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

Panic! at the Disco, Shepherds Bush Empire, May 4th 2011.

A deafening screech is the only thing you could hear as Brendon Urie and Co ran out from the backstage of the Shepherds Bush Empire to a crowd off 2,000 fans, to present their “Vice and Virtues(the name of their recently released album) tour”, 80% of them screeching girls, as Panic! At the Disco hit the stage for their only date in London for this tour. The show started with the slightly more powerful version, as it was live, of the new single “Ready to go” which caused the whole standing area to erupt in a jumping movement, a very good song to start the show.

Shepherds Bush is one of my favorite venues so it was nice returning there to see Panic! At the Disco, it is a very intimate arena and makes you feel very close to the bands performing, yet still somehow has the feel of an arena, especially when you hear the whole crowd sing back “I write sins not tragedies” so loud that you cannot hear Brendon Urie at all. Panic! At the Disco stuck to their traditional 1950’s style of clothing dressed in tuxedo’s and braces with quite a traditional basic lighting on them, but with a spotlight on Brendon, on the tearjerker “Always” which had a beautiful effect and caused the cliché swaying effect on the crowd and causing the more emotional people to cry, Myself not being one of them people, however it was still nice. “Who’s feeling horny?” shouted Brendon before jumping into crowd favorite “Lying Is The Most Fun a Girl Can Have Without Taking Her Clothes Off”. This causing a quite amusing “moshpit” which was the first of many in this gig; it was quite an intimate sweaty gig which had a lot of movement which is a good thing for a band like Panic! At the disco to achieve as their music is generally quite fast. For me the highlight of the evening was the moment when Panic! At the disco covered The Smiths famous hit “How soon is now?” it was an interesting cover but however it worked and was a very good performance.

I was very excited to see Panic! At the disco as I had liked them for years before seeing them here, so I was happy to hear a few oldies like; “Camisado and But it’s better if you do”  but I am very fond of their new album having heard them at this gig, so I think they have been successful for me in that aspect. They built a very good atmosphere and I felt like I wanted to dance throughout the gig especially with songs like, “The Only Difference between Martyrdom and Suicide Is Press Coverage”. When I left however I felt very disappointed as they announced “We haven’t got enough time to do the songs we hoped to do because of time restriction, so we have to do a one song encore” and they then rubbed salt into the wound by playing a new song about only 10% of the crowd had heard. It would have made the gig better if Panic! At the disco had ended on a better known song and would have had a better support artist. The support artist was announced on the day as if it was someone big, leading people into a false sense of excitement, then this band named “Love Letters” walked on, certainly not to my taste.

Rating: 3.5/5

Noah & The Whale, Tonight’s The Kind of Night, song review.

Noah & The Whale, Tonight’s The Kind of Night, Last Night on Earth, Mercury Records.

This is the second single released from Noah & The Whale’s second studio album “Last Night on Earth”, coming after L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. This is by far my favourite song on this album. It is refreshing hearing such a happy, fast flowing song from quite a bland sounding folk band. The song starts with a good drum beat and leads into a happy sounding piano riff, the tempo of the song is typically slowed down as the verses are sung and then as expected the tempo rises for the chorus, this song is quite a positive sounding song, lyrically, and you can’t help but feel happy and dance to this song. The piano riff is defiantly the highlight of this song. I didn’t think they could release a song I absolutely love without Laura Marling, I was wrong.

Rating 8/10

Lady Gaga, Born This Way, Album Review. Released May 23rd 2011.

Lady Gaga, Born This Way, “Interscope Records”.

If someone told 3 years ago that a pop artist would be one of my favorite artists ever, I’d have thought they were mad however Lady Gaga has done this. The pop sensation has now released her second studio album and is basically ruling the world, especially the UK. This album has sold more than all the other 29 albums in the album chart put together.

Having such high expectations and hype for this album after having the quickest selling debut album ever, the pressure must have been high for Gaga; however I think she has aced it. I think the most impressive thing about this album is the fact it’s an excellent album and it was written while she was touring, which is different to the typical album where people would hide for a year or so.

Born this way, the title track was the first thing we heard from this album and gave me the same reaction as millions of people, “I can’t wait for this album”, this song hit number one in over 20 countries, and it deserved it. This is the perfect pop song that still has good lyrics that are enough to make anyone feel great. This song starts off with Lady Gaga’s little motivating speech, which then dives into a great beat that is almost impossible not to move to. This has a very good chorus, which has a good balance between being memorable but not to repetitive. The highlight of this song, is Lady Gaga’s clever lyric “Don’t be a drag just be a Queen.” This has been too many people’s facebook status for my liking.

