Good grief another month gone already! So once again you get the extremely late and horrendously long update.
Firstly a HUGE apology to Mrs H3 for not mentioning earlier that amongst all the things we were doing recently we were celebrating her 30th birthday on 27th March. Part of the reason for this is that for quite a long time she was panicking about reaching this milestone and I didn’t want to upset her any further with a reminder, but then obviously failure to blog regularly came into it as well and so instead of getting ready for the big event after a complaint that I hadn’t mentioned it on here, all I can do now is report on the weekend and say congratulations on getting through the celebrations and for realising 30 isn’t the end of your life!
The Music Bit…The Deal was for the Diamond and the Skulldozer!
So the last time I blogged we were on the verge of going to see Elbow at Wembley and what a fantastic evening it was too. Completely different from the Brighton gig in so many ways, not least the quantity of people in attendance (obviously, considering the size of the place compared to previous venues, although I have to admit I was surprised at how full the place was – I guess it really is finally their year). It was clear from the moment that Guy and the lads stepped onto the stage how chuffed they were to be there and the huge crowd added considerably to the anthem-like numbers such as One Day Like This, although as I said before I’m just happy to see them wherever they perform (however, not the show they’re doing supporting U2 – and not just ‘cos of the £150 price tag - and annoyingly, the concerts in Manchester with the Halle Orchestra sold out before I even had a chance to read their Myspace blog post about them!)
Unfortunately my snazzy new phone broke (the slider cable broke causing the screen to black out) and had to be sent back to Sony for repair however, once again Mrs H3 and I managed to take copious amounts of photos and video footage (pics below as ever … I really will get my Youtube channel up and running for the videos one day I promise).
So then began the Peter Doherty (yes Peter in the press now he’s turned thirty (just like Mrs H3!) and grown up, although actually he’s always called himself that) tour to promote his rather excellent new album Grace/Wastelands which began with two concerts in Brighton and Folkestone and ended on the Sunday after Lisa’s birthday at the Troxy in London. Disappointingly, for all those detractors who have done nothing but slag him off ever since I mentioned we were going to see him, he is now completely clean and turned up at every gig.
The first at Brighton Dome (where else) was an interesting affair to say the least. The first support band didn’t turn up so his drummer came out and did a few songs, followed by a friend of his who we’d seen at the Royal Albert Hall and hadn’t enjoyed, although he was better than the drummer. Finally came Dot Allison and her band, who weren’t my (or Mrs H3’s) cup of tea at all. Luckily, having parked ourselves in the front row of the stalls seats, we were having fun watching the other members of the audience which took our minds off the support. When Peter eventually made it onto the stage, dressed casually in jeans and jumper, he did so with his full band along with a three piece string orchestra and at one point a double bass player and Dot again (as she collaborated on some of the songs), as well as Wolfman who strangely didn’t sing along to For Lovers as I would have expected. The music ranged from his solo acoustic stuff to full on rock and roll chic with a lot of free-form jazz type stuff in between. At one point there were so many people on stage I thought it was turning into a Sigur Ros concert. However, throughout he was excellent, even if the pseudo free-form jazz stuff didn’t particularly float my boat and with a crowd that was very clearly upper middle class and awfully polite it was funny to see the excitement that songs like Fuck Forever and Can’t Stand Me Now produced. It was a really good, if somewhat different evening to the one I had been expecting. He finished without an encore, which came as a surprise to most of us, but as he’d been hit by a drink thrown by someone in the audience and then almost by a lit cigarette, perhaps not completely so.
The following night at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone was completely different. Firstly, we totally missed the support acts and then chose to go and sit on the balcony to watch the show rather than join the moshers. This was an excellent choice as it turned out as the crowd were very different in culture to the previous night. So was the show. Peter, who was once again sporting the casual jeans and t shirt look performed solo for the most part, with only occasional guest appearances by fellow Babyshambles cohort Mick Whitnall and the always value for money Wolfman (still dressed in the same clothes), to break things up (and no, he still didn’t sing on For Lovers). Peter spent a considerable amount of the concert proving his guitar skills with some lengthy riffs and even more time dodging the considerable amount of drinks that the very rowdy audience threw his way. After promising to finish with Albion, he did actually close with Can’t Stand Me Now. As is our wont Mrs H3 and I didn’t move when the lights went up, waiting for the venue to clear somewhat before heading home and it was lucky we didn’t for about seven minutes later Peter reappeared to do a blinding version of Albion to a by then largely empty room. As ever both evenings were caught in pictures and video.
