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ARCHIVED REVIEWS March 2009 Previews by Mike Davies Sunday March 1 Razorlight
“I’ve got a hot-bodied girlfriend, a wallet full of cash”, sings Johnny Borrell on North London Trash, prompting mass envy among the fans you to envy him. Ah, but he’s still had to suffer for his art. The strummy acoustic pop Hostage Of Love may be sung from the point of view of Jesus, but when he says “words of derision I have swallowed with a smile, for telling my story I have been crucified,” I think we know who’s referring to. It would be easy to just dismiss them as another guitar band with a cocky, self-regarding frontman were it not for the fact that, as Slipway Fires (Mercury) continues to prove, they also write naggingly catchy tunes and deliver them with a confident swagger. Of course, they also borrow liberally from here and there. The single, Wire To Wire is a shameless nick from America’s Horse With No Name (with a Dylan allusion in the lyrics too) while 60 Thompson has definite Simon & Garfunkel influences, You And The Rest nods to Phil Collins and Burberry Blues Eyes to Billy Joel. However, it’s easy to forgive when you find the things rattling round the brain for days on end, whether rocking it up in a Who meets Oasis stylee for Tabloid Lover, going for stadium away with Stinger, or, as on the closing naked piano ballad The House, tearing into the emotions as he sings about his late father and confronting the wounds left behind. At some point, Borrell’s ego will get the better of the band and things will end in tears, but for now the fires are clearly still well stoked. Rescheduled. 7.30pm. £25. W’hampton Civic Hall Sunday March 1 Lau
Acclaimed rising folk star Kris Drever makes a solo tour next month, but for the moment he’s to be found wearing the band hat in tandem with accordionist Martin Green and fiddler Aidan O’Rourke, celebrating winning Best Group for the second year running at the BBC Folk Awards and laying the ground for upcoming new studio album Arc Light (Navigator). A mix of the traditional and self-penned, it marks the first time Drever’s featured his own material in the band, most strikingly the modestly anthemic Celtic ballad tinged single Winter Moon. But while his voice gets showcased on the likes of the shanty driving Banks Of Marble and the moody bluesy-folk atmospherics of The Master, the Scottish trio are essentially an instrumental outfit. Thus, the bulk of the tunes here serve to demonstrate their range of styles, embracing the sprightly six minutes of The Burrian, the spare Andalucian flavours of an even longer Horizontigo, the jig and reel kick ups of Salty Boys and Frank And Flo’s, and the peat scented ambient tangs of the mournful Temple of Fiddes. It’ll be a suitably invigorating evening, even more so if they’re inclined to include their highly personalised version of Lennon & McCartney’s Dear Prudence which appears as a bonus track. 7.30pm. £15. Tin Angel, Medieval Spon St, Coventry Wednesday March 4 Poppy & The Jezebels
The album’s finished, they’ve been asked to contribute a song to a French movie and, exams permitting, should be off to the Isle of Wight festival in June, at the request of Charlatans supremo Tom Hingley whose both curating and headlining the Big Top stage on Sunday. So, finally, all that early buzz looks like it’s finally about to really start paying off. Of course, there’s no actual album release date yet, but an there is a single due shortly, the naggingly wonderful spiky pop of Rhubarb & Custard that suggests they may well have been digging out the old 60s girl group singles and filtering them through a glam-punk machine. Pink and yellow could well be the big colours this Spring. 8pm. £. 444Club, The Rainbow, Digbeth Friday March 6 The Bronx
The third eponymous album (Wichita) from the LA garage blues-punk quintet doesn’t mess with the formula, spitting out ragged throat vocals over insistent rock n rolling riffs on songs forged in anger, frustration and being kicked around by life. Past Lives and Minutes In Life are what Motorhead might have been had they been The Stooges while Enemy Mind, Six Days A Week and Ship High In Transit all attack with the ferocity of speed metal. There’s no room for subtlety here, but then things like the opening Knifeman make it pretty clear this lot are leading the call to action for America’s disaffected and apathetic youth and they’re taking no excuses. 7pm. £12. O2 Academy Friday March 6 Jake Flowers The acoustic singer-songwriter Shropshire lad continues his jaunt round the local taverns in support of new single Small World (Concrete), its finger-picked rippling country-folk reinforcing the young Steve Forbert comparisons. With a set featuring established live favourites from his previous Fireworkd EP as well as yet to be released folksy nuggets as One Summer Gone and A Little More, this promises to be a taste of something special. Also sharing the Lunar Society bill will be Irish songstress Susan Dillane and folk blues man Marcus Zodiac 69. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Saturday March 7 Fairport Convention
The annual Spring clean outing for the seminal folkies comes to what should be a rousing finale in the home town of local boys Ric Sanders and Dave Pegg. That it’s also the year Peggy celebrates 40 years with the band, should doubtless be cause for the odd festivity or two and, while there’s no new album this time round, the set list is guaranteed to be crammed with fan favourites. both self-penned and vibrant traditional reworks. 7.30pm. £21. B’ham Town Hall Saturday March 7 You Me At Six
Nominated for Best British Newcomer and Best British Band at consecutive Kerrang Awards, the Weybridge quintet got off to a good start with You’ve Made Your Bed and Save It For The Bedroom both classic singles. They’re back out giving a second serving of the infectious emo punk spilling from debut album Take Off Your Colours (Slam Dunk) on the likes of Jealous Minds Think Alike, The Truth Is A Terrible Thing, Call That A Comeback, and the romping title track. They’ve also opted to re-release revamped life favourite Bedroom as the new single along with all new B-side, the swaggering air punching rock of Sweet Feet. The year’s theirs for the taking. 6.30m. £11. O2 Academy Saturday March 7 Captain Wilberforce
Simon Bristoll frustratingly continues to remain a blind spot for the disc buying public, a fact that's even harder to fathom in the light of this new album If you were to splice the DNA of Squeeze with that of the Guillemots, Burt Bacharach and Lennon and McCartney, Everyone Loves A Villain (Electratone) is what you'd likely get, a melody drenched album of superbly arranged intelligent grown up pop, rippling with quality songs that wear their 80s influences without shame but also sound like they were minted tomorrow. There's not a duff track here, but special attention should really be directed at the title track which is both reminiscent of and as good as anything Sgt Pepper, while spaghetti western guitars lay the ground for Confetti, Champagne And Roses which takes the best of early Costello and wraps it in a Difford and Tilbrook parcel, and Born Again Brand New Man swaggers down synthpop street like Badfinger on the arm of Stephen Duffy. And, quite frankly, McCartney should be strapped to a chair and made to listen to both eco-warning The Twilight Kids and the bittersweet The Girl Who Broke Her Own Heart as a reminder of the sort of class he used to write. 8.30pm. £4. Actress & Bishop, Ludgate Hill, B’ham Saturday March 7 Eyelash
A two girl, two guy London sleaze punk-metal outfit with dubious fashion tastes and a welter of power riffs hammered into their self-released debut album, Recession, there’s moments when they sound like Paramore’s insalubrious siblings, you know the ones who party till dawn and then start again while everyone else crawls home. It’s not, you have to own, the most original or musically challenging noise you’ll encounter and the drummer often seems to be playing time signatures that have nothing to do with the songs. But, they do pack a fist of energetic bubblegummed attack into the likes of Blood On My Blue Jeans, What Is It You Need?, What Did You Used To Do Before Me?, and I Was Born The Year Punk Died, all thundering along like deranged express trains with Joan Jett tattoos. Finesse isn’t exactly a strong point with Fe Salomon more suited to shouting it out with bottle in hand attitude than trying to play the sensitive ballad type on White Trash, but if you’re just looking to throw yourself about and pretend you’re living dangerously, then you won’t want to blink and miss them. 7.30pm. £6. Barfly Sunday March 8 Franz Ferdinand
