Joan As Police Woman at the Royal Northern College of Music

Joan As Police Woman

Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester

11 July 2019

Joan As Police Woman is one of music's best kept secrets - at least here in the UK. Real name Joan Wasser, she took her stage name as a reference to the TV show Police Woman, starring Angie Dickinson. Furthermore, as Joan said in an interview in The Telegraph back 2006, she 'also wanted the name to be funny because, although my music is serious, I like to laugh at tragedy.'

It is an unusual name, of course - and one which can clearly be misunderstand by venues; hence the superfluous 'A' above.

The Royal Northern College of Music ('RNCM') was yet another venue for me. The staff were friendly and the hall was definitely intimate, which suited the occasion perfectly.

This year's tour dates coincided with the release of the career-spanning and cleverly titled Joanthology, which is simply three discs of excellence. The set list draws from the deep well of prime cuts, including To Be Lonely, Flash, Christobel, Human Condition, Whatever You Like and my personal favourite, What a World.

Joan crosses several genres: rock, jazz, blues and soul included. The songs are crafted and very involving; not good at all as background music when working as the songs demand attention and know to keep it.

This was a stripped-back show; just Joan, alone on the stage, with a guitar and a piano, alternating between the two at regular intervals. There was a high level of intensity to the performance, even to the extent that Joan raised before the second song unto, two latecomers were settled in their seats.

Little stories introduced most of the songs and they were short enough not to dilute the level of intensity. Joan revealed she had stopped playing What a World but it had been reinstated to the set lost by popular demand. This most moving of songs demands to be heard; it is emotional from both sides, as confirmed in our post-gig chat.

For all the intensity of the show, Joan was very relaxed and happy to talk with anyone who wanted to afterwards and took a real interest in people.  She asked where Teesside was (I had been watching The Who at Wembley when Joan played The Sage in Gateshead, which explains the extra journey for this gig) and told me she had a cousin who taught chess in schools.

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This really was a thought-provoking, challenging and wonderful evening and will certainly go down as one of the top gigs of 2019.

Danny 'O' and the Astrotones

Danny 'O' and The Astrotones

Westgarth Social Club, Middlesbrough

18 July 2019

There cannot be many people who have attended gigs on consecutive nights and gone from Wembley Stadium to Middlesbrough's Westgarth Social Club to do so. In fact, if nobody else comes forward I will claim to be the only person ever to do so.

The headline act at this intimate and friendly venue was The Delta Bombers and The Shakin' Nightmares were also on the bill. I enjoyed both but was, however, there to see Danny 'O' and The Astrotones.

The Delta Bombers

The Shakin' Nightmares

My interest in the group goes back to 2011, when Danny 'O' was a Caezar when they supported Brian Setzer's Rockabilly Riot at the Brixton Academy.

Tearing it up in 2011

I was disappointed when The Caezars announced they were splitting up and then intrigued when Danny put together another rockabilly group.

Danny 'O' and The Astrotones hit the ground running with the fabulous single, Paint the Town and then with the follow-up, Everyday Chains.

Having recently seen Stray Cats four times, I was still in the mood for more authentic rockabilly and I knew for sure that these could be trusted to deliver the goods.

It is easy to sum this one up in a nutshell: Danny 'O' and The Astrotones blew everyone away with a  bullet-paced masterclass of pure rockabilly. They had style, energy and a classy set list complete with moments of audience-participation ('Do the Astro!') and, in Danny 'O', a frontman who throws himself into the music 100%, with absolutely no pause for breath. Nor is he afraid to break down any boundaries from the very start, as evidenced by his successful opening move of bringing forward the audience to the edge of the stage. So many support acts find themselves playing to the gap, which runs the risk of not engaging the whole audience. At oner point Danny 'O' even jumped into the audience, dancing and playing guitar the whole time, before leaping back to the stage to pick up the next vocal line.

Touring with The Delta Bombers will definitely raise awareness of them but Danny 'O' and The Astrotones should be the headliners. Get out there and catch them if you can.

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Their debut album is out now and should be considered an essential purchase.

Find out more about Danny 'O' and The Astrotones over at their official website and if you want real live rockabilly action then do make sure you catch them on tour.

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Meanwhile, stay tuned to Marsh Towers for more content on Danny 'O' and The Astrotones...

The Who at Wembley Stadium

The Who

Wembley Stadium

6 July 2019

The Who’s 2019 tour concluded with an explosive finale at Wembley Stadium, featuring a whole host of impressive support acts.

The entertainment started at 3.40 p.m. and was virtually non-stop until 10.30 p.m., when The Who hit their last note on the very dot of the curfew time.

I had seen them twice before - for the gigs featuring Quadrophenia in 2013 and The Who Hits 50 tour in 2014 - but an earlier attempt to see them for a third time had failed due the highly disappointing cancellation of their show in Manchester a couple of years ago.

