Concert Review : Them Crooked Vultures - Corn Exchange, Edinburgh

This certainly counted as a "bonus" concert as I had made no attempt to buy a ticket for this concert. However, the timing of my son's examination schedule meant I was the lucky recipient of his misfortune.

Unlike many supposed "supergroups", the combination of Dave Grohl, John Paul Jones and Josh Homme was kept very much under the radar until the album was ready to be released, and some relatively low key gigs announced.

The album was a thrilling combination of three exceptional talents - indeed, sufficiently so in Jones' case that it rather made me happy that there was no follow up to the Led Zeppelin concert at the O2 as it is somewhat doubtful that it would have been able to match the heights that Them Crooked Vultures have attained.

The gig more than matched the album. The entire album was played along with two new songs (which I trust is a sign that this will not be a one off) giving an 80 minute set. No encore (not really necessary) and no nods to any of the participants other bands.

It was great to see Grohl back behind a drum kit - the man is an absolute monster and handled the complex time signatures of some of the numbers with ease and also demonstrated that he would have been more than capable of filling John Bonham's shoes had that been open to him.

Josh Homme was a remarkably charismatic front man - or, at least, much more so than I had expected. His vocals were excellent, as was his guitar playing.

And then there was John Paul Jones. As cool, calm and collected on stage as was the case in the heyday of Zeppelin, he played a wide range of instruments with ease and was clearly enjoying himself thoroughly. Although the audience was on the whole of a generation not to have enjoyed Zeppelin, it was Jones who got the biggest cheer from the crowd which is only appropriate.

The band were ably supported by Alain Johannes, who has previously worked with Homme in Queens Of The Stone Age, who helped out on guitar, bass, keyboards and vocals throughout the evening. He seems more than talented enough in his own right to justify sharing the stage with the other three.

All in all, a remarkable evening from a remarkable band

Concert Review : Ray Davies - Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow

Ray Davies turned up at the Concert Hall in Glasgow to provide a masterclass in songwriting, with a set whilst leaning heavily on the old classics still contained a healthy input from his last studio album, Working Man's Cafe.

Starting off acoustically and working through a number of classics before being joined by a full band, including Ian Gibbons who had been the last keyboard player with The Kinks, Davies was in good voice and prefaced many of the songs with amusing anecdotes. During the show he was perhaps a little too keen to test out the singing voices of the audience - I'm all for singing along to well loved choruses but his constant requests to sing louder with reprises of choruses did begin to wear a little.

The high points of the evening were an acoustic reading of Waterloo Sunset, and the full band (but still restrained) performance of Celluloid Heroes. From a lengthy catalogue of timeless classics, I do think these two might just be his best.

Support for the evening was provided by Roddy Hart. I previously saw Roddy supporting Jeff Beck earlier in the year but hadn't really been able to appreciate him fully as I'd slumbered through much of his set. This time round he demonstrated that the fault was my tiredness, rather than any lack of quality on his part. Another fine songwriter, with a strong voice and a confident stage manner, his set was filled with strong melodies that encourage investigation into his two albums. One to catch with his band at some point.

Film Review : The Box

Director Richard Kelly made quite an impression with his debut Donnie Darko which was an extremely satisfying if mystifying movie. Much of the expectation created by that effort was dissipated by his follow-up, Southland Tales, which contained just as much mystery but without the satisfaction.

Someone in Hollywood still loves him though, as he's been let loose on a new film. Based on an old short story from The Twilight Hour, The Box stars Cameron Diaz and James Marsden as a couple who have to decide if they should open the box and receive a million pounds (which, as it happens, is nicely timed as both have just received news that very day that would make such a windfall extremely useful). The downside being that in accepting the money will result in the death of someone who they don't know dying.

Frank Langella plays the mysterious visitor who makes the offer and his presence throughout the movie is marvellously unsettling. This is assisted greatly by a disfigurement to his face which has much of his lower jaw missing.

Needless to say, The Box is duly opened and the story concentrates on the guilt taken on by the couple, along with an ongoing reveal of precisely who Langella is and his motives in making the offer.

Although not as successful a movie as Donnie Darko, this will go much of the way to repairing Kelly's tarnished reputation.

Concert Review : Status Quo/Roy Wood - SECC, Glasgow

If it's December then it must be time for Quo at the SECC. But equally, it's also time for numerous plays of I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day as well so it was more than opportune that the support was provided by the legend that is Roy Wood.

