Hannon often comes across quite uneasy at the beginnings of concerts, taking a few songs to really get into the swing of things, but despite the added pressure of performing solo, he seems completely at ease at London’s rather intimate Tabernacle in Notting Hill. Things begin with a new number from upcoming release Bang Goes the Knighthood; it’s a clever little ditty called The Complete Banker. No prizes for guessing what that one’s about.

By stripping down the songs down to their basic elements, Hannon has the opportunity to show off just how well constructed his compositions are. Songs such as The Frog Princess are hard to imagine without their indulgent orchestrations, but by stripping them down to the basics, he proves just what a smart and skilled writer he is; each song can stand on its own, stripped down, without the big budget arrangements.
If there is a fault with his work often it can be too deliberate. When choosing to write about a certain subject, his choices can be too obvious, and his lyrics too predictable. New single, At The Indie Disco, is very much in this vein. It distinctly lacks the spontaneity of old; certain lines you can guess, and references to popular songs and performers are too carefully chosen to give the songs cult credibility. It’s just too planned and strategically delivered.

Hannon is at his best when he’s being clever. Although this has put people off his music (there’s no denying he’s a smart arse) it’s what’s always separated him from his peers. The other new material fairs better; I Like is based on such as simple idea, it’s hard to believe no one’s come up with it before. Can I Stand Upon One Leg is a funny, music hall-esque ditty, that gives him the chance to show off his party trick – the ability to hold a single high note for a ridiculously long amount of time.

Tonight, Hannon proves himself to be a great entertainer, able to captivate through both his music and his banter. Of course it always helps when you have a select small audience of people who are extremely well disposed towards you. He manages to put in at least one track from every album, making room for a few lesser played singles, Everyone Knows (Except You) and The Pop Singers Fear Of The Pollen Count. He also makes room for Duckworth Lewis favourite Jiggery Pokery and a cover of MGMT’s Time To Pretend. He fluffs up a number of times, but makes a good joke of it, keeping the audience very much on his side, using them as a prompt during one big slip-up.

For hardcore fans like myself who’d seen Hannon perform quite a few times before, this evening provided something refreshingly different. And with him at his most charming, we couldn’t have really asked for much more.

I have long been a fan of Air’s records however until today had not seen them live. In my opinion most electronic bands tend to fail to recreate studio wizardry live which can sound two dimensional especially at an open air concert. However the duo from Versailles put on an impressive show in what is arguably London’s grandest concert setting.
Air arrive wearing the campest white trousers which are so tight they would have made Freddie Mercury blush thankfully as their performance is somewhat static they avoid any embarrassing situations. Jean-Benoît Dunckel the midget of the band performs the entire set playing two or three keyboards at a time looking like a latter day Jean Michelle Jare. Nicolas Bodin provides the rhythmic elements of the set playing bass as well as an array of other instruments. Interestingly enough there are no guest performances with Bodin and Dunckel providing all of the vocals.

Also most of the set is from their excellent latter albums such as “Love 2” and “Pocket Symphony” however they include a smattering of old favourites such as “Kelly Watch the Stars” and their best known song “Sexy Boy”.  However the most impressive track is “Tropical Disease” from their latest album. It’s a lush cinematic 60’s inspired track which could have been lifted from a Luis Buñuel film. Overall the show was surprisingly good and since then I have rediscovered some of their lesser known work.

Written by John Rahim

This is the first time that Al Green and Michael McDonald have performed in the UK and whilst I normally don’t bother photographing the support bands I made an effort to see Michael McDonald who became one of the most distinctive singers to come out of the Californian Scene in the late 70’s. As he was only on for around 45 minutes he didn’t waste any time getting stuck into the classics such as “I keep Forgetting” and “No Looking Back” despite looking like a retired Father Christmas Michael McDonald still has the same fantastic baritone voice which sounds as soulful as he did 30 years ago.

Al Green, probably the finest soul singer of his generation, is showing no signs of slowing down.  At 64 the Reverend Al Green is still going strong with his well honed dance moves and showmanship. His set start off with him handing out bunches of roses a tradition which started in the 70’s. The only problem now is that doing this at the O2 required him to hurl the roses at the various women jumping up and down in the front rows!

As usual many of the crowd came for the classic tracks and they weren’t disappointed, with the likes of ‘Let’s stay together’ and ‘I’m so tired of being alone’ being played with such soul and heart. Despite a back catalogue spanning some 35 years he also played some newer songs. This tends to be the cue for the audience to take a comfort break, have a cigarette or check if the kids are ok. However the band was so blisteringly good that virtually no one left their seats. He ended the set with a medley from The Four Tops, Temptations and Otis Reading which delighted the audience.

