Wednesday March 2

Boyzone

They’ve been going so long they can turn out boy band ballads in their sleep. Which is what they often sound like they’ve done on Brother, a polished collection of ‘I’m nothing without you’ and ‘I’m so glad I have you’ dreamy arm swayers for hopeless romantic housewives that’s almost totally lacking in any genuine soul or feeling. ‘Til The Sun Goes Down makes a half-hearted attempt to recreate the mood of Mad World but otherwise it’s a case of either soaring bombast or intimate confessional, each with the obligatory crowd singalong chorus.

Being masters of the craft, there’s a couple of times when the old tingle still sparks, as on the soft UB40 reggae shuffle  Gave It All Away and the big music Too Late For Hallelujahs, but in a set that’s guaranteed to include a large helping of identikit past hits, it becomes increasingly difficult to detect any willingness to deviate from the formula. Like its predecessors, the album was a #1, but both singles fared poorly, Love Is A Hurricane failing to even dent the Top 40.

It is, of course, their first tour since the death of Stephen Gately in 2009 but in a tribute of rather dubious taste the live set will feature a virtual image of  him on stage for the big opening and throughout the gig, even cutting to him singing a solo part.

Despite all his frequent ‘next big girl group’ waffle, none of the recent X-Factor hopefuls seems to have actually rung Louis Walsh’s bell, so, after creating Girls Aloud,  he’s now put together another one of his own. Assembled through auditions, with the obligatory TV programme following their progress, Wonderland are a designer Irish five piece comprising Sharon Condon, Corrina Durran, Leigh Learmont, Kasey Smith and former Hollyoaks actress Jodi Albert who are, basically, a female equivalent of Westlife or Boyzone, both of whom Walsh manages.

Judging by debut single Not A Love Song (Mercury) and tasters from the yet untitled album, rather than the contemporary r&b and electro pop favoured by the current crop of girl acts, they stick firmly to the template of  ballads (Nothing Moves Me) or uptempo pop (In Your Arms) engineered by the likes of Sugarland and Lady Antebellum. That Walsh has also booked them on to the upcoming Westlife tour gives a good idea of where he reckons the audience lies. He may well be in for a disappointment. 7.30pm. £35.50. LG Arena

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Wednesday March 2

Fujiya & Miyagi

Not, as their name suggests, Japanese, but rather a Brighton four piece headed by  founding duo Steve Lewis and David Best, into the motorik electro grooves of 80s Krautrock. and experimental  dancey synth funk. Whimsical sorts, past albums have included songs about shoelaces and Bobby Fischer, and they appear now with Ventriloquizzing (Full Time Hobby) where Minestrone offers a spoken tale of a Satanic rite with soup as the diabolic temptation set to a Ray Manzarak organ groove while the dark brooding Taiwanese Boots is about status food.

Consumption and materialism provide the underlying themes as the music slides from echoes of Can, early Human League and Depeche Mode to Talk Talk, Bowie and Suicide, Best’s whispery vocals spreading a fog of foreboding across the likes of  glam stomp Sixteen Shades Of Black And Blue, Got Your Tongue sounding like a sinuous voodoo Shriekback. the sinister chill pulsing of Pills and the New Order meets Kraftwerk of the title track.

An intriguing, playful and unsettling outfit with their finger firmly on the melodic pulse, they deserve to be far better known.  8pm. £7. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Wednesday March 2

ExLovers

A London indie pop five piece with boy girl harmonies, they’ve not had too much of a profile since starting out three years ago, but have gradually built a following over the course of countless tours and three singles. This is the year they’re looking to make the breakthrough and new single, Blowing Kisses (Young And Lost Club) is certainly going to give them a leg up with its two minute package of Jam-like guitar riffs and the soft cooing 60s harmony pop vocals. The quiet-loud/fast-slow Moth-Eaten Memories gives them more roof to stretch and crank up the guitar but it’s the short and sharp approach that’ll carry them along.  7.30pm. £5. HMV Institute

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Wednesday March 2

Benjamin Francis Leftwich

A singer-songwriter from York, Leftwich plays gentle folk pop and has a high but soft tenor that sounds like a cross between Art Garfunkel and Nick Drake, his ethereal voice floating like clouds in a summer sky. Last year saw the release of his debut EP, A Million Miles Out, four delicate songs linked by water imagery and a sense of journeys both literal and metaphorical as embodied in both Atlas Hands and Maps with the closing Hole In My Hands seeing him returning to the shores of home.

A second EP, Pictures (Dirty Hit) is imminent, another four tracker of roaming romanticism that, on the title track, also showcases his fingerpicking style. I’d like to hear him do something with a little more blood in its veins as, lovely as they are, his airy style can become a little one level after a while, but he’s certainly worth the investigation. 8pm. Free. Yardbird, Paradise Place

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Thursday March 3

Beardyman

Human beatbox, MC, live-looping pioneer, and with a sold out run of comedy shows on the Edinburgh Fringe, hirsute or otherwise Darren Foreman is a familiar face on the beatbox and festival circuit as well as a regular TV guest. He’s also taken part in the children's choir charity concerts, Young Voices.

Now he’s making his first foray into the recording world with I Done A Album (Sunday Best) which, despite the child lavatorial imagery of the title and album sleeve, is far from a pile of number twos.

