Previews by Mike Davies
Sunday June 28
Anastacia
The
past few years have been a bit of a rollercoaster, taking in
breast cancer, marriage and an admission that she’s a little
older than the publicity machine used to claim, but the
diminutive songstress is nothing if not a survivor, embracing
the good times while taking the bad ones on the chin.
She’s far bigger over here than back
home in America, indeed her last, self-titled, album didn’t even
get a US release despite shifting some 10 million copies,
though, worryingly, her current album, Heavy Rotation (Mercury),
a return to R&B after exploring a rockier sound, has been her
least successful in the UK charts and neither I Can Feel You for
the piano ballad Defeated have dented the singles Top 40.
The voice, though, remains a force
with which to be reckoned and the live shows still pack a hell
of a punch in terms of both presentation and performance. With
the crowds out in force, it’s a chance to persuade them that the
likes of the catchy Chaka Khan styled Absolutely Positive, the
driving disco groove title track, the Tina Turner tinges of The
Way I See It and All Fall Down and slinky Winehouse libation
Same Song are as worth their attention as Sick And Tired And
Left Outside Alone. 7.30pm. £36/£32.
NIA
Tuesday June 30
Silversun Pickups
Brian
Aubert’s love affair with his Smashing Pumpkins collection
continues with Swoon (Sire), an album of equal highs and lows
that sticks to the band’s 90s alt rock guns, keeps some of their
shoegazing sensibilities and applies an accessible pop coating
to the catchier tunes.
Six minutes of a rather directionless
distortion psychedelics of Panic Switch tests the patience
somewhat while even a sixteen piece orchestra can’t stop
Draining sounding like a formless meandering doodle. However
such blips are more than compensated for when it comes to the
perky chugging Substitution, the flurry of burring guitar
driving along The Royal We, There's No Secrets This Year’s
urgent circling riffery and tumbling melody, the spacy
atmospherics floating through Growing Old Is Getting Old or
(evoking Nirvana rather than the Pumpkins) the moody stand out
that is Catch and Release. Not the album to elevate them to
arena level, perhaps, but certainly one to boost their following
and reputation considerably.
Support is London quartet
Animal Kingdom, another outfit
with a fondness for the Pumpkins but who filter that through
such other influences as Mercury Rev, early Radiohead and the
less bombastic aspects of the Flaming Lips. A debut album’s due
in September with tasters of such numbers as Into the Sea and
Good Morning Mr Magpie likely to feature in the set alongside
dreamily melancholic single Tin Man (Warner) with its insistent
buzzing reverb guitar chimes and Richard Sauberlich’s floating
falsetto. 7.30pm. £9. O2 Academy 2
Wednesday July 1
Malcolm Middleton
Last
heard trying to persuade Christmas punters to celebrate the
festivities with his single We’re All Going To Die, the
Glaswegian singer-songwriter and former Arab Strap man returns
to the fray with his fifth solo album, Waning Gibbous (Full Time
Hobby). He says it’ll be his last for a while, so all the more
reason to make the most of its ricketty charms, kicking off with
the single, the acoustic rollicking along Red Travellin' Socks
and, by way of a swift shift of mood, the ramshackle train
rhythm nu folksy chugger Kiss At The Station.
Tinged with personal observations and
recollections, it carries the familiar air of Middleton
melancholy but, as the musically mournful Stop Doing Be Good and
the wistfully slow Carry Me can testify, not without upbeat
threads.
The electro splashes of Don’t Want To
Sleep Tonight, Box & Knife (which images King Creasote in bed
with early Human League) and Zero (which even has a dash of rap)
I might raise a few eyebrows among the faithful, but they remain
nigglingly catchy and if the title of the album’s best track,
the Cohenesque Ballad of F*** All rather scuppers its airplay
potential, live singalongs should be positively encouraged.
7.30pm. £10. Glee Club
Wednesday July 1
Michael Weston King
Last time King and his musical and
domestic partner Lou Dalgleish
were here, they dropped in a couple of tasters from their new
joint project, My Darling Clementine, an album of self-penned
classic country duets in the cheating and heartbreak tradition
of George Jones and Tammy Wynette or Dolly Parton and Porter
Wagoner. The good news is that for this visit there’ll be a lot
more.
The show will be in two very different
sets. The first half will be King’s regular solo with Alan Cook
on pedal steel and doubtless highlighting some of the material
to be found on the new live album Crawling Through The USA,
among them Decent Man, new number The Dancing Around and a
coal-dust throat cover of Townes Van Zandt's Marie. Then, Mike
and Lou joined by Cook, pianist Gladstone Wilson and a
percussionist, the second half will be a one off Birmingham-only
acoustic showcase for My Darling Clementine that will include
pretty much the entire album alongside a couple of covers.
