Los Campesinos!, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

 

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Thomas Dolby, Palais, Nottingham

Supported By Martin McAloon 

Tonight I am at the Palais for a gig the first time since 1986. In fact, it is almost 40 years to the day from when I saw Gary Glitter on 26th May that year. The less said about that the better but this was the venue for Tuesday's Student Night when I was at Trent University and they had several gigs there. 

Looking around, it hasn't actually changed much. The layout seems pretty much the same, even the stage is in same place as 40 years ago. The Palais, which opened in 1925 so is now over 100 years old, later became Ritzy, before reverting back to being the Palais, before becoming Oceana, PRYZM and now saved from administration by Rock City's owners, it's the Palais once again. One design fault they've added is the hand dryers in the toilets seem really loud and drown out the quiet moments on stage but... that aside... all good. 

Support tonight is from Martin McAloon who comes onto a stage where there are six guitars lined and for a man playing solo, he impressively uses four of them. He announces that he’s from Deacon Blue and his first song is called 'Real Gone Kid' before he lurches into 'Faron Young'. 

He is of course from Prefab Sprout whom he formed with his older brother Paddy and they were later joined by Wendy Smith. I'm not sure what happened to her but Paddy now suffers from a detached retina and tinnitus brought on by the hearing disorder Meniere’s Disease. Prefab Sprout rarely toured back in the day and are a band I never managed to see live. Now with Paddy unable to, Martin is the sole purveyor of their music which he has played live since 2023.  

Tonight he is lively, chatty and funny, which I wasn’t expecting but I'm not sure why I thought he wouldn't be. His set is impressive because these are difficult songs to play solo even though his guitar playing is exemplary and to his credit he doesn’t reach for any backing tracks. Some work better than others. 'Cowboy Dreams' for instance is excellent and surprisingly so to is 'When Love Breaks Down' which is epic. 'The King of Rock 'n' Roll' is fantastically ambitious and he needs help from the crowd, which isn’t that numerous, but it’s a fabulous effort. 

Seeing him is a novel but great experience and tonight he is supporting the man who produced many of Prefab Sprout’s albums, Thomas Dolby. 

Dolby opens with a cover of New Order's 'Blue Monday'. I’m not sure why. It’s ok but why would you? When you’re a revered artist who plays live so infrequently and has an acclaimed back catalogue that has a cult following and loads of material you rarely or never play. Why? Just why? Just saying. 

Thankfully after that he settles down and plays three of his own tracks including 'One Of Our Submarines', where he tells a great story about how the song was inspired by the World War II experiences of his uncle, and an exceptional 'The Flat Earth'. 

Unlike McAloon he is using backing tracks and sampling but which you'd expect because he's a self-confessed electronics geek. 

After a brief career as an artist, Dolby mainly became a producer but he also performed with David Bowie at Live Aid and Roger Waters at The Wall in Berlin. He moved to the USA in 1986 and is now head of Music for New Media for the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. This brings us on to his new project 'Iconic ’80s: My Personal Recollections'. He explains why he's doing this or tries to but... again, why would you when... I know, I’m such a pessimist and a sceptic. 

He brings on two guests for this, Jakko Jakzyk of King Crimson on guitar and Mat Hector on drums, but not his Ukrainian bass player Ana Pshokina who they wouldn't let into the country. She performs on pre-recorded video instead. 

They perform three symphonies called numbers Two, Three and Four which are supposed to explain the 80s to those too young to be there. Right. I think recollections may vary. Number Four does at least seem to have a theme running through it but of course the others may have done as well and it's just that I missed it. 

He asks us what we think of his experiment and... well, some people seemed to like it but it's really not my thing and it was a really long haul but now we are through it and we're back to his originals with the band remaining on stage to help him out. 

Next though is 'My Brain Is Like a Sieve' which is another oddity as it features lead vocals performed by Jason Mraz, who like his Ukrainian bass player appears on pre-recorded video. 

Thankfully our stamina to have made it this far is rewarded with the excellent 'Europa and the Pirate Twins' and then 'She Blinded Me With Science'. 

He comes back for an encore of his only big hit 'Hyperactive!' (number 17 in 1984) which features Martin McAloon on guitar and then the band leave him to close the night solo with the classic 'Airwaves'. 

Overall, a very odd but entertaining night with so much to unpack. 

