Robyn at Roundhouse

Last night, I saw Robyn at Roundhouse.

I've seen Robyn live quite a few times now, from one of her earliest UK gigs to the heights of Heaven.

She always delivers.

I can totally see why she called her last album Body Talk; she really does channel her lyrics through her dancing. Such as:

• Simulating putting a calculator in her pocket during Fembot
• Thumping a heartbeat on her chest during With Every Heartbeat
• Simulating kissing and embracing herself during Dancing on my Own
• Throwing herself around the stage in unabashed, uncoordinated dance fever during nearly everything.

In short, and, as always: amazing.

Our Saint Saviour

illustration by Genie Espinosa

I went to see Hurts play at Union Chapel last week, as part of Mencap's Little Noise sessions. They were wonderful: haunting, elegant, emotional - as arresting now as the first time I saw them.

I really enjoyed the support act Saint Saviour.

We described Saint Saviour as:

• Kate Bush meets Liza Minelli
• Marcella Detroit meets Robyn
• Enya meets Roisin Murphy
• Dolores O'Riordan meets Enya
• Enya goes to Florence (with the Machine)

Ergo: amazing.

Maybe the church setting set me to thinking more than usual, but the lyrics Saint Saviour sang really stood out: "don't shine the spotlight on me, I'm already bright enough". Profound, no?

Scissor Sisters @ Brixton Academy

Wednesday, June 23, 2010

I went to see Scissor Sisters play the first of two gigs at Brixton Academy last night. I have been a fan of them since they first came to Ireland 7 years ago. It was so ace to see a band that were multisexual, fun, amazing live, and mixed up pop, dance, disco, rockabilly with all sorts of emotions and feelings.

I have to admit, I have reservations about their second album and some of the tracks from their new album. I feel I want to like them much more than I actually do. So I approached the gig with some trepidation.

Happily, I loved it. Jake and Ana's energy on stage is so infectious, so electric and so powerful that it is hard not to go along for the ride. Ana's wonderful asides and quips had me laughing and loving her as much as I ever did.

The highlight for me was new song Invisible Light which turned the venue into a pulsing, thumping disco full of dance, joy and elation. And that's the Scissor Sisters.

Oh, it HURTS

Friday, June 11, 2010

I went to see the new, trendy, much-vaunted pop group HURTS last night in Camden.

They played a series of songs: dramatic, swooping, soaring, passionate, moody and urgent all come to mind as descriptors.

The lead singer's quite an intense performer - he focuses eagle-eyed on the audience, making arch gestures: a slight eyebrow raise, hand-clasp, subtle jaw clench, raised claw-hand, deep look to the ground.

It's all very one-step-short-of-losing-it and he-has-a-lot-of-internal-rage but suits the dramatic nature of some of their songs.

The band were all quite smartly attired wearing sharp suits, with the exception of the keyboard player who wore a t-shirt and braces. Just to be different.

And that was HURTS. Watch a short video I made here - apols about the sound quality, but you get nice visuals.

Prompt and punctual Paloma Faith, Shepherds Bush Empire

Tuesday, March 30, 2010

I went to a concert by London chanteuse Paloma Faith last night, playing at the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. Paloma was prompt and punctual emerging on stage at the appointed hour. Wonderful.




Starting the show shrouded in ostrich feathers, Paloma led us on a merry dance through a series of stunning sequined stylings.

Performing songs from her album Do You Want The Truth Or Something Beautiful?, some courageous covers (Sexy Bitch by Akon) and classic ballads, Paloma kept the audience enthralled with singing full of character, emotion and charisma. She also proved to be a nifty, kooky dancer, partly slapstick, full of gusto and divinely delicious diva dance poses.

Having started wearing a yellow catsuit (not many women can do lemon like Paloma) topped off by a shower hat covered in sequinned Carmen Miranda fruit, she changed into a black fabulously flowing frock with a fan hat and finished in voluptuos red Jessica Rabbit gown with mother-of-the-bride netting fascinator.

Finishing the show with the torch song New York, she left the stage as a true diva, individual, unique and adored.