Despite this set back, I felt it was important to make the effort to see them again as there had been hints that they are winding down their touring for good (although Pete, from the Wembley stage, did make the surprising announcement that they would be playing some shows next year).

There was a festival feel to the day. The sun shone during the day and the temperature stayed just this side of comfortable as it turned to night. There was rain, but it came at the most appropriate moment; just as they got into Love Reign O'er Me.

The kaleidoscope of acts consisted of the Conor Selby Band, Imelda May, Kaiser Chiefs and Eddie Vedder. They all brought something extra to the occasion and all took their chances to impress to the building audience, albeit with shortened set lists. Imelda was my favourite from the troupe. Indeed, it was the fourth time I have seen her and I always find her performances exemplary.

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The anticipation grew alongside the swelling numbers of the audience and then The Who were suddenly on the stage, complete with large orchestra. This was the major difference between this and the previous shows I had seen and it all granted an extra dimension to the songs. Roger Daltrey had already performed Tommy last year with an orchestra and that gave them an obvious starting point, with a Tommy medley starting the show in determined and powerful fashion.

It was only a couple of days after the event that I found out the orchestra had been booked and organised by my friend Jenny Nendick, perhaps best known to readers of Marsh Towers as a former member of the much-missed Bridie Jackson and The Arbour.

The middle section brought out the crowd pleasers, such as Who Are You and Substitute but there was also room for the lies of Eminence Front and tow news songs - namely Hero Ground Zero and Still Waiting for the Big Cigar. This section was followed by a selection of songs from Quadrophenia.

It is always interesting to watch the habits of the audience at gigs. Some will watch everything, some will go crazy, get up and shout and dance when they hear one of their favourites and others will head for the bar the moment they hear a song they are not interested in or have never heard before. It makes for a lot of disruption in big venues as all of the habits come with repetition.

One case in point was when it was just Roger and Pete on the stage, while everyone else took a break, and they played an acoustic version of Won’t Get Fooled Again. Apart from the false start, with Pete still playing The Seeker, this attempt to try something different was met with expected bar-bolters.

They cut it very at the end, with Roger urging Pete to stop talking so they could play the final song. ‘We’ll get banged up!’

It was certainly a memorable day which, despite the long hours, passed by very quickly.

There were a couple of fluffs by Pete along the way and Roger occasionally struggled to hit all of the high notes, but it does seem that The Who are not quite yet done and dusted. Keep scanning the airwaves for incoming 2020 tour dates.

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Bros at Brixton Academy

Bros

Brixton Academy

5 July 2019

I never thought I would see Bros in concert. I remember them enjoying a spell of great popularity shortly after I started working in schools, before splitting up in 1992.

That seems to be that, until the remarkable documentary Bros: After the Screaming Stops aired last Christmas. It is a remarkable film, offering a warts-and-all, access-all-areas analysis of their career and reformation. I watched it purely in the hope of entertainment and even though there was plenty of that on offer (virtually every line is quotable) it revealed itself to be a far more thought-provoking documentary than I had originally anticipated.

Social media sprang to life and the documentary fuelled a renewed interest in Bros, which snowballed into the announcement of new gig dates.

As this is the year when no gigs are beyond my scope, I quickly snapped up a ticket.

It had only been a couple of weeks since I last had a gig at the Brixton Academy and that was the truly extraordinary evening featuring Bikini Kill, which, incidentally, tied in with the Queens of Punk event I enjoyed the very night before seeing Bros.

Brixton Academy looked full enough but it was not the anticipated sell out. There was a celebrity presence; Keith Lemon was just a couple of rows in front of me and he was clearly having an enjoyable evening.

There was a DJ support rather than a live band, but he kept everyone entertained with a fine selection of records. One could feel the growing sense of anticipation as the moment arrived for Bros to take to the stage. It's a Jungle Out There opened the show, with Matt starting off stage before finally emerging to the expected reaction. This brought the last few sitters to their feet - and once everyone was standing, was no going back.

The documentary could have been the death knell for Bros as an act; it was just so revealing, especially regarding the dynamic between twins Matt and Luke. However, it has had the opposite effect, partly because of the attitude of not taking themselves too seriously. That is not to say they aren't playing the songs with true feeling, because they clearly are; it is more the ability to take on the chin any criticisms of their characters following the documentary. Matt was quick to quote his famous line about Stevie Wonder, which prefaced a cover of Superstition.

All the old favourites were present and correct in the set list, including Cat Among the Pigeons, Drop the Boy and, of course, an extended When Will I Be Famous? during which Matt ran up the slope to the drum side of town, only to take an unfortunate tumble over the edge. He was up and about sharpish though and seemed to be fine immediately after the fall.

Two women next me, who danced the night away, told me they had waited nearly all their lives to see Bros play live. It meant a great deal to a lot of people and it was good to see everyone sharing a similarly good mood as the crowd slowly exited the building.

It was a triumphant evening and there was a promise of new dates to be announced soon and with new material also in the pipeline it seems Bros headlines are definitely not a thing of the past.

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