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.

The encore was definitely one of the highlights of the show as it was full of emotion that could be felt rippling right throughout the audience. The lads sang ‘I’ll See You Again’ as a dedication to both Kian and Nicky’s Fathers both of whom passed away last year. They sang with their eyes closed and with images of both of their dads coming up on the screens behind them. The emotion emanating from the stage was incredible and it was such a moving moment that I bet there was hardly a dry eye in the house. It really was a brilliant dedication and a strong testament of their ability to move between up-beat feel good songs and deep emotional ballads.

The scenery on stage and on the big screens for this tour was very varied which wasn’t always a good thing. The props and images ranged from giant multicoloured inflatable balls, an arch of red roses and an enormous robot with lighting and fireworks attached to a scantily dressed woman dancing sexily on the screens (which was obviously there just to keep the men who had been dragged along by their partners interested in the show) my only criticism of the show is that this wasn’t such a great idea as it was hardly a hit with most of the female fans and seemed a little out of context with the songs they were singing.

The vocals from all the lads were spot on as usual and the banter and chemistry between them on stage is great to watch, they really know how to put on an entertaining show; there are very few acts with the ability to make me laugh and cry in the same concert.

This year’s gig at the CIA really was amazing, I wouldn’t have missed it for the world and I look forward to next year. It’s a relief to see them back and doing what they do best.

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.

It’s a bit of an understatement to say that Billy Walton plays guitar; he started to play professionally at the age of 15 and he’s now the leader of a power trio in the mould of the Jimi Hendrix Experience with William Paris on bass and backing vocals and new drummer John Hummel laying the foundations for Billy’s guitar masterclass.

Billy’s playing developed on the New Jersey scene based around the Stone Pony club whose previous alumni include Springsteen, Southside Johnny and Bon Jovi and he’s highly respected by the members of that scene. That respect was demonstrated in the autumn of last year when Southside Johnny asked Billy to play guitar for him on part of the British tour, replacing Bobby Bandiera, who was on tour with Bon Jovi.

The live set is a mix of Billy’s recorded work (including the beautiful “Soul Song” from the “Neon City” album), ambitious covers (Hendrix’s “Little Wing” and, unsurprisingly, Springsteen’s “Cadillac Ranch”) and crowd pleasers like the finale “Cannonball”. It’s obvious from the start that Billy (and the band) live for that moment when they walk on stage and start to play. Technically, Billy Walton is a great player and demonstrates a wide range of styles and techniques through the set but there are thousands of players who can do that. What makes this band such a great proposition live is that they are completely fired up and they want the audience to have a good time while they do what they do.

Billy (aided and abetted by William Paris) creates a great rapport with a Sunday night audience which might just scrape in to treble figures but you get the feeling that he would perform the same way with an audience of one. It’s obvious from this set that you have to see the Billy Walton Band live to really appreciate them. The 2 recorded works, “The Billy Walton Band” and “Neon City” are certainly worth a listen, but in front of a live audience is where they really work. The band are back in the UK in May 2010 (details on the website:www.billywaltonband.com) so, if you like your blues, rock (and a bit of soul) served with a bit of fun and showmanship go and watch these guys; I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

In October The Maccabees headlined the Lake of Stars festival in Malawi, Africa and are currently on tour with Editors in Europe. Both bands return briefly to London to play a Little Noise session at the Union Chapel in Islington in aid of Mencap on Monday 16th November.
 
It’s been a great year for The Maccabees with career-defining sets at Leeds and Reading Festival this summer which had The Observer dubbing them “festival heroes” and NME reminding us “they’re probably the best home-grown indie rock band the UK has to offer right now”. In Wall of Arms they have released one of the best-received albums of the year. The record entered the UK album charts at number 13 in May, winning praise across the board from fans and critics alike.

Recorded in Paris and England with producer Markus Dravs (Bjork, Arcade Fire, Coldplay), they blasted the myth of the “difficult second album” out of the water with songs like the epic No Kind Words and brilliant singles Love You Better and Can You Give It.
 
SHOCKWAVES NME AWARDS TOUR

FEBRUARY 2010

Thursday 4th – Newcastle O2 Academy
Friday 5th – Glasgow Barrowlands
Saturday 6th – Manchester Academy
Sunday 7th – Leeds O2 Academy
Tuesday 9th – Nottingham Rock City
Wednesday 10th – Norwich UEA
Thursday 11th – Birmingham O2 Academy
Saturday 13th – Cardiff University
Sunday 14th – Bristol O2 Academy
Monday 15th – Brighton Dome
Tuesday 16th – Bournemouth O2 Academy
Thursday 18th – Portsmouth Pyramid / Portsmouth Guildhall
Friday 19th – Cambridge Corn Exchange
Saturday 20th – Brixton O2 Academy

Despite the long lifespan, this isn’t a nostalgia gig; Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes (shortened to The Jukes from now on) have released 4 albums of new material in the last decade and his audience expect to hear the new songs as well as the 70s classics. The audience at the Buxton Opera House were mainly the expected glad to be grey generation with some notable exceptions, including the teenager behind the mixing desk applauding the solos and singing along to songs recorded around 2 decades before he was born.

