The Kids are Sick Again

Maximo Park, The Metro, Sydney

On what was quite a memorable day even before it began, I got to see one of my recent favourite bads for a second time in Sydney. Friday 13th, unlucky for some, but not Lauren who finally got to tell her HR department what she thought of an awful

manager that she’d had the misfortune of working with for the past year, on her final days exit interview.

As Lauren recalled the questions and a

nswers over a 6pm drink, we relaxed before heading out for a Seafood Paella and jug of Sangria. I hadn’t had crab since the last time I visited VietNam so it was great to get dirty at dinner shelling a crustacean.

As we finished up dinner, we scuttled across George Street and into the Metro, I think I’ve been 10-15times now, to Sydneys most used tour venue for British bands (so it would seem!). With beers in hand, we welcomed on stage the Sunderland guitar/keyboard band.

A little over theatrical the frontman may have been, he kinda has to be to make up for some really flat stage presence from other members of the band. Regardless,

they can play live, and they have written a bucket load of songs that I have loved over the past 5 years of so.

We cab-charged home and let a certain ex-employer worry about the $90 cab fair.

-

The rest of the weekend was spent out in the Shire getting our acts ready for the impending weekends of mayhem before we finally jet off for a holiday en route to the UK.

We took a bushwalk to prepare us for upcoming trekking in December, and made our way down to the river near Laurens parents home. Hundreds of yellow wild flowers were out. The day was around 28degrees so it didn't take long for the sweat to start pouring... well worth it though.

An evening watching 2012 at the movies... set the pace for the remainder of the weekend... cheap n cheerful :)

Kingdom of Rust

Doves - The Metro, Sydney

If the Flaming Lips were an explosion for the eyes, the Doves were to do the same for my ears and soul. For about a decade I've been listening to their 4 albums, and have had many an emotional moment to them, driven very fast or just day dreamed of being somewhere else. In short, I love their music.

I was just a little excited to be going to see them. Lauren and I locked in our now regular spot at the Metro, optimal for sound and vision... it was time to stand back and let the band do the business.

The addition of the new album really added some greatness to a set. The band can even afford to leave out some awesome older tracks like Catch the Sun which in fairness, they are probably sick to death of playing. Jetstream and Kingdom of Rust were amongst my new faves, but Black n White town and Pounding just did it for me.


11 out of 10.

It Overtakes Me/The Stars are so Big

The Flaming Lips; The Hordern Pavillion.

A gig back at my love/hate venue... love it cos it's a decent size and there's usually a pretty decent atmostphere, hate it cos I can never get close to the stage to get the shots I want, and the security are usually pretty hot on SLR cameras.

That said, I smuggled in my 40d with my 50mm lens in my other pocket without any problems again. Once buried in the crowd I put my half drunk beer in my pocket, replacing my 50mm lens and set up, ready for the gig I'd anticipated a very long time indeed.

This band, as you may have heard put on one hell of a stage show; stunts, props, actors, lights, balloons etc etc they try it all out and just have a whole heap of fun with the crowd. The lead singer split from a giant TV wall that at the time was projecting an intimate part of the female anatomy as if being born, the rest of the band followed and before we knew it, there were 50 giant coloured balloons bouncing around, along with the front man inside a zorb, rolling about over the crowd!

Streamer and confetti cannons blasted, as kids dressed as frogs and kittens danced away at the side of the stage all the way thru the gig. They only made way breifly for a large inflatable Slug and sunshine!

The light show went on and it was undoubtedly the best small (ie. not Daft Punk at Homebush or U2 at Wembley '96) touring show I've seen in Australia, maybe even the world... fantastic and highly recommended, even if you're not so familiar with their music.

One Day Like This

V festival 09 - Australia, Centennial Parklands, Sydney.

I didn't make my feelings secret of how bad the last one of these was when I went 2 years ago... the lineup - so mixed up it made the UK top 40 sound like a Pink Floyd album in comparison, beer queues the worst I've ever seen and, well, that's enough.


This year... no margin for error, the lineup looked good, and I smuggled my own bottle of Vodka in to negate queueing up for beers full stop. Excellent move - cos guess what - those queues were still there... we're talking nearly an hour to get a drink - way to keep the festival vibe up V.

