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ARCHIVED REVIEWS October 2008 Previews by Mike Davies
Wednesday October 1 Southside Johnny & The Asbury Jukes
Forged in the same fires that birthed Springsteen and with a strongly similar sound (their original guitarist, Miami Steve Van Zandt joined the E Street Band), Johnny Lyon and his Jukes were ever a blistering live proposition capable of melting concrete with their inferno performances. If you’ve never seen them or the memory fails, reminder can be found on the just issued 1978:Live In Boston (Evangeline), an album that captures them in incendiary form storming through a set of predominantly Van Zandt and/or Springsteen penned numbers such as This Time It’s For Real, Love On The Wrong Side of Town, I Don’t Want To Go Home, Talk To Me and, naturally, The Fever. Elsewhere there’s the cover of Sam Cooke’s Having A Party they made their own live goodtime standout and, giving a clue as to when the gig took place, both Santa Claus Is Back In Town and Merry Christmas Baby. Bringing things up to date, he’s also got a new live album doing the rounds, teamed not with the Jukes but La Bamba’s Big Band for Grapefruit Moon (Evangeline), adding his name to the growing list of artists recording a collection of Tom Waits covers. It’s a tremendous set that finds the big band swing in the soul of such numbers as Down, Down, Down, Please Call Me Baby, New Coat of Paint, Walk Away and a Latin flavoured Temptation. His throaty growl often sounding like Louis Armstrong, Lyon is on terrific form, perfectly gelling with Waits himself who duets on several cuts to turn this into some kind of latter day Rat Pack session. Tango Till They’re Sore does a fabulous New Orleans jazzy blues slouch, Grapefruit Moon is a chilled Spanish guitar ballad and Shiver Me Timbers is simply marvellous, sounding like some Oscar winning song from a 40s noir romance. Whether he’ll find space to slip one or two of these in to the set tonight remains to be seen, but whatever the song list, as the man says, you won’t wanna go home. 8pm. £22.50. The Robin 2, Bilston Thursday October 2 Gabriella Cilmi
Turning 17 in just over a week, the Italian-Australian teenage dance pop sensation (her name’s pronounced ‘chill me’) has been variously touted as Oz’s answer to Madonna, Britney, Joss Stone, and Amy Winehouse. She’s certainly got plenty of vocal beef if Save The Lies, the retro soul flavoured opening track off Lessons To Be Learned (Island) is to go by, riding the Stevie Wonder Superstition keyboard riff like a dominatrix. That same feisty sass is well in evidence too on Got No Place To Go, Don’t Want To Go To Bed Now and the big band bluesy swing of Cigarettes & Lies. But as a Dusty-like Sanctuary, the gospel infused Awkward Game, piano ballad Safer and Sit In The Blues variously indicate, she does sultry soul and slow blues with equal finesse. The single Sweet About Me was a naggingly infectious pop shuffle that added Duffy to the list, but if she resists any label nudges towards the poppier side of things (as suggested on the disposable retro beat Messy and an empty cover of Echo Beach) and focuses on that molten soul, then those comparisons are going to be well in order. 7.30pm. £12.50. Carling Academy 2 Thursday October 2 Stackridge
Fatally tagged as a folk novelty act back in the 70s, largely down to their quirky humour and songs like Dora The Female Explorer, Do The Stanley and Let There Be Lids which involved the playing of, er, dustbin lids, the Bristol boys can now be seen as likely influences on such names as 10cc, XTC, and even Queen. Not to mention a certain pre-schoolers’ TV character. Certainly, early songs such as Purple Spaceships Over Yatton and Slark showed their psychedelic side while their soft pop inclinations would later find expression when the band split in 1977 and James Warren and Andy Davis formed The Korgis. However, a couple of decades and two previous reunions on, original members Warren, Davis, Jim ‘Crun’Walters, and Mike Mutter Slater are back in action along with newcomers that include violinists Sarah Mitchell and Rachel Hall, reaping some long overdue acclaim with live sets that embrace the best of their decidedly eclectic musical past. 8pm. £13.50. The Robin 2, Bilston Friday October 3 Sam Roberts Band
Having recently topped the Canadian charts and playing to huge crowds, this is a bit of downsizing for the Montreal guitar rocker as he looks to make a name for himself over here. He’s here plugging new album Love At The End of the World (Rounder), a perfectly serviceable collection of radio friendly pop rock intercut with some rootsier flavours. The talk-sing Them Kids with its reflections on how kids today just ‘don’t know how to dance to rock and roll’ is unlikely to emulate its native No 1 status, but the bluesy title track could well pick up stray Strokes fans. The acoustic strummed Stripmall Religion, a folksy Words & Fire, the Monkees-like Fixed To Ruin and the more rocking out End of the Empire, The Pilgrim and piano blues boogie Detroit 67 are all solid album cuts, but you have to suspect that Roberts is going to have his work cut out if he’s hoping to follow in the footsteps of countryman Bryan Adams when it comes to breaking the UK market. 6.30pm. £6.50. Bar Academy Friday October 3 The Bureau
Forged after a split with Dexys, following the long delayed UK release of their self-titled 80s debut three years ago, in the wake of their recent reunion the Brum outfit now follow up with a brand new set of own label recordings in the shape of ....And Another Thing. Featuring frontman Archie Brown with Geoff Blythe and Paul Taylor on brass, Pete Williams on bass, Mick Talbot behind the keys and Crispin Taylor on sticks, it's a fine, sleazy slice of Northern soul, retro funk, gospel and jazzy blues with Brown not only again evoking Chris Farlowe, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Otis, and Wilson but, on the rasp-throated speak-sing A Fine Mess Rag, Captain Beefheart, a reference compounded by the track's choppy jazz riffs and brass bursts. It's a hot, tight and sweaty noise, oozing menace on the opening Run Rabbit Run, checking what they rightly call a cross between Willie Nelson and James Brown on Save Me, getting into the gospel pews with Brown growling on his knees for Talbot's Chance In A Million while piano waltzer Flying Lessons (a tribute to a friend who overcame a bipolar disorder) is steeped in a New Orleans vibe, complete with a clarinet solo by Williams. Divided In Two underlines the slow soul Stax flavours that provide the band's bedrock while the lurching, brass greasy , bass burping instrumental Freedom March (a Blythe number dating from `84) firmly confirms their scorching musicianship and the promise of a red hot gig. Brown and Williams share vocal duties on the penultimate track, the old school blues-soul Nothing's Gonna Stand In our Way. After all this time, it would be nice to think they were finally proven right. 7.30pm. £10. The Sound Bar, Corporation Street, B’ham Saturday October 4 Ting Tings