Wood has to be one of the finest songwriters this country has ever produced and putting aside his brief involvement in the establishment of the Electric Light Orchestra his work as the mainman in both The Move and Wizzard along with his solo efforts gives him a eclectic back catalogue to be proud of.

He was a name on my list of artists I'd love to see in a live setting but his touring in the past couple of decades has been somewhat limited and also, as far as I am aware at least, lacking in visits to Scotland. The news that he was going to be providing the support to Quo on their 2009 visit to Glasgow was met with considerable enthusiasm.

Backed by a bass, keyboards, drums, a female singer plus a four piece horn section Wood ran through a whole range of the songs that stamped his name as one for the history books. Opening with California Man (and how awesome that was!) and closing, inevitably with I Wish It Could Be Christmas Every Day and stopping off with I Can Hear The Grass Grow, Fire Brigade, Flowers In The Rain, Blackberry Way, Ball Park Incident, See My Baby Jive, Angel Fingers, Are You Ready To Rock along with two other numbers (at least one of which was new) had me in a position that I'd have left the SECC thoroughly satisfied by the evening's entertainment. It was certainly the first time that I can remember the already full hall on their feet singing and dancing along with a support act.

I do hope that this is a sign of Roy becoming more active, and I'd love to see a full show from him. I might get Brontosaurus then which wasn't played despite my rather loud call for same.

Of course, having been so thoroughly enraptured with Roy Wood there was a danger that Status Quo might be something of an anti-climax. Especially as I knew their set was largely unchanged from last years show - although the reintroduction of Hold You Back got a big thumbs up from me and I was looking forward to this.

Although they have made some rather foolish moves in their career (cover albums, anyone!) Quo have always remained a powerful and consistent live act. I'd also make a case that Francis Rossi is both a superlative songwriter. (And just to leave some clear blue sky between me and other Quo fanatics, I hold no nostalgia for Alan Lancaster who, with only a few exceptions, was usually responsible for the poorest songs on any Quo album.)

Despite the high level of the bar set by Roy Wood, Quo managed to match it although it wasn't without some difficulties. Some earlier gigs on the tour had to be cancelled because of issues with Rossi's voice. These weren't totally resolved and some songs were carried more by the audience than by Francis. However, and it may have been to compensate, the band clicked big time and the power coming from the stage had the air guitarists among the audience in heaven. I'm also sure they were much louder than they had been last year - and that's not a complaint.

One of the Quo songs which seems to elicit most negative comment is Burning Bridges. Being a contrarian, it's one of my favourites and I hadn't been expecting it to be played (as per setlists from earlier gigs) but there must be something about Glasgow as they played it as their first encore. (It's always seems to get played here - must be the sight of me jumping up and down during the jiggy bit that gives them a laugh!). This was in addition to the usual encore numbers, so we still got Paper Plane, Junior's Wailing and Rock And Roll Music/Bye Bye Johnny to bring the evening to a hugely entertaining close.

Quo are an undervalued gem of the British music scene, but for all those that all too easily put them down they are still capable of pulling large crowds on their annual jaunts which speaks volumes. Roll on next year!

Concert Review : Porcupine Tree - ABC1, Glasgow

In an age where Prog no longer seems to be a dirty word, Porcupine Tree find themselves as the standard bearers for the genre in the UK. Whilst their last two albums, Fear Of A Blank Planet and The Incident, have received almost universal praise I've yet to be convinced that they are on a par with the albums that preceded them.

Notwithstanding that the band remain a powerful live act and the ABC in Glasgow was treated to the final date on their 2009 tour in support of The Incident. (Ironically, we were the recipients of the opening night of the tour for the prior album).

The first half of the show was a performance of The Incident itself which is a 55-minute piece which takes up the first CD of the new set. Although I'm becoming more familiar with the piece I can't help but feel that this contains too much in the way of filler material to join the songs together. (Let's not kid ourselves on that this is actually a single piece of music - like many such prog epics, it is no more and no less than a bunch of songs with some additional material to link it together to make it appear as one continuous piece). Overall, I think it's a couple of good songs short of totally hitting the mark.

Seeing it performed live only tended to reinforce that opinion, and whilst it's an considerable achievement in some respects I do think they are not quite hitting the peaks of their earlier albums which concentrated on strong songs and was not encumbered by the epic tag to quite the same extent.

The second half was promised by Steven Wilson to be filled with the "ones we know". By and large, that wasn't the case as the band played some seldom played songs from their earlier career along with the less obvious selections from their recent albums. That's not a criticism by any manner of means as I do like to see bands that mix up their setlists. One of the delights of seeing Porcupine Tree in the last six or seven years has been that they have never allowed the setlist to get stale and each one is usually significantly different from the last (more than the mere presence of a new album would justify). It was only at encore time when the duo of The Sound Of Muzak and Trains from In Absentia (much, much better than either of the last two!) brought proceedings to a close.

