Tag Archives: Music review

Review: Tina Turner celebrated in Soul Sister musical

22 Apr

The real Tina Turner:

There have been many times when I’ve been out for the evening and I’ve seen women out in the shortest of dresses – bottom skimmers. I’ve wondered to myself, do they not worry about showing it all when they start to dance. Well I was reminded of my musings when I went to watch the stage show Soul Sister at the Hackney Empire, London, about the life of Tina Turner.

Whenever you see clips of Tina Turner shimmying in the shortest, sparkliest and fringiest of dresses in her hey day, you never ever saw flashes of anything unladylike. She was a master of keeping everything in control while blasting out the most fantastic vocals.

This show also reminds us of what a talent the lady is. The musical, with Emi Wokoma playing Tina, entertains on so many levels. You see here how so many of today’s acts have been influenced. Her backing singers don’t just sing – they join in with all the moves. The live band for the show is also extremely tight with Chris Tummings playing the controversial Ike Turner.

You witness the rise of Tina, Ike and the band and also the abuse handed out to its superstar. All of this is punctuated by amazing live vocals and performances which keep you gripped throughout. The show was rounded off with a live set of Tina’s later hits. The audience gave it a standing ovation. So if you want a show to get your blood pumping, I recommend Soul Sister, if not a tiny mini dress.

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Live music review: Metronomy

5 Oct

A defining period in the Barclaycard Mercury-prize nominated band Metronomy’s gig was the uplifting sight of keyboard player/saxophonist Oscar Cash being wheeled around the stage from right to left and then back again as he played the synthesizer on the band’s song The Look. The group’s Royal Albert Hall gig this week was fun from beginning to end.

Bassist Gbenga Adelekan drove the funkiness and energy of their electropop repertoire. Anna Prior, shimmering vivaciously in a green sequin catsuit wowed as the exuberant drummer and lead singer/keyboardist/guitarist/founder Joseph Mount topped it all off with his melodious voice and love for the audience.

No one was sitting by the third song and there was certainly no cause to sit down again. Each band member sported their trade mark oversized circular lights which flashed in time to the music in different sequences. They whipped through tracks from their most recent album The English Riviera and 2008’s Nights Out. All of the songs worked live except for one of my favourites on the latest album. In Love Underlined, the swirling overlay music sounds running through the track overpowered the band’s instruments and the Joseph’s voice both times that I’ve seen them live. Apart from this imperfection, it was one big party that seemed over too soon.

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Live music review: Ice Cube and Naughty by Nature

2 Aug

Rapper Ice Cube, formerly of NWA, is more often seen in a movie these days but he graced our shores for a live gig at the O2 Indigo venue in London recently. Preparing the audience for the man himself was Naughty by Nature of Nature of Hip Hop Hooray and OPP fame. Old skool rap seemed refreshing after so many years out of the limelight. There was a true party atmosphere, even when Naughty by Nature had to soothingly talk to some guys in the audience who were a little perturbed to be visiting nineties hits.

Ice Cube was on stage with a swagger after his upbeat colleagues left the stage. He still has an edge that was mesmorising as he took us back to his roots from NWA to solo ground. Ice Cube kept the audience enthralled with his tough tales and rhymes.

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Music review: Foster the People’s Torches

29 Jun

Torches is the first album by the Californian indie band Foster the People. This collection radiates sunshine with Motown influences, especially on Pumped up Kicks. Warning – anyone who enjoys songs from the more mirthless side of life should steer well clear as that’s not where Torches will take you. Singer Mark Foster and band-mates keep the tempo racing along in a direction that at times is pure pop – listen to Houdini. The summer is the perfect time for this release with its celebratory and sometimes experimental mix of drums, guitar, keyboards and synthesizers.

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Music review: Suede – Suede cd + dvd

22 Jun

Suede has been seriously back on our radar over the last year or so. The band keep popping up to play live gigs to dedicated fans, reliving the days of old in energetic abandon. The most recent activity has been the releasing of the albums one by one with the addition of the B-sides, extra songs, live footage, the promotional videos and interviews, topped off with the lyrics elegantly packaged in an accompanying booklet. I admit I was quite overwhelmed when a wonderful friend delighted me with a surprise copy of the latest version of the first album Suede, originally released in 1993. The whole bundle captures the richness and excitement of that glamorous time and the stylishness of the band. For my amazing friend I dedicate, The Drowners.

