Last of the summer wine (/prosecco/ale/gin)

What up people. It’s about time I provided you with details of my whereabouts because otherwise HOW WILL YOU KNOW how I’ve been spending my time? We can’t have life events going undocumented because I’ve got less than a year til I’m 30 and from then on I anticipate my memory declining and basically for me to be living at all times in close proximity to a packet of biscuits and my cat.

So let’s roll. In August, still on a Fringe high, I made my way to Copenhagen for a few days of pastries and walking and pastries and yet more walking with my dear friend Helen. Highlights included afternoon tea at the top of a tower, Kierkegaard’s grave, getting the train over the Oresund to Sweden,  two boat trips, riverside fish n chips n wine, patting the Little Mermaid, accidentally riding the oldest rollercoaster in Europe at Tivoli, Lego lions, Moomin mugs, ALL the goddamn pastries and being given a free chocolate milk by a newsagent. A dream of a trip, I highly recommend Copenhagz to you all.

A mini 6 year Durham reunion for three of us on the August bank holiday included excessive prosecco drinking in the gazebo, drunken Sworkit, river walks, brunching and general revelling in the beauty of our second home town. I also get to spend a lot of my time back in Durham now thanks to signing up to be a mentor for one of the colleges, looking after undergrads and plying them with free soft drinks, it’s all very exciting.

My birthday weekend featured extremes of tragedy and great joy, in the form of two Greek plays and an incredible pigsty cake. After another lovely manicure at the delight that is London Grace in Putney and celebrating our friend Jo’s engagement with some fizz, we headed to the Almeida for the Bakkhai (starring Ben Wishaw and Bertie Cavel) which featured some intriguing choral singing, a lot of general campery and a startlingly unconvincing head on a stick. Lots of good acting though. Sunday involved Konditor & Cook meringue and brownies in the groundling queue for the Oresteia at the Globe, which was pretty impressive, very bloody and featured a massive golden phallus parading through the audience at the end so everyone’s a winner.

Recent gigs:

Florence and the Machine – attended with my uncle Sean who has excellent taste in music and enjoys a little dance. Florence was absolutely the best I’ve seen  her and put on a massively energetic show with perfect vocals. So much joy. Supported by the Staves who I am now a fan of! Good folky stuff.

The Proclaimers – CLAP ALONG PROCLAIMERS. My palms were literally bruised after this gig, but they were so energetically insistent on clapping along that you just get swept up and before you know it you’ve got no fingerprints. I have to stress how beautiful some of their songs are too and how cracking the band were – Sunshine on Leith was a high point. So much audience love for the boys, an absolute roar of sound and energetic singing along, including actual marching during 500 miles, made it a super fun evening.

I finally got to welcome my uni girls to the north for a weekend of eating and fun. I dragged them to the beauteous Armstrong Bridge food market (wild boar pizza anyone?), Pleased to Meet You for copious gins, Lady Grey’s for copious ales, and the Fat Hippo for ultimate burger challenge. Quotes from the Fat Hippo experience include: “Delicious but at the same time horrendous”, “I just want to pay and I just want to die”, and “More of a personal battle than the Great North Run”. So in summary: highly recommended. As well as excessive consumption we also spent all our spare money on make up in the newly opened Kiko store, wandered round Tynemouth market and caused divisions with a game of Harry Potter Trivial Pursuit (it’s not for everyone).

In other burger news, I’ve been to the new Byron burger twice already – once for its opening night and a free burger (the rarebit burger, oh my lord) and once for a 25p burger accompanied by the epic chocolate milkshake. They’ve done a great job on the décor – the green tiles are a bit Ministry of Magic which I love – plus for those of us who remember it as a H&M there’s the novelty of trying to work out what section you’re eating in (I think I was in the casual t-shirts bit).

Miscellaneous:

A few weeks ago I buzzed off down south for two friends’ birthdays and experienced the Bombay Sapphire distillery which is a cracking day out. Lots of ingredient sniffing and awkward crouching by info loudspeakers, a talk about the gin making process and a free gin cocktail at the end. Next time you find yourself near Basingstoke (and let’s face it it’s just a matter of time) I suggest you drop in.

Further good news in the form of the birth of my dear school friend’s first baby, little Layton. Welcome to the world, tiny one.

The Gruffalo has been published in LATIN. I haven’t been this excited since…  well, since Harry Potter was published in Latin. Eheu! Gruffalo!

Could not be happier that Gogglebox is back (favourite quote so far – “If a squirrel was in your house you would lose your mind”, oh Siddiquis I love you all), plus Dowton obv, and have also decided to get into Strictly this year, mainly on the basis that Jay McGuinness is amazing and I cannot stop watching his Pulp Fiction jive.