There is a danger that this review sounds a bit whingy and negative but it's all a question of degree. Porcupine Tree remain an awesome live proposition and seem like they will remain so for some time to come.

Film Review : A Serious Man

Having been on good terms with box office success with the Oscar-winning No Country For Old Men and the exuberant Burn After Reading, the Coen Brothers throw one to their core audience (all seventeen of us) with their latest film.


Based largely on their childhood experiences but without being autobiographical (which is either quirkily typical of the Coens or an attempt to keep the lawyers at bay), A Serious Man observes the life of an upstanding member of the Jewish community as he faces a turning point in his career (with the opportunity of tenure at the University where he lectures) and his life (where his wife is leaving him to his considerable shock).

Unusually, the film does not use any of the recognised members of the Coen fraternity. The titular character is played by Michael Stuhlbarg who does an excellent job belying the supporting roles that have been his career to date.

As a man of faith who has undoubtedly done all the right things in life, he seeks the advice of his local rabbis. Needless to say, they all in their different ways seem unable to assist. The whole thrust of the film is how these men with such a significant and crucial role in the Jewish community are able to cope (or not) with the everyday concerns of the members of their congregation.

This is a funny movie but more in the fashion of some of the earlier, darker movies rather than the more accessible Burn After Reading. For those of you that don't like those earlier Coen Brothers movies (Barton Fink might be the best barometer for comparison purposes) you may find it difficult to get above the general air of depression that surrounds the film. But the rest of you will cherish that the Coen Brothers can still produce this type of film despite their wider success.

Concert Review : Steve Hackett - The Ferry, Glasgow

It's been about 20 years since Steve Hackett last performed in Glasgow, but the packed Ferry showed that he's still got a lot of loyal and committed fans in these parts. This seems to be very much the time for Hackett with all things prog being something approaching fashionable and also having a very strong album to promote in Out Of The Tunnel's Mouth which neatly covers all of the bases of his solo material in fine fashion.

Hackett fronts an extremely powerful band which means that the songs do come over as much more muscular and dynamic that they can appear on album. That is not a bad thing!

Featuring the new album in its' entirety alongside an eclectic range of material from his previous solo albums alongside some classics from his days in Genesis. The latter included a fine performance of Firth Of Fifth along with the inevitable Horizons. What was a surprise was the version of Blood On The Rooftops from the underrated Wind And Wuthering album.

However, Hackett has long since put his Genesis days behind him and the set concentrated largely on his excellent solo career. I've always found it difficult to work out where Steve lands in the bigger picture. It's not unusual to find blank stares when his name is mentioned but the large crowd tonight showed that his work is reaching a significant audience.

The range of Hackett's solo work suggests that it's always going to be unlikely that he'll be able to appeal to the masses, but it's that selfsame diversity that will make those already on his side will continue to be so.

Let's hope he doesn't leave another 20 years to return.

Film Review : The Men Who Stare At Goats

This is another film based on a book much loved by its' readers. In the case, the book is not a work of fiction but a study of the somewhat unusual methods used in some sections of the CIA to gain advantages of their enemy of the moment.

I've not read the book but it's clear from other comments that the film is a very different take on this topic from the book. Whilst the book appears to be a serious study of the more ludicrous end of CIA activities, the film plays things pretty much for laughs coming across as Coen-lite.

Not that the end result is anything other than an enjoyable film. George Clooney plays the charming and committed idiot whose earnestness and dedication to the task more than overwhelms the absurdity of the situation he finds himself in.

Ewan McGregor plays an equally gormless journalist who decides to follow the story all the way to a middle eastern warzone as a means of proving himself to his wife. You can imagine how that works out.

Whilst both these characters demonstrate an amusing gullibility, Kevin Spacey adds a touch of ambition to the mix. Seemingly always bested by Clooney, his focus means he ends up floating to the top of the tree for the film's climax.

However, the film is pretty much stolen by Jeff Bridges as the soldier who sets the whole shebang up. If you can imagine The Big Lebowski's Dude in charge of a CIA operation then you'll love this performance.

As mentioned before, this is very much Coen-lite and makes the whole idea of what the CIA were doing an object of some ridicule rather than as something sinister (which is how I suspect its' presented in the source material). But if you can't laugh at some of these things that are done supposedly in our name, there'd only be one alternative.

