Arctic Monkeys, ITunes festival, July 6th, Camden Roundhouse.

The Indie Rock heroes Arctic Monkeys took to stage with a humorous, yet impressive entrance, the band of four walked on to Sheffield anthem “You Sexy Thing” warming the lucky 5,000 people up, causing them to dance and sing, and the perfect warm up for an Arctic Monkeys gig.

Having seen the Arctic Monkeys 3 times before it was hard for them to impress me more than they already have, the only way for this to be possible was if their new material sounded good live, and it did, it fit in perfectly with their set and the crowd took to the new songs as if they were older Arctic Monkeys songs. The first evidence of this was their first song “Library Pictures” a perfect gig starter, has a good build up and a very rock like guitar riff which was made louder live and really got the crowd going.

This gig was at Camden Roundhouse which is one of my favourite venues as it has the feel of an intimate gig yet an arena at the same time, mostly due to the layout, the sound is always so good at the roundhouse, this was shown when Arctic Monkeys front man, Alex Turner sung new song “Suck It and See” vocally perfect, it was one of my favourite moments of the gig. The lighting was basic, yet still followed a structure of the colour changing for each song, and the lights moved accordingly to the momentum of the music, this being expressed the most for classic “Still Take You Home” where I felt as if I was going to have a fit. It looked good though. The gig was very jumpy, from start to finish, it was a very sort off, indie kids in a moshpit kind off gig, and I preferred just jumping like mad and roaring each word. The best song for movement was “Pretty Visitors” causing the biggest Arctic Monkeys moshpit I’ve ever seen. I didn’t expect the atmosphere to be as impressive as it was as I wasn’t sure how much the competition winners would like Arctic Monkeys and if they weren’t just going because they’d won a ticket.

Before the gig I was excited however didn’t know to what extent Arctic Monkeys would be able to impress me as I’d seen them 3 times before, however they impressed me a lot, Alex Turner seems to have created a personality live, this being shown in song “Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve Moved Your Chair” when he did relevant actions to the words of the song, e.g.” doing the Macarena in the devil’s lair” and “kung fu fighting” sparking obvious actions from the front man, different to his usual actions live of just standing there without any sort of motion to maintain his reputation, in other words copy Julian Casablancas. My favourite moment in the evening was final song “505”, joined by Miles Kane. This is one of my favourite live songs ever, all because of the drop and the part where it immediately gets louder and faster, it’s enough to make anyone jump and is such an exhilarating part of the song and the rest is so slow and beautiful, this was Alex Turner’s hardest task vocally of the evening and he absolutely conquered it. A part to remember for this gig is when Alex Turner was teasing the crowd by playing a similar tune to crowd favourite “When The Sun Goes Down” he then went on to tease more by saying “that was an A, now this is a C” and still playing a different song “The View From The Afternoon” another great performance and this was the sweatiest song performed. Eventually the front man finished the set with When The Sun Goes Down, before a 2 song encore, this song is always a great song to hear live and always sparks excellent atmosphere, you know a song is good live when you can’t hear the lead singer sing the introduction because the crowd are singing it back so loudly.

Miles Kane was a good support artist but was given a set to big and literally plays his whole new album, however it was a good set from him and I’m looking forward to listening to his album in full. I would’ve rather there had been 2 support artists though.

Rating: 9.5/10.

Take That, Wembley Stadium, July 5th.

Take That return with Robbie Williams! We come to the 4^th sold out date of 6 of their “Progress” tour; there stands the biggest boy band probably on the planet. Everyone had told me how good they would be live and how lucky I am but unfortunately I feel like they didn’t exceed their expectations with me.

