Django Django, Miles Kayne, Palma Violets and Peace!

Some nights go better than others. Sometimes everything just comes together. Saturday night went very well indeed.

I went to the NME tour show at Brixton Academy. Now, while I do go to some gigs on my own, its much nicer to have a companion so I usually work quite hard to persuade someone from my ever expanding roster. And Saturday night it was my mate's oldest son, who of course I do recall as a baby in my arms, but is now a strapping 22 year old. Hadn't seen him since my party, and that was a bit hectic, so this was a chance to catch up properly. And reminding myself of what a nice young man he has turned into.

I had in mind a particular Thai restaurant and bar to meet up in, and that was just perfect for what we wanted  Taking advantage of the Happy Hour we had a couple of reasonably priced beers and a swiftly produced Thai meal to fortify us for the gig ahead. But we were still out quick enough to catch the first of 4 acts on the bill.

Now normally you haven't heard of any of the supports and they are rarely too memorable  But tonight they were all really good.

First off were Peace, a Brummie indie band. Now I won't go overboard in praise, but we both thought they were really good as an opener.

 

Then appeared a London band on home territory,  the Palma Violets. Now, I hadn't heard anything by them, but I had heard of them as they had been in the music press a bit as next big thing. They made a great noise. Quite punky, without the attitude crap. They went down a storm with the good-natured  audience. The two leads had a bit of the Carl Barat and Pete Docherty about them, hopefully without the same consequences  I have to say I enjoyed their driving rock rather more than the Libertines too.

Then Miles Kayne. Now I knew him only as one half of the Last Shadow Puppets with Alec Turner of the Arctic Monkeys. I knew nothing of his solo work, and hadn't any idea how loud and impressive he would be. His set was truly awesome. Have bought his album on the strength of it, but fear the cd will be tame beside his live performance.

And finally Django Django. Mercury Music Prize nominees they were clearly the "name" act and I had art least listened to, and loved, their debut eponymous album. This 4-piece band have trodden a not too unusual path of meeting at college and turning into an interesting sounding indie outfit. Somewhat in the "tradition" of Two Door Cinema Club or Foster the People, they are just a great sounding indie outfit. Only downer of the evening was they didn't play a longer set, and the quality of what went before didn't make them sound quite as outstanding as I would expect. But all in all a great evening. And a very loud one. My ears were certainly ringing after being down the front all night.

Privates on Parade

My only theatre trip of the week was to see Privates on Parade, but a very good trip it was. A mix of play and musical, because it is about a concert party in Malaya just after the war. Bawdy humour to the fore, but really enjoyable stuff. Think a much more subtle version of It Ain't Half Hot Mum (which was written about the same time. The lead, and undoubted show-stealer, is Simon Russell Beale as the outrageously camp middle-aged officer leading the concert party. He is just such a good actor and this role, not in his usual canon, he carried off with great aplomb. His Marlene Dietrich impression has to be seen (well, you can see - below).

I can't remember having front row seats at a West End theatre before. An odd experience. Sometimes when actors came to the front of the stage one was pretty much looking up their nostrils. We were that close. Not ideal, but not such a bad perspective either.

Alan Davies

Saturday night and another comedy gig to go to, Alan Davies. Its been a long time since he last did stand-up so I was keen to see what he would be like.

But first I was to meet up with one of my mates who was going to the gig with me and a teenage friend who wanted to find out more from us about going into the law. I chose as a venue for this encounter a Polish restaurant near the Apollo in Hammersmith.  Little did I realise in booking the place that both of my companions had Polish ex-girlfriends in their back catalogues, so the cuisine wasn't quite as novel to them as I anticipated. Indeed Stuart even photographed the menu and texted it on to his ex!

Anyway, the food was really good and we even managed to extract a bill out of them within a reasonable timeframe as the restaurant had just hit maximum capacity when we were leaving. And the raspberry vodka shots were a very nice parting gift. I fancy trying them again to see if their pierogi is better than mine!

Careers advice over, Stuart and I met up with my other mate (who is clearly a glutton for punishment having accompanied me to Frightened Rabbit earlier in the week) and watched Alan Davies.

A game of two halves this. He was much better after the interval. His opening attempt to engage with the audience was really pretty weak. But when he got into the full flow of his routine it was very good. His university days studying drama (4 blokes, one an unhinged hockey player, two chaps going out with each other and 12 women - happy days, except by the end of the course 9 of them were lesbians) his musings on sex, being 46, having babies, imagining what they are trying to say when crying ("Ahem, I think you may have inadvertently put the light out, having left me in this room on my own in a wooden cage. I'm not complaining but perhaps you would like to come back and see me now"), all good stuff.