Last time, Dalgleish held the place
spellbound with jealous woman number The Other Half (a track
that could have come straight from the Patsy Cline songbook), so
look forward to a repeat of that alongside such nuggets as the
honky tonking Nothing Left to Say, pedal steel and fiddle
keening Departure Lounge, twangy delight 100,000 Words (a song
that more than warrants a Mavericks reunion), the fiery
bluegrassed You’ve Found Your Man, Put Your Hair Back (another
tremendous Dalgleish vocal showcase) and a bluesy organ backed
soulful rework of King’s She Is Still My Weakness that Penn and
Oldham would have killed to have written.
As of yet the album still hasn’t a
label, distributor or release date, but that doesn’t stop it
already being one of the best country albums of this - or any
other - year. 8pm. £8. Kitchen Garden
Cafe, Kings Heath
Wednesday July 1
That Petrol Emotion
Formed
by John O’Neill, brother Damien and Raymond Gorman after the
demise of The Undertones, swiftly recruiting Steve Mack on
vocals, they made their album debut in 1983 with the critically
acclaimed Manic Pop Thrill offering a harder edge to their
guitar driven pop foundations. Following on with Babble and,
after John’s departure, the more melodic indie of Chemicrazy and
Fireproof with even incursions into dance territory with End Of
the Millennium Psychosis Blues, , they never really matched
commercial success with critical approval or their fierce live
following, finally calling it a day in 1994.
However, now recognised as an
influence on the Britpop movement, they reunited last year and
have been consolidating their return ever since. There’s no
indication as to whether new material’s in the offing, but if
they’re still even half as potent live then a set list that
includes old favourites such as the swaggery Last Of the True
Believers, Big Decision, Cellophane, Catch A Fire, Genius Moves
and Hey Venus has to be worth it for old fans and the newly
curious alike. 7.30pm. £12.50. O2
Academy 2
Thursday July 2
Elliot Minor
Extensive live work and decent reviews
saw the classically trained quintet’s eponymous debut album
safely into the Top 10, so now comes the difficult job of
building on the foundation built by the big drama of Last
Call To New York City’s Queen, Time After Time’s orchestral
bombast and Still Figuring Out’s hybrid of Green Day and ELO.
They’ll be showcasing material for the upcoming sophomore album
that’s due to include Discover, Blinding Light and live
favourite Jacky Jules. It’s trailed by the first single, Solaris
(Repossession), a slightly Celtic tinged fist of anthemic mid
tempo balladeering that, wisely, pulls back from the overblown
production that dogged some of the first album and could well
prove their biggest chart success to date.
7.30pm. £11. O2 Academy 2
Saturday July 4
Godiva Festival
Coventry’s annual free fest keeps
coming up with the goods. This year, they’ve scored
Idlewild as the headliners on
a Saturday bill that includes local punky heroes
Pint Shot Riot,
80s Matchbox B-Line Disaster,
rising stars Exit Calm and,
offering an early outing for next month’s new album, Birmingham
chart botherers The Twang. All
that and the first sighting of the newly reformed
Toploader who’ve been busy
relearning the words to Dancing In The Moonlight and Achilles
Heel. Noon. Free. Godiva Park,
Coventry
Sunday July 5
James Taylor
After his last tour recycling the hits
and album favourites, those lured away from their bedtime
beverages can doubtless look forward to a set that mixes in the
inevitable chestnuts such as You’ve Got A Friend and Fire & Rain
with cuts from his current Covers (Universal) album. Soul fans
already horrified by his lifeless version of Knock On Wood won’t
be encouraged by the fact that he’s also draining the life out
of Road Runner while his anaemic take on Summertime Blues will
have rock n roll fans gnawing at their blue suede shoes.
On the upside, the jazzy rework of
Hound Dog isn’t bad and he does a respectable job with Wichita
Lineman, Cohen’s Suzanne (which sees him in Carolina On My Mind
form), Tom Waits’ Shiver My Timbers and a Western Swing version
of Why Baby Why. It’s fair to say, however, that the Rodgers &
Hammerstein songbook isn’t exactly the richer the addition for
Taylor’s reading of Oh, What A Beautiful Morning. Not exactly
likely to be prancing around the stage, this is tasteful but
tedious and likely to be swallowed wholesale amid the
overpowering surroundings. 7.30pm.
