International SWAP (Songwriters and Performers) Festival 2006

Manchester prides itself on being a vibrant modern European city. Culturally it can lay claim to this ideal - the only problem is that at times it needs a Center Parc style dome put over the top of it.

Today there were certainly no gripes about the weather - it was perfect for a day of music and the setting was almost perfect too.

It’s the second year that the SWAP festival has taken place and on a stage in front of the URBIS centre in Cathedral Gardens a host of performers delighted the slowly reddening audience.

The line-up included eclectic talents from around the country, as well as up and coming homegrown performers, such as the Paper Wives, Manchester’s Aidan Smith, Noellie McDonnell, M Craft, a quirky three-piece called The Research, Alterkicks, as well as the Internet-hyped number one artist Sandi Thom.

I must admit I can’t see what the fuss is all about. To these ears she sounds like a poor woman’s KT Tunstall. You got the usual quick one, the slow one and the one that is a bit of feminist’s anthem. I didn’t stick around for the hit I Wish I Was a punk Rocker - as refreshment was calling me.

The Cherry Ghost were squeezed in between Thom and the local acts that most of the crowd had come to see. Liam Frost & The Slowdown Family and Iam Kloot.

Liam Frost and his band have been picking up a lot of radio play lately for their Mourners of St Paul's single and they even landed a recent support slot with Elbow at their recent Somerset House gig. Liam is quite and engaging presence and his band has the tunes to match too.

The final act of the day was perennial local favourites I Am Kloot, who came on just as the sun was dipping behind the glass structure of the URBIS.

Their set drew upon a number of their standards such as Storm Warning, Dark Star, Your Favourite Sky and 86 TVs. Kloot’s music is the perfect remedy to day spent standing up being burnt to a crisp. Relaxed but with something of an edge to it.

The summery tunes give lie to the lyrics of a love gone wrong as front man John Bramwell testified that some of the set might not be appropriate given the weather.

Elbow front man Guy Garvey joined in on vocals for To You, as well as this appearance the usual three piece was augmented with a pedal guitarist and keyboards for three new tunes Fingerprints, Only Role in Town and Someone Like You. These sounded pretty good and whetted the appetite for the next album due soon.

Iam Kloot’s set was a fitting end to a perfect day. Here’s to next year’s event and more of the un-Manchester like weather.

Simple Minds - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

Two years on from the last triumphant outing at the Summer Pops, Simple Minds came back to the city that is now becoming something of a second home for the band.

Front man Jim Kerr hasn’t learnt his lesson of two years ago. His energy levels may not as great as they where back in the 80s, but his willingness to cover every inch of the stage is still apparent.

Thankfully the stages are a lot smaller these days; otherwise the attendant St Johns ambulance would have been required. “I’m getting too old for this,” Kerr mused as he took a well-earned breather between songs.

Kerr was back home in one of his favourite cities and he is usually afforded the welcome of one of its favourite sons. He ingratiated himself further with the locals by calling the city the home of music and football, though he added playfully that Celtic were better. No doubt a nod to Kerr’s own idol Kenny Dalglish, who was sitting in the front row.

The band had a recently released album to promote and a number of the new tunes were played at the opening tonight. They don’t stray to far from the tried and tested Simple Minds template. Home was the stand out track from Black and White 050505.

It was the classics that the fans had wanted to see and hear and the band didn’t let them down. A ten-minute version of Ghostdancing, mutated into Van Morrison’s Gloria. With Kerr goading the crowd into a call and response of the G-L-O-R-I-A.

The anthemic hits Waterfront, Don’t You Forget About Me, Sanctify Yourself, and Belfast Child written for a vaster arena than this, all sounded perfect in this reduced setting.

The highlight of the night was the encore with the brilliant New Gold Dream putting the talents of the band to good effect. Guitarist Charlie Burchill is often overlooked in the proceedings as goes about his business in the usual manner. Kerr did his best to drag Burchill into the Spotlight at any given opportunity.

The set went over the 11.00pm curfew time but they still managed to include one final classic. They ended with Alive and Kicking and on this evidence the band certainly are.

Lets hope it won't be another two years before we wait for return gig.

The Who - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

It had certainly been a long time coming for The Who and their fans. The last time they stepped out in Liverpool was October 1971, at the Liverpool University. Tonight’s performance certainly made up for lost time.

Liverpool’s Summer Pops has put on some great acts down the years and bar a Paul McCartney gig or The Rolling Stones coming to town; this years main act The Who will certainly take some beating for the promoters to top next year.

The touts were out in force – charging £80 a ticket as the queues stretched up the dock road in anticipation of tonight’s gig.

The band haven’t released a record for nigh on twenty-four years, but Townshend and Daltrey have been busying themselves in the run up to this tour, with a new album due for release in September.

The new tunes sounded pretty good - the pick of which was the homage to the 50s Real Good Looking Boy - in which Townshend indulged in a trip down memory lane for his frequent trips across the Irish Sea to visit his extended family in Ireland.

The new tunes were kept to a minimum and they had the good sense to roll out the classics that the partisan crowd had come to expect.