The band come out originally as the 4 piece (without Robbie Williams) and started with “Rule The World” this was a good starting song and got good feedback from the crowd, most of them being screaming middle-age women.  Any gig that sells out Wembley Stadium is going to be a special one, so as much as I think Take That disappointed me, it was still a very special night. However I think Take That are better suited at somewhere like the O2 Arena, I just think Wembley Stadium is more of a rock anthems Arena rather than a cheesy number one hits venue. As Wembley Stadium is so big and every fan pretty much knew the words to every song this caused a good atmosphere. It rained when support act “Pet Shop Boys” were on and through most of the Take That set, people would argue that Wembley Stadium should have a roof I disagree I think it would only add to an atmosphere.  The rain also caused cheesy statements from the boys like “It’s raining but that’s not going to stop us having a good time, is it?” obviously me being the only one in the crowd who doesn’t love that and shout back “No!” The set up and lighting of the stage was magnificent and was defiantly worth the money Take That paid for it. The theme of the tour obviously is “Progress” and to represent that there was this enormous robot that very slowly stood up and then eventually walked forward and even waved at the end, Take That sung on his hand every now and then, it looked brilliant though. The lights and video were used very well; the lights being used best when spotlights were on Take That as they were playing their oldies on the piano. This was probably most people’s favourite part of the evening; it was the most disappointing for me. They played all their best songs in this small medley however only reaching the end of the first chorus. It was disappointing because these are the songs that practically made them famous. My personal favourite by Take That is “Only Takes a Minute” ironically this was only played for about a minute. This was very disappointing for me. They also had dancers and even had a dance of with each other; this made me feel more uncomfortable than anything as they were severely embarrassing themselves. The sound was good and the boy band sounded good vocally, when they sung, but the backing tracks were maybe a bit loud making it easier for the band to look like they’re miming and not sing on parts, which annoyed me, I don’t know how people can be considered good live without singing that much. Everyone had said in interviews and reviews that Robbie Williams would be the highlight of the show, I disagree massively; he barely sung and just acted like a complete idiot. He made the crowd sing most of the words to every song, the best part of his set was when he slipped in Lou Reed’s classic “Take a Walk on The Wild Side.” I think Robbie Williams just needs to be reminded that he is in a boy band and he isn’t some hardcore rock musician with a punk attitude.  “Angels” was still special, I guess it was always going to be, crowd sung nearly every word, but it was okay for him to do that with this song, the atmosphere was immense.  The highlight of the evening in my eyes was “Pray”, this song sounded best vocally and is my favourite Take That song (they played in full). This caused a great dance motion from the crowd. “Relight My Fire” was also very good, this was always going to be a good song live and caused the best dance moves of the evening. The set up for this song was good, it obviously involved a lot of fire and you could actually feel hot air blow towards you, it was clever.  The most intelligent thing Take That did was the way they set out their set list, by having Take That without Robbie first, then Robbie solo, then the band back together. It was just annoying when Robbie Williams was hugging them and saying “we’re friends again” when clearly he’ll just leave them again after this tour.

I think for the screaming women, and men, they couldn’t have done no more and they would have loved it no matter how bad they were however they just didn’t do it for me. Partly because they were built up so much to being so good live and they just disappointed me.  Pet Shop Boys were the support artist and I couldn’t have thought of a better support artist, they were incredible, they even played my favourite “Suburbia” unfortunately for Take That being my favourite song of the evening live.

Rating: 6/10

Pulp-Hyde Park-3rd July 2011.

The crowd wait in anticipation as Cocker and Co tease the crowd with messages, lasting about 10 minutes, on a massive curtain covering the stage before finally showing the message of “okay let’s do it” “Do you remember the first time”. This was Pulp’s obvious opener and title of their festival built tour. This caused 60,000 people to erupt and jump around shouting every word at the top of their voice.

Being at Hyde Park can either improve or destroy a gig, for Pulp their was no better venue, it can hold 60,000 people, so when Pulp play, love song “Something Changed” you could barely hear Jarvis Cocker. This is what Pulp needed as it is a comeback tour. Jarvis described the concert as a “sort of hometown concert” he then went on to explain that most of the songs Pulp have written are about London and the differences between London and Sheffield. Also the location of this gig was perfect for Pulp, as they were close to the “1 Hyde Park” this triggered obvious class system jokes leading into the set closer “Common People”. The performance of Common People was unbelievable, the atmosphere was incredible, everyone was moving mentally and shouting every word, there was confetti during it as well, there is no better way to finish a set than with that. The sound at Hyde Park was surprisingly good, which Pulp was lucky with as it can be very risky playing Hyde Park because sometimes the sound isn’t up to scratch. The lighting was very nice; every song had an individual lighting and colour, which looked basic but good, this accompanied a big sign saying “PULP” making Cocker make jokes about the crowd’s ability to read. The lighting was the best for song “This Is Hardcore” it had a sort off Japanese feel to it, Jarvis banging a huge gong obvious complimented the lighting. The crowd participation was perfect, when Mr. Cocker spoke to the crowd they responded enthusiastically, the females screamed for Cocker’s every move, the most screams were for Jarvis’ dance moves on classic “Underwear”, I think even I screamed like a girl. Their was jumping on every single song, mostly for hit “Mis-Shapes” this song has a sort of tune to it which gives you a way to jump and the timing to do it at, so always causes a lot of jumping in a crowd, was a great performance. If the gig was slower at some points, the fans of 60,000 made up for it by singing it back to Cocker and Co, this being shown on “Bar Italia”, which was a surprising bonus to the set, which caused a great atmosphere. Most songs actually brought the hairs on the back of my neck up; it was a very emotional gig. Jarvis said midway in the gig “respect to you guys, you were the first people to buy tickets for Pulp as this was the first show announced” this shows it was always going to be the best atmosphere for a Pulp gig. It was 60,000 true fans who caused an incredible atmosphere.