Salford duo Katie White and Jules De Martino pretty much appeared from nowhere this year (she used to be in trio Dear Eskimo) to take the place by storm with We Started Nothing (Columbia) and their catchy Toni Basil-like chart topping single That’s Not My Name. Things didn’t go quite so well with follow up Great DJ stalling outside the Top 30, but Shut Up And Let Me Go recovered momentum with its Blondie meets Wordy Rappinghood vibe and numbers like Fruit Machine, Keep Your Head and the oooh oohing Be The One reveal they’re well stocked for further follow ups. But it’s all as shallow as the shimmer of tinsel on a puddle and, while depth isn’t a required ingredient for pop music, the tendency to all shade into one after a while coupled with White’s curious habit of wanting to sound like she’s actually a cockernee suggests they might want to enjoy the spotlight while they can still pay the electricity. 7pm. £13.50. Carling Academy Saturday October 4 Stevie Wonder
After his opening night triumph, Stevland Hardaway Morris returns to do it all over again, so if you missed it the first time or can afford a repeat performance you’ll now know he opens with some harmonica wailing on Miles Davis’ All Blues and that the set list includes My Cherie Amour, Master Blaster, Living for the City, Signed, Sealed, Delivered, Uptight, Sir Duke (cue audience participation), I Was Made to Love Her, Superstition and, of course, I Just Called to Say I Love You. But not Isn’t She Lovely (even though its inspiration, his now grown daughter, is part of the backing vocals), Yester-Me Yester-You Yesterday or He's Misstra Know It All. Of course, he might just mix things up a bit, but whatever he sings just hope he decides to rein in those interminable rambling introductions and calls to chant Obama. £65/£55. NIA Saturday October 4 Van Morrison
You can never be sure what exactly the old grump will pluck from the songback each time he tours, but if your luck’s in he’ll not be going overboard on his bluesily torpid current album, Keep it Simple (Exile) where he variously sounds like he’s singing in a coma (How Can A Poor Boy) or doing a self-parody carbon copy of his better Celtic soul days (School of Hard Knocks, Behind The Ritual). If he feels obliged to try and shift a few copies, then the gentle folksy title track or a country flecked Song Of Home should suffice. Meanwhile, for those looking to refurbish their collections, Polydor’s recently released a second wave of remastered reissues, consisting The Healing Game, Enlightenment, the classic Inarticulate Speech of the Heart, Veedon Fleece, Common One, No Guru, No Method, No Teacher and the concert albums A Night In San Francisco and Live At The Grand Opera House, with a couple of them featuring alternate takes for the collectors. 7.30pm. £80-£40. Symphony Hall Saturday October 4 The Vortex
A new five piece from Manchester but the sound of their debut single, Dirty Soul (Fat Northerner) is readily familiar with its clear echoes of Oasis, Stone Roses, Primal Scream, Happy Mondays. However, marrying the guitar riffs and horns to a dance groove does at least give it an extra itch that’s seen it filling club floors already, while the collaboration with former Oasis guitarist Bonehead on Revolution Sometime certainly wallops up the driving urgency. Could be big next year, could be an overnight burn-out of Electric Six proportions. 8pm. Free. Sound Bar, Corporation St, Bham Saturday October 4 Hey Negrita
Things may have changed with the departure of keyboardist co-founder Hugo Heimann and guitarist Gus Glen, but, joined by rising bluesman Matt Ord on guitar, the London Americana outfit’s latest, You Can Kick (Fat Fox), doesn't suggest frontman Felix Bachtolsheimer's yet over the relationship break-up that fuelled its predecessor. Certainly not when the jaunty Texan country Room Service finds him down on his knees praying for love or a bottle, Cold has him drinking again and 'howling round your gates until he's gone' and Chained tells how he's still shackled to a love that scattered in the wind. He does, though, seem to have found salvation in God. Here I Come may contain lines like 'die die stick a needle in my eye' but also notes that the Lord pledges mercy, Fishin' has him and the Lord casting their rods out in the sea and The Last Thing That I Do offers to turn his back on drink and women "if he shines his light on me'. However, given these are fairly traditional country themes, you might not want to read too much autobiography into the songs and instead appreciate them for what they are with their dark wit, Earle and Clark influences and the blend of swamp blues, throaty Cash-style bible black country, bluegrass shanty, and shuffling rockabilly. Ultimately, these are songs about surviving the kicks and carrying on. Long may their road stretch before them. Prior to the gig, they’ll also be screening, We Dreamed America, a forthcoming DVD documentary produced and co-written by Bachtolsheimer, which takes a look at the UK Americana scene with musical and/or interview contributions form the likes of Bob Harris, Alabama 3, The Broken Family Band, and Sid Griffin. 7.30pm. £10. Tin Angel, Taylor John’s House, Canal Basin, Coventry Sunday October 5 Lykke Li
A regular visitor hereabouts, the Stockholm songstress is back in town plugging the ice cave indietronic dance moves of Breaking It Up, the latest single to be lifted debut album Youth Novels with its skittering marriage of Tom Waits, Kate Bush and Massive Attack. If you’ve yet to discover her skewed delights, this is as good a time to start as any. 7.30pm. £8. Glee Club Sunday October 5 Aiden
The Seattle outfit are still trying to claw back lost ground with current album Conviction (Victory) embodying its title manifesto in the punk pop driving Teenage Queen. Unfortunately, everything else is a by the numbers in an attempt to repeat the formula over and over by way of rocking out on the likes of Darkness or doing the big ballad bit with Hurt Me. That they recorded Cry Little Sister for the straight to DVD Lost Boys 2 rather shows the desperation.
