amused during the gaps, as well as all the food, checking out the Tweets and maybe having a go on the volleyball.
With Russo dropping out of the festival due to recording commitments the middle of the line-up was shuffled for the afternoon. Next on was rapper Wretch 32 which I learnt was pronounced 3-2 not thirty-two. I would also say I learnt it wasn’t someone being sick lots of times, but that’s purely for comic effect and not what I actually thought. Though there had been mixed thoughts about the act from the crowd beforehand, he was greeted on stage by some of the most rigorous applause yet.
Wretch 32 came on stage much rockier than I expected, sort of a harder version of Tinie Tempah with lyrics full of positive messages and good beats. He even threw in a cover of Jay-Z’s 99 problems though, as someone pointed out on Twitter, he introduced it as some freestyle rapping when it was, er, actually a cover. He also rapped later over, er, ‘Back In Black’ by ACDC. I hope they were getting royalties from the festival as they would be quids in.
Wretch 32 put on a great show, with good banter and a way of getting the crowd engaged, even if it wasn’t a massive crowd by this point. Former number one ‘Don’t Go’ got a riotious reaction and verses and words were sung back at him. Any negative comments on the Twitter were at odds with the crowd reaction who loved him, but I could see how the urban and grime could split the crowds, which is inevitable in such a wide reaching festival. But I thought he was great, even if times I was concerned about him as he kept impersonating Michael Jackson and grabbing his crotch whilst rapping. I wanted to get on stage and point him towards the chlamydia stall at the back.
He finished with his hit ‘Tracktor’ (a song title that always makes me laugh and think the Wurzels could do a cover) proving himself to be just as good as Tinie Tempah, possible his nearest comparison, even if doing more of the songs live rather than on backing track would have elevated it further.
Literally, as Wretch 32 left the stage, the first bits of rain came down, but it didn’t last and by the time the next act, ‘Stereo MCs’ came on, it was dry again, if still a little bit gloomy.
‘Stereo MCs’ was the first act on the final day that I would class as covering all bases with the entertainment. We got the main singer – who looked like a cross between a hippie and Gunther from Gunther and the Sunshine Girls, some backing singers, a DJ mixing the music and backing VJing that really fit with the songs and brought the set up a gear, created a multi-layered live experience and finally an act doing something more with the back screen than displaying their logo. The songs were great, thanks in part to a very energetic frontman who was all over the stage. ‘Sunny Day’ was a great tune and the occasional use of live vocoder was impressive, almost up there with Paul Smith’s use of a megaphone the evening before, but obviously without as much dancing with the mic stand.
Famous hit ‘Connected’ really got the crowd going and even knew track ‘Boy’ went down well. In fact, even though I knew few of their songs, I still really enjoyed the set which is a sign of a good band and a good performance, though maybe they went on a little too long for my liking, but much of it was still great.
‘The Sunshine Underground’ were on next, which was good as there was yet to be any sun above ground. The first band to do a second set at the festival, I’m honestly not sure if they justified that decision. Though being this high up the billing wasn’t their doing due to the shifting around of slots, they felt out of place, book-ended in by two more pleasing acts. Their set was serviceable rock and good to listen to, but it was nothing amazing and didn’t do much to get the crowd going but the sun did come out during their set and they made a piece of it. Not bad, but not amazing either.
With the sun now out there was time for some crowd spotting, observing how many young kids seemed to be having crafty fags away from the gazes of their parents; the weird costumes some people were wearing; the teenagers with the chlamydia pants worn proudly either normally or on their head; and the general wonder of how long it would take to clean the mess up.
But there wasn’t much more time to think as ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was on. Well, when I say on, she was preceded by her band, dressed in blue jeans and a lighter blue top that, when combined with the plinky-plonky keyboard playing, I was expecting them to start serving ice-cream. But, they didn’t, instead paying the way for Eliza to come on stage in the smallest pair of shorts you have ever seen that, even if it wasn’t their style of music, got the old rockers attention for forty minutes.
With a distinctive Carribbean feel, opener ‘Moneybox’ paved the way into favourite ‘Skinny Genes’ which worked well due to the balanced of backing singers, though it was a shame the whistling, which is the main hook of the record, wasn’t as loud in the mix as it could have been, but was a great live version of the track.
‘Go Home’ was up next and once more showcased her powerful voice. ‘Rollerblades’ started with just her and her piano before kicking off with the full band, showcasing two separate talents and styles, and her stage persona was definitely very flirty and sexy, something that hadn’t really been seen elsewhere over the weekend.
Eliza next performed a very slow and sensual version of Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ which, though slowing the pace down when she should have been speeding it up, was a refreshing version of it and worth hearing it if you can find it on YouTube. It was a perfect tune for a lazy Sunday afternoon even if some of the crowd did start to drift off at it.
‘Back To Front’ was played next, mixed in with a nice crowd-pleasing surprise of ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers, again mixing her music with material more familiar to the crowd.
In between the tracks her soulful voice was matched with her cockney talk, which included gems such as ‘Go for a tinkle [on the piano]’ and ‘Take my ring off [as it gets in the way when playing the piano]’ turning it into Carry on Bingley.
Next up was what I subsequently found out is a Kanye West cover, ‘Runaway’, which sounded like the child of Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ and the Kook’s ‘NaĂŻve’. The crowd loved it though and it was a good cover, though I hadn’t heard the original in comparison.
‘Mr Medicine’, complete with some nice break down elements from each member of the band and her jumping down into the crowd to shake hands with people before being lifted back on stage by some very lucky security people, led into her final song ‘Pack Up’, delivered brilliantly, to complete an excellent ten-song set full of energy and catchy pop tunes.
Following her on stage were ‘The Coral’ and they started by seemingly challenging Saturday’s ‘White Denim’ were the longest, most boring guitar section but thankfully this was a one off. They proved to be good musicians but lacked stage persona and the ability to talk to the crowd and after the energy of ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was a let-down. ‘She’s Coming Around’ was a nice slice of indie pop and the crowd got going when they burst into more familiar territory such as ‘Jacqueline’. ‘Pass It On’ followed a new track and was, of course, received by the crowd but there wasn’t so much dancing as shuffling.
‘Who’s Gonna Find Me’ and their version of The Beatles’ ‘Ticket To Ride’ continued the set in good fashion and favourite ‘Dreaming of You’ at the end meant people went away with a happy feeling about their time on the Bingley stage, even if their appearance can be classified as a good set but not enough at this stage of the proceedings.
So then it was onto the headliner of the night. With a lot of work to be done onto the stage, including bringing on two extra video screens, a massive circular drum kit and two DJ points shaped into a ‘C’ and ‘S’, and it was time for ‘Chase and Status’, an act that seemed to divide opinion beforehand: the younger end of the audience were looking forward to it, with their band t-shirts on and the artist name drawn onto their bodies, and the older audience that derided it as ‘not music’. But, I would hope, at least from a spectacle point of view, the latter were won over.
Entertainment wise, they took what ‘Stereo MCs’ had done earlier and built on it. Featuring live drumming and DJ mixing, plus MCing from MC Rage, the performance was added to with the vocals of all the variety of guest acts on their tracks – something difficult to replicate live unless you bring them all in or have a guest vocalist or two doing them all – played out live, synched to videos of them on screen, which were mixed in with all sorts of imagery in a trippy, eclectic but ultimately amazing way. The VJ operator of the side screens should get a medal for the speed they had to swap images around.
The spectacle of the act could not be denied and if there were any criticisms it would be that much of their hour set sounded very similar and fit a certain mould: VJ of singer comes on, sings a few lines, goes off into some heavy beat. I can’t say it wasn’t enjoyable or dragged on, but something a bit different would have been appreciated.
