Category: Live Reports (Page 36 of 38)

Return To THE BLITZ CLUB 2011

21 February 2011 /

The Blitz Club celebrated its 30th Anniversary with a special reunion at its old site which is now The Red Rooms in Holborn, London.

its original soundtrack centred on the music of David Bowie but also included KRAFTWERK, ROXY MUSIC, ENO, LA DUSSELDORF, GINA X PERFORMANCE, ULTRAVOX, THE NORMAL, THE HUMAN LEAGUE, YELLOW MAGIC ORCHESTRA, TELEX and MAGAZINE amongst others. This vibrant post-punk scene, whose clientel were dubbed ‘The Blitz Kids’ and ‘The New Romantics’, became the catalyst for several bands including SPANDAU BALLET, CULTURE CLUB and of course, VISAGE as well as assorted fashion designers and visual artists.

Hosted by its founders Steve Strange and Rusty Egan, among the special guests attending tonight’s party are SPANDAU BALLET’s Martin Kemp and John Keeble, Martin Kemp’s wife and WHAM! backing singer Shirlie Holliman, SPANDAU BALLET manager Steve Dagger and renowned photographer Peter Ashworth whose striking images adorn the covers of SOFT CELL’s ‘Non Stop Erotic Cabaret’ and ‘The Art Of Falling Apart’, ASSOCIATES ‘Sulk’, EURYTHMICS ‘Touch’ and the very first VISAGE album.

Also reunited for the first time in many years were members of The Blitz Club dance troupe SHOCK including Carole Caplin, LA Richards, Tim Dry aka Tik from TIK & TOK and Barbie Wilde who appeared in ULTRAVOX’s ‘Passing Strangers’ promo video with the absent Sean Crawford aka Tok.

After an initial DJ set by Rusty Egan, PARADISE POINT took to the stage to deliver a lively performance with their bassist Roman Kemp following in the footsteps of his father Martin by playing The Blitz Club. His mum Shirlie looked on proudly. Despite at least three members of the group looking barely old enough to be playing on licensed premises, they were impressive with a polished danceable pop style that wholly suited the occasion.

Singer Cameron Jones has a charismatic confidence which should see PARADISE POINT fill the gap in the market for a smart boy band that actually plays their own instruments. During the interlude to remove the stage to reveal the dancefloor proper, both Steve Strange and Rusty Egan took to the mic to thank everyone for attending.

The old Blitz Club dancefloor filled as its original resident DJ spinned classic after classic with many songs from the original Blitz Club playlist. It was quite surreal to not only be hearing the 12 inch mixes of ‘Fade To Grey’, ‘To Cut A Long Story Short’ and ‘R.E.R.B.’ in the very place that helped inspire them, but to also be in the presence of the very people that were involved in their genesis and recording.

With the essential inclusion of David Bowie’s ‘Heroes / Helden’, ‘The Model’ by KRAFTWERK, OMD’s ‘Enola Gay’, JOY DIVISION’s ‘She’s Lost Control’ and a bit of Bryan Ferry et voila… this was the perfect combination to celebrate nearly four decades of fantastically inventive avant pop music.

Next to take the decks was Princess Julia who famously appeared in the iconic ‘Fade To Grey’ promo video with Steve Strange. Again, it was surreal to see the pair standing together in the DJ booth.

Onlookers were even treated to the former Steven Harrington doing some impromptu miming over the soon-to-be released reworking of VISAGE’s ‘Frequency 7’ which now features extra lyrics borrowed from HEAVEN 17’s ‘Temptation’. This is a song which incidentally also has Blitz Club connections as it was Rusty Egan who recommended Carol Kenyon to Messrs Marsh, Ware and Gregory when the Sheffield trio were seeking a soulful backing vocalist for their then yet-to-be completed 1983 single.