My mate wondered before hand if he would mumble like he does on QI. Oh yes. Not a slick performer, but a likeable one, and the slightly bumbling nature of the performance at times made it more endearing, at times just a little amateurish.  Its a fine line. Dylan Moran probably walks it better.

Josh Widdicombe, Frightened Rabbit and the Europa Laegue

An entertaining and diverse week.

Josh Widdicombe is in the category of up and coming comics. He has done a fair bit of TV work, notably on Adam Hill's Last Leg. But still not a household name, which is why everyone I told I was going to see him asked if he was any relation to Anne. I hope one day roles will be reversed.

The venue was the basement of the Soho Theatre and this was the first night of the run. My two companions enjoyed it too, and I think understood why I waxed lyrical about it, and was so keen to arrive early. We bagged a table near, but not at, the front and so were within 5 metres of the act. And in comfort with a good view and a table for our drinks. And a good hour of funny if not barnstorming material. I still think his strength will be on panel type shows as he is a  bright and witty bloke but perhaps not yet the material or stage presence to sell out Wembley. But the basement was full!



The next night I went with one of our trainee solicitors (on his recommendation) to see Frightened Rabbit, a Scottish indie band, probably even lower in the recognition stakes than Josh, but still enough to sell out the Forum, a sizeable venue in Kentish Town. One of the things I like about getting out is the very fact that there are all these acts out there that aren't mainstream but when you get out they have a real following. Yes there are real people out there outside TV land.

The band had two very decent support acts, Irving Washington, a Scottish folk rock band,

 and Wintersleep, a Canadian band who particularly impressed me.

Frightened Rabbit were good, although I was less familiar with their oeuvre than most bands I go to see.I rather realised that my young friend and I have just marginally diverging tastes as he liked their quieter numbers while I most enjoyed the wall of sound stuff one got from the songs where they played with all 5 guitars at once. It is a definite plus going to a gig with someone to whom one can chat intelligently about the bands one is seeing.

And one overall comment. Probably the least photogenic trio of bands I have seen, or at least the most bearded, which maybe is much the same thing. Might also account for the low profile.



Then Thursday night on to Europa League football - Spurs v Olympique Lyonnais. Not a bad game for the neutral, but the one thing that struck me was just what a one man team Spurs are. Or rather, they are a pretty fair team, but what makes a difference is having Gareth Bale. His two stunning free-kicks were responsible for the 2-1 win. Otherwise they didn't threaten much. But Bale is truly terrific, even in a game where he never really got a run against the defence.

British Museum - Ice Age Art

The Ice Age Art exhibition has had a lot of publicity so I decided to check it out. I had hoped that the snow would have put people off, but not so. Which was a bit of a minus as many of the objects were on the small side. Very small.

A lot of the impact of the exhibition is the fact that everything there is over 10,000 years old. Which is just a little mind-boggling. Otherwise one isn't going to think anything there is so wonderful in its own right that you would want one in your house. But the glib comment one has to make is that these guys really could draw. The drawings/carvings of reindeer, bison etc are just really good. Economic of line, very realistic, they would knock the spots off mediaeval artists. (Let alone modern artists like lets say Tracey Emin, whose rather pathetic scribblings would have left her struggling in the competitive world of prehistoric artists.)

I am less impressed by the female statues of curvaceous (read obese) figures.

But actually that isn't the best exhibition in the Museum at the moment. That accolade should go to the paintings and drawings of two early 19th century artists who went on the Greek alternative of the Grand Tour and came back with a wonderful record of Greece. So this gave one the chance to see Greece through the drawings and writings of classical scholar Edward Dodwell  and artist Simone Pomardi, made on their travels in 1805–1806. In some cases they show great lumps of Greek statuary which have since been carted off to museums, in some cases they show unspoilt remains which are rather better preserved in situ now than they were then. Delphi is a case in point, because it hadn't been excavated then.

Apart from just the interest value, the collection is just aesthetically very pleasing. The panoramas are astonishing, but perhaps the most appealing are not the finished watercolours but the unfinished sketches. I would definitely walk off with a few of these for the house.

After that, I just had a wander round and took a few snaps with my new camera, including its new feature - a mode for taking photos through glass. See what you think.