One gig though that I went to a couple of months ago which is worthy of a mention is The Gaslight Anthem who sold out the Brixton Academy. Like many others I picked up on the band around a year ago shortly after releasing their album “59 Sound”. Although the references to early Springsteen are all too apparent the album carved a distinctive niche from the other American bands who have gained popularity over the past few years.
The Gaslight Anthem are part of a rich tradition of New Jersey punk bands.  And their new album American Slang is the band’s third album. On their two previous albums, Sink or Swim and The ‘59 Sound, they created their own world populated by low life and tramps who could be characters straight out of The Wire or Sopranos (although neither were shot in New Jersey). Bands from New Jersey have continually been the victims of jokes by their trendier New York rivals however the Gaslight Anthem’s success can be somewhat attributed to their blue collar roots and total lack of pretension.

The gig tonight was pretty lively and even though “American Slang” has just been released most of the audience seemed pretty well acquainted with most of the songs. The biggest cheers of the night came when they performed the hits from “59 Sound” however Brian Fallon the front man and main songwriter has real substance and many of the lesser known songs are just as good. Just like his hometown hero Stringsteen he writes what he knows about and plays the songs with passion.

The band are doing the festival circuit this summer and are playing Reading and Leeds festivals before heading back to the UK in October. For details of their forthcoming gigs check out http://www.myspace.com/thegaslightanthem

The very first time we ever saw of Charlotte was as a 13-year-old, semi-naked, by her shirtless father’s side, purring along to one of his most blatantly provocative pop songs, ’Lemon Incest’. “I don’t think I understood the provocation,” she said recently in a Daily Telegraph interview. “Because I knew my father, of course I sang on it, but I wasn’t shocked by it at all.”

At 15, her father wrote and produced her debut album of Lolita-esque pop, ’Charlotte For Ever’. “I went into the studio for five minutes and it was over. Of course, it was a wonderful experience for me to be directed by him but I had nothing to say.” She focused, instead, on her fledgling acting career, and didn’t return to making music until 2006, with ’5:55’, an album written for her by French duo Air with lyrics by Jarvis Cocker. The subject of music seems rather fraught, tied up with her complicated relationship with her father, who died in 1991, when she was nineteen. “I had a very weird relationship to music when he died – everything became very painful. Its because he’s not here anymore that its so difficult for me, because I have to deal with the loss, and he’s there all the time. I can hear his music, all the lyrics, I hear any word, it’s a reference to a song of his. I think that’s the main reason I chose to sing in English. I needed a little bit of distance.” Said Gainsbourg.

This year, she released an album written and produced by maverick American wizard Beck. The title, IRM refers to the French acronym for a Magnetic Resonance Imaging scanner. Gainsbourg underwent treatment for a brain haemorrhage in 2007, after a skiing accident, and fell in love with the noise inside the scanning machine. “The sound was driving me somewhere, it was some kind of an escape, there was more poetry inside that for me than just the clinical aspect.” She asked Beck to recreate that experience as music. The quite brilliant album, while contemplating matters of life and death, is not a morbid affair. “It wasn’t a pessimistic introspection, it was all ups and downs, and so we used everything. I didn’t try to camouflage my feelings.”

But then, since she is neither musician nor songwriter, the obvious question is whether this is really her album, or Beck’s? “It’s Beck’s,” she says, without hesitation. “I hope I inspired him. But he wrote everything.”

Her concert on the 22nd of June was Gainsbourg’s debut performance in London and when she walked onstage looked visibly nervous as if she was suffering from terrible stage fright. The audience were nothing less than totally attentive observing a hushed silence during her performance. During her concert she performed “Heaven can wait” “Master’s Hands” and “IRM”.

Written by Neil McCormick,

Despite the best efforts of the so-called “drunken bunny”, Green Day actually put in a slow start, kicking off their set with nine lightweight songs from their American Idiot and 21st Century Breakdown albums. With frontman Billie Joe Armstrong’s slightly awkward World Cup references and screams of “Englaaaaaaand” between each and every song, the overall feeling is that Green Day are simply playing for time with the opening 30 minutes of their set.

As soon as the sun sets, however, the show really gets going. An impressive light display flickers into life and the stage bursts with fireworks and flame-throwers so powerful I can feel the heat from at least 300 metres away.