Support’s Brit Soundgarden wannabes Slaves to Gravity who’ll be cranking up the volume for the hard rock rasps of debut album Scatter The Crow (Gravitas), grinding through Heaven Is A Lie, turning up the heat on Burning Robe and providing the obligatory sensitive acoustic side for Rose & The Ocean Blue. 7pm. £12.50. Barfly Sunday October 5 Clara Kousah
Laying the ground for her support slot to Doug Hoekstra in a couple of weeks, the Cambridge singer-songwriter will be working her way through numbers from debut album Dark To Light (Imprint) produced, in a rather unlikely turn of events, by Napalm Death knob twiddler Russ Russell. Citing influences that range from Tori Amos to Nine Inch Nails, she sounds more like a slightly watery Joni Mitchell; in a sort of good way. With guitar work from the John Renbourn school and her soft, slightly breath vocals, it’s firmly in the fey acoustic folk mood of the late 60s which, at times, tends to lead a certain lack of colour. Things threaten to get a bit rocky on tracks like High Stakes, Wait And See, My Last Breath and The Game, but end up rather like a diluted All About Eve and she’ll need a lot more blood to her voice to make them work live. Her songwriting’s still a touch formative too as she muses on such topics as God, politics, life and love with the air of a student bedsit. However, there’s certainly great promise evident on Orange Cat, the acoustic naked ache to It Takes Time, an atmospheric spidery Holy Angels and a near hymnal Never Satisfied while Delirium certainly shows she’s a guitar player of some dexterity. Worth sampling, she may turn out to be an incentive for a return visit. 8pm. £6. Kitchen Garden Cafe, York Rd, Kings Heath Sunday October 5 Cajun Dance Party
Between prepping their A-levels these London sixth formers seem to have found time to knock up an album's worth of catchy summery pop and recruited Bernard Butler to give it a production sheen. The Colourful Life (XL) is only just over half an hour long, but it's packed with breezy melodies designed to have you skipping down the street and joining in with Danny Blumberg's short of breath vocals. You're not looking at anything profound among the usual songs about love, desire and living it large, but when faced with the 80s flavoured title track tumble, surf twangy jabbing rock pop The Race, a Kooks meets Sparks The Next Untouchable, the spoken yearning and romantic angst of No Joanna with its gypsy fiddle and lava bubbling guitar, drunken swayer Buttercups not to mention the 60s soul, pop, psychedelia, folk mash up that is The Hill, The View & The Lights, then who needs deep. 7pm. £9. Carling Acdemy Sunday October 5 Absentee
An intriguing combination of Leonard Cohen, Johnny Cash and the Velvet Underground with touches of 50s doo wop and a hefty layer of hopeless romanticism streaked with London-born cynicism, new album Victory Shorts (Memphis Industries) finds gravel-voiced Dan Michaelson and the chaps mixing up alt-country and indie to marvellous effect. Opener Shared is all hand in hand slow dancing from happy to hell then, by striking contrast,, Boy, Did She Teach You Nothing? bounces out of the traps on a rollicking rolling melody that might have been the Cure on a good day. And that’s pretty much the way the balance goes, brash and brassy stomper Bitchstealer and Velvets chugging Pips on the one side, We Smash Plates, Love Has Had Its Way and That Old Ghost’s fractured love laments taking care of the slower pulses; and a playful maternity ward waltzing love song The Nurses Don’t Notice A Thing straddling the fence in the middle. Just the thing to wallow in post break-up, though probably not something to impress with on a first date.
They share the bill with Portland based Americans Blitzen Trapper, a musically eclectic bunch over here to unveil new album Furr (Sub Pop!). They’ve been going for some years, but this is likely most folk’s introduction to them here. It’s a good place to start with their cocktail of Beatles beat, country, organic folk, power pop and West Coast sunshine all in fine fettle, sometimes on the same song. The psychedelic 60s pop of Sleepy Time in the Western World gets things off to a buoyant start, Gold For Bread throws in some whippering synths and rock n roll guitar heroics, Love U sounds like Lennon on a primal scream blues rampage, Echo/Always On/Ez Con is an Elton John piano ballad hijacked by a carnival special sound effects department midway and Stolen Shoes & A Rifle heads down cripple creek with pedal steel. Parading the diversity, the title track’s a strummed folk shanty strummed title track, Black River Killer a moody lonesome dose of storytelling southern country, Saturday Night’s a funky CS&N jam, Lady On The Water Dylanesque acoustic, War On Machines a strut and swagger party with Skynyrd and the Stones and God & Suicide a great summery anthemic power pop drum thumper. You just never know what you’re going to get, which promises to make for a very interesting set. 7pm. £7.50. Bar Academy Sunday October 5 It Bites
Best remembered for their sole Top 40 hit, Calling All The Heroes, the instrumentally adept Cubrian pop prog rock outfit were actually one of the UK’s top underground rock bands of the 80s before calling it a day in 1990 following the departure of frontman Francis Dunnery. However, following his on stage reunion with original members Dick Nolan, Bob Dalton and John Beck in 2003, it was decided to give things another shot. But, with Dunnery’s other commitments ruling him out, his place was taken by Beck and Dalton’s old friend and seasoned muso John Mitchell. Earlier this year, bassist Dick Nolan departed to be replaced by Lee Pomeroy and that’s the line-up that’s on the road now promoting Tall Ships (Inside Out), their first new studio album since Eat Me In St Louis almost 20 years ago. There’s not been too much change in that time with keyboards driven poppy prog-rock that inevitably conjure thoughts of Genesis on numbers such as Ghosts, Oh My God and the radio friendly soft-rock Great Disasters. complete, naturally, with a couple of mini-epics in the form of This Is England and The Wind That Shakes The Barley. Dated, certainly, but highly proficient. 8pm. £18.50. The Robin 2, Bilston Monday October 6 Innerpartysystem
Hard rock dance music from Pennsylvania, the four piece return after their O2 fest triumph to follow up Don’t Stop with new electronics and riffs single Die Tonight, Live Forever (Fallout) owing perhaps a little to both Ultravox and Depeche Mode. It’s urgent, exciting stuff that defies you not to get out on the club floor and with a self-titled album due out to tie in, this should be a sweaty evening. 7.30pm. £7. Bar Academy Monday October 6 OMD
Having toured last year performing everything form Architecture & Morality along with their biggest hits, Andy McCluskey and Paul Humphreys now do the best of bits again on the back of their new compilation Messages. So, you can confidently expect to be wafted back to the 80s on the electro-pop wings of Enola Gay, Joan Of Arc, Electricity, Messages, Genetic Engineering, Telegraph and Tesla Girls along with their comeback glam rock stomp Sailing On The Seven Seas. They’ve all been remastered for the best sound, but it would be a lot more interesting if they’d spent the time putting together new material rather than recycling the nostalgia. 7.30pm. £28.50. Symphony Hall Tuesday October 7 James Blunt
