Paul Smith @ the Sage, Gateshead 3/12/22

Paul Smith and Friends in a chilled and special afternoon at the Sage

A gig in the afternoon during a winter World Cup. Searching for a December gig, we stumbled upon an Afternoon with Paul Smith. A great opportunity presented itself to get tickets, but I was marginally concerned that England would slump to second in the group and be playing at the same time. Instead they showed their class against Wales and it was game on at the Sage.

We arrived early afternoon and had a coffee in the Sage cafe. Andrew and I both needed food. Ste was lucky he’d eaten as the sandwich and salad game the sage had on offer was very much below par and below value.

We weren’t quite sure what to expect from this. The description wasn’t clear. We took our seats at 3 and Me Lost Me took the stage. She chilled us all out with some noise-scapes and dreamy vocals during a short set.

Hayden Thorpe was up next. Another stripped down set with dreamy vocals. He was on for much longer taking us into an interval. I’m not familiar with Hayden‘s solo material and don’t know Wild Beasts that well, but the set was enjoyable and had a calming effect.

Paul Smith was up for the headline slot. He explained the event was intended to fit with a folk theme for the day. He’d been asked to play and had curated the line up and guests.

It’s the first time I’d seen Paul Smith and I’ve never seen Maxïmo Park either. Ste had seen Paul but not Maxïmo and Andrew had seen Maxïmo but not Paul! He regaled the (very polite) audience with stories related to and unrelated to the songs. He made jokes and created a nice atmosphere for a special little gig. He brought out the support acts to play with him and a series of guests.

Paul Smith & Me Lost Me
Paul Smith & Peter Brewis
Paul & Hayden
Paul & Kathryn Williams

The signs suggested that the gig would end at 5.45pm. That was handy as Ste needed to leave before 6 to get home. As the gig went on it became apparent this end time was ambitious so Ste was sweating a bit before deciding he needed to leave. He missed the final three tracks, but made it home in time!

Paul & Rachel Unthank – singing un-miked and sans instruments

This was a real treat of a gig. A first for an afternoon. A really chilled affair with a special atmosphere.

Paul, Kathryn & Peter

We normally try and have a meal and a drink when the three of us get together for a gig. We only managed to attend 6 as a group of three this year, but we ended it well. Not enough time in Newcastle to grab food, so we had an Indian takeaway and a beer back at Ste’s to sign off the 8th consecutive year of a gig a month. I managed 18 this year, which was decent considering the first month was virus ridden. Some real treats.

Paul Smith Setlist Sage Gateshead, Gateshead, England 2022

Phoebe Green @ The Cluny 28/11/22

A quiet little Monday treat on a cold foggy night in November

We saw Sunflower Bean at Cluny 2 earlier this year, but amazingly this has been the first Cluny gig the three of us have been to together in 2022.

Andrew picked out Phoebe Green as an option to get us together to watch someone new. I heard her album for the first time this morning.

We managed to get there early for a good chat. A pint each (all different shades) and a burger and fries was the order of the day. We then headed into the venue to watch the support.

My pint on the right may look bad, but it was tasty!

There weren’t many in for the support act, but those that were had a little chilled out treat (and a slight chilly temperature). Nell Mescal played an enjoyable set with a The 1975 cover thrown in for good measure.

We headed out into the bar area to grab a coffee, but the machine had been switched off and seemingly couldn’t be turned back on. We guessed the nuclear reactor must have needed to fully cool before it could safely be turned on again.

At 9pm Phoebe Green and band (including her sister) took the stage. A tight and enjoyable 45 minute set followed. Considering I knew nothing, the set flew by. She has a good sound. Pretty and powerful. It reminded me of Pumarosa with some definite shades of Billie Eilish. I’ll definitely be throwing some tunes on my playlist.

I don’t have a lot more to add. This was probably the penultimate gig of 2022 with one more next month. It was a nice entry into a near full year of gigs (just January being covid affected).

Phoebe Green Setlist The Cluny, Newcastle, England 2022, The Lucky Me Tour

Lightning Seeds & Badly Drawn Boy @ Boiler Shop, Newcastle 11/11/22

Ramshackle & Marvellous

We were looking for a November gig. The price of this one put us off having seen the Seeds last year, but it’s been over a 15 years since we last saw Badly Drawn Boy. You never know what mood Damon will be in and can never be sure how long you are going to get. Anyway, Ste & I took the risk. It was worth it!