Ok that’s it, no more spewing of my calendar entries for now. More regular stuff to come – particularly because I’m soon heading to one of the TWO cat cafes that Newcastle now has. Welcome to our new furry overlords.

Brixpig x

Kate Bush: Before the Dawn

When: Tuesday 23rd September

Where: Hammersmith Apollo

Why: !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

“Oh it’s gonna be the way you always dreamed about it, but it’s gonna be really happening to you.”

Even as I was sitting in my terribly-far-back seat, next to my best friend with our faces painted in Babooshka style and our hair massively backcombed, downing rosé to simultaneously calm myself and hype myself up, I still couldn’t quite believe that I was about to see Kate Bush live. The whole audience seemed strangely tense, as was I – as tense as I had been months before, when I couldn’t sleep for fear I wouldn’t be able to bag tickets when they went on sale the next morning. And then – the incantation from Lily began – “Oh thou, who givest sustenance to the universe…” And on she stomped, leading her entourage like a barefooted, black-gowned pied piper of madness. The rest is honestly a blur. But the best blur of my life. 

The whole evening was madly theatrical: the name of the show (Before the Dawn) appeared above the entrance to the Apollo, not her own name. The first six songs formed a more traditionally gig-like section, like the most insane warm-up you could imagine – and although Hounds of Love is one of my all-time favourite songs, I was concentrating far too hard on absorbing every second of it to fully enjoy it, and it’s the soaring, staggering King of the Mountain that stays in my mind as just literally mind-blowing. 

The Ninth Wave, staged somewhere within a shipwreck and a whale’s ribcage, floating on the sea and under the ice, was ridiculous; assaulting the senses and making you feel like you’d been tossed over waves of adrenaline and shipwrecked somewhere in Hammersmith. Featuring scary fish people, a helicopter with searchlights zooming around the audience, poetic confetti cannons, a floating buoy and a skit with heavy emphasis on burnt sausages, it was enrapturing and immersive. Bush didn’t dance as such over the course of the evening, but the whole thing was still undeniably physical and she was all over the shop while staying note-perfect and sounding just like herself. Concluding with The Morning Fog was a joyous celebration of all on stage being together and restored, and this translated to the happily swaying audience who seemed frankly relieved to have survived.

After a stunned and giddy interval (us not her), A Sky of Honey was soothing and a balm to the senses (and thankfully the Rolf Harris part was beautifully replaced by Bush’s son Bertie), and featured gorgeous lighting effects and projections of birds that I wish I could have playing constantly in the background of my life. Just everywhere I go. The pace increases towards the end, becomes dramatic and almost brutal – a tree slams straight through the grand piano, causing whoops and gasps – and in true dramatic Kate fashion, she metamorphs into a black winged bird to bring the piece to a close. “All of the birds are laughing… Come on let’s all join in…”

Kate herself seemed on the toppest form – engaging and charming, betraying not a jot of her previous famous stage nerves. She was quirky and confident, understated but accessibly cool. You literally wanted to be up there with her, flapping about on the stage, throwing your shoes into the lake and running up that hill. She ended on the incredible Cloudbusting to my huge joy, and after the most deserving of standing ovations we continued shrieking long after we’d run out of the Apollo and into the night. 

Brixpig x

Boy George

When: Thursday 3rd April

 

Where: Indigo2

 

Why: Me mum loves him (don’t they all?)

 

You’re such a flirt, George. Complimenting the crazy mum dancing, the man with the glittery beard, the man with the massive hat on, and generally working the crowd with his funny little dance moves and relaxed attitude, he couldn’t have been more charming. Apart from the tiny strop he threw during a Bob Dylan cover, to get the noisy crowd to shut up (I was in full agreement with him, people who stand at the bar and yell during gigs are dicks, pure and simple).

 

He sounded incredible. His voice was clearly on top form, so soulful and touching, and smooth as silk. And he looked pretty good too (loving the beard) – clearly that raw diet he keeps going on about on Twitter is working for him. The band were cracking and had a super cool brass section, which really built up the sound and gave a different feel to some of the more reggae tunes. The Culture Club songs predictably got the biggest crowd response (Poison, Do you really want to hurt me, and a new chilled-out version of Karma Chameleon), but I loved his somewhat unexpected cover of T-Rex’s Get it on (see video below). He finished with the joyful, arm-waving, peace-n-love, jingly jangly Bow Down Mister, and a euphoric crowd sent waves of love back at him – this crazy, charming music god.