After the hurried and underwhelming second album, Alex Kapranos and the lads had to take stock and come up with something that would revitalise interest and sustain longevity. However, as the swift descent and departure of Tonight: (Domino) from the album charts after it’s No 2 peak, it would appear it may have been too little, too late. There’s little evidence of the supposed African influences Kapranos declared, while its supposedly more dance floor friendly approach rarely finds an itch you want to scratch. It’s not a complete disaster, certainly first single Ulysses has a limb-looseningly friendly funked groove (well, save for the spaced slow bit in the middle) while Twilight Omens is catchy marching electropop with a suggestion of 10cc influences). Bite Hard has a touch of Soft Cell, Send Him Away is a catchy prowling pop lope and No You Girls is clearly engineered to catch the older end of the Hot Chip audience who can recall the Blockheads. But pretty much everything else is on autopilot, scraping the bottom of the imagination bin with Turn it On which simply never does. And the eight minute experimental Lucid Dreams with its early Roxy hints and spacejam keyboards, is simply airless and dull. The soft pulsing Dream Again and acoustic guitar backed folk-pop Katherine Kiss Me suggest they’re thinking out of the box for future directions, but, while they may be one of the big Glastonbury names this year, it’s hard to shake the suspicion that their once influential and inspirational fuse has fizzled out and that they’re now just marking time. 7pm. £20. O2 Academy Sunday March 8 Howling Bells
Having seemingly toured non stop in support of their self-titled debut album, this is probably just the start of a year on the road for Juanita Stein and her three fellow Australian expats as they kick off the promotion for follow up, Radio Wars (Bella Union). They may find things a little more of a harder slog this time round, though, since, a less stylistically diverse collection, the album doesn’t seem possessed of much life. First single, Cities Burning Down, is an angular, spiky, guitar chiming affair with Stein’s vocals all sugared cobwebs, Treasure Hunt channels its predecessors shoegazing indie and moody atmospherics into shades of darkly churning Blondie while a dramapop It Ain’t You gives the nod to 60s Spector. But, they seem to blow all the vitality in those first three tracks, so that come the swirly Let’s Be Kids and Ms Bell’s Song, they sound bored and directionless, drifting along in the hope a melody might put in appearance before the song ends. Even when things start promisingly, as with the scuffed lounge electronics and cinema soundtrack mood of Golden Web, they never seem to go anywhere while Into The Chaos and Digital Hearts are the sort of pouty indie pop that makes you appreciate Throwing Muses so much more. Hopefully, the live set will find the energy lacking on the album, otherwise the bells may well find themselves well and truly muffled. 7pm. £8. Barfly Monday March 9 Hot Leg
You have to assume Justin Hawkins and his new bunch of mates don’t take themselves too seriously. Because if they do, then Red Light Fever (Barbecue Rock), his first post-cocaine habit, post-Darkness (but sounds just like them) album, would be so cheesily embarrassing with its cod Queen falsetto, mock Whitesnake and pastiche AC/DC riffery and cock rock sexism that you’d want to hide your head in shame if caught listening. However, giving them the benefit of doubt, it’s was hard not to love last year’s criminally neglected single, the Celtic marching skirl that was Trojan Guitar. Likewise, the album struts similarly guilty pleasures with the glam bam thank you maam of (the surely nudge nudge titled) Cocktails, the tight trouser swaggery Sweet meets Angus Young of Ashamed, an Aerosmith boogie I’ve Met Jesus, the Steinman meets Mercury dramatics of Kissing In The Wind and the delirious stack heeled boots and Spandex that is Gay In The 80s. The man knows the cliches inside out and gives such great pantomime, you can’t help but smile and have big stupid fun. Let’s face it, when Prima Donna can sound like a castrati Status Quo, you know criticism is beside the point.
Support comes from Brighton based heavy pop rock fourpiece The Crave who, fronted by fellow Queen fan Ryan Burnett, also play like they’re having fun. They say influences include Guns n Roses, Tom Petty and Queens of the Stone Age, but, samples from their upcoming album, the riff chugging poppery of The Stray, heads nodding friendly Bring It On and the country tinged college rock Right Side of the Tracks sound more like a cross between Rick Springfield and the Jonas Brothers. But, if you can imagine it, in a good way. 7.30pm. £11. O2 Academy 2 Monday March 9 The Lights
The Brum outfit are busy little bees at the moment, packing in a local gig every month so far this year in the run up to this month’s release of new single, Low Hundreds (Crash). Guitarist Shaun takes vocal duties this time with keyboardist Liz Shiels adding smooth harmonies for what’s a breezily catchy, handclappy country-pop dappled number that seems likely to prompt any number of Teenage Fanclub comparisons. They’ve already proven their songwriting chops with the likes of The Score and Film Within A Film, and this should be the one to see them expand awareness on a national rather than local level. 8pm. £6. Barfly Monday March 9 The Words Mancunian indie raises its head again with this perky quartet who, after building a local rep (not least for young drummer Graeme Smith) are now looking to make an impression further afield in advance of next month’s All The Roads (HLA) dowload EP. The production’s a bit tinny, not doing Smith’s stick work justice on Under The Sun’s early bid for summer singalong status, but the catchy melodies, bloke in the street lyrics and inevitable Oasis influences of the ska pinned Time, charming back alleys ballad Holding Up The Walls and the upbeat three minute rompalong My Silver Line should see them pull in the plaudits. 9pm. £4. Sunflower Lounge, Holloway Circus Monday March 9 The Rumble Strips
They only released their Girls And Weather debut album a little over a year ago, but they’re already setting off to whet the appetite for the release of the Mark Ronson produced follow-up in a couple of months time. This is the first night of the short preview tour, so clearly a not to be missed early opportunity to see if the new material measures up to such past exuberance as the rollicking Building A Boat, the Motownish Girls And Boys In Love, or the insanely catchy Alarm Clock. 8pm. £. 444 Club, The Rainbow, Digbeth Tuesday March 10 Ruarri Joseph
Off the radar for most of last year, during which time he parted company with Atlantic Records to take charge of his own career, the Cornish singer-songwriter will be looking to re-establish his profile with the release of new album Both Sides Of The Coin (Pip). There’ll be a full band tour next month, but, the day after the album release, you can grab a taster of what’s in store with a brace of free solo acoustic shows while you have a coffee break. For now, suffice to say jazzy tinged acoustic folk pop remains his stock in trade, as do the influences of Randy Newman, Tom Waits (notably so on More Than Most), Richard Thompson, Al Stewart and Jack Johnson although both Red Mist and Hope For Grey Trousers find him in more forcefully uptempo mode. Doubtless, he’ll be sprinkling the set with numbers from Tales Of Grime And Grit too, but it’ll be those new tunes that should send you back off on a caffeine high. 1.45pm/5pm. Free. Caffe Nero Bullring/Caffe Nero Corporation St Wednesday March 11 Snow Patrol
Having broken into the mainstream with 2003’s The Last Straw and going stratospheric with Eyes open and its Chasing Cars single, there was little chance that Gary Lightbody and co were going to mess with a goldmine formula when it came to A Hundred Million Suns (Polydor). So, more of those acoustic based slow burning anthemic, yearning sensitive emotion ballads with crowd enticing choruses, catchy hooks and soaring melodies. It was probably inevitable that they’d come in for the critical backlash, and to be fair there are a couple of time passing chuggers (Lifeboats, the sub Genesis Engines), but with a title that defines the swell of the music therein they’ve generally managed to repeat the template without sounding like karaoke plagiarists. Opening with If There’s A Rocket Tie Me To It and its “a fire, a fire, you can only take what you can carry” battle cry and crushing any resistance with Crack The Shutters and Take Back The City, they allow themselves to rock along in vintage mode for Please Just Take These Photos From My hands and flex ideas with the Eastern cosmic lounge mood of The Golden Floor before heading out on the expansive 16 minute three movement operatic finale The Lighting Strike. Finding room for the whole epic in the live set seems unlikely, but even without its towering majesty this should be a celestial live experience.
