Steve Hackett - Liverpool Philharmonic 12th May 2013

I'm going to start with a confession, I really haven't listened to as much Genesis as I probably should. I have a lot of their stuff but I have just never got around to dedicating some time to give it the good and proper listen it needs. Consequently I have no clue about a lot of stuff at the gig. I do hope you won't hold that against me and read on.

The tickets for the show were obviously printed in advance and stated no support, however upon arrival at the Philharmonic I was quite pleased to discover that Anne-Marie Helder was opening the show. An unexpected treat.  Her set was acoustic, her voice filled the hall magnificently and she was received very warmly by those that were in their seats. I assume a lot of those who hadn't entered the auditorium straight away were still queuing at the Merchandise stall to get things signed by Steve Hackett. It was quite a queue when we took our seats about quarter of an hour before the start of the support.

The main feature was excellent. The band are great. Steve makes it all look very easy while remaining passionate about the music and it looked like they all had a whale of a time on stage. I loved it. Nad Sylvan was dramatic, whimsical and thoroughly entertaining throughout. Everything about the show felt spot on. The audience reaction was positive and it just felt good to be there. Quite often I would find myself drifting off, not through boredom, but just off with the music for a while before gently coming back to reality.

The visual aspects of the show, the lights, the screens and the four huge anglepoise lamps enhanced the experience rather than dominated it as can sometimes happen. It was all a pleasant experience that has made me realise that I need to play the Genesis Revisited 2 album a little more often and I should really just book a couple of days off work to listen to some of the original albums and take them all in properly.

Link to concert photos on flickr.

International Pop Overthrow Liverpool 2013 Starts On Tuesday

I love this music festival and have done since it hit the UK eleven years ago. The Liverpool event is massive and free (apart from a peak time charge to get into the Cavern Club). Spread over two venues and three stages there is just so much happening all at once that it's very easy to feel a bit overwhelmed. However, if you are armed with your handy festival programme you should be okay. The beauty of so much happening all at once is that if a band isn't quite to your taste there's another playing on another stage that may be your cup of tea.

From 14th to 21st May The Cavern Club and the Cavern Pub plays host to over 130 bands and fans from all over the world, all passionate about powerpop. The full schedule can be found here and information about  the participating artists can be found here.

Over the years I have made some amazing friends at this event and eagerly await their arrival in Liverpool every May. There are some notable people not attending this year and they will be missed, but that won't spoil the fun.

For more details about International Pop Overthrow visit the official site with information about the events in the USA, Canada and London.

Instead of flooding this blog with lots of short posts from the event I have set up a tumblr account here, but I will be posting stuff here too, and I recommend keeping an eye on Minty And The Beeb Go Gigging for regular updates too! 

A Couple of CD reviews.

There's been a bit of a backlog of things to review at SisterBlueBird HQ lately. As International Pop Overthrow Liverpool starts next week here's a couple of brief reviews of discs from participants in the festival.

Norman Kelsey - On The Rebound
The former Rush Hour Soul front man moves from tunes that make you boogie to slow, soulful seductive numbers with ease on this release. It's nice and easy to listen to, but you wouldn't file it under easy listening. It reminds me a lot of 70s soul offerings. The songs feel comfortable and familiar quite quickly and it's almost impossible not to tap your foot or nod along to tracks like So Sophisticated or Huckleberry Finn. If comparisons have to be made I would plump for a mixture of the essences of Prince and Smokey Robinson with the commercial air of The Stylistics.
Special mention must be made of the track "Supermodels With Gatling Guns" A title with a lot of promise that doesn't disappoint!

Norman Kelsey is appearing at the IPO Liverpool event on Thursday May 16th at 5.45 in The Cavern Pub, and on Friday May 17th at 5pm on the back stage at the Cavern Club (get there early for that one and check out Honeybug as well who are on before him!)

Official Website

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Ashbury Keys - Wake Up

This five track disc offer edgy guitar driven power pop full of hooks that will worm their way into your brain so days later the riffs will be running through your head at random moments. Each track is a lesson in well constructed tunes. The stand out track for me is Oh My God with it's slightly more punky tone. 