 

Brixpig x

 

Broken Bells

When: Monday 24th March

 

Where: Shepherds Bush Empire

 

Why: James Mercer’s voice

 

When I rented a room in Three Bridges during an internship a few years ago, the first Broken Bells album was a godsend to me. I used to listen to it every day, usually when I was wandering along to the library or aimlessly roaming around Horsham town centre, pretending I was in a movie about a girl with a really boring life. (I could also only listen to the Sand Band’s album first thing in the morning at that time… I tend to get very set in my musical ways during times of upheaval). And when the second album came out, years later, it made my train journeys to another hated office job much funkier. Again, James Mercer’s voice was the hopeful backing track to dreams of a more exciting future involving less paperwork and Thameslink train journeys.

 

The second album, After the Disco, is a cracker – 80s, synthy, both retro and futuristic at the same time, with a couple of banging BeeGees-esque tracks (Holding on for Life is my absolute fave), it manages to be low-key and uplifting at the same time. Shepherds Bush was totally sold out, and the crowd could see their little faces projected onto the screen on-stage, staring back at their excited expressions and ready for a groove. The show began with Perfect World, the first track from the new album, and we found ourselves taking off from the earth in our psychedelic space ship, complete with huge silver globe and a stunning light show and visuals, on a nearly two-hour journey with our talented hosts.

 

Influential producer and musician Danger Mouse and the Shins’ James Mercer make up Broken Bells, and it’s fair to say that they’re a very understated presence on stage, personality-wise. Danger Mouse (more prosaically known as Brian Burton) remained stoic throughout, and it is hilarious how little Mercer speaks – not even a greeting to the crowd, but giving an occasional mumble of the upcoming song title. Having seen the Shins previously I knew what to expect, and somehow Burton and Mercer's seriousness and focus makes you take their whole enterprise more seriously and forces you to appreciate everything else they’re doing up there – their music speaks for them and is charismatic enough by itself. And Mercer’s soaring voice is just outstanding.

 

We landed gently back on earth, after some fantastic views and a euphoric journey, expertly piloted by two unlikely but impressive captains.

 

Brixpig x

HAIM

When: Thursday 6th March

 

Where: Brixton Academy

 

Why: What do you mean, why??

 

I can now say that I have met a person in real life thanks to Twitter! Not like, forged a real-life friendship or met my future spouse or anything, but met a very nice man briefly near Euston to swap cash and Haim tickets. He couldn’t go because his wife was having a night out and so he was babysitting (as I say, he was a nice man), and I had spontaneously decided to try to get tickets as I was too short-sighted to book them months before when I didn’t really know Haim that well. So it was win-win.

 

My mate and I watched them from right up at the back of the Brixton Academy because we decided to do some pre-drinking at home, but such was the force of their stage presence (and literal volume of both sound and hair) that it felt like we were totally engulfed in the show anyway. Our position also provided comedy gold in the form of me sprinting up the little stairs with two last-minute pints trying to get back before they started, tripping over, obviously, and choosing to save the beer over my shins (you know you’d do the same). Fortunately the drinks helped to numb the pain.

 

The girls blasted onto the stage like gorgeous leggy yetis, and launched into Falling with their trademark long locks flying. I am so jealous of their hair and instantly regretted cutting mine short. I’m still growing it now and am months away from the Haimy majesty I seek. They followed this up with If I could change your mind, which is my favourite Haim track. My dancing was enthusiastic, put it that way – but so was literally everyone else’s in there. It was one of the most vibrant and purely enjoyable gig atmospheres I can remember.

 

There were some awesome covers of Beyonce’s XO and Fleetwood Mac’s Oh Well, and they constantly demonstrated how massively talented they all are, switching around lead vocals and different instruments with sisterly ease. Their rapport and banter with the crowd was killer too, chatting away and sharing awkward stories like total legends (Este’s autocorrect fail had the whole crowd in hysterics). They ended on Let me go, all smashing the hell out of different drums and working the crowd up into an appreciative frenzy. They are so enthusiastic and slick, epic and inspiring and FIERCE and exactly what you want from a gig and a band and like life in general.

 

Brixpig x

London Grammar

When: Wednesday 5th March

 

Where: Troxy

 

Why: Good question

 

Wasting my young years. At this gig, I think I was a bit. It was certainly a few hours of my life that I’ll never get back. I returned to the Troxy for the postponed gig that got me my free Future Cinema tickets, and realised what a brilliant venue it is for music. It’s congenial and beautiful, with great bars and views even right at the back, and the little booths are lush. However, once I’d taken all this in, sat through the support (Dan Croll – good, bit Made in Chelsea but a nice presence), I was ready to be carried away and impressed. Instead I ended up lost and floating on an uninspiring, lukewarm sea of dullness. With currents of irritation carrying me along, thanks to the film crew constantly dicking about running backwards and forwards in my eyeline.