Eliza Doolittle | Girls Can't Catch | Mini Viva | Rodrigo Moratto | Tecnoctitlan | Red Blooded Women

Friday, February 26, 2010

I've been to some see some ace popstars recently - Eliza Doolittle, Girls Can't Catch, Mini Viva at a Next Big Thing pop concert and Rodrigo Moratto, Tecnoctitlan and Red Blooded Women at EQ


Eliza Doolittle sings jazz low-fi pop songs with a classy-but-street verve. I was really surprised by the strength of her voice.







Girls Can't Catch are an ace new girl band - bursting on stage all hair, teeth, glitter, sequins and "it's all about us" attitude. They drank their microphones, worked the mike stands, they worked the head-turns. If there was room on the stage, these girls would have been strutting. Great.

Somehow Mini Viva made it happen. It was one long strut-a-thon for them. Over and back they went, over and back- like popstar ping pong. 

While strutting, they sung 4 songs- best of which was I left my heart in Tokyo with its energetic poppy verve. Their next song Do You Wanna Candy (since re-named One Touch) sounds amazing - a rip-rollicking Girls Aloud punch-tune with ace refrain "Hips Lips Fashion Status! / Kiss Kiss, it's contagious!"

At EQ, Brazilian singer Rodrigo Moratto brought latin dance pop with a certain male diva-ish swagger. He and his two dancers made good use of the small stage to liven up the crowd.





Argentinians Tecnoctitlan performed some driving electro-rock with a definite 80s feel, beat and rhythm. I love the female vocal and masculine beats - think INXS meets Eurhytmics but in the future. 





And, last but not least, girl band Red Blooded Women who performed several songs with super-energy and fun-time attitude. These ladies look like they know to have a good time. Their performance was full of fun, and great singing. When the backing track to one of their songs failed, they performed the song acapella with great vocals. Their retort when it ended: "that's fucking showbiz!" Love it.

Actually, her name's Marina & the Diamonds - live review

Sunday, January 31, 2010

I went to see wonderful singing lady Marina & the Diamonds last week. Marina came second in the BBC's Sound of 2010 preview, so my expectations were high.

Her sound is described as theatrical pop, and she's certainly quirky and dramatic. She performs very much as a performer - sometimes aloof, sometimes with gusto, sometimes wry, sometimes heartfelt - and always engaging.



Her songs are lyrically rather wonderful, as she deftly mixes linguistic styles. For instance, she can be singing about lost love, gender identity, or something else wonderfully universal but then drops in a mention of something delightfully pop cultural. It's all wonderfully endearing.



My highlights of the show were:

• Marina's majestic hairflick in song Hollywood when she sings "Actually, my name's Marina" having been compared to Shakira and Catherine Zeta Jones
• A song that may or may not be about gender equality having a reference to Girls Aloud
• The song Shampain with lyrics: "Drinking sham-pain / Made by the angel / Who goes by the name / Of Glitter and Gabriel". It actually sounded like "... the name of Glittery Navel". Both are amazing.
• I'm sure another song had the lyric Home Sweet Gnome Sweet Home
• Marina has a winning way with a tambourine.

And so, the pop equation..

((Kate Bush + Tori Amos) - (piano + plaintive)) x (2010 + pop culture) x (an actress) = Marina & the Diamonds.

The A & Z of Pop

Friday, November 13, 2009

With all the music I have in so many genres (3,500 tracks and counting), I like a nice, simple classification system - I stick to alphabetic by artist.

I was thinking recently who my first and last are, the bookends to all my music: who are my A to Z of pop.

So, first on the list is A Taste of Honey with their ace disco song Boogie Oogie Oogie. I danced to this loads as a young chap at Freakscene, a funky night in Cork that was one part big gay disco, one part indierock moshpit. I regularly begged the DJs to play it. It makes me wanna dance!



The final artist on my line-up is Zuma, a Norwegian group who took part in their Eurovision selection in 2008. They didn't reach the final, but the song Always Always is nice electro-lite midtempo-ballad-ish europop. The lyrics mention sprouts. More vegetables in pop, I say! Zuma's singer came back to Melodi Grand Prix this year as Alexander Stenerud, coming fourth.



So, who are your A & Z of Pop?

Sam Taylor

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Last night, I went to see Sam Taylor sing at blog-club night EQ. Sam sings melodic, emotional pop songs, with a beautiful voice.

Although last night he did some poppy covers (Billie Jean, Mama Do), he also sang the gorgeous acoustic ballads Sometimes I Need You and Talk Me Down.

