ELBOW: Solent Hall BIClent

AFTER nearly eight years of critical acclaim, Elbow are finally achieving commercial success on the back of their Mercury Award-winning album, Seldom Seen Kid. With an unchanged line-up from those early days in Bury, they were understandably tight-knit, reeling off a succession of lush, swirling mini-symphonies with unflustered ease, creating a huge sound that filled the Solent Hall.

Charismatic and very likeable front man Guy Garvey was the focal point throughout, bantering with an appreciative, enthusiastic audience.

The music was typically anthemic, songs building gently, inexorably to a wall of noise, not least a stunning version of Newborn, perhaps the highlight of the evening for me.

There were just a few occasions, I felt, when it all became a little too, well, grandiose – fine for the hard-core fans that no doubt made up a good percentage of the crowd, less so for the less-committed come-lately element. But Garvey, in good voice throughout, soon got everyone back onside.

Seldom Seen Kid is a richly deserved success, of course, because after years of honing their craft, Elbow have come up with some truly killer songs. Starlings and Mirrorball were great, Weather to Fly tremendous, a barnstorming Grounds For Divorce nearly brought the house down, while One Day Like This, a simply beautiful tune (remember it from the BBC’s Beijing Olympics coverage?) was played here to perfection.

Not everyone agreed with our reviewer. Read their comments here.

Russell Brand: I am the news

Russell Brand, Guildhall, Portsmouth.

A word of warning: if you’ve bought tickets to Russell Brand’s Bournemouth show in the hope of finding something to be offended about, you’re going to get exactly what you wanted.

Gone is the Brand of previous tours, who made jokes about newspapers and explained how he was (mainly) a good boy nowadays.

In his place is a capering, joyful schoolboy who’s determined to prove that Sachsgate is only the tip of his naughtiness iceberg. And crikey, does he.

From the second he started singing the words “I am the news” to the theme to News at Ten you could tell this wasn’t going to be an apologetic show.

Everyone gets lampooned, from the lookalike who’s life’s been ruined because he can’t get bookings, to the readers who suggested he and Wossy be sent Afghanistan, to the media who put him at the centre of the world for a week and even himself, for overdressing to ‘go on the news.’

Which is not to say that he doesn’t wish he hadn’t upset Andrew Sachs and got loads of his friends in trouble. But, as he swiftly pointed out, he’s been much more offensive than that on a daily basis. So we got a rundown of his hastily-abandoned script for the VMAs – abandoned because his George Bush joke didn’t get quite the laugh he expected – which included a joke about Michael Jackson that would probably have seen him kicked to death on the spot.

We got an extensive description of exactly what he’d like Dame Helen Mirren to do to him that will probably still be making me shudder next week.

There was even a little demonstration of exactly what it would be like to go to bed with Russell Brand (and he’s looking good, ladies, if you like that kind of thing) plus quite a lot of jokes I can’t even describe in a roundabout way without losing my job. (I have tried… “I’d like to sign my name on your balloon with my crayon…” nope, not even going there.)

Not forgetting, of course, a little reprise of that Andrew Sach’s answerphone song. And you know what? It’s all pretty damn funny. Especially the song. (Please note this is not endorsement of any kind of Sachs-related bullying. But that particular part of the show is indeed funny.

Especially Jonathon Ross singing bass line bom bom boms underneath.) It’s not a tightly structured show. It’s not even, really, got much of a theme.

Some of it’s just an open invitation to have sex with him. It’s like he’s decided to go out and be as offensive as he wants to be, just to prove there ARE people out there who like him no matter what he does. Well guess what? They do.

And Russell? He seems happy. And pretty well served, I’d say. A quick PS: If you’ve bought tickets hoping you’ll be able to record him saying something outrageous and stick it on You Tube, don’t bother. The security team were out in force last night. You haven’t got a chance.