The Ashbury Keys are playing IPO Liverpool on Tuesday May 14th at 7.30pm on the back stage at the Cavern Club and on Wednesday May 15th at 9.30pm at the Cavern Pub.

Official Site 

More International Pop Overthrow Liverpool teasers and goodies later!

Asia get a new guitarist

Asia are a bit of a guilty pleasure (I mean that in a good way) but I keep getting thwarted the last couple of times I've tried to go and see them either through illness, injury or logistics!

Anyway, Frontiers Records posted this EPK on youtube yesterday to introduce Sam Coulson who is replacing Steve Howe on guitar.

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A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To (and from) Hammersmith.

Last Saturday was the first time I had been to London for about ten years. The trip was simple, one tube journey out to Hammersmith, and another one back. London is a huge city with lots of people living in it and lots of people visiting it every day.

On the first tube journey I glanced along the length of the carriage and saw a chap with a guitar, he looked familiar and I commented to my friend Paul that it looked a lot like someone I know from twitter but In wasn't sure and usually lack the confidence to ask in case I am wrong. Once I had a phone signal I tweeted about and after we got to Hammersmith I discovered it was indeed Matt Stevens who I know from various social media. Imagine the chances of that!

The journey back involved an unexpected change of line, as we boarded the Circle line tube at Edgeware Road, I glanced along the length of the carriage and saw a chap with a guitar....you guessed it, it was Matt again. So I took a deep breath and walked over to say hello. It's a phenomenal coincidence that we were on the same tube trains twice that night. I'm so glad I plucked up the courage to speak to him too.

Anyway Matt makes great music both solo and with the band The Fierce And The Dead. Follow the links below to find out more.

http://www.mattstevensguitar.com
http://www.fierceandthedead.com

Status Quo Reunion - Return of the Frantic Four

I have had an incredible week. Getting to see the original Status Quo lineup twice has been quite simply amazing. Quo are a band that have just always been there. Watching the Hello Quo film brought that home, there was just so much that I remembered watching on TV at the time. I grew up in a household where interests were (still are) actively encouraged, so I must have reacted to Quo's music as one day I was bought a video box set featuring stuff from the original lineup - all that hair flying around obviously made an impression.

Fast forward many years later and I'm idly wandering around HMV when I come across a box set of four early Quo albums on CD. It was only tenner and worth every penny as it rekindled the relationship with their stuff of that era. This inevitably has led to more purchases and then came news of the reunion. Did I want to go? Too bloody right!

They say the waiting is the hardest part, but finally March rolled around. I filled in a lot of that waiting time explaining that the version of Quo I was going see wasn't the current version. They wouldn't be performing songs about being in the army or burning bridges. I was eager to know what they would be performing, so couldn't resist a peek at the set list when the tour began. Although there are other songs I would have hoped to have heard played live by the Frantic Four I was not disappointed in the least.

Both of the gigs were amazing. At Manchester I was seated and had a great view. Hammersmith was a different beast, I was standing. Despite the sloping floor I was a tiny bit too short to see them well, but to be honest the atmosphere made up for that.

The sound was amazing. It wasn't polished, it was a raw and loud onslaught on the eardrums - it was marvellous! The audiences were brilliant and bounced along, even on the balcony! It pumped you full of adrenaline and made you feel good.

I'm so glad I was able to go more than once. It doesn't matter that the set list was the same each night - that just meant that I knew when to take a deep breath because a favourite track was about to begin and just had to be sung and danced along to! My personal highlight on both nights was Big Fat Mama. I expected to be hoarse after Hammersmith, I sang along that loud!

I have already posted links to videos and photos for the Manchester gig here. 

Some Hammersmith Photos -

Here's a link my unedited Hammersmith photo set on Flickr.

Edit this setlist | More Status Quo setlists

Status Quo Reunion Tour Manchester 12th March 2013 (photo links and video)

 I'll write up about the gigs after I've been to Hammersmith on Saturday. In the mean time here's some photos

Click  here for my concert photos on Flickr

Click here for more photos (not by me) 

Video playlist of some of the gig.

Edit this setlist | More Status Quo setlists

I wrote about the Manchester and Hammersmith Quo experience here. Clickety!