The acts which feature in this roundup are Gengahr, Black Country New Road, Honeyblood and Taylor Swift.
No concerts for a month after End of the Road, but a great holiday in Zakynthos (Greek island in the Ionian Sea), some interesting walks and, of course, lots of sport, including the Rugby Union World Cup, which has now ground its way to the final next weekend, having started on 3 September!
Lots of music at home of course. Still picking up on new tracks and a few nuggets from the past on 6 Music, with the weekly shows from Iggy Pop and Cillian Murphy (on one of his occasional runs) two that I try to keep up with. And a word for Cerys Matthews on Sunday mornings. A wonderfully eclectic show, with music from all around the world and consistently interesting guests from the worlds of drama, poetry and more besides.
But most of all I’ve gone retro. The effect of some great playlists of favourites in different genres that I’ve made on Spotify. They are easier to listen to when I’m writing or reading because of the familiarity, and there is so much that is good! Much as I love discovering new music, there is a lot of competition out there.
It won’t be long before the albums of the year lists start coming out, and right now there are only two that are absolute shoo-ins because of this retro effect. They are Gigi’s Recovery by the Murder Capital and Rat Saw God by Wednesday. They will be No1 and No2 unless something amazing turns up in the next month or so. Two brilliant albums: but even with them I’ve pulled out the best few tracks and put them on playlists with the best from their previous albums. And Murder Capital have been merged with U2 and Fontaines DC on two other playlists – to great effect. The Wednesday selection of ten from their two albums – the first was Twin Plagues – has probably been my most played of the year. I just love it – as an album it would be vying for a place in my top twenty of all time. At least for now – the older ones do have a tendency to reassert themselves. The music of our youth always wins in the end!
Anyway, onto the concerts, two of which felt quite retro, though only going back to the mid-2010s. Anything pre-pandemic does seem so long ago, a different age. Three gigs to cover, plus a concert film which was just awesome. I’m sure you can guess what it’s going to be!
Gengahr at the Electric Ballroom, Camden, 6 October
Gengahr returned to live action this year after being largely absent since before the pandemic. They released a new album, Red Sun Titans, in June – their first since Sanctuary in January 2020. The new album is in a similar vein to Sanctuary, with less emphasis on the guitar sound which made them one of my favourite indie bands in the second half of the 2010s. Their debut album, A Dream Outside, was my top album of 2015, and the 2018 follow-up Where Wildness Grows was a very worthy successor. On both of those there was some outstanding guitar work from John Victor; on the last two that has been less prominent, with more emphasis on poppy melodies and dance beats, the notable example being Heavenly Maybe from Sanctuary. I guess it’s an attempt to appeal to a younger crowd, and on the evidence of the show at the Electric Ballroom, that has been successful. It was very much a twenty-something crowd.
I enjoyed Red Sun Titans without being bowled over by it – with all that retro competition! – and the last time I saw them play, at EartH in February 2020 I was a bit underwhelmed. But I thought I should go up to Camden to see how they are doing, if only for old times’ sake. And the answer is, very well. The venue was close to being sold out and there was a lot of love for the band from that youthful crowd. They played a nice mix of songs from all their albums, with two of the great tracks from the first album – Heroine and She’s a Witch – following opener A Ladder. Heroine is a song where they get a chance to rock out at the end, and was a highlight for me. She’s a Witch remains their most loved song, I think: one which demands a singalong. Its biggest rival these days is Heavenly Maybe, which closed the show, and had much of the crowd dancing. It was good to hear Embers and Fill My Gums with Blood mid-way through the set; and Carrion was as magnificent as ever. Overall I’d say there was a slight move back towards letting John loose on the guitar.
The encore was a delight: first, surprisingly, was Lonely as a Shark from A Dream Outside – one of my favourites – with singer Felix singing the first verse unaccompanied; and then came that upbeat finale with Heavenly Maybe.