Concert Review : Deep Purple - Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow

Now that we're in a situation where Steve Morse has played more gigs as a member of Deep Purple than Ritchie Blackmore, it's probably long past the situation to consider him the "new boy" but it's always apparent from reading the views of fans that the spectre of Blackmore continues to loom large in their thoughts and opinions of the band.

Any new Purple material is always subject to comparison to their classic period and often held to be inferior. Notwithstanding that precisely the same standard if applied to the Blackmore-era reunion albums would result in the same conclusion. Indeed, if pressed I'd suggest that the best album by any post-reunion album would be the Morse-era debut Purpendicular. A better, fresher album than its' only near competitor Perfect Strangers.

That these two albums represent the first offerings of the respective line-ups from their respective time periods probably says something about the challenge faced by Purple. They do seem to find it hard to sustain a consistent level of creativity to match the burst that produced In Rock, Fireball and Machine Head in the 1970's.

That's not a unique problem to Purple - many bands of a similar age fact the same issues but it does mean that in the case of Deep Purple it is difficult for them to step out of the shadow of the Man In Black.

That leaves live performance as the main arena in which the band can continue to breathe and thrive. And they continue to do so as this performance in Glasgow on 11th November demonstrated.

Whilst the band were reinvigorated by the addition of Steve Morse, they have over recent years had a tendency to slip into the old bad habit of resting too heavily on familiar material and especially Machine Head. This time around the setlist showed some more variation with some welcome additions in No One Came (from Fireball) along with the return of the one true classic from the Morse era which genuinely stands shoulder to shoulder with anything from Purple's heyday in Sometime I Feel Like Screaming. We also got Wasted Sunsets and Not Responsible from Perfect Strangers - not necessarily the top of anyones list of songs they'd like to hear performed but welcome for that lack of obviousness.

The band played as well as I've seen for a while, although Gillan was clearly struggling with some of the higher notes. This is not uncommon in recent shows, but I'm at a loss why he continues to attempt to scream when his voice in normal register remains so strong.

Morse clearly continues to enjoy playing the old material and avoids simply replicating Blackmore's style bringing a different style to the songs. The other new boy, Don Airey is now being more adventurous having taken a few years to settle comfortably into the position previously held by Jon Lord. Nowadays, the band switch between keyboard and guitar rather as they did in their earlier years, before Blackmore's domination chipped away at that magic ingredient.

Paice and Glover continue to be the rock rhythm section par excellence. One notable item missing was Paice's drum solo - not necessarily a bad thing as drum solos are often an indulgence despite the excellence of the player - but I would equally have welcomed the absence of the guitar and keyboard solo slots in favour of a couple more songs.

Ian Gillan told us that the band would be recording a new album in 2010. It's five years since Rapture Of The Deep which was an enjoyable but not essential album. I'd like to hope that the gap can result in stronger material that can produce an album that can rival Purpendicular.

Film Review : Harry Brown

Much publicised as possibly Michael Caine's last movie, this is a gritty tale of modern life in an urban wasteland. An additional appeal is that the story is set in the same part of London where Caine himself was brought up.

As such, he undoubtedly brings an emotional strength to the role of Harry who is a recently bereaved widower who also loses a friend who was murdered by the local gangs. These events result in his growing anger at what is happening all around to boil over, and the quiet retired man turns vigilante using the skills he learnt from his long service with the services.

Caine is compelling as you would expect, but you do feel that this is a role he has played many times before. However, the very clear emotional connection he has with the material does add punch to the tale.

Emily Mortimer plays a police sergeant out of her depth amongst the amoral behaviour all around. You suspect that, in real life such a well meaning person would simply not survive in such an environment but in the film, she is the one who sets the moral compass around which the tale revolves.

It's very easy to describe this as a British Gran Torino, and whilst there are many similarities in the tale it is, as you might expect, a more realistic and bleak picture of a crumbling urban environment.

It's also worth saying that whilst this isn't by any manner of means a happy-clappy film, it's not as unremittingly bleak as some of this style of movie can be. It was even enjoyed by my wife, and I lost my bet that she wouldn't enjoy it.

Concert Review : Andy Fairweather Low - The Ferry, Glasgow

One of the great joys for me over the past few years has been the return of Andy Fairweather Low to the live arena in his own right. Having put his solo endeavours to one side after the failure of Mega Shebang to make a meaningful impression on the world, he spent the years since then acting as guitar for hire. Given that this included long term engagements with Eric Clapton and Roger Waters suggests the skill and talent that he brought to that role.