And so to the Troxy - a beautiful art deco venue in Limehouse, London. This was the last night of the tour, and the last night of a very long weekend of celebrating for Mrs H3 and I. The audience was made up of a selection of the types of people that had been at the others - both the stylish and fashionable and the die hard beer throwing fans and the show was sold out. Once again we opted to miss the support acts, although we weren’t successful in the case of Dot Allison, who hadn’t grown on us at all. The gig too was a hybrid of the previous ones we’d seen – the band and the string section was in attendance as were special guests Graham Coxon, Wolfman (and yes this time he did sing on For Lovers and he was bloody awful – although he was wearing different clothes at last!) and Lee Mavers (the lead singer of 90’s band The La’s), which meant of course that the free-form jazz was back, but also there was the acoustic numbers (which I think on balance I generally prefer) too. Peter had chosen to be more formal for this last evening, dressing in a suit and hat, very dashing and very much in step with the venue. Unfortunately, the late arrival meant that we were quite far back and so my view of Peter wasn’t good enough to take any photos or video, although Mrs H3 did manage to. All in all I felt this was the most interesting of the three shows because of the mixture of styles, although I have equally enjoyed all of the shows just for the opportunity to spend a great deal of time gazing at Peter Doherty who, when clean, is a truly beautiful looking man.
So the next concert on the agenda is John Bramwell at the Half Moon in Putney on Thursday, the first time I’ve seen anything I Am Kloot-related for almost a year. Needless to say I am very excited at the prospect of seeing him (and hopefully Pete) again. I’m really hoping that he might be doing some of the tracks from the new Kloot album that he and the band performed in gigs earlier this year. This is followed on 22nd April by another evening with Peter Doherty in Camden and then the eagerly awaited (by me at least) Ultravox concert at the Roundhouse. Early May brings a visit to see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Cadogan Hall in London as I have become interested in learning to play the ukulele (if anyone wants to teach me please feel free to shout).
Lastly, I just wanted to mention that the new album Hocus Opus One by one of my favourite Wizard Rock bands Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office has finally been released. This long anticipated album is a heavy duty slice of electro-dance pop and is definitely worth a listen so check them out at their Myspace page by clicking on the link. Hmmm, actually while I’m about it I’d also like to mention another excellent new release. Zoë from Split Seven Ways and Malfoy Manor is giving away free (as she often does – check out her Myspace pages) The Broken Bird e.p. under the name Zoë’s Adventures Underground. This is a beautiful piece of work and non-Wrock, for those of you still a little nervous about the whole Wizard Rock thing.
Firstly a HUGE apology to Mrs H3 for not mentioning earlier that amongst all the things we were doing recently we were celebrating her 30th birthday on 27th March. Part of the reason for this is that for quite a long time she was panicking about reaching this milestone and I didn’t want to upset her any further with a reminder, but then obviously failure to blog regularly came into it as well and so instead of getting ready for the big event after a complaint that I hadn’t mentioned it on here, all I can do now is report on the weekend and say congratulations on getting through the celebrations and for realising 30 isn’t the end of your life!
The Music Bit…The Deal was for the Diamond and the Skulldozer!
So the last time I blogged we were on the verge of going to see Elbow at Wembley and what a fantastic evening it was too. Completely different from the Brighton gig in so many ways, not least the quantity of people in attendance (obviously, considering the size of the place compared to previous venues, although I have to admit I was surprised at how full the place was – I guess it really is finally their year). It was clear from the moment that Guy and the lads stepped onto the stage how chuffed they were to be there and the huge crowd added considerably to the anthem-like numbers such as One Day Like This, although as I said before I’m just happy to see them wherever they perform (however, not the show they’re doing supporting U2 – and not just ‘cos of the £150 price tag - and annoyingly, the concerts in Manchester with the Halle Orchestra sold out before I even had a chance to read their Myspace blog post about them!)
Unfortunately my snazzy new phone broke (the slider cable broke causing the screen to black out) and had to be sent back to Sony for repair however, once again Mrs H3 and I managed to take copious amounts of photos and video footage (pics below as ever … I really will get my Youtube channel up and running for the videos one day I promise).
So then began the Peter Doherty (yes Peter in the press now he’s turned thirty (just like Mrs H3!) and grown up, although actually he’s always called himself that) tour to promote his rather excellent new album Grace/Wastelands which began with two concerts in Brighton and Folkestone and ended on the Sunday after Lisa’s birthday at the Troxy in London. Disappointingly, for all those detractors who have done nothing but slag him off ever since I mentioned we were going to see him, he is now completely clean and turned up at every gig.
