Face Of Cheam

Dressed up as a vampire today at work. First time a bit of fun when getting into my new job. Thats not to say I've been loving it so far, I am enjoying it much more than i thought I would, it's just a bit more professional than what I've been used to. With nothing much on socially this week I've been listening to the Horrorpops Cds I've got from amazon. A Danish group with a female vocalist playing double bass an interesting "Stray Cats" band playing camp scary movie stuff! The Jemina Pearl LP which I got on import is fantastic and possibly the best album so far this year. A punky trip which is NY 70s at its best.
On sunday I saw the first two episodes on season two of Dollhouse, and Amy Acker's performance as Dr Saunders/Whiskey as she tries to accept she's a doll is nothing short of remarkable. As good as she was, if not better, than when she played Fred in Angel. I was crying my eyes out.
Booked my place on the club coach for Sutton United's trip to Hereford. Their display at Hampton was the best I've seen them all season.
Finally I've got tickets for Taylor Swift as they finally released "Production Seats" for her Wembley Shows meaning your at the side of the stage. Should be good especially if Joe Elliot turns up!

Only a fiver for Theoretical Girl and a solo support from Gwenno the Welsh one from the Pipettes. I wander in as The Understudies are halfway through their set. They play nice twee stuff but have no image other than the slender pointy female glokenspielist in a summer dress. The male lead vocalist and guitarist reminded me of an arrogant school friend (though I'm sure he probably is a much nicer bloke than the one called Gary S). From what I saw they were ok and also mentioned by each following act as something special!
The next act was an American "Duke of Dark" who I lost interest in. He seemed to be like an Elvis impersonator and an act that may go down well in the states but not here. I was however distracted as I took the opportunity to sit down and on my right were two swedish girls who were djing between acts and then Gwenno and two female friends decide to sit next me! Well hello....
Gwenno, wearing laddered striped tights, short denim shorts and a glittery black vest looked good Her solo stuff certainly has an element of Kylie and St Etteinne. Very enjoyable but will take a couple of listens to appreciate it.
Theoretical Girl (Amy from Southend) has a day job as she missed the soundcheck due to this. She advised us that her cabbie was "Sweet Steve" who plans to take over America! In between such stories she plays very melancholic pop on her keyboard opening with 'Rivals' and ending with 'The Boy I Left Behind' in the Twee sense similar to Aberdeen. She's also a late developer turning thirty in a couple of weeks. Hope for us all.....

The koko's website annoyingly doesn't show the stage times. However, after e-mailing them I got a quick reply giving details of the supports, stage times and a suggestion to bring a raincoat as the last time they played there it was like a beer throwing competition. The Twangs new album, Jewellery Quarter is a more mellow affair but does have some excellent tracks on it such as set opener Took The Fun. The bigger numbers such as Push Away The Ghosts and Either Way were played early on, which is the only criticism I would have, new song Barney Rubble sounded great live and made me pleased I was wearing a Barney Rubble t-shirt. After an hour fifteen it was over and time for a pint in the nearby Elixir bar which was showing a depressing polish film when we went in there pre-gig.

A right result here, as I thought I was row H seat one, when in fact I was entrance H row one meaning I was right down the front for the Cult performing their classic album 'Love'. This is the one with 'Rain' and 'She Sells Sanctuary' on it both sounding great live with lots of bouncing during the latter. After they finished the album they returned for a best of the rest set for forty minutes including 'Edie (Ciao Baby)', 'Fire Woman' and 'Dirty Little Rock Star'. Only singer Ian Astbury and guitarist Billy Duffy returned on stage for the encore where they intoduced bassist Jaime Stewart and a Mark Brzecki (also the drummer from Big Country) to the stage, meaning the original line-up that recorded the Love album were together. They then repeated a couple of the songs, 'Pheonix' and of course ' She Sells Sanctuary' again. Being only a four piece, compared to the current line-up of five they did manage to give the songs a slighly different feel to them. On the way out I could have bought a USB of the show, however this was £30 (the same price as the concert ticket) which I found to be too expensive. You would have thought it would be cheaper when Concert Live put out treble CDs of shows on the night for £20.00.