Anyhoo, the festival... it couldn't have been a more perfect day. The sky had zero white fluffy stuff in it, the temparature while hot, wasn't a scorcher, and friends were able to sit on lush green centenial park grass watching Duffy open the proceedings up, despite her grumblings of being first on for the first time in oh - a year or two. She was fun and sounded great. Next up was Elbow, I've been a fan of theirs since Asleep in the Back and finally got to see them live, not lively, but I didn't expect that, and again, a great way to enter the festival atmosphere as my vodka started to cement a foundation for the evening to come.

I did have to line up for some chips and a drink, which took all of 2mins, then I was back to the stage to meet up with Lauren and Oren again before heading off across the festival site to see Razorlight for the 2nd time in a couple of months - result! It was a very business like performance this time around, no frills - just fast hits with no small talk or smiles. By this point I was bellowing out every word of every song embarrassingly for the people around me I'm sure...

Time now for some dinner whilst queing up for food... again, not a great time - about 30minutes for some chips, but the Kaisers were playing about 50metres away so not the worst way to wait for food. They had the crowd, and indeed some of the queue rocking. I ate the last of my potato snacks humming "oh my god I can't believe it, I've never been this far away from home". The vodka was nearly done. Last top up was gonna need to last.

Next up, another trip across the venue to see Snow Patrol, The lead singer in very high spirits, so high, he kept forgetting lyrics to his songs, a little odd I must say, but everyone lapped them up and the stage show was great too...

Now for the grand finale... The Killers... Luckily we were all quite tipsy by this point, I'm pretty sure these boys were fairly average in reality, but banging out the hits from their first couple of albums was enough to get them through, even if the newer stuff was about as well recieved as a 3am wake-up call following on from a very spicy curry. I can't believe I've been going to V festivals since 1997 already, how time flies...

Bring Change

ShapeShifter & Kora at the SoCo Mobile Cargo Club, Sydney.

The format of gigs seem to be one of those things that don't get tampered with too often. A concert hall, a bar or two, a merchandise stand, a stage, a band, a big crown, a lack of sufficient air conditioning; they're pretty standard. So the SoCo Mobile venue pretty much sold itself to me before I even knew who was playing. Actually, this is a lie, since the aforementioned is generally true; I struggled to work out what the heck this mobile venue would be like.

Benny and I decided to give this a whirl. We met before for a few beers discussing our thoughts of what we envisaged the gig to be.

We approached the venue, which basically looked like 4 shipping containers side by side, with some noise eminating from the steel. The doorman was like a circus freak... no offense - he wasn't ugly as a slate layers nail bag, but he had the crazy shades, massive Outkast style afro styled out with flares and a psycadellic skin tight t-shirt. Mad. We get in after have a laugh with said door staff and are greeted by a girl with 8cm long eye-lashes who gives us some blig to wear. The gig was sponsored by Southern Comfort, so it was all branded accordingly. In we go - to see an inverted sea of twinkle lights - on the ceiling. Couches and a comfort zone to one side, a bar straight ahead, and a stage not much more than 10cms in height from the ground. The band playing could be touched, if you really wanted to. I think it was women singing about "Gash" if memory serves. Nice.

Benny and I made our way through many of the manlier sounding SoCo mix drinks right before Shapeshifter would make it out on stage. By this point, the coke, red bull, ginger beer and SoCo had kicked in properly - not to mention the foundational beers... all this adding up to a totally healthy night, as we rocked out to ShapeShifter - great crowd, great band (who even came out and partied afterwards). Great idea. See it, if it comes to a town near you.

Rock n Roll Lies

Razorlight, The Metro, Sydney

Damn! These guys, finally in Australia! I just couldn't resist snaggin' a couple of tickets.

I've been a bit of a Razorlight fan since early 2004, I saw em playing in the New bands tent at a festival in Ireland, before seeing them at Brixton & Glastonbury... each time, they went nuts. I went nuts. Everyone went nuts.

After my recent ish bloc Party experience, I thought that they may have toned down their energetic act a little, but I was in for a refreshing surprise.

After again sneaking in my camera, under my jacket, we secured an awesome spot just behind the mixing desk, which at the Metro is great, since the sound quite frequently blows out when you're down on the floor or up high on the staggered seating. After analyising the playlist, I was convinced it was gonna be a good show, just enough new stuff mixed in with all the classics.

