Malcolm Middleton hinted earlier this month that he might take a break from his solo recording career. He was quick to explain what he meant: not that he was giving up playing live and stopping recording but that he might turn his hand to other musical projects. Phew. Although this wasn't a perfect gig, there was enough moments of magic to remind/confirm to the crowd what a talent this man is.
Malcolm took to the stage around about 9.30 with a four-piece backing band (five if you count occasional backing vocals from The Pictish Trail). Normally this is a good thing. But memories of Malcolm's last gig at Night and Day were still strong - that was a stripped-down, acoustic band: just violin, stand-up bass and acoustic guitar. And it was mesmerising. The full – electric - band live experience echoes some of the faults (picky, picky) I find with selected moments on some of his albums: that songs that would benefit from subtlety are buried in a heavily layered sound. So it was with the first part of the set here: loud, dense and barely able to hear the lyrics (and not helped by the distraction of the sound guy running around with cables). It's as though Malcolm is shy of (constantly) exposing himself through song so heaps on the instrumentation to hide behind and amongst it.
So that’s my major gripe out of the way - and don’t let it put you off seeing him live – it’s just a personal thing. By the sixth song in the set (the “best B-side I have ever written” ‘Whistle’) some more of the balance to the sound was restored: the quieter moments shone through. For the rest of the set the band were supporting Malcolm’s songs rather than dominating them. And this seemed complete when guitarist Jenny switched to violin – the poignancy of ‘Choir’ and ‘Speed on the M9’ and the humour of ‘Blue Plastic Bags’ came out and the full band sound worked brilliantly on ‘A Brighter Beat’ and ‘We’re All Going To Die’.
Highlights for me were the trio of encores all from the new album starting with 'The Ballad of Fuck All' performed just by Malcolm and Jenny. Truly beautiful. So by the end on a hot Monday night, it had all come together (to my ears) but too late in the day to rate this overall as a excellent night. Good in parts then. But when it was good….ah.
Earlier on support had been from the consistently excellent The Pictish Trail. Ms L wasn’t too enamoured with the songs that opened and closed his short set: programmed beats and sampled synths. But the rest of his set between those songs we all agreed were worth paying attention to: angelic voice, picked guitar and gorgeous melodies and a Lone Pigeon cover to boot. For a record label boss, Johnny Flynn is a fine musician.Malcolm supported by the Pictish Trail continue their UK tour until Saturday – forget the heat and make the effort to see them. Remember he may or may not be taking a break from all this.
The Set List:
Red Travelling Socks
Subset of the World
Box & Knife
Loneliness Shines
Kiss At The Station
Whistle
Shadows
Zero
Subset of the World
Box & Knife
Loneliness Shines
Kiss At The Station
Whistle
Shadows
Zero
Choir
Speed On The M9
A Brighter Beat
We're All Going To Die
Blue Plastic Bags
A Brighter Beat
We're All Going To Die
Blue Plastic Bags
Deeply envious of both of them and not being a musician (or photographer), I realise I will have to work very hard to get such a credit. Or will I? Here are two tantalising alternative routes from 
It's only a few months since they 
The first disappointment was seeing the band had been bumped off headlining slot. WTF?! Could see we were going to get a condensed set because of this. Then as the band took to the stage, the second disappointment was realising they were without drummer Jonny Helm. He was replaced tonight by Dave Beauchamp who actually filled in remarkably well; he has a more gentle skiffle-like style which suited the quieter numbers. And this was the main and REAL disappointment of the evening: by the time The Wave Pictures came on the crowd seemed to consist of mates of the earlier bands and those hanging about for the club night followed. The band and the sparse group of folk who were there to listen to those quiet songs had to battle against a wave of chatter and laughter that was frankly out of order. If you are not there to listen to the band, sod off somewhere else so everyone else can.
So being put in such a foul mood by struggling to listen to gentle songs like "If You Leave It Alone" against the rising background noise was not the best way to enjoy this gig. The band seemed to take it in their stride with lead singer David laughing it off. They also responded by switching to faster, noisier songs. Whilst it was great to hear some of these ("I Love You Like A Madman" was excellent: powerful and passionate) it was not the gig I'd signed up. And the predictions about a short set were realised: we only got nine songs. But from those in the crowd who were there to see the band there was some top sining along to the chorus for "Strange Fruit For David".
So a promoter and an audience who appeared to treat the band with disdain = a major disappointment. Apologies on their behalf to The Wave Pictures, they deserve better. Manchester owes you.