Sam has a expressive heartfelt truthful innocence when he sings, and it's rather charming. He's also very a good looking chap. I'm hoping he'll be one to watch in future.

Watch him perform the two ballads below (with apols for the sound quality on the video).

I'm hoping he'll be one to watch in future.






Check out > Sam Taylor on myspace - especially his cover of The Cardigans' Communication, which I think is amazing.

The Golden Filters, live in London

Sunday, October 04, 2009

Last night, I went to Cargo to see a band called The Golden Filter.

Although, variously through the evening, I called them:

• The Golden Glitters
• The Golden Flippers
• The Golden Floaters
• The Golden Fluffers
• The Golden Frapp
• The Golden Lamé

 I don't know why.

The Golden Filter are an electro-duo made up of Australian Penelope and Ohio-born Stephen.

Stephen looks like an archetypal Noo Yawk gay (think Anthony in Sex & the City in a offbeat quirky phase) and Penelope has an amazing name.

She spent most of her time on stage stridently marching on the spot, while swoop-turning her head from side to side. At one point, she was splashing in small puddles on the stage.

Their songs are wailing & whisper vocals over electro with heavy percussion. On stage, this meant tambourines, castanets and many many drum banging sequences. It was all quite Eurovisiony, although they probably wouldn't like that.

Their final, mammoth drum-a-thon needed a golden glitter machine to explode over the crowd.

And so, an equation:

 ((Human League x Goldfrapp) + (Kate Bush wailing - eccentricity)) x (electro-nihilism + eurovision drumming) = The Golden Filter

> Check out: The Golden Filter on myspace

Grace Jones, Somerset House

Friday, July 10, 2009

Last night I went to see Grace Jones in concert at Somerset House - it was amazing. There was a costume change for every song, or rather I should say a hat change. She was wearing a fabulous set of hats. They included:

• a fascinator feather with alien bug-eye lights
• full-moon centurion style circle
• Hat in the shape of Angor Wat
• Space age Virgin Mary get-up in a washing machine extraction tube
• Giant copper bowl with matching cymbals
• Bug-eyed alien mask
• Gold alopecia feathered Cleopatra
• Cabaret circus ring master
• A diamond-encrusted cocoon
• Big leaf, with Zaha Hadid style swoop
• Bug tentacles & antelope horns
• Flashing blue sunglasses
• Disco ball bowler hat with lasers
• And finally she emerged wearing a Christmas decoration on her head.

Highlights of the night were when Grace exclaimed "Jesus! What's with the yellow light?" and "No fan's gonna fuck up my hula hoop" before hula-hooping while singing Slave to the Rhythm.

Here's a rubbish video of a little bit:

Shakira - Loba / She Wolf - amazing!

Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Shakira has a new song. It is amazing.



My review:

• Squelch disco.
• HORN!
• Disco
  
• Honking horn!
• Beeps!
• Shakira sounds like she's drunk on a vocoder.
• HORN!
• HORN!
• Spanish singing!
• Synth-laser!
• Head-flick.
• Ooh, quick fire rap-singing.
• Ugh grunt.
• Synth-laser! (head-flick.)
  
• High-as-the-sky chorus.
• "Ah-woooooooo!" wolf sound.
  
• Heavy breathing.
• HORN!
• More Spanish singing.
• Synth-laser
• Head-flick.
• Quick-fire & ugh.
  
• Chorus.
• HORN!
• "Ah-wooooooooooo!"
• Bridge = Ghetto-blaster humping moment.
• Breathing, breathing, breathing.
• Massive, OTT crescendo.
• More drunk vocoder.
• HORN!
• Synth-strings!
• Handclaps!
• HORN!
• Heavy breathing
  
  
• And it's called SheWolf. Brilliant. Even if it is crying out for a big gay hands-in-the-air remixing.
  

Hey, Mr DJ

Wednesday, June 03, 2009

I'm DJing tonight, at London Media Gays in barcode. Should be an ace evening of retro and nu-pop! My last foray at DJing was playing foreign pop at the long-gone Club Contact, and I'm hoping to revive the foreign pop tradition tonight by playing lots of - now v trendy - ace Swedish pop, such as:

Velvet - Chemistry

Alcazar - Burning



Maybe Infernal - Redefinition

and, of course, Agnes Carlsson - Release Me

Roisin Murphy draws the world!