It does, of course help if you’re into the beatboxing scene with its hip hop roots, but on Twist Your Ankal he heads off into African township funk, Vampire Skank’s a Balkan mazurka with a lyric seemingly inspired by the directory enquiries ad, U R Mine is skittering drum and bass, Brighton Beach 04.20 chill out bliss and Where Does Your Mind Go a psychedelic house stomp. The lame between-track comedy skits hardly live up to the press hype as Chris Morris-esque (sample - ‘here’s Justin Bieber being torn apart by wild dogs’), but with a stage show packed with an arsenal of technology, visualisations and mash ups, he’s there to get the crowd moving not laughing.  7.30pm. £12.50. HMV Institute

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Thursday March 3

Seeräuber Jenny

As those familiar with Kurt Weill and Bertold Brecht will know, the name’s the original German title of the song Pirate Jenny  from The Threepenny Opera, covered by, among others Judy Collins, Nina Simone and Steeleye Span, the line about the black freighter the inspiration for the comic within the comic of Watchmen.

It also happens to be the new project singer Fran Barker and Neil Claxton, the latter formerly of Brighton’s Mint Royale. This, though, is far removed from their big beat sound, rather a mixing together of trad folk, electronics, indie pop and the cinematic, debut single Push It Away a drum banging, elbowing along number with Barker’s glottal delivery reminiscent of  the younger Thea Gilmore channelling Lily Allen with Waste Of Time a layered music box carnival waltz with Sandy Denny influences.

They follow up with the guitar driving urgency of a suitably frosty pop Avalanche (Faith & Hope) coupled with the drone of To Decide (We’ll Cast Lots) which sounds much more akin to the choral work of Liz Fraser on This Mortal Coil. An intriguing proposition with an alluring and accessible sound, they figure large on the ones to watch list for 2011. 8pm. £5. Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

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Thursday March 3

The Lighthouse Family

Formed by singer Tunde Baiyewu and keyboard player Paul Tucker, they swept to success on the back of their easy on the ear warm soul pop, riding high for six years with  such hits as Lifted, Ocean Drive, Raincloud, High and Free, their three albums, Ocean Drive, Postcards From Heaven and Whatever Gets You Through The Day all platinum sellers.

However, thing started to run out of steam in 2002 and, worn down by the high pressure promotion of the third album, they called it a day the following year. Tunde enjoyed a minor hit with his 2004 self-titled solo album but has been little heard of since while Tucker went on to play keyboards with The Orange Lights, a sub Coldplay/James Blunt outfit of no recognisable interest.

Hardly surprising then to find them back together for a reunion tour, though whether anyone else is bothered remains to be seem, which is probably why they’re not talking about any new recordings. 7.30pm. £35/£25. Symphony Hall

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Friday March 4

All Time Low

Although they’ve yet to crack either the album or singles Top 100 in the UK,  the Baltimore pop punk quartet have a solid reputation back home while their tour here of a couple of years back earned a considerable groundswell up support for their somewhat generic Blink 182 style chugging guitars, big chords rock. Last time around, they were working the Nothing Personal album with the driving riffs of Damned If I Do Ya (Damned If I Don’t) and Break Your Little Heart and stadium sway ballad Therapy, however while the tour’s titled Dirty Work the follow up album of the same name seems to have run into release date limbo. Advance word suggests pop punk remains the template but with Return The Favor described as a vaudeville Queen and Bad Enough For You as a cross between The Beach Boys and The Cure with Paper Moon a punky tribute to the Ella Fitzgerald classic, the end product could be anyone’s guess. 7pm. £15. O2 Academy

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Friday March 4/Saturday March 5

Justin Bieber

From child drummer prodigy to YouTube sensation to international Bieberfever teen phenomenon, it was fairly inevitable that he’d suffer from a critical mauling. But then, it’s not like he makes himself a hard target. A well scrubbed Canadian white boy with a Born Again single mother who apparently initially balked at the idea of her son having a Jewish manager, the lad was taken under the wing if Usher who clearly liked the idea of  transforming a potential Pat Boone into an urban r&b singer for tweenage girls.

Despite embarrassing clips of him walking into windows and revolving doors, being apparently unaware of the meaning of the word German and coming out with anti-abortion and rape comments way beyond his comprehension, he’s quite possibly an okay 17 year old. However, you still have to judge him on the music. Unsurprisingly, the recent NME Shockwave Awards voted My World 2.0 as Worst Album will Bieber himself was named Least Stylish.

Since then he’s changed his Disney approved hairstyle for something more, er, risky, and seen thousands of girls desert his twitter following. Unfortunately, the music remains the same. To wit, squeaky voiced banal r&b dance music a la  Somebody To Love and teeny romantic ballads like the excruciating One Less Lonely Girl, occasionally leavened by pubescent pop such as Love Me and Never Let Me Go.

And, talk about milking it while you can, so far he’s released the same songs in numerous different variations. The original My World EP was followed by My World 2.0, then both were gathered together as My Worlds which was in turn followed by My Worlds - The Collection including My Worlds Acoustic, which was also released separately. All this in the space of less than a year. And let’s not even get into My Worlds Deluxe and My Worlds Special Edition. 

