MusicRiot.co.uk

Westlife – Where We Are Tour Live at the CIA

It’s been two long , agonizing years since I last saw Westlife live on tour but, their performance at the CIA on Friday 21st May proved that it was definitely worth the wait.

The show ‘Where We Are’ featured some of the best songs from the album of the same name. They sang ‘What About Now’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Where We Are’ and a jazzed up version of ‘How To Break a Heart’’.

As well as the new tracks, they also played some old favourites such as ‘If I Let You Go’, ‘Uptown Girl’, ‘Tell Me What Makes a Man’, ‘When You’re Looking Like That’ and of course ‘Flying Without Wings’ which had me in tears for yet another year.

As is tradition for a Westlife gig, the boys did a medley of cover songs in the middle section. I look forward to this every time as I never know what they’re going to sing. This year we were treated to ‘The Boys Are Back in Town’ (very appropriate for this tour), ‘I Gotta Feeling’ and ‘Sex On Fire’ – all were huge crowd pleasers.
Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments | Posted in » Gigs, Reviews

Billy Walton Interview

I managed to catch up with Billy Walton after his gig at The 100 Club on Oxford Street for a quick chat. Here’s how it went.

AM How’s the tour been so far?

BW Fantastic. There’s been a lot of people coming out and supporting live music; it’s been fantastic.

AM How many times have you visited the UK so far?

BW I’ve been over here myself about 10 times but this is our 6^th tour with the Billy Walton Band

AM And when will you be coming back again?

BW We’re coming back in May and we’ll try to come back as much as possible.

AM And is that doing the same kind of venues that you’re doing on this tour?

BW It’s a good mix; we’ve been working our way up the ladder.
Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments | Posted in » Interviews

Billy Walton Band at The 100 Club

So what do you want from your live music? Do you:

a)want to hear the band play all their recorded material exactly the way it sounds on the album or;

b) want them to hit the stage with the aim of blowing you away with technique, dynamics, showmanship and sheer enthusiasm. If you’re in the b) set then the Billy Walton Band are the band for you.

The 100 Club is a venue with a fascinating past. If you’re interested in the history of rock music, it’s worth a visit just to look at the photos on every wall, where you can see everything from early jazz to The Damned and beyond. The Billy Walton Band set takes inspiration from many of the bands featured here and many, many more.
Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments | Posted in » Gigs, Reviews

Alphabeat announce album and tour

Alphabeat have announced they will release their new album ‘The Spell’ on March 1st on Polydor. It will be preceded by new single, what they describe as “melancholic-house monster”, ‘Hole In My Heart’, on February 22nd.

Alphabeat are special for a number of reasons. For one, they’re from the Danish version of Motown – their hometown of Silkeborg is famous for its huge number of car dealerships. For another, there’s loads of them, six in fact. Anders SG sings, as does Stine, Anders B plays guitar and some keyboards and is quite the whizz in the studio, Rasmus is the band’s resident keyboard player, Anders R plays bass and is another keyboard player while Troels is the drummer – without him, there is nothing. They went to school together and aged fifteen (they’re now all in their early 20s) they formed a band. They first moved to London in the summer of 2007 around the release of their debut top ten album This Is Alphabeat and the huge pop smashes and playlist staples Fascination, Boyfriend and 10,000 Nights. They lived in a big house together. In Hackney. Now, rather sensibly, they live in three different houses

Alphabeat have recently been confirmed as the main support act on Lady GaGa’s Monster Ball tour in the UK in February. In a recent interview with VH1 she picked them as one of her favourite new acts, saying “I really love Alphabeat, they’re great and they’re going to come out on tour with me.”

Check the dates after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments | Posted in » Album, Tours