Category - Music

I’m late with this one, too. I took my first trip to the Leeds Arena on 17 December 2013 to see Status Quo on their annual tour (as I’ve explained before, my best mate who lives in Leeds is a huge fan).

The Arena (full current title: The First Direct Arena) is quite impressive and it already seems to be developing a reputation among artists who are asking to play there. It is unique in the UK by virtue of its shape – it’s like a huge fan, and the hype says that no seat is any more than 60m away from the stage. Bruce Springsteen played there first in July 2013, though the official first act was Elton John in September 2013. Pearl Jam are schedule to play there in July 2014, so the venue isn’t short on big names wanting to go there.

Francis Rossi certainly commented on it during this show (he’s apparently commented on his dislike of Sheffield’s Arena before according to my mate), saying that it was a good venue. We were seated to the right of the stage at floor level, which wasn’t bad – but it’s worth pointing out that the stage is very wide, and half of block D (where we were) is somewhat off to one side (mental note to self: in future aim to get tickets in block C, high seat numbers in block B, or low seat numbers in block D. Don’t touch blocks A and E with a bargepole).

The support act was 10cc. Now, I never liked 10cc back in the 70s – I didn’t specifically hate them, but they just weren’t my cup of tea. And they still aren’t. But that mustn’t detract from their innate musicianship, and certainly, large sections of the audience were obviously huge fans (though the typical Quo gig-goer these days would probably have behaved the same way if it had been Miley Cyrus or Lady GaGa up there).

Status Quo were as impressive as ever. They played many of their classics such as Caroline, Roll Over Lay Down, Whatever You Want, and Rockin’ All Over The World. I can’t remember them playing anything off Quid Pro Quo, their 2011 album, which was a shame because I like Two Way Traffic. However, they played a few songs from Bula Quo, their 2013 album.

I picked my mate up from his house outside Leeds and we parked in a municipal car park with a ticket machine that required an IQ greater than 140 to operate (something that was obviously lacking in the people who were using it in front of me). Like most cities with music venues, Leeds’ car parks are run by people with previous criminal records for fraud, and it cost £8.50 (if memory serves) for less than 4 hours of parking.

Getting out was easy, though. The car park was far enough away from the venue for the typical Quo fan not to consider it a viable option, and I drove straight out and (after one roundabout with an exit that wasn’t there, but which Google Maps said was) almost immediately on to the M1 back to Nottingham.

On the way back, I discovered something that has been playing on my mind of late anyway. I was starving, and I knew that I’d be lucky if anything decent was available at the various services. The first one I tried appeared to be shut (I don’t think it was – it just had a manky automatic door sensor, but I didn’t know that at the time). The next one, I was delighted to find, had a Subway outlet and it was still open. Unfortunately, it also had a customer already waiting (a bad sign) – and it quickly became clear that the combined IQs of the customer, the woman with him (who would undoubtedly have wanted a sub after his had been finished), the single employee working, and the security/manager guy she was rabbiting to instead of getting on with making the bloody sub wouldn’t have been sufficient to operate that ticket machine in the car park back in Leeds. So I stormed out, now firmly convinced that Subway attracts mental cases as customers, as I had begun to suspect from my experience back home.

I finally found services with a McDonalds, and apart from the fact that service McD outlets never have anything ready and you have to wait, I was in a strangely tolerant mood and my hunger was dealt with within about 10 minutes (which was probably a quarter of the time I’d have been waiting at Subway).

I’m a bit late putting this one up, but I went to see Black Star Riders at Nottingham’s Rock City on 12 December 2013.

Basically, Black Star Riders is the renamed Thin Lizzy – the renaming was so that they could start playing new material. Mind you, Scott Gorham is the only original Lizzy member in the band, so in that sense they are not merely a renamed Lizzy. But none of that matters, because it’s mostly about the music, anyway.

The support band was Dead Daisies, but I didn’t get to hear them other than about half of their last song. I can’t really comment beyond that. There was also another support band, but I certainly didn’t get to hear them. We arrived late for various reasons.

Anyway, it was a great performance – difficult to tell it apart from the Thin Lizzy gig I went to in Leeds a couple of years ago in many respects, other than for the new material. In any case, the new material is very Lizzy-like. The band line-up is different to last time but they still play with power and passion. Most of the Riders’ debut album was played along with many Lizzy classics.