Now, to coincide with the tour which launches its European leg tonight, comes Never Say Never The Remixes. Nothing new, of course, just remixes from the 2.0 album with the title track, taken from The Karate Kid and featuring a  terrible rap from Jaden Smith, thrown in. If it weren’t such a staggeringly shameless a rip off, it would be laughable.

Is he any good live? Does it matter.   The only good news is the release of Never Say Never, the biographical concert film which follows almost the exact same format as previous offerings from Miley Cyrus and The Jonas Brothers, both of whom saw their UK popularity take a dive afterwards.

Staying up past her bedtime, he’s being supported by Willow, Jaden Smith’s equally precocious 10 year old sister. Luckily mom and dad have seen to it that she’s got a new single, 21st Century Girl (“I'm taking you for a ride, I'm gonna live it up”) due out so she won’t have to spend the entire 20 mins singing Whip My Hair and shaking her ridiculous new style around. 7.30pm. £25/£39.50. NIA

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Saturday March 5

Fairport Convention

44 years (give or take the odd hiatus) after their formation, the country’s premier folk rock band are still going strong, founder member Simon Nicol still present on guitar and sharing lead vocals with relative new boy Chris Leslie. Four years on since Sense Of Occasion, there’s a new studio album to tie in with the tour.

Named to celebrate the church bell inscribed with their name in St Mary’s Church, Cropredy, Festival Bell (Matty Grooves) sounds every bit as fresh as anything by today’s young folk pack while clearly steeped in decades of musical experience. As usual the material’s a mix of self-penned originals and covers, songs and instrumentals, the latter represented by Dave Pegg and Ric Sanders bass and fiddle romp Albert & Ted, and Sanders’ brace of sea shanties Danny Jack’s Chase and Danny Jack’s Reward.

Leslie supplies the bulk of the new material, heading out with Mercy Bay, the story of HMS Investigator which set sail in 1850 in search of the missing Lord Franklin expedition and wound up trapped in ice for three winters before rescue, and also including the sprightly Wouldn’t Say No’s tale of a Chandleresque cop and the jolly title track’s commemoration of both bell and Cropredy festival. He also shares credits with  Sanders on Ukulele Central, a tribute to the instrument in the George Formby style and featuring both Joe Brown and Frank Skinner.

Ralph McTell contributes two new songs, keeping  the nautical flavour going with Around The Wild Cape Horn’s tale of famed 20th century sailor Irving Johnson and his ship The Peking, and the similarly trad narrative London Apprentice.

Chris While’s Darkside Wood gets a rather unsuitable jaunty treatment for a  tale of  terror and death in a forest fire, but they’re on firmer ringing folk roots ground with Richard Shindell’s classic Reunion Hill, a rousing revisiting of Sandy Denny’s Rising For The Moon and Pegg taking lead vocal on Celtic Moon, a fiddle friendly rearrangement of the song written by Northfield couple Mark and Carloyn Evans of Red Shoes, whose debut album he produced. Since this is the last night of the tour and a traditional occasion for celebration, hopefully, he’ll bring them up to join in the chorus. 7.30pm. £22. B’ham Town Hall

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Thursday March 10

Iron & Wine

Those still hankering after the lo fi folk sound of Sam Beam’s first two albums are going to find further disappointment in Kiss Each Other Clean (4AD), the follow up to the harder electric edge and percussive clatter of The Shepherd’s Dog.

Another shift of style, he’s described it as more pop focused, like the FM radio sound of the mid 70s, and while that warm vocal burr’s still in evident, it’s now crooning and bouncing playfully rather than talking in hushed whispers. Indeed, the perky Half Moon even has girls doo wop cooing in the background.

It may not sit well with the entrenched, but, while the lyrics lean towards darker themes and imagery, it seems certain to bring him a much wider and bigger audience. The slow marching Walking Far From Home Me, for example, has a gospel feel as he unveils his dystopian visions while, sax blowing over the synth warbles, Me And Lazarus provides the first sign of the African rhythms, jazz and funkiness that inform several of the songs, returning again for Big Burned Hand which is what Gracelands might have been had it adopted a fat 70s groove while Rabbit Will Run melds trad folk and puttering thumb piano tribal rhythms with jazzy flute and seven minute jam Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me rides along on a greasy African jazz  sax line and choppy rhythm before sliding into a West Coast 60s psychedelic mantra.

He does throw in one titbit for the old fans with the soaring hymnal purity of Godless Brother in Love with its piano backing, but if the old guard can’t also equally embrace things like the sunny FM radio sway of Tree By The River and Glad Man Singing’s Cat Stevens meets Paul Simon, then they should step aside before they’re crushed in the stampede to climb aboard a train that’s gathering speed with every release. 7.30pm. £15. B’ham Town Hall

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Thursday March 10

The Wombats

It’s been four years since debut album A Guide To Love, Loss And Desperation peaked just outside the Top 10, carrying with its indie dance floor fillers Kill The Director, Tales of Girls, Boys & Marsupials, Let’s Dance To Joy Division and biggest hit to date Moving To New York. 2008 was their year of doing the festivals, but since then it’s been all rather quiet for the Liverpool outfit.

