Slade at Koko 18 December

Breaking news: the mighty Slade will play at Koko in Camden on 18 December. I *must* be there despite Koko being one of my least favourite venues.

A mere week before Christmas and we will have Slade. Not the classic line-up of course, no Sir Noddy or Jim, but I must support Dave and Don and sing myself hoarse. And I will. Tickets go on sale on Friday this week and tickets will be mine!

It's 40 years since their first No 1 hit single - who knows what might happen?

Laura Marling - 'A Creature I Don't Know'

Today sees the release of Laura Marling's third album and she is still only 21 years old. I first heard of Laura on Jools Holland's 'Later' in, I think, late 2007 that made me watch out for her first album in 2008. I saw her sing live with The Mystery Jets in 2008 but haven't seen her play live since - I've always been in the wrong place to see her.

Words and melody are central to Laura's songs and sound, with lyrical flights of fancy taking off when you least expect it and that's a central characteristic of this new record. It's an album that will, I have no doubt, grow with successive plays. After an initial listen, I'd vote for 'The Beast', 'Sophia' and 'All My Rage' as favourite songs. No doubt that'll change after a day or two as I love different songs.

Do yourself a favour and give it a listen.

New Kate Bush Album - '50 Words For Snow'

I've just seen that Kate Bush will release an album of new material on 21 November called, '50 Words For Snow'. Clearly, Kate has been reading my blog and knows of my love of the white stuff. Full details are here.

'Richard III' at The Old Vic

I forgot to mention that we'd been to see 'Richard III' at The Old Vic a week or so ago - it was the first in a series of nights out and the last to be blogged. I'm not sure why. I've never seen the play before and never read it, I'm not even clear in my own mind about the backdrop of history it plays against, so I must take it at face value.

It's the last in the series of 'Bridge' productions at The Old Vic with a joint British and American cast, ignoring the difference in accents with actors speaking as they would in any other play. I can cope with Shakespeare in various American accents, what I can't cope with is plain bad acting. More of that later.

Kevin Spacey plays Richard, starting out in modern clothes and seemingly regressing wardrobe-wise. The guards are in suits and it starts out with a vaguely JFK 'Camelot' feel to it. That swiftly evaporates as dire deeds are done and a prince is drowned in a vat of cider in his boxers. Richard is clearly one sexy bugger since he kills a lady's husband and father and still manages to seduce her. I was like, 'eh?'. I suppose power overcomes all. He then cuts a swathe through the court and royal family and brings England to the brink of disaster before being stopped by a bad actor... ooops, did I say that out loud? Anyway...

I liked the sparse sets and the use of technology in a reality TV world. I thought Kevin Spacey was excellent as the malevolent king but he seemed to move from originality into stereotype baddy towards the end - is this the writing or the direction or the acting? I dunno. I liked Gemma Jones as mad Queen Margaret who wandered round the set every now and then putting large Xs on doors and being melodramatic. I also liked Haydn Gwynne as deposed Queen Elizabeth in a no-win situation. I must (yes, I really must) pour scorn on the actors who played Lord Stanley and the Earl of Richmond (both American) who, and let me find the right words here ... o yes, who couldn't act for toffee! C'mon guys. you're fighting for your lives, at least have some tone and inflection to your voices! Wooden or what, I can't even be bothered to look up their names to publicly shame them.

Anyway, other than the aforementioned gentlemen, I must recommend this production. I enjoyed it and I'm pleased to finally see one of Shakespeare's history plays with actors worthy of the parts. Well done!

Celeste Dos Santos & The Tabloid Queens

My latest favourite new band is Celeste Dos Santos & The Tabloid Queens. They've published five demo tracks produced by Youth on reverbnation that sound pretty damn fab to me.

I think my favourite songs are 'Cheers! Sweet Melancholy' with it's opening line of 'I'm going to drown my sorrows in a big fat glass of beer!' and 'The International' with it's fast punky guitar and drums. It would be great to hear these tracks properly recorded and released.