Despite the fact you couldn’t turn the radio on without hearing You’re Beautiful, he didn’t deserve the snide comments as critics rushed to denounce him for the sake of their own perceived credibility. Be honest here, packed with catchy songs, Blunt’s debut album fully deserved the success it enjoyed. However, it’s a bit harder to stand up and be counted for All The Lost Souls. The annoyingly irritating 1973 fully warranted the slaggings while his self-pitying whines and not entirely tongue in cheek trumpeting of scoring with drugs and women are thoroughly irksome. But, even if the songs don't have the same immediacy as the debut, if you can forgive some of the ill-advised lyrics, and apply patience to let Shine On, Carry You Home, I Can’t Hear The Music and Annie reveal their deeper charms, then it’s clear Blunt’s far from the flash in the pan many would like you to believe. 7.30pm. £32.50. NIA Tuesday October 7 British Sea Power
With the imminent arrival of a new Snow Patrol album, you have to wonder why the Brighton outfit haven’t been accorded the same scale of success for their big, dramatic music with a heady emotional swell. They reached the Top 10 with their Mercury Prize nomination for current album Do You Like Rock Music? (Rough Trade) but it’s doubtful the public at large would recognise any of the tracks if they heard them blindfolded, not even euphoric lighters aloft minor hit single Waving Flags. Well, that’s their loss because, often reminiscent of the dark, breathy splendour of Arcade Fire, this is a tremendous stuff, from the marchingly anthemic opening All In It with its chant title, violins and churchy organ through the guitar slinging surge of Lights Out For Darker Skies and No Lucifer’s defiant three minute majesty to the fiery thunder rocking Atom, the smoky dreamy haze of No Need to Cry and the atmospheric instrumental The Great Skua which soars even higher than the bird after which it’s named. That they also happen to be thoughtful, intelligent, literate songs and the band give good sleeve notes too, is all further reason to celebrate their continued existence. 7.30pm. £14. Carling Academy 2 Tuesday October 7 Steve Winwood
It’s hard to believe the Handsworth born singer turned 60 this year. One of the best British voices in r&b, he first made his name belting out Gimme Some Loving and Keep On Running for the Spencer Davis Group before going on to front Traffic and form supergroup Blind Faith with Eric Clapton and Ginger Baker. He played the distinctive organ on Joe Cocker’s With A Little Help From My Friends and it’s also fair to say that without Winwood, Paul Weller would never have had the career he has after Style Council floundered, his meld of folk and r&B firmly influenced by Winwood’s work on those seminal Traffic albums Winwood’s not done badly as a solo artist either, at his peak with the Arc Of A Diver, Back In The Highlife and Roll With It albums. Things turned sour in the late 90s with Junction Seven failing to make even the US Top 100, the same fate befalling the About Time follow up six years later. However, he’s clearly back on a roll with recent ‘comeback’, Nine Lives (Columbia), an album that sees him reunited with Clapton on the Dirty City single. It’s all mature and seasoned listening , a country blues circular guitar riff I’m Not Drowning, Celtic soul blues Fly, funky organ, flute and percussion groove We’re All Looking, the Latin sway Secrets and a surprising sprightly townships flavoured Hungry Man all testament to the man’s musicianship and craft even if it’s also taken at the sort of rather late night laid back pace that might make those not among his loyal audience start to feel a little sleepy-headed. Hopefully, he’ll be a bit more energised live, though the chances of mass dancing breakouts seem unlikely. 7.30pm. £25. Wulfrun Hall Tuesday October 7 Esser
One of the Transgressive label’s new big hopes, young Ben cuts a particularly weedy schoolboy electro-boffin nerd but he does make nigglingly catchy bedroom trashy glam dance pop. He’s currently trading new single Headlock, a bubbling almost tribal marching beat with a mopey Mike Skinner spoken delivery while his next single, Satisfied, is a piano mazurka hand clapper with what sounds like steel pans, prompting an urge to go out and find a gypsy party so you can smash some glasses under your feet. 7.30pm. £7. Little Civic Wednesday October 8 The Subways
Having loudly announced their arrival with debut album Young For Eternity rattling though an armoury of amped up punky teen angst belters, the Welwyn Garden City trio found themselves beset by all manner of potentially career derailing crises, not least among them surgery on singer Billy’s vocal cord nodules, his break-up with bassist girlfriend Charlotte and drummer Josh being diagnosed autistic. Yet, from all that they’ve forged a potent sophomore album in the aptly named All Or Nothing (Infectious) which, while inevitably making lyrical reference to the problems, also puts its head down and gets on with being a killer indie rock noise that conjures favourable echoes of Bob Mould (Alright), Josh Homme (a thundering yet sweet Girls & Boys) and Fall Out Boy (All Or Nothing). Kalifornia is a buzz saw of punk and metal, Tunraround a rampaging glam car crash between Adam and the Ants and Queens of the Stone Age while both Obsession and Always Tomorrow crash through the garage doors without bothering to open them first. As on the debut, they show their quieter colours too with the closing acoustic highlight Lostboy though the similarly inclined Strawberry Blonde and the singularly ill-advised folk strummer Move To Newlyn fare rather less well. Having been enforced out of action for a while, they’ve a lot of lost ground to make up but on this evidence they’ve got the strength in their legs to do it. Support comes from Glasgow’s accents undisguised indie punk guitar crew Twin Atlantic putting an American edge to new single What Is Light? Where Is Laughter? (King Tuts) though it’s their cover of Girls Just Wanna have Fun you’ll be wanting to shout for. 7.30pm. £12.50. Carling Academy Thursday October 9 Art Garfunkel
The frizzy haired, angel-voiced half of one of music’s most famous partnerships returns for another solo concert of favourites culled from both the S&G and his own solo back catalogue. He can be a bit precious at times, but you can’t deny that voice can still put a shiver down the spine when he hits the high notes of Bridge Over Troubled Water. Reissued to coincide with the tour there’s a special edition of Across America (Proper), a 1996 live recording taken from his historic two night concert at Registry Hall on Ellis Island. There’s a wealth of classics here, from S&G evergreens such as Scarborough Fair, Homeward Bound, The Sound of Silence and Mrs Robinson to the duo’s lesser frequently heard gems like A Poem On The Underground Wall and April Come She Will, plus Garfunkel’s solo hits All I Know, Bright Eyes and A Heart In New York. The release also comes with a DVD featuring 13 songs from the concerts plus, as on the CD, Garfunkel’s duet with James Taylor on Crying In The Rain performed earlier in the afternoon of the first show. 7.30pm. £35. Symphony Hall
Thursday October 9 The Streets
