Sat 6 Aug – Field Day 2011

Some things I enjoyed about Field Day:

Willy Mason’s ability to get the words “pick up truck” into every song

Ariel Pink’s ongoing transformation into Todd Rundgren

The last five minutes of Omar Souleyman’s set (damn that I missed the rest of it)

How grumpy Archer Prewitt of Sea & Cake was when he found there wasn’t anywhere to plug his gear in and then how immensely happy he looked when a member of the tech crew gave him a simple extension lead

How nervous Electrelane looked whilst setting their…

Wilco popped up on my iPod shuffle this morning and I got to thinking of bands that have gone off in new, interesting, or sometimes downright alarming directions because of the addition of a new member. Sometimes they replaced someone else, others just slotted into the usual band as a plus 1 but here are ten examples of players who've come into an already well-established band and taken them off somewhere new. Feel free to add to the list……..

Nels Cline – Wilco

Helped them realise their more left-field side (especially live)

David Gilmour - Pink Floyd

Gave them the…

Sat 31 Jul – Field Day 2010

My second year at Field Day and well worth the return visit. Crucially, this year the rain mac stays in the bag. Good (though not spectacular weather) puts most of the punters in a good mood and doesn’t mess with the running order.

FD crams in a lot of music which is either a good thing (if you’re prepared to take a punt on people you haven’t heard of or wouldn’t normally check out) or a bad thing (see some of the previous shouts agonising over choice). Maybe they need a second day,…

Fri 16 Jul – Lovebox London Weekender

My first trip to Lovebox, drawn there to see Roxy Music. In my case, for the first time, though there were clearly many there who’d followed them from the start. Festivals with a very distinct headliner sometimes feel a bit lop-sided and as the day went on there was less inclination to sample random stages and all roads led to Roxy. I’m not sure if that was true for everyone and good on you if you opted for Empire of the Sun (they were playing loud enough to drown out Roxy on…

Fri 9 Jul – Air, Olof Arnalds

I thought I'd review the gig in the style of Air's expansive between song banter.

So, er, the gig was "Très bien"………

Fri 5 Mar – Brendan Benson, Heartless Bastards

Strangely, considering his profile has risen, I'm sure he's got more shy since the last time I saw him play (about 2003). More "You're Quiet" than Raconteur (groan). Restricting between song banter to the occasional "thank you" and band member intro, means he fits in a huge number of songs, however. Generous helpings of the last three albums (including lots of Lapalco, which pleases me) and a Graham Nash cover as an encore. He started with a high bar - Folk Singer and Good To Me - but kept the pace and…

Fri 22 Jan – Way to Blue The Songs of Nick Drake

According to the programme notes, Joe Boyd organised these shows because he felt there weren't enough great covers of Nick Drake songs - the point being that these were great songs in their own right, ripe for re-interpretation. It was a good concept and the heart of many a pub debate about what makes a good cover version – can it be faithful to the original, should it go out on a limb and so forth.

The slight problem in the design for this show is that it…

This felt like a really good year for music yet when I sat down to compile a top ten tracks released this year, I realised that none stood out head and shoulders above the rest. The following ten sneak through by a nose, ahead of a very large field.

1. You Muses Assist – Alasdair Roberts

He’s released loads of records but I only stumbled on him this year, picking up his last but one album for a quid in a charity shop. He’s since treated me to the longest gig of the year (when I left at midnight he…

Fri 11 Dec – Soulsavers, Mark Lanegan, Exit calm

First off, how comes I’ve been going to gigs in London for a quarter of a century (scary fact) and this is the first time I’ve seen one at the Electric Ballroom. Maybe it’s not always been like it is now but I thought it was a great venue, especially for the kind of sound Soulsavers bring.

Despite the early curfew to make way for the club night, there were two support acts which ate into Soulsavers headline time a little. One of the two, Exit Calm, had a lead…

Thu 8 Oct – Pixies, Art Brut

Wave of Mutilation? Wave of affection more like. How many other bands could start their set with three or four twenty year old B sides and still be greeted, rightly, as returning heroes. The main event, of course, is Doolittle in its entirety. I'd always maintained that it was a top heavy album with side 1 superior to side 2. These things are relative of course. That means side 2 is merely completely brilliant as opposed to utterly mind altering. Played through live, though, the invention, humour and wonder of the whole thing…