Gig Report: David Gray

Date: Saturday 10 November, 2007, 8pm
Venue: Manchester Apollo
Face value: £27.50 + booking fee
Support Act: David Gray (accoustic)
Gig buddy: Phil (reluctantly)

Saturday night and it's the gig I bought tickets to anticipating a solo attendance on account of Phil being elsewhere, though fortunately (for me!) his plans fell through and he's joining me, though I'm still not allowed to carry the house key. (Read the Kate Nash review to find out why...)

Luckily we checked who the support act was going to be and made good speed to head there in time to catch the full accoustic warm-up of David Gray himself. A good thing that he's supporting himself - the main show was a mere hour and twenty minutes, but once you hear him accoustic all is forgiven for a short main set. Mostly new tracks in the accoustic part of the show, though pleasingly he does one of his biggest hits, 'Babylon' and it is received very well.

Because I got tickets early through the fan site we're seated upstairs in the Circle section towards the front so I'm very happy - we've got an excellent view of the stage. As it turns out, some rowdy men are in the back of the stalls area downstairs and apparantly a fight broke out. Yes, at a David Gray concert. A fight. Whatever next? A mosh pit at a José Gonzalez gig? It does beg the question what the men were doing there in the first place when by all accounts they talked throughout the concert and it was when someone asked them to quiet down that the trouble started. In any case, the people upstairs were not affected and the show continued with David delivering a very solid set, decked out in a sharp modern three-piece Saville Row suit - his band dressed similarly - making me feel a little embarassed that I'd not put more effort in to my own appearance. David's eagerness throughout the show to ensure everyone was having a great time only surpassed by his vocal strength and musical talent, alternating between playing guitar and piano. In short, a great concert and by the look on Phil's face at the end, I've redeemed myself. He may even let me hold the house keys again.

Rating: 4 guitars

Setlist

Accoustic Support set

Shine
Ain't No Love
A Thousand Miles Behind
As I'm Leaving
Babylon
Long Distance Call
A new song - no title mentioned. The song was dedicated to his friend Brian Clancy who had died in early 2006.

Main set:
World
Sail
Toil
Slow Motion
Radio
Be Mine
T.Y.L
Everytime
Hospital
Destroyer
Otherside
encore:
Nightblindness
Forgive Me

Gig Report: Kate Nash

Date: Monday 5 November, 9.30pm
Venue: Manchester Academy 1
Face Value: £10.00
Support Act: something that sounded like vinyl being tortured
Gig buddy: Phil

This gig report should really be titled: Why I have the Best Boyfriend In The World. See, it's not often that you find a gig buddy that will willingly go along to anything you buy tickets for. The jazz trombone performance and Lily Allen show both notable examples, but a grown man appeasing you by attending a Kate Nash concert is something else - this is equivalent of sitting through 5 episodes of Sex And The City, Sleepless in Seattle and Gone With the Wind all while you test out your nail polish on him. But as it turned out, his commitment went much deeper.... here's what happened.

We enter the temporary Academy 1 (the actual one I am told is being re-furbed) and it's immediately clear we are the oldest people in here. By a long way. The kids are wearing t-shirts using the word 'gay' like they've only just realised that the word has another meaning. (I remember our primary school song had us all singing how gay we were until the mid 80's.) The support act on stage are screeching unintelligibly while their guitars sound more like a cat stuck in a combine harvester - a very strange warm-up for a plinky-plonky pianist. Enough said. We queue at the bar/moshpit for a LONG time while the grossly incompetant teenage staff form their own queue on the other side to all use the same till. Phil gets to the front first and buys me two drinks so I don't have to endure it again in 20 minutes time.

The build up to Kate's set is painfully theatrical - way over the top for what's about to come. She enters the stage to sit at her velvet-clad digital stage piano, her broad smile exciting the glo-stick waving lookalikes that are EVERYWHERE. And then she kicks off with Mariella, which is (almost) too awful for words. The MEN have described it as 'minor technical problems', which is being very very kind. The piercing feedback remained for most of the first track while the guy on the sound desk tried everything including switching Kate's microphone off to trace the offending frequency. Eventually he succeeded, though his lack of mixing skills were now obvious. Remembering our troubles stage-right at the Polly Paulusma gig, I decided to relocate us to a more favourable position, such was the poor quality of sound. It didn't make a scrap of difference though - and it left me wondering whether it was the venue, until Phil reminded me that we have seen Dave Matthews and Mika here who both sounded amazing.

So, sound issues aside, was it a good performance? No. As most people will know, Kate took up the guitar less than 2 years ago when she broke her leg. It's now clear she spent little if not less time learning the piano - her clumsy incessant chords almost an insult to those of us who have spent decades playing. Phil's just as annoyed by the guitar-led song featuring a total of 2 chords. Though Kate can work an audience (frankly it didn't take more than saying 'how COLD is it today' to receive a cheer from this E-number addicted crowd), she has no control over the microphone. As you'd expect with a short album, the show was mercifully quick and we were soon on our way out.

Overall: Go if you are 12 years old and think that using obscenities in lyrics is 'edgy'. Don't go if you appreciate good music and carry weapons. The album sounds much better, stay at home and put it on shuffle.

Rating: 1 single chord playing guitar

Yes, Phil's a saint for coming with me and not complaining at all, but this isn't the end of the story of why he's the Best Boyfriend In The World. Noooo sireeee. After treating him to a post-gig kebab we arrive home to discover that the house key I had in my jacket is now missing. Keep in mind, Phil has to be up really really early to drive 3 hours south for an important meeting. The key is our only way into the flat and I'm certain it must have fallen out when I took my jacket off. At the gig. Cue a rally-style drive back to the Academy where the front entrance is closed. I then find some security guards who tell me to scarper round the back and manage to talk my way inside. The venue has been swept clean and my heart sinks as I realise that the chances of finding a key on a small grey fob are very slim. Amazingly, the bar staff are still milling about and in a giant stroke of luck, my key HAD been spotted and was waiting for me at the bar. Massive relief follows as I run back to the car where Phil is still patiently waiting. It only occurs to me on the way home that despite the massive inconvenience and cost this would have caused, Phil was not even slightly mad at me. All I got was 'next time put it in your jeans pocket' and that's it. (!!!) I ask him why he was so calm. He laughs and tells me he was concentrating on deciding precisely where to kick the door in.

Photo courtesy of NME.com

Foo Fighters!

Yep - in a pleasant turn of fate, the rock gods have smiled on me by way of a friend who has two spare tickets to the Foo Fighters tomorrow night. We have gratefully lunged at them for the tickets, because despite the fact that it's at the MEN arena (not my favourite place on account of venue size and price of beer) it will rock very much indeed.

I shall spend the rest of the day curled in the foetal position, swaying gently chanting: 'The Foos are coming'.