It was an unusual set to describe as, aside from Chase occasionally coming out to play some guitar, the named people were hidden away on stage with MC Rage being most of the presence on stage, doing a sterling job in getting the crowd going and adding to the records, even if he did often stumble into annoying repetition of two things: firstly, his chants of ‘where’s the mosh pit? There’s the mosh pit’, which made me want to buy him a pair of glasses, and the insistence that the band were called ‘Chase and [pause for effect] Fuckin’ Status’, but these are minor points included for humour more than anything else, but it did start to get annoying!
Opener ‘No Problem’ with its haunting visual effects (see them on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPRkYWVinF0) was a fantastic away of opening, and they moved onto hits including ‘Eastern Jam’.
The energetic set, which saw the biggest crowd reaction and dancing of the weekend across most of the floor, was one of the massive highlights. They even brought on Liam Bailey to perform live vocals of ‘Blind Faith’ in the two-song encore, though the absence of ‘End Credits’, which would have fitted in so well at the end, was a missed trick.
But, as the fireworks went off to signify the end of the day and the festival as a whole, you couldn’t have asked for a better headliner for the second day and their mixture of live DJing, vocals, MCing and impressive VJing was something to behold, as was the crowd reaction.
Though, for me, Saturday was the strongest line-up of the festival, there was much to enjoy over all three days and once more Bingley Music Live has proved itself to be both a great value festival and one that provides great acts. Sure, there were some duff sets but when you have to cater for such a wide taste of music from different age groups you are never going to be able to please everyone.
Musically, the festival was excellent, I just hope next year they solve a few of the – admittedly minor – problems of this year including the issues with the sound on the Friday night, the lack of bins and, as I mentioned last year, would it be too tricky to put toilets at both ends of the camp?
But with excellent headline slots from Maximo Park and Chase and Status, plus many other quality performances, you’re not going to hear me complain about the festival, only embrace something that is local, good value (food costs aside!) and full of great acts for everyone.
Overall another fantastic weekend of music at a great price and I will be certainly buying the early bird tickets for next year’s festival when they go on sale 9am on Monday morning!
Sadly this meant missing opening act ‘Geek’ but I have it on good authority that they were good, but sadly I missed them. It’s a shame as I feel I could possibly relate to a band called ‘Geek’, in lieu of cause of a band called ‘Bloody Trains’ but instead I arrived on site just as the band on stage were singing a line about finding your sister is on smack. So, good omens there then.
The first band I saw were the intriguingly titled ‘Kingheadlock’ who mixed Jamaican-esque music with rock. Their music was very sunny in style, in complete contrast to the weather which, for the majority of the early afternoon was grey and miserable with two short spurts of drizzle, but it wasn’t anywhere near Leeds level of wetness. The band had a great attitude and bank of songs, with the rap-reggae style delivered brilliantly and offering something different to hear. They ended on a great track, though some of its greatness was due to their ripping off of the riff from ACDC’s ‘Back In Black’, but more on that later. I wish I’d got to see more of this band but what I did hear was great.
After this band finished I took the time to acclimatise myself again with the venue. The toilets were, thankfully, re-stocked with hand sanitiser, the ice-cream was cold and not too unreasonably priced and I had a quick nosey in the attractions nearer the entrance which included some static bikes for people to ride on; I’m not sure what they were there for, exercise or power, but I hoped they weren’t keeping the stage lights going. Oh, and by the toilets was the usual sexual health stand offering free condoms and tests. Most of the condoms, it seemed, were being inflated and used as projectiles and balloons, though if they were to be used for their original purpose then the round circle of free condom, pint at the bar, a quickie in the dark and then back round to be tested could well be achieved. Not that I attempted it.
It was noticeable at this time that the park was much quieter than the same time on Saturday, possibly due to a collective hangover, but the grounds were full of kids still collecting the cups for the rebate, some with stacks twice as high as they were with even some bringing them back in to the ground that morning on the train. With a quick bit of maths I worked out it would be 350 of them to get your money back for the weekend ticket and 34 per pint, so maybe they weren’t being daft at all. But it’s only the little kids that could get away with. Anyone over the age of eight trying to do it or the little girl in tiger face-paint on the shoulders of her father bossily directing him towards cups wouldn’t have a look in.
Next on stage was Daley. Possessing the weirdest haircut in the business outside of Lady GaGa – imagine a ginger Johnny Bravo – his mix of synth-production-heavy ballads sounded great and his song writing ability shone through with his Will Young-esque voice, though sounding a little more airy and ethereal than his. A promising performance, throw in some crisp drumming that sounded great on the sound system and it was a highlight of the early afternoon, even if he did occasionally wander into Mariah Carey-esque warbling at times which knocked a few points off.
He even had chance to perform a version of his duet (can you duet with a collective like Gorillaz? Septuet?) with Gorillaz from the special edition of their ‘Plastic Beach’ album – Doncamatic. This was well performed and, ‘Superfast Jellyfish’ aside, better than anything else from the album. The finale from the artist – who should not be confused with Tom Daley, there was no swimming on stage – took benefit from some additional backing tracks to create a really powerful finish. I took two things away from his set: firstly how I’d like to check out more of his music, and secondly how many times he plugged his website. But at least he was doing some promotion, tying in the heavier presence of Twitter promotion on the big screens for the festival in general, though it wasn’t used a massive amount looking through with only probably a score of people using it, including myself and a few others that seemed to find fault in most sets, begging the question of why they bothered even turning up in the first place, as well as a local complaining about noise from the crowds – but it is only once a year!
A lot of these tweets were put on the screens throughout the weekend so, along with train times, set lists and uploaded photos, as well as the great mix of music from the on-stage DJ between sets, there was always something to keep you amused during the gaps, as well as all the food, checking out the Tweets and maybe having a go on the volleyball.
With Russo dropping out of the festival due to recording commitments the middle of the line-up was shuffled for the afternoon. Next on was rapper Wretch 32 which I learnt was pronounced 3-2 not thirty-two. I would also say I learnt it wasn’t someone being sick lots of times, but that’s purely for comic effect and not what I actually thought. Though there had been mixed thoughts about the act from the crowd beforehand, he was greeted on stage by some of the most rigorous applause yet.
Wretch 32 came on stage much rockier than I expected, sort of a harder version of Tinie Tempah with lyrics full of positive messages and good beats. He even threw in a cover of Jay-Z’s 99 problems though, as someone pointed out on Twitter, he introduced it as some freestyle rapping when it was, er, actually a cover. He also rapped later over, er, ‘Back In Black’ by ACDC. I hope they were getting royalties from the festival as they would be quids in.
Wretch 32 put on a great show, with good banter and a way of getting the crowd engaged, even if it wasn’t a massive crowd by this point. Former number one ‘Don’t Go’ got a riotious reaction and verses and words were sung back at him. Any negative comments on the Twitter were at odds with the crowd reaction who loved him, but I could see how the urban and grime could split the crowds, which is inevitable in such a wide reaching festival. But I thought he was great, even if times I was concerned about him as he kept impersonating Michael Jackson and grabbing his crotch whilst rapping. I wanted to get on stage and point him towards the chlamydia stall at the back.
He finished with his hit ‘Tracktor’ (a song title that always makes me laugh and think the Wurzels could do a cover) proving himself to be just as good as Tinie Tempah, possible his nearest comparison, even if doing more of the songs live rather than on backing track would have elevated it further.
Literally, as Wretch 32 left the stage, the first bits of rain came down, but it didn’t last and by the time the next act, ‘Stereo MCs’ came on, it was dry again, if still a little bit gloomy.
‘Stereo MCs’ was the first act on the final day that I would class as covering all bases with the entertainment. We got the main singer – who looked like a cross between a hippie and Gunther from Gunther and the Sunshine Girls, some backing singers, a DJ mixing the music and backing VJing that really fit with the songs and brought the set up a gear, created a multi-layered live experience and finally an act doing something more with the back screen than displaying their logo. The songs were great, thanks in part to a very energetic frontman who was all over the stage. ‘Sunny Day’ was a great tune and the occasional use of live vocoder was impressive, almost up there with Paul Smith’s use of a megaphone the evening before, but obviously without as much dancing with the mic stand.