Before this gig I was beyond excitement, I’ve always loved Pulp from a young age but never really got the chance to see them, so this gig was important for me. During the concert I couldn’t believe how good they actually were, they were instrumentally and vocally phenomenal and the energy from Cocker caused a great energy from the crowd at Hyde Park. I was just admiring Cockers every move, I think he is the best front man in the world. When I left I felt Pulp were EVEN BETTER than I expected, which I couldn’t believe!

This was the best gig I have ever been to. This is due to one man and one man only, Mr. Jarvis Cocker. I know I’ve gone on about him but he is an amazing individual who made this show. He danced and jumped around with so much energy, he shot confetti out of a tube, located by his crutch, he spoke to the crowd perfectly, made them laugh, got them excited for each song, and he was vocally excellent as well. He also broke down the fourth wall in his show as well, he got heavily involved with the crowd at one point when he shone a torch into a lucky male and females face for creepy classic “I Spy”. This was my favourite performance of the evening; I think it sums up everything I’ve said was good about Cocker on this evening apart from the confetti. It was creepier than when he used to perform this song as he is 48 now, this only made things better. He sounded best vocally on this song as he conquered the tricky parts of the song. The set list was excellent, would have been a perfect set list if Razzmatazz was involved. These support artists weren’t great, The Horrors were good, it was good to hear some of their new material, The Hives were excellent and were a great warm up for Pulp because of their energy. I think the less said about Grace Jones, the better. She’s the reason this gig wasn’t perfect.

Rating: Pulp without Grace Jones taken into account: 10.

             Pulp with Grace Jones taken into account: 9.5.

Bon Jovi, Hard Rock Calling, Hyde Park, June 25th 2011.

When I looked on the website for Hard Rock Calling and found out that Bon Jovi were going to perform for 3 hours, I was shocked and doubted they could successfully fill a 3 hour set without loads of covers and speaking in between songs, they proved me wrong.

The American superstars dressed in their usual rock star fashion, apart from Jon Bon Jovi who was dressed with a “Buckingham Palace” styled red jacket, took to stage immediately hitting the crowd with “Party Starter” “Raise Your Hands” causing the crowd of 60,000 to move around and literally raise their hands, this was a great way to start the show.

Hyde Park is always a great place to play as it holds so many people, it’s especially good for rock legends who have such a big support, so when they play songs like “You Give Love a Bad Name” and the crowd are asked to sing parts back to him, an incredible atmosphere is built, the kind you’d expect when 60,000 people are all singing the same line. The sound was surprisingly good, Jon Bon Jovi is one of the best live vocalists ever, which always helps, but there were no mistakes with the sound at all, and I wasn’t that close and it was still very loud for me, the sound being so good is unusual for an outdoor venue. The stage set was very basic and the lighting was as well, the only time light was used to their favour was when the spotlight was shone on Jon Bon Jovi as he sung Leonard Cohen’s classic “Hallelujah” beautifully. The atmosphere wasn’t jumpy as such as the crowd are getting on a bit now as the band are, but some off the crowd were jumpy (the teenagers and still enthusiastic/drunk older fans). It was more of a singing along raising your hands concert than a jumping around starting moshpits gig.

