Live Review - Eagles, "History of the Eagles" Tour, London O2 Arena (17th June 2014)

The Eagles land in London for the first of several nights at the O2 Arena. Billed as the “History Of The Eagles” tour, evidently to tie in with the rather excellent documentary of the same name, the first half of the show in particular feels more like a Broadway show than your average rock gig. They take you chronologically through the first few years, relating stories and background information, sometimes directly and sometimes rather bizarrely, through filmed on-screen narration.

In theory it starts rather nicely with just Henley and Frey on-stage together in a sitting-on-flight-cases kind of way, but there's addition instrumentation coming from...somewhere. Band members gradually get added, Schmidt, Walsh, and a return to the fold for Bernie Leadon which is lovely to see. Bernie was a member of The Flying Burrito Brothers back in the day, so you can't argue with that. He was on the first four Eagles albums and left the band in a blaze of glory in 1975, pouring a beer over Glenn Frey's head; I can't say I blame him.

Frey's ego precedes him, but he does little on-stage to warrant it. The night seems to belong to Don Henley who is in fine voice, and heavily featured throughout. When Joe Walsh gets a chance to let rip, he brings some fire and energy to otherwise rather sedate proceedings. Not that there's anything wrong with a Eagles concert being relatively sedate, of course.

They're undoubtedly a talented bunch of guys, which is why it's somewhat frustrating to see five additional musicians on-stage with them. It doesn't seem necessary. This is compounded particularly when they let the session guitarist play featured solos; are you really telling me Walsh or Leadon couldn't play something equally worthy?

Leadon is dismissed for the second half of the show, which is overall a bit more raucous, covering ground from Hotel California and The Long Run era, with some solo Joe Walsh thrown in for good measure (although if they're going to dip in to solo territory, surely Henley's “The Boys of Summer” could blow the roof off?). A track from the reunion-era “Hell Freezes Over” record provides an ideal bathroom break. Talking of newer material, it's interesting to note that this “History” show includes nothing from their 2007 effort, “Long Road Out Of Eden” (maybe because it sucks).

A friend of mine commented to me after the show that they appreciate their audiences expectations. I guess this is true, although they pitch the show pretty heavily at the casual fan. It's full of hits which, if you're only going to see the band once, is fine, but they do little to encourage you to come back. The prohibitive ticket prices don't help, but it's also the feeling that they're doing to same thing every night; playing the same songs, telling the same stories, cracking the same jokes. I'm glad I went, but I have no intention of going again.

Henley proclaims during the show that they're not touring because they're bored, they do it because “it's the best flipping job in the world”; looking at the ticket prices it's certainly among the better paid ones. You wish though that everything felt a bit more... real, maybe? It's possible that the documentary has soured my perception of them, but it's hard not to think of Frey and Henley in particular, as calculating businessmen rather than passionate musicians.

I doubt many went home too unhappy though. The last encore brings Leadon back to the stage for a few songs, and they launch into “Take It Easy”; what's not to like? They covered a lot of ground, and they played for ages too. Their voices still blend beautifully. It's one for the bucket list, but time to move on to the next one.

Live Review - Yes, Southend Cliffs Pavilion (30th April 2014)

2014 sees Yes tour, performing 3 full albums, “The Yes Album”, “Going For The One”, and career-benchmark “Close To The Edge”; a prospect that should have prog-fans making that sound Homer Simpson made when he spots that rare gummy Venus de Milo stuck to the posterior of….well, never mind; except, wait, there’s no Jon Anderson. That’s okay, you could argue; they’ve overcome that obstacle before, drafting in Trevor Horn of all people, but that, of course, resulted in a strong new album,”Drama”, and didn’t involve a tour performing three classic albums in full featuring another singer. Prog is a funny business, and often the vocalist is less a focal point than in other bands. There’s a strong history of prog bands successfully transitioning through singers; Genesis, Pink Floyd, erm…Marillion, for starters, but this is a late career change and sustaining credibility is going to be a challenge, although commercial success is probably not high on their agenda right now.

