The Fratellis @ Shepherds Bush Empire, 27th May 2009

So on Wednesday night I made the short trip to Shepherds Bush to see The Fratellis as part of the series of concerts to mark the 50th anniversary of Island Records. I suppose that the aim of the celebrations is to highlight “Island Talent” both old and new, which made for an eclectic evening’s entertainment.

First on were Indie newcomers Bombay Bicycle Club – I’d never really listened to any of their music before, mostly because I find the fact that they share their name with a chain of upmarket Indian take-aways somewhat confusing – and unfortunately I missed the first half of their set. I did like what I managed to hear though, they had something of the Vampire Weekends about them and they did play a song that I recognised – after further research I have identified this song as Always Like This and it's worth a listen.


MCing for the evening was a guy called Count Prince Miller, who has the best voice in the world ever – proper telephone-directory-reading territory – and I wish he had talked more, especially if that meant that the second support act had spent less time on stage. I’m sure that Steel Pulse are very good at what they do. They’ve been around in one form or another since 1977 and are Grammy Award winners, but it just turns out that Reggae isn’t really my thing. As my friend pointed out, although they had quite a long set they only seemed to play about 5 (very long) songs. Given the history of the Island label I’m not surprised they were asked to take par tin the 50th anniversary, but they did seem to be a bit of an odd warm up choice for the headline act.

The Fratellis themselves probably realised this, so they chose to open their set with a cover of a reggae track. I *think* it was Stir It Up but if I’m honest I had developed Reggae deafness by this point and they could have been playing anything. Although it was a sensible idea to try and bridge the gap it was probably the least successful part of what was otherwise a storming set.



On the way to the gig I realised that I didn’t actually own either of The Fratellis albums and I certainly didn’t know all of the tracks they played. I was reliably informed by my musical plus one that they mostly stuck to their debut album and they certainly didn’t play Mistress Mabel from their second album, which I for one thought was a shame. Obviously the crowd went wild for their big hits like Chelsea Dagger, but the energy throughout the set was great and I really enjoyed even the tracks I wasn’t familiar with. It has certainly encouraged me to go out and buy their record, and you can’t say fairer than that. An honourable mention should go to the guy almost hidden on the side of the stage who switched from keyboard to guitar throughout the set and actually closed on a piano solo – and to celebrate his achievements here is a picture of him:

Gary Go @ The Soul Cellar, Southampton 13th May 2009

Last week I was the grateful recipient of 2 tickets to an "exclusive" Gary Go gig for Wave 105 the local radio station in Southampton. It's not often that I can say I'm a winner but in this case I was - just please don't tell the lovely people at Wave 105 that I live nowhere near Southampton and have never listened to their radio station - I'm sure it's great though, and if you want to listen to it you can click here to visit their website.

So I went down to Southampton from London after work and I can say that they train was very quick but also stupidly expensive - good job the gig tickets were free really!!! The Soul Cellar is only about 10 minutes walk from the station (no one had thought to mention that it was 10 minutes walk up a very steep slope but you live and learn - work shoes and hill climbing is not the best combination) and while it does have a cellar, the gig was actually taking place in a room above ground. The venue was small, which made for a great atmosphere.

After a brief introduction from one of the Wave 105 DJs, Gary and his trusty guitarist Andreas took to the stage and played a stripped down set that lasted over an hour. I'd heard a rumour that they were only going to play for 30 minutes, so I think we (and they!) did pretty well. Gary served up some interesting versions of his songs, including a different take on his current single, Open Arms, which was apparently how the track started life. He played a mixture of tracks from his forthcoming album, include the fantastic 'Black and White Days', which I hadn't heard before and am very excited about, and some older material from his previous EPs. Overall Gary seemed very relaxed (the glass of wine he brought on stage with him probably had something to do with it...)and bantered to great effect with the audience - it was probably one of the funniest gigs I've been to - and I think he bought himself a room full of new fans from the South Coast.



There were a couple of wrong notes here and there, and the odd forgotten line (or as in the case of Twitter-inspired track 'Heart Balloon', a whole forgotten ending) but it really worked on the night. The Take That support slots will require a higher degree of polish to make an impact on a larger stage, but in a smaller gig with excellent support from guitarist Andreas it was a really fun night. Plus it's the first time I've seen him playing an encore, reprising Wonderful in response to popular demand. WONDERFUL indeed.

Gary Go's debut album is out on May 25th