 

There is definitely such a thing as being too understated. It can verge on being not at all interesting. And having no stage presence. I have no doubt that London Grammar are all nice, inoffensive people, but that doesn’t make for a great evening of entertainment. Hannah Reid’s voice is genuinely good and has a powerful haunting quality, but it can get a bit unvaried after a while. The group were filming the music video for their song Sights, which meant that Hannah had to leave the stage for a three minute Lemsip session before they performed it, during which time the cameramen went into overdrive, practicing their runs up and down the stairs (see the long shot at the end of the video below and you’ll see what it was they were up to). I really think you should commit to one thing – either do a gig or film your video. Or accept that if you use your live performance as your video, it might be a bit ropey – don’t REPEAT it as your encore (that was the point that drove me out of my stupor to get up and leave). As a group, they really didn’t have the charisma to charm a crowd into going along with the whole video charade, to make up for the annoyance with their persuasive power and banter. The audience all just seemed to be having a good old rumbly chat throughout the entire gig. I’ve seen beautiful, dream-like performances hold an audience spell-bound (Beach House, I’m looking at you), so I know it is possible. But London Grammar definitely aren’t there yet.

 

Brixpig x

 

Turin Brakes

When: Wednesday 20^th November

Where: O2 Shepherds Bush

Why: Love of old skool

When I told my friend I was going to see Turin Brakes, she texted back with “Never heard of them. Is that a typo?” Admittedly, they’re not the sort of band I ever would have encountered either, if it hadn’t been for a friend’s collection of copied indie CDs in my first year of uni. Once I had found them however, they became fixed in my life as a firm napping soundtrack favourite (alongside bands like Nizlopi, Starsailor, and the Corrs). That sounds like a dig but it’s actually a huge compliment; I have to be able to relax into a band to be able to nap, and their sound welcomed me in and helped me to chill out and have a think, which is vital when most of the rest of your uni time is spent either in total denial about upcoming exams or stress-writing essays at the last minute (two of my key areas of expertise, I’ll have you know).

This tour was to showcase their sixth album We Were Here which stayed true to their sound but with a bit of a “psychedelic edge”, which is almost never a bad thing. The concert was mild mannered but enthusiastic, with some epic jazz flute action and bass guitar flipping. During pauses between songs, the guys made sure to charm the crowd to keep them involved – “We tune because we care” – and it definitely worked, judging by the obvious affection for the band emanating off the crowd in waves. My favourite song of all is their classic track Painkiller which is a constant on any playlist I create, and always takes me vividly back to sitting in my tiny college room in Durham drinking a 50p pint of coke, leaning back on my chair and casually wasting my time in the most delightful way possible.

Thanks for a cracking evening boys.

Brixpig x

Boomtown Rats

When: Saturday 26^th October

Where: Camden Roundhouse

Why: DO THE RAT

I had seen Bob Geldof perform once before, at the North Shields fish quay music festival in 2003 (the same year that Hear’Say were at the height of their fame and were flown in by helicopter to perform, and the same year I also saw Lindisfarne... Such company). Not the rest of the Rats, just Bob, in the middle of a thunderstorm and a crowd full of umbrellas, yelling “Yer all feckin’ mad!” as the rain poured down. But he was clearly grateful and glad to be there, staying on-stage as long as possible until the risk of actually being electrocuted became too great – standard Bob. It was all about the gig and pushing the boundaries of what was sane.

I have no idea how I got into the Boomtown Rats. I think I knew I don’t like Mondays by the time I’d seen them in North Shields, and I remember buying their Greatest Hits album and locking myself in our utility room and listening to it on repeat while I was painting photo frames for my friends before I went away to uni. Eventually I knew every word and bought their entire back catalogue in one go from HMV before I went off to Durham, and had a poster of Bob and a white tiger on my college bedroom wall for quite a long time.