American Jon Davison stepped up to the plate as vocalist in 2012, after Anderson’s previous replacement Benoit David left the band due to illness. To be fair, he’s pretty impressive, and sounds remarkably like Jon Anderson in fact. It’s hard to imagine anyone else doing a better job of recreating the vocal parts. What muddies the waters somewhat is the fact that they’ve recorded a new album with Davison, “Heaven and Earth”. Choosing a singer that sounds like your old singer in order to perform old material is one thing, but surely making a new album with him is a strange proposition. Can they really strive for anything individual or fresh?

That’s a debate for another time anyway, and for tonight he does a perfectly able job, if you can ignore your inner voice that’s shouting, “But it’s not Anderson”.

Steve Howe is fascinating to watch. He’s like a mad professor, with his long grey hair and receding hairline. You have to laugh at some of his exaggerated moves and gestures. His guitar sounds a little too clean in places, and there’s a nagging feeling that he’s only just managing to fit all the notes in sometimes. Rather than sporting a double-necked guitar he seems to favour a second guitar on a stand, which he can play while still wearing another guitar. His solo “Clap” is obviously a little highlight of the evening too.

Chris Squire, who has the distinction of being the only member of the band to survive their ever-changing line ups, and appears on every Yes release, is on fine form throughout. It wouldn’t be Yes without him. He’s looking bloomin’ old now; his long white hair being gently blown, evidently by an electric fan, which I find inexplicably hilarious. In an ultimate display of prog-ishness, he plays a TRIPLE-necked guitar at one point, which is worth the admission price alone. Fun fact; his wife’s name is Scotland.

Geoff Downs was handling Rick Wakeman’s parts, who’s busy trudging his Journey To The Centre Of The Earth folly around the country at the moment. He’s obviously a prog stalwart, and has been a member of Yes in the past, but he feels like an 80’s throwback, with his banks of synths and terminally un-cool look. This is the guy, after all, who once entered the Guiness Book of Records for performing with the most keyboards on stage for a performance (28, if you’re interested). He does little to impress; you miss Wakeman.

Quite often, the problem with bands as they get older is that they slow down, tempo-wise. They might see this a virtue; that tearing through songs too fast is a result of inexperience and the folly of youth, but it means the sense of urgency and intensity is missing. There’s no edge tonight. They were playing some of the greatest prog music ever made, but I felt strangely unmoved by it.

The problem was partly me (although Jon Davison playing electric bongos didn’t help). I realised my benchmark for live Yes is the live album “Yessongs” recorded in 1972. Although 3 of the 5 members that performed the bulk of that album are still sharing the stage on this tour, it’s 42 years later. Is it reasonable to expect the same energy, the same spark of a band in their prime years? Probably not. That said, plenty of veteran artists are pulling out thrilling and compelling live shows late into their careers (although probably not with a new front-man). Drummer Alan White has nowhere near the energy and power he used to have. Maybe he was never the same after breaking his foot in a, and I am not making this up, roller-skating accident in 1979.

Still, I’ll take what I can get. They were literally playing down my road. I sat feet away from Steve Howe, saw 3 amazing albums performed live, with an encore of Roundabout thrown in. Sometimes you can over-think these things.

Live Review - These New Puritans, London Barbican (17th April 2014)

