Goldfrapp 26/10/08

I was attracted to this gig to hear something a bit different and because I just loved the energy of 'Ooh La La' and wanted to see if there was more of the same from Goldfrapp. The gig was high tempo a lot of the time but came across to me as a bit too rehearsed and given that I didn't know the music, it didn't excite me as much as I hoped. 'Ooh La La' was certainly brilliant and there was one other track from 'Supernature' that I knew but overall I left feeling it was interesting more than deeply moving.

My Bloody Valentine 20/6/08

This was a double first - unsurprisingly the first time for seeing MBV as they had stopped performing live many years before I got into them but surprisingly the first time I had been to the iconic Roundhouse. The free earplugs would have given away that it was likely to be very loud even if I hadn't been pre-warned and those who eschewed the earplugs regretted it later particularly during the encore consisting of twenty minutes of extreme noise (aka 'You Made Me Realise'. It was an extraordinary gig pretty much all played at volume 11 except for 'You Made Me realise' which was at 12 at least. They played most of 'loveless' and much of 'Isn't Anything' and so they covered all my favourites including 'when you sleep' and 'i only said'. To hear these tracks performed live was a privilege and a joy but I also enjoyed the fact that this gig was different to anything I had seen before. Distortion and volume taken to the max and delivered as incredible music from another world. The finale was even a further step into the extreme and the single chord that was played after twenty minutes of being next to a jet engine was sweet indeed. By that time I think those without earplugs had in general left in order to preserve their hearing. For me - I liked every last second of it.

Low 17/11/10

I found myself once more at St John's Church in Coventry to see a band I hadn't even heard of until last month. I loved two tracks on Robert Plant's new album and found they had both been written by Sparhawk and Parker who are the main members of Low and then I found that Low were performing locally as one of only a few UK appearances.

The support was a singer songwriter Paul Thomas Saunders who had a band as well. The songs were interesting but I couldn't take to his singing. He was over-ambitious in trying to sing beyond his capabilities.

Low kicked off with a simple and attractive song appropriately about the saving of souls and then hit me with the two songs from Plant's album, 'Silver Rider' and 'Monkey'. Monkey in particular was exhilirating, it was a fuzzy, rasping version of the song.

Right from the start I was bowled over by Mimi Parker's voice. She mainly did backing singing and her voice meshed brilliantly with Alan Sparhawk's but whether she was leading or backing there was a quality and a strength to the voice that had echoes of Grace Slick.

Of course there was much of the set that I didn't know yet every track had something about it and some songs were outstanding. There was one that started with the words 'Cry me a river' (it's not yet released apparently where Mimi took lead vocals and one directly after that 'Lullaby' which again had brilliant lead vocals from her and great guitar as well.

They finished the set with 'Murderer' and then came out for an encore but couldn't decide what to play for a while. Eventually three tracks were selected and played.

I've now got some more albums to buy and enjoy and hopefully I'll get to see Low again.

Aly Bain, Bruce Molsky, Ale Moller 9/11/10

It's good to have front row seats in a pleasant theatre to see Aly Bain on your birthday. He is so assured and brilliant in his playing of the fiddle and there seems to be no conscious involvement just a central nervous system fused with the instrument. His collaborators were Bruce Molsky an american student of US folk music who plays mainly fiddle but also banjo and guitar and Ale Moller a swedish folkie who mainly plays a 10-string mandola but also some weird shepherds instruments made of bone and wood.

The combination worked really well and each of them took the lead on a number of songs. Basically you had Shetland, Scandinavian and American traditional tunes and styles being mixed and delivered by expert musicians. I particularly liked a Swedish hymn which was called something to do with White Angels and I also loved the tunes done in what they referred to as the Magic tuning which was I think a Swedish tuning. In one sense Ale Moller was the glue often with his delightful and understated Mandola playing. It was a civilised and intimate session with great musicians and as always with Aly Bain a feeling that you are in the presence of a master.

Midlake 6/11/10

I saw Midlake in February and whilst I enjoyed the gig I felt that they were a little reserved and precious, with a sound that was as close to studio as they could make it. Despite seeing them in a much worse environment I enjoyed this gig more as they seem to have chilled out a bit and the sound was looser and with more emotional content. But first things first; they had two support acts and I missed most of the first one as I arrived ten minutes after the doors were advertised as being open and they had obviously started early. In typical style, the venue who are part of the branded O2 Academy venues failed to give show times on their website even one hour before the gig. They also moved me from a comfortable standing area that was allegedly reserved for disabled people even though they were seated elsewhere and none turned up in that area. Prats. However I don't think I missed too much from what I heard. I enjoyed the second support act - it was John Grant who was apparently from a band called the Tzars and he sang confidently introspective songs and played a synthesizer and sometimes a keyboard assisted on instruments by the Midlake keyboardist. He was a bit ascerbic and a bit weird but in a good way.

Midlake were on by twenty past eight and they had a similar line up to last time including four guitars for most songs, drums, bass and keyboards/flute for a seven-man band. They included the guitarist I liked last time, Max Townsley. Nominally he is scond lead guitar but he takes the freeflowing solos and he makes a difference to their sound which may otherwise come across as a bit restrained. The first time he really got going was on the excellent 'The Courage of Others' and the best tracks for me were the ones he was let loose on. That included the final track of the three-track encore which was 'Branches'.

The first two tracks of the encore features the support acts so first they had John Grant to do a Tzars track which I'm guessing was called 'Without You' which was melodic and then Jason Lyttle came on to do a Grandaddy's track which I presume was called 'Whereever Together'which was less interesting and a bit staccato.

As ever the vocals and harmonies throughout the gig were impeccable. The set list was reasonably similar to last time and the arrangements similar but something had got better - a bit more soul perhaps.