Category: Live Reports (Page 18 of 37)

ALISON MOYET Live at Hackney Round Chapel

15 June 2017 /

On the eve of the release of her new album ‘Other’, Alison Moyet delivered a stupendous performance at Hackney’s Grade II listed Round Chapel in East London as part of Amazon Prime’s series of filmed intimate concerts.

The evening started with Ms Moyet as her own support act, courtesy of a Q&A moderated by journalist Pete Paphides. They discussed a wide variety of subjects including her current college course in figurative sculpture, the observational nature of her new record and setting fire to her old leather jackets as part of a decluttering process before moving to her new home of Brighton. She discussed how her daughter was particularly upset that these weren’t passed on to her; “GET YOUR OWN” was her mother’s reply!

The musical proceedings began with ‘I Germinate’, the dramatic opening salvo from ‘Other’ inspired by one of her Mythology sculpture studies. Accompanied by band members John Garden and Sean McGhee within a primarily electronic backdrop, an updated but largely unaltered ‘Nobody’s Diary’ quickly burst forth to the delight of the crowd.

Looking particularly radiant, Ms Moyet took time to address her audience with some down-to-earth banter. Remarking about how difficult some songs were to sing live, she amusingly introduced the marvellous synthy drama of ‘Reassuring Pinches’ as “A COMPLETE BASTARD”! As well as songs from ‘Other’, Ms Moyet delved into her solo back catalogue. ‘Falling’ perhaps surprisingly got one of the biggest cheers and prompted several members of the audience to dance. Meanwhile, there were some interesting new arrangements of songs from ‘Alf’ and ‘Raindancing’. With their productions respectively by Swain & Jolley and Jimmy Iovine, the recorded originals now sound very much of their time.

A song co-written with EURYTHMICS’ David A Stewart under the pseudonym of Jean Guiot, ‘Is This Love?’ got a blippy new waltz arrangement, while a very sparse percussion free ‘Ordinary Girl’ gave the song a resonance that hadn’t been previously present. ‘All Cried Out’ though changed time signatures between verse and chorus which added a new tension to proceedings.

With an added growly presence, Ms Moyet was in fine voice but mention must be made of Sean McGhee who was a particularly good backing vocalist, complimenting her distinctive tones throughout the evening.

It wasn’t all about ballads though, as the gritty dubstep pop of ‘Changeling’ from ‘the minutes’ added some feisty energy to the set, while the cinematic orchestrated grandeur of ‘The Rarest Birds’ celebrated Ms Moyet’s revitalised life in Brighton.

Later on in the show, McGee took to bass guitar and Garden strapped on a six string for the NRA baiting ‘Beautiful Gun’. Here, Ms Moyet also showed her former school classmates from Nicholas Comprehensive how a bluesy electro romp should be done. Indeed, the new material from ‘Other’ confirmed how weak the most recent offering from DEPECHE MODE  actually is in comparison…

There was another return to her YAZOO days with a synth noir take on ‘Only You’ that appeared to have been transposed into a minor key reboot before the bouncy ‘Right As Rain’ provided an uptempo spark into the final straight.

A spirited semi-acoustic rendition of Jules Shear’s ‘Whispering Your Name’, which incidentally was also a minor Australian synthpop hit for Ignatius Jones back in 1983, got another positive audience response before an untouched and untouchable ‘Situation’ had the whole of the Round Chapel onto their feet as a conclusion to the main act.

Returning for a passionate ‘Love Resurrection’ and a rapturous crowd singalong for ‘Don’t Go’, the evening was an outstanding launch for Ms Moyet’s upcoming world tour to support ‘Other’. It was triumphant performance from Alison Moyet with interesting facelifts of her solo hits, a welcome airing of YAZOO evergreens and best of all, excellent new material. Now if only another act from Basildon could still be this vital, inventive and entertaining…

Special thanks to Duncan Clark at 9PR

‘Other’ is released as a CD, vinyl LP and download by Cooking Vinyl on 16th June 2017

Alison Moyet’s ‘The Other Tour’ 2017

UK and Ireland dates include:

