Live Music News & Reviews

Following on from the recent announcement of the nominees for the 2009 Brit Awards come the nominations for the 2009 Brats, or as they are called nowadays, the Shockwaves NME Awards, because Indie kids love good hair/hate split ends.

Oasis dominate proceedings, with nominations in 7 categories. Have we gone back in time to 1996? Great Scott! The list says a rather a lot about the current state of the NME. Albums by TV On the Radio, Last Shadow Puppets, Neon Neon, Laura Marling, Bon Iver, have been spurned in favour of the Killers, Bloc Party (!!), Oasis, Glasvegas and Kings of Leon (yawn).

Anyway the full list of nominations is below. We’d like to see the Astoria win the best venue award, simply because we are old sentimentalists, and we miss it already. The awards show takes place at Brixton Academy on 25 February - tune in then for the full list of winners.

Best British Band supported by Shockwaves
Bloc Party
The Last Shadow Puppets
Muse
Oasis
Radiohead

Best International Band supported by 4music
Crystal Castles
The Killers
Kings Of Leon
MGMT
Vampire Weekend

Best Solo Artist
Ladyhawke
Laura Marling
Lightspeed Champion
Jay-Z
Pete Doherty

Best New Band supported by Bench
Glasvegas
Late Of The Pier
MGMT
Vampire Weekend
White Lies

Best Live Band supported by Red Stripe
The Killers
Kings Of Leon
Muse
Oasis
Radiohead

Best Album supported by HMV
Bloc Party – ‘Intimacy’
Glasvegas – ‘Glasvegas’
The Killers – ‘Day & Age’
Kings Of Leon – ‘Only By The Night’
Oasis – ‘Dig Out Your Soul’

Best Track supported by NME Radio
Kings Of Leon – ‘Sex On Fire’
The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘The Age Of The Understatement’
MGMT – ‘Time To Pretend’
The Ting Tings – ‘That’s Not My Name’
Vampire Weekend – ‘A-Punk’

Best Video supported by NME TV
The Last Shadow Puppets – ‘My Mistakes Were Made For You’
Late Of The Pier – ‘Heartbreak’
Oasis – ‘The Shock Of The Lightning’
Radiohead – ‘House Of Cards’
Vampire Weekend – ‘A-Punk’

Best Live Event
Glastonbury
Isle Of Wight
Reading and Leeds
T In The Park
V Festival

Best TV Show
Gavin & Stacey
The IT Crowd
The Mighty Boosh
Never Mind The Buzzcocks
Skins

Best Film
The Dark Knight
Juno
Quantum Of Solace
Twilight
Wall-E

Best Dancefloor Filler
Bloc Party – ‘Mercury’
Crystal Castles – ‘Courtship Dating’
Dizzee Rascal & Calvin Harris – ‘Dance Wiv Me’
Friendly Fires – ‘Paris’
Late Of The Pier – ‘Bathroom Gurgle’

Best DVD
Arctic Monkeys – ‘At The Apollo’
Foo Fighters – ‘Live At Wembley Stadium’
Kaiser Chiefs – ‘Live At Elland Road’
Muse – ‘HAARP’
The Rolling Stones – ‘Shine A Light’

Hero Of The Year
Alex Turner
Barack Obama
Brandon Flowers
Noel Fielding
Noel Gallagher

Villain Of The Year
Amy Winehouse
George Bush
Gordon Brown
John McCain
Pete Doherty

Best Dressed
Alex Turner
Alexa Chung
Brandon Flowers
Noel Fielding
Noel Gallagher

Worst Dressed
Amy Winehouse
Brandon Flowers
Johnny Borrell
Katy Perry
Pete Doherty

Worst Album
Britney Spears – ‘Circus’
Coldplay – ‘Viva La Vida Or Death And All His Friends’
Jonas Brothers – ‘A Little Bit Longer’
Razorlight – ‘Slipway Fires’
Scouting For Girls – ‘Scouting For Girls’

Worst Band
Fall Out Boy
Jonas Brothers
Oasis
Scouting for Girls
Tokio Hotel

Sexiest Male
Carl Barat
Keith Murray
Matt Bellamy
Miles Kane
Pete Doherty

Sexiest Female
Alison Mosshart
Hayley Williams
Kate Jackson
Lykke Li
Stephanie Dosen