Somewhat surprisingly – and much to the delight of their older fanbase – Armstrong declares “the old songs are better anyway.” It’s true of course, but surprising to hear the frontman of a band which has worked so hard to find a contemporary relevance admit it so publically. The two young girls in front of me, clutching American Idiot posters and “Jesus of Suburbia” T-shirts, look more than a little heartbroken.

And so begins the real Green Day set; song after song of gloriously snotty pop punk from the band’s mid-90s heyday. “Longview”, “Basket Case” and a truly fabulous version of “Welcome to Paradise” are all played at breakneck speed, while a stream of kids are dragged up on stage to sing and have photos taken with their heroes.

By far the most entertaining song is “King for a Day” which sees Green Day dress up in cloaks, crowns and a manner of ludicrous eyewear. The song itself takes over 20 minutes to perform, thanks to mid-song interpretations of Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child o’Mine”, AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”, The Rolling Stones’ “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction” and The Isley Brothers’ “Shout”.

When, midway through the trio of ballads that bring proceedings to a close, Armstrong suggests that Green Day will never break up, adding “The only way I’m leaving this band is in a wooden box”, it’s hard not to believe him.

Although the sentiments are sugar coated and always, always timed to elicit the maximum emotional response from their fans, it’s obvious to all in attendance that Green Day and their fans are clearly still having the time of their lives.

Written by John Hall

Their second album “Black Sunday” was a huge success in the States where it had debuted at number 1 in the charts, a first for a rap act. Their success in the UK too was phenomenal and for a time it looked like they were going to change the face of black urban music.
So some 15 years later I found myself at the Brixton Academy photographing their show for a news agency. Age has not treated them well and the smoke and psychedelic backdrops did not hide the fact that I was watching two middle-aged men in their 50’s rapping about the gospel of the ganja. Lyrically the band were quite witty and focused less on guns and  sex than most of their contemporaries. In fact had Gilbert Shelton created a band in the early 70’s rather than the “Fabulous Freak Brothers” comic strip he’d probably would have created Cypress Hill with their familiar traits of disorganisation, total apathy to politics, and lack of social responsibility.

Their set started off with “Get Em Up” and by the time the band started their third number “When the Shit Goes Down”, the venue erupted. Despite a patchy performance the audience didn’t seem to mind one bit even though they played more later material rather than their earlier work which defined an era.

Written by John Rahim

Since co-founding The Runaways, the pioneering all-girl punk quintet, at age 15, Jett’s determination and drive have kept her in the public eye. This year, however, her profile skyrocketed again, with the release of a feature film telling the story of The Runaways and a new, two-disc Greatest Hits collection (out now). The Runaways movie is based on lead singer Cherie Currie’s book Neon Angel. Kristen Stewart, star of the Twilight series films, plays Jett, and Dakota Fanning portrays Currie. The movie chronicles the band’s early years; formed by teenage girls living near Hollywood, The Runaways became the first all-girl band to break into the world of arena-filling hard rock acts.

The 100 Club has promoted live music on the same premises since 1942. The venue has gone on to become one of the most historical concert venues in Europe. The venue’s heritage is legendary and has seen performances from acts as diverse as The Sex Pistols, Muddy Waters, The Rolling Stones and The White Stripes. In 1976, the 100 Club was host to the first-ever Punk festival. Seen for the first time in London, on the 100 Club stage were the Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned, Siouxsie and The Banshees and The Buzzcocks.

Written by Jeremy Singer

So some 26 years later I find myself photographing Slayer at the front of the Forum in the photo pit staring up at 30 Marshall Stacks. Despite having earplugs something tells me that this is going to be another of those gigs!
The first band up was “The Haunted” who got an excellent reaction from the hoards of tattooed shaved headed 50 something audience. Despite only catching a couple of numbers the band seemed to be pretty much control of a very rowdy audience most of who were gagging for a bit of stage diving.

Tonight’s show almost never happened due to emergency back surgery on Tom Araya the band’s vocalist/bassist. The tickets for the three nights at the Forum had been sold out almost a year ago so there was a real sense of occasion in the audience.
The set include a lot of new numbers as well as some rock classics from Slayer’s immense back catalogue. I can’t say that thrash metal is really my thing however they put on a hell of a show and showed that they could connect with a younger audience as well as the oldies in the mosh pit who you certainly would not want to mess with! Slayer live is certainly not for the faint hearted!

Written by John Rahim