Johnny Borrell came out, fully dressed as usual, before bursting into song. 2 songs in, he was getting to be his usual sweaty self... shirt buttons undone and his personal take on drama was there for all to see. Theses guys certainly haven't lost anything with age.

As they played: "Fall, Fall, Fall" - a slow ballad - I made my move. I left Lauren up behind the mix-desk and shuffled my way through the flat footed crowd. I managed to walk, right to the front security fence. Just as I got there, the band burst into "Rock n Rolls Lies" I took this as my queue to get snapping. I blasted out a hundred and twenty frames over the course of that song before hiding my camera under my armpit, having a quick mosh for old times sake, and then making a swift exit back to the comfort and safety of my pre-reservered space. A throuroughly, as always, enjoyable Razorlight gig.

INVADERS MUST DIE!

The Prodigy @ The Hordern Pavillion, Sydney

Haha, wow. How am I supposed to give any kind of a review/blog to this gig!? In brief summary, it rocked the whole house. I have never seen an indoor gig go off so much. From the front to the back, the left to the right - it was like EVERY set of feet was jumping to every punk beat the boys from Essex could bang out.


Spitfire, Firestarter, Their Law, Breathe, Voodoo People... all the hits, and some how, I had the energy levels and adrenaline required to " 'ave it large" as I might have said about 12 years when I first saw these guys live. Awesome Awesome Awesome. Except - I think this may be the first gig where I went the entire gig without getting a clear sight of the dudes onstage.

Slow

Kylie Minogue; Acer Arena, Sydney-Homebush.

What are the first few things you knew in your lifetime about Australia? Some people might answer; Didgeredo's, Kangeroos, The Great Barrier Reef, Koalas, The Sydney Opera House.

These would also be true for me, but I would also add 2 more on the list. Rolf Harris and Kylie Minogue. Having seen everything else I've written about here already; it was time to see the final one. So Lauren and I scuttled on over to the Olympic showgrounds on a Tuesday night to go see the showgirl herself. Kylie. Quite an odd show really, an arena full of people, not many of them moving very much, not many kids like I thought there might be, plenty of gays but an awesome light show and sound spectacle to see when you looked past the thousands sat in front; and we had "Gold" seats.

I couldn't possibly compare this gig to anything I'd normally go to, cos it's nothing like those. In it's own right it was awesome, though I could only do it once in a very blue moon. Like the Spice Girls in 1998, I'm glad I've seen another of the living worlds most famous stars perform.


Without snobbery toward the dated songs that made her famous, she performed I Should be so Lucky, Better the Devil You Know and Step Back in Time

The stage went off like some of the best bits of a Daft Punk gig , some of the glamour of a Kanye West show, and the acoustics of a U2 show. All in all, well impressive. Nice work Kylie. Except next time - try making the tickets a little cheaper, it's the most I've ever paid for a single act concert here or in the UK. Did someone say Economic Crisis!?

Banquet

Bloc Party - Hordern Pavillion

So here we are. Sorry - had to start with that... Bloc Party, one of my favourite bands of recent times, out in Oz, and I managed to get tickets this time, albeit to the second spillover show after the first sold out in less than 5minutes.

I took my camera along, as I have been to a few gigs of late, and planned to sneak it in, the body with no lens under my jacket, and a 100mm lens cunningly wrapped in a sock and placed in Laurens bag... the doormen waved me thru, and searched Laurens bag - a little panicked, I was almost laughing out loud when he aked her to removed the "socks" so he could check out what else was in the bag!

And so we went in, drank some beers and anticipated the band. The last time I saw these guys, was at Glastonbury, they absolutely went off... this time however, they just seemed plain jet-lagged, tired and over it. The pitfalls of being a mainstream act too, meant the idiot ratio was higher than I'd like at a gig too... though with negativity aside, they played Banquet and everything was fine in the world.

I split from Lauren to go and try to get some close-up shots of the band but struggled in the density of the crowd. I resigned myself to some average shots and then returned to the seated area with Lauren with about 4 songs of the gig to go... then, a bouncer spotted my camera. I had the torch of shame pointed at me, and was then escorted out the back exit of the Hordern Pavillion - not before I'd whipped the memory card from my camera... they were quite good about it really, and we just listened to the last couple of songs from the entrance of the Hordern thus beating the crowd home...

I won't bother seeing them again... sour grapes? me? never!