Opening proceedings will be Fanfarlo, a London based five piece fronted by Swedish singer Simon Balthazar who, with a line up featuring violin and trumpet, make equally lush and widescreen romantic melancholy. They’ll be showcasing Reservoir, their own label debut album which embraces a diversity of influences that range from the Northern Soul shapes of Ghosts through the ELO pop of Harold T Wilkins, Or How To Wait For A Very Long Time to a kaleidoscopic mash of Arcade Fire, Talking Heads, Sufjan Stevens, Beirut and even The Editors. Dripping melody, images of escape and change, and instrumentation that includes mandolins, ukuleles and saws, highlights spark everywhere, but ears should be especially tuned in for the crunchy waltzing I’m A Pilot, the tempo shifting Luna with its hints of Ray Davies, and brass enriched musical box swayer The Walls Are Coming Down. Building a buzz for a while now, this should finally see them move towards the arenas they clearly intend to dominate. 7.30pm. £30. LG Arena Thursday March 12 Julian Velard
The latest named to get the Living Room free showcase treatment, Velard’s a former Brooklyn PE teacher who, now based in London, has found his true vocation making the sort of 70s flavoured piano based pop that draws comparisons to Billy Joel, Elton John and, with its jazz shadings, Jamie Cullum. He’ll be tickling the ivories in the case of The Planeteer (Virgin), a debut album that firmly underlines those reference points while also sticking the pin in the Broadway musicals, Brill Building and Burt Bacharach maps. It’s hard to imagine the likes of Love Again, the swinging feel of Automatic, Do It Alone, the Vegas show inclined Merry-Go-Round or even the Manilow meets Nilsson of Jimmy Dean & Steve McQueen appealing to today’s pop kids, but those who appreciate Hollywood nostalgia wrapped up in shiny music man sparkle should make a note of the name. 8.30pm. Free. Living Room, Brindleyplace Thursday March 12 Red Stripe Music Award
A local showcase, this sees four outfits making a bid for wider attention. The Vehicles seem to take a cue from Arctic Monkeys with a dash of Oasis, even if their Bright Young Things starts off as if it’s going to be Turning Japanese. Mashing up the indie dance rock of Foals and Bloc Party with some old Talking Heads colours, The Carpels have a spiky, angular and slightly experimental feel with Learn To Dance the most likely of their MySpace demos to get the limbs jerking.
Probably the most experienced of the bunch, The Foxes have already released an EP, Lover, Killer, and last year’s reggae meets mazurka meets indie rock Trauma Town single, and will be unveiling riff raging, rough edged soul-rock follow up, Bill Hicks. And then there’s The Turn, a guitar based indie four piece who don’t look like the youngest bucks on the block and clearly have a fondness for the 60s rock of The Who, Stones and Beatles filtered through later disciples like the Stones Roses, Oasis, The Verve and The Jam. Falling Back, Letter To The Listener and the psychedelic pop of Show Me The Light all impress, and suggest this lost are going to be the ones most worth the ticket price. 7.30pm. £5. The Rainbow, Digbeth Friday March 13 Noah and the Whale
Since this will be the last tour based around debut album Peaceful The World Lays Me Down, they’ve decided to beef it up a bit with what they’re calling Club Silencio. Which translates as a more theatrical evening that, along with crowd favourites such as 5 Years Time, Shape Of My Heart and Rocks And Daggers, there’ll be lighting effects, a virtual compere of a Bowie-esque nature, film shorts by the band and movie clips that, they hope, will include David Lynch, the Marx Brothers and footage of the late Andy Kaufman. There’s also the off chance that they’ll also be trying out some of the new material from the apparently more electric and experimental new album, due in June with the working title of First Days Of Spring. 7.30pm. £12. B’ham Town Hall Friday March 13/Saturday March 14 X Factor Live
Last year’s six finalists reunite to do their individual things (and a version of No 1 single Hero) with a set list likely to feature their best moments from the series. Given the likely average age of the crowd, Daniel Evans may find it a bit of an uphill struggle with his quest to be the new Matt Munro while, if her TV performances were any indication, Rachel Hylton’s set may be a bit hit and miss unless she focuses on her soul strengths.
Given he’s the first of them to release an album, it’ll be interesting to see how young Eoghan Quigg fares in front of a huge live crowd but, as he’s shown, he certainly has the self-confidence to shine and, if he throws in Does Your Mother Know, seems sure to have the crowd clapping along. To be honest, JLS are a fairly bland proposition, their having made it to the final two all hard to fathom, but the harmonies are solid and, if nothing else, this gives them the chance to get in some practice for the upcoming Lemar support slot. Having been given Hallelujah to sing in boot camp, it’s likely Diana Vickers was always being groomed for the final, so her departure from the series was something of an upset. Although her voice, at times a little reminiscent at Cerys Matthews, has a limited spectrum, it is, as her highly original interpretations of Man In The Mirror, Smile and Everybody Hurts, underlined, appealingly quirky. Just hope she doesn’t decide to do her version of Yellow. Laura White was an early surprise exit, but, on the evidence of her jazz-blues influences and big voiced attack on God Bless The Child and Over The Rainbow, should be something of a live sensation. Naturally, the centre of attention will be Alexandra Burke, the X Factor winner and, with her cover of Hallelujah, the first British female solo artist to sell a million copies of a single in the UK. The daughter of former Soul II Soul singer Melissa Bell, she’s obviously got music in the blood, and knows how to make a song her own. Whether she has the stellar wattage of Leona Lewis remains to be seen.
