guitar
Fleet Foxes, Hammersmith ApolloWednesday, 01 June 2011
Music folklore has it that this band from Seattle changed their name from Pineapple back in the hazy days before their debut album went platinum because frontman Robin Pecknold thought Fleet Foxes sounded like a weird, outmoded English sport - a bit... Read more... |
Disappears, The BorderlineWednesday, 01 June 2011
Sometimes you stare at live bands and question why they bother. It’s a pact - the band plays, the audience looks on and claps. Last night’s debut British show by Chicago's Disappears raised that question. The night before, they’d played Amsterdam’s... Read more... |
Seasick Steve, Electric BallroomFriday, 27 May 2011
A guitar with one string? There is indeed such a thing. It’s played by Seasick Steve, and it consists of a stubby plank of wood, a pick-up and a couple of nails. And a string. The man born 70 years ago as Steven Wold plays it with a slide, and it... Read more... |
Rush, O2 ArenaThursday, 26 May 2011
Explosions, 40ft flames, light shows and back projections. It may have been at the Dome but at times it felt more like being in a music video. A mini-film opened the concert. Rush circa 1973 were boys called Rash, and they’d play only when professor... Read more... |
The Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain, Leeds Town HallThursday, 12 May 2011
The trick is to transform something relatively easy into something dazzling and bewilderingly complex. Seeing the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain is like watching eight masters of close-up magic. You’re not quite sure where to look, unable to... Read more... |
CD: Emmylou Harris - Hard BargainSunday, 17 April 2011
Always renowned as an interpreter of other artists' material, Emmylou Harris has been a late developer as a songwriter. On 2008's All I Intended to Be, she successfully balanced cover versions with her own songs, but this time she has written... Read more... |
Miloš Karadaglić, LPO Foyle Future Firsts, 100 ClubThursday, 14 April 2011
Bear with me while, like supergroomed rising star Miloš Karadaglić retuning his guitar to a mellower vein, I adjust my concert-hall vocab and describe this as a no-gimmicks sell-out gig underground with young musicians from the London Philharmonic’s... Read more... |
CD: Moddi - FloriographySunday, 10 April 2011
Pål Moddi Knutsen is from Senja, an island off north Norway’s west coast. Inside the Arctic Circle, it’s so far north as to be all but adjacent to the borders with Sweden and Finland. Due east, Murmansk is less than half the distance of Oslo. It’s... Read more... |
Jet Harris, the original Shadow RIPSaturday, 19 March 2011
Jet Harris was one of the architects of British rock'n'roll. His death rams home just how distant that era now seems. A former skiffler, he joined The Shadows after a spell backing Terry Dene, British rock's first bad boy. In time, Harris became a... Read more... |
CD: Josh Bray - Whisky & WoolSunday, 13 March 2011
This impressive debut from the Devon-born Bray teems with allusions to a raft of classic British songwriters, not least Nick Drake and John Martyn, though Bray also claims to have had his synapses jangled by everyone from Led Zeppelin and Nirvana... Read more... |
Mogwai, Brixton AcademySaturday, 26 February 2011
There are some glorious sounds to be heard in the world of music: a big band in full swing; a symphony orchestra in full flight; a gospel choir; the Hammond B3 organ. But to my mind there’s nothing quite like the sound of a line of electric guitars... Read more... |
Opinion: Can we please kill off the guitar as cultural icon now?Tuesday, 15 February 2011
There's been a lot of waffle lately about rock'n'roll being dead. This is down to mainstream radio turning its back on guitar music in favour of a stew of electro-pop and R&B, and the fact that just three spots in the Top 100 UK bestselling... Read more... |