Before the gig I was excited to see Bon Jovi again as I’d seen them before but only seating, even though I felt this I also felt they could do no more for me as they were outstanding before. The gig was very good and Jon Bon Jovi is a great showman. However I think the gig dragged on a bit in parts as it was a 3 hour concert. When I left I was very happy I’d seen them and I was impressed that they sounded perfect on all 27 songs that they did.

I think the highlight of the gig was their song “Bad Medicine”, not only is this one of my favourite songs by Bon Jovi, they put a twist on it, they added in a cover, causing everyone in the crowd to chant along to the famous guitar riff and roar the words of the famous hit “pretty woman” this caused the best atmosphere from the crowd and worked into Bad Medicine perfectly, a genius idea which paid off.

I think Bon Jovi were better than the previous time I saw them, however I don’t think it was the best gig I’ve been to just because the atmosphere wasn’t up to scratch. The atmosphere was awful for Kinks legend Ray Davies which was a bit upsetting. Especially seeing as I’m a teenager and I knew more Kinks songs than people who were around when The Kinks were. So this concert could have been improved it the crowd were better.

Rating: 9/10.

Kate Bush, Directors Cut, Album Review, Album released: 16th May 2011.

Kate Bush, Directors Cut, Fish People, Emi.

Some people would think it is unhealthy for an 18 year old boy of 2011’s favourite female artist to be Kate Bush, some people would respect it and be shocked that someone could still have an obsession with someone who hasn’t toured for 30 years, I’m with the other fans waiting and hoping that Kate Bush will tour again one day. This year, out of the blue, Kate Bush has released her first album since 2005 named “Directors Cut” it is an album built up of songs from previous albums, “The Red Shoes” and “The Sensual World” either re-recorded entirely or changed slightly and edited.

The one song that has been changed in a controversial way is “Flower of the Mountain”, this song is “The Sensual World” but the lyrics have been changed therefore leading to the change of the song title. Kate Bush has revealed the method in her madness stating that for the original recording of The Sensual World, Kate wanted to use text from Ulysses, the James Joyce classic, and had already written the song including them lyrics, however James Joyce refused to let Kate Bush to use his lyrics, thus leading to Kate Bush writing new lyrics and changing the song to The Sensual World, now 20 years on Kate Bush decided to ask for permission again and is given it, hence the song change to Flower Of The Mountain. This song has improved lyrically, and has been made a more interesting song, “then I asked him with my eyes to ask again yes and then he asked me would I yes to say yes my mountain flower” lyrics like this have improved the beauty of this song. Unlike the lyrics the vocals and music are a bit more disappointing, the vocals are not up to scratch and are nowhere near as good as the original. The music has been edited to try and modernise this track, however I think it has backfired and made it sound too weird and it just doesn’t work.

Re-recording “This Woman’s Work” was a tough job for Kate Bush, as it is most Kate Bush fans favourite song; it is such a gentle, slow and melancholy track making it stand out from other hits by her, this being her slowest, making it most people’s favourite. In my eyes, Kate Bush nailed it, I didn’t think it was possible but she has added to the beauty of the song, she has done this by; slowing the song right down and maintaining her wonderful vocals in this track, this song has actually been improved and is my favourite song on the album by far, good work.

Another song that has been totally re-recorded is pop sounding hit “Rubberband Girl” I’ve always liked this Kate Bush song, it makes me want to dance, similar to her dance in the music video, I always thought this track had similarities with some of Madonna’s hits, which is never a bad thing. Unfortunately I have been let down by this track, I like the idea of some songs being slowed down but I wanted the speed in this one to be kept, the whole album is quite slow and it would have been refreshing to have had a pop hit on this album. This song has more of a country song feel with the guitar and is not as good as the original.

“Moments of Pleasure” has always been a liked song by Kate Bush, in a similar way to “This Woman’s Work” being liked, for its beauty and melancholy feel. The original of this song is very beautiful, the piano is wonderful and her vocals are very passionate. This song has been improved, it has been edited and made slower, vocally and instrumentally, making the lyrics stand out wonderfully, another great thing about this song is that Kate Bush has still maintained the passion in the voice and the vocals are as good as when this hit was first recorded.

