Live Review
Live Review: Tenderlonious, London Jazz Festival: Shoreditch Town Hall, November 22nd
So the last night of the London Jazz festival and you can imagine what might have been in the unrestricted freedom of pre-COVID times. Tenderlonious and chums playing a selection of earthy, energetic jazz funk from across the 22a catalogue to a jumping crowd rammed into the grand Victoriana of Shoreditch Town Hall. Sadly for …
Live Review: Binker Golding, London Jazz Festival, King’s Place – 21.11.20
Even before saxophonist Binker Golding’s streamed show at King’s Place on Saturday night, we knew we were in for something a little bit out – there. The pre-show blurb had cautioned ‘expect the conventional boundaries of jazz to be pushed…’and came with a health warning ‘Please note, the ensemble will not be playing material from …
Live Review: Dinosaur – London Jazz Festival, Kings Place 15.11.20
It’s amazing when you realise that trumpet player and composer Laura Jurd and her Dinosaur buddies, Elliott Galvin (keys), Corrie Dick (drums) and Conor Chaplin (bass) have been making music together for a decade now. Three albums in and one Mercury Prize nomination down, they’ve been through the ‘bright new things’ experience, ruffled attention within …
Live Review: SEED Ensemble & Guests- Celebrating Pharoah Sanders 14 /11/20 London Barbican
‘Jazz is cool’ must have been the mantra that the London Jazz Festival organisers offered up many times over the past few turbulent months as they tried maintain calm and keep the 2020 event afloat. In September they announced an ambitious mixed programme of live gigs and streamed events in a determined effort to retain …
LIVE REVIEW: Richard Dawson, The Barbican, London
YOU HAVE to take your hat off to everyone at the Barbican – and, as we were told by Erland Cooper in the very first of these sessions – a mystery benefactor, who made a substantial donation, allowing this autumn series of Live at the Barbican shows to take place – there’s a whole variety …
LIVE REVIEW: The Divine Comedy, Barbican, London
TWO GIGS in one calendar week in 2020; this is unprecedented. Both live streams, maybe, but that’s just fine by me in a world which looks to have decided its wearing the garb of a bad Hammer or Amicus dystopia for the whole livelong year, and not just for Hallowe’en. Trick rather than treat, indeed. …
LIVE REVIEW: Erland Cooper, The Barbican, London: bringing the soul of Orkney to the heart of the capital
TO THE Barbican, that beautiful, brutalist residential and cultural hub in London EC2: for a gig. A gig! Livestream or not, it’s a red letter day in 2020. Ah … gigs. Aren’t they wonderful, beauteous things. Okay, it’s a livestream event, but look at it out there; am I in a position to choose? Are …
LIVE: OSees whirl up a sandstorm in the Californian desert for The Levitation Sessions
A FRIDGE full of beers; pizza and chips in the oven, and a spread of crisps laid out: this is the ‘new normal’ for the live show experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. The surreal element of watching a band from halfway across the world from the comfort of the living room will likely never actually …
Live Review: IDLES – Lock-In Sessions, 29/30.08.2020
This live stream performance from Abbey Road studios consisted of three sets; two on Saturday night at 9pm and 11:45pm (BST) and a third on Sunday at 12pm. There’s a palpable sense of anticipation as the minutes count down, amplified by the excited comments in the live chat column. At just after nine, the screen …
Gallery: The Last Gigs Before Lockdown – Phil Roberts
In celebration of the recent government news of a rescue package for the future of Britain’s museums, galleries, theatres, independent cinemas, heritage sites and importantly music venues we have a look at some of the last gigs before the country went into lockdown. First up photographer Phil Roberts shares images from his last gig at …