So I’m glad I went along, and it’s good to see that Gengahr are still thriving, after a challenging few years. Long may they continue.
Black Country, New Road and Kinu Trio at Shepherds Bush Empire, 10 October
I went to this one with another friend called John – not one of the usual Jons! John is a great fan of prog, the music I most dislike; though to be honest it’s more on principle these days, as there are plenty of prog bands I quite like really, Genesis being the main example. And some bands I love, like Radiohead, do have a prog element to their music. As for BCNR, as we shall call them, I think they have to be described as modern prog, but with an important difference to the 70s heyday of the genre: there is no bloke in a cape noodling on the keyboards. But there’s always time!
I introduced BCNR to John two or three years ago by playing him the crazed epic that is Sunglasses. I hadn’t realised until recently that it had sown a seed for him and he is now a big fan. More than me, probably – he knew the songs at the Shepherds Bush concert a lot better than I did. Not that Sunglasses was ever going to feature: singer Isaac Wood, who was on their first two albums, left the band just as they released their second, Ants From Up There in February 2022. He had some mental health issues and made a wise decision to put his well-being first, even if the timing was unfortunate. The rest of the band were supportive of their friend, and have said they hope he might return one day. Seems unlikely, but as a mark of their respect for him they don’t play any of the songs from their first two albums. Instead they play a set of new songs, most of which were recorded for an album called Live at Bush Hall which was released in March this year. In effect it is their third album. The recording and playing is so good it almost feels like a studio album.
The band has six members, three women, three men. One of the women, Georgia Ellery, is also a member of the increasingly popular Jockstrap. In that duo she sings, plays guitar and violin and leaps around a lot. A real star. She is more low key in BCNR, sticking mainly to the violin, which is an integral part of their sound. She sang one song in the course of the evening, and arguably is the best singer; but BCNR is very much a collective these days. Musically it always was, but Isaac Wood was such a distinctive vocalist that it was hard to imagine the band without him. But here they are, still pulling in sell-out crowds – two nights at Shepherds Bush and could easily have done more – who seem to know all the songs.
The evening began with Kinu Trio, featuring BCNR’s piano player May Kershaw. She was accompanied by a violinist (not Georgia) and a clarinettist. They said they were going to play a couple of “folk” pieces, but they felt classical – rather like some of the music of 18th and 19th century composers who drew on folk traditions for some of their works. The clarinet inevitably added a jazz feel at times too. Both pieces comprised two quite distinct tunes, and took about half an hour altogether. None of it was familiar to me, but I was very impressed. All very accomplished musicians. I’d happily go to see them play again – a venue like King’s Place would be ideal.
Kinu Trio
Accomplished is a very good word to describe BCNR too. A lot of them are trained musicians, and it shows. Tonight’s concert was outstanding, musically. It was a similar set to that recorded on Live at Bush Hall, though there was at least one new number. I still don’t feel that familiar with the music, though I did see the band at Wide Awake in May this year and have listened to Live at Bush Hall a few times. It’s quite hard to categorise: it’s not rock, it’s not indie, it’s not folk, it’s not jazz, it’s not classical; but it incorporates elements of all of those. It doesn’t sound like 70s prog, but I think it is played in the same spirit. It is an amplified version of chamber music, perhaps. It doesn’t really matter what you call it, of course. The important thing is that quality and the clarity of the sound, of the melodies, was amazing. Not knowing the songs that well didn’t matter – you could just luxuriate in that quality.
The band came on to Dire Straits’ Money for Nothing. Post ironic, or what? Up Song, with its sax intro, was greeted like an old classic by the crowd. And they were up for it throughout the set, grasping at the very occasional guitar outburst for a bit of jumping around. Unlike Black Midi, a band with whom they are associated, BCNR don’t riff out from time to time to give the youngsters a chance to mosh. For me, the highlight came towards the end, with an epic Turbines/Pigs which went through any number of phases and got quite jazzy at times. They played for about an hour and a quarter – enough, but I would happily have listened to more. Black Country, New Road are a very good band.