This gig was the first time with the whole band reunited (and their old guitarist came back at the end – won’t lie to you, no idea he was missing but they were happy so I nodded along). I love Geldof’s strutting arrogance – he really doesn’t give a shit, but he’s funny and self-aware too. And he has a massive, huge stage presence – that you just can’t deny. They sang all their classics, and I have never danced so much at a gig by myself before – you just can’t help it. I was also definitely one of the youngest there, which I always love. The Rats are definitely underrated as a band, and if you’re at all interested in sort of melodious punk, definitely give them a listen. Bob’s also a hero – I recently read his autobiography (written in 1985 so slightly out of date), which is insightful and yeah, a bit up itself, but often funny and massively inspiring and shows you what an attitude and a determined fight for what’s good and right can achieve (I’m talking about Live Aid guys).

This was also my first trip to the Roundhouse, which is an awesome venue. Genuinely impressed. Another one ticked off the list!

Brixpig x

Barry Gibb

When: Thursday 3^rd October

Where: O2

Why: YOU SHOULD BE DANCING, YEAH

All my musical life was leading up to this moment. It’s difficult to describe how much the BeeGees mean to me. I remember staying at my auntie’s house lying in bed listening to her BeeGees Greatest Hits CDs on my Discman (yeah) and having a genuine epiphany. They are song-writing GODS. White suit-wearing GODS. Falsetto GODS. In my gap year I used to sit in my friend’s car after our Greek classes (you know it) perfecting my falsetto Barry Gibb impressions, and so to find myself awaiting his arrival on stage at the O2 was a real pinch-me moment.

I have to say, it was the most emotional concert I’ve ever been to. There were tributes to Maurice and Robin, there were videos and songs in their honour, and I found myself crying at least three times. Barry really held it together, it was the perfect mix of nostalgia and happiness, disco tunes and memory-tugging ballads, public-facing showbiz and personal memories, and it felt like a privilege to be there. This man has shaped the British (and international) music industry and infiltrated our minds with his catchy, catchy melodies, and for that he should be revered and loved.

Bless you BG.

Brixpig x

Laura Marling

When: Wednesday 2^nd October

Where: Shepherd’s Bush O2

Why: I’ve wanted to see her for so long

Laura Marling is quite frankly a genius. She takes her singing very seriously which sometimes makes me chuckle, but she delivered her beautiful songs with self-confidence and self-deprecation. She has an understated modesty which is a breath of fresh air compared to the ubiquitous self-indulgence of a lot of artists (coughlanadelreycough), and she told the story of how delighted she was when she found her stage outfit (a long, white, Victorian nightie style dress) in a vintage shop, which was great on so many levels – firstly, she looked bloody great and I wish people wore that style more often (period drama style capes, anyone?) and secondly, a female singer just standing there and singing and not making it all about the outfits and the legs and the gyrating was more than inspiring.

She held court on a simple stage, tuning her own guitar and not coming back out for an encore (doing it her own way, man), and she was utterly spell-binding. There’s no artifice, just a totally real, forceful performance that soars and envelops you in its beauty and strength. The story she told about her cab-driver on her journey to the venue was brilliant – on asking where she was going and finding out it was actually her headlining rather than just heading to a gig, he apparently said, “Oh god, you’re not one of those female singers always droning on about their husbands making them miserable are you?”, which she replied to with a self-conscious “Noooooo…..” Loved it, especially as whenever I mention Laura Marling to my mate Claire she always chirps out a mournful “maaaaaa husband left me last niiiiiight”, which makes me howl.

If you can see LM live, just bloody do it. I will, every opportunity I get.

Brixpig x

Glasvegas

When: Thursday 20th June

Where: XOYO

Why: I wanted to see what they’d be like

I hadn’t been to a proper scruffy gig for ages, so Glasvegas at XOYO was an excellent change (they kicked my Lana del Rey experience right up the arse, let me tell you). I love how dark and gritty they are, how you feel like you wouldn’t necessarily want to meet them down a dark Glaswegian alleyway, alongside the powerfully emotional lyrics lead singer James Allen tears out of himself through his incredible unique voice. Their heartbreaking songs are yelled right back at them by a crowd of tough guys with their eyes closed and fists clenched around their beers. They are brutal and honest, but beautiful and moving too. Their new drummer Jonna Lofgren was incredible, providing a massive presence, momentum and rockstar spirit on the stage. She’s cool, basically. 

Glasvegas really surprised me; they grabbed me and shook me and made sure I had an immense time, as did the surprisingly polite crowd (appreciate you, guys). It’s gigs like this that make you know live music is worthwhile, when the band’s passion literally hurls itself off the stage and smacksyou round the ears (in a pleasing way). They’re not perfect but they’re real. 

Their new album is out now and definitely worth a listen (although their first one is still the best). 