Famous hit ‘Connected’ really got the crowd going and even knew track ‘Boy’ went down well. In fact, even though I knew few of their songs, I still really enjoyed the set which is a sign of a good band and a good performance, though maybe they went on a little too long for my liking, but much of it was still great.
‘The Sunshine Underground’ were on next, which was good as there was yet to be any sun above ground. The first band to do a second set at the festival, I’m honestly not sure if they justified that decision. Though being this high up the billing wasn’t their doing due to the shifting around of slots, they felt out of place, book-ended in by two more pleasing acts. Their set was serviceable rock and good to listen to, but it was nothing amazing and didn’t do much to get the crowd going but the sun did come out during their set and they made a piece of it. Not bad, but not amazing either.
With the sun now out there was time for some crowd spotting, observing how many young kids seemed to be having crafty fags away from the gazes of their parents; the weird costumes some people were wearing; the teenagers with the chlamydia pants worn proudly either normally or on their head; and the general wonder of how long it would take to clean the mess up.
But there wasn’t much more time to think as ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was on. Well, when I say on, she was preceded by her band, dressed in blue jeans and a lighter blue top that, when combined with the plinky-plonky keyboard playing, I was expecting them to start serving ice-cream. But, they didn’t, instead paying the way for Eliza to come on stage in the smallest pair of shorts you have ever seen that, even if it wasn’t their style of music, got the old rockers attention for forty minutes.
With a distinctive Carribbean feel, opener ‘Moneybox’ paved the way into favourite ‘Skinny Genes’ which worked well due to the balanced of backing singers, though it was a shame the whistling, which is the main hook of the record, wasn’t as loud in the mix as it could have been, but was a great live version of the track.
‘Go Home’ was up next and once more showcased her powerful voice. ‘Rollerblades’ started with just her and her piano before kicking off with the full band, showcasing two separate talents and styles, and her stage persona was definitely very flirty and sexy, something that hadn’t really been seen elsewhere over the weekend.
Eliza next performed a very slow and sensual version of Bruno Mars’ ‘Grenade’ which, though slowing the pace down when she should have been speeding it up, was a refreshing version of it and worth hearing it if you can find it on YouTube. It was a perfect tune for a lazy Sunday afternoon even if some of the crowd did start to drift off at it.
‘Back To Front’ was played next, mixed in with a nice crowd-pleasing surprise of ‘Lovely Day’ by Bill Withers, again mixing her music with material more familiar to the crowd.
In between the tracks her soulful voice was matched with her cockney talk, which included gems such as ‘Go for a tinkle [on the piano]’ and ‘Take my ring off [as it gets in the way when playing the piano]’ turning it into Carry on Bingley.
Next up was what I subsequently found out is a Kanye West cover, ‘Runaway’, which sounded like the child of Natalie Imbruglia’s ‘Torn’ and the Kook’s ‘NaĂŻve’. The crowd loved it though and it was a good cover, though I hadn’t heard the original in comparison.
‘Mr Medicine’, complete with some nice break down elements from each member of the band and her jumping down into the crowd to shake hands with people before being lifted back on stage by some very lucky security people, led into her final song ‘Pack Up’, delivered brilliantly, to complete an excellent ten-song set full of energy and catchy pop tunes.
Following her on stage were ‘The Coral’ and they started by seemingly challenging Saturday’s ‘White Denim’ were the longest, most boring guitar section but thankfully this was a one off. They proved to be good musicians but lacked stage persona and the ability to talk to the crowd and after the energy of ‘Eliza Doolittle’ was a let-down. ‘She’s Coming Around’ was a nice slice of indie pop and the crowd got going when they burst into more familiar territory such as ‘Jacqueline’. ‘Pass It On’ followed a new track and was, of course, received by the crowd but there wasn’t so much dancing as shuffling.
‘Who’s Gonna Find Me’ and their version of The Beatles’ ‘Ticket To Ride’ continued the set in good fashion and favourite ‘Dreaming of You’ at the end meant people went away with a happy feeling about their time on the Bingley stage, even if their appearance can be classified as a good set but not enough at this stage of the proceedings.
So then it was onto the headliner of the night. With a lot of work to be done onto the stage, including bringing on two extra video screens, a massive circular drum kit and two DJ points shaped into a ‘C’ and ‘S’, and it was time for ‘Chase and Status’, an act that seemed to divide opinion beforehand: the younger end of the audience were looking forward to it, with their band t-shirts on and the artist name drawn onto their bodies, and the older audience that derided it as ‘not music’. But, I would hope, at least from a spectacle point of view, the latter were won over.
Entertainment wise, they took what ‘Stereo MCs’ had done earlier and built on it. Featuring live drumming and DJ mixing, plus MCing from MC Rage, the performance was added to with the vocals of all the variety of guest acts on their tracks – something difficult to replicate live unless you bring them all in or have a guest vocalist or two doing them all – played out live, synched to videos of them on screen, which were mixed in with all sorts of imagery in a trippy, eclectic but ultimately amazing way. The VJ operator of the side screens should get a medal for the speed they had to swap images around.
The spectacle of the act could not be denied and if there were any criticisms it would be that much of their hour set sounded very similar and fit a certain mould: VJ of singer comes on, sings a few lines, goes off into some heavy beat. I can’t say it wasn’t enjoyable or dragged on, but something a bit different would have been appreciated.
It was an unusual set to describe as, aside from Chase occasionally coming out to play some guitar, the named people were hidden away on stage with MC Rage being most of the presence on stage, doing a sterling job in getting the crowd going and adding to the records, even if he did often stumble into annoying repetition of two things: firstly, his chants of ‘where’s the mosh pit? There’s the mosh pit’, which made me want to buy him a pair of glasses, and the insistence that the band were called ‘Chase and [pause for effect] Fuckin’ Status’, but these are minor points included for humour more than anything else, but it did start to get annoying!
Opener ‘No Problem’ with its haunting visual effects (see them on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rPRkYWVinF0) was a fantastic away of opening, and they moved onto hits including ‘Eastern Jam’.
The energetic set, which saw the biggest crowd reaction and dancing of the weekend across most of the floor, was one of the massive highlights. They even brought on Liam Bailey to perform live vocals of ‘Blind Faith’ in the two-song encore, though the absence of ‘End Credits’, which would have fitted in so well at the end, was a missed trick.
But, as the fireworks went off to signify the end of the day and the festival as a whole, you couldn’t have asked for a better headliner for the second day and their mixture of live DJing, vocals, MCing and impressive VJing was something to behold, as was the crowd reaction.
Though, for me, Saturday was the strongest line-up of the festival, there was much to enjoy over all three days and once more Bingley Music Live has proved itself to be both a great value festival and one that provides great acts. Sure, there were some duff sets but when you have to cater for such a wide taste of music from different age groups you are never going to be able to please everyone.
Musically, the festival was excellent, I just hope next year they solve a few of the – admittedly minor – problems of this year including the issues with the sound on the Friday night, the lack of bins and, as I mentioned last year, would it be too tricky to put toilets at both ends of the camp?
But with excellent headline slots from Maximo Park and Chase and Status, plus many other quality performances, you’re not going to hear me complain about the festival, only embrace something that is local, good value (food costs aside!) and full of great acts for everyone.
Overall another fantastic weekend of music at a great price and I will be certainly buying the early bird tickets for next year’s festival when they go on sale 9am on Monday morning!
I Usually Get That Feeling Too
Posted on 02:52 by Unknown
Today it's time to match up two news stories to see if there's any connection!
Firstly Adele appears on Jonathan Ross' new chat show (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/3792745/James-Bonds-got-A-View-To-Adele.html).