Badly Drawn Boy took the stage in his usual unassuming fashion to a fairly subdued welcome. At the end of the first track Damon was clearly irritated with the sound. He seemingly couldn’t hear himself and was muttering into the mic and gesticulating to someone at the side. A few songs later he apologised for how poor it sounded and seemed like he was ready to leave. A warm reassuring reception from the crowd seemed to change things round for him and he settled in to deliver a career spanning set.

He probably played a perfect set for me. I’d happily have had Disillusion, but otherwise he played good versions of everything. He seemed to genuinely have a love for the area – reeling off names of places he visited as a kid. He noted at the last gig we saw of his in 2007, that he didn’t really like Silent Sigh, but he closed with it…and it was brilliant.

We met up just before the gig. No food planned, but consumed a pint of one of the decent ales that the Boiler Shop always have on offer.

We saw the Lightning Seeds last year at a local festival. They played a singles heavy set then, but this one was different with tracks from the new album and some deep cuts.

Ian Broudie has never had the most powerful live voice. It loses some of the shiny poppy element that the studio production gives, but he was in fine voice. The set drew heavily from their classic Jollification – 6 songs from that, but with 4 from the latest album and Dizzy Heights and 2 from each of their first two, you got a nice “sense” of Lightning Seeds history.

The encore was marvellous. A crowd sing a long with a cover of Be My Baby, followed by a full length version of Marvellous. They closed, in advance of the World Cup, with Three Lions. I shouldn’t still get goosebumps from the song, but I did. Amazing.

It was well worth the admission fee!

The Lightning Seeds Setlist Boiler Shop, Newcastle, England, See You In The Stars UK Tour 2022
Badly Drawn Boy Setlist Boiler Shop, Newcastle, England 2022

Bon Iver @ Leeds First Direct Arena 19/10/22

Bon Iver live in Leeds

Booked relatively late in the day. Ste & I decided we’d travel to Leeds to take on board an act we’ve never seen before. It was a quick turnaround after work and so there wasn’t much time for food. KFC near the venue proved an easy option.

CARM was the opening act. We arrived part way through after the extensive queuing and security checks.

Not a band I’ll rush back to see. No idea how describe it. Jazz fusion noise? Think we caught most of the set in the end. It certainly felt long enough.

Bon Iver were on stage for 8.45pm, but not before we parted with 15 English pounds for just two pints of poor pale ale.

This is probably the most expensive headline act that I’ve seen that I’ve been least familiar with…if that makes sense? I own the debut and love Skinny Love. That wasn’t played. The set drew heavily from the latest album, which although listened too, clearly wasn’t overly embedded in my memory.

It was a really enjoyable set. They were pretty static on stage with each being stationed inside a light up arrow head. The lighting in general was pretty cool. The sound was really clear. I recognised about half of the set and definitely knew a handful of tracks. Well worth the journey though.

Bon Iver Setlist First Direct Arena, Leeds, England 2022, i,i

Turin Brakes @ Fire Station, Sunderland 7/10/22

Turin Brakes in fantastic form at an amazing new venue

The second of three Turin Brakes gigs booked on this tour. This one was a solo outing for me. My first ever gig in Sunderland and obviously my first in this new venue. The venue was outstanding and I can’t wait to book another there.

I arrived nice an early to make sure I could find the venue and catch the support act. I also wanted to properly check out the merch after not being in the right mood at Leeds. I grabbed myself a nice pint and took my seat about 9 or 10 rows from the front.

Concrete Kid was the support. It took me ages to realise this was another alter ego of Joe Gallacher who I’d seen support TB years ago. I really enjoyed the set as did most of the growing audience. F bombs galore but an endearing stage presence and some great tunes.

The Kid did a great job of selling his EP. Noting it was produced by Olly and only 20 available to sell on the night. He must have mentioned that about 4 or 5 times and it definitely worked with a healthy queue at the merch table after his set. I bought myself a Concrete Kid EP and a blue and pink TB T-shirt.

Turin Brakes took the stage at 9pm. Sadly there were a bunch of spare seats. Fortunately for me it meant I could shift a couple of seats to my left for an unhampered view.

The set was exactly the same as it had been the previous month. The difference: my well-being. This was perfect. Gone was the distraction from Leeds. In its place was an ability to be present and love every moment.

Isolation is fast becoming one of my favourite tracks. Haunting. Love it. Into The Sun was played with a power that only live music can enable. In fact Gale seemed like a man possessed. Guitar solos were the order of the day with a really heavy sound. Quality.

It was noted this was the first time TB had played Sunderland. They said they’d played Middlesbrough before. I was amazed as I’d somehow missed that one!

When the gig finished I was amazed that I was able to wander down to the front and find a setlist still available. A perfect end to a perfect gig.