Having done the I’m a self-loathing junkie messed up by becoming famous last time round, now Mike Skinner’s on a mission to spread love and light and tell you not to waste your life on drugs, excessive drink or having sex with anything on two legs. Thus, Everything Is Borrowed (sixsevenine) with songs about God, family, marriage, not topping yourself and embracing positive vibes with music that touches on the gospel of the title track, some folk (Strongest Person I Know), some funky jazz piano grooves (I Love You More Than You Like Me) and the soundtrack moods behind the likes of Alleged Legends and The Sherry End. As ever, Skinner delivers his raps in deadpan style with knowing self-deprecation all part of the carefully designed tapestry, more of a screenwriter than a confessional songsmith. Some have complained about the album wasting time talking about being crap at drawing, reading at bedtime and looking after the wife, but it’s Skinner’s lad from the, er, streets and the saloon bar of the local approach that makes his music so interesting and resonant. He’s said this is going to be his last but one album, in which case the world’s going to be a less interesting place. 7.30pm. £17.50. Carling Academy Thursday October 9 Late of the Pier
Providing a live injection into a night of dance and club grooves, the Castle Donington quartet shake up their Gary Numan, Sparks and Klaxons nu-rave electro synth rock with debut album Fantasy Black Channel (Parlophone). It’s inventive stuff, from the clattering drumsticks beating out the rimshots on a swing-inclined The Bears Are Coming through spaced Roxy synth-glam The Enemy Are The Future and the glam-punk galloping Maelstrom of Whitesnake to Hot Tent Blues’ 80s guitar rock heroics and the wigged out falsetto rock n roll swaggering Bathroom Gurgle where Queen and Bryan Ferry plunge into an electroperatic vortex. And if you want strobe-rock visions of rubber clad film noir dominatrices luring you on to the dance floor for some serious limb waving action, then look no further than Heartbeat. Should be some party. 10pm. £10. Rainbow Warehouse, Adderley St, Digbeth Thursday October 9 Dirty Pretty Things
Carl Barat’s post Libertines progress takes another step with Romance At Short Notice (Vertigo), a considerably more focused collection than the fence straddling debut. There’s considerably less of the Bang, Bang You’re Dead style glam rock stomps and more of his apparent intention to reinvent himself as the Ray Davies of his generation. You’ll certainly hear some Kinks influences, musically and lyrically, on Hippy’s Son, the time signature hopping Buzzards & Crows, Tired Of England and Faultlines but there’s also some straight pop punk riffery on Chinese Dogs, the jagged Squeeze gone punk-math rush of Best Face and the la la la pop of Plastic Hearts. They even gather round the pub piano for Come Closer and come over all woozily balladeering with The North. This and their live shows will keep the youthful noisenicks more than happy, but if they ever decide to stop courting that herd, polished up the sound and dropped in the odd orchestral flourish to coat the lyrical bile and sarcasm, they could well one day find themselves surprise Radio 2 darlings. 7.30pm. £15. Wulfrun Hall Thursday October 9 CSS
The consensus of critical opinion would appear to that in seeking to give more of a sleek sheen of sophistication to the party band enthusiasm of their debut, the Brazilians have pretty much blown it. Certainly, Donkey (Warner) has the same B52 shapes on Jager Yoga and Beautiful Song, channels Tom Tom Club funk through the decidedly ska free Reggae All Night while How I Became Paranoid does the New Order moves according to the book, but they just sound like a band trying to recreate the experience on a bigger budget but having far less fun and winding up almost a thin copy of their former selves. Maybe they can find the thrill again on stage, but for now this is one Donkey few people are going to want to pin a tail on. 7pm. £13.50. Kasbah, Primrose Hill Street, Coventry Friday October 10 The Spinto Band
The Delaware sextet may look as if they’re barely out of high school, but Moonwink (Fierce Panda) is actually their umpteenth studio album. Not that it’s likely to make them much better known than they were when they released their debut. It’s perky indie rock with pop and folk sensibilities, Latin sways, tango tunes, sunny bounce melodies and songs that positively smile at you from the speakers. They’re called things like Pumpkins And Paisley, The Cat’s Pyjamas, Summer Grof and The Carnival and they all want you to have a jolly good time along with their chirpy guitars, beaming keyboards and whimsical harmonies. Listen and you’ll find some clever rhythms and time signatures going on beneath the bouncy surfaces, you might even find thoughts of XTC or Kid Creole passing across your mind, but they’ll pass fleetingly and, I’m afraid to say, so will any memories of this pleasant, playful but forgettable pop.
They’re joined by The All New Adventures Of Us, a Northampton based boy/girl seven piece who also make skittering sunny pop music and seem likely to prompt comparisons to Magic Numbers, Pulp, Belle And Sebastian, Los Campesinos and, for older ears, Deaf School or Carter USM. Following on from the jubilantly tumbling 45 Forever single, they’re flagging up the Best Loved Goodnight Tales (One Little Indian) debut album. Again the mood is generally upbeat as they romp through A Good Liar Is A Good Storyteller, St. Crispin’s Got Our Back, Me Me Me with its ba ba badda bas, the Haircut 100 brass bounce Firetruck (doki doki) and the anthemic building The Art Of The High Five. A bit overly cute and likely to prove a tad irritating with prolonged exposure, but when they lift their faces to the skies and sing The Wide-Eyed Led Us Home, you have to suspect they probably will.8pm. £8. 444 Club, Barfly Friday October 10 Disturbed
It’s been a while since the Chicago hard rock outfit took the tour bus across the UK, but they’re back to make up for things with a belated plug for current album Indestructible (Reprise), pistol pumping guitars primed to crush level as they grind through the dark-hearted likes of Haunted, Divide, Inside The Fire, the Middle East themed Enough and, naturally, the new title track ball of hot metal single.
Getting things started will be Florida five piece Shinedown who, judging by Second Chance and Call Me like to mix in a bit of Bon Jovi hair rock to go with the southern swagger hard rock of the title track and the crunching juggernaut metal Devour that more represents their Sound Of Madness album. 6pm. £17.50. Carling Academy Saturday October 11 The Lights
Following up download single, The Score, the Brum quintet get physical with The Fairweather Travelling Companion EP. With the electric version sounding like Duran, it's interesting to hear an acoustic Stop Stop Carry On here sounding more in tune with the psychedelic trad folk of The Leaving Song and the building anthemic Maria McKee inclinations of Film Within A Film. Of the other two equally fine tracks here, the Manics flavoured She's The Answer comes from the earlier Eve EP while a falsetto voiced slow tumbling pop Welcome To It All is part of the Blue Whale sessions. The buzz might not yet have really caught fire, but next year could well be theirs. 10pm. £5. 444 Club, Dragon Club, Barfly Digbeth Saturday October 11 Team Waterpolo
Having brought together Weezer and the Beach Boys for the Problematic single, the Preston quartet return for So Called Summer (Yo Yo Acapulco), a track that suggests somewhat of an unhealthy obsession with the Sparks back catalogue and does little to further persuade that next year’s album will be going for gold. 7pm. £6. Little Civic Sunday October 12 Michael Weston-King & Lou Dalgleish
Living locally, when not in Europe or wowing America, King’s a regular performer around these parts but (partly down to motherhood) it’s been a long time since his other half was heard in action. And if her return to the microphone wasn’t thrill enough, this will be the very first time the pair of them have played an in the round show in the UK, and only the third time ever.
