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rich's spaceMusing on stuff (like live gigs) since 2005
11月14日 Kanye West - live in NewcastleKanye's Glow In The Dark tour revolves around the concept of his journey through space in a ship that is crashing and breaking down. He communicates with a female computer system voice. Essentially I went to see Kanye West live last night at the Metro Radio Arena and had a great time. It was the first arena gig I have attended in a while. He performed so many of his hits and as a performer he does really well. Of course his music sounded sonic and powerful, filling the arena up. I must go through all the hits we heard tonight in no real order - Through The Wire, All Falls Down, Jesus Walks, Diamonds Are Forever, Gold Digger, Heard Em Say, Touch The Sky, Can't Tell Me Nothing, Stronger, Good Life, Homecoming, Flashing Lights, American Boy and a great performance of Love Lockdown, his recent single with live drumming. He stopped halfway through the song to start again! I figured it was a reference to his recent re-recording of the song based on feedback from its debut at the MTV Video Music Awards in September. His new album is going to be really promising. It is released in a couple of weeks. Support came from Mr Hudson And The Library, a band I was aware of and had one of their songs in my collection. They delivered some cool sounds and I definitely picked up some steel drum sounds. I haven't heard my conventional rock/pop bands that incorporate that instrument! The visuals didn't disappoint, and the songs I hadn't heard before impressed. A real recommended show to check out! I came away from the venue with a new-found respect for Kanye, and will continue to support him with further interest. In fact, this is one of the first gig reviews I have written on here in a while. The good news is that the upcoming gig at the same venue is The Prodigy this coming April and I am trying to get several friends to come and see it again! (Hopefully the review for the last time we saw them, from November 2005, can be found on this blog.) 6月2日 Middlesbrough Music Live 2008Middlesbrough Music Live 2008. First held in 2000. Imagine how far it has come since then. Somehow I was not fully aware of the event until 2004, and since then it has been a must for seeing great bands and singers from not only the past and present, but the future. Here's my report of this year's musicfest: The first group I made sure to check out was local ska tribute act 'Ska-Boom', and having seen them on a YouTube clip I knew I was in for a treat! It made me appreciate ska music more, and realise that there are some famous tunes associated with the genre. Covers such as 'Baggy Trousers', 'One Step Beyond', 'Pigbag' and 'Lip Up Fatty' were played. My friend from Uni and Teesside Pirates' Ashley plays trumpet for the band. After going into town for some lunch we returned to the scene via Jack McManus's set on the main stage. Shortly after this we happened across a local woman on a smaller stage who plays acoustic guitar (and could also be seen on the Open Mic stage at m.i.m.a.) named Suzanne Elizabeth Marron. We checked out a few songs such as "Lemonade" which sounded good and we agreed that she had a great voice. Later in The Empire we were expecting to see Howling Bells but instead we were treated to a different band - and their identity remained a mystery to me until the last song - which I termed it that "Na na na na na" song until I went home and looked it up - I then attributed the song to recent hitmaker Doug Walker, the song being "The Mystery". According to his MySpace it was indeed him, only appearing later than scheduled. Not bad at all for a last-minute replacement. The set I was looking forward to the most of course was Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip - this being the third time in Middlesbrough I will have seen them perform live. I was totally au fait with the songs this time round, having had the album on almost endless play. The set list included Beat That My Heart Skipped, Development, Look For The Woman, Tommy C, Fixed, Angles, a spoken word piece which I think was based on the theme of Music (hence their song 'First Time We Met Muzik') interspersed with an incredible spoken word piece which involved Bush singing the hook from a Justin Timberlake song....anyway!, Back From..., Thou Shalt Always Kill, Letter From God To Man and a Strangers cover of 'Nightclub'. This now means that I have now seen both Le Sac vs Pip and indie/art punk act Art Brut three times. After that we returned to the main stage where a local-ish band One Night Only were playing their final song, the top ten hit 'Just For Tonight'. I recognised it before the beat and other familiar parts kicked in and I am hardly a fan, which shows how far it has reached into mainstream culture. Following in the footsteps of Electric 6, The Thrills, Ocean Colour Scene and whoever it was last year(!), this year's headline act was Ash. Now I can name a fair amount of their tunes - I remember their first Top Of The Pops appearance in 1995. They opened with "Lose Control", a fine song indeed, and familiar tunes were played out to the thousands present. "Girl From Mars", "Oh Yeah", "A Life Less Ordinary", "Shining Light", "Orpheus", "Burn Baby Burn" and "You Can't Have It All" were among my favourites. Great job, lads! My photos from the day can be found here at this Flickr set: http://www.flickr.com/photos/richcam/sets/72157602207401773/ 5月25日 Eurovision 2008It is indeed that time of the year again when tradition has begun to dictate that we get together at Ali's house and watch the annual Eurovision Song Contest, and here in the UK we are treated to the great commentary of a certain Mr Terry Wogan. According to him, Russia are this year's "political winners"! Not to get too controversial, but the voting results can sometimes be predictable, with certain countries normally voting for their neighbours! I was glad to see Ukraine and Greece land 2nd and 3rd place, having personally rated their songs highly. Read on to find out my thoughts on each song.