Oren Leaving/Supergrass

It seems like every few months, someone else from the Sydney circle heads off overseas. This time is the turn of Oren. So for a Friday night, we headed out for dinner and drinks in Coogee. After we all ate more than we should've I had a gig to make that I'd double booked - Supergrass, from the UK.

So off I went with my camera, hoping to capure some good shots of Gaz and Co. However where the last few gigs I'd been to, I'd been able to smuggle in my camera under a jacket, the warmth of the Spring months meant I had just my T shirt on, and as such, a bouncer required me to check in my camera for the performance. I was to say the least, bummed.

However, every action has a reaction, and this was no exception. For without the shackles of a weighty camera, I was free to drink several more drinks, and then go a little crazy and believe I was 10yrs younger, for half an hour at least.

Flashbacks to several years ago, they started playing one of my favourite all time songs - "Movin' " - and as the chorus chords and drums came crashing in, I found my feet bounding me off the floor - several inches at a time... then I noticed the usual British suspects that liven up the front 'pit' area in a usually well behaved Sydney crowd - they were going nuts. My feet followed and pretty soon I was in there too. Just like I was 18 again, the fun and adrenaline pumping... just one thing wrong, I'm not as fit as I used to be, so I had to retreat promptish to get my breath and allow the springs in my legs to recover!

And so I walked away from that gig, with a massive smile on my face - nostalgia running through my veins and ready to head back to Orens leaving party at the Coogee Bay Palace - with just a handful of pitiful shots taken with my phone - still, stoked.

The night wound its self to a halt as the Palace opened its front doors only to sweep out the party goers onto the beach promenade.

That's Entertainment

Paul Weller, The Enmore Theatre, NSW, Australia

Just a normal Tuesday I thought.

I head to work, get on with my day. I work on my projects, I do my maintenance.

Then Kev emails me the most recent Paul Weller setlist, in preparation for the gig I've been looking forward to seeing for months, it suddenly dawns on me, it's tonight.

Now I've been pretty bad with updating the blog recently (a line I'm sure gets written in just about every blog at some stage), but for now, I wanted to write and give a bang up to date report from the life of Luke... as this was something just a bit special.

The setlist contains a long list of songs documenting playlists since I first heard "Sunflower" back in the mid nineties on a teenaged Lukes, "Now, that's what I call music" album. Since then I've listened to a fair bit of Wellers earlier works from "The Jam" and a little "Style Council" stuff too.

Paul also fronted one of my earlier gig experiences back in Southend, Essex in '97... and then littered my social calendar through the last 11 years, seeing him a t various festivals and other live shows. He hadn't toured Australia for about 20years, so this was a gig to truly get excited about.

I'd also been trying to get special permission to take my camera to the pit to get some really up close and personal shots of the act, but no bosy at the Enmore, or at Wellers management wanted to reply to my emails... so I brought it upon myself to smuggle in my camera. After getting it in at the Fratellis by the skin of my teeth with a little lense, I was gonna have to work harder this time. I strapped a lensless camera under my jacket, and carried in a 15cm long 100mm lense in my pocket so there were no huge lumps to be spotted by the doormen... Success, and as soon as the lights went down I whacked it all together and set about blasting through 2GBs of memory card space... I wish I'd brought a 4GB!

Enough of camera stuff now, you can see the images I got for yourself here. The set. Oh my. First off it really helped that the soundman was somewhere near the top of his game. Second, there was actually some kind of lightshow, and instead of watching the usual Sydney - dimley lit affair (few gigs excluded), But it all came down to the talent on stage, Weller and Craddock simply amazed me with their new takes on old classics, they managed to get to the opening line of one of Wellers most popular songs before anyone realised what it was... there was some serious fore-thought into this set of songs.

As I juggled my time between taking pictures, clapping & singing along and sipping beer, I realised I was watching what would now be remembered as one of my top 5 gigs of all time... just.

Mr Writer

"It only takes one match, to burn a thousand trees"

From watching these guys 3 back to back years at V festivals back in Essex, I've been through different phases of emotion toward the Welsh trio. The first few albums are now marked as pure nostalgia trips for my early twenties; of times when driving was something I'd do to kill time whilst I waited for the months to tick by toward a snowboard trip or Summer camping trip shared with 70,000 others.

