LIVE music photography

I first saw Lightspeed Champion back in February at the Carling Academy in Oxford. At the time the band had been together for less than six months and it was apparent that Dev was finding his feet with his new band mates and they were still working out what worked (and did’nt) cut it live. Dev Hynes has always been a bit of an enigma. He has produced some of the most diverse and interesting music over the past few years, however for some reason he always appears to be full of self doubt and is genuinely surprised when his music is positively received.  The fact that he starts each gig wandering on stage with an instamatic camera to photograph the audience is extremely sweet however rather odd. What does he expect? An empty auditorium? Not likely.

Whilst the show in Oxford was a nervy experience the gig last night at Koko was a lot more confident. The new material sounded a lot rockier than most of the tracks from his debut album, “Falling off the lavender bridge” which is a bluesy cross between Gram Parsons and Belle and Sebastian. Some of the tracks off the album have also been reworked and there seems to be a greater emphasis on Dev’s guitar work. In fact I have to say that it’s highly amusing watching Dev playing his impromptu guitar solos as if he’s been on loan with The Black Crowes. Watching him grapple in such a pseudo macho manner is not really befitting of the sensitive gent who is more Quintin Crisp than Keith Richards.

I have to say that I enjoy watching Dev live and think that his album is one of great masterpieces of 2008.  Forget the Courteeners, Foals and Black Kids, “Falling off the lavender bridge” is one debut that I believe will stand the test of time.

Written by John Rahim

I’ve always been slightly suspicious of The Kooks. Named after my favourite David Bowie song I always half expected them to be a lot more psychedelic rather than bubble gum indie pop. However the Brighton quintet have written some of the most instantly recognisable songs of the last few years and have sold CD’s by the truckload. Their debut album “In/Inside Out” was a huge success and went triple platinum in the UK alone. Their second album “Konk” which was released a couple of weeks ago also went straight to No.1 and looks like it will be equally as popular. The band are currently on a 45 date tour over 4 months and have sold out many of the shows including many of their US shows which is a very positive indication of their growing international appeal.

I picked up a copy of “Konk” a couple of weeks ago and was impressed in their progression of songwriting skills, it would appear that the the difficult second album posed no problems, and if the press is to be believed they had an impressive 80 songs to choose from. I have seen the band live on a  couple of occasions and have always enjoyed their shows. Tonight’s gig was the first of two sold out nights at The Brixton Academy and Luke Pritchard had the confident swagger of success. The band opened with their latest single “Always where I need to be” which is a great singalong track which was followed by “She moves in her own way” the track which Pritchard wrote about his singer songwriter girlfriend Katie Melua. Overall it was an enjoyable gig and I would recommend checking them out over the summer.

Written by John Rahim