1. Romania - "Male and female duet. Started out with man on his own. Wondered if woman was late but guess just standing around waiting for her first line would have been a bit unimaginative! Slow-ish, not the best ever but something to gradually ease into tonight." [5/10]
*My Top Rated*
Interesting other blog with running commentary of the contest here at Cheeseford. The event concluded a great day out in which we had ascended to the top of Roseberry Topping again - the first time in three years for me. This time we were in a group of 12. Photos and videos were taken. All in all a lot of fun was had full of laughter - this is what all days should be like! 9月1日 Dave's Meal and The '07 Gig SeasonLet's summarise what has been happening at the moment. Last night was Dave's birthday meal and it was good to catch up with loads of friends again, especially Ali and Vasso, both of whom I hadn't seen for weeeeeeeks. Dean, Sean, Marko, Martin, Phil, Jamie, Enzo, Mark, Jenna & Emma also turned out for the gathering. I felt very tired after the meal so was almost falling asleep back at Rileys during some further games of pool. I didn't play any pool; I wasn't too bothered about it. Looking back, most of my blog entries mention my previous jaunts to live concerts / gigs. So without further ado I must mention that it will soon be the "gig season" again, as the last few years have proved. You know, those big arena / venue gigs that tend to take part between October and December. I'll try and limit myself to these gigs for the remainder of the year; any more and I might be broke! So far this year, then:
1月12日 Into 2007 we go"It feels good to be back!" - as P Diddy recently sang on 'Come To Me'. Indeed, 2007 is here and just like last year it's time to play catchup with the latest goings-on. So what has happened since the last post of June 19th? Here is a summary. My profile picture now reminds me of former Weakest Link and current Deal Or No Deal (UK) contestant, Bunney (aka Jonathan). And as I have previously mentioned, that picture looks nothing like me! Major gigs included Basement Jaxx with support from CSS, The Raconteurs, To My Boy and The Magic Numbers. Of course the "gig season" of late 2005 was a tough act to follow but the passion my friends and I have for the bands we saw this time around was as strong as ever. More on these shows individually as we go on. 6月19日 Middlesbrough Music Live 2006It was that time of year again where the town of Middlesbrough hosted a wealth of live, free music. As a music lover who was I to give it a miss? Looking at the line-up there was promise in the fact that Captain, Ocean Colour Scene, Paolo Nutini, The Upper Room and The Modern were making very welcome appearances.