Meanwhile Princess Julia’s set was varied, ranging from the not entirely unexpected like DEPECHE MODE’s ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ to the biggest surprise of the night, FANCY’s cult Euro hit from 1983, ‘Slice Me Nice’. The various Germans and Scandinavians, who have made the journey specially to be at this reunion tonight, were particularly appreciative!

But with the landlords The Red Rooms reverting to their usual source of income as a table dancing establishment, it was time for The Blitz Club, like Cinderella, to make its exit before midnight.

The whole night was terrifically friendly with lots of great electronic pop music and many attendees got into the spirit of things by togging up as New Romantics, Peacock Punks or in the case of ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK, 1950s German bank clerks!

The Return To The Blitz Club 2011 couldn’t have been any better. With ULTRAVOX having just signed a new recording deal with Universal Music and plans also for a new VISAGE album, the legacy of The Blitz Club is alive and well! Tonight really was a Club For Heroes!

Rusty Egan’s DJ setlist

THE KNIFE Pass This On
THE STOOGES I Wanna Be Your Dog
THE BLUE NILE Headlights On The Parade
THE HUMAN LEAGUE Being Boiled
TOM TOM CLUB Genius Of Love
KRAFTWERK Neon Lights
DAVID BOWIE Sound & Vision
IGGY POP Sister Midnight
KRAFTWERK Trans Europe Express
DAVID BOWIE Fashion
GINA X PERFORMANCE No GDM
SIMPLE MINDS Changeling
LIAISONS DANGEREUSES Los Ninos Del Parque
BLONDIE Heart Of Glass
SHOCK R.E.R.B.
ULTRAVOX Visions In Blue (EMP 09 Remix)
ABC Tears Are Not Enough
YOKO ONO Walking On Thin Ice
BRYAN FERRY Let’s Stick Together
DAVID BOWIE Ashes To Ashes
DAVID BOWIE Boys Keep Swinging
SPANDAU BALLET To Cut A Long Story Short (Long Mix)
HUMAN LEAGUE The Sound Of The Crowd
OMD Enola Gay
SOFT CELL Tainted Love
THE CURE In Between Days
JOY DIVISION She’s Lost Control
DEPECHE MODE See You
ULTRAVOX Hiroshima Mon Amour
VISAGE Mind Of A Toy
DURAN DURAN Planet Earth (Night Version)
IGGY POP The Passenger
ASSOCIATES Club Country (12″ Version)
DAVID BOWIE Heroes/Helden
KRAFTWERK Das Modell
VISAGE Fade to Grey (Club Mix)

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
24th January 2011

SUNDAY GIRL Live at London XOYO

19 December 2010 /


ELECTRICITYCLUB.CO.UK admits it didn’t find the music of SUNDAY GIRL immediately appealing.

Her first couple of pleasant offerings appeared to showcase her out as a model with ambitions to become the next Ellie Goulding. But her new single ‘Stop Hey!’ and songs from her album sampler sent out to music journalists revealed her to be a darker, more interesting proposition altogether… like a 21st Century Dot Allison with touches of BAT FOR LASHES and Emilie Simon.

More recently, she’s also added DJ-ing to her talents and impressively reworked EVERYTHING EVERYTHING’s ‘Photoshop Handsome’ into her own stark synthetic style. As for her fashion aspirations, these are really no less part of her than say MIRRORS’ own sartorial instincts based on Gilbert & George. For SUNDAY GIRL, it’s Coco Chanel and Andy Warhol’s muse Edie Sedgwick. Meanwhile, her modelling contract with River Island has transpired to be a way of supporting her music career while following her other passions. At the end of the day, art, music and fashion all link.

SUNDAY GIRL is Jade Williams, a once shy young lady from the leafy suburb of Broxbourne, Hertfordshire who suffered so much from stage fright that her mother took her to a hypnotist. She was studying for an art degree before deciding to pursue musical ambitions. Inspired by acts such as GOLDFRAPP, her songs have an angsty edge covered in a layered wall of sound with some simple but rousing choruses.