Secondly, "Singer Adele has been forced to cancel the first two shows of her UK tour because of a severe cold and chest infection".
At least it's not just me that Jonathan Ross makes feel ill.
Firstly Adele appears on Jonathan Ross' new chat show (http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/showbiz/3792745/James-Bonds-got-A-View-To-Adele.html).
Secondly, "Singer Adele has been forced to cancel the first two shows of her UK tour because of a severe cold and chest infection".
At least it's not just me that Jonathan Ross makes feel ill.
Saturday 3 September 2011
Bingley Music Live 2011 - Day Two (Review) @thirteen16 @StateofError @dionneofficial @itsdotrotten @jonfratelli @mysteryjets @maximopark #bml2011
Posted on 15:09 by Unknown
Bingley Music Live – Day 2 (Review)
With the slight threat of rain it was across on the train once more to Myrtle Park in Bingley for day two of this year’s Bingley Music Live, in my opinion what looked to be on paper the strongest line-up of the three days and, though with one day still to go, this it proved.
With the technical issues that had dotted the performances on the Friday seemingly resolved, with a much smoother, flawless set of performances, it was only the rather gloomy weather that cast a shadow over the day, though it didn’t dampen the mood and it only drizzled a tiny bit, so little that it wasn’t even worth purchasing a BML hat from the stand. (However, I did purchase one of the many designs of t-shirts for a tidy £15).
First act on of the day was “Thirteen16” who kicked off the day with thundering guitars and some good attitude that belied their age, though they did at times sound like Dragonforce jamming at a soundcheck. But, if you wanted a band to wake you up after a heavy night partying on the Friday, this band was it, with the bass thumping across the park. They were also worth seeing just for the massive lighting bar the techies had dropped down for them to display on it a small two-metre banner. Ah well, all publicity is good publicity as they say.
“State of Error” were second on and were, for a change, a rock band that both sounded good and you could hear what the singer was going on about. Though the crowd at this time was small, the band certainly got them going with their driving guitars.
Opening track, I shall call it ‘Watching All The Girls Pass By’ in lieu of the actual title, set the mood well and was sunnier than the weather. Other tracks played included ‘Forever Waiting’ and ‘Make Believe’ and were equally as impressive. For such a young band they certainly had the stage patter down, engaging well with the crowd. I’ll even forgive them for occasional resorting to the clichĂ©d rock screams down the microphone as the lead singer had a very good voice. Sort of like ‘Elliot Minor’ but without the shares in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra I would definitely recommend picking up something by this band. Ending on ‘Sunset Boulevard’, the group put some of the bigger acts on Friday night to shame.
Third up on stage was Dionne Bromfield. It’s difficult to mention her without including the words ‘the late Amy Winehouse’s protĂ©gĂ©’ before her name, but from her performance on the day she certainly deserves to stand on her own two feet.
Coming on stage with four dancers, their t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Good For The Soul’, ‘Yeah Right’, ‘Ouch That Hurt’ and ‘Get Over It’ (which, coincidentally, is also the thought process of thinking about, asking the price of, paying for, and eating anything from the festival food stands), she jumped into some great catchy soul-based tunes with a voice that’s deceptively mature for her appearance, even if that illusion is shattered as soon as she speaks in thick Cockney.
‘Move A Little Faster’ was her opening number, and a great track that is, before throwing in a couple of covers in after a second song. ‘Mama Said’, the song she performed on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ was excellent and was followed by an impressive version of Cee-Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’ (No swearing on this song; Skindred clearly had taken all the potty words on the Friday night, though it didn’t stop the crowd from singing back with the, er, alternative lyrics). Her voice was full of attitude and depth though the relying on backing tracks for these two songs did knock the magic a little. However, there was live drumming and synth with them so there was something live. The inclusion of covers was a good idea and many other artists should take a leaf out of her book; yes, showcase your own material, but also give the crowd something else that they’re familiar with.
In fact, all the songs were backed up well with some excellent drumming and synth in particular, even if the band themselves looked distant as they played, as if they were either trying to play too cool or had picked up the instruments a few weeks ago in an impromptu sale in London.
(The lawyers have asked me to say that is a joke – I’m not accusing them of rioting!)
Dionne continued to perform some fantastic songs including one where it was just her and an acoustic guitar, allowing her voice to shine through. She finished her set by playing her most famous numbers, ‘Falling’ and ‘Yeah Right, both delivered brilliantly and backed up by more impressive choreography from her dancers that brought all the songs to the next level.
After her set I had the opportunity to explore the festival ground a bit more, taking in the toilets (nice and clean but please, more hand sanitiser), the V Ball stand complete with small volleyball kit, and some taps to fill up bottles with water that don’t, to my cost, work as a substitute for washing your hands as the taps spray all over your shoes too!
Back to the music and next up was Dot Rotten. No, I’m not sure if it’s an intentional connection to the Eastenders character. Though sticking out like a sore thumb on a roster that’s mostly bands, it was a refreshing change just to have the rapper, a radio mic and a backing CD. Dot, if he will let me call him that, is undoubtedly talented but I’m not sure if the Bingley crowd was the best showcase of his talent, and a lot of the crowd drifted away leaving just a core crowd of the younger ones. The repeated line of one of his songs ‘Are you not entertained?’ seemed ripe for the few on Twitter that were criticising him to jump on.
Overall, a talented young rapper with potential but the jury is out on whether he is fresh enough to be distinguishable from other rappers. He didn’t have the stage presence or, of course, the songs, that Example of Professor Green had the previous year, as my friend noted.
Next on stage was White Denim who should have been done under the trade descriptions act for not wearing any denim but blue. But, to be honest, that was the least of their crimes. I have to confess I’m not a fan of progressive rock, but even so their set was a disappointment. Technically, it was amazing, and their guitar work was something to note but their set did confirm to me the time length that just guitars and no vocals gets tedious (it’s around about the seven-minute mark) and their whole thirty-minute-plus appearance seemed to be just one long song. Thankfully I had my phone to keep me occupied so it was onto Twitter and Facebook, where a colleague noted that the lead singer looked like a young Rolf Harris and I imagined the guitarist as having stolen Timmie Mallet’s glasses. I think only a chorus of ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ would have saved their set; either that or I would have had to hit them with a large pink hammer with a face on it. A skilful set but not my cup of tea. It basically dragged on and was like the crowd had been invited to a personal jamming session round their garage. They didn’t even speak to the crowd apart from when leaving the stage.
Up next was Jon Fratelli, proving that like ‘The Go! Team’ the day before, two drummers are better than one. Though not massively familiar with his solo work, his set was filled with catchy pop tunes with vocals you could hear and follow and choruses that stood out and impressed. Frankly, after the previous set, he could have come on the microphone and read out his mobile phone contacts list and I would have been happy.
Jon managed to keep the crowd engaged and clapping along with the songs and, proving that he’s not one of these solo artists that likes to forget about hits he’s done before, treated the audience to a handful of Fratelli’s songs including ‘Whistle For The Choir’ and, of course, ‘Chelsea Dagger’ which got the massive reaction from the crowd that you woul expect.
Jon’s selection of songs really got the crowd going, even if he didn’t really speak to the crowd at all, but it was all very singable and energetic and got the afternoon back off into the swing of things.
The next band up where ‘Athlete’ and they were an eye-opener for me. I’d heard of them and had a few songs in my head that I expected to hear but I didn’t realise that each one of the eight songs they would play I would know, as if they really have been the soundtrack to the past ten years; the sort of band’s whose songs have been played everywhere. And I bloody loved them.