There was something for everyone tonight the Mod classics of Quadraphenia were rolled out. Townshend proclaimed it a work of genius - no one in the big top would argue with tonight.

Townshend’s guitar playing tonight bordered on genius tonight too – with him belying the fact that years of guitar playing has rendered him partially deaf.

My Generation was given an airing, given the age of the band and that famous line surprised me. It is a song that was a trademark of the late and lamented bassist John Entwistle. Though bassist Pino Palladino played it with aplomb - it does not seem the same without the extraordinary presence of the Ox.

They have been through a lot together Daltrey and Townshend, many highs and lows, but on tonight’s evidence there is genuine warmth between the two. The two hours long show in the heat took it out of the two front men. Though the quality of the set never waned throughout and their verve and vigour certainly belied the 60 plus age of the two rock veterans.

Tonight’s gig will live long in the memory and all the classics were played such as: Won't Get Fooled Again, Baba O'Reilly, The Seeker, Behind Blue Eyes, Love Reign O'er Me, Pinball Wizard, and Substitute.

Luckily for some it would be only 24 hours for the wait for the next Liverpool for the second of two nights - Suddenly £80 a ticket is looking awfully cheap.

New Order - Live at the Liverpool Summer Pops

Saturday 8th July 2006

Set List: Love Will Tear Us Apart, Crystal, Regret, Twenty Four Hours, Krafty, Working Overtime, Transmission, Your Silent Face, Waiting For The Sirens' Call, Turn, Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith, Temptation, The Perfect Kiss, Blue Monday, Ceremony, Shadowplay

They have always been something of a wilfully perverse band but late in the day they are finally playing the game that other careerist bands would take as read.

The addition to the set-list these days sees the inclusion of Joy Division classics. Which given their own body of work, must give them something of a headache in putting together a typical night’s gig.

Typically of the band they open up with the brilliant Love Will Tear Us Apart, a song most bands would save for the encore. In truth though there was probably no better opener for tonight.

There haven’t been many gigs in Liverpool by the band of late, despite professing a love for the city. The inclusion of the seemingly lost to the live arena Joy Division classics evokes the days of the late seventies and the now defunct Eric’s club. The club in which Bernard Sumner, Peter Hook and Steven Morris as well as many other luminary figures cut their teeth.

You couldn’t get a better opening set of songs at a New Order gig than what they opened with tonight. The afore mentioned Love Will Tear Us Apart as well as Crystal, Regret and Transmission set the scene for what followed.

There was something for in all in the set from all points of the bands career. They didn't just trot out a greatest hits set as a number of songs from the recent albums Get Ready and Waiting For The Sirens' Call all worked well with the older material.

Bernard Sumner even apologised for the rockier nature of the opening numbers from the set and promised more of the dancier numbers from the later in the proceedings.

Bassist Peter Hook was in typically belligerent mood all night as he had a running row with an overly aggressive bouncer at the front of the arena. He prowled the stage with his low-slung bass in his usual manner – he even confessed to playing Bizarre Love Triangle out of tune, but I think the crowd forgave (or weren’t ready to argue). Apart from that blip he was in fine form.

Even Bernard was in reasonably good form, granted he may not have the best of voices but it does a reasonable job and thankfully he kept the yelps and whistles down to a minimum, he even remembered the lyrics to a majority of tunes – which was a bonus.

The set closed with Perfect Kiss mutating into Blue Monday, which prompted everyone in the capacity crowd to jump out of their seats.

There was a richly deserved encore and yet another Joy Division tune on this occasion Shadowplay was given an airing. Though the bands return was delayed for a few moments. Instead of waiting for the sirens’ to call, it was more a call of nature that delayed proceedings with second guitarist Phil Cunningham lost in transit and his plight relayed to the 4000 people in the arena by Sumner – obviously nothing is sacred in this band.

It may not have been a festival, but the settings gave it that feel. New Order are certainly the perfect band for a Saturday night in a big-top, hopefully they will be back in Liverpool sometime in the near future.

England Expects

After all the hype, after all the adverts, after all the flags - the so-called golden generation, touched down in England yesterday - minus the World Cup.

The Rooney sending-off, and the penalty shoot defeat should not overshadow the fact that this side with all the talent at its disposal should not be back contemplating what might have been. The simple fact is that they have underachieved; they certainly were not hard done to, or unlucky.

At this World Cup, this side has seldom played with the skill and verve required for a team to compete at this level. Instead they played well below that level, one that belied their pre-tournament billing as one of the favourites to win the competition. Owen Hargreaves and Joe Cole aside, the players in the squad have done little to enhance their reputations in Germany.

Tiredness was trotted out as a reason for underperforming at the last few tournaments but this can be discounted on this occasion as the Premiership fixtures where rejiged at the behest of the England Coach Eriksson for the latest mission impossible, but seemingly with little effect.

This brings us to the coach Sven. Here is a man who was installed as the country’s first foreign coach, who was charged with the job of bringing something of the continental to the England side.

Bizarrely Eriksson, leaves with best competitive statistics of any England manager, though the feeling is that as of yesterday, we are no further on from the debacle that was the Kevin Keagan era of international management.