And tonight at her final show of 2010 following a successful support stint with Ellie Goulding, she exudes the talent and engaging down-to-earth charm that brought her to the attention of Geffen Records earlier in the year. The stage is covered in fairy lights and ribbons but it’s the dense post-punk of ’24 Hours’ which starts proceedings.

Jade’s raspy but breathy voice is what singles her out from her contemporaries and it adds an almost Parisian feel to her songs which when added with some eerie synth, provide a distinctive sneery chill. Her folktronica tinged debut single ‘Four Floors’ follows next and in a live context, this possesses some gritty power not apparent on the original. New songs ‘Human Love’ and ‘Brixton’ are also aired with the moodiness of the latter having cinematic potential in a David Lynch film.

Her most impressive number is the magnificent ‘All The Songs’. Percussively punchy, it takes on a more conventional frame tonight away from the squelchy electro of the recorded version. But this doesn’t distract from the quality of her baby. Working with producers such as Jim Eliot and Diplo (who between them can namedrop Kylie Minogue, Ladyhawke and Robyn in their CVs), Jade is in good hands as far as the studio is concerned and things look promising for her as yet untitled album due out in March 2011.

Her cover of Italo-disco classic ‘Self Control’ goes down a storm and even provokes a laugh from Jade as some of the crowd come in too early for the “Woah-ooh-oooh” refrain. “Not yet…” she shouts, slightly putting her off cue! Ending with the superb ‘Stop Hey!’ she gives her all in this full-on avant pop tune that mixes the huge rhythm section from MGMT’s ‘Time To Pretend’ with the chorus synthline of MIRRORS’ ‘Broken By Silence’.

Combining the harshness of new wave and electro with the prettiness of pop, the show is a fabulous live presentation that brings out the smiles from Jade and the cheers from the audience. She is a fine, natural live performer, probably more confident and comfortable than either LA ROUX or LITTLE BOOTS at the same stage in their career.

Her non-inclusion in the BBC Sound Of 2011 long list remains a mystery but perhaps, this will be a blessing in disguise. Maybe this will allow SUNDAY GIRL valuable time to develop her obvious potential and carve out a niche for herself as an artist who has the ability to bridge into several spheres simultaneously.

‘Stop Hey!’ is released by Geffen Records on 16th January 2011

www.wearesundaygirl.com

www.myspace.com/wearesundaygirl

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
19th December 2010

MARINA & THE DIAMONDS Live At The Roundhouse

15 November 2010 /


What a year so far it’s been so far for the kookily charming lungsmith who is Marina Lambrina Diamandis aka MARINA & THE DIAMONDS.

There’s been a top ten single with Hollywood and a gem of a debut album in ‘The Family Jewels’, produced largely by Liam Howe of SNEAKER PIMPS fame. This time last year, she had just sold out the Hoxton Kitchen as part of ‘Levi’s Ones To Watch’ showcase. Even before the current campaign, her appearance at the ‘New To Q’ concerts at the London Tabernacle in January provoked near hysteria, particularly among many of the female ‘Diamonds’ in the audience. A new star and role model was born; ultra-glamourous and beautiful while witty, intelligent and forthright all at the same time.

Since then, her live show has been expanded to include the entire album and the use of tasteful video projections. Christened ‘The Burger Queen Tour’, this is her most theatrical extravaganza yet. The instrumental filmic overture of STARSMITH’s electronic 24 Carat remix of ‘I Am Not A Robot’ sees Marina cast as a cat-suited Bond Girl in homage to Maurice Binder’s opening title sequences for the classic 007 movies.

She arrived on the stage of The Roundhouse to rapturous applause like Aphrodite, the Olympian Goddess of Love and Beauty, all dressed up to the nines in the most elegant full length black gown. Beginning with a stripped down neo-acapella take on the album’s iTunes only title track, an incessant bass sequence takes over to open proceedings proper with ‘The Outsider’.

