Elles Bailey - 27 September 2018

I went to this on the back of a storming support set at the Monmouth Festival in August. The venue, Marrs Bar in Worcester, was nicer than expected, friendly and not too crowded or noisy. Support was from a local singer songwriter who went under the name Redwood. She was excellent belting out anguish at high volume like a a very shouty Kate Bush. I particularly liked 'Bleed' but the whole set was good. On came Elles Bailey and she and the band were high energy from song one. She did a couple of new songs which were being played live for the first time and also one other addition from the Monmouth set which was a brilliant cover of the classic John Prine song 'Angel from Montgomery'. That showed off not just Elles' voice but also the skills of the keyboard player, who was a new addition to the band. He was brilliant and was given plenty of solo time to show off his talent. As at Monmouth I loved the Muscle Shoals song 'Perfect Storm' but all of the set is top quality. The band is excellent and it was a great evening.

Youssou Ndour - 30 August 2018

This was a much anticipated gig but turned out to be quite a strange cultural collision but very enjoyable nonetheless. The thing is that Youssou Ndour has an extraordinary voice plus the best musicians (especially drummers) that Dakar can provide. First off we had the bonus of Seckou Keita playing a short set on the Kora with vocals which was brilliant as per usual. I clocked that he played a Youssou Ndour song and that was a highlight of his set for me, hearing the melody of that song played on the Kora rather than through vocals. Meanwhile the audience was puzzling me. The gig was supposed to start at 7:30 sharp with Youssou starting at 8:05. When Seckou Keita came on at 7:50 there was a smattering of people in the standing area downstairs and mostly empty seats in the balcony. The West Africans who were in the audience were largely glammed up and taking selfies and chatting rather than listening. Youssou came on at 8:35 and the audience had built up somewhat but the people around us arrived after 9pm, also glammed up, talking and taking selfies. The music was great, that unique voice, extraordinary percussion from four drummers, one on conventional drum kit the other three on African drums, up to three guitarists plus a bassist, two keyboards players, two backing vocalists, a sax player and the most amazing dancer. That's two gigs in a row at the Symphony Hall featuring multiple drummers and a dancer. I couldn't put a name to most of the stuff he played but it all had that feel of rich melodies, driving percussion and that expressive voice over the top. I did recognize '7 Seconds' and right at the end, brilliantly and unexpectedly 'Redemption Songs'. Strange atmosphere in the audience but worth the trip to Birmingham.