Then fame brought a couple of duff albums; I remember standing in front of one of those Chelmsford trees wondering if burning that tree might be a little more enjoyable than listening to the guys perform there latest material in front of a virtually lifeless crowd. Then I swore I'd never watch them again, but then in recent years, since my exhile to the rest of the world, two new albums that flipped my opinions back favourably, especially since they lost that drummer.

So here they were in my new hometown, playing at my regular gig haunt the Metro. The sound they carried (while pretty sharp) is that of a "best of" tour, one that makes individual songs seem amazing but altogether, a little disjointed as there evolving sound gets the big 'shuffle' applied to it.

It was fun, and it was great to see some faces I've now seen almost enough times to class them as friends, despite never saying hello. Thanks Kelly, 'Doorman' was my surprise favourite.

Call the Shots

The rainiest April in over 70 years here in Sydney had started to get to a few people, and wasn't really a great introduction for Sarah who'd come all the way from my hometown in Essex to discover just how wet and cold Australia; the "Red land", could be.

As much as everyone locally moans about these adverse elements, I sometimes have to remind myself that even though 16-20degrees does feel quite cold these days, I'm still far away from the days of scraping frost off car windows and skidding across frozen puddles as a child.

Certain events in Australia now seem synonymous with anniversaries and as much as Anzac Day is in place to remember those that faught brave and hard for their country, it also tells me I’ve been in Sydney for an extra year. So my 3rd Anzac Day public Holiday was spent in similar fashion to the last 2, drinking beers and playing two-up in Coogee; after-all, why break the habit? This year I scaled to the dizzy heights of $70 up from an initial $10 stake, which I promptly reduced to about $30 just as they called time on the traditional annual gambling event.

We finished up there and a bunch of us headed back to Bundock for some early evening refreshments and Guitar Hero shenanigans. The Metro was then the venue for a long awaited gig; Karnivool. Sarah came along too for an intro to Aussie rock… and in the bargain got an intro to 4 Aussie guys and an Englishman quite drunk on a random wander across the city of Sydney taking in such sites as the entrance to Star City, and a dingy Korean karaoke bar… till 3am.

Of course I was being sensible in doing this, as I knew that I had a ticket to the following days Lawn Party at Randwick Race Course. Here, our tickets would allow all you could eat and drink all afternoon whilst watching men on horseback running round in circles. Needless to say I was a little quiet going into the event with the guys and girls I was with, all dressed up for the grand occasion.

I managed to turn $10 into $100 on my first flutter… and then managed to lose the profit there $10 a time throughout the afternoon… this blog post should be a lesson to all aspiring gamblers, and no – even picking the ‘apparent’ dead-certs does not pay dividends. Bah.

A special shout out for the weather on a day that ended a couple of weeks of constant rainy conditions, reports even say some people needed sunscreen! And how’s this, we bumped into a guy that we met in our hotel whilst staying in Kashmir by accident… now it really is a small world!

This Day Should Last Forever

Hunter Valley

My Christmas gift to Lauren, was a trip to the Hunter Valley; New South Wales’ most famous vineyard area. This was the first time I got to experience the place without being on the back of a pre-planned tour bus.

Our first day, we set out to go wine-tasting from our estate cottage. There had been some heavy showers in the previous few days, though the ground seemed pretty firm on leaving across some beaten footpaths. We both simply wore thongs/flip-flops/sandals (depending where you come from!) and were having a blast stealing the odd grape from the vines for an unofficial taste session. Jumping across puddles was fun too… but then came bigger puddles, and puddles that wanted to keep our footwear. We both ended up walking bare-foot through the sloppy clay/soil to avoid losing our shoes and when we finally reached the end of the trail, we had to use more puddles to wash the crud from between our toes and legs.

Several hours later, we were sampling Thai food at Tempus Two over a bottle of Muscato, giggling away after a morning’s worth of wine consumption. The weather on the whole behaved itself, but we still got wet as we walked the long peaceful walk back past more vines to our temporary home for the final evening in the valley.

During the week, my almost regular visit to ‘The Metro’ rolled around. This time, to see English electronic/experimental rock outfit; UNKLE. For the first time, the band brought out some kind of stage dressage with them, and it made a huge change to see a decent lighting rig here, especially to accompany a band of this genre. It turned out to be my favourite gig I’d seen there, and my favourite gig for quite some time, that left my ears ringing for a day or two afterwards.