My favorite song on the album and one of my favorite singles this year is “Judas”.  Which unfortunately only hit number 8 in the UK singles chart however was successful in South Korea where it hit number 1. This song is my favorite because I feel it that one of the best chorus’ in pop history, it’s enough to make anyone sing along. It has such a fast flowing beat which slips into dubstep, and is a great song for clubbing. I also like the fact that people could listen to this song and love it without realizing the clever meaning of the song hidden within the biblical reference of “Judas”.

Another song on the album is “The Edge of Glory” I first heard this song on TV when Lady Gaga played “Radio 1’s Big Weekend”, she slowed down this song and sung it beautifully on the piano, I believe this is how this song should have been recorded. This song has a lot of meaning to Lady Gaga as it is about her Grandfather, this is why I believe it would’ve been better and suited the mood better if it was a very slow song on the piano. This song has a lot of emotion and passion within lyrics and her voice which doesn’t suit the fast flowing music around it. This is an excellent choice of song to end the album on.

The song that most fans believe stand out is Hair, I believe it is a very good song however I don’t think it is up to the standard of Judas. I do think this song is the best

Lyrical song on the album lyrics like “I've had enough, I'm not a freak.
I just here trying to stay cool on the streets.” I feel this song represents Lady Gaga as a person and is aimed at everyone who doesn’t like Lady Gaga for her individuality and crazy antics, this is probably why this is her fans favorite song on the album and can reach out to anybody who wants to be something and is judged for what they are.

The album is started with “Marry The Night” which I believe is the worst song on the album, it isn’t a bad song, it just seems a bit boring and effortless and sounds a bit too much like too many other songs in the pop world and just isn’t up to the standard of the other songs on the album, but is okay to get the album started as it is quite fast flowing and is quite a feel good song.

The song I believe is the best instrumentally on this album is “You and I” which includes guitar by Brian May, this probably being why it is the best instrumentally, this song has a “Queen” feel to it, the clapping beat sounds like it could be in a”Queen” and the backing vocals give me the feel that it could be a “Queen” song as well, and any song that sounds like a song by “Queen” is bound to be incredible, making this my second favorite song on the album.

I think Lady Gaga has done an album that is almost as good as the first; however I think the first album had more singles that would be released and do better in the charts, and are bigger “Pop anthems” were as the songs on this album are as good but would not be considered “Pop anthems” and would not do as well in the charts, the first album was Lady Gaga being clever and knowing exactly what to do to hit the charts, this album I believe is Lady Gaga being herself.

Rating: 8.5/10.

Songs to download: Born This Way, Judas, The Edge Of Glory, Hair, Fashion Of His Love, You and I.

Beyonce, Till the End of Time, Song review.

Beyonce, Till the End of Time, 4, Columbia Records.

Leading up to Beyonce’s fourth album, titled, 4, Beyonce is releasing her second single from this record named “Till the End of Time”. We have already heard “Run the World Girls” which sounded unorganized and was a disappointment. Unfortunately this single isn’t much better. This single has a bit more structure than Run the World but it is a very repetitive and boring single. Beyonce is getting into this habit of releasing singles that don’t express her voice, which is a shame as she is one of the best female vocalists in music. This song begins well with a clever sped up version of Jai Paul’s “BTSTU” which makes you feel like you are diving into a dance track. This song isn’t bad instrumentally with the military drum sound; it is vocally and lyrically that we are let down. Hopefully there will be better to come from this year’s controversial Glastonbury headliner.

Gig Review. Belle and Sebastian, Camden Roundhouse, 30th May 2011.

After the first two songs Stuart said “We haven’t been here in a while, except from last night (he joked), but apart from that, years, it’s good to be back.” The Scottish, Indie pop 7 piece band, dressed in their usual bland but smart outfits. The crowd being mostly middle aged but with a few teenagers, Stuart joked with this “I recognize a few faces from years ago but a few youngsters which is always nice.”

Camden roundhouse holding so much history was the perfect venue for Belle and Sebastian to play, as they have been around for quite a few years, this being shown when Stuart jokes “I still feel like I’m in 1985 with Rough Trade Records, performing tracks around the same time as artists like The Smiths” causing a huge cheer from the crowd, obviously fans of the Rough Trade record label. The sound was worrying as the support artist was so loud and unbalanced with instruments and vocals however Belle and Sebastian sounded excellent, with having so many instruments and 3 and sometimes 4 vocalists I was worried how it would sound but it sounded excellent. The lighting was disco type lighting with complimented Stuart’s enthusiastic dancing especially in songs like “Sukie in the Graveyard” which seemed to have been sped up and made a bit more exciting in a live environment. The atmosphere in the venue was odd, people were crazy about them and absolutely loved them however it took people time to start some sort of movement however who could resist dancing when Stuart did a competition for 4 lucky people to dance on stage with him, claiming “I’m in the mood for dancing, like The Nolan’s” however I was unfortunate in this competition. There were a few beautiful moments when Stuart’s perfect sounding vocals were spotlighted in some songs, especially in the slower songs performed on the Piano like “We Rule the School”.