The first at Brighton Dome (where else) was an interesting affair to say the least. The first support band didn’t turn up so his drummer came out and did a few songs, followed by a friend of his who we’d seen at the Royal Albert Hall and hadn’t enjoyed, although he was better than the drummer. Finally came Dot Allison and her band, who weren’t my (or Mrs H3’s) cup of tea at all. Luckily, having parked ourselves in the front row of the stalls seats, we were having fun watching the other members of the audience which took our minds off the support. When Peter eventually made it onto the stage, dressed casually in jeans and jumper, he did so with his full band along with a three piece string orchestra and at one point a double bass player and Dot again (as she collaborated on some of the songs), as well as Wolfman who strangely didn’t sing along to For Lovers as I would have expected. The music ranged from his solo acoustic stuff to full on rock and roll chic with a lot of free-form jazz type stuff in between. At one point there were so many people on stage I thought it was turning into a Sigur Ros concert. However, throughout he was excellent, even if the pseudo free-form jazz stuff didn’t particularly float my boat and with a crowd that was very clearly upper middle class and awfully polite it was funny to see the excitement that songs like Fuck Forever and Can’t Stand Me Now produced. It was a really good, if somewhat different evening to the one I had been expecting. He finished without an encore, which came as a surprise to most of us, but as he’d been hit by a drink thrown by someone in the audience and then almost by a lit cigarette, perhaps not completely so.
The following night at the Leas Cliff Hall in Folkestone was completely different. Firstly, we totally missed the support acts and then chose to go and sit on the balcony to watch the show rather than join the moshers. This was an excellent choice as it turned out as the crowd were very different in culture to the previous night. So was the show. Peter, who was once again sporting the casual jeans and t shirt look performed solo for the most part, with only occasional guest appearances by fellow Babyshambles cohort Mick Whitnall and the always value for money Wolfman (still dressed in the same clothes), to break things up (and no, he still didn’t sing on For Lovers). Peter spent a considerable amount of the concert proving his guitar skills with some lengthy riffs and even more time dodging the considerable amount of drinks that the very rowdy audience threw his way. After promising to finish with Albion, he did actually close with Can’t Stand Me Now. As is our wont Mrs H3 and I didn’t move when the lights went up, waiting for the venue to clear somewhat before heading home and it was lucky we didn’t for about seven minutes later Peter reappeared to do a blinding version of Albion to a by then largely empty room. As ever both evenings were caught in pictures and video.
And so to the Troxy - a beautiful art deco venue in Limehouse, London. This was the last night of the tour, and the last night of a very long weekend of celebrating for Mrs H3 and I. The audience was made up of a selection of the types of people that had been at the others - both the stylish and fashionable and the die hard beer throwing fans and the show was sold out. Once again we opted to miss the support acts, although we weren’t successful in the case of Dot Allison, who hadn’t grown on us at all. The gig too was a hybrid of the previous ones we’d seen – the band and the string section was in attendance as were special guests Graham Coxon, Wolfman (and yes this time he did sing on For Lovers and he was bloody awful – although he was wearing different clothes at last!) and Lee Mavers (the lead singer of 90’s band The La’s), which meant of course that the free-form jazz was back, but also there was the acoustic numbers (which I think on balance I generally prefer) too. Peter had chosen to be more formal for this last evening, dressing in a suit and hat, very dashing and very much in step with the venue. Unfortunately, the late arrival meant that we were quite far back and so my view of Peter wasn’t good enough to take any photos or video, although Mrs H3 did manage to. All in all I felt this was the most interesting of the three shows because of the mixture of styles, although I have equally enjoyed all of the shows just for the opportunity to spend a great deal of time gazing at Peter Doherty who, when clean, is a truly beautiful looking man.
So the next concert on the agenda is John Bramwell at the Half Moon in Putney on Thursday, the first time I’ve seen anything I Am Kloot-related for almost a year. Needless to say I am very excited at the prospect of seeing him (and hopefully Pete) again. I’m really hoping that he might be doing some of the tracks from the new Kloot album that he and the band performed in gigs earlier this year. This is followed on 22nd April by another evening with Peter Doherty in Camden and then the eagerly awaited (by me at least) Ultravox concert at the Roundhouse. Early May brings a visit to see the Ukelele Orchestra of Great Britain at the Cadogan Hall in London as I have become interested in learning to play the ukulele (if anyone wants to teach me please feel free to shout).
Lastly, I just wanted to mention that the new album Hocus Opus One by one of my favourite Wizard Rock bands Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office has finally been released. This long anticipated album is a heavy duty slice of electro-dance pop and is definitely worth a listen so check them out at their Myspace page by clicking on the link. Hmmm, actually while I’m about it I’d also like to mention another excellent new release. Zoë from Split Seven Ways and Malfoy Manor is giving away free (as she often does – check out her Myspace pages) The Broken Bird e.p. under the name Zoë’s Adventures Underground. This is a beautiful piece of work and non-Wrock, for those of you still a little nervous about the whole Wizard Rock thing.
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