On November 21st, London’s Shepherd’s Bush Empire played host to arguably one of the best and most energetic gigs of 2014 when various forty-somethings said goodbye to their youths and goodbye to Carter USM at the first of their two farewell shows. Barely a week and a half later, the atmosphere in the venue couldn’t be any further removed from that particular gig, when – on a particularly cold Tuesday night – a sparser crowd gather to see Canadian music collective The New Pornographers promoting their sixth release ‘Brill Bruisers’ with support from the relatively unknown Mini Mansions.
Category Archives: Gig Reviews
Hello, Good Evening, Welcome…and Goodbye: A Final Farewell to Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine
It is October 21st 1993. An ordinary autumnal evening for many, but for two lads from Kent this is a Thursday night like no other. For these two – at this point aged approximately 17 and 19 and only some six weeks into a friendship – this is to be a very momentous occasion. For both, it is a first gig experience and they are going to see Carter The Unstoppable Sex Machine, a band with somewhat of a cult following. By this point, Carter USM – still a duo with drum machine and a world of pre-programmed trickery – have scored a run of hit singles and have four hit albums under their belt, including a number one. They’ve rugby tacked Phillip Schofield on live TV (a man still young enough to care about dying his hair) and only within the last couple of weeks have appeared on the long running chart showcase Top of the Pops. Indeed, the very idea that this band would venture into the middle of Kent and play a show in a leisure centre seems like a visit from music royalty. Almost surreal– especially in the eyes of these two teenagers, keen to immerse themselves in a world of live music – but here they are, ready to promote their current full-length release, Post Historic Monsters.
REAL GONE GOES OUT: Levellers – Leas Cliff Hall, Folkestone 29/10/2014
In the summer of 2014, the Levellers issued a comprehensive greatest hits package, bringing together almost all of their single releases and promo videos in one place. Following a few festival shows, the band’s full tour staged at the end of the year was to be a celebration those hits to date. Tours often gain that certain something extra after a few shows, but right from this first night in a provincial theatre on the Kent coast, it’s clear from about three songs into their ninety minute set that Brighton’s favourite sons are on fine form.
REAL GONE GOES OUT: Winger – Islington Academy, London 21/06/2014
Winger have had more than their share of knockers in the past. In the early 90s they were blasted on an almost weekly basis by cartoon misfits Beavis & Butt-head; members of high profile rock bands weren’t any kinder with their childish jibes, while the music press were often too quick to write them off in the face of a changing musical tide. Such things surely would have hurt, but it doesn’t change the fact that the first three Winger albums are top-notch melodic rock affairs – albums that have aged better than those of some of their peers. Nor does it change the fact that Winger were – and still are – a superb live act.
REAL GONE GOES OUT: Dan Reed Network – Islington Academy, London 10/06/2014
In their original lifespan, the Dan Reed Network left the world three albums of superb funk rock. Poppy yet sophisticated, the band’s best work – though very of the period in which it was conceived – remains much loved by their cult of fans. During those seven years, the band also released a string of should’ve been hit singles, though rarely troubled the charts. Why DRN never really made it past cult status is a mystery – a multiracial act with a magazine-friendly image; backing from a major label; a tour with The Rolling Stones…surely they should’ve had the world on a plate. Most importantly, though, they had those songs: so accessible, so hooky and yet so overlooked. Following their split in 1993, frontman Dan Reed ventured into with acting, appearing in a Red Shoes Diaries production and a couple of other things (including a self-written movie named ‘ZigZag’, which may or may not have started life as a project called ‘The Ocean’) and also owned a nightclub. He dabbled with music, too, recording an album with Adrenaline Sky – including members of defunct funk-rock band Maggie’s Dream – and later released solo works, though nothing quite hit the heights of the Network’s peak.