A great – albeit rushed – night of entertainment. With Whisky In The Jar and Rosalie as the encore, it couldn’t have been anything else.

We finished with an indifferent curry in the Mogal-e-Azam (far too much Methi in the Chicken Methi, making it bitter – and even I know that “fresh methi” isn’t better than “dried methi”, because the two things have totally different uses. A decent curry uses dried methi for the flavour).

I managed to take some great photos at the gig, too.

I’ve mentioned Horslips several times on the blog (use the search function for video clips). They were the first band I ever saw live, and I was lucky enough to get to see them again a couple of years ago up in Glasgow after more than 30 years! They were just as good as they ever were.

This has been a long time in the making, but at long last an official biography has been released (I got wind from Classic Rock magazine this month). I’ve got mine on order and I’m looking forward to getting hold of it. I hope it arrives before Christmas.

I also note that there is a 2CD set containing the A- and B-sides of all Horslips’ singles releases over the years. I’ll have to order that when I find a source (I haven’t looked yet, and it might be easier than I thought). Oh, wait. It IS easier – Amazon has it. And nuts! Amazon also has the book, though I’ve already ordered mine from Ireland.

Horslips’ website also has a new list of all known gigs (the one I went to back in ‘78-ish isn’t on it, so I’ll have to let them know).

Some years ago there was a cable channel called Classic FM. It was right at the end of the block of music channels on my Sky receiver at the time, and every night before I went to sleep I’d start at MTV, and scroll through every channel trying to find something interesting to listen to. I have a very low annoyance threshold where rap and r’n’b is concerned – it’s set at about zero on my annoyance-o-meter – so I would usually end up on Classic FM within about 15 seconds unless I found some rock music, which was rare (even Kerrang was playing bloody rap, which serves it right now it has gone belly up).

Anyway, there were a few artists which caught my attention back then. Sigur Rós was one of them. The music was haunting, and the accompanying videos made it more so. Take a look at this YouTube video for Glósóli and you’ll see what I mean.

I decided that I would definitely go and see them if I got the chance. Well, on Wednesday night I did. And I wasn’t disappointed.

Sigur Rós come from Iceland and are often classed as “post-rock” – which basically means they use sounds and minimalist vocals to a large extent. However, they have developed it to such a degree that quite a few of their songs have been used in soundtracks to various TV shows and adverts because they are not just discordant noise – like many early post-rock bands’ songs were – but coherent and complete. The fact that they’re from Iceland – and if you remember Björk or her original band, The Sugarcubes, you’ll know what I mean – means they’re a little bit off the wall. “Artsy” would be one word you could use to define them.

This was reflected a little by the audience. Anyone who reads any of my reviews about gigs I’ve been to will know that I do a bit of people-watching, and in this case I’ve never come across a crowd like it. It’s hard to explain, but I’ve never seen so many people wearing woolly hats with ear flaps indoors before. Nor have I seen so many people sitting on the floor eating packed lunches at a gig before. With one or two exceptions – and by that, I mean one or two people – the end of every song was met with polite applause and nothing more. But they were well-behaved and there was very little barging (that’s where you get a decent spot, watch the support act, only to have a load of latecomers try and get to the front when the main act is due to come on).

In total, there were 11 musicians on the stage, though Sigur Rós technically only consist of three members these days. This is because they make use of strings and brass, with the core members playing bass, guitar/vocals, and drums. However, the supporting artists also provided additional vocals, keyboards, guitars, and percussion.

The setlist was as follows:

• Yfirborð
• Vaka
• Brennisteinn
• Glósóli
• Stormur
• Hrafntinna
• Sæglópur
• Varúð
• Hoppípolla
• Með Blóðnasir
• Rafstraumur
• Kveikur
• Festival

Encore:

• Svefn-g-englar
• Popplagið
• Avalon

Every song was played faultlessly. Their music is very deep and multi-layered and you can lose yourself in it very easily. That’s what I used to do when I watched it on Classic FM – I could fall asleep to it (and I mean that in a good way).

At the beginning of the set the stage was enclosed by a thin curtain, and this was used to good effect as visuals were projected on to it – so instead of the usual rear-projection (which they used later), you had a sort of front-projection. It added to the atmosphere immensely.