However, the real event of the night promises to be Ruth Lorenzo, the sultry Spanish songstress who, with her powerful and passionate performances, should have been the X Factor winner. Her powerhouse versions of Purple Rain and Knocking On Heaven’s Door were sensational, a dynamite fusion of Jennifer Rush, Jennifer Hudson and Janis Joplin, that makes her eventual debut album the one that’s going to be really worth the wait. Fri 7.30pm, Sat 2.30pm/7.30pm. £28.50. LG Arena
Saturday March 14 The Boxer Rebellion
The Anglo-American-Australian Pretty four piece was pretty much written off after singer Nathan Nicholson’s near death illness forced them off a tour with The Killers and they then lost their record deal just two weeks after the release of 2005’s debut album Exits. So, it’s good to see them making a Lazarus-like resurrection with Union, a self-released second album that was only made available via digital (though you can buy special edition CDs at the gigs) but went on to outstrip the likes of Kings Of Leon and Coldplay on both the UK and US download charts. However, since physical copies weren’t available, they were denied a position in the actual UK Top 50 Opening track Red Light Means Go announces them in rude health with its pounding drums, surging guitars and Nicholson’s vocals immediately prompting thoughts of the dark swirling sounds of Interpol and Editors. You might detect a bit of the Bono too about Move On, and it’s fair to say the band have a thing for that slow build to soaring majesty approach to their songs with Evacuate spraying riffs and a Joy Division dance vibe, Soviets sliding from folksy intro to swelling almost Radiohead peaks, Spitting Fire riding a ringing guitar line up the mountain side. They do delicate too, as the six minute cosmic floating feel of Misplaced and the backbeats and milky way sway to The Gospel of Goro Adachi ably underline, but it’s the big music dramatics of things like These Walls Are Thin and Forces that deliver the real spine-tingling excitement. Great to have them back. 8pm. £7.50. 444Club, Rainbow, Digbeth Saturday March 14 John Legend
Here to give an extra push to recent album, Evolver (Columbia) Legend’s slick sexy soul has seductive polish dripping from every well groomed pore. Those who melted over Get Lifted will be make to get slippery again as he smoothes his way through bedroom eyes ballads like Cross The Line, reggae rhythmed Estelle duet No Other Love and This Time or limb-entwining r&b dance grooves such as the upbeat Green Light, Kanye West collaboration It’s Over and slinky swagger Satisfaction. Originally performed at one of his campaign appearances for Obama, If You’re Out There is an anthemic call to join together for a brighter future but, it’s the more intimate unions that will be on the minds of the audiences here. Music for making babies, though preferably not in the middle of the dance floor.
Support comes from 21 year old piano-playing Dubliner Laura Izibor, a new arrival on the soul scene who’s had her music featured on the soundtracks that include PS I Love You (Carousel), Gray’s Anatomy (From My Heart To Yours) and is already being compared to such names as Candi Staton, Roberta Flack, and Aretha Franklin. She’ll be showcasing next month’s debut album, Let The Truth Be Told (Atlantic) and if the brass and breezy first single, Shine (the lead track on Nanny Diaries), piano gospel Mmm (as heard on Seven Pounds), and r&b ballad Don’t Stay are any pointers, Legend’s going to have a hard act to follow. 6pm. £25. O2 Academy Saturday March 14 Dykeenies
It’s been two years and the departure of guitarist Alan Henderson since the Glaswegians released their Killers aping debut, Nothing Means Everything. So, just to remind everyone who they are, this serves as a warm up quickie before the release of the as yet unfinished and untitled follow up album. Their MySpace free download Are You With Me Now? will come as a relief for those hoping they’ve not abandoned their chiming guitars, melodic flurries and singalong choruses, and doubtless there’ll be a few other new tasters in the set tonight. 7.30pm. £5. Kasbah, Coventry Saturday March 14 Kirsty McGee & Mat Martin
Joined by fellow multi-instrumentalist Mat Martin, the Mancunian songstress is back in town for another go round for The Kansas Sessions (Hobopop), an album that marks a huge departure from the pastoral contemporary folk and dusty English vocals of her previous releases. Recorded in Kansas, it’s very much old school American folk-country with a dose of New Orleans jazz and vaudeville for good measure. What she terms, hobopop. It’s also the best thing she’s recorded. Which, if you’ve heard her three others, is really saying something. There’s a political streak to the material too, whether in the self-styled anti-capitalist New Orleans brassy gospel swing The Profit Song, the good timing Bonecrusher’s sly metaphor about greed, or the more direct banjo dappled carny shuffle Gunsore. These though are finely offset by the personal with songs about loss; of a relationship (the gentle Janis Ian like filigrees of Sparks, the Baez echoes of the hushed No Way To Treat A Friend,) or trust (a world-weary Faith). And if anyone’s written a song that captures the itch of paranoid delusion and nervous breakdown better than the skittering Harlem jazz jive and gypsy guitar of Killer Wasps, I’ve yet to hear it. But, if there’s loss, psychological hives and self-deluding wanderlust (Alibi Blues), there’s also the pledge of love to the burnished Southern torch sway of Sandman and the mountain music bluegrass of Lamb, the dark passion and sensual intimacy of Dust Devils’ clarinet kissed, Yiddish jazz-blues moods. As a duo they’ve been described as a Tim Burton version of Simon and Garfunkel. Which sounds incentive enough to me.