Last year’s “Field of Reeds” was one of the most challenging, yet ultimately rewarding albums of last year. The attention to detail present on the record provided a plentiful pool for journalists to fish from. Stories abounded of the band apparently spending hours breaking glass to achieve just the “right” sound, and bringing a live hawk into the studio to sample the sound of its wings flapping. A picture got built up of an obsessed band in search of perfection. You’d be seriously pushing it to classify them as a “rock” band; they reside in an almost uncategorizable world between classical and art-rock. The thought of seeing the album performed live under the “TNP Expanded” banner, with the strings and horns and choir was too exciting a prospect to miss. There were about 30 additional members on stage in the end, tantalizingly including Elisa Rodrigues whose additional vocals are an essential part of the album, and Adrian Peacock, the UK’s deepest baritone, along with members of Synergy Vocals and the Heritage Orchestra. The night was a meticulous recreation of a staggering album. No hawk appeared onstage unfortunately, although a percussionist was noticed donning a full facial mask, evidently to smash some glass. The Barbican provided the perfect reverent setting. You can imagine what a train-wreck the show would have been if they’d chosen Brixton Academy or something. I was left with the feeling that it was tragic that this was to be a one-off. I wanted to go again. I also wondered how on earth they’d been performing these songs all this time without all the additional musicians. This did not feel like a radical reworking of an album, with an orchestra tacked on; all the elements seemed to be combining to try and recreate the album as closely as possible. That’s not to say there weren’t deviations. V (Island Song) is stretched to a powerful 9- minute epic, for example. The second-half of the night addressed the old and the new. A thunderous We Want War along with Three Thousand from previous album “Hidden” injected a surge of adrenalin into proceedings. In a sense, it felt like a massive relief. As stunning as “Field of Reeds” is, it almost felt like you’d been holding your breath throughout the first half. TNP also decided to debut some new music, which at this stage would seem to continue in a similar vein to “Field of Reeds” rather than betray another radical change of direction. Either way, TNP remain a fascinating proposition. In fact, it’s hard to think of a more genuinely progressive and forward-thinking contemporary band around. The sheer ambition of these three lads from Southend should be a call to arms for more bands; perfection may just be attainable.

Live Review - Fleetwood Mac, London O2 Arena (25th Sept 2013)

Amongst the barrage of glowing tweets about the show, I noticed a tweet from Jeremy Clarkson, who was also there that night, complaining something along the lines of “Since when did Fleetwood Mac become a Lindsey Buckingham tribute band?”. You have to wonder what he was expecting. Christine McVie leaving the band in the late 90's has, in effect, reduced their repertoire rather considerably. It knocks out, “Songbird”, “Little Lies”, and “Everywhere”, to name a handful; a lot of their softer AOR moments actually. Stevie Nicks, although a vital component to their on-stage presentation, a crucial foil for Lindsey, and responsible for some key moments in their back catalogue, doesn't play an instrument (tambourine excepted) on-stage. This leaves Lindsey Buckingham, like it or not, as the key musical driving force for the show. In fact, he's the only member of the Mac who's on-stage for every song of their almost three hour show, and boy, is he driven. I saw another reviewer describe him as essentially battling with his guitar on-stage. This is an apt description. At one point, he appeared to be physically beating the strings, both arms flailing.

Opening with “Second Hand News” set the tone for the night, as if to say, “we're going to play a lot of songs for the casual fans, but don't expect expect some sanitised, compromised version of the Mac”. The way Buckingham spat out the repeated refrain of “DO IT! DO IT! DO IT!” in between the chorus lines made it clear he meant business. The show opened with a Rumours trio in fact, with “The Chain” and “Dreams” following on. Not many bands can unleash a trio like that to open a show.

The bulk of the show seemed to be split into sections. After the opening Rumours section and a crowd-pleasing “Rhiannon”, came four in a row from Tusk, the uncompromising, schizophrenic follow up to Rumours; the title track, in particular, having an incredible ferocity that made you take notice. Later on, there's an acoustic section, a couple in a row from Mirage; you get the idea.

The band seem quite keen on providing context to their work. Before the Tusk section, Lindsey gives a speech about their decision not to keep repeating the same formula, and expressing confidence that the passage of time has proved them right; I would certainly agree with that. Before “Landslide”, one of the most beautiful moments in their catalogue, Stevie Nicks takes time to acknowledge the presence of founder-member Peter Green in the audience that night, and the considerable debt she owes to him.