Having said that, because it had to be released at some point (and I didn’t know if that would happen at the start), the support band – I Break Horses – played behind it, so you couldn’t see them too well. A bit of a shame, but they still sounded OK.

Anyway, it was a good concert and I’ll definitely watch out for them touring again.

All rounded off with a nice curry, this time at Chutney on Maid Marian Way. I was a bit wary of trying a new one – but I didn’t fancy walking all the way up to the Mogal-e-Azam, so this one is now on the “most favoured” list.

The Rush: Clockwork Angels Tour DVD will be on sale from 19 November 2013, but here’s the premiere of “The Garden” from it.

You can read more at Rolling Stone.

The release of Rush’s remixed 2002 album, Vapor Trails, has been planned for some time. I’ve had mine on pre-order from Amazon – and although the actual CD release has been delayed by a few days, Amazon now has a facility where you get automatic MP3 downloads for the album you buy from their website. I downloaded mine yesterday – along with about 13 other albums I have bought through Amazon previously (and some I didn’t know I had, but I’m not complaining).

Vapor Trails was Rush’s first album for several years, following personal circumstances which put the band on hold.

The album was very good in my opinion, although it was also mixed in such a way that it was loud and distorted, which was a shame. In fact, this gave rise to a lot of criticism from fans who couldn’t see the wood for the leaves. To be honest, I initially liked the raw sound, but the more I listened to it, the more I realised that a lot of detail had been lost.

Well, this remix is incredible. The album is now almost orchestral in its quality, and the only way I can think of in comparing the original to this new version is to show the image below of two picture frames – one very simple, the other ornate and detailed.

You can hear things that weren’t there before, and things that were there (i.e. some distortion) are gone. It’s almost like having a new Rush album rather than a remix.

Rush fans will undoubtedly buy this – but I’d recommend anyone else with an interest in decent music to have a listen, too.

As everyone knows, the 1980s were the worst decade ever. Even another outbreak of the Bubonic Plague couldn’t have made the 80s any worse as far as new bands and music were concerned. Some of the best pre-80s bands faltered – depending on the source, even Rush came fairly close to splitting as a result of synthesisers taking over the band’s sound. Punk certainly lost out to the New Romantic crap, and in later years many of the original punks moved over to dance and pop, even though the so-called “ideals” of punk were diametrically opposed to those of these later genres.

Ooops! I’m digressing. One band which definitely went through an 80s phase was ZZ Top. I can remember listening to Top of the Pops each week and being driven mad by the lack of any decent rock music. But occasionally, the likes of ZZ Top or another pre-80s band would open a small window of decent sound, even though it was clad in typical 80s gaudiness. I’m thinking of songs like Gimme All Your Lovin’ and Legs, with their Eastmancolor videos and bouffant hairdos on the girls.

ZZ Top has actually been around since the late 60s, but I can’t remember them hitting it big in the UK until the very late 70s or early 80s, and as I say the 80s did a lot of damage to a lot of bands. Fortunately, ZZ Top weathered it – largely due to Billy Gibbons’ foresight, I reckon – and have continued to release new material. Output has slowed a little in the last 15 years or so, but this isn’t surprising when you consider that all three band members are well into their sixties now. Even so, the recent material has been very good.

It was with all this in mind that I’d arranged to see them on one of their UK shows – at Manchester’s O2 Apollo, last night.

First, a word about the support act, the Ben Miller Band. This next thing isn’t something you ever expect to write about – and I doubt that I’ll ever have to do it again – but last night I saw my first ever electric washboard. There it is on the left. Note the signal cable coming out of the bottom of it. There were electric spoons, too.

Oh, yeah. And I’ve seen guitarists playing guitar and drums at the same time, vocalists singing and playing flute at the same time, and all manner of other clever multitasking tricks. But I think seeing someone play trombone and drums at the same time is a first.

BMB is classed variously as Delta Blues, Ozarks, Bluegrass, Newgrass, Jug Band, and so on. In fact, all three members are multi-instrumentalists, and they play the sort of music that my dream of doing Route 66 one day would take in. I didn’t see any jugs, but I’m sure they can play one- and I bet there’s a ¼” jack in it when they do!

The other main feature was the bass player. Not an ordinary one, but a single-stringed washtub bass.