They’re joined by The Old Dance School, a local based six piece formed from students who met at the Birmingham Conservatoire and who take their name from the former Betty Fox School of Ballet where they came together to play. Having notched up an impressive set of festival and other dates in their short time, they’ve also self-released a debut album, Based On A True Story that showcases their various jazz, folk, classical and early music influences. A mix of trad and self-penned material played on violin, whistles, guitar, bass and flugel horn, it’s predominantly instrumental, ranging from energetic album opener Cooking Pickles, a melding of trad tunes Jenny Picking Cockles and Congress, through Karen Tweed’s Cacodemon to Amber, a jig by violinist Samantha, the mournful Celtic lament Rosemann Bridge (by fellow violin Helen) and Wen, a sprightly tune by guitarist Robin Beatty about Holy Island. Beatty provides the only three vocal tracks with his own trad flavoured folk ballad The Silver Pin, Owen Hands Scottish whalers ballad My Donald, and guest cajon player Tom Chapman’s Buddhist tale Anglicised rewrite A Learned Man. There’s some inspired intricate playing in evidence, and while the studio recordings may not have quite the same fire as the live set in full flow, it’s a hugely accomplished debut that, hopefully, marks the beginning of a legacy to rival the Albions. 8pm. £10. Red Lion, Kings Heath Sunday March 15 Noisettes
Fans hoping for a second helping of the punk blues rock of What’s The Time Mr Wolf? had better steal themselves for disappointment when the trio unveil numbers from forthcoming follow up Wild Young Hearts (Vertigo). Out goes the raw abrasiveness of Scratch Your Name and the angular spikiness of Bridge To Canada and in comes the summery jazzy pop title track, the 60s soul flavours of Never Forget You, Every Now And Then’s waltzing pop, the Blondie electro disco shapes on Saturday Night and first single Don’t Upset The Rhythm’s slinky Tom Tom Club funky grooves. A bit of a radical makeover perhaps, but other than inveterate musical stick in the muds, it’s hard to envision too many requests for the money back. 6.30pm. £7. O2 Academy 3 Monday March 16 Karima Francis
From the first notes of The Author, the opening title track on the white Afro backcombed Blackpool singer’s debut album (Kitchenware), it’s hard not to think of Joan Armatrading. Songs born from a single parent upbringing, relocating to Manchester and falling in love, it’s a striking, open heart semi-acoustic confessional that eschews studio varnish for raw emotion in both the lyrics and the delivery. She can, at times (Hold You, for example), sound a little over overwrought with more falsetto swoops than may be good for her, but then you’re confronted with something like Chasing The Morning Light, the early Janis Ian like power and jazz flavours that inform Morse Code, the delirious sway of Francis and the jangling Again and you’re willing to give her the time to grow and realise that you don’t always have to bring the thunder to convey the drama. 7.30pm. £6. Glee Club Tuesday March 17 Goldie Looking Chain
Has anyone actually missed the waggish Welsh pop- rappers and hip hop satirists since they lost their major label deal and their last album, limited edition shelf clearing Under The Counter, lived up to its title and failed to trouble chart compilers. Well, if you did, you’ll be pleased to know they make a quick return with the self-released upcoming ASBO4life which marks no major deviations from Maggot, Eggsy and co’s increasingly slightly threadbare style. That said, while Disguise sounds like bad John Cooper Clarke, By Any Means Necessary does have a nagging electro-groove persistence, Everybody Is A DJ keeps the admittedly dated satire relatively sharp and New Day is a nicely wicked knife between the rips of Mike Skinner. Even so, they were always a one joke pony, and the laughter’s sounding decidedly hollow these days. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy Tuesday March 17 Red Light Company
Currently being tagged by many as the best band of 2009, the multinational five piece go a fair way to justifying the hype with debut album Fine Fascination (Lavolta), a stadium-sighted cocktail of Arcade Fire, Editors, Blur and Coldplay. Last year’s first impressions with the New Orderish meets the Bunnymen With Lights Out, guitar rush Meccano and euphoric Scheme Eugene, are ably consolidated with no less chorus singalong friendly new single Arts And Crafts, while the album opens the batting with a surely Sparks tinged Words Of Spectacular and proceeds to wrap you in the arms of the tumbling waterfall pop of The Architect. They’re a little less convincing when they put their heads down for the surges of The Alamo, but you’ll be advised to ensure the lighters are fully charged and your mobile phones are ready to be held aloft when they slip anthemic slow build big ballad When Everyone Is Everybody Else into the set climax.
Opening act is Grammatics, an erudite, musically inventive but rather cold Leeds four piece who make Muse-like prog rock with dance beats, falsetto vocals and string orchestrations. Their self-titled debut album (Dance to The Radio) is masterfully assembled noises in all the right places with notable highlights in Murderer’s undeniably attractive dream-pop, the six minute cello adorned Polar Swelling and, another six minute epic, Relentless Fours duet between singer Owen Brindley and Swedish cellist Emilia Ergin. But while hard not to admire its accomplishment, it takes a lot longer to welcome it into your bloodstream. 7.30pm. £6.50. O2 Academy 3 Thursday March 19 Finley Quaye
Son of jazzman Cabe and brother of sometime Elton John guitarist Caleb, Quaye’s glory days were in the late 90s when, then signed to Epic, he won the 1997 Mobo for best reggae act, and the 1998 Brit for Best British Male Solo Artist, and enjoyed a string of Top 30 hits that included Sunday Shining, Even After All and Your Love Gets Sweeter. However, the hits dried up as the new century dawned, with that year’s Spiritualized and the accompanying Vanguard album his last visit to the Top 40. Parting company with the label after 2004’s Much More Than Love, he’s since worked with A Guy Called Gerald and the Stereo MCs and, while a Best Of The Epic Years compilation (which includes his Beth Orton collaboration, Dice) is just out, will be releasing the all new Pound For Pound later this year. He’s still making reggae, and while the genre rarely spawns hits these days, For My Children’s Love, Royal Rasses and Street People should slip down nicely among lovers of the more commercial, radio friendly side of Bob Marley. 7.30pm. £12. 444 Club, Rainbow, Digbeth Saturday March 21 Mono
With only one track on their fifth album, Hymn To The Immortal Wind (Conspiracy), clocking in under six minutes, and most pushing the 11 or even 12 minute mark, you’ll realise this Tokyo outfit are firmly in prog-rock territory. Clocking in at over 70 mins, it’s wholly instrumental in much the same manner as Explosions In The Sky, though possibly even more textured and majestic, as each tracks builds from quiet, almost silent beginnings to climax in a sonic maelstrom. It’s unlikely they’ll have the ten cellists or the tympani featured on the album in tow for the live show, but - melding Mogwai, Godspeed You! Black Emperor and Sigur Ros - there should still be plenty of massive, heavens-reaching splendour Silent Flight, Sleeping Dawn, Pure As Snow and the closing crescendo of Everlasting Light. 8pm. £10. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Saturday March 21 The Maccabees
Gearing up for the imminent release of the as yet untitled new album, the Brighton art rock boys are in generous mood to celebrate their first live appearances of the year. So much so they’re giving away a free download of a new taster track, the bass throbbing, slow paced dark, Joy Division-ish No Kind Words. on their website. A far cry from the calypso lilt of Toothpaste Kisses and the romping Tissue Shoulders, it’ll be interesting to see whether other new material in the set indicates the dominant tone of the album or whether it’s just a flirting encounter with the gloom. 7.30pm. £10. Kasbah, Coventry Monday March 23 Lily Allen
Between radio, tours and TV shows, it’s almost impossible these days to escape the presence of Ms Allen. Not necessarily a bad thing. For a start she looks a bit like Zooey Deschanel and, as her chat show appearances (both as host and guest) demonstrate, she’s got wit, charm and intelligence. However, it’s a less unequivocally enticing proposition having to sit through new album It’s Not Me, It’s You (Regal) in which, while going for brighter and dancier songs, finds her playing the reformed bad girl now wagging the finger at shallow celebs (The Fear) and pill poppers (Everyone’s At It), putting down bad sex boyfriends (the faux country Not Fair), telling George Bush to eff off (to the plinky piano notes of Close To You), disdaining needy admirers (the accordion driven Never Gonna Happen) and generally having a pop at anyone who annoys her. And, of course, being sweet and sour about her dad (the crackly swing He Wasn't There). All in that endearing/irritating Landarn accent she favours for her vocal style. Naturally there’s a fair bit of tongue in cheek going down here among the autobiographical notes (if there wasn’t she’d be the sanctimonious, cruel tongued, gobby, snotty bitch of her tabloid image) which helps to get past the moments when her electro pop songs don’t actually measure up and the hooks feel a bit contrived and blunt. At the end of the day, while 22 and I Could Say are undeniably catchy, save for The Fear it’s unlikely that anything is going to have the durability of Smile and LDN off her debut, but, while she continues to ship truckloads of discs and spend weeks at the top of the charts, she’s going to remain very much in everyone’s face and consciousness. 7.30pm. £19.50.O2 Academy Monday March 23 Chris Difford
As well as continuing to be the voice of the current incarnation on Squeeze, Difford keeps up a solo career along with an assortment of side projects. Joined at various stages by Squeeze co-member John Bentley and singer Dorie Jackson, he’ll be dipping into the collection of band classics (it’s a fair bet Up The Junction, Tempted and Labelled With Love will be on the set list) alongside tracks from his two solo albums (the best of which - including the Battersea Boys single - have been compiled on It’s All About Me, only available at the gigs) and a smattering of new material with a projector showing images relating to the songs in the show. He’s supported by Ella Edmondson who may be the daughter of Jennifer Saunders and Ade Edmondson but really doesn’t need to rely on celebrity parents to attract attention with her debut album Hold Your Horses (Monsoon). Recorded with such names as Andy Seward, Andy Cutting, John McCusker and Kate Rusby, it marks her as a notable new addition to the young folkers Brit Pack.
