Van Morrison - Brighton Dome. Prompt 8pm start as advertised and he ran through a superb set at a blistering pace. No speak between tracks, just a second for a breath and then they were off. The band were superb and I really enjoyed the show. A version of Comfortably Numb was emotional with recent Floyd news. 9.30 he marched off stage as the band played the end of Gloria and then a few seconds later the house lights were on. No encores but for the very middle aged audience it was probably time for bed anyway.

Freddie White in the John Field room in the National Concert Hall.



Truly a national treasure.



SJB

Australian Brandenburg Orchestra - Fire and Water - Handel

Very nice

wish I could say the same about the Cab Merlot at interval time, oh well

Barber of Seville - with English National Opera, does that count?

B@%&$y hell, just found out my wife has booked tickets for a us to see Barry Manilow in Manchester on Friday night . . . . . sudden onset of some acute illness required methinks . . !!

Grounds for divorce. Extreme mental and aural cruelty!!!

Stevie Wonder, last night @ the 02.

Much, much better than when I saw him a couple of weeks ago at the same venue. A slightly shorter set, but there was much less slush and none of those rambling, sentimental monologues about his mum and Barack Obama. There was also a much higher funk quota, a little Beatles medley on the voice box (including a spine-tingling "Fool On The Hill"), and that voice of his, which is truly astonishing (he's 58 and still sounds like a 20 year old).

Highlights for me were "Visions", the "Sir Duke/I Wish" medley, "Ribbon In The Sky", "My Cherie Amour", "Superstition".

He is by some distance black music's (and perhaps, with the possible exception of Macca, all of pop's) most gifted performer. He certainly shows up Wacko Jacko and Prince for the lightweights they are.

Kevin,

Thanks for the show write up. Sounds really good.

Mrs Lontano and I are off to see him tonight and expectations of a great show are high.

Cheers

Stevie Wonder at the O2. This was my first arena concert in the UK for years and I am glad to see things have progressed from the dark and dismal Wembley Arena. The o2 is a very good venue.

This was a storming show. Alright there were a few moments in the first half where it went a little flat but the last hour was one of he most special hours of live music I have ever seen. You knew you were in the prescence of a living legend. The voice was phenomenal and the band played hit after hit at an incredible pace.

An amazing man and I am so pleased I went to see him.

Another one for the above, although being an O2 veteran now (prob 10 gigs there now!) I thought the sound was not the best I have heard there recently - both Metallica (where I was standing, anyway) and especially Nickelback (one of the loudest for a long time, but crystal clear sound) were sonically better.
But as already stated, he is a legend!

Roll on Travis tomorrow, and Dragonforce on Sunday - both at the UEA.

Stacey Kent (above average) and Nils Wülker Group (inspiring)

Anne Hills, a folk singer with a delicious voice. A solo performance of voice and guitar.

I too was at the O2 Arena on Tuesday night to see the legend that is Stevie Wonder. I echo all the sentiments above - it was a fantastic show with everyone on their feet having a great time. A privilege to be there, and most likely the last time we will get the chance to see him perform live here.

Mark

quote:

Originally posted by markah:
A privilege to be there, and most likely the last time we will get the chance to see him perform live here.

Mark

You may be right but I hope not. I would love to see him play live again. The more I think about that last hour the better I think it was.

Adrian

quote:

Originally posted by bigfella:
B@%&$y hell, just found out my wife has booked tickets for a us to see Barry Manilow in Manchester on Friday night . . . . . sudden onset of some acute illness required methinks . . !!

It got worse . . . I'd come to terms with the fact that Barry Manilow might actually be quite a professionally enjoyable performance . . only to find that in fact we were going to see Chesney Hawkes pretending to be BM in a stage show that turned out so cheesy we left at half time. Pity as I was just getting into it . .

Elbow - UK Tour opening night, Cambridge Corn Exchange, 6th October.

Good to bump into Denis again, who picked us out in the crowd!

Elbow, already fairly high in our estimatation, acquitted themselves excellently. They clearly get on and work very well together. It was a treat, we think, to see them on first night of tour, when pieces, well-rehearsed, are given a public airing for the first time in a little while or, in some cases, for the first time full stop. They really had to concentrate, and there were one or two small hiccoughs - these masters are human! But mostly speaking one of the most musically accurate gigs I have been to. Up in the gods where we were, the sound quality was excellent, which is quite a boast for Cambridge Cornex, which can be a bit of a sonic pig.

As to be expected, as it was the 'Seldom Seen Kid tour', the set was largely most, but not quite all, of Seldom Seen Kid. (At the start, Guy Garvie commented that the place was sold out BEFORE the Mercury Prize win, so 'they knew they were amongst friends'.) In fact, there were only about four pieces from the other albums. But amongst these was the real tour de force, as the penultimate piece in the encore, a blistering rendering of 'New Born' from debut album 'Asleep in the Back'.

Guy Garvie has a voice every bit as 'to die for' live as recorded. He had total command of the stage and the audience from the very first moment. And he came across not only as bright and witty, but also very generous, sympathetic and human. Very generous in his warm support for the supporting artiste (who had been horribly nervous on this opening night and fluffed a couple of her numbers) and of the supporting string players. And he had no hesitation in bringing proceedings to a sudden halt when he noticed a lady in the front was taken ill. He was genuinely concerned for her well-being and made sure she was cared for and alright been continuing - and the band just took up the music a couple of bars before the point where they stopped. Professional or what.

A very good night, on the strength of which, we wish Elbow all the best for their future career.

And Denis, I'm sure we'll meet up agin soon!

James

Just got home from listening to Zubin Mehta and the Israeli Philharmonic perform here in Bombay... Dvorak's New World Symphony and Beethoven's 3rd piano concerto. Daniel Barenboim was the pianist.

Absolutely fantastic concert... Zubin always seems to pull off something extra special when he comes home to Bombay, and Barenboim was just magical. Quite a treat, and very very different from the last concert I went to (Radiohead in New York)!

I was also at the Elbow gig in Cambridge, although we were standing down the front.
Loved it.

Just back from seeing Tim Minchin.

Well, ok he's a comedian, but a very talented pianist and song writer too.

He's at the beginning of a tour so if he's in your locale go and see him - very funny and a nice bloke too, he now understands the meaning of the triangle with respect to VdGG.

He was on last week's '...Buzzcocks' and a brief moment on the Secret Policeman's Ball on the telly this past week.

Elbow Truro
mesmerising, hilarious and heartbreaking in equal measure.