George Michael @ Earls Court

I've been having the piss taken out of me all week about going to see George from people at work. Most are armchair fans of music/sport/anything and know nothing about quality music. Well, they are a bunch of ...... er ..... bankers afterall.

I imagine I'll get the piss taken for this review too but this was a super polished gig. The HD-jumbo screen bigger than my back garden was amazing and Mr Michael's tailor has been working hard too. Oh, and the 60ft inflatable George Bush being 'entertained' by a British Bulldog was, well, plain funny.

I loved the set with music chosen from a full 25 year back catalogue. The Wham favs I'm Your Man and and Everything She Wants were in there and didn't sound at all out of place in 2006.

Average age was well above 35 but everyone was singing alone like they were teenagers again. They thing is the songs are all great. Well written, first class, pop. Everyone knows them and that's what made it really good - it was like a party - and I don't rate Earls Court as a venue so this was saying something.

So I've got Dirty Pretty Things this Sunday followed by Placebo, Kasabian and a couple more before 2006 comes to a close. I don't think people will be taking the piss out if me going to see DPT's; mainly because they've never heard of them. Back to work please....

8/10 for George.

Madchester is still alive

It was a first time visit to a new venue for us last Friday, the Carling Islington Academy. For those of you who have brain cells that haven't been completely fried from the 90's, this venue is where the legendary AWOL club started back in the day. Dark and dirty venue for dark, dirty and banging D'n'B night.

The venue is now been taken over by our favorite beer sponsoring gig people, Carling, and it was lager, lager, lager for The Complete Stone Roses.

We had a 100% authentic Manc with us too in Jim so we knew we would be in for a good night.
All the tunes were there in opening with I Wanna Be Adored set the tone for a good night. Other highlights were Fools Gold (of course) Made of Stone and the mighty, mighty I Am The Resurrection. Great night and great mic twirling. Worth 7/10 for just getting such a small crowd to crowd surf.

Blunt Razors

Razorlight played Wembley Arena last night, 1st Nov, and for me they they didn't come close to filling the 'all new' (that's a repaint then) Wembley Aircraft Hanger. It doesn't help that I really hate Wembley anyway. We were pretty close to the front and I still felt miles away from the action. They just didn't do it for me. We're talking Gillette Mach 3 performance against an expectation of Fusion Power.

All the tunes were there and played loud and proud - so loud in fact that the speakers made your chest and legs hurt - but there was something missing. Jonny Borrell's routine was a bit too familiar and as a band they seemed to be going through the motions for me.

Wear white - check
Shout "How you doing" - check
Jump off drum kit - check
Climb up speaker stack and jump off - check
Shout "How you doing" again - check
Take white top off - check
end.

Looking forward to the Roses, DPT's, Placebo and Kasabian (plus hopefully Killers and The Feeling too) in the coming weeks. All will be better than Jonny and his boys could manage.

A disappointing 6 from 10.

New Order - Old Favourites

Picture the scene 5:15 on a Friday Night - in the King of Diamonds - mate calls got a spare ticket for New Order fancy 'aving large - you bet!!!!!

That joy was knocked on the head when a very rotund Bernie goes - hello - tonight we are joy division - here goes the suicide knives - Atmosphere and love Will Tear Us Apart were champion but the rest of that part of the set was okish then - Now we are New Order - get in there!!!!

All the Old favourites - Shellshock, Blue Monday, LowLife, Bizarre Love Triangle, True Faith, State of The Nation - a right old trip down memory lane - discodance pants set to the max!!!!

Wembely Arena still a great big air hanger though the newly re-furbed toilets are sweet

A soliud 7/5 - not as good as when Housey and I saw them at Brixton a couple of years ago