What did you reckon? let us know here or see this review at it’s orginal home on www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/blogs

Stereophonics trot out their greatest hits – and they were a smash

I have waited years for a chance to see a ‘best of’ Stereophonics gig, safe in the knowledge that it would probably never happen. Well, last night I realised that very ambition at the BIC, and had a bit of impressive support band, The Courteeners, thrown in for good measure.

I may be easily pleased but it’s hard not to be excited about a gig when you know you are going to enjoy every song, and enjoy them I did!

With the ‘Phonics’ taking a break from our radios and the limelight of late, it is easy to forget just how many big hits they’ve racked up in their ‘decade in the sun’, the apt title of their greatest hits album released earlier this year.

More of this review here

Will Young review at the BIC

SIX years is like several lifetimes in the music business, which makes it all the more remarkable that Will Young came to prominence through TV’s Pop Idol in 2002.

Back at the BIC with a stunning new album, Let It Go, he delivered a performance that was a million miles from the wannabe star we first took to our hearts.

He still has the same cheeky boy-next-door charm and there is endless jokey banter between songs.

One minute he is telling us about his love of hardware shops: “you can’t beat finding a good broom handle”, the next he is playing with his Secret Santa gift – a pair of musical gloves with which he comically prods various parts of his body!

But bounding around the stage for the full 90 minutes dressed in jeans, checked shirt and pumps, his vocals are absolutely immaculate. His voice is sweeter and more intimate than ever before.

His perfectly crafted new songs – mostly co-written by himself – are mature and heart-felt, clearly the result of the heartache and disappointment of a failed relationship, making them all the more personal.

This bittersweet soulful pop, with its endless catchy hooks, constantly hits the mark. Every song was a gem.

The first single lifted from the new album, Hope My Life Changes, goes down a storm but the follow-up, Grace, with its soaring vocals whips the audience up for a standing ovation.

From the earlier hits like Friday’s Child and Mystified to the closing Leave Right Now, he could do no wrong.

With an appeal that crosses all generations, and one of the finest voices in pop, Will Young is a true star.

By Hilary Porter

Cerridwen the baby otter

She's five weeks old and she's being looked after in Poole

Going to Panto? IS it Dick Whittington or Peter Pan?

Well here’s what the Echo had to say about Peter Pan

THE last time Peter Pan was staged in Bournemouth it was an ice show featuring breath-taking, choreographed skating and spectacular flying with mid-air sword fights.

This is a rather more grounded show that steadily paces its way through J M Barrie’s original tale without deviating into some of the traditional panto elements we have come to expect.

The lack of any serious slapstick, or raucous audience participation, may disappoint some.

But the show focuses on creating the enchantment and wonder of Never Never Land, home to Peter, the little boy who would never grow up, a roller-skating fairy Tinkerbell, pirates, Indians, Lost Boys, mermaids… and a crocodile.

Unfortunately, a technical fault meant Peter – played so perfectly by Barney Harwood of CBBC’s Prank Patrol and Basil’s Swap Shop – was unable to fly over the audience sprinkling magic fairy dust on the press night, which would have been the highlight of the show.

However, there was still plenty of flying on stage with the best sequence featuring cinematic projections of the London sky.

Gemma Hunt, also of CBBC fame, brought her own unique sparkle to the role of Tinkerbell – a fairy with serious attitude.

And Gary Turner, from Emmerdale, was a suitably menacing and scary Hook.

EastEnders fans would have particularly enjoyed the comic input of Richard Elis (Huw in the BBC soap) as Smee.

He even joined the fantastic comedy acrobats The Nitwits who, as the Pirate crew, performed some hilarious, fast-moving jumps and summersaults that had us in stitches.

Bournemouth’s panto-favourite Maria Rice-Mundy, meanwhile, swapped her usually glamorous roles for that of the mother, Mrs Darling.

A chorus of young dancers from Bournemouth’s Stage Door School of Dance and Drama and Stagewise provided some of the most exciting scenes.

The show boasts fabulous costumes and sets and a score that pays tribute to many great musicals – from Mary Poppins to Oliver, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang to We Will Rock You.

The very few current cultural references were superb.