All self-penned, the mood's contempo-trad, shaded with Pentangle-ish jazz (The Other Side) and Eastern/African rhythms, and the voice, alternately earthy and windswept pure. She's been writing since she was 10 and the likes of the rippling Moonglow, Hunger's itchy pangs of jealousy and the hypnotic Breathe suggesting she was a decidedly emotionally precocious adolescent. From the choppy, nerve scratching, fiddle scraping Tunstallish Hold Your Horses through the swayingly moody Sing For You and the scuffling urgency of Go Without the subject matter sticks to the neediness, doubts, insecurities and resentments of love. With reports that she’s a much rockier live presence on numbers like Go Without, it promises to be quite a night. 7.30pm. £10.Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath Tuesday March 24 Stone Gods
Former Darkness singer Justin Hawkins having been in town a couple of weeks back, his rechristened former band mates now arrive for their first live dates of the year and an equally playful swagger through the hard rock cliches. They’ll be parading material from last year’s debut album, Silver Spoons And Broken Bones, from which they’ve lifted the Rod meets Bryan Adams barroom air puncher Start Of Something as the new single which comes with acoustic versions of Don’t Drink The Water (sounding less like Mud here), Where You Coming From and the Ronnie Lane like Things Could Be Worse.7.30pm. £12. O2 Academy Wednesday March 25 Metallica
Resurrected with a vengeance for Death Magnetic (Vertigo), their first studio album in five years, Lars and the lads now bring the stage show to panting UK metal maniacs. Very much a back to heavy metal thrash roots after playing the field with rock and blues, it’s pummelling beast of an album and one which forms the backbone of the world tour set list. Assuming they’ve not juggled things around too much, 1989 should remain the sonic template, opening with the first two riff roiling tracks, That Was Just Your Life and The End of the Line, before mixing long established fan favourites One, Four Horsemen, Master of Puppets and Fight Fire With Fire with Broken, Beat & Scarred, Cyanide and The Day That Never Comes from the new album. They should be on molten form by now, so the night promises to be a metal inferno, climaxing with the legendary Enter Sandman before ripping into an enco0re that’s likely to feature covers of Last Caress and So What before finally pulling the house down with the classic Seek and Destroy. 6pm. £40. LG Arena Wednesday March 25 Joe Gideon & The Shark
Given he plays bass and guitar with sister Viva (a former Olympic gymnast apparently) behind the kit, and the music is dark, raw atmospheric blues, it’s hard not to compare the London duo to White Stripes. Of course, the fact that he delivers the autobiographical songs as virtually spoken monologues and she also pounds the piano (often while still hammering the drums and singing), does give them a different spin on the garage voodoo blues even if the influences of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Jim Morrison, Stooges, Lou Reed and Hendrix loom excessively large. Even so, debut album Harum Scarum (Bronzerat) is an often marvellously dirty noise, soaked in bluesy riffs, menace and dark irony with the title track, Civilisation (which seems to have a touch of Krautrock to its motorway driving rhythm), the broodingly malevolent rockabilly gris gris of Dol, and the rumbling Johan Was A Painter & Arsonist all highlights. However, the fact that, in trying to show a gentler side, the mournful waltzing Anything You Love That Much You Will See Again sounds a little like a Desiderata style homily is very scary indeed. 8pm. £6. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath Wednesday March 25 Peter Doherty
Rebranding himself with the extra ‘r’, an apparently (for now) cleaned up Doherty has also had something of a musical sea-change, his debut solo (but with a lot of input from Graham Coxon) album, Grace/Wastelands (EMI) very firmly in the realm of acoustic folk blues. That’s certainly the case with the opening jauntily strummed Arcadie and even though Last Of The English Roses has strong hints of Gorillaz, that too is rooted in very English folk moods. Originally planned as an Amy Winehouse collaboration 1939 Returning keeps the bare bone acoustics while splashing some Eastern flavours across the scene and (like Palace of Bone) evoking thoughts of The Las, but then the lush A Little Death Behind The Eyes suggests a Bond theme song by Scott Walker, underlining the album’s diversity and just how far he’s moved from the Libertines/Babyshambles sound. Of course, the fact that both the snaky acoustic Eastern hued blues Salome and the mournful noirish Bowie of New Love Grows On Trees have been around for years indicates this isn’t all so much of a departure as a revisiting of his basic roots. Throw in the 40s sauntering Dixieland jazz shades of Sweet By And By, the brushed percussion countryish swing lounge of Dot Allison duet Sheepskin Tearaway, the Naked City noir of Broken Love Song and the melancholic strum of the hauntingly romantic Lady, Don’t Fall Backwards and you finally have an album which, devoid of band bluster and not tarred with accompanying tabloid crack hell stories, reminds you just why Doherty was hailed as the brightest new songwriter of his generation. Let’s just hope the gig measures up. 7.30pm. £19. O2 Academy Thursday March 26 Diana Jones
In the three years since The Remembrance Of You, her profile has risen considerably following Joan Baez's cover of Henry Russell's Last Words for her Emmy nominated Day After Tomorrow. Now comes sophomore album Better Times Will Come (Proper) featuring Jones' own version of the song, inspired by a letter to his wife scratched out in coal on a paper bag by a victim of the 1927 West Virginia mine explosion. Unlike Baez's version, which sounded like a Hebrew funeral march, this is rooted deeply in the hills Jones sings of in Appalachia's love song to her adopted home. Stripped back to the bare bones of guitar and fiddle, she sits you down beside the dying Russell so you can almost taste the coal dust, before song and his life ebbs away on a fading fiddle note. It's not the only diamond in this new collection to rise to the same level of excellence as things like Pony and Pretty Girl on the debut. With If I Had A Gun sung in the voice of an abused wife's vengeance fantasy, loss, leaving and emotional damage loom large. With a stirring old school mountain music setting that evokes the folk songs of the Civil War, Soldier Girl (one of two featuring Nanci Griffith) finds a new recruit in the bus depot before leaving for boot camp, going to war to escape the poverty trap. Then there's the trad folk ballad sounding Evangelina, the story of a faithless lover who went to war and found a taste for drink and gambling, never returning to the lover and the child he left behind. And, on All God's Children, a deeply autobiographical tale of an adopted girl turning 18 far from home, her birth parents and 'faces that look like my own'. Yet, for all this, as embodied in the often uptempo tunes, it's hope, optimism and transformation that are the strongest themes. The folk blues Something Crossed Over speaks of a spiritual epiphany, the simple, hymnal haunting Cracked and Broken is a celebration of survivors while the airy barefoot on grass feel of The Day I Die finds no fear or sadness in death. It’s an album of embracing warmth and unassuming brilliance, and the show should be no less so. 7.30pm. £10. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath Thursday March 26 Ben Lee
