LIVE music photography

Over the past few months I have been pretty lucky and have mainly photographed acts who I have genuinely enjoyed. OK Velvet Revolver will never be my cup of tea however bearing in mind that they have lost their lead singer since I saw them last I can’t say that I am sad for making the effort. Who knows maybe those Scott Weiland photos may be worth something when he finally tops himself. The Music gig however was one of those appalling shows best forgotten.

I have to start by saying that I have never really understood the appeal of The Music. Despite their name they are fairly unmusical, and their brand of psychedelic macho thug rock is firmly in the camp of that other unbelievably overrated band Kasabian.  The Music totally lack charm, charisma, wit, or in-fact any kind of intellect whatsoever which is quite suprising for a band who have had two top 10 albums over the past few years. The new album “Strength in Numbers” is their first on their new label (Polydor) and has been produced by two excellet producers, Flood, who produced Depeche Mode, Killers, U2 and Paul Hartnol of Orbital fame. I’d imagine that these two would have come up with something prettty good however there was no evidence of it tonight. Maybe the album will be better than their gig tonight however I’d not hold your breath. If however you are a glutton for punishment the band are playing 20 shows between now and July. Details of their shows can be found at their website http://www.themusic.co.uk/

written by John Rahim

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

It’s hard to believe that Edwyn Collins first broke onto the music scene over 30 years ago and was one of the first artists to set up a record label North of the border. Years before Creation or Jeepster Edwyn and his partner Alan Horne set up Postcard Records which spanned bands such as his own “Orange Juice”, “Joseph K”, “Go Betweens” and Roddy Frame’s “Aztec Camera”.  Although Postcard was short-lived is was highly influential and was regarded as pioneering by many established Glasgow bands including “Franz Ferdinand” , “Belle & Sebastian” and the excellent and hugely underrated “Lloyd Cole & The Commotions”.

Some 10 years after his first major hit, “Rip it up”, Edwyn had a monster smash with “A girl like you”, incredibly this record was released 13 years ago and in the meantime Edwyn has released some fine records however this has been overshadowed by the terrible brain haemorrhages which he suffered three years ago. This hospitalised him for over six months and it took him years to perform again. Despite walking on stage with a walking stick and having to sit down while performing Edwyn had lost none of his style or wit. Dressed in a dapper tailor made suit the first couple of numbers were excellent and his voice was as strong as ever.

His last album “Home Again” which was released last year on Heavenly Records was recorded before his illness however mixed and post produced in the middle of last year. The album is a classic and shows that Edwyn has many more years ahead of him as an artist and performer.

Written by John Rahim

I first saw Justin Nozuka last year supporting Crowded House at the iTunes festival. I was really taken by him and was surprised to see that within a year he was playing The Roundhouse which is a huge 3,000 capacity plus venue. What I did’nt know was that the lower part of the Roundhouse is made up of a number of small spaces where up an coming musicians and artists can perform intimate shows to small audiences. The Roundhouse is one of my favourite venues and is becoming the Barbican of the North (London that is).

Justin who is half American/Japanese was born in New York however grew up in Canada. Musically the obvious comparisons would be Jack Johnson, Ray LaMontagne and Damien Rice however live he is much less polished and has a rawness that some of his contemporaries lack. His album has had critical acclaim in Canada however has fared less well in the UK despite having some favourable reviews in the broadsheets and the more serious music press. Although I had problems finding a physical copy of his debut “Holly” iTunes are selling it for a very reasonable £5.49 and is well worth picking up.

Justin is one of those artists who really deserves to be getting more recognition and I hope that he gets picked up by Jools Holland as I feel confident that he could sell to a much broader audience if he had the exposure. It’s a shame that there are not more avenues to break artists such as  Justin in the UK. The Jools Holland Show is great and has been responsible for breaking some very leftfield acts such as Seasick Steve however until mainstream radio stations start supporting new acoustic acts I fear that they will continue to struggle.

Written by John Rahim

So after months of speculation it would appear that London’s grubbiest West End venue has been given a reprieve from the developers of the new cross rail train link. I have a love hate feelings towards the Astoira. It is truly grotesque, the men’s toilets in the aptly named Keith Moon bar makes Ewen McGregor’s experience in trainspotting look like a 5* suite in the Mandarin Oriental. Also why should you be banned from taking plastic cups into the urinals? What next a beer themometoer checker? That said it is the only decent venue  over 2,000 people in the West End and has a decent sized photographers pit (a very important point).