The Jukes are a 9-piece band (lead vocal, guitar, keyboard, bass and drums plus horn section of baritone sax, tenor sax, trombone and trumpet) playing a huge range of material from Jukes originals to Atlantic soul and (on this particular night) Rolling Stones covers (and many, many more). The incredibly high standard of musicianship and rapport is matched by the showmanship and professionalism of the band, who respond instantly to any curve balls thrown by Southside as the show progresses. As well as playing some great blues harp, Southside has a phenomenal soul voice; think of honey poured on gravel and you’re about there.

The set opens with the barnstorming “Shake ‘Em Down”, which is a great showcase because it’s a straight-ahead rocker and shows off the band at its best with big horn fills and the guitar and keyboards right up front. There may be set list taped to the front of the stage, but it’s pretty much redundant after the first song. The band, and particularly Southside, read the audience incredibly well and will play whichever song is going to work best. The fact that the band have been together so long, means that they respond instantly to any changes of direction and even call the tunes themselves at times. With a back catalogue of around 200 of their own tunes, plus about another 500 that they’ve played at some time the band are never allowed to coast. It also means that you never see the same set twice.

The band are all very accomplished musicians, but they also like to put on a performance, which means that there’s always something interesting happening on stage, such as the horn section storming the front of the stage or Southside insisting that the band all sit down while he sings “Don’t Look Back” (a hit for Peter tosh in 1978, if you must know). The set (which is always at least 90 minutes long including encores) features old and new material including the big crowd pleasers such as “The Fever”, I Don’t Want To Go Home” and the wonderful Springsteen ballad “Hearts of Stone” which closes the show. The real highlights for me were the relatively new “Passion Street” featuring a wonderful tenor sax solo from Joey Stann and, of course, “The Fever” which allowed trumpet player Chris Anderson to cut loose on a solo which started as laid-back, played with a mute and finished as blistering, strident raw brass.

If you want to experience a band of excellent musicians who love what they do and give everything every night, then you should really go to see The Jukes at Shepherds Bush Empire this Friday.

By the way, an honourable mention goes to Ian Siegal who opened for the Jukes at the Opera House, playing a set of acoustic blues which was excellent and well appreciated by the partisan audience. A great night out and, yes, they are the best bar band in the world.

Here are some exclusive pics from the gig.

After the original band broke up 2 years ago, famously citing “musical similarities”, a number of the band decided to reunite and resurrect the songs and the sounds of this Great British Pop institution by dipping into the Beautiful South songbook as well as writing new material. Find out the November dates from their official website.

Carrying on where they left off Dave Hemingway & Alison Wheeler (Vocals), Dave Stead (Drums), Damon Butcher (Keys), Tony Robinson and Gaz Birtles (Brass) are now joined by Phil Barton (guitar), Karl Brown (Percussion) and Steve Nutter (Bass).

The driving force behind the original band Paul Heaton continues to pursue his solo career.

This is what The Proclaimers brought to a nearly-packed St. David’s Hall in Cardiff last Wednesday. After a great showing by their impressive support Miles Hunt & Erica Nockalls from The Wonder Stuff, the lads took to the stage and quickly set out their musical stall.

With a huge back catalogue it is really only the die-hard fans who could singalong with all songs but the well-known tracks really got the crowd going, from those 80s classics to their most recent tracks from albums “Life With You” and “Notes and Rhymes”.

If there was one word that I could use to describe the gig it is “joyful”. That’s the feeling that The Proclaimers brought to their audience and have done so for a good few decades already.

First band on are Zeroscape who appear to have invented the new genre of Canadian reggae metal. They hit the stage like a whirlwind and don’t ease up until the end of the set. An opening set when the audience are fanatical about the headliners can be incredibly difficult, but Zeroscape win them over by being incredibly energetic and incredibly good. Their version of the Bob Marley classic “Get Up, Stand Up” has to be heard to be believed. A great set which looks difficult to follow.

Second on the bill are Symphony Cult, who are a bit of a puzzle. Their intro music is too long and overblown, which isn’t a good omen for the set. Sound problems through the first 2 songs mean that the lead vocal is lost, which is a pity because Charlotte Lubbock has a fabulous voice. They don’t win the audience over in the same way as Zeroscape because they don’t adopt the same all-out approach to the gig. The band have been together for less than 2 years and may still be looking for the right direction; the band play very well and they have a charismatic and gifted singer but there’s definitely something missing.