Non-album singles Bleeding Love and My Circuitboard City came and went without anyone noticing and, Tokyo (Vampires And Wolves), the bass driven first release from their forthcoming sophomore album, fell short of the Top 20 while Oasis meets Ultravox follow up Jump Into The Fox didn’t even manage that.

All of which must be rather worrying as they prepare for next month’s release of This Modern Glitch (14th Floor) for which this tour serves as a showcase preview. Heralded by a classical style synths intro, third single Anti-D, a ballad about not numbing yourself with pills, initially promises much but never gets beyond its mopey anthemic plod when it should have built to a soaring emotive climax. With Techno Fan, Walking Disasters and Schumacher The Champagne among other rumoured titles, response to the new material tonight could well put a seal on their future.

Support comes from Team Me, a Norwegian outfit who make twee orchestrated tinkling indie pop and are apparently quite big news among the fjords. Certainly Weathervanes And Chemicals and new single Dear Sister are quite pleasant with their skittering drums and icicle melodies in a  sort of Polyphonic Spree kind of way, but the next A-Ha they’re not. 7.30pm. £13. HMV Institute

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Friday March 11

Blancmange

Formed in the late 70s by Neil Arthur and Stephen Luscombe, the duo were one of the more interesting of the synth pop brigade, interpolating the Soft Cell styled electro with Indian influenced rhythms and Krautrock on such hits as Living On The Ceiling, Blind Vision, That’s Love That It Is and Don’t Tell Me.  With their track Vishnu, they were also among the first to experiment with raga grooves. Unfortunately, by 1985 things had petered out and the band split in 1987,   though not before leaving behind a marvellous dead pan electro version of ABBA’s The Day Before You Came.

Luscombe moved on to further explore his interest in Indian music with the West India Company featuring Ashe Bhosle while Arthur resurfaced in 1994 with solo album Suitcase. However, given their influence evident in the music of new synth poppers like La Roux, the pair have got back together for both live dates and their first new material in 26 years with the punningly titled Blanc Burn (Proper).

They’ve not changed too greatly, the Kraftwerk flavours and Indian colours still clearly present on Radio Therapy, Ultraviolet and, one of several to feature Pandit Dinesh on percussion, The Western. But it’s no lazy attempt to rehash the past and there’s plenty of new ideas and dry wit percolating throughout, whether pastiching the Mike Skinner school of morose spoken rap on By The Bus Stop @ Woolies, turning everyday banality into nigglingly catchy ditties like Having A Coffee and  Don’t Forget Your Teeth.

They still make effortless but subtle dancey electro pop like Drive Me and the Yazoo-ish soul bleeping of Probably Nothing with its cheeky Egyptian frill but the Warm Leatherette shapes of  WDYF are equally fuelled by dark paranoia. After the recent spate of flimsy wannabes like Hot Chip, it’s good to have the real thing back again. Wobble on.  7pm. £16. O2 Academy 2

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Friday March 11

Mike Posner

You might not recognise the name but you’ll certainly be familiar with last year’s Top 5 single Cooler Than Me. Unfortunately for the soft-voiced Michigan singer-songwriter, that’s pretty much all he has going for him over here.  While that single was undeniably infectious, he’s shaping up as a Bruno Mars or Justin Timberlake lite one hit wonder. Neither of the follow-ups, Please Don’t Go and Bow Chicka Wow Wow, troubled the charts at all, nor has his debut album, 31 Minutes To Take Off (J Records), and that was released straight off the back of his single success.

Of course, that might all have something to do with the fact that, Cooler And Me and the Motown influenced Do You Wanna aside, like his thin, nasal vocals, the r&b pop songs are all much of a bland musical muchness with most of the lyrical attitude so mean spiritedly mysoginistic that when, on kiss off number Gone In September, he says “I guess I’m an asshole like the others” it’s hard not to agree.  Given the trajectory of his career, he’s likely to have gone long before then. 7pm. £10. HMV Institute

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Saturday March 12

Alabama 3

The acoustic version of the Brixton country blues line-up, featuring Larry Love, Rock Freebase, Harpo Strangelove and Aurora Dawn, arrive for a night of stripped down versions of songs from their increasingly voluminous back catalogue. And, for the first time, they actually have a recording of all new unplugged material in the shape of There Will Be Peace In The Valley… When We Get The Keys To The Mansion On The Hill (Hostage).

Sadly not along for the show, the album also features Joe Strummer’s daughter Eliza and the Soul II Soul string section with track titles that include country chestnut Muleskinner Blues, harmonica chugger blues Rush, linked sagas The Ballad of Mr Daniels and Miss Martell's Lament, and, with Dawn taking lead, a fine Americana cover of Love Will Tear As Apart. 7pm. £16. HMV Institute

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Sunday March 13

Caitlin Rose

A welcome return indeed for the promising young Nashville singer-songwriter offering a second helping of songs from her debut album Own Side Now (Names) with its mix of blues, soul and old school country. Drawing comparisons to Iris DeMent and Loretta Lynn alike for numbers such as Learnin' To Ride and Sinful Wishing Well, she’s equally at home with beer stained ballads and country twang boogie.