The band was previously called Debutante Disco but they've added some new members and changed the name and are about to be unleashed on London on 22 September in their first gig at Alley Cat on Denmark Street. I won't be there, sadly, but I'm looking forward to the reviews and YouTube clips. If you get the chance go along and support Celeste.

The band is even more special to me personally since Celeste is the daughter of the mighty Poly Styrene and a clear example of great talent running in the family. Like mother like daughter.

Four Seasons

Today, even I have to admit that summer is over, what little we saw of it. Yesterday was full of rain, include a monsoon sequence, and today is just plain chilly. Luckily, I delight in having four seasons to savour.

I love a hot summer and a freezing winter, and I love the changing of the seasons, moving from hot to cold and cold to hot. Or at least that's the plan. I really hope we have a good summer next year for the Olympics. London looks beautiful in the sunshine, with old buildings and hanging baskets of flowers and its lovely denizens.

I occasionally think of living somewhere else in the world, like Sri Lanka. Much as I enjoy visiting there and it's green lushness, I'm not sure I could live there. I'd probably love it for a year or so and then I'd start missing the seasons and the cold, bundling up in coats and mufflers, wearing gloves to go to the shops and all that. Lovely to visit but not to live - I rejoice in change.

Where I live is surrounded by trees and greenery and for the last couple of weeks I've noticed the trees become laden with apples and fruit and berries. All over the place. And conkers are starting to fall. The old wives tales say that this predicts a long and bad winter since nature is providing food early for the birds and animals to eat and hibernate. I hope that's true. There's nothing worse than a long, dreary and damp winter - I want extremes.

I should be used to the changing seasons by now but it always surprises me how the world changes. Just a couple of weeks ago it wasn't getting dark until around 9:00pm, now it's dark at 8:00pm. It happens every year but it's always a surprise.

I worked from home today and wore shorts. I think that's the last time. I will now welcome Autumn with open arms and wear long trousers. And socks (mis-matched, of course).

By the way, I nicked the photo from Cherie's Place.

Amanda & Neil Kickstarter

Amanda Palmer and Neil Gaiman are doing a short tour of the West Coast of the USA in November and, because we don't all live there, they're recording it for our pleasure and using Kickstarter to raise the funding. In the 12 hours since they opened the Kickstarter they've raised $44,000 and they were hoping for a total of $20,000 by early October. Saying 'not bad' is an understatement.

Amanda Palmer at The British Library

This evening we were lucky enough to be part of a small gathering at The British Library to see a special show by Miss Amanda Palmer. There were only 200 tickets or so, so it was quite special to see her in a small venue and, what's more, in a venue with seats - the first time I've been to an Amanda gig with seats.

She came on in a canary yellow suit, a knee-length dress and matching jacket, handbag and the essential pearls round her neck, bought from a charity shop in Scotland, giving a regal wave. She looked most odd in old/older womens' clothes and commented that they made her feel strange and thought our reaction to her was changed as well. Still, it didn't stop her starting the show with her Australian ukulele by singing a Niggaz With Attitude song that influenced her own song, 'Do You Swear To Tell The Truth'. After a few songs she needed to change clothes and Neil Gaiman helped her unzip the dress to reveal one more to her style underneath.

Most of her songs were with the ukulele even though a piano was on stage with her (which she didn't think was a very good one). We also had two songs which she played with a mandolin (she said she didn't know how to play it). We were given a nice range of her ukulele songs, including 'Map Of Tasmania' (during which she delighted that we were shouting out 'Fuck it' in the chorus in the British Library), the beautiful 'In My Mind', 'Fake Plastic Trees', 'Inbetween Days' (cover of the Cure song) and ''Black Boys On Mopeds' (Sinead O'Connor cover). The penultimate song was a new song that was meant to be a ukulele anthem but had too many words and too many chords but was excellent! During the song, Neil kneeled on the stage with the words on paper for Amanda to read - it's so new she hasn't learned it properly yet.