Which brings us to INME, who are touring to promote their fourth album “Herald Moth”. The band take the stage to a rapturous welcome from a very partisan crowd. A couple of songs into the set, it feels like the arrangements are a bit stretched and that frontman Dave McPherson is trying a little bit too hard both instrumentally and vocally, which is explained later when he tells the audience about the road accident a few weeks ago which resulted in lead guitarist Ben Konstantinovic being unable to play. The INME fans don’t seem to be too bothered about by this, but it does leave a big hole in the overall sound.

Despite this, the band do all the rabble-rousing things that good live rock bands do and the fans absolutely love it although the fret-tapping solos are a bit overdone (probably as a result of the absence of the lead guitarist). The new material from “Herald Moth” which is dropped in to the set between the older anthems is very well received, particularly the new single. “Single of the Weak” is a great song which is already a live anthem and has the entire audience bawling “What’s that shit on the radio?” as if their lives depended on it.

It’s obvious that Dave McPherson loves what he does (and the fans love him), but the loss of the second guitar does leave a hole in the sound which the remaining three musicians struggle to fill. Overall, a pretty good rock night with two good bands (go and see Zeroscape if you get a chance) and one interesting prospect for the future.

Jackson Browne’s latest tour, the first in the UK for many years with a band, is in support of his latest album “Time the Conqueror” which was released last year. It’s always a difficult proposition for an artist with nearly forty years of back catalogue to introduce new material in their live set, but the obvious way of doing this is to play for two and a half hours without a support act. The mid-set interval is almost a necessity for the majority of the audience (when the Eagles played Twickenham, the queue for the toilets was longer than the queue for the bar) but I’d love to know what the musicians do in those 20 minutes.

The first half of the gig concentrates on “Time the Conqueror”, featuring the title track, “Drums of War” and “Off of Wonderland” alongside a few old favourites like “Doctor My Eyes” and “Fountain of Sorrow” and closes with a standing ovation from most of the audience. After the interval the set opens with the beautiful acoustic piece “Something Fine” from his first album and features a few more songs from the new album including “Going Down to Cuba” (unfairly dismissed as lightweight by some reviewers – listen to all of the lyrics) before reaching the climax of “The Pretender” followed by “Running On Empty” and closing with “My Stunning Mystery Companion”.

It’s a difficult balancing act which works really well for most of the gig. The audience get to hear most of the old favourites (including the surprise, for me, of “Bright Baby Blues”) while the new songs are fairly well represented, so everyone’s reasonably happy, but there are a few minor question marks.

Maybe it’s the acoustics in the Albert Hall, but the sound was really bottom-heavy, which doesn’t really to justice to subtle arrangements; it would have been a great dance club sound, but it didn’t really work for a singer-songwriter gig.

For most of the gig, the 2 backing vocalists sounded fabulous, but sometimes the vocal arrangements didn’t work (“Doctor My Eyes” for example) while the harmonies from the keyboard player, Jeff Young, were spot-on every time.

After forty years in the music business, Jackson Browne is still writing songs which are relevant and topical and he’s still capable of performing for well over two hours – what more do you want? One final question; how did the younger element at the gig tonight get to hear about Jackson Browne?

Here is some footage from the gig. The next two parts are access by clicking the “read the rest of this entry” link.

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It has to be the most enviable support slot a new artist or band could ever dream of…  To play live in front of over a million people in the space of a month, at venues like Wembley Stadium and Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium. This is about to become a reality for 24-year-old Wembley raised singer-songwriter Gary Go who has been confirmed to do just that when he joins Take That on their entire record breaking UK summer stadium tour.

It’s even crazier for Gary Go seeing that he grew up in Wembley on the road that leads to the Stadium and spent many a day with the window open hearing the huge roars from various concerts or football matches. Now he’ll be watched and heard by 72,000 people a night for four nights at the very same place.

Take That who are well known for putting on incredible live shows are still yet to play a full show at Wembley Stadium so it will be an exciting first for both. The band have been big fans of Gary Go now since the middle of last year and the choice to bring him with them in June was a very personal one. They had this to say about the bespectacled west-Londoner: “Gary Go is a rare and talented artist with an amazing voice and inspirational songs. We all just love his passion and enthusiasm”.

Mark Owen also added “I’m absolutely made up that Gary Go is touring with us and delighted to hear that things seem to be going so well for him. Go Gary, Gary Go he really is quite… wonderful”. Mark makes reference to Gary Go’s new single ‘Wonderful’ which will be released on Feb 16th.

Gary Go Tour Dates:
With The Script
11 February 09 Wolverhampton Civic Hall
12 February 09 London Roundhouse
13 February 09 London Roundhouse

‘Wonderful’ Single Launch Party
17 February 09 London Luminaire

With Take That
5/6 June 09 Sunderland Stadium of Light
8/9/10 June 09 Coventry Ricoh Arena
16/17 June 09 Cardiff Millenium Stadium
19/20/21 June 09 Glasgow Hampden Park
23/24/26/27/28 June 09 Manchester Old Trafford Cricket Ground
1/3/4/5 July 09 London Wembley Stadium

www.myspace.com/garygo