Of course, those of us of a certain age remember AFL as the teen idol lead singer with Amen Corner, whilst those less chronologically challenged will recall his biggest solo hit Wide Eyed And Legless which is a condition I well recognise from my younger years. Of course, his previous career never really gave a hint of what a fine guitarist he is.

I've written previously on this blog about AFL, and it will be no great surprise to find me waxing ecstatically about his latest appearance in Glasgow on 6th November. Whilst much of the set was familiar, the songs were given a different twist in that the keyboards were replaced with a horn player which gave them a different feel.

What was different - indeed, almost a month later it still strikes me as astonishing - was the size of the crowd. The previous gigs at The Ferry had been reasonably well attended but left no doubt that the boat was in no danger of loosening itself from its' moorings. This time, however, the place was packed. Not full by any manner of means, but the audience had increased by about three time since the last show.

I'm not sure what's happened in the interim. The tour he is on, and the gig at The Ferry in particular, was no better advertised than happened previously. There's no new album to have generated any more of a profile.

What was clear was that all the "new" folk in the audience were more than familiar with the songs that were played. Hell, there was even three women who started screaming - yes, screaming - when he played Hello Susie, the first of the old Amen Corner songs played in the set.

It made it quite a thrilling evening for me as AFL is someone I'm happy to continue to champion as, in my (admittedly not very humble) opinion, not enough people recognise his worth. It was clearly just as thrilling to Andy and his band who were visibly quite taken aback with the reception which started at noisy and built from there.

All the hits from Amen Corner, Fairweather and solo segments of his career were played along with a number of songs from his excellent last album Sweet Soul Music. As he has done since his comeback, the set also contained a sprinkling of old blues, gospel and country tunes that provided a grand potted history of the key styles of the last 60 years. Most enjoyable and touching was his tribute to the recently departed Les Paul, playing the song Just Because which was his first ever released record way back in the 1960's.

Encoring with Bend Me Shape Me and (If Paradise Is) Half As Nice had The Ferry in singalong mood. Bend Me Shape Me was always a favourite of mine and it's been marvellous to be able to hear AFL perform this live over the past couple of years.

I did notice that AFL will be supporting the Robert Cray Band on their British tour in the summer of 2010. Hopefully, that will help to (re)introduce Andy to a wider audience which can only be a good thing.

Film Review : The Fantastic Mr Fox

The world is made up of two types of people or, at least, two types of film fan. Those who "get" Wes Anderson and love his films and those who most certainly don't and who would rather watch X-Factor than suffer one of his films. (Mind you, that does suggest that a very large number of people form the latter category!). I fall into the former category although it would be fair to say that there's a sameness to his movies that has the potential to pall somewhat. (And that might be aimed at you, Jason Schwartzman!).

This films marks something of a break with his other movies in that whilst featuring many of his regular ensemble, the principle parts of Mr and Mrs Fox are voiced by George Clooney and Meryl Streep respectively. The other significant break is indicated by the use of the term "voiced" - this is an animated feature. Not just any old animated feature, mind you. In an era of photo-realistic digital extravaganzas, The Fantastic Mr Fox is made using good old-fashioned stop-motion animation which gives it a unique style amongst its' peers.

Ironically, this does provide something of a hurdle for the viewer - well, it did for me! - as we are now so used to the latest technologies lighting up our screens that the decidedly old school feel of the visuals take a while to settle in. That they do is as a result of the tale based on Roald Dahl's book which like all of his work reveals a more challenging world than the apparently childlike veneer.

The titular character is a charming and over-confident fox whose bravado sets his family and their community at peril to local farmers who seek to rid themselves of the pests who are ruining their business. Being a Wes Anderson movie, the family and other members of the community are an angst-riddled bunch whose various foibles both assist and restrain Mr Fox in his endeavours to defeat his foes.

Clooney is his usual charming, debonair self as Mr Fox, whilst Meryl Streep plays his loving but long-suffering wife to perfection. With a certain air of predictability, the aforementioned Mr Schwartzman plays the young Fox, and the playing out of his issues with both family and friends forms the moral core of this tale.

It's worth pointing out this isn't really a children's movie - there's nothing inherently problematic about the film being seen by youngsters, but it does play as reasonably hard-core Anderson may make it a little incomprehensible to some. Indeed, that may make it incomprehensible to some adults as well, but that's why I like his movies.

This is an extremely enjoyable movie, and one that I hope will allow Anderson himself to recharge his creative batteries after The Darjeeling Limited which I thought was little disappointing and showed him to be in danger of parodying himself.