Gigs.

back yesterday from dublin, went to see young fathers, idles and LCD soundsystem at malahide castle.  cracking concert in a great setting.

seen idles a fair few times now and love them so knew what to expect.  hadnt seen YF or LCD but theyd been on my radar to go see for a while now.

all 3 bands were excellent and im so pleased to finally get to see YF live.  mrs ex-p loves idles and wasnt too fussed about the others but shes now a convert 🙂

didnt twig til we went in that we had ‘gold circle’ tickets so got right on the front rail.  only downside to that for my wife is that she’d been expecting to sit on the grass and watch so was wearing flipflops 😀  but…. its probably safer at the front than a few rows back where it was all going mental so her tootsies escaped intact.

i NEED to go see young fathers again!!!

What’s the craic with Pearl Jam cancelling last minute? I’d heard rumours a while a go of very low ticket sales and slashed prices to try and get folk in

They’re saying due to illness and I think that’s probably true? They’d already attracted an absolute shitstorm by cutting prices halfway through the run, so loads of people had already paid full price and no refunds were offered… and inevitably that’ll be a lot of more hardcore fans. (it got a bit stupid because there was a fan presale which was quite small and sold out, and then people lost their minds and bought tickets from touts at several times the face value, and then the main sale started the day after, I’m kind of half laughing at that but also, gig ticketing is so demented now that you can’t really blame people for getting the fear). Last minute cancellations are always shit but this one’s a bit extra shit.

Excellent day at Big City Glasgow yesterday, some really good sets but especially from Michael Rother, Kathryn Joseph and Nadine Shah, barely a band I didn’t at least enjoy. I’d seen Sacred Paws before and didn’t dig it but really enjoyed them this time. Definitely a wee bit of shoegazing fatigue by the time Slowdive were on, so we took a wee break before Mogwai, who absolutely killed it- more new stuff than I expected and leaned more towards the beautiful side of Mogwai than the brutal side (I like the horrible noises more). Still a wee element of fatigue in a day with quite a lot of similar music, like, Rano Pano just seemed to go on and on and never go anywhere, especially compared with We’re No Here which does basically the same thing but better. But ending it with Remurdered and the most ridiciulously massive OTT version of Fear Satan ever was just incredible. I’d always like to hear Helicon though

I’m liking this boutique mini festivals thing,new thing for me- got parked right outside, 2 tents and no outdoors stages so weather was no stress, no band clashes (well, some weird 5 minute overlaps), everything within a short walk, enough people to feel like a proper event. About 1 minute’s walk from one tent to the next. Drawbacks were the crowd didn’t fit in the smaller tent (cos with nonstop bands, most people just went straight from one to the other, it was less like a normal festival little stage) and the food and drink stalls were a bit overwhelmed. And you couldn’t <not> miss a band, which would have bothered my completist brain except that luckily Cloth were really dull and a good food break.

This is the whole festival, you could almost fit it in a bigger tent.

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What’s the craic with Pearl Jam cancelling last minute? I’d heard rumours a while a go of very low ticket sales and slashed prices to try and get folk in

A colleague went to see 30 Seconds to Mars the other week and said it was poorly attended  They announced that they were playing in London the following night, and as “a special thank you” their tickets would also be valid for the London gig.

Nile Rogers and Chic last weekend with Mrs P.

His songwriting/production stretches from lots of disco classics, to Madonna, Duran Duran, Bowie and Daft Punk, so they were able to fill the 90 minutes with wall to wall classics. A very tight band and a polished performance meant lots of dancing. Not cool, but very enjoyable.

Alvvays this week. Sadies next week. 100% Canadian loveliness

We’re up to be filming Public Service Broadcasting in Durham Cathedral on Friday – doing the whole of their Every Valley album.

On the day of the election result!

Should be great – I like the band a lot.

My wife went to see Foo Fighters on Saturday night.

Get the impression she wasn’t blown away by them – just got a ‘yeah, it was good’ response when she got home and not much more! (other than lots of moans about **** in the crowd).

She felt the 3hr set was an hour too long too, which is one reason I gave it a miss. There’s only so much shouting I can be doing with.

Sounds standard for modern Foo Fighters. Seen them a fair few times and each time just got more and more “meh”.

Just booked to see Bad Nerves in Leeds in December. Can’t wait for that!

Another thumbs up for Big City Glasgow.

I only went for Slowdive and Mogwai. Mogwai were tight and blistering and brilliant, but for sheer smiles and wonderfulness, Slowdive won the prize for me.

Was home inside the hour after the event finished too. Much goodness.