When I left I was very happy with the set-list performed by the band, as their previous night had a more downbeat set. The band were heavily involved with the crowd and had so much crowd participation, examples of this were asking the crowd who’s going to the Olympics causing a show of hands and then asking specific people to shout out events, this always makes the crowd feel more in harmony with the band which is something good to achieve at a concert, Another example making a crowd member apply mascara to his eyes to relate to the lyrics “Blue mascara running over your eye” in the beautiful song “Lord Anthony”. I feel the best thing about the crowd participation was letting the crowd change their set-list, the several cry’s for crowd favorite “I’m a Cuckoo” was enough to persuade front man Stuart to change his two song encore to begin with this, this song causing the best atmosphere from the crowd on the evening causing them to dance, some almost as bizarre as the front man’s. My personal favorite performance was “Get Me Away From Here I’m Dying” a shock for me as I didn’t expect this song to be amongst the set list, Stuart demanding “I want some help with this one”, and he got exactly what he asked for as the crowd of 5,000 roared it back at the front man causing the biggest smile on his face the whole evening.

Having never seen Belle and Sebastian before and loving them for years I didn’t really know what to expect but I was very impressed with the gig, I disagree with Stuart’s joke “We’ll probably be supporting Reef next year” as I believe they deserve a venue with a higher capacity, having easily sold out all 3 nights at the Roundhouse. The only thing that would have made the night better would have been the support artist; apart from that I don’t think anything needed to be changed.

Rating: 4/5.

Album review: Arctic Monkeys: Suck it and see. Released 6th June 2011.

Arctic Monkeys, Suck it and See, Produced by “Domino Records”, Similar sounding bands; The Strokes, The Vaccines, The Pixies.

Alex Turner described the Arctic Monkeys new album “Suck it and See” as a balance between their previous 3 albums; he couldn’t have described the album any better. Inspired by the likes off David Bowie, Nick Cave and Lou Reed, They have songs that sound like they should be in all 3 albums, songs like “Brick by Brick” being in “Whatever People Say I am that’s what I’m not”, this song sounds a bit like Kasabian/Oasis vocally. This song has a very basic structure and very basic repetitive lyrics, so when they leaked this and it was the first thing I heard from “Suck it and See” I was worried that the album was effortless, however luckily Arctic Monkeys haven’t let me down and the album is very impressive. “Don’t Sit Down ‘Because I’ve moved Your Chair”. Sounds like it would fit perfectly in their second album “Favorite Worst Nightmare” this song has similarities with the likes off “This House Is a Circus” and the humorous lyrics have close comparisons with “Fluorescent Adolescent” with lyrics like “Doing the Macarena in the Devil’s Lair. The song that would fit perfectly into third album “Humbug” is my favorite song on the album “Reckless Serenade” having similarities to “Gigantic” by The Pixies, this song is a beautifully written, mellow song, which reminds me off my favorite song on “Humbug” “Secret Door”. The lyrics in this song are very good, lines like, “"those twinkling vixens, with the shining spiral eyes, their hypnosis goes unnoticed when she's walking by." This is such a beautiful lyric and is my favorite on the album, this is the best way of calling a woman beautiful with words I have ever seen, lyrics like these mixed with a wonderful baseline and with Alex Turner’s calmer beautiful voice and the riff’s gentle that are very similar to “Cornerstone” this song is a very impressive hit on this album and defiantly stands out above the rest, I was worried that Arctic Monkeys were getting into a habit of trying to sound exactly like “Queen’s Of The Stone Age” due to Josh Homme helping majorly in Arctic Monkeys recent Albums but this song says otherwise. Josh Homme provides backing vocals in this album for song “All My Own Stunts” quite a boring song that sounds similar to Queens of the Stone Age, this isn’t an awful song, just a bit boring and is a bit of an “Album Filler”.

Having such a good debut album, Arctic Monkeys always build up very high expectations for their albums but they try to sound a bit different with each album, which annoys some fans who just want them as cheeky indie lads with songs they can just go mental to, however I think Arctic Monkeys have matured as a band with each album and are most mature with this one with Alex Turner’s very clever lyrics this album is a very good lyrical album, I think this is a good album and I like that Arctic Monkeys are changing their sound after every album, makes things more exciting, I think they have lived up to their expectations however I am worried that some fans won’t agree.

Album rating: 7.5/10.

Songs to download: The Hellcat Spangled Sha La La, Don’t Sit Down ‘Cause I’ve moved Your Chair, Reckless Serenade, Library Pictures.

I'm new to this.

So someone should welcome me right?