For instance, when Peter asks Hook if he has any last requests, he answers: “Yes, I would like them to reopen my Christmas Lapland in Matchams Park.”

Lapland may feel like a distant dream but Never Never Land is right here on our doorstep!
Although The Stage didn’t entirely agree about the choreography:  http://tinyurl.com/64ws8h.

And here’s the Dick Whittington review: http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/leisure/reviews/3979748.Dick_Whittington_is_a_hit_at_Poole/

Kings of Leon are on fire at the BIC

YOU might think forking out £120 to see the Kings of Leon at the BIC is paying over the odds – and you’d probably be right.

However, as out-of-pocket those who purchased tickets off eBay at such inflated prices might have felt, the performance the KOL treated the crowd to on Sunday night would have offered much in the way of consolation.

Die hard fans can criticise the more mainstream, over-produced sound of their fourth album all they like but the show got  off to a flyer.

Hot on the heels of the dirty bass line and gritty riffery of Crawl came some songs for those who have been with the KOL from the start – King of the Rodeo, Joe’s Head and Molly’s Chambers.

These tracks from their first two albums sounded as fresh as they did when we first heard them and, as always, provoked the crowd into frenzied moshing.

If there was a good time to go to the bar it would have been just before the encore, when they slowed the tempo down again with Cold Desert and Trani.

Emerging again for the encore the KOL raised the bar once more with Knocked Up, a pulsating version of Charmer, Slow Night Slow Long and Black Thumbnail, which goaded the crowd into impersonating a pack of feral animals and closed what was a barnstorming gig.

Why the KOL don’t receive the same recognition in their home country as they do here is baffling – more fool the Yanks.

The Table of Death

Hilary Porter tries out the famous Table of Death illusion….

Are YourSpace project Britain’s answer to Flight of the Conchords?

YourSpace Project, the group of local musicians responsible for the recent YouTube success of comedy music video, Branksome, are now looking to become Britain’s answer to New Zealand comedy duo Flight of the Conchords, stars of their own BBC show.

Fraser Bennett, 25, a music producer who has lived in quiet Branksome all his life, and his friends Hugo Farrant and Matt Karsenti hope they can build on their success and emulate The Conchords, despite admitting to having never heard of the New Zealanders before making Branksome.

Fraser, aka ‘Frazer Freeze’, says: “We’d honestly never seen or heard of them until recently when someone saw our video and said we were like them, so we started watching all their stuff. They’re amazing and we’d love to be able to do things like that.”

Here’s their video – what do you think?

(Full interview is here )

Low-key evening as Zutons fail to sparkle

He may look a bit like Jesus, but Dave McCabe and The Zutons were definitely lacking a bit of divine inspiration as they played to a half-full Solent Hall at the BIC.

It was a strange gig, as you couldn’t fault the band’s enthusiasm, Dave’s vocals or Abi’s Sax and the band were a tight and well-oiled unit that played all their big hits, but something was definitely missing.

Maybe it’s a sign of the times when a big-name band like The Zutons are struggling to sell out one of the BIC’s smaller venues. The sparsely populated arena gave the feeling of a tribute band playing in a school assembly hall at times. Their signature tune, Valerie, was lost somewhere in the middle of the set along with other well known songs, Pressure Point, Why Won’t You Give Me Your Love and Always Right Behind You.

Dave McCabe threw in a couple of acoustic numbers in the middle of the set, which while very pleasant on the ears, did break up any sort of flow or momentum the band had been building with some of their more upbeat hits prior.

The highlight of the night was probably the encore of You Will You Won’t. It was the fast-paced, in-your-face, sing-a-long, clap-along song that the night had been missing, or should have been building up to. If we’d left then I’d have been slightly disappointed with the night but with a positive final memory.

But, the band then spent a five minutes doing some experimental jamming that never went anywhere as most of the remaining audience, looked on bemused.

To hear a podcast of the interview with bass guitarist Russell Pritchard before the gig click here http://www.bournemouthecho.co.uk/video/podcast/read_62514/