Gretchen Peters 17/3/2015

This tour was to promote the new album 'Blackbirds', which had passed me by until the morning of the gig. A quick listen told me I was going to enjoy the gig a lot and so it was as Gretschen played pretty much all of this powerful album and also a few tracks from her back catalogue including the pick of tracks from 'Hello Cruel World' such as the haunting 'Idlewild' the elegaic 'Five Minutes' and the punchy 'Woman on the Wheel'. The band was the trio from the last tour (hubby Barry Walsh on piano, Christine Bougie on various)with the addition of Connor McCreanor on electric and upright bass. Christine Bougie really impressed this time playing some lovely pedal steel and lots of gentle but spot on drumming and picking up an electric guitar from time to time. She played an exquisite understated solo on guitar in the encore which really hit home and I realised it was all about her timing. The gig kicked off with tracks from the new album, the title track and then 'When all you've got is a hammer'. Included in the first set was a piano piece from Barry 'October Waltz. The first half finished with the perhaps the two most haunting songs on the new album 'The cure for the pain is the pain' and the poignant 'Everything Falls Away'. It was very moving music. After a break Gretschen started on solo piano for a couple of songs, 'Jubilee' another cracking song from the new album and then her old standard 'Independence Day'. After that the gig hit some high spots with 'Idlewild' and 'Five Minutes' and a great rendition of 'The Matador' and a superb 'Women on the Wheel' before a final encore of a slightly jaunty John Prine song about marriage 'In Spite'. I liked her last tour but this gig exceeded even my high expectations as has the new album. I am not sure why she isn't playing bigger venues.

Dr John 8/3/2015

It had been a while since we saw Dr John and his age was highlighted when we saw him being helped up the few stairs to the stage with the aid of two sticks and two people. However once on stage and in sight of the audience he shed the years and seemed to glide over to the piano. He was playing with a four-piece backing band, organ, drums, bass and trombone and what a great band they were. The drummer was effortlessly perfect, playing straight from the central nervous system and the organ player, Rhoda Scott was a joy to listen to. Dr John also played effortlessly the fingers dancing over the piano keyboard with no sign at all that he was in his mid seventies. The set was also pretty much to my taste with a good sprinkling of old stuff such as 'Walk on Gilded Splinters' and 'Gris Gris Gumbo Ya Ya' both classics from the late 60s and early 70s when I first started listening to him. There were other notable songs from later such as 'Right Place, Wrong Time' and 'Such a Night' as well as a Louis Armstrong cover and 'Goodnight Irene'. Rhoda Scott was great on that track as well. But the songs I didn't recollect or know were also perfectly accessible played with that dynamic, bluesy, boogieish style he has on the piano. I particularly liked 'The Monkey Speaks Its Mind' and 'Motherless Children' but it was all good from start to finish. The gig was stopped about 90 minutes in as there was a set finish time but it was quality from minute one.

The Jesus and Mary Chain 26/2/2015

I broke my general rule about going to O2 Academy venues but then it was TJ&MC and it was local. I gave the support (The Shimmer Band) a miss to minimise the time in venue but did catch their last track and they seemed like a good guitar based band - lots of noise and distortion. TJ&MC set was in two parts and the intermission was only about two minutes. The first part was a general selection of songs and it started with the impeccable April Skies played slow and melodic - brilliant stuff. There was another six or seven songs some of which I didn't know and one of which featured a track-long sound failure but anything that has that inimitable William Reid guitar is fine by me. The second part of the set was a complete run through of Psychocandy and I was expecting that I would like this less than the general set but the opposite was the case. The Psychocandy set was played with a great dynamic, lots of energy and purpose and basically non-stop with either no or minimal gaps between the tracks. I heard the album anew and I liked it a lot. Excellent gig - I have no idea why the venue wasn't full to overflowing.