Music & Gigs - What's On

THIS week’s video comes from the Blockheads, with their song Hit Me With Your Rhythm Stick, which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year after topping the charts in 1979. The band — now fronted by Derek Hussey, following Ian Dury’s death in 2000 — have two Geordie members . . . guitarist John Turnbull and Micky Gallagher, who still plays with The Animals. They return to their roots in April, when the Blockheads play the Sage, Gateshead. See the video at www.sundaysun.co.uk/mixvid

American dreaming for soul star

CROONER James Morrison soared to success in the UK, selling more than two million records and bagging himself a Brit. LIZ LAMB chatted to the soulful star ahead of a Tyneside gig.Read

NAT KING COLE — RE: GENERATIONS (Capitol): The concept of Nat King Cole remixed and re-jigged by today’s hip-hop superstars doesn’t sound like a winner. Thankfully, it sounds a lot better than expected. Re:Generations is a tribute to these classic songs, rather than an attempt to radically overhaul them. It’s very much a family affair, with Nat’s daughter Carole Cole onboard as executive producer, while granddaughter Natalie joins will.i.am for a sassy reworking of Straighten Up And Fly Right. Other highlights include a stomping, Souldiggaz-produced version of Hit That Jive, Jack featuring Izza Kizza, and Calypso Blues. For my money, the standout tune is Pick-Up, where Nat’s smooth chat-up lines come in for some serious ridiculing, courtesy of Mela Machinko.

IAN GILLAN — ONE EYE TO MOROCCO (Ear Music): Why is it that, when musicians go for an Eastern-tinged “vibe” on one of their songs, it nearly always comes across as incidental music from Arabian Nights? So it is with the opening tune — and title track — on this solo album from the Deep Purple front-man. Thankfully, he lets the raga drop after this first song, and things become a lot more straightforward. Better Days is the track that shows off Gillan’s voice to best effect, as he swings between a Leonard Cohen growl on the verses and a Robert Plant howl on the choruses. Rather less appealing is the heavily synthesized Deal With It, which could have come straight from the soundtrack of Back to the Future.Read

Return of The Doves

THE Doves are back. LIZ LAMB chats to guitarist Jez Williams ahead of a gig in Newcastle . . .Read

TREAT FOR THE CROWD

The JD Set presents Howling Bells, Future of the Left and The Joy Formidable at The Cluny.Read

Live and Unsigned 2009

THE search for the national best Live and Unsigned act came to the region last weekend in a bid to find music artists with the ability and talent to win a sought-after recording contact.Read

MONGREL — BETTER THAN HEAVY (Wall of Sound): Featuring a former Arctic Monkey and current members of Babyshambles and Reverend and the Makers, Mongrel’s Better Than Heavy pulls from a wide variety of influences, with dub reggae and rap very much to the fore. A key reference point is Gary Clail and On-U Sound System from the mid-1980s and, appropriately, On-U’s Adrian Sherwood mixed and dubbed the album. Guest rappers abound on Better Than Heavy, most notably Skinnyman and Purple, while 16 rappers feature on the astonishing Alphabet Assassins. Mongrel’s sound is a long way away from the frantic guitars of the ‘Shambles or the Monkeys but, hopefully, fans of those bands will give Better Than Heavy the warm welcome it deserves.

THE CLASH — LIVE AT SHEA STADIUM (Sony/BMG): In 1982, The Clash were on the verge of breaking big in America . . . and also on the verge of falling apart forever. By the time this live album was recorded — supporting The Who on a stadium tour — drummer Topper Headon had been booted out and replaced with the band’s original drummer, Terry Chimes. Chimes is a solid player, a hard-hitter, but Topper Headon could play jazz, funk and soul drum patterns and the band often sound leaden without his contribution. That said, Live at Shea Stadium is a welcome reminder of just how good a frontman Joe Strummer was. Standout tracks include a frantic take on London Calling and a sprawling version of Armagideon Time that suddenly flips into The Magnificent Seven.Read

Laura O’Shea forms womens’ DJ/VJ collective

BY day she makes radio adverts for a production company but at night she moonlights as an underground techno DJ.Read