What mattered was the music, of course. And they were brilliant! Yet another case where the support band has prompted me to get their album. And judging from the reception they got, the audience felt the same way.

ZZ Top played several of their songs from the La Futura album (their latest), as well as some old favourites. The older ones from the 80s come across really well when you strip the videos away – this is just my opinion, of course, because I’ve already mentioned how much the 80s music scene screwed up my enjoyment of rock. They also went as far back as 1971 into their back catalogue. I Gotsta Get Paid is great live, as is Sharp Dressed Man. They also did a cover of Foxy Lady.

Billy Gibbons is a superb guitarist – I believe he is consistently in the Top 100 Guitarists of All Time lists – and the sound was crisp and clear. I was surprised that they only played a venue the size of the Apollo, which has a capacity of about 3,500, but it must have been sold out. I was also surprised that they only had two UK gigs, because I’d would have imagined them being able to fill arenas with ease.

The crowd was enthusiastic and there was a great atmosphere throughout, marred only slightly by a group of dickheads in front of me who had obviously had too much to drink, and who decided that dancing wildly without any regard for those around them was a good idea. I suppose it was until one of them nearly got his teeth punched in by the guy he was jumping all over. Either that – or the beer they were swilling – calmed them down after that. They then spent almost the entire show holding up Blackberry phones to take photos (it always makes me laugh when I see someone taking pictures on a Blackberry).

Here’s a selection pictures I took. I was close to the stage and they’ve come out well.

OK, it’s for Austin, Texas, and was posted on the Rush official website back in April, but it summarises a Rush gig on the Clockwork Angels Tour perfectly.

Well, that’s the UK part of the Clockwork Angels tour over. And Rush went out on a high note with their performance last night in Glasgow. The crowd didn’t quite beat Sheffield for atmosphere – but they came darned close. It was a great way for Rush to leave the UK on this tour.

The set was virtually the same as the one they first played in Manchester – but with the interesting addition of Limelight in place of Middletown Dreams in the first part of the set. Here’s the set list as I remember it:

Part 1

• Subdivisions
• Big Money
• Force Ten
• Grand Designs
• Limelight
• Territories
• The Analog Kid
• The Pass
• Where’s My Thing? (with drum solo)
• Far Cry

Part 2

• Caravan
• Clockwork Angels
• The Anarchist
• Carnies
• The Wreckers
• Headlong Flight (with drum solo)
• Halo Effect
• Wish Them Well
• The Garden
• Dreamline
• Drum Solo
• Red Sector A
• YYZ
• The Spirit of Radio

Encore

• Tom Sawyer
• 2112 Part I: Overture
• 2112 Part II: The Temples of Syrinx
• 2112 Part VII: Grand Finale

The band were perfect, as usual. Here’s a selection of some of the pictures I got from my excellent position centre stage, and about 6 rows back.

Initially, I was impressed that the SECC was only charging £6 for the car park, but I was subsequently very disappointed that they had apparently disabled all the drinks vending machines inside (£1.50 for a bottle of Coke), which subsequently forced everyone to pay £2.00 or more at the event catering outlets. I tried four machines when I got there, and all were either broken or not accepting money. Miraculously, ALL of them were working at the end of the show as we made out way out. Deny it all you like, SECC, you DID disable them! There’s no way the vending machine company comes and fixes so many broken machines after 6pm on a Thursday evening.

The SECC is an unusual arena inasmuch as it doesn’t go up very far (not high tiers), but it curves around the stage more than most places. It seems to be based on an oval shape, whereas all the other UK venues are on a rectangular plan.

Whenever I go to see Rush I’m always worried when I see any empty or unfilled seats, because I know Rush care about that a lot, and it makes me fret about whether it will make it worth their while coming back on their subsequent tours. But some people go completely overboard with their pessimism and negativity.

Attendances

I don’t have official figures, but here is my assessment of the attendances for the 5 shows on the UK tour.

Manchester – I couldn’t see many empty seats, and only a couple of tiers at the back were sheeted off. I would say the arena was at least 90% full, and with a stated capacity of 23,000 that means there were more than 20,000 present.

London – I couldn’t see any significant numbers of empty seats. I would say the venue was over 95% full, and with a capacity of 20,000 that means there were around 19,000 there.

