Larkin Poe @ The Bullingdon Oxford

Larkin Poe were a group totally unknown to me, but Mike at Empty Room Promotions was putting them on so must be ok. The Observer's quote about their performance at Glastonbury 2014 and touring with Elvis Costello bode well, so along we went to the revamped (again) Bullingdon on Oxford's Cowley Road.
The tight blackout room was just over half full when we went in and propped the bar up but by the time the sisters came on it was nearly full.
And they were more than OK
I was reminded of The Black Keys with hints of The Drive By Truckers with Rebecca Lovell on guitar, Megan Lovell of lapsteel guitar and a drummer whose name I did not catch but should not be forgotten as he played pedal bass at the same time.
Good vocals, impressive lapsteel guitar playing in the standing position (why dont we see more of this?) and great songs made it an excellent evening. Where have they been hiding?

A video can be seen here youtu.be/dhn21x8PUl8 

9/10

Savage Beauty @ The V & A London

Fashion is not something that concerns me but I was attracted by the odd previewthat surfaced on the media a month ago, so tickets were purchased for an early evening timed entry.
What a stunning spectacle it proved to be. Held in the same location as the 'David Bowie Is' two years earlier, it was a catwalk through his many shows arranged in various 'themed' rooms leading to the large double height room with manakins, shoes, headwear stacked in black boxes to all four sides. Centre piece was my eventual favourite 'No13' which is a dress that was shown at a show where the model wearing a white dress rotated around on a dias being sprayed with dye from two performing robotic arms.

Not to be missed, 9/10

Vintage Trouble @ KOKO, Mornington Crescent, London

Koko, Mornington Crescent, London. My favourite venue, a tight ex theatre on at least four levels and on  this night, packed to the rafters. Vintage Trouble are in town.
What followed in a lightning 85 minute set was an object lesson on how to entertain your audience. From driving R&B rock from the tight three piece lead, bass and drums (Nalle Colt, Rick Barrio Dill and Richard Danielson) to the charismatic Ty Taylor on vocals this was on hell of a performance. starting off with the band shaking each others hands, to finally leaving the stage and walking through the audience to make their way to the small front foyer to meet and greet all the Troublemakers as they left the auditorium with large smiles on their faces.
The first time I saw them was some three years previous in a 25 minute set in the middle of St Pancras Station and managed to have a little chat with Taylor and Colt they were approachable back then.  Later that year we saw them play a friends club The Plug, in Sheffield. with privileged access managed to sit on the stage right next to Dill and saw at close quarters the effort they put in. And it was there that I became aware of Taylor's penchant of going into the audience and wondered in this packed venue how was he going to repeat it. Should not have worried for about half way through a change to a roving mike signalled something was going to happen. It sure did, surfing the audience, running upstairs to the third level balcony, dancing in with the audience and on he went.
One last thing of note was the audience, an age mix which separated into two distinct zones. The oldies where generally found on the balconies with the youngsters down on the floor.

Brilliant. 9/10

Great Tracks No8, The Jungle Line by Herbie Hancock,vocals by Leonard Cohen

What a great cover version of the Joni Mitchell song from her Hissing of Summer Lawns LP.
Just elevates the song into a different sphere echoing her claim to be a poet first and foremost.
Well done to both Herbie Hancock for his interpretation and Leonard Cohens dead pan delivery.

Paloma Faith @ Postbahnhof Berlin

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

View image | gettyimages.com

A long weekend in Berlin was planned so quick check on Songkick revealed that The Black Keys were playing. Looked at booking tickets but the German online site did not fill me with confidence and thought therefore I would try to get tickets when in the city. So with a week to go before the holiday had a quick look again at Songkick to find that their tour had been cancelled due to the drummer seriously injuring his shoulder.

A quick trawl then revealed that Palomo was paying in a very promising edgy venue (thank you google earth), so why not? Never heard her music at all, only the odd interview where she came over as rather quirky.

An easy ride on the S-Bahn from our hotel by the Zoo to Ostbahnhof and a simple walk to the converted Postal railway station. Not many people around but people were going inside through an industrial hanging clear pvc strip curtain. But then my heart fell as there were two security guards after the ticket check. Sure enough my partially hidden new Nikon DSLR which was getting its first gig outing had to be removed and would not be let in, return ticket was given and they were polite about. I still had two cameras on my body, a small compact, (which appeared not to function particularity well) and my phone. But even that, given that Paloma came on stage wearing a white outfit, could not handle the contrast. The photographs above were taken by some guy directly in front of us who obviously had permission. So thanks to him.

The venue was small, decent sized stage bar at the back and another in an adjacent room/stage. There was probably about 500 inside, tightly packed especially in front of the stage. Bumped into a couple of Brits who had just driven in from Coventry to see her.

So the actual gig, well I enjoyed it, did get a bit samey but she really is a little darling with a fine voice. It was rocky pop. She was accompanied by drums, bass/double bass/keyboards, backing singer, solo lead, keyboards and another multi instrumentalist who was out of our sight stage left.

Her chats between numbers were funny and also charming in a east London way. Except when she was making a point about the costs of tickets she said to the audience (who she suspected to be all German not knowing there was a good number from the UK) that she would imagine they were all good savers of their money. I just had to shout back 'No they are having to give it all to the Greeks' not understanding it, I had to repeat it. She asked the audience who were having a good laugh about it, 'what was that, geeks'? to receive several replies of 'Greeks' and then it was all forgotten about.

Another nice one was that they were off to Cologne straight after the gig, knowing that it is not said like that in German she asked the audience what is it called to which a number of replies came back as 'Koln', to which she said ' What Colon?' We dissolved in laughter but the non english speakers did not get the joke (Doppelpunkt is colon), Whether it was intentional or not I have no idea.

Anyway a fun evening. (9/10 for entertainment, 6/10 for the music)

The Imitation Game

A bloody excellent film, as usual Benedict Cumberbatch puts in a convincing performance as does and surprisingly, Kiera Knightley.
The post war treatment of Alan Turing was shocking beyond belief, and probably the one fault of the film is that it does not show what was dished out to him for being a homosexual. The queen's posthumous pardon in 2013 was the least this nation could have done.

8.5/10

The Gees @ The James Tavern, James Street, Oxford.

The Gees through a fog of a smoke machine

After the Chuck Prophet gig we wandered around to the James Tavern for a drink. From the otherside of the bar there emanated an amazing sound of another gig. When I heard bagpipes wailing away and a fog drifting over to our side I just had to investigate.
So there crammed into half the other side of the pub was then a 9 piece outfit. Consisting from what I could see as there were copious use of a smoke machine was...
Bagpiper
Percussionist No 1 (with a wailing siren)
Percussionist No 2
Drummer
Bass
Lead Guitar
Keyboards
Didgeridoo
Trombonist

Half the remainder of the bar was taken over by the audience dancing.
They were joined later by two trumpeters and another who I cant place. I overheard that over the course of the evening they totalled 16!

Their sound was a cross between Melt Yourself Down and Santana and when in full flow was a revelation. Must see again.

 Friends daughter at the same time was celebrating an 18th down the road at the Kasbah, my daughter was elsewhere out along the road, so it all goes to prove what an amazing place The Cowley Road is. Long may it continue.