“We’re up to be filming Public Service Broadcasting in Durham Cathedral on Friday – doing the whole of their Every Valley album.”

I had a ticket for that but had to sell it on – was double booked, we’re off to the Stanhope Weekender (tribute mini festival) Fri & Sat this week. Have seen PSB a couple of times now and am booked to see them at the Glasshouse later in the year. Would have loved to see them at the Cathedral with a brass band, it’ll be a unique experience I’m sure!

Another satisfied Big City customer here. Missed Sacred Paws, but Kathryn Joseph, Michael Rother, Beak, Nadine Shah and of course Mogwai were all amazing. Great event and location – hope it happens again in the future.

Mad how thin on the ground music gigs are for me this year. Last year was packed. Got a Canada Day comedy gig tonight, headliner Bobby Mair, he’s an utter loon so that should be fun.

Next music is Death From Above 1979 in a few weeks. On me todd.

After catching them at Glastonbury, I have just bought tickets to see Fontaines DC at Leeds First Direct Arena – really not sure how they will translate to an Arena-sized audience, but fingers crossed they pull it off.

Roach junior’s band Subterrania playing the big smoke on Saturday @ the Tooting Tram and Social, there’s a few bands on for the London Music Showcase, should be good.

My gig going seems to be entirely nostalgia based nowadays. And in that vein the Manic Street Preachers and Suede co-headline tour date I went to yesterday at Ally Pally was an absolute blinder.

I think when I booked the tickets I’d assumed it was inside Ally Pally, but it was actually outside. Was a great set up with the stage at the bottom of the big slope outside the building so made for excellent viewing.

While I’ve seen Suede a few times in the last decade, I think it was my first time seeing the Manics this millennium. Both bands we on far better form than they deserved to be, but The Anchoress guesting on “Little Baby Nothing” and “Your Love Alone is Not Enough” were particular highlights.

Saw Bobby and Bob Vylan a couple of weeks back, outstanding as always. Got tickets for the November tour booked as well. Before that though it’s the Boss next week and Libertines in Oct. Might head up to see Danbert Nobacon in Preston on Wednesday.

Frank Turner, yet again. Didn’t quite click for me til halfway through, maybe just being a packed relatively small venue and hot as hell, crowd was enthusiastic but mostly pretty static and so was I which is not normal for me. Setlist maybe not the best balanced. But still ace.

Got tickets booked for Alison Moyet next year – that’s all I have on the horizon.

Think of booking Travis, Massive Wagons and Confidence Man (all at Rock City).

Waxahatchee in Brighton next week, Wednesday in August, Robyn Hitchcock in September and Pom Poko at the Wedgewood Rooms Portsmouth in October- 6th time I think.

Death From Above 1979, Sunday night at Chalk Brighton, was great. Frist gig since English Teacher back in May. Really really sweaty and really packed, but I wore my old Big Black t-shirt and went for it 😀

Brighton was packed with people watching something on the Beach (read it was the Libertines, but sounded more like the Kooks).  Outdoors would’ve been nice!

Tickets purchased for Xiu Xiu in Nov. Awesome live. Plus B Dolan at the Joiners in Oct. Be about the 5th time I’ve seen him.

But Ivo Graham comedy on Weds first, hopefully this isn’t cancelled like the last one.

So, after a recap with my brothers (I forget what I have said yes to), I have the following coming up:

Bowie tribute act
Electric Six
Fontaines DC
Aussie Pink Floyd

Jon Hopkins in Bristol this coming Friday night, 26th July and Submotion Orchestra at London Village Underground in November.  I’m hoping Hopkins plays the new album as I’ve seen him a few times performing the older stuff.

Waxahatchee in Brighton were very good – what’s not to like about banjo and steel – but 4 hours 22 minutes parking in The Laines multi-storey at £33.50 was a bit of a stunner. Mainly see gigs at Concorde 2 where parking on Madeira Drive is cheap/free after 8. No signs on the way in I could see.

back there next month but will be making parking plans in advance!

Going to see Ash and Idlewild at Fringe by the sea in North Berwick in a couple of weeks. Not a massive fan of either but tickets were only £30 and £15 for my daughter so seemed rude not to.

We heard Waxahatchee in the distance yesterday at Latitude, sounded good but the comedy tent was compelling at the time.

Frank Turner, The Vaccines and Goldfrapp were all superb, though a singalong and dancing gig with Frank at 1pm just felt wrong and his voice was not as good as it normally is as a result.

Justin Young was living his best life during the set.