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

I went out last night to the launch of Simon Henwood's new book. Simon Henwood - previously unknown to me - is the boyfriend of popdiva Roisin Murphy, and Roisin was DJing at the launch. So I popped along to hear her play some tunes.

In between spying the ridiculous Shoreditch types wearing outré clothing, I dug out my pen and pad and asked Dennis to draw the world and Sandro to draw Italy (always remembering my EuroGlobe & MyWorld projects, that's me).

But then a suggestion flashed my way from Henry & Dennis - go ask Roisin Murphy to draw the world. Could I? Would I? Should I?

It's a no-brainer. Of course I should. I drew my courage, held my breath and off I went. Once she finished swapping numbers with someone else, I tapped her shoulder.

Adrian - Hi, I wonder if you could do me a favour - I have a project where I ask people to draw the world. Would you do it for me?
Roisin - Yeah, sure (like it's the most normal thing in the world)

And so she did. So here's the world, as drawn by Roisin Murphy. It's surprisingly stark - no scaffolding, jaunty hats, no ostentatious glovery. But utterly delightful.

Girls Aloud are ace

Friday, November 21, 2008

There have been many excellent reviews of Girls Aloud's new album, Out of Control. I second everything they write. Lyrically, it's top-notch, and fabulous singing and vocal moments abound. Such as these ace bits:

• The Promise: Huge girlpop anthem, giving everyone a chance to be girlband fabulous. You're gonna make me, make me love you... and a massive key-change.
• The Loving Kind: Majestic, brittle, beautiful, making me wonder if love is all about the little things.
• Rolling back the rivers in time: Gone are the days of magic sings Nicola, directly referencing another of their songs, It's Magic
• Love is the Key: opposites attract, and now we're picking out the towels and curtains
• Turn to Stone: Electropop!
• Untouchable: Without any meaning, we're just skin and bone. Like beautiful robots, dancing alone. WOW.
• Fix Me Up: a plea for all my sexual healing sounding oh-so like "homosexual healing". You know, you go, girls.
• Love is Pain: oh oh oh oh Love is Pain oh oh oh oh you're insane oh oh oh oh
• Miss You Bow Wow: an ace title, and basically is 4 choruses (chorii?) strung together into one huge song. Massive sing-a-long I remember in one of these many chorus moments
• Revolution in the Head: Girls going dancehall. Gimme the ting, gimme the ting, gimme the oh oh oh - and making it work.
• Live in the Country: cow sounds! cat sounds! pig sounds! It's joyfully bonkers, and yet totally in Girls Aloud's oeuvre as a logical response to Swinging London Town
• We Wanna Party: It's vintage Aloud: we're-famous-and-fucked: disillusioned with my dreams, got life confused with my designer jeans.

Overall: a brilliant, grown-up, sonic and lyrically superb album with songs which both refer back to earlier songs and move their style onwards.

A Pop Quiz with Baccara

Tuesday, November 11, 2008

It's about time to have another quiz!

Here's a lovely song by those two Spanish senoritas, Baccara. They trill their way through Darling, purring oozy, schmoozie, floozie sentiments and (somehow) shoe-horning in a mention of Birmingham.

But there's one point where I have no idea what they're singing about.

In the chorus (after the Darling! Darling Darling! bits), they sing: "...and I imagine all the something we can do."

It begins - I think - with a G... but what is the something?

Make me laugh, make me cry, but please tell me. Fabulous prizes for those who answer.

Reborn at the Discotheque

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

It's all gone very butch / intellectual around here, what with my football and artsy excursions.

Time, then, for some camp pop fabulosity. Elin Lanto - she of Money (Show me what it takes to be a real rich bitch!) - is back with Discotheque. It's v. Alcazar, with big hair, amazing boots and hand-claps.

Wonderful.

Kylie Minogue X2008 tour

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Kylie's X2008 tour was on 4Music last night. I loved it - my favourite bits were:

• Opening song Speakerphone was ace, despite only a little dancing. I imagine this song is about listening to music on a bus, so she could have had a Routemaster on stage too.
• Kylie saying to the audience, "you're all looking so wow!"
• Kylie perched atop a sparkling metal skull, for Like A Drug, looking ferocious.
• Playing the ace Fischerspooner remix of Come into my World
• The symphonic reinvention of I Believe in You (but what were those shoes about?)
• Kylie's diva-like face pout to the synthy beats in Your Disco Needs You
• Frogmarch dancing during Your Disco Needs You
• Step Back In Time was totally retro - 40s/50s girlgroup singing to begin, 70s disco dancing, 80s fluoro-styling. Brilliant. (See below)
• In My Arms was the definite shot of technicolour disco the show needed.
• Kylie sans dancers for the final 4 songs proved that she is very much the attraction. She radiated!

