Tag Archives: Live Review

Crewe Limelight is my ‘local’ Mostly Autumn venue, so for once I wasn’t travelling a long distance to see them. It’s actually the first time this year I’ve seen them that hasn’t been an overnighter.

Heather and Andy

Like The Point in Cardiff it’s a converted church, and there’s always a great atmosphere in the place. It’s been said that going to a Mostly Autumn gig is like a night out with your mates. That was certainly true this time; when I got to the venue there were about thirty-odd people in the downstairs bar, and I realised I recognised just about all of them! They weren’t the first familiar faces of the evening; As I was waiting to cross the road a black Subaru came round the corner, and I thought the occupants looked vaguely familiar. Then I realised it was Andy Smith and Chris Johnson; I’m pretty sure Andy recognised me.

If the previous show belonged to Heather to the extent that I was only dimly aware of the presence of six other people on stage (OK, I exaggerate a bit), tonight really belonged to entire band. It’s noticeable how much tighter they are now the current lineup has gelled. I don’t know how much is down to Gavin Griffiths on drums, easily the best drummer than band has ever had, and how much is down to spending longer in rehearsal before going on the road. They’re easily 200% better than they were this time last year. The setlist was almost identical to that of Cardiff, except that they didn’t play ‘The Night Sky’, perhaps because of a slightly delayed start.

(Livvy’s glockenspeil solo)

I’m probably not the best person to judge the sound; I was right down the front getting stage sound rather than the PA; where I was it was far superior to the muddy sound at Cardiff the previous weekend. The big wall-of-sound symphonic numbers in the second half such as the Bryan’s guitar showcase ‘Further from Home’ and a superb ‘Carpe Diem’ came over very well indeed, with just the right balance between Bryan’s Stratocaster and the multi-layered vocal harmonies, something that doesn’t always happen.

The big news at the end of the show was Heather’s announcement that there was an eighth person on stage. Angie Gordon is expecting! This prompted someone from the audience to ask Bryan when his was due, which got the response “It’s been due for the past 74 months”.

From left to right: Bryan, Andy, Heather, Livvy, Gavin, Angie and Chris

As gigs go, that was a good one. The band were in the ‘the zone’ for much of the time, and the atmosphere was great. Just one MA gig left in my diary now, the final date of the tour at Bury Met at the end of the month.

My thanks to Martin Kessel to allow me to some of his excellent photos. There are a lot more from the gig on his site. I’m sure the back of my head must be visible in some of them.

Yet again I’ve travelled a considerable distance to see my favourite band. Not quite as far as Bournemouth this time, and I was staying for the weekend with my brother in Cardiff.

The Point, a converted church in Cardiff Bay, is a new venue for me. It still retains a lot of features from the original building, especially the stained glass windows, which give it a lot more character than a lot of featureless boxes I’ve seen bands perform in. As is usual for an MA gig I bumped into a lot of familiar faces like David Taylor, Peter the Great, Roger N, Jerry Bloom and Matt and Rachel from The Reasoning.

The very beginning was spoiled somewhat by a muddy sound mix, with an overloud mush of bass all but drowning out the lead vocals, which reduced the impact of ‘Fading Colours’. Fortunately after the first two or three songs it got better, and although tolerable was never quite perfect. The 2+ hour long setlist was similar to earlier dates on the tour, except that “Half a World” and “Ghost” were dropped in favour of the old favourite “The Last Climb”. I can understand why Heather might not want to sing “Half a World” at the moment.

The night really belonged to Heather, who was absolutely fantastic. This was her first public appearance after the very traumatic events of the previous few days, so this was always going to be an emotional show. While it might not have been the best performance I’ve ever seen from the band on a purely technical level, nothing else has quite matched this one for emotional intensity. Heather poured her heart and soul into the performance, especially on “Evergreen” and “Carpe Diem”, which were the outstanding moments of the evening.

Only three more days and I seem them again in Crewe.

Andrew Elias has some photos of the show.

After these small intimate club gigs where you can chat with the band in the bar afterwards, a visit to an enormodome is a different experience entirely.  Nothing quite like those long queues for overpriced crap lager instead of real ale on tap!

First up was ‘Thin Lizzy’.  Featuring no original members, and just guitarist Scott Gorham from their 70s heyday, they’re really more a tribute band than anything else.  They weren’t quite as bad as I was expecting; John Sykes does a passible impression of Phil Lynott’s voice, and those classic songs stand up well enough in their own right regardless of who’s singing them.  They played for just over half an hour, playing a set made up entirely from the biggest hits.

Styx were the revelation of the night.  I have to admit that it was their presence on the bill that tipped the balance for me, although I didn’t really know what to expect from them. Without Dennis DeYoung in the band, they left out their later commercial fluff like “Babe” and “Mr Roboto” in favour of older, rockier material by James Young and Tommy Shaw. And they absolutely rocked, great music and great showmanship, and a hard act for Purple to follow.

