Saw Stewart Lee last night. Final leg of his tour I think and testing material for his upcoming TV show.
Edgy as ever and a good night
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Originally posted by @Goatboy
Just been to a Jazz and Soul Night featuring Wyvern Jazz and Soul Bands and the Barton Peveril Soul Band.
!!! - blimey - it’s changed a bit since I was there then. Gilbert and Sullivan was radical stuff for the music department then…
Levellers at the 1865 Friday before last. They’ve still got it. Top stuff. Made me want to go join some travellers in a field for the rest of the summer.
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Old 97s!! At the Borderline!
Originally posted by @JBoy
Levellers at the 1865 Friday before last. They’ve still got it. Top stuff. Made me want to go join some travellers in a field for the rest of the summer.
I highly recommend the Levellers’ festival (Beautiful Days) which is in the middle of August nr. Ottery St Mary, Devon. Can’t make it this year but it’s usually the first thing on our calendar.
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When I was there Marcus Black would have had nothing to do with that new-fangled Gilbert and Sullivan.
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Yesssss! I went in 2008, keep meaning to go back.
Originally posted by @KRG
How was the Bragg-man Bletch?
Sorry KRG, I kept meaning to reply to this, but goldfish-like I kept getting distracted by other…
[Bletch just nipped off to create a new thread about debunking myths]
Anyway, the Bragg-man was on great form. I attended with the uncharacteristically, shy Rust Cohle of this parish - and a couple of other mates.
Bragg was playing a benefit for the Joiners as well as using the gig to warm up for the festival season, so he was even more relaxed than normal. It seems that Bill has a soft-spot for The Joiners from years ago, and kept referring to the management by first name.
It had the feel of the sort of gig that after he’s dead and gone 10,000 * people will have claimed to have been there. In reality, there were probably 300 of us crammed in (Wiki tells me that capacity is 200).
You may remember that I originally missed out on a ticket, but mysteriously more tickets became available. As it was a benefit, I reckon they must have printed more than they were meant to. Glad they did.
The only personally disappointing aspect was that in times of personal political nadir (usually during Tory governments) I do look to Bill to re-kindle my interest in politics. As anyone who has ever seen him live would attest, he usually intermingles the odd song amongst his thoughts on current social or political issues.
This time however, he was upfront and admitted that he didn’t have ‘a fucking clue’ what the parties of the left should do next, or how they will get themselves into any shape to address what he sees as the social inequity of the austerity measures. He apparently feels as helpless and as disenfranchised as I do.
What was really lovely to be part of was watching him struggle with some guitar work and forgetting stuff like lyrics or the key of certain songs.
It was very personal, and as a devotee to the man, I loved it.
* OK there might not be 10,000 Bragg fans left alive at that point. Let’s say 1000. 500?
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I’ve planned months in advance to book some tickets to see Rob Newman…comedy gigs are acceptable, right? It will cheer up a dark, cold November night. Seen him a few times and he has always been fantastic.
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Yay! Fatso stayed on!
Managed to get 4 tickets to see the Foo Fighters at Murrayfield on September 8th. My youngest daughter (6), loves the Foo Fighters and she is so excited about this. I may have done a dance around the lounge. This will be the 6th time of seeing them, but the last time was about 5 years ago!
Also hoping to see Reel Big Fish in Newcastle in October. They are good for a laugh!
Slightly behind here people, my apologies.
I was at the Joiners for Billy - man was it hot in there!
Great gig, I managed to make it from the toilet corridor to the back near the sound desk as the support evolved.
I also saw him at the old Eastpoint Centre back in the day - with the Cropdusters or the Men They Couldn’t Hang??..
Saw Stewart Lee at Basingstoke, he is bonkers and edgy, funny and slightly chaotic - but in a good way.
My work just brought me into fleeting contact with Snoop - what a tosser.
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Saw Rob Newman 2 weeks ago in a very small venue. He was fanatstic although one of his props didn’t work. Very clever man too. Second time of seeing him and not disappointed.
We saw Neds Atomic Dustbin last week followed by comedian Luisa Omielan. Laughed until I cried.
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Originally posted by @Intiniki
Originally posted by @Fatso
I’ve planned months in advance to book some tickets to see Rob Newman…comedy gigs are acceptable, right? It will cheer up a dark, cold November night. Seen him a few times and he has always been fantastic.
Saw Rob Newman 2 weeks ago in a very small venue. He was fanatstic although one of his props didn’t work. Very clever man too. Second time of seeing him and not disappointed.
We saw Neds Atomic Dustbin last week followed by comedian Luisa Omielan. Laughed until I cried.
What was Luisa like though?
Originally posted by @Lets-B-Drinking
Originally posted by @Intiniki
Originally posted by @Fatso
I’ve planned months in advance to book some tickets to see Rob Newman…comedy gigs are acceptable, right? It will cheer up a dark, cold November night. Seen him a few times and he has always been fantastic.