They seem keenly aware of their chequered, complex history, and seem intent on playing up to it. I'd read that Stevie Nicks said to Lindsey Buckingham that they needed to walk on-stage hand-in-hand, and they had to mean it. At one moment in the set, they even embrace. It's obviously slightly contrived and reinforces the soap-opera image of the band; it's essentially playing out before your eyes, but you have to wonder how a now happily married Buckingham feels as, the obviously pretty bonkers, Nicks starts talking about their previous “relationship” in front of thousands of people every night.

Still, the band are on incendiary form. It's worth restating that it really was Buckingham's show. He is just “on it” all night. One of the highlights comes when he plays a solo acoustic “Big Love”, again taking time to contextualise what the song means to him; the intensity builds and builds, and he growls and grunts like a madman towards the end of the track. He brings such a raw edge that keeps them firmly on the right side of credible. Nicks appears to have lost a bit of her vocal range, but none of her charisma. It's an incredible sight to see her kick the air, and pose around the stage in that inscrutable way she does. She's a little hard to take seriously sometimes, especially when she starts talking about how the audience are like dream-catchers, and the like, but who needs boring rock stars? Mick Fleetwood himself appears to have lost none of his drive and love for the band, also taking the time to give a speech at the very end of the show. “The Chain” aside, right-hand man John McVie gets very few “moments”, but a solid force on-stage and, of course, is literally the Mac in Fleetwood Mac.

I'm particularly impressed at the balance they've struck between pleasing the casual Rumours crowd and keeping the show edgy and interesting. The final encore is particularly brave, pulling out the stunning b-side “Silver Springs”, and the beautifully appropriate “Say Goodbye” from their underrated last album Say You Will.

Mac play the same set every night, a concept which I'm not that keen on; on the pros side though it means that if you can only make it to one show, you get the same as everyone else, and also, they're incredibly tight. The downside is that it can seem like the band are going through the motions a little; a feeling I had when I saw Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers (incidentally a band Stevie Nicks was desperate to join at one point!) last year. Still, I didn't get that feeling with the Mac. They played like they meant it. However, we did get a genuinely special moment in the set, when Christine McVie joined them on-stage for the first time since the late-90's. It was all too brief really; they simply played “Don't Stop” together, but you couldn't help but feel privileged to witness the Rumours line-up together again, even if just for a few minutes. She was due to appear a couple of nights later, but that was going to be it. We'll see if she changes her mind, but I was rather glad I was there. I wonder if it even melted Clarkson's heart...

Catching up with... Bernie Simpson from the Llama Farmers

So, one of my favorite singles as a teenager was "Same Song" by the Llama Farmers. It was the sort of track that would often make it on to mix-CDs for girls. To this day, it still affects me to hear it. It's deceptively simple, yet inscrutable at the same time. Despite playing shows with the likes of Foo Fighters and Green Day, the band never quite made the leap into household consciousness. So all these years later I wondered, what happened to the Llama Farmers? Frontman Bernie Simpson was generous enough to give me some of his time to let me know what he's been up to, and was more than happy to discuss that gorgeous little single...

So firstly, how on earth are you, and what have been up to?

I am very well thank you. I've been writing and performing under different guises. Most recently I'm involved with new band, Pronk.

Why did the Llama Farmers split?

We didn't so much split as come to the end of what we were doing. You know when the party's over, right? All the bombay mix was gone and the anonymous vomit was piling up in the tour bus. We still meet up and play together regularly. We reformed under the name Bear Hug years ago and tried writing new stuff together. ALL together, not just me this time. We drifted apart again though. We all had separate commitments.

When you look back on it all, do you feel grateful for the ride, or does seeing the success of people you played shows with like Biffy Clyro and the Foo Fighters etc stir up frustrations?

Wow, I had no idea you wanted to write my obituary! When I look back on it all? Oy, well, remember Llama Farmers played those gigs when we were around 17 – Jen was 14 - so we were incredibly fortunate to play shows with the likes of the Foo Fighters and Green Day. I'm still not really sure how it happened!. It's especially fantastic to see Biffy Clyro doing what they're doing now because they were such lovely people to tour with. Beautiful people. (How could I have any frustrations? Llama Farmers also played on the same bill as Atomic Kitten and Lionel Richie at a Japanese festival once. So...yeah).

