New Music Reviews
First Aid Kit, Symphony Hall, BirminghamSaturday, 17 January 2015
All-seater, up-market concert halls can be a bit intimidating to bands when they are used to more intimate venues. Silences can feel awkward and stage talk can dry up or be reduced to perfunctory “thank you”s. So it almost proved this evening when First Aid Kit strode onto the stage of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall. Read more...
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Paolo Nutini, O2 ArenaTuesday, 13 January 2015
With his new soul-inflected rasp, there aren’t many singers better equipped to perform through a bout of tonsillitis than Paolo Nutini. (Tom Waits won’t, alas, be selling out the O2.) Last night’s gig was re-scheduled from November when the infection struck. It was postponed even longer than expected for the members of the audience arriving on the broken-down Jubilee line. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: MagmaSunday, 11 January 2015
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Reissue CDs Weekly: PowderSunday, 04 January 2015
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Best of 2014: GigsSunday, 28 December 2014
From the clubs of Berlin to the pubs of Birmingham, via Somerset and New York, our new music writers select their most memorable gigs of 2014. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Sly StoneSunday, 28 December 2014
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Madness, O2 ArenaSunday, 21 December 2014
There were silly hats, and venerable, bouncy songs for all the family at the O2 last night. The traditional Madness December tour was Christmas come early for most of the audience, who sang about home, love, and the Middle East as they might do in church next week with rather less enthusiasm. The band’s original hits still hit the spot, though there was also a sense that, as with Christmas carols, the new ones mean well, but just aren’t as good. Read more... |
Reissue CDs Weekly: Millions Like UsSunday, 21 December 2014
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theartsdesk on VinylTuesday, 16 December 2014
Have you been to a record shop lately? Now that our honeymoon with virtual music is revealed as completely lacking romance, record shops are thriving again. And it’s not CDs these shoppers are after. Those have been squeezed off into a far corner stocking only immediately sellable fare such as The Beatles, The Smiths, Led Zep, and early Oasis. No, the rest of the shop has been taken over by hoards, layers, tranches of alphabetized 12” vinyl, ordered by genre. Read more... |
The Human League, Brighton CentreSunday, 14 December 2014
The Human League front-load their set to such a degree it’s unclear how they’re going to maintain such momentum. Their stage set is amazing, just for starters. Stage-length steps rise up to a podium at the back, on which two synth-players are placed either side of the drummer, the backing band, all of them and all around in white. Surrounding the whole lot are three layers of equally white hoarding upon which projections and lighting effects envelop the performance. Read more... |
Magma: Köhntarkösz, Köhntarkösz Anteria, Ëmëhntëhtt-Ré
Powder: Ka-Pow! An Explosive Collection 1967–68
Various Artists: I'm Just Like You – Sly's Stone Flower 1969–70
Various Artists: Millions Like Us - The Story of the Mod Revival 1977–1989Pages
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