Honeyblood and Freya Beer at the Social, Fitzrovia, 12 October
As with Gengahr, this was Honeyblood’s first full tour since the pandemic, although Stina Tweeddale, who is Honeyblood these days, played a few gigs around Scotland prior to this tour. The venues are much smaller than Honeyblood were playing up to 2019: lockdown pretty much finished off the band, whose finances were always fairly precarious, I imagine. Stina did maintain contact with her diehard fans via Patreon, playing solo versions of her back catalogue and producing a few covers of songs voted for by her followers, which she put on Bandcamp. I subscribed for a while, but the sessions were often beset by technical problems and I got bored after a while. Time to stick to the memories: there’s no denying that between 2017 and 19 Honeyblood were my favourite new band. The second album, Babes Never Die, which was my introduction to them, must have been my most played for a couple of years, and I made it my album of the year in 2017 (it was released in late 2016). The debut album, Honeyblood, became a firm favourite too. It was only with the third, In Plain Sight (2019) that the doubts crept in. Recorded in LA, it was good, but over-produced, with more electronics and fewer riffs. And overall, the melodies weren’t as strong. Some of the celtic soul had been lost in California.
So, as I made my departure from Patreon, I thought that was pretty much the end. Those first two albums would always have a place in my heart, and that was good enough. But I still followed the band’s social media, and when the tour was announced I felt I had to go along, as with Gengahr, for old times’ sake. My friend Tony said he’d come along too – he’d seen the band play an energetic if slightly shambolic gig at Bush Hall in January 2018 – so I got a couple of tickets for the London show. It was at a place called the Social, on Little Portland Street, not far from the BBC in Portland Place. It’s a bar at ground level with a concert/club space in the basement, holding around 150. Though it was rather compact, it was well-maintained, with a decent bar at the back. We got there in time for the support act, Freya Beer. Like Stina, she was playing her songs solo – for the first time in her case. I really liked one of her early songs Dear Sweet Rosie, which had a great dirty guitar riff straight out of the 70s. Playing those riffs unaccompanied, the songs did sound a bit samey after a while, but Dear Sweet Rosie finished proceedings on a high, and we were ready for Stina.
Freya Beer
The show was sold out and the atmosphere was good – an audience of people who knew and appreciated the songs. Stina came on looking happy and relaxed – none of the tension that used to be evident in her interactions with the crowd pre-pandemic. I felt that maybe she has come to terms with her changed circumstances and has decided to enjoy herself in the here and now, rather than reflect too much on what might have been. The show was a delight, enhanced by the stories that Stina told before some of the songs. That was something she rarely did in the past. Tony thought she went on a bit at times, but I enjoyed hearing her share her experiences and feelings with the audience. The songs were mostly old favourites, mainly from those first two albums, but there were three new songs, entitled Hooked, The Deepest Girl on Earth and Risk. The first two were classic heartfelt Honeyblood tunes; Risk had an almost techno beat, and didn’t really do it for me on first encounter. But it will be interesting to hear the recorded version. There is an album in the making, which is good news.
Highlights for me were Anywhere But Here and Fall Forever from the first album and Justine, Misery Queen and Sea Hearts from Babes Never Die. The song of the same name was also pretty rousing, as was the closer, a joyous version of Super Rat, with the crowd invited to sing along to the chorus: I will hate you forever! Which they did, with gusto. I thought Stina’s guitar-playing had come on as well – more subtle and varied. All that time to practise during lockdown, I guess.
As we left I felt quite uplifted. I’d loved the music, and it was good to see Stina back and thriving – and really enjoying herself. An augury for good things in the future, I hope. Now, bring on that album!