We were given three songs with Neil Gaiman, 'The Problem With Saints' from the 8in8 project, 'I Google You' (the song he wrote with Amanda three years ago) and the final song of the set, Wreckless Eric's 'Whole Wide World' - I was one of the relatively few people in the audience who could sing along and, I suspect, the only one who's seen Eric sing it live.

Amanda was most excellent, chatting away quite happily, answering questions and being lovely. She was on for about 1:30 hours and then came out afterwards to sign things. As the officious little librarian bloke (who obviously has always dreamed of being a bouncer) kept telling us - don't talk to her, don't take pics with her, everyone move forward, you've got to be out by 9pm, etc. Neil gamely wandered down the queue happy to sign any books that anyone had while I asked Amanda to sign my 'Amanda Palmer Down Under' and 'UkuleHead' CDs and she did. It was a short but sweet meeting, no hugs but at least I had a few words with her and congratulated Neil on a great show as we were leaving.

So. That's two excellent doses of Amanda Fucking Palmer over the weekend and I'm happy. I do, of course, want a new album from Miss Palmer, like, now please. And we need a live DVD please. Oh, and more shows as well (obviously). Thank you for a very special evening.

Jimmy Cliff at The IndigO2

Last night we went to see the legend that is Jimmy Cliff. OK, some of you might think you've never heard of him but if you've ever heard a reggae song by someone other than Bob Marley, then it's probably by Jimmy. I've been a long-time fan of Jimmy Cliff, going back to the early 70s, but I've never seen him before. When I heard he was playing at the IndigO2 I made sure I got the best seats I could, and, for the first time, managed to nab seats in the Kings Row section of the venue with it's own private bar and lounge. Well swanky before the skanking began.

Jimmy started writing and making music in the mid-60s Jamaican ska scene before rising to international prominence by writing most of the music for and starring in the film, 'The Harder They Come'. Regular readers will remember my glowing reviews of the stage play a few years ago when I saw it more times than was good for my wallet, even heading out to Oxford to see it on tour. The soundtrack album is widely credited as taking reggae to the world - before there was Bob Marley, there was Jimmy Cliff.

Jimmy's music is sunshine and happiness, anger and righteousness, careful lyrics married to a reggae sound to draw you in and dance, letting his words into your head. He's a sadly overlooked songwriter - probably because his genre is reggae - who has finally been inducted into the Rock Hall of Fame. He has a soothing and gentle voice and a nice way of phrasing lyrics, whether his own or other peoples'.

On stage he gave us 1:45 hours of great reggae from his big band, beautifully paced and getting us all on our feet every now and then. He's been in the biz for 40 years so knows how to work a crowd and I'm pleased that he told us we'd made him i-rie! He took us on a journey from his early ska singles through reggae to the more dancy/disco of the '80s and beyond. And the man never stood still, dancing from one side of the stage to the other, skanking, arms and legs all over the place, a bundle of energy on the stage in his gold headband and golden trainers.

We had 'Miss Jamaica' and 'King of Kings'. We had 'The Harder They Come', 'Wonderful World, Beautiful People', 'Many Rivers To Cross', 'The Harder They Come', 'Sitting In Limbo' and 'You Can Get It If You Really Want It'. We had 'Wild World' and 'Sitting In Limbo'. We had 'I Can See Clearly Now' and 'Reggae Night'. Jimmy always has another song to throw at you from different stages of his career. He gave us his anti-war anthem 'Vietnam' but nowadays it's called 'Afghanistan'. He gave us 'Treat The Youths Right' in response to the riots and looting in London and elsewhere in August. He gave us a bongo section when the band all played bongos and percussion for 'Bongo Man'.

If you get the chance to see Jimmy Cliff don't think twice, buy tickets. He gives good show and killer music. Thank you Mr Cliff, come back to London soon!