But the main reason I was getting myself down to the festivities was to catch the very up and coming band Jane Wails, whose web presence is shrouded in mystery right now (can I remedy that?). As the MC, a TFM DJ, came up to the mic to announce this band "will be blowing you away in the near future". I think that's what he said, I was quite excited to tell you the truth. So who are Jane Wails? Yes, they are a "them". Essentially the core of the band is former solo star Amy Studt, who has been songwriting since she was nine and enjoyed two top ten hits in 2003. Having been missing from the music scene since 2004 this was a welcome return for Amy, who along with her new band looked confident in their show and - coming back to Amy again - she looked amazing, playing one song on keyboard, expressing herself vocally and then picking up a bongo-like drum for the finale. The set included the tracks "Sad, Sad World", "One Last Cigarette" and "My Paper Made Man" (this track can be heard at Guy Sigsworth's MySpace). Around seven songs were performed in all. I took some snaps on my new camera which I shall put online to show the world that Amy Studt is back. The UK music scene should be rewarding talented songwriters like Amy, and if you remember Amy's attitude in her solo songs (Just A Little Girl, Misfit, Under The Thumb), then you will no doubt know that there is no stopping her. I along with a friend met Amy afterwards, through a steel cage barrier! She told us about the plans for the single and album release, I was nervous meeting her but once she came over to talk to us I felt relaxed, and we talked some more (I admit I told her I'd gone there just to see her!) and she signed our Music Live booklet, shook her hand through the caged barrier and said our goodbyes... it felt like it was a dream! Other bands I watched later on in the day were Root-ID and Morning Runner. Couldn't catch any of the bands appearing in The Empire because the queue was the longest it has ever been, i.e. some hundreds of people in the queue! Had I stayed a bit longer I would have watched Ocean Colour Scene, which a number of my friends did, but people get drunk about that time so I excused myself! Another year, another Middlesbrough Music Live which maintains the standard... you could say I had the best time this year! If you were there, please leave a comment! 6月2日 Latest NewsLATEST NEWS - It has been just over four months since I updated this blog. It was getting most of the updates last summer and despite winter gone being just as big for gigs as last summer had been, I still have not given it the coverage it deserves. I refer of course to the excellent Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand and Chemical Brothers shows, plus this year's Lethal Bizzle and The Longcut gigs. Coming real soon. For now I have prepared this four-in-one blog entry! QUESTION TIME! - Tonight I was at the recording of the BBC's flagship programme Question Time, which tonight came to Stockton-on-Tees. I went along with three friends who are all much more politically-minded than I am. I along with everyone else submitted some questions I wouldn't have minded asking although in the end only five or six people had the opportunity to ask theirs! One of our friends PB managed to comment about Prezza (deputy PM) while I liked SB's potential question involving "a certain croquet-playing member..." it was great fun and would do it again! 1月26日 Into 2006 We Go'It's been a long time, we shouldn't have left you/Without a dope beat to step to.' (Timbaland, 2000)
While other MSN Spaces have been vying for your attention, it's time for mine to step back into the limelight! Haven't updated this thing in about two months. I've still been meaning to tell you about the BIG GIG TRILOGY (that has a nice ring to it, don't you think?) ... although I did indeed attend five massive gigs in the last few months of 2005 (they went by SO quickly), arguably the three biggest gigs happened within a ten day period. More on that later...
It's good to be back. It's like coming back from holiday; I'm going to see what comments have been left (one!), I'm going to visit my friends' spaces (several!) and I shall finish what I started prior to going away (blogging about gigging!).
Anyone seen that Sony Bravia LCD TV advert? The one with the millions of coloured balls bouncing all over the descending road / hill? Here's a bit of a trivial twist to the whole thing. You know the music that accompanies the advert, 'Heartbeats' by José Gonzales? Check out the video to the original version of 'Heartbeats', performed by The Knife. It shows grainy black-and-white footage of people skating in sync down a descending road / hill and these bright multi-coloured 3D shapes come and flood the footage, a lovely sight! But my point being that it's a co-incidence that these colourful 3D shapes contrast with their respective "grayscale scenery" and the thing that links it is two versions of the same song. Do you suppose the admakers have seen that original music video? One to think about. And I think I've summed it up nicely.
At the cinema I have seen Memoirs Of A Geisha (3½ popcorn buckets out of 5) and A Cock & Bull Story (4½ popcorn buckets out of 5) both on Wednesday mornings. (This is the best time to get the cheapest cinema ticket in conjunction with the Orange Wednesday promotion.) The latter was fun, although I didn't laugh as much as I thought I would. It was a treat to watch and fabulously random; it wasn't chronogical or linear or that sort of thing. Check out the fabulous interplay between its delightfully ego-ridden leads Steve Coogan and Rob Brydon. Meanwhile 'Geisha' was top-notch dramatic and it didn't drag on, which I was pleased about.
