Although the year isn't quite over yet and undoubtedly there will be stuff I have missed, neglected or just not yet discovered.
The year has not been a bad one for gigs and bands. Unfortunately this is the first year since 2002 that I haven't been to at least one festival. This situation will have to be resolved next year.
Early in the year we were treated to Independent Venue Week. We took the trip over to Warrington to Parr Hall. A beautiful venue with a large auditorium with a balcony. The main reason for this trip was to see Man and the Echo who were the headliners. For those of you that aren't familiar with this band you may unwittingly listen to them every weekday. Steve Lamacq of BBC radio 6 uses the instrumental of their song "I don't give a f**k what you reckon" every day as a link between features. If you haven't heard it, check it out It is a fantastic song about the sort of stuff most people hate about social media.
The album is a gem but this song doesn't feature on it. We eagerly await the second album which i believe has now been recorded. We had a nice surprise with a free gig at Vinyl Tap Huddersfield when they hosted The Lovely Eggs for the launch of Record Store Day 2018 The stage is downstairs in the record store and capacity would be approximately fifty people. The Lancaster punk, husband and wife duo worked their way through most of their latest album This Is Eggland. They make a lot of noise for a two piece band and are great fun to watch. Check out the album, it is in this years top 50 albums and is superb. Mexrissey at Albert Hall in Manchester was a good night. Smiths/Morrissey sang in Spanish by a Mexican tribute band. What more could you ask for.
The band singing in Spanish and the whole crowd singing along in English. If you haven't yet been to Albert Hall, Manchester you are missing out on a wonderful venue. The venue has a high stage and a bar that runs along the side of the venue. If you position yourself wisely you can stand at the bar the whole night whilst being feet away form the artist. Failing that if you want to sit down there is a balcony with plenty of seating. If The Lovely Eggs was my favourite small venue gig. The Arctic Monkeys at the Manchester Arena was my favourite large venue gig. Touring their latest album they played a set of old and new and at the end of the night I didn't want the gig to end. As much as I love live music sometimes at the end of a gig it's time to go home. At the end of this gig I was thinking about what could've, should've, might've been played. If they had played all night I think I would have still been shouting for an encore. My other trip to the Manchester Arena was with my daughters to their first arena gig. (They have conveniently forget about Little Mix.)
Although they have both been to festivals since they were born and seen probably over a hundred bands at aged 11 and 12 when Fall out Boy announced a UK tour they were desperate for the chance to see them. I managed to pull a couple of strings. Well i didn't but a man i know did, and whilst driving down to the venue on the night I received a call to say we would be watching the gig from a private box! The kids went ballistic!! I have to say that the show was amazing. The band played their brand of rock and have quite a few good songs, but the stage show was unbelievable. At one point the people at the far end of the arena on the upper tier of seats were straining their eyes to see the band. A few minutes later the band were at the other end of the arena on stages that lifted from the auditorium floor up to the second tier level giving these people a from row seat.
Guilty pleasure! we went to see Billy Joel perform his only Uk show of the year at Old Trafford football stadium. For those who might knock him he is now 69 years old and can still belt out a song. He is very interactive with the audience and supported by a band of world class musicians. Don't knock it he puts on a great show. Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever. Aussie rockers touring their album at Academy 2 Manchester. Listen to the album and go to see them if you get the opportunity. I am sure you won't be disappointed and am surprised that more people have not got into them yet. Off to see the Interuppters in a couple of weeks. US ska band who sound exactly like they look on the album cover. If this gig delivers half what the album promises from a live band I will be a happy man. I will leave this here and complete the review once I have seen them.