Taylor Swift – The Eras Tour, IMAX Waterloo, 19 October
Like a gazillion other people, I signed up to the website for the Eras tour, specifically the Wembley shows. And like the vast majority I drew a blank in the lottery. Never mind, I’m not that big a fan, and the tickets were very expensive. Back in 2018, the one time when I’ve seen her play live – also at Wembley [link] – I don’t recall any problem getting tickets. I think it’s this post-lockdown thing – you see in it the speed that some festivals like Green Man and End of the Road now sell out, too. It’s like people are making up for lost time.
It was only really with the release of Reputation in 2017 that I really started to appreciate Taylor Swift’s music. Before that I just assumed it wasn’t for me, though I did quite like some of the hits like 22, We are Never Ever Getting Back Together and Shake it Off. But she did, of course, have country roots which weren’t so different to a few artists that I already liked – Kacey Musgraves, for example. And in the UK, Catherine McGrath, whose 2018 debut album Talk of This Town was a great favourite at the time. I now realise it’s an absolute carbon copy of Taylor’s early work. In fairness, Catherine has always been open about the influence of Taylor Swift on her music. And, in fact, it was she who put me onto Reputation, through a video of her covering Gorgeous from that album.
But what really cemented my appreciation Taylor’s music was the release of Folklore in pandemic year 2020. What a beautiful, wistful album that was – perfect for the times. Its companion piece, Evermore, with the wonderful song Willow, was pretty good too. Folklore was my album of 2020, and I still listen to it a lot. The Long Pond Studio Sessions, a Disney + film of Taylor performing the songs acoustically with co-producers Aaron Dessner and Jack Antonoff in an upstate New York log cabin, is also an absolute joy.
Her latest album, Midnights, is a bit formulaic; but there are two stand out tracks for me; Anti-hero and Karma. The latter is, I think, one of the best things she has ever done: it’s anthemic, has a classic Taylor melody, and the lyrics are very clever. More than a pop song, but also a brilliant pop song.
So, of course I had to see the film. It’s a great initiative. It gives people who went to see the American shows something to remember them by; it gives all the people who missed out an opportunity to experience the show; it does the same for those of us in the rest of the world who can’t see it; and it heightens the anticipation who are going to future shows. It’s a massive commercial success of course, but also exemplifies Taylor’s engagement with her fans, which is part of what made her so popular in the first place. Everyone is a winner. More artists will follow her lead, I suspect.
As for the show, it was brilliant entertainment. Very long: the film came in at just under three hours, and that was wall-to-wall music, apart from a few aerial shots above the SoFi stadium in Inglewood, Los Angeles. The actual show has been around three and half hours in length, I believe. Whether that includes the time taken for all the costume changes, I don’t know. There were different outfits – and settings – for each album. All her albums, from the eponymous debut in to last year’s Midnights, were covered. Unsurprisingly there were fewer songs from the early albums, but it was good to hear some of the favourites from that era, as I’m not very familiar with them. The albums weren’t covered in chronological order: the set began with a few from Lovers, the follow up to Reputation, and ended with seven from Midnights. I was beginning to flag a little by then, but was hanging on for Karma, which provided a triumphant finale to the show. Other than that, the highlights for me were the Red section, which came about halfway through the show; and Folklore, which followed. 22 and We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together were absolute bangers and the ten minute epic that was All Too Well had me making comparisons with Bruce Springsteen. And how could the Folklore selection fail? Six songs, starting with The 1 and finishing with My Tears Richochet. What was not to like? That was followed by more classics, this time from 1989, which may have got the biggest cheer of the night. And before the Midnights denouement, she slowed down the pace, playing Our Song from her debut album and You’re On Your Own Kid. That last one is also from Midnights, but came before the last section.
Watching it all on the IMAX screen was pretty in-yer-face. But the set was sufficiently varied that it never quite reached the point of sensory overload. And of course you get a sense of detail that few if any would get from the live experience. Even better than the real thing, as U2 once sang? Not really, but not far off!
Thoughtsfromwestfive 