STARSAILOR — ALL THE PLANS (Virgin): After Coldplay’s initial success a few years ago, record companies were falling over each other trying to sign up similar-sounding bands. One such band were Starsailor and, when 2001’s Love is Here album reached number two in the UK charts, it looked like they had a promising future. Sadly, the wheels have come off their wagon since then, with 2005’s On the Outside failing to reach the top 10. All the Plans starts strongly with Tell Me It’s Not Over, which boasts a memorable piano riff and a pounding disco beat that kicks in on the choruses. After that, though, it gets a bit samey and seems short on ideas. The beginning of the title track is a dead ringer for Oasis’s Don’t Look Back in Anger, while Stars and Stripes has echoes of Bowie’s The Man Who Sold the World.

THE DIPSOMANIACS — GAMBRINUS (Mad Butcher Records): With a moniker like theirs and an album named after the patron saint of beer-brewing, you’d be forgiven for assuming that Sunderland’s Dipsomaniacs were some sort of comedy-punk troupe, in the vein of those much-unloved, sexist beer-monsters, the Macc Lads. First impressions can be very wrong, though, because the Dipsos owe far more to classic punk outfits like Stiff Little Fingers and the Clash, and their lyrical targets are altogether more serious than facile anthems about the joys of booze. Standout tracks include the celebratory Northern Heart and their travelogue tale of gigging in LA, California on the Frontline, which includes the memorable lyric “12.00 AM, we blagged the Metro”.Read

Motown clelebrqtes its 50th birthday

WHETHER you’re old enough to remember the songs first time around or heard your parents playing their records, chances are you will know and love at least one Motown song.Read

THIS week’s video sees grammatically-challenged Newcastle rockers yourcodenameis:milo having a smashing time with some old computers for their single, Schteeve. YCNI:M split in 2007 when frontman Paul Mullen joined The Automatic. Keep an eye out for former milo man Justin Lockey in 2009, now a member of the hotly-tipped White Belt Yellow Tag. See the video at www.sundaysun.co.uk/ettvid

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GLASVEGAS — A SNOWFLAKE FELL (AND IT FELT LIKE A KISS) (Columbia): Everyone’s favourite Phil Spector-influenced Glaswegians return with a Christmas-themed mini-album. Recorded in a ruined Transylvanian church, A Snowflake Fell won’t disappoint those who bought their debut album, as this is pretty much more of the same, but with sleigh-bells on. Glasvegas talked about recording these songs before they were even signed, reasoning that Spector’s Christmas album is an overlooked classic, but this is more than a pale homage. On first listen, Cruel Moon is the standout track for me . . . a genuinely affecting song about the homeless at Christmas. Elsewhere, the band are joined by a massed choir on Silent Night (Noapte De Vis) and the title track is a yearning, piano-led ballad.

BRITNEY SPEARS — CIRCUS (Jive): After her very public meltdown, Britney Spears returns with an aptly titled new album — and, presumably, a new wig to accompany it — but is it any cop? Well, yes and no is the answer. While there’s nothing on here to match the perfect pop of Hit Me Baby (One More Time) or Toxic, Circus is far from being the straight to bargain bins duffer that her fans may well have expected. Opener Womanizer could have come from Girls Aloud’s last album, while the title track, with its knowing chorus of “All eyes on me in the centre of the ring, just like a circus”, should definitely get the true believers up and dancing. But that still leaves plenty of room for some dodgy songs, and the dodgiest of them all has to be Mm Papi, where Britney flips from girl looking for no-strings fun to faintly sinister stalker in the space of three verses.Read

THIS week’s video features Deep Purple live at Tokyo’s Budokan in 1975, playing the undisputed heavy metal classic, Smoke on the Water. Vocal duties at the time were handled by Redcar-born David Coverdale, who went on to even greater success with the founding fathers of 1980’s Poodle Rock — it’s a hair thing — Whitesnake. See it at www.sundaysun.co.uk/ettvid