Turin Brakes Setlist The Fire Station, Sunderland, England 2022

The Big Moon @ Newcastle University

The Big Moon bringing back gig magic

Sometimes a gig arrives at a perfect moment. Andrew needed a gig this month and it didn’t take long to persuade Ste & I to get involved in this one. A stressful personal week for me meant I really valued some time to catch up with some good friends, good food, good drinks and quality live music.

We just booked at the start of the month, but it turns out this was a twice delayed gig due to the obvious. We decided to head out to Pizza Punks in advance and a last minute decision to stay at Ste’s meant we were both free to have a few drinks with Andrew kindly being the designated driver.

The pizzas were tasty washed down with a pint of Blue Moon (in advance of The Big Moon!). We then headed for a couple in the City Tavern before making our way to the gig.

We arrived with Gently Tender already on stage and towards the end of their set. They sounded decent. We worked our way to the front with a couple of pints of Sharps Atlantic Pale Ale. A couple more were had before the end of the evening.

The Big Moon took the stage to a decent sized and very enthusiastic crowd. The 4th time I’ve seen them, but first as headliners. They were fantastic.

4 songs from the forthcoming album, 4 from the first and 7 from the second. Throw in a great cover of Praise You and it was a quality set. Wide Eyes from the new album is a great tune and the set was packed full of them.

Only our 4th gig this with the three of us present (plus a festival), but was a timely reminder of why we started this in the first place.

Someone else’s setlist prize
The Big Moon Setlist Newcastle University Students' Union, Newcastle, England 2022

Turin Brakes @ City Varieties, Leeds

Turin Brakes gig number 23

This was the first of three TB gigs booked on this tour. This one was with the whole family. The 3rd time Lana & Erin have seen TB and something like the 10th for Clare. 23rd for me!

The day leading up to this gig was really tough and emotional. My focus wasn’t on the gig and I definitely wasn’t fully present. Nevertheless it was just the tonic that I needed to soothe my mind and my heart.

Fast Trains opened the event after a minutes silence for the Queen. I enjoyed the set – particularly the cover of Somewhere In My Heart by Aztec Camera.

FastTrains

Just before the set I finally got to meet a TB fan I’ve interacted with loads on social media, but great to finally meet Rachel in person.

TB opened with Isolation. An instant classic from the latest album – Wide-Eyed Nowhere. They played 5 in total from the latest album. I’d have happily taken all 11, but the 5 were a treat.

Other than the new tracks I think Last Chance was my highlight of the night. It sounded awesome.

The start of the TB set had a few technical issues with their monitors, but if they hadn’t said anything I’d never have noticed!

Something In My Eye was the first encore song. I’m not convinced I’ve heard that live since the Dark On Fire tour, but I might be wrong!

Turin Brakes Setlist City Varieties Music Hall, Leeds, England 2022

My mood may not have been right, but TB did their best to bring some calm for a few hours. Looking forward to the next date in Sunderland!

Manchester Orchestra @ Manchester Academy 15/9/22

Manchester Orchestra and audience in a perfect connection

A while ago we developed a gig a month agreement that we’d be happy to travel further afield for bands that we really wanted to see. This was the first one that I felt compelled to ask the others if they’d be willing.

I discovered Manchester Orchestra in 2021. Pointed in their direction by a recommendation on insta, I played The Million Masks Of God on Spotify and put a load of tracks on my playlist. I found myself coming back regularly and started adding MO music to my physical collection in September. TMMOG was my album of the year in 2021 and by the time this gig rolled around I had all their albums including most on vinyl…and a load of related stuff.

Anyway. Having put in the ask (and I’d have gone solo), Ste answered the call. Good man. As we approached the date, the suggestion was to stay over and make a day / night of it. A travelodge was duly booked and we made plans to get there at around lunch. A car ride down filled with music and music based conversation ended with us arriving at 1ish.

Check in was later so we headed to a pub for a pint and some lunch. A few charity shops were explored for CDs (a few found) and a few more pubs were hit (including one at £6 per pint!). The gig was a fair trek from the hotel (50 minutes according to Google maps!) so we fell into a Brewdog pub on the way and had a couple more pints. We stumbled upon the venue earlier than Google maps predicted and found ourselves with another pint in hand.

Alex Lahey was the support. We enjoyed her set. The venue was filling up rapidly and everyone was respectful and engaged in her performance. We got another pint as the set drew to a close.

Coming back from the bar was easy-ish at this point, but as I had a final comfort break before MO, the journey back to our healthy position near (10 people back?) the front was much harder.