£45. NIA
Sunday July 5
Poppy and the Jezebels
Having
wowed them at the Isle of Wight festival last month, it must be
getting frustrating that the album still isn’t ready for
release. However, the momentum keeps building in the wake of the
recent spiky pop single Rhubarb & Custard (Mute Irregulars)
with its cocktail of glam and 60s girl group while sneak tasters
keep surfacing on their MySpace site, the latest being Mr Magpie
Recommends which keeps the glam with a Glitter Band beat and
tops it with a jazzy-blues slow piano boogie line. Latest
developments should make their presence felt tonight, and the
anticipation continues to swell.
The actual headliner for the night is
Gina Birch, erstwhile founder
member of 80s all-female post punk outfit The Raincoats and
currently to be found directing music vids for the likes of Beth
Orton and The Veils. The Raincoats still gig intermittently
while Birch also maintains a sporadic solo career, the music
these days inclined to the experimental and angular noises of
I’m Glad I’m Me Today, the bleepy psychedelia of We Had A Really
Smashing Time or the bluesier tones of Sorry.
Also along, over from Brooklyn and
equally prone to shards of discord, are
Christy & Emily who’ll be
further spreading word about debut album, Gueen’s Head (The
Social Registry) with its meld of Velvets, avant garde and 60s
folk influences. Switching fluidly from the guitar riff reverb
of Thunder & Lightning to the dreamily folky Ocean, tropical
hula swaying Island Song or the backwoods country folk of Birds,
they’ll also likely be showcasing material from the two albums
currently awaiting release, Superstition and, letting loose
their prog rock and krautrock inclinations, No Rest produced by
Joachim Irlmler of Faust. Arrive early, you won’t want to miss
them. 7.30pm. £7. Hare & Hounds,
Kings Heath
Tuesday July 7/Wednesday July 8
Eagles
Twenty
eight years on from their last studio album and six years in the
making, it’s taken another twelve months for the band to haul
themselves over here to promote their own label double CD Long
Road Out Of Eden. The wait should turn out to be worth it if
they have the sense to punctuate the inevitable fan favourites
and greatest hits that will doubtless dominate the set with at
least a clutch of the best of the new material.
Given that adds up to 21 songs, the
selection process isn’t going to be easy, but several cuts here
demand a place in the final. Prime choices would have to include
the lengthy title track which, echoing Hotel California in mood,
addresses how oil guides US foreign policy, the close harmonies
of the reflective near acapella No More Walks In The Woods,
classic swaggery pop finger wagging put down Busy Being
Fabulous, the TexMex waltzing It’s Your World Now, How Long, a
JD Souther country rocker that’s been in and out of the live set
since the 70s, and Hole In The World, a power ballad on which
they sound bizarrely just like Take That.
Having worked out their differences (
or at least learned to live with them for the sake of the bank
balances), even if they are still prone to some over indulgence
and the album could have done with judicious pruning, it’s good
to have them back. Mind you, it does seems a tad
hypocritical to be singing songs like
Business As Usual and Frail Grasp Of The Big Picture, attacking
corporate greed and consumerism while charging up to a ton for a
ticket. 7.30pm. £100-£50. NIA
Thursday July 9
The Victorian English Gentlemens
Club
Their self-titled debut album saw the
art school trio parading their B52s, Talking Heads, Gang of Four
and Devo influences on songs like the marvellous Under The
Yews, My Son Spells Backwards and Ban The Gin. Two years on
they’re back trailing the September release of the follow up,
Love On An Oil Rig (This Is Fake DIY) with new single, Parrot.
Judging by its angular funk shapes, throbbing basslines, spine
jerking rhythms and twitchy vocals not a lot’s changed in the
interim. 8pm. £5. Flapper & Firkin
Sunday July 12
Suzanne Vega
Make a note now, this is Vega’s only
UK date announced for this year, a one-off 10th Anniversary
benefit gig for Casa Alianza, an organisation that works with
Latin American street children, helping provide them with a
better future. As such, expect the set list to lean heavily on
the songs fans will be forking out to hear, among them the hits
Tom’s Diner, Luka, Left of Centre, and Marlene on the Wall
alongside a selection of album favourites, hopefully to include
Zephyr & I, Frank & Ava and Angel's Doorway from 2007’s deeply
personal ‘comeback’ Beauty & Crime.
She’ll be performing with guitarist,
songwriter and producer Gerry Leonard while opening act will be
criminally underrated Stourbridge troubadour
Eddy Morton who, aside from
having a warm burr of a voice, a bagful of brilliant Americana
infused storytelling songs like King Of My Own Country and Queen
Of Stourbridge Town, also happens to co-manage Katy
Fitzgerald’s, the Stourbridge music venue that’s actually
responsible for arranging and presenting the show.
7.30pm. £27.50. B’ham Town Hall