In March 2004 in the company of my good friends we happened to see Goldie Lookin' Chain at Middlesbrough Empire. (And again two months later.) From the start I knew full well they'd be huge (thanks to my sources) and, well, to think that one of them is currently living in that Big Brother house!! Let it be known I'm not watching that thing but I hope that whichever one it is that's locked up is doing OK. Come to think of it, I'm sorry but I do not rate their latest album all that highly (enjoyed the singles that came from 'Greatest Hits' though lads!) but fair play to them for not cashing in on the whole Big Brother thing by promoting their gear to people who would otherwise never have given them a second listen! (See: Ordinary Boys, Dead Or Alive.) Erm, I think that is all I wanted to say. Yes. It is. Right then. In short, GLC good! 11月18日 Fanboydom, Part 1It has been a while, hasn't it? It's fair to say that I have been updating my Livejournal more often than my MSN space (i.e. this). There have been some updates as of today, such as "Fave Songs November 2005" and "Bands Seen Live" - one of which is The White Stripes. A week ago I posted this message on my Livejournal: last night the white stripes gig @ blackpool was excellent - 'The Nurse' being the major highlight for me personally. while i was looking forward to the free cd-r being handed out after the show, coupled with the fact it was said EVERY FAN would get a copy... no... they "ran out" quickly... i saw some GREEDY IGNORANT fans walking out with three, five maybe ten copies at once... SCUM. i could tell some of these people were more than happy to sponge off these copies and provide them to friends and gleeful ebay buyers. leaving me, a genuine paying fan, without. gah... i came so close as well... "You get them at the end of the show," said a drag queen who flaunted such a cd-r before the show. Do I? Oh I'd like one now. Where has everyone gone? Oh. jack... meg... dunno if you had a hand in it but... limited edition stuff = heartbreak. greed. capitalism. can i blame the promo team? i'd like to. they should have numbered the cd-rs to match the ticket number or strictly one copy per person. the system was flawed and while the show was ace, this otherwise ideal night was dented by some greedy, ignorant, fickle, johnny-come-lately idiot lesser fans. Looking back, it seems like I wrote that straight after the gig - in fact I'd written it the day after! Tonight is the night I win one of the eBay auctions for the 'free' CDR. One such CDR went for £19.50 earlier today so someone has profiteered so much that they almost cancel out the price of their show ticket... again, I'd really love to know what Jack thinks about all this! 22nd birthday was grand, and all in all the last few weeks have been eventful but I'm far too busy to type it all in here... my Livejournal on the other hand...(!) and let's not forget that the next two weeks will see three exciting gigs: The Prodigy, Franz Ferdinand and The Chemical Brothers. (With support from, altogether: Audio Bullys, Vatican DC, Pendulum, The Rakes, Editors and Cagedbaby!!! - think I have missed one out, we'll see.) Next week's plan: Monday - the quiz with the newly merged teams; Tuesday - The Prodigy; Wednesday - evening class, Thursday - graduation, Friday - Mark's birthday (group meal & night out & return of Chris Nash), Saturday - whateverhopefullyrestingaftersuchaweek, Sunday - Franz Ferdinand! 10月7日 So There They Were.On Wednesday 5th October I saw Bloc Party at Middlesbrough Town Hall. (Makes me wonder what it would have been like if I'd seen them the last time they were here—M'bro Music Live 2004.) Now, standing up for hours on end does no favours for my poor legs but I persisted and there was certainly no other suffering as the excellent Bloc Party performed their songs, 'Banquet', 'So Here We Are' and 'Helicopter' getting the most reaction. All the tracks off the album were played except 'Compliments' and non-album track highlights included the fantastic 'Little Thoughts', 'Tulips' and 'Two More Years'. Support act Kaito certainly impressed me, even though I couldn't decipher most of what vocalist Nikki was saying (who I might be in danger of referring to as Nikki Kaito when her actual surname is Colk) - blame it on the sound system hey. This band have apparently been together since 1998 so I was pleased to come across their presence. Kaito have released two albums, perhaps it is time to buy and find out more? Remember kids, buy Bloc Party's new single 'Two More Years' to prevent Robbie Williams from getting to No.1... That's one autumn gig down, four to go.
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A guide to my friends with blogs or MSN Spaces
Concept inspired by Alikhan!
Bands, gigs and musicians I wish I had been to see. Still, can't dwell on the past too much, can we!
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