The band kicked off the set powerfully with Inaudible – lead of track from TMMOG. They stayed with the same album for the opening 4 tracks including Bed Head and Keel Timing – two of my absolute favourites. It was a real pleasure to hear and see those songs played live. Even within this early part of the gig, it was obvious we were in for something special.

I’m less familiar with the earlier stuff but it didn’t matter. The connection between band and audience was probably the closest I’ve ever witnessed. Everyone that was around me was loving it and all were singing along.

Cope & Simple Math were awesome and the they hit an incredible 3 song run from A Black Mile To The Surface. I was absorbed with no wandering of my mind like normal during gigs.

A mosh pit emerged just in front of us. I considered rolling back the years and getting involved in the bouncing, but like a proper old man my knee has been aching of late and I decided (wisely) against it. They looked like they were having a ball though!

I’m writing this a month later and so it’s tricky to think through the set. Suffice to say – it was all fantastic. At some point towards the end (not realising it was near the end), Ste went to the toilet and sent a message to see he was going to struggle to get back to where we were stood. We debated another pint and the next thing I knew he’d sent me a picture of two freshly poured beers. He fought his way back to give us some refreshments for the encore.

The encore was perfect. Shake It Out, 100 Dollars & The Silence. What an end to a quality experience. I took a picture of the setlist that someone had collected and we made our way into the night.

We were pretty hungry by this point and decided to head to Dixy Chicken for some very greasy fried chicken. It hit the spot. We considered that we may need to travel for our gigs more often if we needed to for this kind of quality. Wanting to continue our music conversation we spotted an open pub (The Salisbury) and got another couple of pints. The loudest pub ever seemed to want to stay open very late and so we got a couple more. Cheers!

Manchester Orchestra Setlist Manchester Academy, Manchester, England 2022

Coldplay @ Wembley Stadium 16th August 2022

Coldplay on magical form

Wembley – 16th August booked in October 2021
Really pleased to land London Grammar for our gig
A decent line up!

We booked tickets last October and surprised the kids at Christmas with the fact that they were heading to their first Coldplay gig. We had tried for Glasgow, as we’d never been there, but the booking site wasn’t easy to navigate. As we were buying 4 tickets we went for £55 seated tickets which clearly weren’t going to have the best view. We ended up booking accommodation late in the game and stayed for 2 nights in a Travelodge in North Acton.

We arrived nice and early to soak up the atmosphere and explore a little. We had a decent little meal just outside the venue and then the kids explored the shops and Erin enjoyed the play park!

Wembley at about 5.30pm

We went inside at 5.30ish and made our way high up to our seats. We were high up but near to the front with a good view of the screen and stadium.

Ibibio Sound Machine were first on stage at 6pm. They produced an enjoyable and energetic set which did a good job of engaging the early Wembley crowd. Bizarrely the third time I’ve seen this band (with two previous Deer Shed appearances)!

London Grammar took the stage at 6.55pm and were superb. Lead singer Hannah Reid, has such an incredible voice and it seemed to be made for the Wembley acoustics. A quality 10 song set followed drawing 4 songs from their debut and 6 from their latest album.

Just before Coldplay took the stage our vantage point gave Erin the opportunity to see them walk from the back stage area just prior to a sustainability film being played on the big screens. As Coldplay took the stage and burst into High Power, Erin literally squealed with joy and excitement. It was amazing.

Fireworks from the start with the wrist bands lighting up the night sky. From Higher Power to Adventure to Paradise to Charlie Brown there was no let up and the stadium looked unreal with the lights everywhere.

The Scientist slowed things down before they moved to the B stage. They may not have played all of my favourite tunes but the whole set seemed designed to maximise joy.

Hearing Politik live again was a real treat, but Yellow thrilled and People Of The Pride was probably my individual highlight.

It was all Yellow
Human Heart ❤️

For the c stage performance Coldplay dusted off Sparks for an essentially acoustic performance to a Wembley crowd that could hear a pin drop. Impressive. Natalie Imbruglia was the guest so we got Torn and a tribute to Olivia Newton John.

They closed with Human Kind and then a sensational Fix You. It seemed like that would be the end, but they actually closed on Biutyful…which is probably my least favourite Coldplay song! Shame, but it didn’t dampen the awesomeness.

We left happy and had a decent tube journey back to the hotel. Until next time…

Coldplay Setlist Wembley Stadium, London, England 2022, Music of the Spheres
London Grammar Setlist Wembley Stadium, London, England 2022
Ibibio Sound Machine Setlist Wembley Stadium, London, England 2022