Best Website
Bebo
Facebook
Last FM
MySpace
YouTube

Best Venue
Brixton Academy
Manchester Apollo
London Astoria
Glasgow Barrowlands
London O2 Arena

Best Album Artwork
The Cure – ‘4:13 Dream’
Guillemots – ‘Red’
The Killers – ‘Day & Age’
Muse – ‘HAARP’
We Are Scientists – ‘Brain Thrust Mastery’

Best Band Blog
Foals
Lightspeed Champion
Little Boots
Noel Gallagher/Oasis
Radiohead

Let

According to a report in The Guardian, Glastonbury 2009 is currently 90% sold out. This spells good news for the festival after last year failed to sell out (although what a festival it was compared to the previous year!), although inevitably some people will choose not to pay the rest of their balance on their reserved tickets, in which case more will be on sale at the beginning of February.

In terms of headliners, Michael Eavis claims he has four already (2 British, 2 American) so early rumours of Neil Young, Bruce Springsteen and Blur could turn out to be correct. Let’s hope for Arctic Monkeys for the fourth slot, rather than the oft-mentioned Kaiser Chiefs.

It could be a year for reformed bands, with Blur and The Specials strong contenders to play, and many other reunifications being bandied about, not least The Libertines.

HMV is moving into the live music circuit after a £20 million deal with Mama Group which sees it take a stake in some of the country’s, and London’s, most famous live music venues. HMV will profit from ticket and merchandising sales, which are becoming more important as CD sales continue to decline and the live scene continues to burgeon.

The deal involves London’s Hammersmith Apollo, and the Forum, which will both undergo name changes (the HMV Apollo and the HMV Forum). This come shortly after O2’s recent sponsorship of the Academy Music Venues, which have meant name changes for the O2 Academy Brixton and the O2 Shepherds Bush Empire. Corporate sponsorship of venue names is not exactly rock and roll, although if they help venues avoid the fate of the Astoria and the Hammersmith Palais, perhaps they are a necesary evil. And if HMV sell tickets to the Apollo in their shops, cutting out some of the dreadful booking and postage fees the onlnie ticket agencies charge, that would be a good thing.

Frank Turner at the Astoria

It’s gone, it’s gone, it’s gone…

Last night saw the final ever concert at London’s Astoria, the Demolition Ball. After Manumission’s proposed final farewell was cancelled by TFL, it fell to Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly’s Sam Duckworth to organise the last night. The line up was not really a fitting end to such a historic venue, but then again, being something of a shambles, maybe it was the right way to say goodbye to the grimy sweaty venue.

The music was almost a sideshow as a sell-out crowd came to say goodbye to the Astoria. Highlights included Helsinki, led by Babyshambles’ Drew McConnell, who got the crowd chanting “Boris Johnson’s a Cunt” (although it was Ken Livingstone who sealed the Astoria’s fate) and a solo set by Frank Turner, who at least seemed to recognise the evening was about having fun, encouraging the crowd to join in with a cover version of Abba’s Dancing Queen. King Blues played a terrific set, before My Vitriol spoiled the mood somewhat with a disappointing set and then it was good to see the Mystery Jets as the mystery guests.

Last Orders at the Keith Moon Bar...

So a shambolic evening. But fuck Boris, tonight was all about the memories. Somme random quotes: Steve from Bournemouth “seeing 3 of Ash’s 5-night residency in 1996, when the Astoria became the Ashtoria”.  Karen from London first came to the Astoria in 1992 and has seen “hundreds of gigs here”. Aaron from Brighton “It’s just the right size and I’ll take the two ties I’ve seen the Arctic Monkeys here to the grave with me”.

Well we still have some fine music venues in London. But perhaps now is the time to start valuing them and protecting them - it all came to late for the Astoria. We’ll miss it, but things move on.

A busy night at the Astoria

Wednesday 14 January sees the final night for the London Astoria. It’s another body blow for the London live music scene after the closure of the Hammersmith Palais two years ago. This feels even worse, because the Astoria was such an important part of the capital’s live music circuit. Bands on the verge of making it big would pay here before moving on to larger venues such as Shepherd’s Bush Empire or Brixton Academy. And larger bands would reaffirm their punk rock credentials by playing here - with Oasis, U2 and the Rolling Stones playing here recently. And it somehow felt right having a live venue in the centre, right on Oxford Street. We still have the 100 Club of course, but that’s tiny by comparison.