Kicking off with ‘El Salvador’, the setlist was dominated by the crowd singing along and thoroughly enjoying the band. Lead singer Joel Pott immediately engaged with the crowd from the moment he got on stage, making jokes about the weather, and the band relished their time through songs such as ‘Superhuman Touch’, a recent track which reminded me how much I loved the song, and the live synths were impressive; ‘Hurricane’, and ‘Tourist’, Joel making a joke out of missing his cue at the start of the song, really connecting with thev audience through it. ‘Twenty Four Hours’, ‘Half Light’ and ‘You Got The Style’ were all instantly familiar and sung back to the band by the crowd and the ending track of ‘Wires’ was a great double-act between the band and the audience, with lots of the audience now on the shoulders of a friend after Joel’s request to ‘create a health and safety hazard’, with Joel finishing the song on an acoustic section and then leaving it to the audience to sing the chorus one more time as they band walked off stage.
Athlete did an absolutely brilliant set and, for me, the best one up to this point at Bingley Music Live.
The band with the difficult job of following them was the ‘Mystery Jets’ as the lead singer struggled on stage of crutches, assumingly after some sort of accident. I have to confess to not being that familiar with the band’s work and so didn’t have much to hook onto. That said their set was full of pleasant indie songs with a few dancier numbers thrown in to liven things up, though there was nothing that massively stood out aside from their collaboration with ‘The Count and Sinden’, ‘After Dark’. After the cracking set by Athlete it was a bit of a let-down. Chalk one up to the set order being wrong in this case.
Penultimate band of the day was ‘Feeder’, topping and tailing their appearance on stage with the theme from ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. From speaking to people around it was this set most were looking forward to and I don’t think they disappointed with the crowd going wild during their set. Their double punch of ‘Just The Way I’m Feeling’ and their cult hit ‘Buck Rogers’ made the crowd explode in delight though there was little for me to enjoy after that that was familiar as they didn’t play ‘Tumble and Fall’, which was a shame. But, the crowd really enjoyed them and their recreation of their big hits was flawless, even if elements of ‘Buck Rogers’ was on a backing tape.
It was the headliners of the day that I was most looking forward to, and they didn’t disappoint, and unlike some of the acts last year, they justified their positions as headliners.
Their set-list was a who’s-who of their albums and singles, kicking off with ‘Girls Who Play Guitar’ before rattling through ‘Wraithlike’, ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’ and a brand new song. Paul Smith was on fire, throwing himself about on stage with some energetic dancing and the crowd loved it. ‘Our Velocity’ followed and continued the energy of the set even if it did highlight how low in the mix the synth and synth’s vocals were, which was a shame, and occasionally Paul’s radio mic seemed to cut out. ‘Questing, Not Coasting’, ‘Postcard of a Painting’ and ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ pushed the set on, with the live version of the latter even better than on their third album with Paul employing a megaphone to create the distorted vocal sections very effectively, and the whole band putting in a big break before the speedy finish, which really added to the track,.
After ‘Graffiti’ they included ‘The Unshockable’, probably my favourite non-single track, and was unbelievably energetic, so much so that the synthesizer got knocked over during the course of the song. The best moment was Paul kicking back a ball thrown at him by the crowd, flawlessly kicking it back without batting an eyelid as he sang the song and dashed across the stage.
The band rattled through more songs on an impressively lengthy and skilfully performed set list with ‘limassol’, ‘Books From Boxes’ (beautifully performed if not up to the album version but followed by some funny banter between the band and the audience), ‘Going Missing’, a new song and then ‘The Monument’, before ‘Apply Some Pressure’ finished off the set and night with pizzazz. I don’t think the audience could have been unhappy with the band’s performance and just pipped Athlete to the award of best set of the day due to its energy, great lighting work behind the band (even if the strobes during ‘Our Velocity’ were painful to watch at first) and mixture of songs and banter.
The night concluded with a brief fireworks display.
Overall, a fantastic day of music. Yes, there were some duff bands and moments but, overall, another great achievement from the festival organisers with some big names that pleased the crowd and some lesser known ones that did just as well.
I don’t think Sunday will beat this line-up and performance but we shall see when I review Chase and Status, The Coral, Eliza Doolittle, Wretch 32, Stereo MC's, The Sunshine Underground, Daley, Kingheadlock and Geek tomorrow.
With the slight threat of rain it was across on the train once more to Myrtle Park in Bingley for day two of this year’s Bingley Music Live, in my opinion what looked to be on paper the strongest line-up of the three days and, though with one day still to go, this it proved.
With the technical issues that had dotted the performances on the Friday seemingly resolved, with a much smoother, flawless set of performances, it was only the rather gloomy weather that cast a shadow over the day, though it didn’t dampen the mood and it only drizzled a tiny bit, so little that it wasn’t even worth purchasing a BML hat from the stand. (However, I did purchase one of the many designs of t-shirts for a tidy £15).
First act on of the day was “Thirteen16” who kicked off the day with thundering guitars and some good attitude that belied their age, though they did at times sound like Dragonforce jamming at a soundcheck. But, if you wanted a band to wake you up after a heavy night partying on the Friday, this band was it, with the bass thumping across the park. They were also worth seeing just for the massive lighting bar the techies had dropped down for them to display on it a small two-metre banner. Ah well, all publicity is good publicity as they say.
“State of Error” were second on and were, for a change, a rock band that both sounded good and you could hear what the singer was going on about. Though the crowd at this time was small, the band certainly got them going with their driving guitars.
Opening track, I shall call it ‘Watching All The Girls Pass By’ in lieu of the actual title, set the mood well and was sunnier than the weather. Other tracks played included ‘Forever Waiting’ and ‘Make Believe’ and were equally as impressive. For such a young band they certainly had the stage patter down, engaging well with the crowd. I’ll even forgive them for occasional resorting to the clichĂ©d rock screams down the microphone as the lead singer had a very good voice. Sort of like ‘Elliot Minor’ but without the shares in the Berlin Symphony Orchestra I would definitely recommend picking up something by this band. Ending on ‘Sunset Boulevard’, the group put some of the bigger acts on Friday night to shame.
Third up on stage was Dionne Bromfield. It’s difficult to mention her without including the words ‘the late Amy Winehouse’s protĂ©gĂ©’ before her name, but from her performance on the day she certainly deserves to stand on her own two feet.
Coming on stage with four dancers, their t-shirts emblazoned with ‘Good For The Soul’, ‘Yeah Right’, ‘Ouch That Hurt’ and ‘Get Over It’ (which, coincidentally, is also the thought process of thinking about, asking the price of, paying for, and eating anything from the festival food stands), she jumped into some great catchy soul-based tunes with a voice that’s deceptively mature for her appearance, even if that illusion is shattered as soon as she speaks in thick Cockney.
‘Move A Little Faster’ was her opening number, and a great track that is, before throwing in a couple of covers in after a second song. ‘Mama Said’, the song she performed on ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ was excellent and was followed by an impressive version of Cee-Lo Green’s ‘Forget You’ (No swearing on this song; Skindred clearly had taken all the potty words on the Friday night, though it didn’t stop the crowd from singing back with the, er, alternative lyrics). Her voice was full of attitude and depth though the relying on backing tracks for these two songs did knock the magic a little. However, there was live drumming and synth with them so there was something live. The inclusion of covers was a good idea and many other artists should take a leaf out of her book; yes, showcase your own material, but also give the crowd something else that they’re familiar with.
In fact, all the songs were backed up well with some excellent drumming and synth in particular, even if the band themselves looked distant as they played, as if they were either trying to play too cool or had picked up the instruments a few weeks ago in an impromptu sale in London.
(The lawyers have asked me to say that is a joke – I’m not accusing them of rioting!)
Dionne continued to perform some fantastic songs including one where it was just her and an acoustic guitar, allowing her voice to shine through. She finished her set by playing her most famous numbers, ‘Falling’ and ‘Yeah Right, both delivered brilliantly and backed up by more impressive choreography from her dancers that brought all the songs to the next level.
