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.

Robyn @ Heaven

Friday, June 18, 2010

Ace Swedish popstar Robyn played a wonderful gig last night in Heaven.

Robyn is very much the hipster's popstar of choice. She slipped out on stage with her hair all sticking up, wearing tights, a corset belt, a white bra and an old shirt. It looked a bit like she'd walked through a wardrobe and clothes fell on her. Somehow, it all worked wonderfully.

She played an ace set of tunes from her new album Body Talk and previous album Robyn. "I'm giving it my all," she sings in her new song Dancing on my Own. It's definitely true. She dances like a demon: hands flying, fists flailing, shoulder shimmying, head bouncing, hearts beating. There's not much panache, just unabashed joy and enjoyment. Halfway through, her hair had fallen down, such was the intensity of her dancing.

And then there's the brilliant bits where she drums and bangs on cymbals.

"She is tearing it up!" exclaimed the friend I was with. She certainly was, with her own ace dancepop and collaborations The Girl & The Robot and With Every Heartbeat, she had the audience reaching dance euphoria.

O'Spada at St Pancras Station

Last night, I saw newcomer Swedish band O'Spada play The Station Sessions at St Pancras Station. It is a giddy thrill to hear the St Pancras announcements in English and French - O'Spada continued the thrills with a short set of 80s funky-synthy tunes.

I liked O'Spada, despite their not-so-likeable name. The seven members of the band were in a true triangular schlager formation, with the 3 on the left wearing navy jackets and the 3 on the right wearing wine jackets. The lead singer, perfectly centred, wore gold.

I like these little touches.

O'Spada have played a series of gigs in London this week, so maybe they'll be taking off here. Check out O'Spada on myspace or O'Spada on twitter.

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.

Vania Fernandes at Cafe Madeira, Vauxhall

Sunday, March 28, 2010

I went tonight to see 2008 Portuguese Eurovision singer Vânia Fernandes singing at a cafe in Vauxhall.



Cafe Madeira is one of Lambeth's many Portuguese restaurants and cafes - some of which I've visited before - with Vania performing to help raise funds for her native Madeira following recent flooding.

A baby christening party was in full swing at the cafe, so spirits were high when Vania took to the mike.

She performed several fado songs in a typical fado style, looking very fetching all in black, and entertained the crowd who were singing, dancing and clapping along.

I'm happy to report that Vania also took the time to coo at the baby who was being christened.

Sadly, she didn't perform her Eurovision song, Senhora do Mar - despite a middle-aged lady shouting at her to do so.




Vania happily posed for photographs after her performance, and minutes later left the building, while we were being entertained by Alexys and his accordion and his fun dancing songs.

Click here to donate to flood relief in Madeira

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.

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:

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

Queen of the Gypsies in London

Monday, August 11, 2008

I found out today that the Queen of the Gypsies, Esma Redzepova, will be playing a concert in London on September 8.

· details here

Sadly, I can't be there as I'm on holidays, but I thoroughly recommend. Esma is an amazing performer, her voice soars but has wonderful nuances expressing joy and pain, laughter and love.

She may be best known in the UK for her song from the Borat soundtrack, Chaje Shukarije (...although wikipedia says that the track was used without her permission). Esma's singing career has spanned 4 decades - here's the song in two versions, one much older and one more recent.

I prefer the more modern version - look at her go, a spinning vision in mint green!

· Esma Redzepova website

Sounds Sveriges

Thursday, August 23, 2007

I went to see Swedish rock-poppers The Sounds play Hoxton Bar & Grill on Tuesday night.

They came on stage about 40 minutes late. When popstars are late on stage, I naturally assume they're preening their hair. So when Maja came on stage with a right dodgy mop, I wasn't overly impressed.

Maja is fierce, and I don't mean in an fabulous way. Woman is scary. She marched across the stage, ducking and diving, spitting and snarling. Her voice is more shouty and harsh than floaty and high. She's a woman among men, but has definitely a touch of the masculine.

