Miles Kane, Villanelle and Fiona Lee at the Roundhouse

Friday night gig at the Roundhouse with three colleagues from the office to see one of my old standbys for a good night out, Miles Kane. And yet again he didn't disappoint. He doesn't get the recognition he deserves. 

But before him, two support acts . The first was Fiona Lee, a singer songwriter from Yorkshire. I have questioned on these pages before as to how acts get chosen as supports. It seemed to me almost cruelty to put her on the same bill as Miles Kane, given they are both singer songwriters playing electric guitar. The cruelty being that Miles is a great guitarist with  powerful vocals, anthemic songs and a backing band, this poor girl played completely solo, even to my non musician ear she clearly has only very basic guitar skills - the sort you might expect at a school concert -  and drippy dirge-like and overly long songs. (She only played five songs in a pretty long set). I was pleased to find my companions thought the same. I summed her up as not awful, just awfully dull. One of my colleagues said what she needed was a band and a new songwriter. I guess someone is plugging her hard.

I guess someone is plugging the next act, Villanelle, too. But they deserved to be plugged. Really strong driving rock songs and they did feel a good fit for a Miles Kane support. The first thing I thought though was that the lead vocalist was trying to go for the Liam Gallagher look, which in my view is a pretty crap look even for the man himself. What I didn't realise until one of our party checked it, was that the lead singer actually is Liam Gallagher's son, Gene! So, ok....

But Villanelle is not just a Gallagher nepo vehicle. They were a really good band, guitarists and drummer included

Finally on to the man himself. Note the leopard theme at the back!

Although Miles is a solo artist, he does have a full band behind him. And it all just works, start to finish. They might not be all that famous, but the atmosphere at the Roundhouse was terrific. Those of us who know him recognise that one gets full value for money. 

Only Miles could really carry off a leopardskin acoustic guitar