After her set I had the opportunity to explore the festival ground a bit more, taking in the toilets (nice and clean but please, more hand sanitiser), the V Ball stand complete with small volleyball kit, and some taps to fill up bottles with water that don’t, to my cost, work as a substitute for washing your hands as the taps spray all over your shoes too!
Back to the music and next up was Dot Rotten. No, I’m not sure if it’s an intentional connection to the Eastenders character. Though sticking out like a sore thumb on a roster that’s mostly bands, it was a refreshing change just to have the rapper, a radio mic and a backing CD. Dot, if he will let me call him that, is undoubtedly talented but I’m not sure if the Bingley crowd was the best showcase of his talent, and a lot of the crowd drifted away leaving just a core crowd of the younger ones. The repeated line of one of his songs ‘Are you not entertained?’ seemed ripe for the few on Twitter that were criticising him to jump on.
Overall, a talented young rapper with potential but the jury is out on whether he is fresh enough to be distinguishable from other rappers. He didn’t have the stage presence or, of course, the songs, that Example of Professor Green had the previous year, as my friend noted.
Next on stage was White Denim who should have been done under the trade descriptions act for not wearing any denim but blue. But, to be honest, that was the least of their crimes. I have to confess I’m not a fan of progressive rock, but even so their set was a disappointment. Technically, it was amazing, and their guitar work was something to note but their set did confirm to me the time length that just guitars and no vocals gets tedious (it’s around about the seven-minute mark) and their whole thirty-minute-plus appearance seemed to be just one long song. Thankfully I had my phone to keep me occupied so it was onto Twitter and Facebook, where a colleague noted that the lead singer looked like a young Rolf Harris and I imagined the guitarist as having stolen Timmie Mallet’s glasses. I think only a chorus of ‘Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport’ would have saved their set; either that or I would have had to hit them with a large pink hammer with a face on it. A skilful set but not my cup of tea. It basically dragged on and was like the crowd had been invited to a personal jamming session round their garage. They didn’t even speak to the crowd apart from when leaving the stage.
Up next was Jon Fratelli, proving that like ‘The Go! Team’ the day before, two drummers are better than one. Though not massively familiar with his solo work, his set was filled with catchy pop tunes with vocals you could hear and follow and choruses that stood out and impressed. Frankly, after the previous set, he could have come on the microphone and read out his mobile phone contacts list and I would have been happy.
Jon managed to keep the crowd engaged and clapping along with the songs and, proving that he’s not one of these solo artists that likes to forget about hits he’s done before, treated the audience to a handful of Fratelli’s songs including ‘Whistle For The Choir’ and, of course, ‘Chelsea Dagger’ which got the massive reaction from the crowd that you woul expect.
Jon’s selection of songs really got the crowd going, even if he didn’t really speak to the crowd at all, but it was all very singable and energetic and got the afternoon back off into the swing of things.
The next band up where ‘Athlete’ and they were an eye-opener for me. I’d heard of them and had a few songs in my head that I expected to hear but I didn’t realise that each one of the eight songs they would play I would know, as if they really have been the soundtrack to the past ten years; the sort of band’s whose songs have been played everywhere. And I bloody loved them.
Kicking off with ‘El Salvador’, the setlist was dominated by the crowd singing along and thoroughly enjoying the band. Lead singer Joel Pott immediately engaged with the crowd from the moment he got on stage, making jokes about the weather, and the band relished their time through songs such as ‘Superhuman Touch’, a recent track which reminded me how much I loved the song, and the live synths were impressive; ‘Hurricane’, and ‘Tourist’, Joel making a joke out of missing his cue at the start of the song, really connecting with thev audience through it. ‘Twenty Four Hours’, ‘Half Light’ and ‘You Got The Style’ were all instantly familiar and sung back to the band by the crowd and the ending track of ‘Wires’ was a great double-act between the band and the audience, with lots of the audience now on the shoulders of a friend after Joel’s request to ‘create a health and safety hazard’, with Joel finishing the song on an acoustic section and then leaving it to the audience to sing the chorus one more time as they band walked off stage.
Athlete did an absolutely brilliant set and, for me, the best one up to this point at Bingley Music Live.
The band with the difficult job of following them was the ‘Mystery Jets’ as the lead singer struggled on stage of crutches, assumingly after some sort of accident. I have to confess to not being that familiar with the band’s work and so didn’t have much to hook onto. That said their set was full of pleasant indie songs with a few dancier numbers thrown in to liven things up, though there was nothing that massively stood out aside from their collaboration with ‘The Count and Sinden’, ‘After Dark’. After the cracking set by Athlete it was a bit of a let-down. Chalk one up to the set order being wrong in this case.
Penultimate band of the day was ‘Feeder’, topping and tailing their appearance on stage with the theme from ‘The Good, The Bad and the Ugly’. From speaking to people around it was this set most were looking forward to and I don’t think they disappointed with the crowd going wild during their set. Their double punch of ‘Just The Way I’m Feeling’ and their cult hit ‘Buck Rogers’ made the crowd explode in delight though there was little for me to enjoy after that that was familiar as they didn’t play ‘Tumble and Fall’, which was a shame. But, the crowd really enjoyed them and their recreation of their big hits was flawless, even if elements of ‘Buck Rogers’ was on a backing tape.
It was the headliners of the day that I was most looking forward to, and they didn’t disappoint, and unlike some of the acts last year, they justified their positions as headliners.
Their set-list was a who’s-who of their albums and singles, kicking off with ‘Girls Who Play Guitar’ before rattling through ‘Wraithlike’, ‘The Coast Is Always Changing’ and a brand new song. Paul Smith was on fire, throwing himself about on stage with some energetic dancing and the crowd loved it. ‘Our Velocity’ followed and continued the energy of the set even if it did highlight how low in the mix the synth and synth’s vocals were, which was a shame, and occasionally Paul’s radio mic seemed to cut out. ‘Questing, Not Coasting’, ‘Postcard of a Painting’ and ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ pushed the set on, with the live version of the latter even better than on their third album with Paul employing a megaphone to create the distorted vocal sections very effectively, and the whole band putting in a big break before the speedy finish, which really added to the track,.
After ‘Graffiti’ they included ‘The Unshockable’, probably my favourite non-single track, and was unbelievably energetic, so much so that the synthesizer got knocked over during the course of the song. The best moment was Paul kicking back a ball thrown at him by the crowd, flawlessly kicking it back without batting an eyelid as he sang the song and dashed across the stage.
The band rattled through more songs on an impressively lengthy and skilfully performed set list with ‘limassol’, ‘Books From Boxes’ (beautifully performed if not up to the album version but followed by some funny banter between the band and the audience), ‘Going Missing’, a new song and then ‘The Monument’, before ‘Apply Some Pressure’ finished off the set and night with pizzazz. I don’t think the audience could have been unhappy with the band’s performance and just pipped Athlete to the award of best set of the day due to its energy, great lighting work behind the band (even if the strobes during ‘Our Velocity’ were painful to watch at first) and mixture of songs and banter.
The night concluded with a brief fireworks display.
Overall, a fantastic day of music. Yes, there were some duff bands and moments but, overall, another great achievement from the festival organisers with some big names that pleased the crowd and some lesser known ones that did just as well.
I don’t think Sunday will beat this line-up and performance but we shall see when I review Chase and Status, The Coral, Eliza Doolittle, Wretch 32, Stereo MC's, The Sunshine Underground, Daley, Kingheadlock and Geek tomorrow.
Posted in Athlete, Dionne Bromfield, Dot Rotten, Feeder, Jon Fratelli, Maximo Park, Mystery Jets, State of Error, Thirteen16, White Denim
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Bingley Music Live 2011 - Day One (Review) @AliceGold @FLCnyc @YoungGunsUK @Skindredmusic #bml2011
Posted on 13:56 by Unknown
As September rears its head once more and we head into autumn, it can only mean the return of Bingley Music Live, now in its fifth year. Based in Myrtle Park, just outside Bingley train station, it is a three day festival that consistently has punched above its weight in securing a refreshing mix of classic, new and local bands in a nice setting, set simply on one stage with refreshment tents and no need for camping. Plus, thankfully, usually really good weather (repeated this year so far!) so no fear of mudbaths.