Brixpig x

Mt Wolf

When: Friday 7th

Where: Union Chapel

Why: Ongoing appreciation for both artist and venue

I’m keeping it brief – ethereal setting, dreamy artist, excellent (Wahaca and beer-fulled) company. Could only have been improved by whoever was doing the sound turning it up a bit. The Union Chapel is a great venue – a gloomy but cheerful atmosphere, charming and very chilled-out. The pew seating feels communal and friendly, and the cute bar above the church provides comfy seating, reasonably priced booze and even a cup of tea if that’s what you fancy. Brilliant stuff. 

Mt Wolf performed their all too short set impeccably, Kate Sproule’s vocals soaring through the rafters and making me shiver as usual. Their new song Midnight Shallows is a real beaut and I suggest you have a listen below and catch them when they’re next performing near you for an utterly cool evening.

Brixpig x

Lana Del Rey

When: Monday 20^th May

Where: Hammersmith Apollo

Why: I thought I was a fan

Prepare yourselves readers, you’re about to experience Brixpig’s first scathing review. I know, I know, we never thought it could happen. But I’m here to tell you that none other than the USA’s golden angel Lana Del Rey has forced me into it.

Never before have I been bored at a gig. Just not paying attention, thoughts wandering, not having fun good old fashioned BORED. Usually if it's someone whose music I love, I'm just so thrilled to be there and experiencing them that it's always amazing. But something just didn't quite connect with Lana, which was sad, given that I did (and still do) really like her actual music. The set was cool, very 1920s (very Gatsby actually), with candelabra, palm trees and two magnificently handsome stone lions flanking the stage. But I was boiling, and surrounded by gangs of women in their thirties with enormous handbags and cups of offensive smelling Chardonnay whooping "I LOVE this one!!" Could not have been more of a contrast between this and the relaxed comfort and beauty of Noah and the Whale the night before.

Lana seems to be basically like one of those girls at school who is so pretty that she doesn't need even to flirt, but can just look mournfully at a boy and he'll swoon at her feet. This was like that, but with thousands of people at once. Which I suppose is actually quite impressive, but not a style I'm a massive fan of and I can’t agree that it makes for an atmospheric performance. What happens is you end up with a massive love-in between the crowd and her, which is simultaneously a bit sickening and also just really annoying. I've never heard so much raucous high-pitched screaming from a crowd, and I've seen Glee in concert. I never expected her to be the most energetic of performers, given the swoony and melancholic nature of her songs, but this was on another level of mournful. If she were any more languid she'd be an actual mermaid glaring at you from her lonely rock.

She hadn't even finished her first song before she was in the crowd greeting her fans like she was at a film premiere, accepting flowers and taking photos with all the time in the world. It must have been great if you were one of the fifty or so people at the front. For the rest of the three and a half thousand in the audience, not so much. The second time she did it, in the middle of the set, I went to the loo. The third time, at the end, I just left. I just don't think it's appropriate to be off the stage for so long during a gig. Sure, lots of acts go into the audience, but they usually keep singing and only do it once for a fairly short time. She also disappeared in the middle of the set while a short film came on, which was a fairly good music video style film but again, like, where are you? She wasn't costume changing or anything. It all just felt like a huge amount of  casual vanity.

I genuinely do love her music, her voice is sublime and she really is a beautiful creature. She sang the great ‘Young and Beautiful’ from the Gatsby soundtrack, a cover of ‘Knocking on heaven’s door’ and ‘Blue Velvet’ which always just reminds me of loo roll adverts. But the videos throughout the show of her floating around looking gorgeous were far more interesting than what was happening on the stage, and I could have stayed at home and seen all that on YouTube. She managed to connect with some of the crowd in her wearily sweet way, calling us her friends and claiming that she doesn't usually have much to say on stage. You're telling me. If one if my friends treated me like that, I'd think I'd mortally offended them...

In short – I wish I hadn’t bothered. She’s the one act I’ve seen that has made me think that for some artists, live concerts are a waste of time.

Brixpig x


In happier news, coming up:

BARBRA STREISAND on 1st June at the O2
Viva Forever! Yessss, just before it closes!
Mt Wolf at the Union Chapel
Vikki Stone at the Udderbelly and Frisky and Mannish at the Speigel Tent - Southbank
Glasvegas at XOYO
Macbeth (directed by Eve Best!) at the Globe
MS MR at the Electric Ballroom
Cricket at the Oval (hahaha)
Ellie Goulding at Hammersmith
BARRY GIBB at the O2 (unbelievably excited about this)

Noah and the Whale: A Month of Sundays

When: Sunday 19^th May

Where: Palace Theatre

Why: I couldn’t live without them

The front of the Palace Theatre proclaims Noah and the Whale to be “An evening of pure joy!” and “Wall to wall pleasure!” and although these reviews technically refer to ‘Singin in the Rain’ which is showing there during the rest of the week, they are equally applicable to the evening I spent in their comfy seating and civilised atmosphere with some velvet-clad boys producing some of my favourite music ever.  

