Tuesday, October 31, 2006

Young Knives


17th October, 2006. Concorde 2, Brighton. How happy was I to see that the Young Knives were playing in Brighton in the same week that I was going to be there! I quickly ordered tickets in Holland, beacuse this was going to be a sell-out. Many years ago, I had held my 18th birthday party at the Concorde together with 5 other friends. It wasn't until I had ordered the tickets that I saw that the venue has moved furthur along the seafront to another building - hence the name change to Concorde2. Duh, no return to my old birthday haunt, but to a concert held in the lobby of the lift that used to take people up from the beach to the top promenade. Interesting. The Young Knives - they have a particular 'look' of should I say style, which can best be described as a 1960's geography teacher crossed with Jarvis Cocker. They look so square that they're trendy. (The merchandise on sale included Young Knives ties!). They play wonderful punky songs with witty lyrics which are totally addictive. They came over really well in the small venue, joking around with each other and the crowd. The songs sounded great and the crowd were really rocking. People climbed up on the pillars and stood on the window sills to get a better view, or maybe to get out of the heat. It was boiling in there! The bass player 'House of Lords' was pissed but still played and sang really well. Part timer, Weekends and bleak days, the Decision - brilliant. Their single - She's attracted to - sent the crowd crazy. Everyone was singing 'You were screaming at your mum, I was punching your dad,' in the extended version of the song, with extra lines such as, punching hif f****** face in, thrown in by Henry. What a laugh. Everyone left dripping wet, with a big smile on their face. Hope they come to Holland soon!
The Young Knives

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Infadels


Infadels. Effenaar, Eindhoven, 24th October 2006. Back to the Effenaar for another new English band, this time for the Infadels. What can I say? They were magnificent. They are a dance/pop band from London who are touring their debut album We are not the Infadels. The group burst onto the stage with Jagger '67, a favourite of mine and the crowd erupted. They have a frontman with an amazing voice who clearly knows how to work the crowd and they produced an energetic and driven performance which kept the crowd jumping. It was clear to see that the group really enjoy playing live and I expect they say it everywhere, but they kept repeating how much they love to play for a Dutch audience.(Their live DVD was filmed in Paradiso.) After a version of Steady as she goes and a slightly mis-timed Girl who speaks no words, the set ended with Can't get enough. An incredible track to finally see and hear live. Their hit Love like Semtex was still to come and an extended version of Brandon Vegas rounded it all off leaving us all extremely sweaty, exhausted and still shouting for more.
Infadels

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

The Ramones


22nd February, 1980. Electric Ballroom, London. The night my jacket shared the stage with Joey Ramone. There were 2 support bands for this concert, one of them - The Boys were good, but the other sent us looking for the bar. The Electric Ballroom in Camden was packed solid and sold out for the Ramones. There was a continual stream of people pushing past trying to get to the front. I had put my jacket on the floor, safe as I thought between my feet, but I soon realised that in the crush it had disappeared. We crawled around with matches trying to find it in the darkness amongst the mass of feet, but all we found was a lighter! The big build up for the Ramones started, so we abandoned the search and tried to find a good place to see the band. That wasn't very easy. We were crammed together like sardines - wall to wall and from the front to the back- and the build up went on for a ridiculous 15 minutes. The huge crowd got more and more restless. When they eventually appeared, launching into the wonderful Hey ho, let's go, the place erupted! Everyone was jumping, it was impossible not to jump with everyone around you going crazy. Before the first song had finished - and that's not long with a Ramones song - we were liquid with sweat. The heat generated by the number of fans in there was incredible. Half an hour into the gig, the bass player Johnny, threw his guitar away and they all trooped off for 10 minutes. The band weren't happy about something. They didn't like the amount of beer that was being thrown at them and because it was so hot in there, they couldn't play properly. (Duh, they kept their leather jackets on!). Apparently, the heat had put their guitars out of tune. Anway, after cooling off they came back on and the crowd went gaga again. If they weren't playing well, we didn't notice. We were too busy leaping around. They played until midnight and as the crowd dispersed, we continued the search for my jacket. We found it eventually, covered in footprints but neatly folded up, on the stage next to Joey's mike stand. Maybe Joey had done that himself. It was a nice thought.
The Ramones