An Australian singer-songwriter and husband to Donovan’s daughter, actress Ione Skye, Lee has a reputation for making quirky, sunnily upbeat pop. Unfortunately for him, it’s all rather rebounded with his new album, Rebirth Of Venus (New West) drawing some terrible reviews. Most seem to be complaining about him sounding like he’s having a good time and writing bouncy songs with singalong choruses and top tapping melodies. Which all sounds rather sourpuss, if you ask me. Sure Blue Denim’s paean to becoming a teenager (I assume he’s singing about the material not the aftershave) is a bit ploddy and Bad Poetry’s falsetto cod-Bacharach is pretty awful, but even they have hummable tunes. The rest though is the sort of catchy pop music that makes you want to be driving down some highway with the sun roof open and tapping the steering wheel to the rhythms. He’s had some stick too for the album being about femininity, as if somehow it’s not a subject he should be singing about. Well, why not? Especially when the songs include his perky defence of Yoko Ono, the gender role questioning electropop Boy With A Barbie, the Brian Wilsonish ode to sisterhood I’m A Woman Too, and the handclappy Bare Naked Ladies sounding arms-waving The Divine Mother of the Universe. And on top of that he has the temerity to celebrate music (Sing) and its ability to make political comment you can sing to (I Love Pop Music), call on citizens of the USofA to recapture the old dream on Wake Up To America and. on Families Cheating At Board Games, suggest the world would be a nicer place if we all pulled together. And, even if all of the this still left you wanting to wring his neck, then there’s Surrender, a glorious chiming tumble of call and response feelgood summertime joy! What’s So Bad (About Feeling Good)? he sings on the opening track. A question he’ll be answering fully tonight. 7.30pm. £9. O2 Academy 2 Friday March 27 Lemar
Despite being a Fame Academy also-ran, things got off to a flying start when Dance (With U) made the No 2 slot in August 2003 and he scored a further four Top 10 hits between then and 2005. However, while his last album The Truth About Love made the top three, his latest, The Reason (Epic) failed to even crack to Top 40 while the Weight Of The World single stalled at 31. It’s not that surprising because, behind the production sheen things like If She Knew, Not What You Say and Mayday are forgettable generic R&B formula, devoid of personality while Little Miss Heartbreaker just sounds like a bad Mambo No 5 cop off. The horns laden Sam Cooke backbeat feel of Over You shows he still has something to offer, but, as the live show may well reinforce, the music here certainly doesn’t.
Things look slightly more promising with support act The Score, a five piece made up of two London brothers and two other brothers and a mate from LA. Their self-released debut album blends together soul, hip hop, R&B, jazz and rock with a sense of drive and energy. First single, We Got You, is a slow burner with funky Motown urban roots while potential hit and dance floor filler Flash stirs together Prince, Temptations and Isaac Hayes to hot effect. There’s a couple of misfires, most notably a seriously ill-advised cover of Roxanne, but between the mellow Patience, the Michael Jackson influenced twitchy funk I Don’t Want You and the Raspberry Beret styled groove I Don’t Mind, they’re well worth keeping an eye on.
Then, likely to prove the bigger hit of the evening, there’s special guests, X-Factor runners up JLS who, recently signed to Epic, will be looking to persuade punters that they’re not really as bland as some of the unfortunate song choices on the show made them appear to be. 7.30pm. £25. NIA Friday March 27 The Rifles
Several singles in, the Walthamstow boys have finally unleashed their much delayed new album, The Great Escape (sixsevenine) which, as you might imagine, is fairly well stocked with numbers that wear the band’s Jam’s affections on their sleeve. Indeed, both the strummed Toerag and the title track sound close cousins to That’s Entertainment while the bouncy Romeo and Juliet and the urgent, rowdy Science In Violence with its choppy guitar noise could have come from the pen of a young Weller. They’re not all Jam spreads though; The Kinks are a major influence on the sunny afternoon of From The Meantime and the jaunty Winter Calls has a definite touch of the Smiths and History is heavy with echoes of Billy Bragg. Derivative then, but with their swaggering guitar terrace crowd rousers, still hugely enjoyable. 6pm. £12.50. O2 Academy 2 Saturday March 28 Simply Red
With none of the other original members in the line up and a list of past members that runs into almost two dozen, they’ve become more of a Mick Hucknall brand name than an actual band. He’s also announced that, after 25 years, he’s closing up shop and that this is going to be the last tour before he retires the name next year. To which end, the set list is pretty much going to mirror the recent Greatest Hits collection, drawing on material from the Picture Book debut through to Stay. Which means a final chance to hear things like Holding Back The Years, New Flame, For Your Babies, Ev'ry Time We Say Goodbye, Money's Too Tight to Mention and Fairground, though, hopefully, not the new and, frankly, quite awful, version of Go Now. Having recently released a solo tribute album to bluesman Bobby Bland, the demise of the Reds is unlikely to see Hucknall hanging up his musical hat, so it’ll be interesting to see where the next couple of years take him before the surely inevitable ‘reunion’.7.30pm. £45/£40. LG Arena Saturday March 28 International Women in Music Day
Having spent the day in seminars, lectures, workshops and conferences, delegates will probably want to kick back and take in the sounds, throwing the doors open to the ordinary paying public too. It’ll be a fairly eclectic line up of musicians, the list including local Laura Nyro-like chanteuse Sara Colman, reggae songstress Jean McLean, intoxicatingly soulful Derby multi-instrumentalist singer-songwriter Leni Ward, a solo appearance from Grace Solero with songs from New Moon, her current Skunk Anansi meets Alanis album of meat and potatoes rock, and the excellent folkie Rosalie Deighton. Of particular interest should be a chance to make the acquaintance of Elena, a husky voiced Italian who’s been variously likened to Marianne Faithfull, Lucinda Williams, and Cerys Matthews. She’ll be showcasing new album Paint It Gold (Delicious), a solid collection of retro rock chick punk pop veined that juggles the rock ballad dramatics of Close My Eyes and Pretty When You Smile with the 70s New York new wave chug of Pink Punk and the gutsy swirls of Androgyny Profound. She’ll also be including the new single, a grab you by the gonads rock strut cover of Kim Carnes’ Bette Davis Eyes that should warrant a mass crowd singalong. 6.30pm. £15. Crescent Theatre Sunday March 29 David Byrne
Although Brian Eno’s not actually along for the ride, the tour is dedicated entirely to songs on which the two have collaborated. So, in addition to a substantial dose of material from last year’s little heard Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (including the excellent Strange Overtones) and Help Me Somebody from My Life In The Bush Of Ghosts, there’ll be prime Talking Heads cuts from Songs About Buildings and Food, Fear of Music and Remain In Light, among them Crosseyed and Painless, Once in a Lifetime, Houses in Motion, Born Under Punches, Life During Wartime (with Byrne being a dancing fool), Take Me To The River, and (though Eno had nothing to do with it) Burning Down the House. 8pm. £32.50. Symphony Hall Sunday March 29 Hundred Reasons