The final night at the Astoria was due to be Thursday 15 January, but Manumission’s closing party was cancelled by TFL in what was described by Manumission’s Mike and Claire McKay as an “unsympathetic decision” that had left them “saddened and disappointed”. Roger Daltry, Pete Townsend and Kasabian were due to be involved, and it would have been a fitting sendoff. So what we have instead is a night put on by Get Cape Wear Cape Fly, featuring The Automatic, The King Blues and Mark Greaney from JJ72, which is not really a fitting testament to the venue.

My faourite gigs at the Astoria would be the Arctic Monkeys, who debuted their Favourite Worst Nightmare album at the Astoria in early 2008, a superb Hot Chip show in 2006 and The Cribs last year. I loved the fact the crowd seemed younger and more up for it than at other venues (maybe it’s Oxford St location?), the fact that ticket prices were low (most gigs cost around £12 compared to £30 at the larger venues) and the fact that is was rough around the edges and not corporate, the Keith Moon Bar, the superb views from the upstairs standing area…too many things to mention.

But nevertheless London Venue Guide will be there tonight to say goodbye. We might even take a screwdriver to see what mementoes we can get. We’ll have a full report of the evening tomorrow. In the meantime, tell us about your memories of the famous venue below.

Spotify is a new music service which offers users unlimted music for free. Songs on the service are streamed, but can be listened to instantly and as many times as the user wants, although they cannot yet be downloaded into an MP3 format. It looks exactly like itunes, you search for an artist and can play pretty much any song instantly. What’s more it’s legal - Spotify has secured licensing agreements with a number of record companies including Universal Music Group, Sony BMG, EMI Music, Marner Music Group and Merlin.

Free Access - For Now…

There are plans to charge £9.99 for a month’s access although it seems that currently membership is free if you hurry up and register for Spotify here. This may look like free advertising for a web service from London Venue Guide - but come on, we would never do that. We jstu know a good web application when we see one…get involved!

Rave Reviews

It’s not just us who are raving about the service. Here are some quotes from users:

“This is the best thing EVER. seriously. there is stuff on here i didnt even know existed.”

“It streams it completely instantly. no waiting around at all. it’s got bsides and everything on there.”

“The collaborative playlists feature is a world-beater”

“Wow, there’s a version of Can’t Speak French by Girls Aloud sung in French! Loving that.”

Screaming Tea Party at the Windmill

London-based Screaming Tea Party offer a superb live spectacle. In style the three-piece range from three-minute punk songs to longer Spacemen 3-style wig outs with some superb guitar playing and some hilarious stage antics.

The band consists of the ball of energy that is lead guitarist Niyan, who holds his axe somewhere around his ankles as he expertly plays a series of high-necked solos; tall gangly lead singer/bassist Koichi, who sometimes wears a sarong, and whose vocals range from tenderly sung punk verses to heavily dubbed screaming echoes soaring eerily over the wall of feedback and noise; and new London-born female drummer Nell, whose occasional vocals provide a welcome element of melody in the madness. The last time I saw Screaming Tea Party with their previous drummer they were equally impressive but the extra vocals bring a new dimension to them, such as new song I’d Rather Be Stuck on the Stair Rail which they deliver tonight.

Tonight they arrive onstage in gasmasks to a somewhat bemused Windmill crowd, with the exception of those who have seen them before and know what to expect. They proceed to win everyone over with their enthusiasm for what they are doing. Unlike many pub punk bands, they obviously do mean it maan, as can be seen by the jumping around, writhing around on the floor and the sheer energy they put into their performance. As for the music, well, as mentioned before, it’s very hard to describe - pyschedlic post-punk new wave whatever, at the end of the day just think noise and melody, combined.

Tonight’s two special moments come firstly when Screaming Tea Party play Witch From Oregon, which could be the perfect punk song, boy/girl vocals, power chords, screaming feedback and chaos onstage. That is surpassed shortly afterwards, when another heavily feedbacked monster of an intro that feels like its just about to make the ears bleed segues into Moon River, sung in falsetto with heavy echo, the crowd slowly realising that yes, it’s that Moon River, provoking a singalong and proving that there is more to Screaming Tea Party than shouty punk.

If Screaming Tea Party are playing aywhere near you I urge you to go and see them, they are one of the most exciting live bands around. And check out recent EP Golden Blue, recently awarded 8/10 in NME.