Marina has improved very much as a live performer. Becoming more animated with assorted facial expressions and affecting arm gestures, her rhapsody was no more apparent than with the WAG baiting ‘Girls’.“Girls oh girls, wag your tails to the beat of girls aloud, oh the journos on heat” she sneers; “Write such good stories, oh their mothers must be proud… making money off your insecurity and doubt”. As with PINK’s ‘Stupid Girls’, Marina encourages the next generation to do something more in life instead of just getting your bits out for the lads!

Accompanied as usual by her backing band of Jon Shone (synths), Sebastian Sternberg (drums), Peter Carr (keyboards) and Dan Gulino (bass), interestingly there appears to be an increased element of electronics within the live set. The brilliantly angsty ‘Are You Satisfied?’ is turned into a mid-Atlantic synth rock number while ‘Shampain’, co-written with the ubiquitous Pascal Gabriel, appears to reveal a few Synth Britannia influences; could the chorus possibly be borrowing from GARY NUMAN’s Engineers and the glaring synth solo from OMD’s ‘International’? Whatever, Marina actually decides to briefly turn into SIMPLE MINDS with a “let me see your hands” and “singalong with me” moment… unlike Jim Kerr though, she keeps it to just the one song so things work out quite nicely without becoming irritating!

Of course, no MARINA & THE DIAMONDS set would be complete without the lost mini-symphony Seventeen while the lovely ‘I Am Not A Robot’ reveals Marina’s tremendous vulnerability. Dedicating it to her fans, it’s obviously the song that connects the most as all her Diamonds sing along with her. And there are many singalongs tonight; ‘Obsessions’ and ‘Numb’, which see Marina accompany herself on keyboards, are touching highlights that reveal the strength of her talent for quirky but memorable tunes.

Marina’s neo-operatic synesthetics and sudden octave changes (sometimes within the same word!) recall the eccentricity of classic SPARKS, none more so than on the barking mad Greg Kurstin collaboration ‘Oh No!’.

Using ounces of Fe-Mael intuition and aided by the technology available to accurately recreate its Bohemian tension live, this theatre certainly ain’t big enough for all of us as the blasting “I’m now becoming my own self-fulfilled prophecy! OH! OH NO! Oh No! OH NOO!… “ salvo almost takes everyone’s heads off!

There’s a nice surprise as Marina airs a new song Jealousy, a track that has previously been available on-line prior to her recent success and missed inclusion on ‘The Family Jewels’.

This unreleased nugget with its fantastic chorus and layers of synth strings is a promising sign of what could be to come with her next album. A combined love of pop and art is the key to MARINA & THE DIAMONDS. For her, Britney Spears and Andy Warhol are as important as PJ Harvey and Ancient Greece.

Coming up the home straight, The Dr Who Theme, GOLDFRAPP and KATE BUSH all merge together on the wonderfully wonky ‘Mowgli’s Road’ for the gathered to go “cuckoo” to before the widescreen drama of ‘Guilty’ closes the main part of the show.

For the encore, there’s an extended electronic dance workout before a quick costume change to represent “the mess that’s America” on the glitzy satire of ‘Hollywood’. A big blast of red, white and blue tickertape completes a superbly polished performance that presents ‘The Family Jewels’ in a fresh new light.

With her best show yet, it was a fine way to wind down a highly fruitful eighteen months.

As Marina herself said as she celebrated on her own website recently: “Diamonds, YOU DID IT… We won best UK act for EMA MTV Awards !!! A wonderful day for MARINA & THE DIAMONDS. We have triumphed. We are small- but strong!”

Marina, shine on you crazy diamond!

‘The Family Jewels’ is released by 670/Atlantic Records

www.marinaandthediamonds.com

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
15th November 2010

GOLDFRAPP Live In London

10 November 2010 /

On a cold Autumn evening in a packed Hammersmith Apollo, something unusual was happening; Alison Goldfrapp was having fun!