I wanted to talk about Same Song. I bought that single after hearing it on a Virgin Megastore listening booth. It's one of my all-time favourite singles, but actually nothing like the rest of your stuff. Did it confuse many people at the time? Were their people turning up to shows that maybe only knew that song and were a bit taken aback?

I think you might be one of the few who bought that single! That song kind of evolved directly from one of my home-demos in the studio. The record label really liked it and said why didn't we put it out as a double A-side with another of our songs 'Movie'. So we did. Beggars Banquet were good like that. As much as we were a tight rock band, we also had a gentler side. We all listened to Wheat, Red House Painters, Flaming Lips, Elliot Smith on the tour-bus. We attempted to play it live a couple of times but it sounded a bit limp so we saved it for acoustic radio shows/solo shows etc – just played 'Movie' instead.

In a way it's a very simple song isn't it, but the production gives it such a dreamy feel, and it's so moving. Did you realise the potential it had when you wrote it or did it come to life when you got into the studio?

Well I suppose the sampling and the drum loop on the record was something we added in the studio which could have been said to bring it to life. Clive Martin our producer was always interested to see how far he could push us. The demo sounds pretty similar except for the drum loops and samples. I still don't really understand the lyrics. I like the down tuned bass and guitar that Jen put on at the end best. Makes it dark and heavy far back in the distance.

You printed your personal email address on the inside of that single too, did you get any really weird emails from fans?

I don't think I even checked my email back then. It was all pre wifi and pre smart phones!. It was just me and my discman in those days unless I was back home from tour.

Have you ever noticed the intro to Pornaco sounds like a drunk band trying to cover 'Message In A Bottle'?

Ha! We were a drunk band trying to cover “Message in a Bottle”.

What do you listen to for pleasure these days?

I'll listen to anything i'm recommended but recently I've been listening to the new Beach House album incessantly. Today I've had some Leadbelly, Kelis, and Savages intermittently.

What's next for you musically?

My latest incarnation Pronk will be supporting wunderkind producer Ethan Johns as he strikes out, undoubtedly to blaze a more commercially successful career than I. I like collaborating with other people/musicians at the moment. Solo stuff is fun, but it can get lonely. Also, bands are like really intense relationships. Starting and breaking them hurts a little bit more every time.

Pronk can be heard at http://pronk.bandcamp.com
"Same Song" by Llama Farmers is available to stream on Spotify

Live Review - Elvis Costello and the Imposters, Southend Cliffs Pavilion (19th June 2013)

So I thought this would be good but...

What a night that was. The fact the gig was literally down my road always adds to my enjoyment, knowing you don't have to travel home a long way home after a late show is obviously a huge bonus, but I'd seen the tour last year, and seen Costello with different projects 2 times before that, so I felt I had pretty realistic expectations of what to expect, but there was some extra magic in the air tonight.

The current tour has a rather novel concept; a large game-show wheel stands prominently to one side of the stage with various song titles on (along with some "jokers" and themed sections), a pretty assistant ventures into the audience, brings a couple of punters up, they spin the wheel, Elvis and the band play the song chosen by the wheel, while the enlisted punters relax at the on-stage bar or dance in the cage on the other side of the stage.

The wheel doesn't dictate the entire set. If certain major hits aren't selected by the wheel, he plays them anyway. Generally, he was asking people what they most wanted to hear on the wheel, and then duly obliging their wish, in addition to the result of the wheel. There are also sections of the set where Elvis plays songs not listed on the wheel at all. The wheel serves to add a human element to the show, and adds a level of unpredictability to the set. In this way, it liberates the set rather than confines it.