There has been something of Stalinist rewrite of history with yesterday’s papers highlighting the times he has been lucky. The Greece qualifier – with Beckham’s heroic performance trotted out as one example of his lucky streak. This is something I don’t subscribe to, as most managers have some luck down the years.

What has baffled is his lack of tactical know-how; his lack of a clear vision and seemingly the fact he didn’t seem to know what he was doing. He had the air of the Civil Servant underling promoted above his ability, but thought he could muddle through. Muddle through is what he did.

He has seemingly shackled the creative force that is England’s midfield and replaced it with a group of players playing beneath themselves and with fear. Steven Gerrard is a rampant force in a Liverpool shirt – but the timid version in the England shirt is a shadow of the Steven Gerrard that plays for Liverpool.

David Beckham must have something over Sven – maybe some photographs with Sven in uncompromising situations. This would explain the repeated selection of Beckham, despite him not justifying his shirt in the last twelve months. These days he is lacking pace and this is more apparent when Aaron Lennon replaces him on the right flank.

The selection of only four strikers for this World Cup was highlighted as a monumental disaster from the outset and was made more and more apparent over time as two of those players were carrying injuries, one was an untried youngster and the other was Peter Crouch.

The lack of a plan b and his use of substitutions have also highlighted Sven’s weaknesses further. For someone with a string of affairs to his name – he is something of a passionless creature, that certainly wouldn’t inspire in the heat of battle.

Three quarterfinal exits is not a good return, for a £4million a year salary. Goodbye and good riddance. And you’d think I gave a toss about the England side after writing all that.

Roll on the Premiership!!

I'm Lovin' It

Somewhere in London, New York, Washington or wherever the marketing types of McDonald’s hangout. There are moves a foot within this shadowy select band plotting the next PR campaign in the company’s continued domination of the fast-food market.

Meanwhile, in a small outpost, which is Walton, Liverpool the inmates have seemingly taken over the asylum. At a McDonald’s restaurant in the shadow of Walton Prison – (this fact may, or may not be significant) it is reassuring to know that all that the marketing types are plotting, is slowly being undone by a select band. Not your Morgan Spurlock – Super Size Me type – but by what can only be termed as herberts, and herberts of the highest order at that. A few months back I managed to witness their work in the flesh.

Fast food it says on the sign as you approach the tell tale golden arches, a symbol that has come to represent everything that has come to represent the crassness of Mikey D’s.

It’s approaching 11.00 on a Wednesday night. Having spent an enjoyable night at the playhouse in Liverpool and catching up with a friend who was gigging in a local pub. Feeling a little peckish and instead of my preferred option of a bag of chips, the decision is taken by the girlfriend to stop off at McDonald’s. Admittedly this is a decision that doesn’t exactly require me to be dragged kicking and screaming into the establishment, as I’m starving.

The gaff was obviously in the process of shutting down for the night and seemingly it now had been over run by an ASBO convention. It turns out that this is what passes for staff here at McDonald’s.

A herbert at the counter took our money. He was dressed in his finest shiny St Johns Market shell-suit, with no hint of a gold star in sight. The ‘have a nice day y’all’ attitude was replaced by a grunt. Eventually he dragged his knuckles over to the window to take my cash. I wasn’t too bothered if he pocketed the cash – just as long as some food turned up.

Joy upon joys, we had the choice of either a McChicken Premiere or a McChicken Premiere – which we would have to wait for while the fat bird behind the counter continued chatting to her boyfriend Wayne or whatever he was called. Finally our food arrived in its brown bag and was promptly handed over like it was a bag of radioactive dog-turd.

The food was, as you would expect. I probably would have received more nourishment from the polystyrene carton it was served in. All in all it was an experience that I certainly won't be repeating in the near future.

With the continual bombardment of McDonald’s during the World Cup, it is pleasing to see that a select band of herberts are trying to bring the organisation down from within.

So when you hear about the decline of the McDonald’s empire, it wont be activists like Morgan Spurlock or the author of Fast Food Nation, Eric Schlosser, but this select band of herberts.

Keep up the not so good work!!

An end of an era

On the day they announced Jim'll Fix It will be coming back, well sort of, with Vic Reeves presenting it.

The BBC will be axing the long running Top of The Pops next month.

I would like to say I was a devotee of the programme, one who had stayed loyal until the end, but I would have to count the number of times I have watched it in the last year on one finger. The occasion that I did watch it, I felt myself turning into my dad with each group’s appearance. 'What's this crap' would be my usual utterance.

In these days of MP3s, Ipods, downloads and CDs it is hard to believe I spent many a programme with my tape recorder - remember them - pressed against the portable television - probably a black and white one at that and taping the latest tunes of the day. I wish I still had these tapes, but these have long been binned. Sadly it’s only the memories that remain of these shows. I seem to remember getting into the Bunnymen by taping The Cutter after an appearance.

Classic moments such as the barbed Peel comments about bands he obviously didn't rate, Nirvana purposely fucking-up Smells Like Teen Spirit and Dexy's playing Jackie Wilson Says - with the Dart player Jocky Wilson's picture being used as a backdrop.

Smash Hits has gone, so too now has Top of The Pops in 2006. Another piece of my childhood disappears. Ah well!!