Cork Opera House (27th October), Dublin Olympia Theatre (28th October), Belfast Ulster Hall (29th October), Gateshead Sage (31st October), Glasgow Royal Concert Hall (1st November), Edinburgh Usher Hall (2nd November), Ipswich Regent Theatre (4th November), Reading Hexagon (5th November), Oxford New Theatre (7th November), Brighton Dome (8th November), Birmingham Symphony Hall (9th November), Southend Cliffs Pavilion (11th November), Cambridge Corn Exchange (12th November), London Palladium (14th November), London Palladium (15th November), Bournemouth Pavilion Theatre (16th November), Cardiff St David’s Hall (18th November), York Barbican (19th November), Liverpool Royal Philharmonic Hall (20th November), Manchester Bridgewater Hall (22nd November), Bristol Colston Hall (23rd November), Warwick Arts Centre (24th November), Nottingham Royal Concert Hall (26th November), Aylesbury Waterside Theatre (27th November), Southampton 02 Guildhall (28th November)

European dates include:

Oslo Rockefeller (3rd December), Odense Odeon (4th December), Stockholm Berns (5th December), Antwerp De Roma (7th December), Amsterdam Paradiso (8th December), Cologne Kantine (9th December), Berlin Huxleys Neue Welt (11th December), Hamburg Gruenspan (12th December), Aschaffenburg Colos-Saal (13th December), Karlsruhe Substage (15th December), Vienna SIMM City (16th December), Milan Fabrique (17th December), Zürich X-tra (19th December), Paris L’Alhambra (20th December)

Please visit http://alisonmoyet.com/ for details on tour dates in North America, Australia and New Zealand

https://www.facebook.com/AlisonMoyet

https://twitter.com/AlisonMoyet

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos Courtesy of Amazon Prime and 9PR with thanks
16th June 2017

MARNIE Live at Hackney Oslo

11 June 2017 /

It was almost six years to the day that LADYTRON last played London when their lead singer MARNIE made her debut performance as a solo artist at Hackney’s spacious but intimate Nordic themed venue Oslo.

Releasing her first solo album ‘Crystal World’ on the prestigious Belgian label Les Disques Du Crépuscule in 2013, the collection illustrated the pop credentials of the classically trained Glaswegian, whose tastes were always a bit more ABBA and TAYLOR SWIFT than THROBBING GRISTLE. Her second long player ‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ recently issued by the London based Disco Piñata is a natural successor to ‘Crystal World’, adding even more big choruses and prominent guitar into the mix.

Opening the evening with ‘The Hunter’, this marvellous Scandi-tinged widescreen concoction could be considered the prime synthpop single that LADYTRON never quite got round to making. Meanwhile the dreamily driven ‘Alphabet Block’ maintained the initial momentum.

Augmented by Sarah Stanley on keyboards, computers and guitars plus drummer Peter Kelly with possibly the LOUDEST snare in London, if not the world, MARNIE herself had a new Korg Minilogue with its distinctive wooden-look base for company.

The glorious ‘We Are The Sea’ recalled CHVRCHES and along with the bouncy ‘G.I.R.L.S.’, they affirmed MARNIE’s importance as a role model to aspiring female musicians; at times during the set one could imagine her as Lauren Mayberry’s big sister.

While earlier songs such as ‘Sugarland’ from ‘Crystal World’ possessed more surreal lyrical imagery, the newer ones like ‘Lost Maps’, ‘Invisible Girl’ and ‘Heartbreak Kid’ are far more direct and personal.

Trying not to burst into total laughter whenever her uncle in the audience started heckling her, MARNIE exuded a down-to-earth demeanour than may not have always been apparent as a member of LADYTRON.

Accompanied by gorgeous synth lines, ‘Summer Boys’ was all about unrequited love and holiday romances, while the punchy rallying cry of ‘Electric Youth’ rounded off the main part of the show to highlight the optimistic ethos of MARNIE’s solo work.

Unfortunately ‘Bloom’, one of the best songs on the new ‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ album, was dropped from the encore, but there was the expansive nautical adventure of ‘Submariner’ to compensate.