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THIS week’s video comes from Clear Blue Skies of Alnwick, Northumberland, who I think sound a lot like Pearl Jam playing sea shanties, if you can imagine such a thing. Now reduced to a guitar- and-vocals duo after several line-up changes, you can catch up with the new look CBS when they play Newcastle’s Carling Academy 2 on January 11. See the video at www.sundaysun.co.uk/ettvid

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GUNS ’N’ ROSES — CHINESE DEMOCRACY (Geffen): Chinese Democracy has been some 14 years in the making and is rumoured to have cost over $17m . . . but is it actually any good? Well, that rather depends on how you like your Metal music. If you’re a fan of overwrought guitar histrionics then you’re in for a treat, because no less than five guitarists appear on this album, and they really cram those solos in. However, if you’re a fan of the Gunners because of their peerless 1987 debut album, Appetite for Destruction, then you should really look somewhere else, because that band doesn’t exist anymore . . . this is the Axl Rose solo ego show. Some of these songs might have once been passable, but all those years in the studio fine-tuning and reworking them means that they’ve turned into a kind of sonic sludge.

VARIOUS ARTISTS — WHAT A GIRL NEEDS (Sony/BMG): This album is subtitled “25 tracks that every woman must own”, which rather begs the question “According to who, exactly?” Well, according to What A Girl Needs, a website that sells clothes and accessories and offers lifestyle tips to today’s forward-thinking woman. That’s not to say that they aren’t great tracks, because some classic artists — from Frank Sinatra to Eartha Kitt — are featured here, it’s just that they seem to have been lumped together without much thought or cohesion. Take Booker T’s Green Onions, for instance, which is possibly the greatest soul instrumental ever written, but is followed by Noel Harrison’s supremely annoying Windmills of your Mind, and it just doesn’t work. It’s hard to believe that these songs are the must-have top 25 of any woman alive today.Read

SURELY Brian Johnson has the luck of the devil. In 1980, his band Geordie had dissolved and he was back on Tyneside working in a factory when he received a call asking him to audition for one of the biggest bands in the world . . . AC/DC. He passed with flying colours and the rest is history. This video features some great shots of the band wandering around long-since demolished parts of the East End of Newcastle.

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THIS week’s video comes from a band originally called the Queer Boys, until student action groups picketed their shows and forced a name-change. Truly, the 1980s were a weird time! The Quireboys were briefly managed by Sharon Osborne, had a singer, Spike, and a guitarist, Ginger, who hailed from South Shields, South Tyneside, and, it’s hard to deny, sounded a lot like Rod Stewart and the Faces.

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THIS week’s video comes from the late Newcastle band Jetson, for whom big things were predicted a few years ago, until sheer bad luck got in the way. Their drummer was seriously hurt in a car accident and the band opted to wait for him to recover rather than continue without him. Sadly, this enforced leave of absence totally scuppered their momentum and they opted to split up not too long afterwards. See it at www.sundaysun.co.uk/ettvid

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THE SATURDAYS — CHASING LIGHTS (Fascination): Eighties synth-pop duo Yazoo look set to make quite a pretty penny from The Saturdays’ debut album, and it’s all down to a long-forgotten B-side. The first track — and recent smash single — from the five-piece girl band’s album borrows its distinctive keyboard pattern from an obscure Yazoo song called Situation, which means that Vince Clarke and Alison Moyet were given a co-writers credit for the composition . . . nice work if you can get it. They feature two former S Club Juniors among their number, which should give you a good indication that The Saturdays deal primarily in shiny pop music and often come across like a more chaste — and warmer-dressed — version of Pussycat Dolls.

KEANE — PERFECT SYMMETRY (Island): Fans of Somewhere Only we Know-era Keane would be hard-pushed to recognise the band after listening to Spiralling, this album’s opening track. It’s not a million miles away from something the Pet Shop Boys might come up with if they ever collaborated with Peter Gabriel. Following on from a dismal couple of years that saw Keane release a dour second album — and one band member enter rehab — I was half expecting Perfect Symmetry to be a real brow-furrower, but Keane sound much happier these days. In fact, you suspect they might actually be having fun. My favourite track has to be Better Than This, which holds up a mirror to our nation’s current obsession with all things celebrity-related and asks what fame and success are really all about.Read