The wheel, the audience participation, the unpredictable set, all serve a purpose and provide the makings of a really fun evening, but Elvis' performance takes it to a whole new level. He's almost like a performing encyclopedia of music; veering between genres with equal aplomb and skill. The wheel landed on "She" quite early in the set, and although my heart sank initially, by the end of the song I had to clap. He ingests enough energy into the earlier new-wave stuff to satisfy that type of fan, but it's in the quieter moments that the full scope of his talents becomes apparent. A particularly jaw-dropping moment occurred towards the end of the night, acoustic guitar in hand, playing a couple of ragtime, Americana-tinged tracks from his last studio album "National Ransom", he steps away from the mic and launches into a spurt of "Brother, Can You Spare A Dime"; the authority and nuance in his voice, just reaches out and shakes you to your core.

Seeing and hearing him "wig-out" in some of the more epic moments of the set is particularly satisfying too. Elvis generally keeps his music lean, but extended moments like "I Want You" and "Stella Hurt" bring real scope and rock credentials to the set; another weapon in his arsenal of musical wonders.

You also realise the sheer amount of great songs he's amassed over the years; hearing "Lip Service", "Radio Radio", "Shipbuilding", "...Chelsea", "Alison" (need I go on?), all in the same evening, is just sheer joy. And there's a case for closing every gig everywhere with "Peace, Love, and Understanding" being a legal requirement.

Elvis, in a way, has a similar approach to Springsteen with his live shows; he wants to draw the audience in, he goes for length (Elvis is on for nearly 2 hours 40 minutes), getting through about 31 songs, allowing for big hits, current creative directions, and deep cuts for the hardcore. Where Springsteen opts for pulling signs out of the crowd to add spontaniety to the set, Elvis has opted for a giant wheel which allows for audience interaction. It's just so well-judged.

I left the venue giddy with joy. That was up there with the best gigs I've ever seen. I don't even think I would've minded a longer journey home.       

Live Review - The Who performing "Quadrophenia", London O2 Arena (16th June 2013)

It's hard to put your finger on exactly what was wrong with tonight's show. As with a lot of bands of a certain age, the appeal in going to see them is more in the fact that you CAN go and see them, a tick off of a mental bucket list as it were, rather than an expectation of a band at the top of their game. There are of course exceptions, actually quite a few of them; Springsteen, Neil Young, McCartney all spring to mind, but The Who were sadly not one of them. I guess an instant problem is how diluted the line-up seems, and when you look at the previous three names I mentioned, you immediately see an issue. Although of course, the E Street Band are vital to Springsteen's live reputation, they're a much larger unit, and the rejuvenation of the line-up that has taken place in recent years has been incredibly successful, enhancing the power of the band, rather than bringing the sanitising effect that "session" musicians often bring when added to a legendary band, and this certainly is a problem tonight.

Performing Quadrophenia live over the years has evidently been a problem for the band, who seem keen to go on the record with the fact that they haven't been happy with previous performances of the record. It's with that in mind that they appear to have put this show together to be flawless. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. There's no denying it's a tight well thought-out show; the footage of a post-war Britain in the early part of the show particularly, is quite affecting. The rather large band are tight, and with all the brass and synths on-stage, the album is recreated in great detail. I'm sure the original tour for the album was messy, but you had Keith Moon behind the drum kit, and John Entwistle on bass; they would have been loud, energetic, and slightly chaotic, and isn't that what you really want from a Who show?

It makes me think back to seeing Roger Waters with 'The Wall' a couple of years ago, at the same venue in fact. That show, in theory, faced a lot of the same issues; missing vital members from the original record (Waters being the man-behind-the-concept a la Townsend, in this analogy I guess), loads of session musicians, performing a sprawling double-album with only a few key songs. 'The Wall' however, had spectacle; spectacle to burn, and it really served the show well. I've never seen anything quite like it, and I found the whole thing really moving. Maybe I just don't have the same emotional attachment to the source material (indeed, I find Doctor Jimmy in particular, horribly distasteful), but I came away underwhelmed from this. Sure, it was great to see Pete Townsend windmill; a tick for the bucket-list in my mind then, but I could have left my heart at home.