Having been to all but one of the events I figured it was best to return for another year to see who would be playing to the strong crowd of West Yorkshire families.
Friday evening is now traditionally the free evening so, among the ticketholders, were lots of people coming down just for the four hours to take advantage of an impressive line-up with no entry costs. And when I say lots, I mean lots. Even me arriving forty minutes before the first act was supposed to be on stage wasn’t enough to guarantee me access before the first chords were played, thanks to a queue larger than James Bond’s boss after a big feast.
Having only missed her opening song though, I managed to dash down into the park to see opening act Alice Gold. Dressed in a brown hat and a skirt so short it might as well not have been there, the twenty-five minute set showcased her beautiful voice over the interesting musical backing from her band with some very thumping bass for the style of music. Her biggest hit ‘Runaway Love’ was second on the bill and was delivered brilliantly, and was followed by four more songs including ‘And You’ll Be There’ and ‘Orbiter’, all brought alive to the crowd which, as usual, was a good mixture of people of all ages.
By this point I was a little distracted and having come straight from work felt it was time to get something to eat, choosing a hog roast from one of the many choices of food stands, though at £4.50 for it I hoped the pig had had an exceptionally good life.
Whilst waiting for the next band the crowd were kept entertained by seeing themselves on the big screen, tiding them over until it was the turn of ‘Young Guns’ to perform. Complete with boxes for the energetic front man to stand on and rise up, the band certainly kicked up the energy of the festival but, although certainly ticking all the rock boxes, they didn’t seem to stand apart from their peers and, like similar bands in style, struggled to make their vocals heard over two guitars and a bass. Of course, they had all the rock and stylings of their genre but were perhaps a little too generic, but it was a pleasant twenty minutes and they worked hard to get the crowd going, and succeeded.
Just to prove that one drummer will not do, The Go! Team were soon on stage with their two drummers and two drum kits, plus a synth player, who added a lot to their energetic brand of catchy pop tunes with rap, hip-hop and urban styles, delivered speedily and flawlessly by lead singer Ninja. Whilst my friend was distracted by trying to get rid of his rubbish – this year’s festival seems to have given up all pretence of expecting people to clear up their own rubbish and have removed most of the bins, so there’s little else to do than either throw your rubbish on the floor or give your empty paper cups to the kids that walk around collecting them for the 10p rebate each – I was enjoying the really catchy tunes, arguably the artist on the first day that I would most want to hear more of on an album. Bringing the most interesting mix of sounds that day to the festival, even if the use of a xylophone was superfluous in the face of all the other music, they were overall a very energetic band and a thoroughly enjoyable performance with speedy vocals and so much enthusiasm from the young lead singer.
Even a technical hitch during the set – one of the techies talking over the mic about ‘upping the level’ and ‘there must be a cable out somewhere’ leant itself to the song, so much so that we both thought it was actually part of the song – didn’t dampen it. Technical hitches did seem to plague parts of the first few sets of the evening, strange because everything usually goes off flawlessly, with issues with the DJs CDs skipping or cutting out and some electrical hums at parts. But, these were quickly resolved and much of the evening went off without any problems.
It’s difficult to dislike a band who’s techie warms up by singing little snippets of tunes depending on what he’s testing as well as giving a few lines of the Team America theme song, and thus it set the standard for what was the best set of the evening, even if the lead singer of Welsh band Skindred bore a remarkable resemblance, in his hat, to the weird host of the Mario Party video games.
Avoiding the now mammoth queues for the bar – we decided to skip further drinks for the moment due to the length and the £3.60 a pint cost – it was definitely worth being up among the action for Skindred, as the lead singer excelled in engaging with the crowd, whether it was in sing-back sections, mimicking him ‘doing the robot’ or, indeed, the ‘Newport Helicopter’, which, for the uninitiated, is waving a shirt around your head like the blades of a helicopter.
Though again it was often tricky to fully appreciate what the lyrics were saying – a symptom of a lot of rock bands, not just their coined ragga-metal – they certainly had the best riffs of the day and got the mosh pits going, as expected. The fusion of styles that the band is known for worked really well in the live environment. The group was a masterclass in crowd engagement, throwing in a good mix of moshing, breaks and dancing, with lead singer Benji Webbe often throwing himself around the stage and into the faces of the camera operators.
It was, for me at least, the song ‘Pressure’ that symbolised their set, the crowd going mad for it, though, like many artists of previous years, the amount of swearing in his speeches seemed to be at odds to the family-friendly nature of the festival but obviously comes with the style of music. But nobody seemed to be complaining and it was, after the gig and speaking to those who had been there, this set that everyone was raving about, and for good reason.
It was a shame then that the headliner was actually a bit of a disappointment.
A bit of trivia for you: ‘Scooby Snacks’ by the Fun Lovin’ Criminals (note to the graphics people, there was no ‘g’ in the lovin’ unlike your caption on the screens, he says pedantically) was the first single I ever bought, so I was looking forward to hearing from them. However, the masters of the laid back song struggled to follow the energy of Skindred and would have suited, I think, the previous slot.
The inclusion of brass in the band’s performance added something not seen during the day, but it was far too laid back after the crowd had been pumped up by the previous act. The opener all about the band and their home town was great and the sound was clear and lyrics understandable, and the balance between Huey’s vocals and those of the drummer worked really well. But, ultimately, it was a disappointment after the energy of Skindred and, though they played Loco early on, it was only the thought of them playing ‘Scooby Snacks’ that kept me from leaving. Eventually they did, announcing before that it was time to rock it up, but as soon as the song ended it was time to go, the final set from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals being like someone putting on a chill-out CD in a club when all you want to do is keep dancing.
With a poor stage presence and songs that, ultimately, sounded too similar to each other, it was a battle in my head between staying to listen to the conclusion of the set or beat the crowds to get the train home, the latter winning which did at least allow me to overhear a drunken conversation between a group of friends and an older gentlemen next to us in the carriage, the latter having got on the wrong train and referring to the teenagers as being like Busted, only to sing a song by McFly at them. Classic.
Overall, the first day of Bingley Music Live was worth going to. Forgetting the fact for a moment that it was free, the line-up of Alice Gold, The Go! Team and Skindred was worth paying money for, with Young Guns and Fun Lovin’ Criminals adding to it. I would have liked to have seen Skindred headline as they would have ended the night perfectly but it wasn’t a deal breaker.
Positives: Skindred were fantastic, Alice Gold and The Go! Team great
Negatives: Expensive food and drink, a few technical hitches, poor choice of headliner
See tomorrow for my day two review, featuring Maximo Park, Feeder, Mystery Jets, Athlete, Jon Fratelli, White Denim, Dot Rotten, Dionne Bromfield, State of Error and Thirteen16.
Having been to all but one of the events I figured it was best to return for another year to see who would be playing to the strong crowd of West Yorkshire families.
Friday evening is now traditionally the free evening so, among the ticketholders, were lots of people coming down just for the four hours to take advantage of an impressive line-up with no entry costs. And when I say lots, I mean lots. Even me arriving forty minutes before the first act was supposed to be on stage wasn’t enough to guarantee me access before the first chords were played, thanks to a queue larger than James Bond’s boss after a big feast.
Having only missed her opening song though, I managed to dash down into the park to see opening act Alice Gold. Dressed in a brown hat and a skirt so short it might as well not have been there, the twenty-five minute set showcased her beautiful voice over the interesting musical backing from her band with some very thumping bass for the style of music. Her biggest hit ‘Runaway Love’ was second on the bill and was delivered brilliantly, and was followed by four more songs including ‘And You’ll Be There’ and ‘Orbiter’, all brought alive to the crowd which, as usual, was a good mixture of people of all ages.