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Film review: The Runaways

20 Sep

Back in the seventies before the global hit I Love Rock n’ Roll, Joan Jett (Kristen Stewart) started out in the all-girl rock band The Runaways with Cherie Currie (Dakota Fanning) as lead the singer. The girls were 15 with a passion for music. Managed by Kim Fowley (Michael Shannon), the band, especially Cherie were encouraged to flaunt their age and sexuality to a potential fanbase to sell their growling, rebellious music.

The film follows the Runaways on tour indulging in a world of sex, drugs and of course rock and roll. Jett and Currie also fell for each other in the intense conditions they travelled in. But the lifestyle eventually took it’s toll on Cherie.

If you ever had a hankering to be a rock star, the film will reignite a little excitement. However at the end of the day, though the Twilight saga stars Stewart and Fanning kick ass you feel that Floria Sigismondi’s film based on Currie’s biography was a slight tale to bring to the screen. But it was good fun while it lasted.

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Music review: Arcade Fire’s “The Suburbs”

15 Aug

Canadian band Arcade Fire’s third album “The Suburbs” is full of songs seemingly dedicated to escaping the boredom of suburban life. It’s the contrast between our dreams and desires for the future and being confined by the way that we live. It’s the frustration of going nowhere when your heart wants so much to flee to a world you’ve imagined. All are brought to life with layers of soaring guitars and yearning melodies. The lyrics convey your desire to stand out from your peers and do what you always wanted to do. Songs like Rococo and Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains) stir your soul – an album to do your dreaming to.

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Notes about nostalgia

2 Aug

The eighties have been taking me hostage lately. In the last couple of weeks I’ve been to two nights out where the music of the decade was the soundtrack to the night. For the first evening I was in a bar in the city dedicated to the popular eighties hits and for the second evening just a few nights ago it was a bar off Regent Street with one night for pop from that era.

The people I was with differed for each evening – I was the only common link but still the music focused on the tracks we were supposed to connect the eighties with. Music by Spandau Ballet, Howard Jones, Wham! and Abba (though I would argue they are more seventies) dominated both events.

I remember that my tastes as a child of the eighties were quite alternative at the time. I would listen to the radio from morning until midnight, given half the chance, which would open my mind to other music. Some of the less mainstream acts had pretty big hits during that decade.

When you go to these eighties evenings, you never hear music by Afrika Bambaataa, Japan, Echo & the Bunnymen, Grandmaster Flash & the Furious Five, NWA, The Smiths, Public Enemy and even The Stones Roses (who slipped into the late eighties). This was what I liked when I was growing up.

Nevertheless, I have a good time at both these new eighties evenings out. I danced and sang along with everyone else and somehow it raised myspirits. You can be amused and energised by flashes back to pop music that you may not have had a connection with the first time.

It’s like with anything, you get out of it what you put in and really 50% of socialising is how you interact with other people and make the effort to give them a good time. It makes you feel good when you see someone smile. They say smiling is infectious! 

If you just observe and don’t get involved well it’s all going to slide past you and it’s not going to be enjoyable. I used to be guity of this – upset that the DJ’s not playing my favourite tracks (it gave me no joy at the end of the day).

On a grander level with life, if you put energy and enthusiasm in, you should receive some kindness and hopefully the same energy back. If somehow, what is returned to you is nowhere near your efforts, then it’s time to reassess. Life is too short to suffer a lack of kindness and joy. Your energy is precious.

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New music review – Alan Pownall’s True Love Stories

1 Aug

With his James Dean styling and the plucky acoustic feel of the first tracks on singer/songwriter Alan Pownall’s debut True love Stories album you get a sense of 50s/60s nostalgia. But then his brooding tones are set to upbeat, less edgy catchy melodies that could feel happily at home in the mainstream or on a soundtrack for a british romantic comedy. In the end it’s all very polished like on the slower Colourful Day. Very pleasant but maybe a little too glossy at times.

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