To coincide with the tour, she’s releasing the weary waltzing album title track as a single backed with a lovely BBC session recording of 50s styled torch tune For The Rabbits, written when she was 16, and, a cover of the standard You Are My Sunshine that could have been taken direct from the original Prairie Home Companion broadcasts. A true delight for a Sunday evening. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

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Monday March 14

Cherry Ghost

A welcome return for Simon Aldred and another opportunity to savour songs from sophomore album Beneath This Burning Shoreline (Heavenly) with its brooding romanticism and numbers that embrace such topics as sex, death and religion in a manner that echoes the like of Richard Hawley and Scott Walker. 

Ones to listen out for would include Only A Mother’s  uptempo tale of domestic abuse,  mournful slow waltz My God Betrays and the heady brew of murder ballad The Night They Buried Sadie Clay, but nothing on the set list is likely to disappoint. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

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Tuesday March 15

Primal Scream

Bobbie Gillespie and the lads join the ranks of acts ploughing the nostalgia furrow by touring a classic (or not so) album from the back catalogue in its entirety. This one will be their 1990 venture into acid house, Screamadelica. Their second album and first release following the line-up changes, it gave them a Top 10 entry and won that year’s Mercury Music Prize, yielding the hit singles Loaded and their American breakthrough Movin’On Up, and is generally hailed as one of the Top 100 albums of all time.

Whether they’ll be getting back into the right narcotic frame of mind to do it justice remains to be seen, but they’ll be ticking off the track listing and counting down through Slip Inside This House, Don’t Fight It Feel It and Come Together through to Shine Like Stars, though you’ll have to be either incredibly dedicated or incredibly stoned to take in ‘dub symphony’ Higher Than The Sun. 7.30pm. £28.50. O2 Academy

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Tuesday March 15

Bruno Mars

His birth certificate features neither Bruno or Mars, but Hawaiian singer-songwriter Peter Gene Hernandez has certainly made a name for himself over the past year, creating the hooks and providing the catchy vocals for B.o.B’s Nothin’ On You and Travie McCoy’s Billionaire, co-writing Right Round for Flo Rida and Kesha and Cee Lo Green’s F... You.

Then he started making his own music, scoring international hits with Just The Way You Are and Grenade as well as worldwide No 1s with the Doo Wops & Hooligans (Elektra) album. However, most of the other tracks here are innocuous radio and dance floor friendly filler for teenagers having their first crush but with little personality of their own.

It’s low gear stuff, even when he, ahem, rocks out on Runaway Baby while The Lazy Song more than lives up to its title, content to just ape Jack Johnson and his collaboration with Damien Marley on Liquor Store Blues is the sort reggae made for people who’ve only read about it.

The only moments when the promise rears its head are on the 50s crew cut doo wop pop of Somewhere In Brooklyn and The Other Side, a genuinely soulful number featuring Cee Lo and B.o.B but recorded before the rest of the album and before the marketing machine stepped in. 

As his terrific acoustic version of Grenade on Graham Norton showed, he has the voice and the arrangement talents for the long haul and the Michael Jackson like Watching Her Move, piano ballad Rest and boy band ballad Turn Around on, From Earth To Mars, a curiously low key release of left over numbers and early demos, demonstrate he had much better songs than wound up on the debut album. Whoever he’s listening may give him short term success, but he needs to go with his best musical instincts if he wants to still be making chart news in three years time. 7.30pm. £15. HMV Institute

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Wednesday March 16

Does It Offend You, Yeah?

Having called their debut album You Have No Idea What You're Getting Yourself Into and titling the follow-up Don’t Say We Didn’t Warn You (Cooking Vinyl), you can’t accuse the Reading electronic dance-punk outfit of lulling listeners into a false sense of security.

And yes, after a false acoustic start, We Are The Dead does indeed launch into a surging rowdy massive stomp of squeals, bleeps and thumping drums while the second track, John Hurt, is the sort of sonic squall that might well erupt from an alien chest cavity and The Monkeys Are Coming swarms all over synth farm like a musical case of rabies.

But while the rap driven Wondering, with its sample from Massive Attack’s sly and the line “I see dead people ‘cause I see shared needles”, sounds like being trapped in a Blade Runner dystopia while the storm goes down, underneath it all the boys still hanker for commercial acceptance, albeit on their terms.

Thus, Wrestler is a crazily relentless party throb, Wrong Time Wrong Planet sounds like the soundtrack to a  sci fi spaghetti western in space with a sexy bassline, and Pull Out My Inside, a bitter attack on the mainstream major music label industry, is paradoxically the poppiest moment here. Hell, they even end the album with Broken Arms, a stadium sized ballad that builds on a swell of distorted guitars, sweeping synths and yearning vocals.

You may go to mosh, but you may end up linked arms and swaying. Don’t say we didn’t warn you. 7.30pm. £10. O2 Academy 2

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Thursday March 17

The Script

Arguably the biggest rock band out of Ireland since U2, they may not be in the same musical league as players and Danny O'Donoghue may not have the same charismatic presence as Bono, but the Dublin trio do have those big epic melodies that come loaded with hooks and anthemic choruses. Even if they’re a little more The Circus than The Joshua Tree.