The band have said in an interview that performing to a seated audience was like doing a Q&A rather than a gig, which I get, but by the end they’d reminded us that we were at a “seating optional” event and everyone leapt up and those in the stalls swarmed to the front. I say “everyone” leapt up, but the couples on either side of me stayed resolutely seated throughout the whole final two songs and encore, so I looked a bit like a lone seaweed swaying on the shore, but I wasn’t going to be sat down as one of my favourite bands of all time played their faces off. That’s just not right. (And yes… I was there on my own. Whevs).

They played a “stripped-back” set for the first half hour, which I think for them basically meant no funky lighting, as in all other aspects it was the same as later on – how stripped back can you be with four extra violinists and a disco ball? But it was beautiful and they ended on ‘First days of spring’, which is a total stunner and caused one of the bouncy teens sitting in the box opposite to yell “That’s the best song ever!!” at the end.

Then we were treated to a half-hour film (see an intro to it here) made by the band and directed by Charlie (lead singer), featuring as its soundtrack all the songs from the new album, ‘Heart of Nowhere’. The story was roughly to do with an alternate future reality where all teenagers have to be transported to an island to be checked over and to see if they’re suitable to re-enter society as an adult, and usually end up having all their memories wiped. What follows is three teenage boys breaking free of the line into the island to play one more gig and have one more night recording their memories and favourite colours into a tape player, and generally emoting in dark environments. Despite being a bit hipster and earnest, the boys were really passionate and acted well, and the music worked so beautifully with the film that it was quite gripping. Plus some of the accents were hilarious.

After the interval (LOVE an interval – crack out the gin in a tin) we got a full set from the boys featuring mostly the newest album and some of their more recent stuff. The only song from their first album was the inescapable ‘5 years time’, and I did miss some of their earlier songs (‘Rocks and daggers’ is one of my favourite songs of all time) but the new stuff suited the atmosphere of the evening and it was great to hear it live (always helps me get into a band’s new music, and I’d been struggling with their new album a bit – I love it now). We also got to see Anna Calvi perform ‘Heart of Nowhere’, which was great – her voice is mad powerful. They were brilliant though and having such a good view I really got to appreciate how musically talented they all are, seeing them all swap around instruments and vocals, and particularly Matt and Fred’s electric guitar duel which was insane.

A pretty good high point too was that my friends were there, who are themselves friends with Fred the guitarist’s sister, who gave me a spare pass to the after party at Soho House (fancy). I couldn’t scoop any photos as they aren’t allowed in there apparently, but it was awesome. I am definitely not cool enough to have ever been to a proper after party before and didn’t stay long at this one (reasons: my two pals had come straight from Eurovision in Malmo, and I was interviewing three people the next morning and was pretty nervous having never interviewed anyone before). But it was super fun and I managed to “accidentally” bash into most of the band members on my way in and out (Charlie’s hair is enormous and his velvet jacket was extremely soft… I definitely sound like a stalker). EXCITING TIMES for this pig.

Noah and the Whale are one of those bands I’d go and see again and again until the end of time (this was number 4 I think), because I just LOVE them and their music means so much to me (I listened to ‘First days of spring’ every single morning for over a year). They are hilariously mournful and nostalgic for guys who are the same age as me, but who can complain? I used to think there was no such thing as ‘too mournful’ in music, and still sort of do, but bear with until my upcoming Lana Del Rey review…

Brixpig x

OneRepublic

When: Wednesday 24^th April

Where: Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Why: They do nice tunes

Yeaaaaah OneRepublic! You know them! No, you definitely do…! …You know the song ‘Apologize’, with Timbaland? Yeah, that’s them… Yeaaah, they sound a bit like the unofficial soundtrack for One Tree Hill? Exactly.

I still think this is a pretty good way to sum up OneRepublic (in a complimentary way, clearly – I loved One Tree Hill). But after seeing them live I do appreciate their musicality a bit more – they do some cracking instrumentals, their lead guitarist is FIERCELY good, and lead singer Ryan Tedder’s voice is insane (also, how cute a surname is ‘Tedder’? I want to marry him). He spoke a lot about his gospel church experiences as a child (a song on the new album is called ‘Preacher’, about his grandad being, well… a preacher) and this has definitely influenced his voice and his range. It also turns out Tedder has written songs for about a billion other artists (see his Wikipedia page if you don’t believe me) which is impressive.