The fairy godmother of modern electro has always cut a striking if static on-stage persona but tonight, it was if the thigh booted ice queen of yore had melted. Like LADYTRON’s Mira Aroyo on their ‘Velocifero’ tour, Ms Goldfrapp totally loosened up, just as ERASURE’s Andy Bell once suggested she should.

So after a start which included darker, more artful selections like ‘Voicething’, ‘Crystalline Green’ and ‘You Never Know’, there was a breakout of smiles, dancing and even acknowledgements of the audience. While she has not turned into Kylie Minogue, tonight saw a more relaxed and confident Alison Goldfrapp, someone who was now comfortable in their own aura.

There could be a variety of factors contributing to this but one almost certainly is the uptempo material from the ‘Head First’ album that dominates the middle part of this show. Tailor made for the sheer dynamics of live performance. A song like ‘Dreaming’ may be gorgeously layered Eurodisco, but the bouncy FM synth rock numbers ‘Alive’, ‘Believer’ and ‘I Wanna Life’ make the audience punch the air and join in the choruses. ‘Rocket’ is another case in point, a wonderful slice of Trans-Atlantic pop with Italo refrains a la Laura Branigan. The gorgeous middle eight is just angelic while the near lyrical banality of the chorus is utter genius.

Honorary Frappers Charlie Jones, Angie Pollock, Davide Rossi and new drummer Daisy Palmer all contribute a strong visual presence, with Pollock and Rossi taking to keytars in mock-Van Halen parody during this lively section of the show. Rossi is a total musical all-rounder, swapping between violin, synths and guitar while Pollock backs up on keyboards and backing vox, looking every bit the glam vamp. Marching around the stage in neo-militaristic fashion, Ms Goldfrapp’s crazy curly locks billow in the artificial wind like some live action remake of the cult cartoon ‘Crystal Tipps & Alistair’ and her black tinsel-covered outfit does the same.

The glam era is very much at the root of the GOLDFRAPP aesthetic and even on the mid-paced material, this influence is prevalent. The fantastic ‘Number 1’ is a ROXY MUSIC number transported into the 21st Century, while the wonderful ABBA inspired singalong of ‘Head First’ would do Agnetha, Bjorn, Benny and Annifrid proud.

Throughout the set, the rhythm section remains rock solid. Jones, son of LED ZEPPELIN’s John-Paul cooly textures and jazzes up proceedings as appropriate on his bass while despite having a full acoustic kit at her disposal, Palmer sticks mostly to a punchy electronic percussion pad but comes to the fore when the power is needed.

An extended electronic work out of ‘Ride A White Horse’ meets the crowd’s approval while ‘Ooh La La’ and ‘Strict Machine’ are effectively turned full-blown T-REX tributes with as usual, the latter’s ‘We Are Glitter’ intro threatening to turn into THE RAH BAND’s ‘The Crunch’! And not forgetting ‘Train’, this doesn’t disappoint either as a filthy slice of Teutonic schaffel! Indeed, the sheer volume is a pleasant surprise tonight. It even paradoxically helps the quieter numbers in the encore like ‘Black Cherry’ and the superb ‘Lovely Head’ with Ms Goldfrapp’s spine tingling electronically assisted banshee wails.

GOLDFRAPP gigs have often been too quiet in the past, thereby encouraging talking in the audience and provoking the culturally challenged who simply cannot get their heads around the more esoteric GOLDFRAPP material. This evening, the loudness sees them all thankfully silenced, even when she tackles these songs dressed like a Meringue!

Tonight, people saw the real Alison Goldfrapp, the girl with the Olivia Newton-John fixation. If she had only performed the early B-side ‘UK Girls’ featuring its chorus lifted from ‘Physical’, then the circle would have been completed and everything would have been perfect. Other than that, it was GOLDFRAPP’s best ever live set. Despite all the flirtations with folk and film-noir, Ms Goldfrapp is actually a purveyor of some guilty pleasures.