All-in-all, it was an entertaining and engaging performance from MARNIE that delighted the enthusiastic crowd. Bearing in mind some of the epic LADYTRON sets of the past, it could have done with being a bit longer. But it’s perhaps always best to leave people to want more.

And tonight they did…

With thanks to Paul McCallum at A Badge of Friendship

‘Strange Words & Weird Wars’ is released on 2nd June 2017 by Disco Piñata in vinyl LP, CD and digital formats, available from https://helenmarnie.bandcamp.com/

http://www.helenmarnie.com/

https://www.facebook.com/helen.marnie.official/

https://twitter.com/marnieofficial

http://discopinata.com/artist/marnie/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
13th June 2017

SOULWAX Live at O2 Manchester Ritz

14 April 2017 /


Before Belgium’s SOULWAX even played a note tonight at Manchester Ritz, the stage set was a synthspotter’s wet dream.

A beautifully monochromatic and almost perfectly symmetrical set-up boasting an incredible array of mainly vintage equipment including an EMS Synthi A, ARP 2600 (with custom red LEDs on the sliders), ARP Odyssey, Oberheim 2 Voice and a Macbeth modular being amongst the gear on display.

It was plain from the off that this wasn’t going to be a low budget laptop-prodding live experience and that’s without mentioning the three drum kits! Two out of the three kits were Staccato ones; these unique looking drum sets (which have brilliantly been compared to ‘Humpty Dumpty’s shorts’ due to their flared-out look) were an essential tonight to help perform tracks from SOULWAX’s current opus ‘From Deewee’ which features three different percussionists.

What was also noticeable was the white acoustic tiling which lined the interior of the triple drum cages; in a nod to KRAFTWERK, the aesthetic of these recalled the clinical look of the German synth maestro’s Kling Klang studio soundproofing.

Opening with the instrumental overture ‘Preset Tense’ from the current album, the rippling synth arpeggios rose to an electronic crescendo before launching into ‘Masterplanned’ and the dropping of covers to reveal the three drummers; stage left and right and one behind the Dewaele brothers. Recalling the drama that used to accompany the imperial phase of DEPECHE MODE’s classic live shows, it was an undeniably stunning start to tonight’s show.

The majority of the night’s set was made of selections from the ‘From Deewee’ album with a few choice tracks from the SOULWAX back catalogue including ‘Krack’ and ‘Another Excuse’.

During ‘NY Excuse’, a metallic replica of the piston shaped robotic figure from the cover of ‘From Deewee’ rotated whilst being hit by a beam of white light as the song’s mantra-like quality took hold.

As the song hit its climax, Stephen Dewaele coaxed screaming lead synth sounds out of his ARP2600 and the track provided an undisputed highlight of the night’s show. Throughout the night, whilst many in the audience bounced up and down, others were transfixed by the spectacle of watching live electronics with three live drummers perfectly in synchronization.

For those that have witnessed the SOULWAX live experience before, their shows are presented in a breathless continuous mix format, with songs segued into each other, helping to maintain the club / dance vibe of most of their material.

Maintaining the monochromatic theme, piercing white lights positioned at strategic points on the stage were perfectly synced and triggered via the band’s Ableton software during the show.

After approximately an hour and half’s worth of performance, the band took a short break and then came back for an encore including a supercharged version of ‘Miserable Girl’ to climax the evening.

If a criticism could be levelled at the show it would be that it was maybe a little too heavily skewed towards the material from ‘From Deewee’ at the expense of some of the band’s stronger back catalogue. But considering the logistics of bringing three drummers, it made musical sense to bias towards these more recent songs as the featured musicians played such a big part in the creation of them.

What was ultimately refreshing about tonight was that there are still bands that are willing to take musical risks in the live arena and put on a show that was undoubtedly a major technical nightmare to stage and one that could possibly be a money-loser considering the amount of performers / equipment involved.

If you do get a chance to catch SOULWAX live or even their 2MANYDJS incarnation, don’t miss out on the chance.

This is about as far away from what some electronic / synth bands consider a live show… perfect symmetry indeed.