With work in progress for My Darling Clementine, a straight country album of duets on songs about cheating and heartbreaks, there may well be a couple of previews in the set alongside such recent solo King nuggets as the Gram Parsons-like My Heart Stopped Today, the hymnal The Last Hurrah and the quietly crushing From Out Of The Blues plus an airing of songs from Dalgleish’s own albums (a new one long overdue) and, hopefully, the pair of them swapping harmonies on live highlight When You Leave The Spotlight. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden Cafe, Kings Heath Sunday October 12 The Mercurymen
Here as the opening act for Level 42, the trio have been described as having the pop sensibility of the early Bee Gees and the harmonies of CS&N filtered through West Coast pop and country tinged folk. The individual members, Jinder, Simon Johnson and Gavin Wyatt, have been in the business as session men, songwriters or solo performers for a while, but came together two years back under their combined band umbrella. They’ll be previewing tracks from their upcoming debut album, Postcards From Valonia (Arista), a melodic acoustic soft rock affair of melancholic romanticism that seems likely to take up a permanent position on Radio 2 and Smooth FM with songs like the folksy strummed Keep Me In Your Heart, the three man James Blunt soulful Let My Love Be Your Shelter, Fool To Walk Away (a break-up track to warm the hearts of Ezio and ballad mode Bryan Adams fans) and the jangling heartache of The Letting Go. The set’s likely to be brief, but, even if at times they do remind you of Westlife singing More Than Words, enough to have you first in the queue for when their own album promoting tour arrives next year. 7.30pm. £24.50. Symphony Hall Monday October 13 Cyndi Lauper
Best known for her quartet of 80s hits, True Colors, Drove All Night, Time After Time and, of course, Girls Just Want To Have Fun, Cynthia Ann Stephanie Lauper may now be 58 but she still likes to project the kooky image. She’s also hitting the dance market again with new album Bring Ya To The Brink (Sony) on tracks like the burbling synthpop Echo, clickrhythm Into The Night Life, a Latin flavoured Rocking Chair and the brassy swing of Set Your Heart. There’s likely to be a fair few Madonna comparisons, not least since Grab A Hold’s melody sounds awfully close to Like A Virgin. but on the other hand Madge has never been as potty mouthed as Ms Lauper gets on the sweary dance pop Same Old Story. Seems like the desire to be a little shocking hasn’t wilted with age either. 7.30pm. £35/£28.50. Symphony Hall
Monday October 13
Once touted as the new Sex Pistols,
largely on account of lead singer Donny Tourette’s attempts to
live up to his pseudonym and various I’m a punk rebel antics,
things rather fell apart when Donny elected to take part in
Celebrity Big Brother and his doing a bunk looked like a
desperate bid to grab some headlines. Still, at least debut
album Blood, Sweat and Towers delivered some catchy leap about
tunes and circling guitar riffs. By then, though, it was all too
late and it failed to make the Top 40. Monday October 13/Tuesday October 14 Oasis
Having given the West Mids a miss in the Don’t Believe The Truth tour, it’s now six years since they last played hereabouts. Which, even given their return to favour with the last album, is pushing fan loyalty a bit. However, absence should be forgiven in the light of Dig Out Your Soul (Big Brother) which continues their return to fiery form from the opening raw guitar riffs of Bag It Up, denoting the album’s dominant Come Together era Lennon feel, complete with Eastern flavours. Indeed, Waiting For The Rapture could well have come from a gutsier version of Abbey Road by way of the first Plastic Ono Band album while (Get Off Your) High Horse Lady has the same chugging groove as it reworks the melody line to High Heel Sneakers. That the album features samples from Lennon interviews indicates, these are no accidents. The psychedelic swing’s in full flood for kick off single The Shock Of The Lightning and To Be Where There’s Life while The Nature of Reality snags the sort of loping dirty blues that might have come from a Lennon/Led Zep get together. A reminder that they do sensitive balladry too finds perfect expression on I’m Outta Time with its Harrisonesque guitar and overwhelming echoes of Woman and many another Lennon ballad. There’s an increasing sense that they’ve realised they’ve all grown up a bit, notably so on Falling Down’s observation about living dying dreams, but if you want evidence that men facing down middle age can still rock out, then you’ll be down the front row tonight. 7.30pm. £44.50-£32.50. NIA Tuesday October 14 Foals
Proponents of spiky, angular, jerky rhythms art dance mathrock of the Bloc Party persuasion with a hint of Talking Heads (and, on Two Steps, Twice sounding like Mike Oldfield’s Exorcist theme), they’re out and about talking up the Antidotes (Transgressive) album with such numbers as new single Olympic Airwaves, the jittery Cassius, the synth heavy electro drone Electric Bloom, skittering Big Big Love and the bleep jabbing Tron. However, all rather cold with its watery guitars and colourless vocals, it’s hard to see them growing up to becomes horses. 7.30pm. £13.50. Carling Academy Wednesday October 15 Spiritualized
Although the songs were already written, given it’s called Songs In A & E (Sanctuary), you can’t help but think the mood of the band’s sixth album is partially informed by Jason Pierce’s brush with mortality when he was struck down by double pneumonia. Certainly, the hymnal feel of the opening Sweet Talk has a reflective quality while Death Take Your Fiddle sounds like a resigned spiritual and Borrowed Your Gun, the wearied backporch Goodnight, Goodnight and Don’t Hold Me Close, a tenderly hushed, marimba stroked duet with Harmony Korine’s wife Rachel, all are dressed in folksy twilight tones. The album even ends with him repeating what sounds like ‘funeral’ Not that the man doesn’t stand up and rage too. You Lie You Cheat is a scuzzed sonic blues squall, I Gotta Fire a loose limbed swampy wah wah clatter that makes you forget this was all recorded in Nottingham, Yeah Yeah heads down Dylan’s freewheeling Highway 51 and the strumming Baby I’m Just A Fool erupts into a psychedelic jazzy freak out. Whatever fuelled the album’s musical landscape, this is their best in years and promises to be a gig worth getting yourself hospitalised for. 6.30pm. £16. Carling Academy Wednesday October 15 Elbow
Deserved Mercury Music Prize winners for The Seldom Seek Kid (Fiction), Elbow have quietly become one of the country’s best. Informed by Guy Garvey’s usual musings on love and loss as well as several members having become fathers, it’s full of both big noise and quiet reflections, celebratory and melancholic in equal measure. From the Starling’s overtures of romance, through the smoke stained flamenco of The Bones Of You, Mirrorball’s whispered love song to a new child and the industrial beat work song of Grounds For Divorce they sound like a heady combination of Floyd, the Chilis and McCartney. Add the spooked jazz of An Audience With The Pope, Weather To Fly’s late night frayed nerves, a melancholic The Loneliness Of A Tower Crane Driver and the soaring anthemic stadium ballad On A Day Like This and you can understand why they’ve finally become everyone’s favourite band It’s going to be a tremendous gig and, if they include their heartbreaking elegy Friend Of Ours, you’ll be needing to wipe those eyes before you venture back into the night. 7.30pm. £17.50. W’hampton Civic Hall Thursday October 16 Queen & Paul Rodgers