I also love the face that OneRepublic are a proper band, a little collective with multi-talented musicians, and who all sat around for a jam session half way through the set which was sweet. Their cellist is perfection – if I wasn’t marrying Tedder for his surname, I’d be marrying the cellist for his all-round brilliance. Tedder’s special lighty-up piano was also a hit, especially when it changed from red to blue alongside the lyrics of his acoustic performance of ‘Apologize’, which he then merged with ‘We found love’ - an interesting combo. It was an evening of mash-ups, as it happened, with the original and modern versions of ‘Gold digger’ and an epic encore mash-up of 7 nation army / Adele / Roxanne (he does a great Sting impression) / Sexy back. Impressive. My personal fave was the interweaving of my favourite song of theirs, ‘Good life’, with the backing from M83’s ‘Midnight City’ (aka the Made In Chelsea’ theme tune) – see the video for proof. Smasher.

They pulled up songs from all three albums which formed a brilliant set and finished on a joyful and euphoric ‘If I lose myself’ from the new album ‘Native’ (which is great) and a confetti canon (which you don’t see enough of nowadays, in my opinion).

Awesome.

Brixpig x

Beach House

When: Monday 25^th March

Where: Shepherd’s Bush Empire

Why: Love em

“This is our nineteenth performance in London, so I feel like an oooooold pony… That’s it, sorry to interrupt our evening.” A funny little announcement from Beach House’s singer, Victoria Legrand, which made me chuckle and brought me back down to earth after floating around the heavens on her voice. I only discovered the day before the gig that Legrand, the lead singer, is in fact a girl, which even though I have seen her live I still have trouble believing when I listen to Beach House now. It’s like the time I found out that Cher was actually a woman (I was around 11 years old… shameful). With Cher it was like, oh yeah that actually now makes sense. But I still can’t fully realise it with Beach House. Which I quite like really, it’s mysterious. And also, doesn’t matter at all obviously. Legrand’s voice is like an androgynous French angel swooping over electronic clouds, with a killer guitarist (Alex Scally) in tow on the cloud behind, and hair that could literally destroy you if you came too close. She did seem to be channelling something of a pony with her amazing headbanging mane – her hair has a life of its own and was almost like the third member of the group. She was so passionate and seemed almost fused to her keyboard, which was appropriate considering how blended and seamless their music is.

I got into Beach House after hearing ‘Take Care’ at the end of an episode of New Girl, and hadn’t listened to them that much before I went to see them in March. Ever since then I’ve had them on almost every day and just love them so much. Their genre is kind of associated to ‘dreamfolk’ (not an enormous fan of that term but it kind of works) and to be fair, the experience of seeing Beach House live is like being caught up in a beautiful dream. The atmosphere in the Shepherds Bush empire was nothing like I’ve experienced there before – the crowd were SO quiet, like they were dazed or just respectfully speechless at what was going on (which just never really happens, or at least not at the gigs I’ve been to…). It’s impossible not to get caught up in their performance, and the teaming of the lighting with every note of the music was simple but perfect (see my video below of ‘Take Care’ – persevere and about half way through you’ll see what I mean). Legrand’s voice is a bit like if Debbie Harry sang only at the bottom of her range – husky, characterful and enrapturing.

Beach House are a perfect example of why recordings are never enough – you HAVE to see music live to experience how it’s really meant to be and to allow the visuals to let you connect with the band and to get into their personality.

Love them.

Brixpig x

Robyn

When: Thursday 1^st November

Where: Brixton Academy

Why: She kicks ASS

Photo from theupcoming.co.uk

If I described Marina as fierce, she’s not even on the same scale as the dynamo that is Robyn (although they’re both supporting Coldplay so they’re obviously both winning at life – I’m not even a Coldplay fan but they seem to be like a big deal). I have NEVER seen a more energetic performance (not even from Florence – different style) and despite being a bit of a shit fan and only knowing her singles, as well as Show Me Love obviously (nineties-style) I loved it all. Girl got moves. The visuals were amazing, colourful and mad like Robyn herself. She’s just got so much attitude and her move from popster in the 90s to complete punky siren mentalist now could not have been more successful. She also sang a little bit of Dancing Queen (Sweden, baby) which thrilled my heart. If you ever get a chance to see her live, just DO IT.

Support was from Summer Camp, whose backing visuals featured dance scenes from old movies (genius), and a random woman dressed a mermaid (cracking voice but no idea who she was).

Brixpig x