Saw Rob Newman 2 weeks ago in a very small venue. He was fanatstic although one of his props didn’t work. Very clever man too. Second time of seeing him and not disappointed.
We saw Neds Atomic Dustbin last week followed by comedian Luisa Omielan. Laughed until I cried.
What was Luisa like though?
She was filming for a DVD she wants to put out so there was a bit of waiting about with her just dancing about. She was funny and throught provoking too. She got a standing ovation and not everyone there had seen her before. My boyfriend said he hadn’t laughed so much since he saw Russell Brand a few years ago. I am sure many will say he’s not very or even funny. But that’s the beauty of this world we all like different stuff.
Even more gigs booked up for me:
5/9/15 - Foo Fighters at National Bowl, Milton Keynes
18/10/15 - Fightstar at Southampton University
25/10/15 - Young Guns at Engine Rooms, Southampton
6/11/15 - Every Time I Die at The Talking Heads, Southampton
This side of Christmas so far I have
foo fighters - murrayfield Edinburgh
reel big fish - Newcastle
Ash - Newcastle
Managed to get a v last minute ticket to go to Reading for the Sunday. Was a fun day out.
Saw Spring King, who I really enjoyed. The Maccabees & Jamie T were predictably fun.
In line with a recent comment made by Super Michael, about us being a pretty white forum (probably fair) I tried to diversify a bit and got on down for Kendrick Lamar. I’ve been enjoying his album recently, and have to say he absolutely knocked it out the park. Really great performance and really good fun. Enjoyed that so much more than Kanye at Glastonbury.
I did find it interesting that the crowd for Kendrick was both noticably more swollen and rowdy than it was for headliners, The Libertines. It’s a strange situation with The Libs. They are probably in the best condition they’ve ever been in (at least as a band), tighter and visually happier. My mind does go back to seeing them at Leeds when they first reformed in 2010, it was pretty apparent it was a cash grab, the tensions between Pete & Carl were clear to all to see.
Fast forward 5 years and there seems to be a cooling in tensions, the boys have grown up, accepted each others flaws and are best friends. I wonder if therein lies the problem? The hits are still great, they sound good, the band look in good shape (well, Pete may have put on a little bulk, but he still looks much better than when he was at his worst) - but there is something missing. There’s no spark. There’s no edge. A big part of their appeal was the myth that surrounded them. The intrigue. The feeling that this could either be the most exciting night of your life or a complete and utter shambles. Everything could fall apart in 2 seconds time.
There’s none of that now. It’s 4 middle-age(ish) dudes playing through their hits relatively comfortably, with the odd new tune.
Originally posted by @KRG
I did find it interesting that the crowd for Kendrick was both noticably more swollen and rowdy than it was for headliners, The Libertines. It’s a strange situation with The Libs. They are probably in the best condition they’ve ever been in (at least as a band), tighter and visually happier. My mind does go back to seeing them at Leeds when they first reformed in 2010, it was pretty apparent it was a cash grab, the tensions between Pete & Carl were clear to all to see.
Fast forward 5 years and there seems to be a cooling in tensions, the boys have grown up, accepted each others flaws and are best friends. I wonder if therein lies the problem? The hits are still great, they sound good, the band look in good shape (well, Pete may have put on a little bulk, but he still looks much better than when he was at his worst) - but there is something missing. There’s no spark. There’s no edge. A big part of their appeal was the myth that surrounded them. The intrigue. The feeling that this could either be the most exciting night of your life or a complete and utter shambles. Everything could fall apart in 2 seconds time.
There’s none of that now. It’s 4 middle-age(ish) dudes playing through their hits relatively comfortably, with the odd new tune.
I got that vibe with The Libs at Glasto as well - they don’t seem the same band that they were, which is understandable given that they’ve been around for almost 20 years in one form or another. I also saw them at Reading in 2010 and it was a vastly different set to the one we saw a few months ago at Glasto, they did seem to have that edge of danger and unpredictability in what was clearly a cash grab set like you said. Now that they’re back writing music and happy playing together, they’ve lost that. Still good to watch but they’ll not be the same band that they once were.
As for myself, being an Edinburgh resident, i’ve been doing a lot of Fringe shows of late. I decided to bookmark the Fringe with shows by Stewart Lee on August 8th and David O’Doherty last night, both comedians that i’ve been meaning to see for ages and ages but never got round to. Lee was trying out new material across his run for the new series of Comedy Vehicle, so it’ll be interesting to see how the stuff we saw transforms across the run and then when it’s filtered through the process of a TV show. Really funny though, he’s honed his character perfectly and deserves all the praise he gets.
I was a bit surprised that David O’Doherty wasn’t sold out considering that he’s probably one of the most well-known comedians at the Fringe this year. He really delivered, clearly very jaded and tired at the end of a long run of shows but he still put in a lot of energy to his performance and is still one of the most irreverent and hilarious comedians out there in my view. Seen plenty of free shows, nothing major to report there though! I wanted to try and catch Trevor Noah before he takes over the reigns of the Daily Show later this year but his run sold out weeks in advance, shame that.