Having joined forces with Rodgers for the 2005 tour and subsequent live album and DVD, remaining original members May and Taylor cement the collaboration with their first studio album, Cosmos Rocks (Parlophone). It’s been greeted by some particularly savage reviews, but, while some of the material - Still Burning, Through The Night - sounds like warmed over Bad Company throw outs, it’s by no means the disaster you might be led to believe. Okay, Cosmos Rockin’s a not especially inspired slab of standard Eddie Cochran rock n roll and the lumbering C-lebrity mixes up lumbering Free and a dash of Who chorus, but a rousing Time To Shine, arms-linked singalong Small, the jauntily vaudeville-pop stroller Call Me and the stirringly anthemic send-us-a-hero We Believe are classic sounding Queen. Live, you’ll likely hope they decide to give Surf’s Up...School’s Out a wide berth and make your excuses and head for the bar if Rodgers even looks like he’s going to do Bohemian Rhapsody, but on this evidence you’ll not be needing those grave markers for a while yet. 7.30pm. £49.50/£39.50. NIA Thursday October 16 3 Doors Down
American hard rock from Mississippi, back home they’ve sold millions and scored No 1’s with their past two albums. Here it’s another story where their post grunge sound doesn’t really stand out from the crowd. Looking to rectify matters, they’re here promoting their recent self-titled album (Universal Republic) with its regulation mix of crunchy riff rockers (Train, It’s Not My Time, Give It To Me), stadium friendly mid-tempo anthemics (It’s The Only You’ve Got, Let Me Be Myself) and sensitive balladry (Your Arms Feel Like Home). Solid enough but nothing to spark mass conversions, and the inclusion of the heavily jingoistic/patriotic Citizen/Soldier tribute to the National Guard might well be a deeply felt tribute to those fighting in Iraq, but seems unlikely to much to advance their cause here. 7.30pm. £18. W’hampton Civic Hall Saturday October 18 The Courteeners
More Manchester indie pop with ringing guitars and Smiths overtones, they may have named debut album St Jude (A&M) after the patron saint of lost causes, but given such swaggery lad life gems as What Took You So Long, a rowdy stomping If It Wasn’t For Me, Motown infused slow swayer Please Don’t, and their swipe at fashion followers Fallowfield Hillbilly, they’ll not be needing his help. Not quite in the Morrissey class of tormented youth angst perhaps, but one of the year’s best soundtracks for teen self-pity. 7pm. £13.50. Carling Academy Saturday October 18 Glen Campbell
Once guitarist with the Beach Boys before launching a solo country career with such classic hits as Wichita Lineman, By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Gentle On My Mind, now 62 Campbell may not be as popular as he once was but he shows little sign of slacking off on the work or quality. He’s over here on the back of new album, Meet Glen Campbell (Capitol) which sees him taking on an eclectic countrified set of covers that range from Travis classic Sing and Jackson Browne’s These Days to Lou Reed’s Jesus and John & Yoko’s Grow Old With Me by way of a brace of Tom Petty nuggets and U2’s All I Want Is You. Unlike many similar projects, Campbell brings himself to the material to give them his own distinctive feel, at his best here on a gently rippling version of Paul Westerberg’s wistfully elegiac Sadly, Beautiful. There’ll probably not be much space on the set list for more than two or three of the new numbers in between the old hits, but if luck’s in, that’ll be one of them. 7.30pm. £33.50-£26.50. Symphony Hall Saturday October 18 Does It Offend You, Yeah?
Playing here with Utah Saints and Audio Bullys as part of then Eclectricity Festival, the indie-electronica trio will be pumping up the party vibe with the lager-friendly noises off the You Have No Idea What You’re Getting Yourself Into album and things like the mosh happy Let’s Make Out, the nu-raveology of Battle Royale and Numan meets Heaven 17 of Being Bad Feels Pretty Good. 9pm. £22.50. Custard Factory Saturday October 18 Zoe Conway
Former Riverdance soloist, the virtuoso Irish fiddler’s also scraped her bow for Damien Rice, Lou Reed, Nick Cave and Rodrigo y Gabriella. However, she’s here in her own spotlight tonight to give a belated boost to last year’s album The Horse’s Tail (Tara). As you’d expect, it’s a sprightly collection of fiddle tunes that mix in trad numbers such as The Drunken Sailor, Planxty Joe Burke and The Shetland Fiddler with self-penned compositions like Dannan’s Reel and The White Deer. The polished studio recordings inevitably don’t do justice to the scorching of the strings when she plays live, so there’ll likely be plenty of foot tapping and whooping in town tonight. 7.30pm. £7.50. West Bromwich Town Hall Saturday October 18 You Me At Six
Nominated for Best British Newcomer and Best British Band at consecutive Kerrang Awards, the Weybridge quintet are off to a good start with their You’ve Made Your Bed and Save It For The Bedroom singles already personal classics. Now they’re out unveiling debut album Take Off Your Colours (Slam Dunk) and a further supply of infectious emo punk in the manner of Fall Out Boy and Panic At The Disco. Current single Jealous Minds Think Alike plays to their strengths with buzzing guitars, catchy singalong lyrics and shouty vocals, and there’s more where that came from in the shape of The Truth Is A Terrible Thing, Call That A Comeback, Nasty Habits and the romping title track. Tigers And Sharks shows they can handle the caresses as well as the punches too, suggesting that they may yet be walking away with the prize next time the Kerrang mob throw a party. 7pm. £8. Wulfrun Hall Sunday October 19 Fall Out Boy
Last here a couple of years back, belatedly touring the Under A Cork Tree album, this time the Chicago emo punk boys have synchronised the gigs with the impending release of new album Folie A Deux. Unfortunately, promo copies weren’t around in time to preview, but kick off single I Don’t Care (Mercury) promises well with a solid shouty chorus guaranteed to get the crowds jumping up and down even if it does rather borrow from both Tainted Love and the Spirit In The Sky riff for its swaggery rhythm. They’ll doubtless be showcasing new material, the marvellously titled Headfirst Slide Into Cooperstown On A Bad Bet among them, alongside fan favourites such as, This Ain’t A Scene It’s An Arms Race, Sending Postcards From a Plane Crash (Wish You Were Here) and Sugar, We’re Going Down. They might even chuck in their rocking cover of Jacko’s Beat It. Worth mentioning too that the band make their film debut playing themselves gigging at an Amish wild night party in next year’s teen road trip comedy Sex Drive, the film they’re calling the new American Pie.