“Deeper Understanding” was the first hit released from this album, it’s a shame because originally this song is very good, and is weird with the backing vocals in a good way. The edited version has been modernized but not for the best, it is too weird that is doesn’t sound very good, the backing vocals are replaced with a weird robotic voice which just comes across scary and makes the song hard to enjoy, I’d go as far as saying that the best thing about this song is that comedy legend Noel Fielding is featured in the music video.

This album by Kate Bush is a disappointment in some aspects and has been improved in others, there are a few songs in my eyes that have been ruined but have been neutralised by tracks that have been improved, and hopefully we’ll be hearing more of the musical legend soon.

Rating: 6.5/10.

The Strokes, Under Cover of Darkness, Song review.

The Strokes, Under Cover of Darkness, Angles, Rough Trade.

They’re back! The return of The Strokes after 5 years, with their fourth studio album, Angles. “Under Cover of Darkness” is the first song to be released from the album and from what I can hear it sounds convincing. The first thing we hear is one of the guitar riffs of the year so far, with the unique sound of The Strokes that is such a great thing to hear for a Strokes fan. The song then leads into the slightly altered vocals of Julian Casablancas. It sounds like it could be in any other song by them, it is a very good song and  I’m looking forward to the album, some people would argue that they have changed their sound enough, I couldn’t disagree more, it annoys me when bands change their sound to much, we love The Strokes for how they sound.

Patrick Wolf, Camden Koko, March 29th 2011

Me being a huge fan of Patrick Wolf and having seen him 7 times before, the expectations were high as he walks out dressed in a hooded cape with the hood up and gave the audience a sense of anticipation as at first you could hear him singing “Armistice” but you couldn’t see him until he came forward midway through this song, still hooded and the spotlight shone on the indie pop sensation. After taking the hood off, there stood him dressed in a suit, he certainly kept to his word when he said in an interview for “The Evening Standard” “I’m going to be more normal now, I’m going to be myself”.

This was my first visit to Camden Koko, now I’ve turned 18 I don’t get turned down at the door anymore, I was very impressed with my visit, it is a very nice venue, its small which I like, the only thing I don’t like about this venue is the price of a pint here. It was nice to hear the amount of meaning this venue had to him, before the song “Slow Motion” from his new album “Lupercalia” he explained “This song is about the moment I fell in love with my fiancé, in this venue” he then went on to explain “this venue is my favorite to perform at”. The sound in this venue was very good, it being a small venue probably helping, his vocals were excellent, especially in the likes off “Bluebells” where he slowed down the end so it was just him vocally without any instruments at all, it was a very beautiful moment. The lighting he used was in perfect co-ordination with the music, for example, if the music went quicker the lights did, the lights also added to the slow vocal parts, with just a basic spotlight which is always nice. This gig had the perfect possible atmosphere for a Patrick Wolf gig, there was a lot of jumping and dancing movement on the songs that needed it, songs like crowd favorite “Tristan”, but the slower songs the crowd would just stand and sing them back loud to him like oldie “To The Lighthouse”, it was a lovely atmosphere.

Before this gig, I was very excited to see Patrick Wolf because I knew he was very reliable live, I was also very excited to see his new material. During the gig I felt as if I just wanted to jump and dance, I was very happy and satisfied throughout, the only disappointment was that he slipped up on a couple of new songs, he joked after missing his queue on new song “Bermondsey Street”, “This is my first gig after about 9/10 years not doing click tracks so I’m supposed to just magically play in time”. He also messed up and had to start again on another new song “House”, which was a bit of a disappointment. This was certainly one of my favorite Patrick Wolf gigs, there was just something special about it, the amount the venue meant to him and him getting tearful made it all quite an emotional experience and warmed the crowd to him, another thing that made it very special is that it was his bassist Nick Haward’s birthday, so when announcing his band he purposely missed out his bassist for a joke but then in the middle of Lady Gaga’s favorite song at the time “The City”, then the crowd erupted in a cry off Happy birthday, which was accompanied onstage by violinist “Victoria Sutherland” bringing on glasses off champagne, it felt like we were part of his birthday party. Then Patrick Wolf went back into his extended version of “The City” causing 1,410 people to dance like mad. The only thing that would have made this gig better is if he didn’t make them mistakes and there was a different support artist as Rowdy Superstar certainly wasn’t for my taste however there were a few happy faces at the front of the crowd that seemed to have just come for him (Probably his family). A magical evening indeed.

Rating: 4/5