One thing did niggle me, however. Why were the male dancers' heads covered for practically every song? They wore robot heads, football helmets, gas masks, Japanese helmets, Keith Haring-style head stockings and 80s retro BMX helmets.

But that's just a small thing - overall, it was a top show. Here's the retrotastic Step Back In Time

As In Rebecca Maria - live review

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Last night, I went to see As In Rebekka Maria. Her real name is Rebekka Maria, so I'm not sure what the 'As In' is about. Maybe it's because she's Scandinavian. As in from Sweden or Denmark (I'm not quite sure where).

She's following trailblazers Robyn, Lykke Li and others with her very own crazy dark electropop. She's at her best when she sticks to the Scandinavian music plan: catchy vocal melodies over repetitive squilchy, squelchy, twisty, wooshy, fizzy, whizzy, beepy, tweety electropop beats.

She slinked fabulously on stage with a purple scarf draped over her head which was subsequently draped over her shoulders and arms. Halfway through, it was discarded and never bothered with again.

Two songs stood out for me:

• Yours Truly has a skittering synthy beat which rattles along nicely overlaid with a montage of laidback, melodic vocals
• Army of Foxy with an ace beat which gets darker as the song goes on, and a catchy playground taunt: "We're the army of foxy little ladies... we're the oh oh ohs, we're the ho ho hos, we're the no no nos, we're the joe joe joes"

Check her out: Rebekka Maria on Myspace // Rebekka Maria homepage

7 songs of spring-summer

Friday, July 18, 2008

My blog tends to live in its own little world, so I'm pleasantly surprised when linked by another blog. Boz recently challenged me to a meme.

I like the word meme - it's all about me(me), and also the French for same (même), so finding our similarities.

The task is: "List seven songs you are into right now. No matter what the genre, whether they have words, or even if they’re not any good, but they must be songs you’re really enjoying now, shaping your spring. Post these instructions in your blog along with your seven songs."

So. Click to hear a muxtape of these seven songs, and read on.

Infernal - Self Control
A cover of the Laura Brannigan song, but with added europop-ness. I've just finished my PhD thesis. When I was studying, I listened to this lots. Firstly, the song themes are similar to my research... what people think of themselves and others when out drinking and socialising. And secondly, I was able to bop along to it in my library seat.

Kylie Minogue - Your Disco Needs You
For the past few weeks, my office has become obsessed with this - we play it whenever we need excitement or a little motivation. I recently found out it was written with Robbie Williams, and there are versions where Kylie does 'the French bit' in German and Spanish. I've included the German one here, for novelty.

Ani Lorak - Shady Lady
My absolute favourite from this year's Eurovision - I listen, and I strut. A little camp, very strong, very diva - and the most enthralling performance. It's just a shame it didn't win! I've included the Russian version.

Bodies without Organs - Last flight to San Francisco
My favourite song from their last album. I love a song with a placename in it, and any song that evokes travel wins with me.

Hannes Schöner - Nun sag schon adieu
I'm soon going to start learning German, so I've been listening to German songs to get used to the language. This song comes from a German eurovision preselection in the 80s... and led to one of those moments when my boyfriend recognises a song from his childhood that I'm thoroughly enjoying.

Katri Helena - Äiti kuin äidinäiti
When I first listened to this, I thought "what the heck is Katri Helena doing in the second verse? What's that noise?" I asked a Finish friend, and happily now I know. But - what do you think? Answers in comments please. Ones that tickle me will win some prize or other.

An Pierle - Il Est Cinq Heures Paris S'Eveille
A vintage chanson given a modern touch - I love the energy of this. I play this when I need to think of life and be inspired. I listen to this and think that living in a city is a fantastic stimulating rollercoaster ride.

Now I'll pick some folk to meme. So: Chig, ItinerantLondoner, Karinski & GayPop, Poplicious! and Fabtastic!