Sophomore album Science & Faith (Sony) is bursting at the seams with them, from the opening You Won’t Feel A Thing through to the slow building play out of Exit Wounds numbers which, coincidentally run the gamut from a lover’s heroic ‘take the blow for you’ devotion to the collapse of a relationship

Love in its many shapes and forms inevitably looms large, in the break ups of Dead Man Walking and Long Gone And Moved On, its resistance to analysis on the title track romance and the variety of sacrifices listed on This =Love, but the collapse of the Celtic Tiger economy also feeds into the unemployed lovers of For The First Time.

It’s unlikely Enda Kenny will be asking them for advice on managing the recovery any time soon, but if pumping your fist in the air and waving your mobile phone aloft as you sing along to the chorus is your definition of a gig well spent, then your investment will be well repaid.

Support comes from Solihull’s own colleen, Clare Maguire who doesn’t seem to have time to breathe between promoting debut album Light After Dark (Polydor). A big lunged belter whose power voltage is even more enhanced by accompanying big chords and thundering drums, it’s a voice meant for rock and burning soul rather than the poppy r&b and electro fizz of other recent new girl singer arrivals.

She’s been compared, dismissively, to Bonnie Tyler, but she’s actually much closer to Grace Slick when she lets rip on such FM styled numbers as I Surrender and Light After Dark while the deeper tones and vocal and melodic phrasings of Bullet and Break These Chains recall Joan Armatrading.

Although Sweet Lie and, at least initially, Freedom take the pace down slightly, there’s not really a  great deal of light and shade here and taking it all in at one sitting can be quite exhausting. But listening to the anthemic Last Dance or the prowling Ain’t Nobody, no one’s going to accuse her of not giving her all to the song and performance. And if anyone thinks it’s just bluster swamped by over production, then closing track, This Is Not The End, a pared back folk style ballad delivered with an almost operatic dynamic, should persuade them she’s the real deal and that microphones are merely set dressings. 7.30pm. £25. LG Arena

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Thursday March 17

The Maine

Here in a supporting capacity last year, the Arizona teen pop punk outfit return for their own headline dates to give an extra PUSH to their Black & White (Warner) album.  Chugging indie pop and stadium aspiring big guitar numbers are represented by Saving Grace, Right Girl and Fuel To The Fire while Don’t Stop Now, Give It To Me, and Growing Up summon thoughts of Springsteen, Petty and Bryan Adams respectively.

They’ve also just released an odds and sods EP, In Darkness & In Light, which, along with a dusty acoustic live Growing Up and an alternate echoey version of Saving Grace, includes guitar chiming B side Untangle Me and a brace of home recorded new songs, of which the Pettyesque Whoever She Is, the slow falling Book Of You And Me and a demo of the Dylan-like strummer Washroom Color are clear indications of a band with longevity. 7pm. £11. O2 Academy 2

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Thursday March 17

Hannah Peel

It’s getting so you can’t move for new fragile voiced quirky female folk singers, new names appearing almost monthly. However, why would you want to move when you can stand entranced listening to Peel’s cool, airy, otherwordly tones and her finely arranged songs.

Having served time with both the Unthanks and Tunng, she’s stepping out on her own with The Broken Wave, giving local label Static Caravan their best chance at major success yet. Playing piano, zither, violin and trombone as well as singing with Nitin Sawhney contributing string arrangements on two numbers, the soothingly melancholic piano waltz Solitude and a hiccuppy rhythmed Don’t Kiss The Broken One, she’s what you might imagine Joanne Newsom had she been raised by Irish fairies.

Whimsical takes of love, loss and escape provide the main thrust, the musical mood ranging from the robust carnival sway of Song For The Sea and the lazy King Creosote skip to Today Is Not So Far Away to the almost clattery tribal folk dance feel of murder ballad The Almond Tree (with its hints of Kate Bush) and the almost medieval early mist drone and multi-tracked vocals of The Parting Glass. 

The stand out though has to be Cailin Deas Crúite Na Mbó, an Irish courting song where she’s accompanied by an old music box, sparse, ominous drums and synthesised gales of wind to almost sinister effect. If she can weave the same sort of spell in a live environment, then we’re going to be hearing a lot more about her. 8pm. £6. Glee Club

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Friday March 18

Kate Rusby

With her Yorkshire vowels and free as air pure voice, Rusby’s perhaps my favourite singer of all those who emerged from the BritFolk pack over a decade ago and while she's rarely stepped outside the genre she's consistently released cherishable albums.

Her latest, Mark The Light (Pure), is something of a departure in that it's her first to feature no traditional material or covers, but rather all self-penned songs. It's also introduces her new band with Kevin McGuire on double bass, Julian Sutton on diatonic accordion, Malcolm Stitt on bouzouki and guitar and partner (and new husband) Damien O'Kane on guitars and banjo.

However, it'll come as little surprise to find her songs are very much in line with what's gone before, indeed were it not for the credits, you'd easily assume things like the Northern brass warmed Walk The Road and The Wishing Wife, with its sprightly tale of a nee'r do well spouse transformed into a dog, were traditional ballads.

Doubtless illuminated by her recent motherhood, it's a generally optimistic affair with themes of reconciliation, new beginnings and, on Only Hope, a vision of rewards and punishments for the ill-used and the ill-users. Not that there's aren't some dark clouds. The Mocking Bird warns about falling prey to insecurity and the taunts of others, Lately speaks of  time forgetting she's around  and, while no Dylan, Let Them Fly is a protest song about self-serving politicians.