‘Head First’ is released by Mute Records/EMI music

http://www.goldfrapp.com

https://www.facebook.com/Goldfrapp

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
16th November 2010

MIRRORS Live at White Heat

15 July 2010 /

Madame Jojo’s in London’s Soho was the location for a headline show by the highly rated MIRRORS, courtesy of indie club night White Heat.

The Brighton quartet have been busy finishing their debut album which is to be released on Skint Records later this year and doing superb Un Autre Monde remixes of WHITE LIES’ ‘A Place To Hide’ and AU REVOIR SIMONE’s ‘Tell Me’.

Following their well-received support slot with DELPHIC earlier this year, they’ve also been honing their stage presentation to compliment their pop noir sound. One dictionary definition of mirror is: “A pattern for imitation; exemplar: a man who was the mirror of fashion. Something worthy of imitation”. So when MIRRORS take to the stage tonight, they look like ‘Organisation’- era ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK beamed into the 21st Century.

Reflecting a sense of intelligent European modernism, the quartet arrive in stylish suits and thin ties to a industrialised stage set of alloy spaceframe structures housing all the incumbent technology. Some beautifully arty film projections enhance the image. MIRRORS “are attentive to minutiae”.

Consisting of James (lead vocals, synths), Ally (synths and backing vocals), Tate (synths) and Josef (electronic percussion), they open with ‘Fear Of Drowning’, its pulsing sequences and dense sweeping chords benefit from the loudness to take full hypnotic effect. It sounds magnificent. MIRRORS “are minimally over the top”.

New single ‘Ways To An End’ has a synthetic TALKING HEADS tribal flavour with a touch of THE HORRORS. James possesses a vibrant stage presence that matches his enthusiasm. He’s like a cross between the dancing Geography teacher of Andy McCluskey and the science student at the Vicarage tea party of Paul Humphreys. Could he actually be their love child? Maybe things went further in that plush sports car after the end of the Souvenir video? MIRRORS “are a vehicle for refraction”.

The mournful ‘Organ Song’ follows before the band launch into the brilliant ‘Into The Heart’. The audience reaction is certainly something to see; a young discerning music crowd, male and female, dancing away passionately just like in the early days of ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK… none of this arms folded sitting still at the front nonsense that has blighted some of the more recent shows of Wirral’s finest!

James laps it all up along with co-front man Ally. Tate though pensively keeps control at the back while Josef stands almost motionless as a sticksman in the KRAFTWERK stand-up tradition. He looks like he could be the younger electro version of BLONDIE’s drummer Clem Burke. MIRRORS “follow the straightest of lines”.

And in a sharply impressive but short set, they finish with the pure Vince Clarke-era DEPECHE MODE of ‘Searching In The Wilderness’ and the wonderfully melancholic grandeur of ‘Hide & Seek’. It climaxes with the foursome leaving the stage to a repeated drum machine pattern just like ORCHESTRAL MANOEUVRES IN THE DARK used to do with ‘Enola Gay’.

Breathing new life into the classic ‘Synth Britannia’ blueprint, MIRRORS are synthly the best band to have come out of the UK for many years.

MIRRORS “are parallel to everything and equal to nothing.”

Special thanks to Debbie Ball at Create Spark

MIRRORS play: London Proud Galleries (July 31), Glasgow King Tuts Wah Wah Hut (August 2), Leeds Oporto (August 3), Sheffield Forum (August 4), Leicester Musician (August 5), Little London Fields (August 7), Birmingham Sound Bar (August 13), London Lexington (August 18), Bristol Start The Bus (August 20), York Basement (August 21), Brighton Audio (August 28)

https://www.facebook.com/theworldofmirrors/

Text by Chi Ming Lai
Photos by Richard Price
15th July 2010

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