By this point I was a little distracted and having come straight from work felt it was time to get something to eat, choosing a hog roast from one of the many choices of food stands, though at £4.50 for it I hoped the pig had had an exceptionally good life.
Whilst waiting for the next band the crowd were kept entertained by seeing themselves on the big screen, tiding them over until it was the turn of ‘Young Guns’ to perform. Complete with boxes for the energetic front man to stand on and rise up, the band certainly kicked up the energy of the festival but, although certainly ticking all the rock boxes, they didn’t seem to stand apart from their peers and, like similar bands in style, struggled to make their vocals heard over two guitars and a bass. Of course, they had all the rock and stylings of their genre but were perhaps a little too generic, but it was a pleasant twenty minutes and they worked hard to get the crowd going, and succeeded.
Just to prove that one drummer will not do, The Go! Team were soon on stage with their two drummers and two drum kits, plus a synth player, who added a lot to their energetic brand of catchy pop tunes with rap, hip-hop and urban styles, delivered speedily and flawlessly by lead singer Ninja. Whilst my friend was distracted by trying to get rid of his rubbish – this year’s festival seems to have given up all pretence of expecting people to clear up their own rubbish and have removed most of the bins, so there’s little else to do than either throw your rubbish on the floor or give your empty paper cups to the kids that walk around collecting them for the 10p rebate each – I was enjoying the really catchy tunes, arguably the artist on the first day that I would most want to hear more of on an album. Bringing the most interesting mix of sounds that day to the festival, even if the use of a xylophone was superfluous in the face of all the other music, they were overall a very energetic band and a thoroughly enjoyable performance with speedy vocals and so much enthusiasm from the young lead singer.
Even a technical hitch during the set – one of the techies talking over the mic about ‘upping the level’ and ‘there must be a cable out somewhere’ leant itself to the song, so much so that we both thought it was actually part of the song – didn’t dampen it. Technical hitches did seem to plague parts of the first few sets of the evening, strange because everything usually goes off flawlessly, with issues with the DJs CDs skipping or cutting out and some electrical hums at parts. But, these were quickly resolved and much of the evening went off without any problems.
It’s difficult to dislike a band who’s techie warms up by singing little snippets of tunes depending on what he’s testing as well as giving a few lines of the Team America theme song, and thus it set the standard for what was the best set of the evening, even if the lead singer of Welsh band Skindred bore a remarkable resemblance, in his hat, to the weird host of the Mario Party video games.
Avoiding the now mammoth queues for the bar – we decided to skip further drinks for the moment due to the length and the £3.60 a pint cost – it was definitely worth being up among the action for Skindred, as the lead singer excelled in engaging with the crowd, whether it was in sing-back sections, mimicking him ‘doing the robot’ or, indeed, the ‘Newport Helicopter’, which, for the uninitiated, is waving a shirt around your head like the blades of a helicopter.
Though again it was often tricky to fully appreciate what the lyrics were saying – a symptom of a lot of rock bands, not just their coined ragga-metal – they certainly had the best riffs of the day and got the mosh pits going, as expected. The fusion of styles that the band is known for worked really well in the live environment. The group was a masterclass in crowd engagement, throwing in a good mix of moshing, breaks and dancing, with lead singer Benji Webbe often throwing himself around the stage and into the faces of the camera operators.
It was, for me at least, the song ‘Pressure’ that symbolised their set, the crowd going mad for it, though, like many artists of previous years, the amount of swearing in his speeches seemed to be at odds to the family-friendly nature of the festival but obviously comes with the style of music. But nobody seemed to be complaining and it was, after the gig and speaking to those who had been there, this set that everyone was raving about, and for good reason.
It was a shame then that the headliner was actually a bit of a disappointment.
A bit of trivia for you: ‘Scooby Snacks’ by the Fun Lovin’ Criminals (note to the graphics people, there was no ‘g’ in the lovin’ unlike your caption on the screens, he says pedantically) was the first single I ever bought, so I was looking forward to hearing from them. However, the masters of the laid back song struggled to follow the energy of Skindred and would have suited, I think, the previous slot.
The inclusion of brass in the band’s performance added something not seen during the day, but it was far too laid back after the crowd had been pumped up by the previous act. The opener all about the band and their home town was great and the sound was clear and lyrics understandable, and the balance between Huey’s vocals and those of the drummer worked really well. But, ultimately, it was a disappointment after the energy of Skindred and, though they played Loco early on, it was only the thought of them playing ‘Scooby Snacks’ that kept me from leaving. Eventually they did, announcing before that it was time to rock it up, but as soon as the song ended it was time to go, the final set from the Fun Lovin’ Criminals being like someone putting on a chill-out CD in a club when all you want to do is keep dancing.
With a poor stage presence and songs that, ultimately, sounded too similar to each other, it was a battle in my head between staying to listen to the conclusion of the set or beat the crowds to get the train home, the latter winning which did at least allow me to overhear a drunken conversation between a group of friends and an older gentlemen next to us in the carriage, the latter having got on the wrong train and referring to the teenagers as being like Busted, only to sing a song by McFly at them. Classic.
Overall, the first day of Bingley Music Live was worth going to. Forgetting the fact for a moment that it was free, the line-up of Alice Gold, The Go! Team and Skindred was worth paying money for, with Young Guns and Fun Lovin’ Criminals adding to it. I would have liked to have seen Skindred headline as they would have ended the night perfectly but it wasn’t a deal breaker.
Positives: Skindred were fantastic, Alice Gold and The Go! Team great
Negatives: Expensive food and drink, a few technical hitches, poor choice of headliner
See tomorrow for my day two review, featuring Maximo Park, Feeder, Mystery Jets, Athlete, Jon Fratelli, White Denim, Dot Rotten, Dionne Bromfield, State of Error and Thirteen16.
Revolver In The Deep
Posted on 02:39 by Unknown
She's proved so far to be a massively successful artist and now it looks like she'll be recording a tune for the next James Bond film.
"Adele drops Bond theme music hint on Jonathan Ross' new chat show".
However, there have been lots of similar statements made over the years of artists singing the themes to the films that have turned out not to be true, including the late Amy Winehouse.
But what other chart topping singers could record James Bond songs? Here's my top picks for some cracking adapted tunes for 007's next big adventure...
Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera - Moves Like James Bond
Jessie J - Who's Slaughtering Now
Lady GaGa - The Edge of Glock
Example - Changed The Way You Kill Me
"Adele drops Bond theme music hint on Jonathan Ross' new chat show".
However, there have been lots of similar statements made over the years of artists singing the themes to the films that have turned out not to be true, including the late Amy Winehouse.
But what other chart topping singers could record James Bond songs? Here's my top picks for some cracking adapted tunes for 007's next big adventure...
Maroon 5 feat. Christina Aguilera - Moves Like James Bond
Jessie J - Who's Slaughtering Now
Lady GaGa - The Edge of Glock
Example - Changed The Way You Kill Me
Friday 2 September 2011
Na-na-who's to blame?
Posted on 14:54 by Unknown
Quick! Get out your puns - feathers have been ruffled; she can't put her head in the sand any longer - as we look at "Rihanna slammed for wearing ostrich feather outfit".
Although, actually, they are not sure if they are real Ostrich feathers but if they are surely celebrities know that they'll be picked up on it for doing so?
Although, actually, they are not sure if they are real Ostrich feathers but if they are surely celebrities know that they'll be picked up on it for doing so?
Thursday 1 September 2011
You Took Your Time...
Posted on 15:43 by Unknown
"Canada lifts radio ban on Dire Straits song" reads this BBC article, after the song was banned in 1985 for containing the word 'faggot'.
So, no 'Fairytale of New York' for them then at Christmas?
So, no 'Fairytale of New York' for them then at Christmas?
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