With other notable highlights in Green Fields, which can be best described as if Sandy Denny had written My Old Friend The Blues, and the lovely Fairweather Friend, it bodes well for a rich set list tonight alongside a collection of well established favourites. 7.30pm. £22. B’ham Town Hall

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Friday March 18

TV Smith

Self-deprecatingly releasing a debut single titled One Chord Wonders, fronted by Tim Smith and Gaye Advert The Adverts were among the forefront of the New Wave explosion of the late 70s and, if you discount The Stranglers who only climbed aboard the bandwagon, the only other genuine punk band after the Pistols to score a Top 20 hit during the movement’s peak in 1977.

That was with Gary Gilmore’s Eyes and, although they never managed to achieve the same level of success again (there only other hit was No Time To Be 21 which stalled at 34), they did produce a clutch of memorable singles and albums, most notably Cast Of Thousands with its Spectorish title track, before calling it a day in 1979.

After this Smith went on to form T.V. Smith's Explorers with whom he released The Last Words of the Great Explorer featuring the terrific protest single Tomahawk Cruise, went solo with the equally under-appreciated Channel Five album, formed Cheap and recorded the politically charged Third Term before, after failing to secure backing for their RIP...Everything Must Go album, reverting to a solo career.

In this capacity he’s released seven studio albums to generally favourable critical acclaim but limited commercial success, most recently In The Arms of My Enemy and last year’s Sparkle In The Mud collection of unreleased songs and demos, that have seen him transform into a socially committed protest-folk troubadour in the tradition of The Levellers, Chumbawamba and the better days of Bob Geldof, delivering his message through catchy melodies, cranked up guitar distortions and barricade storming riffery.

Tonight’s gig, with his backing band The Valentines, is billed as a best  of The Adverts night, doubtless looking to attract all those middle-aged punks who still like to slip into a torn t-shirt and paper clip earring after a day working in social services, but hopefully he’ll find room to remind you of what a fine songwriter he’s matured into too. 7.30pm. £10. The Assembly, L.Spa (Also Mon Mar 28, 7.30pm, £9. O2 Academy 3)

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Saturday March 19

The Stranglers

And talking of superannuated punks. Already a 70s pub rock outfit when punk broke, they swiftly got in the vanguard of the bandwagon, adopting sneery attitudes and all black attire to go with suitably cynical, misanthropic songs. Musically, they were streets ahead of their new wave contemporaries, switching styles with ease as Hugh Cornwell growled out the vocals over JJ Burnel’s intimidating bass lines and Dave Greenfield’s threatening keyboards while Jet Black drove the drums with military precision.

Personally, I always found them rather dull live, but the recordings were something different, notching up a string of hits with such diverse offerings as Peaches, No More Heroes, 5 Minutes, Nice n Sleazy, Always The Sun, Skin Deep and their biggest success, Golden Brown.

Cornwell quit in 1990 to be briefly replaced by John Ellis before Paul Roberts took over for the next five albums, and their first Top 40 hit in 13 years, Big Thing Coming. He in turn left in 2006, leaving the band as a four-piece once again with Baz Warne having replaced Ellis a couple of years earlier.

Now the longest continuous serving band from the punk explosion, they’ve enjoyed a resurgence in recent years and, while they may be out touring the hits off the Decades Apart (EMI) compilation, the album also includes two new recordings, the rockabilly influenced Retro Rockets and the urgent rock n roll boogie  I Don’t See The World Like You Do with its jazzy keyboards, and twangy guitar.  There’s talk of new album later this year, but while they certainly don’t sound like a band whose drummer is now over 70, the realities say that these sort of exhausting tours are going to have to draw to an end. If you’ve not caught them yet, take in some musical history while you can. 7pm. £23, O2 Academy

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Saturday March 19

Toploader

Although they had four other Top 40 hits between 2000 and 2002, spent six months in the Top 5 with their debut album and had a further Top 3 success with the follow up, the Eastbourne five piece are still probably only known to most for their cover of King Harvest’s Dancing In The Moonlight. As ubiquitous then as, say You’re Beautiful would be later, it seemed to be played non stop on every radio station going until you felt physically sick the moment you heard the intro.

It didn’t go away when the band broke up in 2003 either, becoming the theme for a Sainsbury’s commercial and most recently cropping up in the film Four Lions. Maybe it’s the success of that that’s prompted the band (or at least four of them) to return from their seven year hiatus for a new album and tour.

The album, Only Human, is due out in May and, while obviously dropping in the old hits, it’ll be this that they’ll be roadtesting tonight. It’s preceded by the single, Never Stop Wondering (Underdog), a suitably sunny if ever so slightly American sounding slice of radio friendly guitar and keyboards pop rock balladeering with singer Joseph Washbourn soaring up the falsetto scale.

Whether anyone’s that bothered about having them back remains to be seen, but on the evidence so far they still have something to offer. 7.30pm. £10, HMV Institute

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Saturday March 19

Dave McPherson

After a series of EPs, the InMe frontman is out on the road plugging his debut solo album The Hardship Diaries. However, full advance copies weren’t available and other than knowing it’s largely acoustic and he cites such names as Floyd, Loudon Wainwright and Talk Talk among the influences, there’s little more to offer. However, his  past solo acoustic work has always been worth a listen and, while the first single, Summer:She Puts Me In A Good Mood, is rather dull, Spring:Heart Needs Blood is a warbling ballad in the tradition of the band’s finest, so it’s unlikely anyone will be asking for refunds.