Pere Ubu are releasing their new album "
At the mundane end (in terms of formats) is the new Malcolm Middleton single "Red Travelling Socks" which I bought last week on 7" red vinyl single. It's not an innovative format, in fact quite retro. It may not be as convenient as a download but it feels like a proper purchase. I now OWN something. At the other end of the vinyl spectrum is the new 
It IS gorgeous. But it's also bloody inconvenient. The DVD case-sized box doesn't fit in my CD racks, the postcards are beautiful but I don't want to undo the bow holding them together, the actual CD is buried beneath everything else. Will it become "Ebay gold" as Rough Trade claim, especially now this limited edition has all sold out? Who cares - it is such a lovingly put-together package I'm not selling mine for anything.
"This physical glass bottle (all prettily Alcopopular) will arrive complete with ye olde map – leading you to the digitally downloadable booty that is these tracks... Alcopopular 3 costs £5 for the full map and bottle experience, or just £4 to have the MP3 download link emailed straight to you, if (for some reason) you don’t think your music collection is lacking a bottle and treasure map format". How could you say no to this?! And only for an extra pound?
And this literally was a gig in a library. The audience congregated in front of a small riser set up in between the Issue Desk and a bank of microfilm readers. This is not as prosaic as it sounds - above us was a magnificent stained glass dome. About 8.45pm, Kristin stepped on to the stage with guitar - the only one she played all evening with only minimal use - it appeared - of effects pedals either. However the extremes she wrought out of the instrument were astonishing. She started the set with two Appalachian murder ballads which sounds unsettling enough when delivered by this petite, polite, almost hesitantly-shy singer in a pink wool cardigan. But it was the first of her own songs 'Mississippi Kite' which really unsettled: from simple almost emotionless delivery she literally SHRIEKED the chorus and the veins on her neck leapt out. It was chilling. When she finished she smiled sweetly and thanked us all. The shell-shocked audience applauded politely.
I wrote 
This is clearly not a week for gig-going without incident. No road traffic accidents tonight but we arrived as a six and only three saw 
It was raining today in Manchester after a week of sunshine (ahem). Had Cambridge's finest brought the wet fenland weather with them to match their indie melancholia? Well we can't really blame them for the weather. Or for the 10.30pm curfew due to a club night following (but we can blame the promoter for the latter. Shame on them for charging us full price but cheating us on the running time). 
Live The Broken Family lose the country-tinged melancholia (in the main) and deliver an energetic, hard-edged indie-rock sound. They are phenomenally well drilled: hats off to drummer Mickey Roman for a stunning performance throughout. Tonight started with a few slower numbers before picking up the pace. The set then took in older numbers including the now traditional audience sing-a-long to "John Belushi" - singer Steven Adams caustic comment: "you all bought THAT album didn't you?". If some of the audience are still hooked on "Welcome Home Loser", 'that album' from 2005, the band aren't with plenty of later songs including seven from the new album.
Steven Adams is a wry charmer of a front-man but tonight he was short on banter given the time constraints. One exception: "if there's a disco afterwards and we stay, we want a roped off VIP area". BFB attempt rock-god swagger but their lack of pretension and even vulnerability mean it is nothing more than ironic wise-cracking. But given the quality of their song-writing and playing they really do deserve a metaphoric roped-off area in contemporary music-making.
I was happy in the haze of a drunken hour ... but heaven knows I didn't expect to be involved in a late-night road traffic accident on the way home from a Bishop Allen gig. Review first, accident report second.
Bishop Allen play an ornate indie-pop with delicate orchestral flourishes and settings. Live they are harder edged but a shiver of excitement did run through me as the xylophone (or was it a glockenspiel?) was set up. Touring Bishop Allen are a five piece - songwriters Justin Rice and Christian Rudd on guitars with Darbie Nowatka on xylophone, melodica, percussion, backing vocals plus drums and bass (sorry no names). Touring to support their third album "Grr...", I knew they wouldn't be playing everything I wanted to hear but seeing the set list before they started I was pleased to see at least some of the favourites there. I only realised the omissions later.
Opener 'Another Wasted Night' from first album "Charm School" set the tone for what followed in the next hour or so: songs delivered in a no-nonsense belt-them-out power-pop style only slowing in pace for the two songs sung by Darbie ('Butterfly Nights' and 'True or False'). There was minimal banter but a palpable warmth and amiability from the band - you get the sense they couldn't be happier anywhere else but playing music live in small, sweaty student bars and clubs.
The set took in songs from all three records (plus one of the 12 'calendar' EPs). Plenty of highlights including 'The Monitor' and 'Rain' but sad not to hear 'Dimmer' and 'Olkahoma' from the new album (picky, picky). Sea-shanty singalong 'Shanghaied' followed by 'Middle Management' worked particularly well to close the main set. They then returned to romp through 'Pentitentiary Bound' and a cover of Fleetwood Mac's 'Second Hand News' (Bishop Allen's songs are better) before finishing with a blinding version of 'Flight 180'. Was it just me or was everyone in the crowd singing along by the end of this? Top stuff. More please and soon.