We sacked it off early as ‘the kids’ were tired (tbf one is recovering from Covid and the other is adjusting to new medication).

I would lile to see Waxahatchee – had the album on loop for ages. But that venue in Leeds didn’t look like my thing.

We worked with PSB on the Durham Cathedral set. Really enjoyed it – spent a lot of time in the green room with them.

Interesting blokes. Have played some weird places apparently.

I think the film we’ve shot will do the rounds at some point.

Good choir too.

stevenmenmuir
Free Member

Going to see Ash and Idlewild at Fringe by the sea in North Berwick in a couple of weeks. Not a massive fan of either but tickets were only £30 and £15 for my daughter so seemed rude not to.

I’m away for this one, gutted to miss it… Idlewild these days are a pretty weird proposition, they tend to do a main set of their more recent Major Key REM stuff and an encore of old idlewild punkier stuff, and Roddy always looks a bit like he’s not sure why he’s doing it. But still good. Ash’d be just for the memories really but they were ace in 1996

(seriously, every modern Idlewild song sounds exactly like this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y6KmiIq2-m8

Last gig I went to after Nick Mason was Sleeper doing a Matinee show at Bath Komedia. A first for me, and for the band! They were clearly having a great time, as were the audience, and it was nice to come out of a venue before tea time!

Looking ahead, I’ve got the always wonderful Gemma Hayes at Bristol Strange Brew on 26 September, Seth Lakeman at Frome Cheese & Grain on 17 October, which I’m looking forward to, ‘cos he’ll almost certainly have his brother and sister-in-law on stage, as they live in Frome, that’s Cara Dillon and Sam Lakeman, then Judie Tzuke at Bath Chapel Arts, first time I’ll have seen her in years, followed by Laura Marling at Hackney Church on 30 October.
I’ve got one booked for next year, Wardruna, at Bristol Beacon on 21 March.

A busy week of gigs for me….. But only because I’m off to Kendal Calling tomorrow 🙂

Looking forward to CMAT, The Streets, Paulo Nutini, Andrew Cushin, Lottery Winners, Pip Blom & more.  Am excited!

Does anyone frequent Cafe Oto in Dalston? I’ve recently started working in London and Cafe Oto gigs are great – if you like that sort of thing.

This week I experienced an ambient quartet and a man absolutely hammering on a piano.

Wonderful stuff!

Today is the first day of the annual pilgrimage to Bloodstock – YAAAY!!

Does anyone frequent Cafe Oto

Been to a few rather leftfield gig type things there. Ambient sets by cello players, a video of an artist’s mum reading a 1980s IBM manual, that type of thing. Interesting…  As you say, if you like that sort of thing!

The beer there is grim though! Trendy IPAs bleugrgh.

Seeing The Kills on Sunday at Docks in Hamburg (on the Reeperbahn) (I have a spare ticket if anybody wants it) then Fontaynes DC in November.

Just booked tickets n hotels for Gypsy Pistoleros in October at Castle n Falcon as well as James Oliver/Melvin Hancox  at Kings Norton Ex Sevicemens in Birmingham.

Still doing assorted Saturday and Sunday gigs around Birmingham regularly.

And still poured the rain…

korn in Scarborough 🙂

A wee while ago we were in Perth (WA) visiting wife’s brother and his family; I suggested to him that we see who’s playing live and ‘The Angels’ were playing within walking distance – they’re an Australian rock band that’s been going in one form or another since the 70’s.

However, it was the New Zealand support band ‘Mi-Sex’ (they had a few hits in the UK some 45yrs ago!) that blew us both away… so much so that we wondered whether the headliners would ever match their engagement and stage presence.  We agreed that we’d give them five songs, and we left at the end of the fifth song…

If they were to ever visit the UK I’d love to see them again.

Opeth have just announced U.K. dates for next year, they’re playing Bristol Beacon, so tickets to be purchased soon, and another Pagan folk/metal band Heilung from Denmark are playing Brixton Academy next year as well, so another ticket to be purchased for them as well.

Ash were really good last night, helped that they only played for an hour so the set was full of bangers. North Berwick was lovely and sunny and middle class but we still saw two women having a square go. The wee one delivered an olympic standard upper cut and then told her doomed opponent, “never underestimate me!”. And we bumped into the artist formerly known as GW of this parish. Class night.

Youngest Lister just came back from seeing Miss Swift at Wembley last night. Gutted I couldn’t go but sounds like they had an amazing time. £60 for 3 hours of Taylor Swift PLUS Paramore is actually a bit of a bargain.

I’ve got over it now and have a ticket for Therapy? in Bristol in November ?