Birmingham – only a couple of sheeted-off tiers. I would say the arena was over 90% full, and with a capacity of approximately 14,000, that means there were more than 12,500 there.

Sheffield – there were quite a few empty seats and empty tiers. The venue was at least 75% full, and with a capacity of 13,500 that means around 10,000 people present.

Glasgow – by now (having read the negative comments elsewhere) I was keeping tabs. Four complete blocks were sheeted off out of 24 blocks in total. Even assuming that these blocks were the same size as all the others (the six floor blocks are bigger), that means 85% of the arena was in use. There were a few empty seats on the floor, but not too many. So I estimate that there was at least an 85% capacity crowd in an arena with a maximum capacity of 10,000 – so 8,500 present.

As I mentioned in the Sheffield review, the crowd doesn’t have to be at maximum capacity to make a brilliant show. Nor does a single empty seat mean the beginning of the end of Rush, which seems to be the way some people on some forums look at it! With around 70,000 people therefore seeing the shows in the UK, gross ticket sales must have exceeded £3.7m – and then there would have been merchandise sales on top of it all. I don’t think that Rush will have been unduly concerned about a few empty seats.

It’s worth noting that Rush is 33rd in the list of 2012 tour earners in North America. Considering that the tour only began in September 2012, and that it had grossed $27.2m by year end (36 shows), that’s a bloody good turnout they’re experiencing. In fact, if my calculation above is correct, the UK stage (5 shows) was pro rata more profitable than the ones in the US (though you have to remember that shipping everything over here and humping it around Europe costs more than just moving it around North America). So much for the doom and gloom merchants out there!

Merchandise

The quality of Rush tour merchandise is astounding. Admittedly, at £30 for a T-shirt and £60 for a button-up baseball shirt you’d expect nothing less – and there was even a leather jacket available priced at £400 (I saw at least half a dozen people wearing one at the various gigs) – but the merchandise stalls were doing a roaring trade at every one of the UK concerts.

The Shows

People have complained that the ticket prices were too high. Well, mine had a face value of £75 each, but I paid nearly double that to my agent to make sure I was near the front. I would gladly have paid more if necessary.

Given that most of the shows were virtually sold out, and even the poorest attendance was still around 75% of capacity (Sheffield was an anomaly all round), it would seem that a lot of other genuine fans were also more concerned about seeing Rush than they were about getting tickets for under £35 with their Happy Meals at McDonalds! You see, you get your money’s worth with Rush. The tickets may have been the most expensive ever, but for that you got a show which began around 7.30pm and finished not far off 11pm. You got 3 hours of music (with a 15 minute break in the middle), great light show, rear-screen movies, multiple overhead screens, fireworks – and a 5- or 7-piece string ensemble for half of the show. And that’s on top of seeing a legendary band in performance.

You can’t shift a spectacle of that size around the world for 1980s or 1990s ticket prices, nor can you draw parallels with ticket prices for lesser artists who only put on 80-90 minute shows, or who have a vast secondary income as a result of their glitzy, Stateside showbiz image and corresponding endorsements, and who use cheap (or free) tickets at certain gigs as extra fuel for that image.

Rush is about the music and the performance.

As an aside, Billy Joel is touring later this year, and his tickets have a face value of £95. Bruce Springsteen tickets are at least £68 at various stadiums (I think more at arenas). And let’s not forget the Rolling Stones, who were charging into the hundreds for their sold-out tickets. These people are in business, and they have every right to charge what people are prepared to pay.

The Future

The Clockwork Angels Tour is scheduled to finish in August 2013 (as I mentioned, it began in September 2012). In an interview I heard with Alex Lifeson on Planet Rock a couple of weeks ago, he said that they were planning to take some time off (a “couple of years” was mentioned) once the tour ended. I suspect that they’ll be back at work in less than two years, though. They enjoy the job too much.

I’m a bit late with this review because I didn’t get home until nearly 5am this morning! It was a clear run back from Glasgow, across the A66 to the A1, and it was nice and mild. I had developed a streaming cold the day before, and felt like crap coming back, but I saw some stunning noctilucent clouds when I stopped at around 1am somewhere in the southern reaches of Scotland. Nottingham was cloudy, but in full daylight when I got back, whereas it had been above 20ºC and sunny all afternoon and evening up in Glasgow.