Still, she was wearing a nice headband. And has amazing legs.

Crucial fashion error: double denim. Maja teamed a light blue denim jacket with dark charcoal denim high-waisted buttoned-up hot pants. Double denim is never a good look. The whole effect, avec headband, was very 80s European rock.

As it happens, this image works for the band, whose songs are best when they're Europe-style anthems. Living in America, Painted by Numbers, Ego and Hurt You were sing-a-long, arms-in-the-air highlights.

Check: The Sounds site // The Sounds myspace

Swedish pop @ G-A-Y

Monday, July 23, 2007

I went to G-A-Y on Saturday night to see BWO, Alcazar and Army of Lovers.

• Army of Lovers were just plain bizarre. Alexander Bard had a black blow up (female) sex doll with him.
• Alcazar were with new girl Lina, and all synchronised head turns and pointing.
• No handclaps! No strutting!
• Tess was dressed for wind machine success with a big flowy number.
• The wind machine was set to Carola strength for Tess, but a mere Sonja Alden trickle for Lina. Maybe there's a wind machine pecking order?
• Andreas was sharp with his shaved head and tight, tight trousers. He knew his market.
• They were all coy about Alcazar reforming, meaning 'no'.
• BWO were good too. Martin took his shirt off.
• They performed Temple of Love to a hugely bemused audience who had no idea of its Melodifestivalen brilliance.

Raymond och Maria

Wednesday, June 20, 2007

I went to see wistful Swedish poppets Raymond & Maria last night. They're playing a whistlestop tour of gigs in London and Glasgow this week, and I highly recommend.

Reasons why Raymond & Maria are great:

• There are 5 people in Raymond & Maria, only one of whom is called Maria. Raymond & Maria was the name of a notorious swinging club in Stockholm in the '60s. Amazing.
• Raymond & Maria play floaty, wistful pop music that sounds very happy and jaunty but in fact is rather depressing.
• Many of their songs have hand-claps and 'la la la' bits. One song in particular was hand-claps-a-go-go.
• Tambourines!
• Raymond & Maria are very polite and unassuming. They said 'please' and 'thank you' and 'takk!' a lot.
• One song includes the line 'Will someone tell me why the boring ones are loudest in the bar?'
• One song abbreviates 'television' to 'televish'.
• Raymond & Maria have been Number 1 in Sweden with Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja. The English version of this is called No One Notices Your Brand New T-shirt, but in Swedish it means "No one wants to know where you bought your sweater".

The English version can be heard on Raymond och Maria's myspace, and download the Swedish version here:

Download Raymond och Maria: Ingen vill veta var du köpt din tröja mp3

GipsyCZ

Sunday, June 17, 2007

This man is Gipsy.CZ.

He took part in the Czech Republic's Eurovision pre-selection this year, and came second. He also played a gig in London yesterday as part of the Central & Eastern Europe Pulse music festival. I went to see him. He was very good.

• He plays a racuous mixture of gypsy folk music and hip-hop. It mixes accordions, fiddles, cellos and phat vocals.
  
• Despite having a powerful, masculine rap voice, Mr GipsyCZ has a sweet, cute speaking voice. He said, "hell-low, I am from Prack".
  
• His best song is Romano Hip Hop. Listen to a little bit of it here.
  
• He bounces around stage a lot, striking poses. Why did the Czech Republic not send him to Eurovision?!
  
• His little white shirt was nicely fitted, not like these ill-fitting American rap t-shirts.
  
• If you're going to Glastonbury, go see Mr Gipsy.CZ. He'll be there too. More info: on Gipsy.Cz's website and Myspace.
  
• The gig had fantastic energy and the crowd were loving it, dancing and 'hands-in-the-air'-ing.
  
• Interesting geography fact! The gig really showed the demographics of recent migration from Eastern Europe: lots of funky cool young people. Also: lots of really beautifully cheekboned buff handsome men. Hurrah for them.