Life’s never easy for this lot. Having survived countless setbacks, they finally seemed poised to fulfil the next big thing predictions with their critically acclaimed more melodic fourth album Quick The Word, Sharp The Action only to have it fall foul of problems with their label, V2. Undaunted, they’ve rescued it from the rubble and repackaged and reissued it on their own label, augmenting original tracks such as the chiming Sick Little Masquerade, She Is Poison’s jagged pop, a boundalong Out Of Time and the vitriolic Opera with four previously unreleased numbers; a brace of ballads with the spare strummed guitar and piano The Prance and the electronics and organ backed folksy A Little Way Back, and two punchy rockers, Stalemate and the drum pounding romper Punctuality's Greatest Enemy. Maybe this time, lads. 7pm. £11. O2 Academy 2 Monday March 30 Frightened Rabbit
If you were one of the many who swooned over last year’s The Midnight Organ Fight, then this latest jaunt by the Selkirk bass-free four-piece will be very special interest. They may well be slipping in the odd track from debut album Sing The Grays, but the focus tonight will be on the acclaimed second album which they like so much they’ve actually re-recorded the entire thing as an acoustic live album, Quietly Now! (One Little Indian). That’s the rather bizarre set up for the tour, essentially playing the live album, er, live. Not that that’s any problem since, the stripped down strummed versions of Heads Roll On, The Modern Leper, I Feel Better and the stomping bluegrassy Old Old Fashioned still come with wit and catchy choruses intact as they unfold downbeat but spirited tales of sex, love loneliness. They’ll be providing the between number chat so if you could do the whooping and clapping, then the gig should sound just like the album. 7.30pm. £8. Glee Club Monday March 30/Tuesday March 31 The Enemy
There’s no getting away from the fact that, whatever Jam soundalikes it might have contained, the Coventry trio’s debut, We’ll Live And Die In These Towns, proved one of the most durable, air punching good albums of the past twelve months with the likes of Away From Here, Had Enough, You’re Not Alone, It’s Not OK, and 40 Days And 40 Nights positively dragging you out on to the dance floor to throw yourself around like madmen. So, expectations are high for the fairly swift follow up, Music For The People (Warner), due out the end of April. From the onset, the 100 seconds drone noise intro to Elephant Song before the Who-like guitar chords kick in and a further minute before the vocals arrive on a Stone Roses psychedelic tide tells you they’ve upped the ante to offer themselves up as a serious rock band ready to push their envelopes rather than mere proponents of terrace anthems. Likewise, first single, the five minutes No Time For Tears opens with an Exorcist-like glass bottle tinkle before taking off into backward loops, crunching Queen style percussion, marching rhythms, howling guitars, arabesque motifs, cavernous backing vocals and Tom Clarke’s man the barricades chant-like delivery. You need to catch your breath after these, so the lads duly slip into more familiar territory 51st State matching trademark political anger with a beefy, pounding rhythmic drive that melds Specials and Weller before Nation of Checkout Girls (was this written before Springsteen’s own homage to supermarket sirens?), Don’t Break The Red Tape and Be Somebody reaffirm their commitment to Jam recycling. A massive, energy packed album that builds on the debut’s songs of small town rage and frustration, it occasionally overextends itself, as with the Beatles shaped psychedelia of Silver Spoon. But it equally proves a treasure trove of unexpected delights with the world weary last dance stadium swayer Keep Losing’s simple acoustic guitar and strings musing on putting the past behind you and moving on and, already proven live favourite, the heart stirring bedroom romanticism of Weller/Springsteen crossbreed Sing When You’re In Love. With a pub piano accompanied Let It Be like acoustic ballad tucked away at the end as a hidden words of wisdom hymn to the power of song and almost Midsummer Night’s Dream style end of show thank you and ‘apology’ of good intentions, this should get the popular vote by a landslide.
Support’s provided by Manchester quartet Kid British, a cocktail of Madness and Blur that mashes together Britpop and ska bounce with some Mike Skinner chat rap. Debut album Are You All Right? (Mercury) is due along shortly, with the harmonies, rude boy style and catchy tunes of things like Rum Boys, Elizabeth, She Will Leave and, just to reinforce those Madness references, a grime groove mash of Our House Is Dadless, all suggesting limbs will be twitching on the dance floor. 7.30pm. £18. O2 Academy Tuesday March 31 VV Brown
One of the year’s names to watch, Vanessa Brown’s a sort of shake and stir retro mix of Duffy, Amy, Lulu and Lily Allen, firmly rooted in 50s/60s pop, doo wop, and soul but filtered through a punky prism, belting it out and sticking to the ex who tramped over her heart. Sounding a little like Monster Mash in parts, the flurry of Crying Blood can be currently heard adding a touch of class to Lesbian Vampire Killers, paving the way for debut album Travelling Like The Light (Island). The title track shows her quieter Orbison meets Dusty side, L.O.V.E has a touch of the Shirley Ellis affections while Quick Fix is what My Boy Lollipop Millie might have sounded like had she been into Northern Soul and London sass rather than ska. Brown’s already written hits for Sugarbabes and Pussycat Dolls, but, if the samples here are any indication she’s going be kept far too buy with her own chart dominating career to find time to bail them out again.
Support is bespectacled Clark Kent popster Gary Go who’ll be hoping to send you home vowing to buy his soon come debut album with its classic swelling pop of Open Arms, the Oasis like So So and stadium friendly Wonderful.7.30pm. £6. Glee Club Tuesday March 31 Lionel Richie
There should be no complaints about being shortchanged tonight since the soul superstar’s serving up over two hours of soul with no interval or support. So, you can confidently expect a decent helping of past hits, from the Commodores days of Easy and Three Times A Lady through two decades worth of solo classics like All Night Long, Hello, Endless Love, Dancing On The Ceiling and My Destiny. Plus, there should be a generous serving from his new album, Just Go (Mercury), a typically slick, stylish and smooth set of pop friendly AOR r&b that takes in some tropical flavours on the Take That sounding title track, the itchy Afrobeat groove of Nothing Left To Give, the electronica sheened Somewhere In London (which bizarrely sounds like it would slot into The Lion King) and the save the world anthemics of Eternity. His chart profile’s been a little in the shade in recent years, but, while rarely breaking a sweat, this is easily his best in a while and evidence he can still show those young bucks a thing or two about bedroom eyed lurve songs. 7.30pm. £75-£35. LG Arena
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