Amazingly I had never seen Skunk Anansie before. Recently reformed after nearly a decade this warm up show for their greatest hits tour was an opportunity to at last see them (I have all their three albums which are great) as the Brixton date in November clashed with another gig. Greatest hits was the key and the set opened with Selling Jesus with Skin the singer dressed like a glittery porcupine. After the outrageous coat was ditched the show continued with I Can Dream and then Because and Charity. The three new songs from their forthcoming compilation were played which sounded good and aside from the obvious hits such as Weak, Brazen (Weep) and Hedonism, a couple of album tracks also made the set such as 100 Ways To Be A Good Girl. The show ended with Little Baby Swastika and ended a thoroughly enjoyable night. How did I miss them first time around? Skin said the band would have a few drinks at the bar afterwards but i decided not to hang around as I know I would only p1ss off the drummer Mark Richardson by begging for a Little Angels reformation.

Another Sunday Social event at the Old Queens Head in Islington for the lovely Rose Elinor. She did about forty five minutes playing a couple of songs I hadn't heard before and some stuff I can sing along to such as opener Another Version Of A Pop Song and new single Fallen Over, current on her myspace page. This is about the sixth time I've seen her over the last twelve months and she and her band are getting better every show. I love the song 'Come Away With Me' with the sultriness of the vocals and her album 'Without Why' should be out next year, though it seems when you think it might be released, it's still months away. It will be a must buy though. Also nice to see Rose in a summery dress rather than the black colours she normally wears. Hopefully she will do a few more free shows like this before the album will propel her popularity to playing larger venues.

Sat directly behind me was Primal Scream's Bobby Gillispie. Also in the audience were Jimmy Page and memers of the Quire Boys. No doubt other famous artists, such as Joe Elliot and Brian May, attended other nights of the five that Mott The Hoople played at Hammersmith, their first shows for over thirty years. The original line bar the drummer, though he played two songs in the encore looking very frail, this was a nostalgia trip. Hymn For The Dudes opened the show and from then on the pace increased belittling Ian Hunters (the lead singer) 70+ years of age. Possibly the oldest band I've seen, they played some of the best music, with All The Young Dudes, Roll Away The Stone and set ender, Saturday Gigs, cheekily introduced as an Oasis song, all being classics. It was a bit emotional though as it is likely that they don't have many years between them left on this earth and I cannot see any other shows beyond this five night run. Therefore I was priviliged to be there.

Upon entering the Borderline, the support were covering Eleanor Rigby. They were called outside royalty and their original stuff sounded ok. However, the borderline no longer serves Tuborg so had to make do with a £3.40 pint of San Miguel. Luke Haines has a new album coming out but only played a handful from this with the rest of the set concentrating on his Autuers stuff such as Showgirl, Light Aircraft On Fire and Unsolved Child Murder. A heckle of "play the hits" resulted in Luke stating that 'they are all hits" which was funny. Bad Reputation from his last album was also played with asides in the song stating that Ricky Gervais took exception to the Gary Glitter references, this after his routine included a bit about raping a seventy year old. Nice to see Mr Haines still has his dark humour and ending with Lenny Valentino it was a good night. The only shame was that upon leaving I walked past where the Astoria used to be and it is now just a large crane.

Always nice to go out in Putney, and a gig at the Half Moon. Freddie Edwards guitar playing was superb in his dad's (Rhino from the Quo) band. They opened up with Belavista Man, and played a mixture of stuff, new, from the Rhino's Revenge album (Spacemaker and Republican) and covers including Quo's Paper Plane and Sweet Home Chicago which they ended with. Diappointingly the venue was only half full but this enabled a good view without bumping into people. An added bonus was when leaving the venue we found out England had actually won a one day game of cricket!

This was a Harvey Goldsmith special event in association with American Express and it was basically a covers set based on fifties rockn'roll. So we got stuff like Baby Let's Play House, The Train Kept A Rolling, Rock Around The Clock and My Baby Left Me. Imelda went through several dress changes, and shared vocals with her main guitarist. Jeff Beck's playing was as expected (excellent) though when he did his Les Paul tribute, the Les Paul guitar still had the price tag attached. A good evening out anyway ending up in the Prince of Wales in Wimbledon which now appears to be open until midnight on weeknights!