Great gig from Counting Crowes who are one of my favourite bands from the mid 1990’s. That said their latest album, “Saturday Night’s and Sunday Morning’s” was one of my favorite abums of last year. I would love to say more about this gig however I was ejected out of the venue after the thrird number by the charming security guards at Wembley Arena.
I hope to see them again at the O2 next month.
Written by John Rahim
I was asked to take some promo shots of Steve Conte, the guitarist of the New York Dolls who was in London doing a show with the band at the 100 Club and promoting their new CD “Cause I sez so” the album was produced by the legendaryTodd Rungren who produced their debut album in 1973, although a few line changes have occured since then.!
I found Steve throughly charming and friendly the result of which was a great photoshoot which was approved by him, lis label and management! Happy Days!
Written by John Rahhim
I remember seeing this gig being advertised in the NME back in January. At the time the band had just released their debut album which had entered the charts at No.1, pretty impressive from a new band whose previous incarnation, Fear of Flying, had failed to make any impression whatsoever! Over the past few months I have spent a lot of time listening to their excellent debut album in my iPod on the way to and from work and has become a favourite of mine. White lies are an excellent band who write brilliantly crafted songs, “Death” and “To lose my Life” are as good as anything that “The Sisters of Mercy” every produced however the gig at Heaven was going to change my opinion of the band.
Considering the excitement that these that relative small gigs had produced I thought the show was relatively unexciting and would have expected more dynamism and showmanship from the band . The first time saw the band was in February in 2008 before they had been signed and in many respects their earlier performances were more interesting. That said I am due to see the band at a umber of festivals during the summer so the jury is still out.
Written by John Rahim
It’s been a while since I have seen Razorlight perform live. Rather oddly every time over the past few years when they have played in London I 
have either been out of the county or covering another gig. I first saw Razorlight back in 2004 when I was working with Carling on their music sponsorship programme, “Carling Live”. The band were playing at the tiny Barfly venue opposite the Roundhouse to 200 or so gig goers. A year later I saw them headlining the NME Stage at the Reading Festival whilst The Darkness were headlining the main stage (how the mighty have fallen).
The show tonight at the O2 was pretty good, in my opinion the band are somewhat on the wane after the release of a very average third album however the thousand’s of adoring fans were lapping it all up. Love him or hate him Johnny Borrel certainly is an enigmatic, and energetic front man and put on a decent show.
I doubt that I will be rushing back to photograph Razorlight in the near future however they put on a memorable gig.
Written by John Rahim
Those familiar with my blog will know that I am not a great fan of that most odious of musical genre’s, melodic piano rock. Having watched Keane 
more times than I care to mention I was not particularly keen to cover The Fray gig at the Roundhouse. I was pleasantly surprised and whilst the performance was strictly MOR the quality of their songwriting is undeniably good and extremely catchy, their hit single “How to Save a life” was nominated for a Grammy and is still played constantly on commercial radio stations across the world.
The singer Isaac Slade may not have the greatest stage presence however I was more than happy to listen to half a dozen songs before sloping off to the bar.
Not the most memorable nights of my life however certainly not the worst gig that I covered.
Written by John Rahim