At about 9:30, Deep Purple hit the stage, and launched into ‘Pictures of Home’. Perhaps it’s because I’ve been seeing all these bands fronted by 22 year olds, but Purple look old; all grey hair (those that have hair, that is). But they still rock, even now.  The setlist included most of the standards people expect to hear like ‘Smoke’ and ‘Highway Star’, and enough surprises to keep those of us who have heard ‘Smoke’ 101 times before interested.  Biggest suprise was a great rendition of ‘The Battle Rages On’ from the late Blackmore period, an era they’ve normally skipped.  Another gem was an emotional version of ‘When a Blind Man Cries’ which got a few raised lighters.  Ian Gillan might not be able to hit the high notes (no ‘Child in Time’ nowadays), but was still on good form vocally.  The real star of the evening for me was the newest member of the band, Don Airey, on the Hammond B3 with some incredible keyboard runs.  And it was a real B3 with rotating Leslie cabinets; none of these plastic synths.

Overall, a great show, for which the audience got their money’s worth, and then some.  Purple were good, but in my opinion the band of the night were Styx.  If they come back to these shores for a headline tour I’ll be getting tickets.

Because Manchester Academy 1 is in the middle of being refurbished, Porcupine Tree played their northwest show in the 53 Degrees in Preston. Preston is a longish trek from Manchester, but fortunately there was a late train back, and with an 11pm curfew at the venue I wouldn’t have to miss the encore to catch it.

I wasn’t the only person that had trouble finding the venue. I met up with three guys (one wearing a Pineapple Thief t-shirt) who I assumed were heading for the gig; unfortunately they were lost as well. After going round and round in circles we eventually did find the place with enough time to get some food from the pub round the corner (can’t remember the name, but it was the bright orange one across the road).

The 53 club is a modern building, about the same size as Manchester Academy 1, and the gig seemed pretty well attended, although I don’t think it sold out. While it’s not a ‘home’ gig for me, I did bump into a few familiar faces, such as Ian who I’d met at the Mostly Autumn convention in Ringwood. NRT apparently recognised me, but tells me I’d disappeared before he realised who I was.

Support was Amplifier, one of the ‘new wave of prog’ bands that have attracted the attention of some sections of the media. A trio, pretty bass-heavy, and to my ears more metal than prog, although there were vague hints of Muse about them. I was reasonably entertained, but not completely blown away. They were loud, though. This was one of those gigs where you could feel the bass in your guts.

This was the fourth time I’d seen Porcupine Tree, and they just get better and better. Some people, such as HippyDave, have claimed they’re not as good as a five-piece augmented with John Wesley on second guitar, but this is the only lineup I’ve seen, and the five-piece works fine for me. They need those two guitars for a lot of the newer heavier songs, and they don’t overplay on the older songs. As at previous shows they used a lot of back-projected videos to augment the music, including some shots of withdrawn Danish DMUs and 0-6-0 shunters for one song from the new album. The band’s performance was as precise and tight as I’ve come to expect.

As I expected, the two hour set included the whole of the excellent new album “Fear of a Blank Planet”, plus an additional song (can’t remember the title) that didn’t get included. In contrast to the last show in Manchester that drew almost exclusively from “Deadwing” and “In Absentia”, this time we were treated to an excellent selection of older songs; going right back to ‘Sever’ from “Signify”, along with ‘Lightbulb Sun’, ‘Even Less’ and ‘Smart Kid’. The oldies were well received by the crowd; so much for the claims that newer fans know nothing before ‘In Absentia’.

Another great show from a band that have yet to disappoint me live. I spent the 90 minutes travelling back home on a class 185 tired but happy

I never did get to see the original lineup of Karnataka live. I only knew their atmospheric celtic-flavoured progressive rock through the albums, especially the excellent live double “Strange Behaviour” that turned out to be their swansong. I discovered them just around the time I started going to gigs again. I almost got to see them supporting Blue Öyster Cult in 2003, but they pulled out because Rachel Jones had lost her voice. I was planning to see them on the tour scheduled in late 2004, only for the band to split just before the tour.

When founder Ian Jones reformed the band with a completely new lineup a couple of years later, I was more than a little sceptical. How much of the spirit of the original band would survive with just the bass player remaining from the original band?

I hadn’t originally intended to go to the Crewe show, having pencilled in the Manchester one ten days later. But I got an email from an old friend Ian Redfearn who I hadn’t seen for five years asking if I was interested in going to the Crewe show, so I changed my plans. On a wet Thursday night the Crewe Limelight didn’t contain anything like the heaving throng that I’ve seen turn out for Mostly Autumn shows, but there were still a decent number of people there by the time Karnataka finally hit the stage.

Two or three songs into the set I was converted. The new lineup produced the same sweeping atmospheric sound, and more than did the music justice. Vocalist Lisa Fury has both a great voice and stage presence. She kept close to the original vocal arrangements rather than reinterpreting them, which is probably the wise thing to do at this stage, although with just one singer, some songs had to manage without the two-part harmonies. I was also very impressed with Enrico Pinna’s fluid guitar work; very ‘prog’, but never once lapsing into self-indulgent noodling. Not quite sure what to make of keyboard player Gonzalo Carrera’s hairstyle; so 1970s he could have been an extra in “Life on Mars”. He should have worn a cape! The flawless two hour show mixed a lot of old favourites with several strong new songs that bode well for the new-look band’s future. The finished with the audience singalong to the encore “Out of Reach”, which is as good a way to end a show as anything.

I shall probably be still be attending Manchester Walkabout on March 18 for a second helping.