So to Supergrass, the band have just released their 6th studio album, “Diamond Hoo Ha” which has had some fairly good reviews. The band performed a number of tracks from the new album as well the big hits from their early years.  Supergrass are one of those bands who enjoyed a considerable amount of success very early in their career. Their debut album “Should I coco” which came out in the mid 90’s spanned their most memorable singles, “Caught by the fuzz”, ” Lenny” and their huge hit “Alright”. Bands seldom recover from novelty hits, just look at The Boo Radley’s or The Shamen however Supergrass’s strong songwriting ability coupled with a very strong fan-base ensured that no long term harm was done.

So now that they are now in their late 30’s it was good to see that they had not lost any of their passion and ability to put on an energetic live performance. Whilst I would not recommend that you rush out and buy their new album I would endorse their live performance which was as solid as ever. I have not seen all the festival listings for this summer however hopefully they will be appearing at more than just the Wakefield Festival in Blenheim Palace. The only question I have is are they appearing before or after the puppet show?

OK that’s probably the worst pun that I can think of however after watching Portishead and Elbow in the same week at the Brixton Academy I think I need some  light hearted nonsense!

The last time I saw The Hives was at the Reading Festival in 2004 although they are pretty good in a festival environment their unique bonkers style works perfectly in a more intimate environment. The Hives are one of those interesting bands who despite having never been regarded as cool still have the ability to sell out tours and CD’s by the truckload. Their new album “The White and Black album” was produced by Neptunes and N*E*R*D front-man Pharrell Williams this is their 5th album in 10 years and despite being a departure from previous albums is still as immediate as their 2004 release “Tyrannosaurus Hives”.

OK it’s not as cutting edge as some of the new acts out there (Blood Red Shoes, MGMT, Foals) however it’s a perfect holiday, gym cd and I don’t mean this in a critical way.

Written by John Rahim

 This has been a bit of an odd week for gigs. First The Breeders now for the cheery Bristolians Portishead who are almost prolific as The Stone Roses. They are just about to release their third album a mere 14 years after their Mercury Music winning debut   album “Dummy”. Admittedly “Dummy” was a groundbreaking album which kick started the commercialisation of the trip hop movement however I wonder what they have been doing for so long?

Well whatever they have been doing is can’t have been  much fun as Beth Gibbons and her jovial pals looked rather pissed off.  Even though Beth is from Devon I’ve always regarded her as a fellow Scot. She looks Scottish, doesn’t say much and looks like she’s just walked out of an Irvine Welsh novel, hell she could even be related to Bobbie Gillespie?

The gig was pretty good and whist they were not the most dynamic band that I had seen live had a great Warholesque projected back drop which was the perfect visual accompaniment to their music.

Written by John Rahim

Tom McRae is a highly talentedsinger songwriter  in the same vein as Damien Rice, Jack Johnson. Tom has been writing and producing music since 2000 and his debut album which came out in the same year was nominated for a Q Award, Brit and The Mercury Music Prize. In addition to his solo work Tom has also written music for many of America’s biggest TV shows including CSI, Buffy, 6 Feet Under and others.

 Tom who is originally from East Anglia has recently moved from LA to London and is in the process of embarking on a nationwide tour starting on the 20th of April in Nottingham. The tour which is sponsored by Gibson Guitars is promoting his new album, “The King of Cards”, which came out late last year on V2/Universal Music. The album is excellent and I highly recommending checking him out live. He will be playing in London on the 30th of April at King’s College. For the full listing of his tour visit http://www.myspace.com/tommcrae

Written by John Rahim

I first came across The Breeders in Scotland in the very early 90’s. I had just started at Sony and was up in Edinburgh to meet Teenage Fanclub. The meeting never happened (even though I admitted that it did) and the band ended up signing to Creation. I think the band had just recorded their debut album “Pod” in Edinburgh with Steve Albini who at the time had just worked with “The Pixies” on their “Surfer Rosa” album. The gig that I saw was at The Assembly rooms and I remembered wondering at the time why all the majors were trying to sign bands who inevitably would want to sign to Beggars, Mute, Creation, Rough Trade…..I remember at the time thinking that the indies should stick to what they were good at and the majors should ensure that there was sufficient in the coffers to pay for our lunches at The Ivy and Quaglinos.

A few years later whilst watching The Breeders at the Reading Festival I realised that I have made a bit of mistake, their last album “The Last Splash” had sold around three million copies and “Cannonball” had become the most played video on MTV. Oh well I doubt that they would have wanted to have signed to Sony, even though they were looking for a distribution deal in the US and Europe.

So watching The Breeders tonight was a bit strange, I expected them to be brilliant however the gig plodded along with a couple of obvious highlights however overall the best way to describe the show would be half arsed. The new album is dull and it would seem that The Breeders are resting on their laurels, that said playing a couple of nights at Koko is no big deal when in the past they have sold out Alexander Palace. The new album has a couple of decent tracks however I would not recommending rushing out to buy it.

Written by John Rahim