‘From Deewee’ is released by PIAS in the usual formats

http://www.soulwax.com/

https://www.facebook.com/soulwax/

Text by Paul Boddy
Photos by Roger Kamp
14th April 2017

RICHARD BARBIERI Live at Hoxton Hall

30 March 2017 /


Supporting the release of his third solo album ‘Planets + Persona’, Richard Barbieri presented an intimate live show that covered many facets of his recording career from JAPAN to PORCUPINE TREE.

While Barbieri’s rig featured the expected all mod cons like a MacBook, controllers and a Roland V-Synth, the set-up also included his beloved Sequential Prophet 5 and Roland System 700 Lab Series.

Accompanied by the versatile Swedish musician Lisen Rylander Löve on saxophone, percussion and voice manipulations, the pair began sedately with ‘Night Of The Hunter – (3) Innocence Lost’ from ‘Planets & Persona’.

Utilising a wide cinematic spectrum of electronic and organic colours, the show started in earnest with the sleazy rhythmic adventure of ‘Solar Sea’. The track’s atonal jazz feel with its spacey momentum saw Löve screeching into a Cold War vintage Russian Army microphone, while drowning her eerie larynx with a variety of gadgets. With a warping System 700 bass, it was part avant techno and part ambient as Barbieri moved across his four keyboards to provide texture and atmosphere.

Löve left the stage for Barbieri to perform alone in the evening’s first big surprise. After a series of improvised sweeps and shimmers, the iconic metallic cascade of JAPAN’s ‘Ghosts’

Barbieri handled the familiar detuned percussive blips on his Prophet 5 before playing the haunting string tones on the V-Synth as a drum loop kicked in. “Oh, I didn’t expect that much applause!” responded the Catford boy after the crowd roared with approval at the end.

Next, the rumbling sub-bass squelches of ‘Medication Time’ from Barbieri’s debut solo long player ‘Things Buried’ shook the fittings of the venue which was built in 1863. As elements of TANGERINE DREAM filled the room, there was yet another surprise when the melancholic electric piano motif from the JAPAN cover of THE VELVET UNDERGROUND & NICO’s ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ appeared at various intervals.

Barbieri continued with the work of his former band by playing the gentle “dolphin music” of ‘The Experience Of Swimming’, the track he composed for the B-side of the ‘Gentlemen Take Polaroids’ single. As the beautifully nautical ambience reached its coda, elements of ‘Nightporter’ were subtly segued in.

Löve returned for ‘Unholy’ with the widescreen vibe countered by unsettling Nordic voice samples, before being followed by the spacey avant jazz of ‘New Found Land’ which was originally written by Barbieri for PORCUPINE TREE.

During this sequence of music, Löve added a kalimba to her repertoire which enhanced the electro- acoustic balance with an authentic ethnic touch.

Closing the main part of the show with ‘Hypnotek’ from Barbieri’s second album ‘Stranger Inside’, the rolling bass sequences, spy drama piano and muted Fourth World tension came together with a musicality that was like a masterclass in instrumental music… MG, please take note!

To rapturous cheers, Barbieri returned for an encore and with the self-deprecating humour he had displayed throughout the evening, he joked: “I didn’t want to wait too long, in case it died down”.

He treated the appreciative crowd with a superb electronic adaptation of PORCUPINE TREE’s ‘Idiot Prayer’. With the new arrangement at times sounding like SIMPLE MINDS’ ‘Love Song’, it was a fabulously energetic conclusion to proceedings.

Unafraid to delve into his glorious history, RICHARD BARBIERI ably showed why he is one of the most inventive synthesizer technicians that the UK has ever produced.

His modest, down-to-earth demeanour with a willingness to stay in the background has perhaps stopped him from being better known, but the music he produces today is still wonderfully intriguing and deserves further investigation.

‘Planets & Persona’ is released in CD, double vinyl and digital formats by Kscope

https://www.facebook.com/RichardBarbieriOfficial/

http://www.kscopemusic.com/artists/richard-barbieri/

http://www.nightporter.co.uk/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
30th March 2017

DEPECHE MODE Live at Glasgow Barrowlands

27 March 2017 /

It can’t be easy being DEPECHE MODE, the sheer weight of expectation for everything they do from their devoted fan base must sit heavy at times, a fact evidenced by the diminishing returns on recent albums, the latest ‘Spirit’ included.