Certainly not if they get there in time to catch Worcester born support Howard James Kenny, a singer-songwriter whose ethereal cocktail of folk, classical and experimental music, using loops and effects, has seen him called a one man Sigur Ros and Oceansize but which also seems to draw on such influences as Tim Buckley, Nick Drake, Mogwai and This Mortal Coil.

All very watery acoustic Drake-like fingerpicked guitar work with soaring vocals, Digit Points doesn’t really go anywhere, but it’s the only reservation about debut album Shelter Songs (Hushed).

Due out next month, it’s preceded by two singles, Insects, which builds from drone and simple plucked guitar notes to spiralling looped choral vocals and musical box melody over which his voice floats with bruised melancholy, and the nine minute Good Fortune with its wheezing looped squeezebox effects, gradually more dominant repeated guitar pattern and weary resigned pastoral vocals.

As brief choral drone Ifs shows, he can do short but he prefers to expand the atmospherics to create a sonic tapestry, My Wrongs a seven minute number with fingerpicked guitar work like a running river that swells to a crescendo and This Old Ship just passing the 10 minute mark with a fragmented, icily ambience that strikes an air of quivering beauty before erupting into dissonance. It might prove a little earnest in the live arena, but he seems certain to cast a spell. 8pm. £6. The Flapper

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Sunday March 20

Max Gilkes

Once half of Birmingham acoustic guitar instrumental duo Map with Pete Wilkes, with whom he released the Flying Without Wings and Four Stories EPs, and full length album The View From Here, he now takes the solo path with debut album, Walk In This Direction (Scarlet),

Finding him both singing and exploring his formative blues rock  interests, it’s an interesting assemblage of influences, To Be loping along on glam rock drums and guitar and a pinch of 70s blues pop rock while RSVP slouches along on a blues guitar rhythms and a hint of Children of the Revolution crossed with BB King.

British blues rock from the late 60s and early 70s is notably evident on Where Angels Fear To Tread but the genre permeates much of the album, whether colouring the folk soul acoustics of the Van-tinged There’s A Light, the psychedelic chill out textures to Man On The Moon or the rockier tones of Round And Round. There’s definite Winwood shades to both that, Bet Your Life and the cello flecked All Roads Lead To Home too, although the guitar sound of the latter are likely to conjure thoughts of Mark Knopfler. Playing tonight in an acoustic three piece line up, you might not get quite the same sonic rush, but the quality of the material and playing isn’t going to be diminished an iota. 8pm. £5. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath

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Sunday March 20

Emma’s Imagination

TV talent shows can be cruel experiences, as much for the winners as the losers, As any number of X-Factor has beens will tell you, once the 15 minutes of allotted spotlight are up, if you haven’t got the endurance, the material and the marketing behind you, then chances are you’ll be forgotten long before there’s a chance to release your second, or in some cases, even your first album.

Former Edinburgh busker Emma Gillespie impressed viewers sufficiently to win Sky TV’s Must Be The Music and land herself a deal with Gary Barlow’s label and some mentoring from show panellist Sharleen Spiteri.

Riding on the crest of the show’s wave saw her score two Top 10 singles with This Day and Focus, both easily forgettable smooth edged Scottish pop with the sort of lyrics it probably took her five minutes to write. However, when her debut album, Stand Still (Future), arrived earlier this year it peaked at #14 and is already nowhere to be found in the Top 100, a sign that memories are already dimming.

Not too surprisingly really since, like the singles, the rest of the album is soft innocuous folksy pop with sincere but slightly twee songs sporting titles like Daisy Train, Faerie Lights and, oh dear, Puddy Muddle, that she breathily coos and trills like a vapid Ellie Goulding or thin KT Tunstall. And whoever thought it was a good idea for her to cover  Glen Hansard’s sublime Falling Slowly and drain it of all emotion, should probably be looking for another job.

This is her first major headlining tour and she should probably make the most of it. Might be an  idea to get the audience’s names and addresses too, she might want to keep in touch. 8pm. £10. Glee Club

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Sunday March 20

D:Ream

A vehicle for singer Peter Cunnah, the 90s dance pop act scored eight Top 30 singles between 1992 and 1995, but are undoubtedly only remembered for their 1993 hit Things Can Only Get A Better, a #1 that was later adopted for Labour’s 1997 election theme song. Maybe, in the light of the current ConDemnation,  a warm rose-tinted nostalgia for those days of new promise will pay dividends for this otherwise wholly unwarranted comeback by Cunnah and fellow co-founder Al Makenzie. Their other claim to fame, of course, is that their keyboard player was the physics postgraduate Brian Cox, a man who has subsequently gone on to become the nation’s favourite - and apparently sexiest - boffin. He’s done some recordings for the new album but, sorry girls, he’s a bit too tied up exploring particle physics and appearing on the BBC to slum it by joining the tour. 7pm. £10. HMV Institute

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