Sunday, October 08, 2006

Generation X


12th April, 1978. Brighton. What can I say about Billy Idol? He was a punk rocker who was trying too hard. We couldn't really take him seriously with his peroxide hair and bike chains. He pulled the same sneer as Sid Vicious, but on him it looked ridiculous. There was an extremely rowdy crowd in the Top Rank, which seemed to consist of a lot of football supporters. Ready, steady, go - as Generation X hit the stage, Billy Idol was showered with glasses and beer. He immediately retreated, to be replaced by one of his entourage, pleading with the crowd not to throw stuff at the stage. The football chanting crowd greeted this with jeers and yet more glasses and liquid. Eventually, the not-so-hard singer sheepishly reappeared and played quite a good set, although their songs didn't really appeal to the hardcore punk fans. The football chanting contingent however appeared to enjoy it. The aggressive atmosphere meant that I watched this show from the balcony; it was a wise decision.
Generation X

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

Editors



21st February, 2006 Eindhoven. This was my first visit back to the new-look Effenaar and I was impressed. From the view outside of the ladies loo to the absence of heavies at the front of the stage, I have nothing but praise. The support band this evening, The Brakes are from my home town (Brighton) so I didn't want to miss their show. They seemed to really enjoy themselves and have some good songs - 'Heard about your band'. The singer sounds strangely like the singer from the Violent Femmes. They closed their set with the opening chords of Munich. The crowd seemed to contain a lot of 'foreigners' and some misplaced Goths. As the Editors aren't yet as big in Holland as in England, it was easy to get right down to the front of the stage. Tom was easily in touching distance, which is why I love this type of venue! It was a great set and the crowd were really rocking. I wanted to see this for myself...everyone sang along. They saved my favourite song for the final encore, a powerful and extended version of Fingers in the factories. Fantastic stuff. Hmmm, walking back to the car, my legs seemed to have turned into lead! Obviously, I'm not as fit as I thought I was.
Editors

Monday, October 02, 2006

Bunch of Stiffs Tour


October 19th, 1977 and a Bunch of Stiffs tour hits Brighton. (Wonderful to see the documentary on Stiff records on Channel 4 recently. ) There were really two headline acts at this show, namely Elvis Costello and Nick Lowe. But for me, these two were a little too polished. Wreckless Eric was already playing when I got there, but immediately captured my attention with his strange songs. However the other Stiffs were just pale imitations of the real star that was Ian Dury. I couldn't understand why he moved the way he did, or why he held the mike the way he did. He was so strange! What was he on? He wore a tweed jacket and cap and draped his scarves around the mike stand. We tried not to look at the veins in his neck but it was hard to look away. He was clearly older than the other Stiffs and his music was a sort of cockney alternative punk. But, he was such a fantastic performer and effortlessly captured the somewhat aggressive audience. Elvis Costello, although gawky and strange looking in his own right, failed with his music to carry on where Dury left off. This was a great evening to showcase Stiff records artists and although Costello went on to become the most commercially successful, it was Ian Dury who brought the house down in Brighton.

Stiff records

Sunday, October 01, 2006

Kraftwerk


Tilburg (NL), 1st July 2005. In 2004, the Duracell powered robots smartly disguised as 4 aged businessmen decided to go on a world tour. They were to play one date in the Netherlands and the venue in Tilburg was quickly sold out. I became aware of Kraftwerk for the first time, way back in 1974. Neighbour S. had asked me round to listen to a song on his new stereo hi-fi system. Duly sitting with oversized headphones, I listened as cars seemingly drove through my head entering one ear and leaving by the other. The track seemed to go on for ever and although Autobahn was never a favourite track of mine, I leant to appreciate its unique sound. The greatest roar in Tilburg was reserved nevertheless for Autobahn, which I felt was disappointing, given that there were many other successful tracks. The men in suits behind their synthesisers laptops were dwarfed by the huge back-drop which projected film and slides synchronized with the music. I particularly liked Vitamin with its huge rolling tablets and Radioactivity. This prevented the otherwise static show from becoming repetitive. After the break, the lights went on to show that 4 robots had now taken the place of the group members. They moved their arms to We are the robots, of course. They were then replaced by the band wearing fluorescent yellow neon suits, showing that they are not so boring after all. An impressive, aero dynamik show with wonderful music that hasn't dated at all. What an accomplishment!
Kraftwerk