There is no denying however that they are still a huge live draw even if, like the aforementioned recorded output, recent tours have seemed like an exercise in going through the motions. As someone that remembers them as fresh faced poppets wielding synths without a drummer in sight at venues smaller than the average arena green room, it was with some fascination I approached the BBC 6 Music headline show at the legendary Glasgow Barrowlands.

How would they fair away from the huge stages of European Olympic stadia and under the eye of a watchful BBC TV camera crew? The answer is, unsurprisingly, good and at times bad… The Barras and the Glasgow audience has a fearsome reputation and rightly so… if they like you, you will be carried along triumphant to the encore and beyond… hate you and, well let’s say many a band have found out that it isn’t beer in those thrown pint glasses…

The scramble for tickets for this show and the fallout surrounding touting/reseller sites has left a bitter taste in the mouth of many a fan but the lucky 1200 or so that attended the Sunday night show, from across Europe and beyond, settled into the East End venue under a palpable blanket of expectation.

The BBC missed a trick by not pairing Depeche with an actual band as warm up James Lavelle’s DJ set was little more than background music to the inevitable meetings and greetings between fans. Come just after 9pm however and DJ Lauren Laverne came on stage to awkwardly introduce the headliner.

Keeping with tradition the set opened with the opener from the latest album, in this case ‘Going Backwards’ from ‘Spirit’. I’ll admit I haven’t enjoyed a DM album since ‘Songs of Faith & Devotion’, I find the way the band has developed to run counter to what made them great in the first place (and no, I’m not going to mention a certain Mr Wilder…) – however, this track sounded much punchier than the version on ‘Spirit’.

Another new song, ‘So Much Love’, comes across better live as did the surprise inclusion of ‘Corrupt’ from ‘Sounds Of The Universe’. But it was from here that things started to go a little awry and the fault can be laid squarely at the door of Mr Eigner and his bish-bash-bosh style of drumming.

As someone said, he plays like he hates his chosen instrument with little finesse and at times apparent rhythmic skills. His timing seemed off during the next couple of numbers, especially so on the intro to ‘World in My Eyes’. His fills and cymbal rolls added little to ‘Cover Me’, a track crying out for a real big production à la Midge Ure’s ‘Dark Dark Night’.

I have to question the need, in a shortened set like this, to allow Martin Gore his solo slot but it was given to allow a performance of ‘Home’. The latest single ‘Where’s The Revolution’ remains a plod, one thankfully without an anticipated mass audience train dance while ‘Barrel Of A Gun’ did little to lift the tempo. ‘Walking In My Shoes’ was messy, but thankfully an energetic ‘Personal Jesus’ lifted the set back on track, in time for it to finish.

Calls for an encore were answered with a spirited ‘Enjoy The Silence’, the crowd, who in reality gave more energy to the band than they received from the stage, taking the lead on the choruses. And with that it was over, a short set but one that encapsulates everything that is right and wrong about DEPECHE MODE 2017.

The band, I am sure, won’t be particularly bothered about my opinion, as they embark on what will no doubt be another highly lucrative world tour. This showing however demonstrates that as a band, they don’t really work as well on the huge stages of football stadiums and indoor arenas as they do in the more intimate environs of venues like the Barras.

An enjoyable evening but one I fear, as we all get older, we won’t see the likes of again. Still a valid live act? Yes, of course but one better experienced up close and personal and not 1000 yards away outdoors. Although even this near, nobody can tell what Fletch does…

Special thanks to Kevin May for the use of his photos, please visit http://halotheviolatorbook.com/ for information on his forthcoming book ‘Halo’

‘Spirit’ is released by Columbia Records in CD, deluxe 2CD, double vinyl LP and digital formats

http://www.depechemode.com/

https://www.facebook.com/depechemode/

https://twitter.com/depechemode

Text by Ian Ferguson
Photos by Kevin May
27th March 2017

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