AFP @ Heaven

Tonight we had the pleasure of seeing Amanda Palmer and The Grand Theft Orchestra (plus special guests) at the box that is Heaven. The special guests were Neil Gaiman, Tim Minchin, Tom Robinson (yes, Mr TRB himself) with support bands Bitter Ruin and The Jane Austen Experience, a great violin player whose name I missed (sorry) and SuperKate doing belly dancing and aerobics. Plus a horn section that she hasn't rehearsed with. Yes, that sounds like an Amanda Fucking Palmer gig to me.

It's well over a year since I last saw Amanda play live - the Evelyn Evelyn show at Bush Hall in April 2010 was the last time - so I've been looking forward to this gig for a while. Heaven is an odd venue for a gig but at least it has a high stage so, unless you're very unlucky, you will see the star of the show. Of course, it's also a club so that meant the gig started early so it could be finished and emptied before the place re-opened as a club for the Friday night club crowd. Even so, we had 2:20 hours from Miss Palmer and what a great time it was.

Amanda has a game going with fans to crowd-source her clothes for live shows and tonight's theme was "sparkly" so she (and the band) wore sparkly clothes donated by kind fans. It wasn't the best ensemble I've seen her wearing but that adds to the surprise.

She played a good, crowd-pleasing selection from The Dresden Dolls and her solo works, from 'Who Killed Amanda Palmer', 'UkeleleHead' and 'Amanda Palmer Goes Down Under' as well as some covers including a great version of Simple Minds' 'Don't You (Forget About Me)'. She included 'The Problem With Saints' from her 8ini8 project with Neil Gaiman on vocals.

It was great to hear Amanda with a band behind her again. It makes her sound so much bigger and, although the drummer wasn't Brian, he still sounded good, filling in the gaps in her piano playing and keeping the rhythm going with the extra addition of guitars. Amanda announced that she was also using a synth on her new songs, so her sound is evolving. And evolving in a great way. She played four new songs that aren't finished yet and they all sounded great, upbeat and dancey, particularly 'Lost Wallet' and 'Massachusetts Avenue'.

It was also nice to see Amanda step out from behind her keyboards to stand centre-stage and command the place with her presence. She sang a few songs up-front with others playing keyboards, such as the dramatic 'Delilah' with the bloke from Bitter Ruin playing the keyboards and the girl singing opposite Amanda, both of them pulling dramatic poses. There's nothing wrong with singing out front Amanda, you should do it more often.

I think this is possibly the best gig I've seen Amanda play (the jury's still out). She had nothing to sell other than her own awesomeness (as she joked) so she had a freer hand in deciding the set list than normal and strolled through her back catalogue to pick songs that kept us all focused on her. 'Astronaut', 'Guitar Hero' and 'Runs in the Family' from WKAP, 'Idioteque' from 'UkeleleHead', 'Missed Me', 'Delilah' and 'Girl Anachronism' from The Dresden Dolls, 'Map of Tasmania' and the great 'In My Mind' from 'Down Under'. A lovely surprise was segueing from 'Oasis' into 'Twist and Shout' and back again. Oh, lots of songs! I had a silly smile on my face for most of the gig.

The appearance of Neil Gaiman (aka Mr Amanda Palmer) is becoming standard but it was nice to hear him sing. Tim Minchin came on in the encore to sing one of his songs and then vanish. Tom Robinson came on to play with Amanda and her band, firstly singing 'Glad To Be Gay' and then a new song about bankers. The applause was hesitant when he first came on - clearly, most of the audience was a bit young to know who he was - but they soon got with the chorus in 'Glad To Be Gay', which was great fun (new verses, same chorus).

The final song of the encore was 'Leeds United' during which the crowd went mad - it's one of my favourite songs as well and I wished I could join in the pogoing around me but that would've been foolish. I was delighted when Amanda played 'Map of Tasmania' and 'In My Mind' since there was no hint of the Australian record in the set so far, and it was lovely to hear 'Astronaut' with drums . The only thing that kept it from being perfect was no 'Ampersand'.

If you get the chance to see Amanda Palmer then do so - you won't regret it!