Main support will be Boston emo outfit Boys Like Girls introducing themselves to UK audiences by way of their revived 2006 eponymous album (Columbia). It’s pretty much emo punk pop by the numbers with nothing you’ve not heard before, but having said that they give it plenty of energetic wallop and things like the urgent The Great Escape and Five Minutes To Midnight or midtempo stadium ballads Thunder and Broken Man sound like they should deliver plenty if live sparks. 7.30pm. £21.50. LG Arena (NEC) Tuesday October 21 Johnny Flynn
Following the same actor-singer path as half-brother Jerome Flynn, the Welsh raised nu-folkie made a splash with catchy strummed single The Box and now returns for a seasonal shopping list reminder of debut album A Larum (Vertigo). A cocktail of pastoral British folk and banjo backwoods Americana populated by tinkers, priests, bruised lovers and vagabonds, he’ll be serving up such ale-swigging leg-slapping rousers as Tickle Me Pink, Eyeless In Holloway, and Leftovers but it’s on the quieter, more melancholic numbers that he shines best. Case in point the superb finger picking slide guitar workout Wayne Rooney, the lazy hazy Brown Trout Blues, the trad flavours of lost love The Wrote & The Writ with its communion imagery and the mournful brass funeral march Hong Long Cemetery. He’s not yet received the same acclaim and awareness of other young conempto-trad folkies treading the boards, but his time will surely come. 7.30pm. £10. Bar Aacdemy Tuesday October 21 Tilly & The Wall
Having finally released Wild Like Children and Bottom of Barrels here last year, the Omaha-based five piece return for the Moshi Moshi label’s launch night of their self-titled third album. Still featuring tap dancing percussionist Jamie (showcased on the intro to the pub shouty Too Excited) rather than a drummer and with Kianna and Neely taking the vocals, it’s business as usual with a shimmering collection of pop laced with sweet harmonies, guitar distortions and a steady supply of 60s influences. Dust Me Off deftly washes galloping old school girl group pop with 80s synth bubbles, Pot Kettle Black is a foot stamping swampy garage riffs with a nice line in catty lyrics, while Poor Man’s Ice Cream has a rowdy flamenco energy, the cascadingly catchy Falling Without Knowing introduces OMD to The Bangles, and Chandelier Lake and the bass throbbing, hand-clapping Alligator Skin both do the power pop thing with experimental knobs on. They’re up for dance floor action with the aptly titled jerky Beat Control where they conjure memories of The Waitresses partying with the B52 and if you feel the need for some more intimate shuffles, there’s always the acoustic guitar and piano ballad Tall Tall Grass. If they spent a little more time over here working the circuit, they’d be huge. 8pm. £10. Barfly Wednesday October 22 Eddie Reader
Back for a second round of promotion for the Peacetime album and likely to still be in the same trad frame of mind, so you can expect to be treated to some Robbie Burns numbers and other assorted Scottish and English folk tunes alongside Safe As Houses, written in the aftermath of the 7/7 bombings, and perhaps the Declan O’Rourke penned Galileo sprinkled among selections from the back catalogue.
Forming part of the backing band as well as offering a short solo set, frequent collaborator Boo Hewardine will be taking the opportunity to flag up his current brace of EPs, Toy Box No 1 and No 2 (Navigator). Firmly in one man and a guitar mode, they perfectly illustrate the man’s songwriting craft, picking skills and tenderly brushed vocal tones. No 1 is a reflective set of predominantly historically based stories, Koh-I-Noor being about the legendary diamond and the enmity and spilled blood it’s caused, Ellis Island Blues revolves around the American immigrant experience while Bible Pages is an anti-war sung in the person of a teenage soldier telling how the only use they found for the Good Book was to provide the paper to roll their cigarettes. The companion set of six songs puts less emphasis on storytelling, but the travelling crop pickers of Harvest Gypsies and Follow My Heart’s tale of a widow recalling herself as a young 1940s bride starting a new life with her husband in New Zealand are no less absorbing listening while Limelight’s intimations of a broken relationship and the hymnal, accordion accompanied White Lilies’ meditation on mortality just add to his store of treasures.
With apparently no end to the musical lineage of the Wainwright clan, special guest for the evening is Lucy Wainwright Roche, daughter of Loudon and Suzzy Roche, and half sister to Rufus and Martha. She’s much more inclined to the folk side of things than they are, her pure crystal voice ranging from soprano to alto with fluid ease, carrying airs of joy and melancholy on its wings. Although not released in the UK (but presumably available on the night), she’s released two own label mini-albums, 8 Songs and 8 More. The first, released last year, mixes up trad, covers and self-penned numbers, her readings of Wild Mountain Thyme and an a cappella Barbara Allen set alongside Richard Shindell’s Next Best Western and a lovely joyously innocent version of Chistine McVie’s Everywhere. Of her own songs, the double tracked vocals of Rather Go call to mind mom’s own vocal group while the slow rolling Saddest Sound is an aching love song veined with hope and resignation. Best though is Bridge, a slightly folk blues strummer where her voice soars from intimate confessional to open sky celebration. More musically fleshed out, the second
collection is the stronger of the two, her songwriting having
gained in strength and confidence as ably demonstrated by the
gorgeous Awhile (shades of Jimmy Buffet) and Snare Drum’s
snapshot of all too brief childhood, both of which show a strong
folk pop sensibility. Sounding a little like Zooey Deschanel,
the bittersweet domestic waltz University Drive and the dreamy
star kissed fluttering pop of Chicago beguile further while,
joined by actress Martha Plimpton, she finishes up with not one
but a two parter of Springsteen’s Hungry Heart, their world
weary folksy version followed by an upbeat, handclapping chorus
coda. Wednesday October 22 Black Kids
The interracial Jacksonville quintet emerged from nowhere to storm the charts with I’m Not Gonna Teach Your Boyfriend How To Dance With You. Things didn’t go quite as well with follow up, Hurricane Jane, but debut album Partie Traumatic (Mercury) duly made its presence felt in the Top 5. However, whether their wit-veined cartoon cocktail of 80s dance (hear those Duran, B52s, ABC, Level 42 and Cure touches) can sustain the momentum remains to be seen. For the moment though they can look forward to the get up and party frock pop funk grooves of Listen to Your Body Tonight, Look At Me (When I Rock Wichoo), the squelchy Numanesque I Wanna Be Your Limousine and the title track keeping the less discerning members of the disco club happy.
Support comes from Nashville boy/girl electro pop duo Magic Wands who apparently garnered some interest with art-dance single Black Magic and its vague Tom Tom Club echoes. Other tracks like Teenage Love, Kiss Me Dead and Heartbreak Whirl variously throw up country, loungecore and more 80s floaty electro colours, but there’s nothing too spellbinding here. 7.30pm. £16. Carling Academy Wednesday October 22 A Silent Film
The piano-led quartet have seen their share of Keane, Radiohead and Coldplay references on the back of singles Sleeping Pills and You Will Leave A Mark, but, as borne out by debut album The City That Sleeps (XtraMile) with its preponderance of electronica sheen and racing, pulsing rhythms on such numbers as Julie June, Thirteen Times The Strength, Lamplight and the moody rain-washed feel of Gerontiun , a more likely influence would be Ultravox. That, and the fact most of the songs all tend to follow a very similar flurry makes it a little hard to get too excited, though Feather White and Aurora lends hope there may be hints of different developments. 7.30pm. £6. Little Civic
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