The Rose of Avalanche, Mist Rolling Inn, Nottingham

 

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Frank Turner, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

 

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Vaccines, Rock City, Nottingham

 

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Suede, Rock City, Nottingham

 

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Maxïmo Park, Rock City, Nottingham

 Supported by Art Brut

Well, look who it is. Art Brut again. They are clearly still stalking me, not that I mind, and it has actually been five years since I last saw them here, supporting The Subways, and it was way back in 2007 when they last took the stage here with Maximo Park. We have had numerous collisions in other venues in between, some of which have even been deliberate. 

The songs, as always, remain largely the same and the stories between them largely the same with Eddie Argos still telling us all about his brother but they remain just as entertaining as they are odd. 

Something else that remains largely the same is Maximo Park’s Paul Smith, the man never ages and his enthusiasm never dims. Tonight, he and his band, bring us a huge 20th birthday party for ‘A Certain Trigger’, their debut album. 

 

They treat us to 12 of the 13 songs on the album starting with ‘Signal & Sign’ and ending of course with ‘Apply Some Pressure’ via their debut single 'The Coast Is Always Changing' and all the others with a couple held back for the encore. 

We don’t get the full album because 'Now I'm All Over the Shop' and 'Once, a Glimpse' are being rotated and tonight we get the latter. Instead, there’s the rare playing of ‘Fear of Falling’ which was the B-side to ‘Apply Some Pressure’ and which was apparently recorded at Confetti’s studio in Nottingham. Just one of the main anecdotes he gave us between songs. 

There is a disturbance four songs in during ‘My Velocity’ (yes, other albums are available) that sees two kicked out for over aggressive moshing. ‘My Velocity’ is, appropriately, a song about resistance. 

They leave us with the most exquisite of encores. It started with the magnificent ‘Acrobat’, all dramatic and spoken word, before ‘Books From Boxes’ and ‘Going Missing’ finished the night on a high. 

Only one person loved the night more than the crowd and that was Smith himself. Smith seemed genuinely surprised and touched by the reception the band got. So much so that I didn’t think he was ever going to leave the stage as he lingered long after his band mates had departed.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rock City, Nottingham

 Supported By Night Beats

Tonight Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are back in Nottingham to mark the 20th anniversary of their third studio album ‘Howl’ but first, from Texas, we have Night Beats who sadly do little for me. 

I find them quite repetitive and tedious playing some form of Country and Western garage music. The crowd reaction isn’t helped by them not being very talkative. In fact, no one speak to us at all until half an hour in when the lead singer announces a song he wrote with BRMC’s Robert Been. 

Been comes on stage to play piano on it, at first standing up and then occasionally kneeling. After that he picks up the bass guitar and stays until the end of their set as they play another three songs. He even contributes on vocals and suddenly their set gets a lot better. 

So, to BRMC who tonight become the latest one of my favourite bands to play one of my least favourite albums in full and in this case not in order but I clearly shouldn’t be selfish. Everyone else, including the band, clearly rate the record as one of their best. 

We kick off with ‘Devil’s Waitin’ played in the dark by someone dressed as a monk, with the hood over their head. It’s all very atmospheric. This is Peter Hayes while presumably Robert Been is still getting his breath back from his sojourn with Night Beats. 

Then they’re both on stage for ‘Shuffle Your Feet’ with Leah Shapiro joining them on drums before Been takes the lead on ‘Howl’. As usual, from there onwards, they share the spotlight on guitars and vocals. 

The show features, as you would expect, almost every track from ‘Howl’ along with many other non-Howl crowd favourites such as the likes of ‘Red Eyes and Tears’, ‘Beat the Devil's Tattoo’, 'Spread Your Love', 'Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll' and 'Berlin'. All more my sort of thing.

They also slot in an impromptu performance of ‘Windows’ from the ‘Baby 81’ album which they admit they haven’t played in a long while but then run out of time and have to truncate the rest of the Howl section. 

 They finish with ‘Shadow’s Keeper’ and head back into the shadows. 

Babyshambles, Rock City, Nottingham

Supported by Sweet Return, Another Day & Max Bianco

Utter chaos is how we used to describe any Peter Doherty gig and to a point that’s how I would describe tonight but its all to do with trying to cram as many bands onto the roster as possible. 

 On the bill tonight we have Another Day who are preceded by a guy reading a rather long poem which I’m not sure was an effective use of their stage time. He then gets to play tambourine and maracas while the rest of the band get lively. Notably they don’t let him near the microphone again. The actual lead singer finishes the set with a back flip, which is impressive and a much better exit than their entrance. 

There's also Sweet Return who are pretty decent and do a song with the Babyshambles Drew McConnell on vocals. They leave a very good impression on the crowd. 

There was also Max Bianco, who apparently was on earlier but no one was here then. So, they invite him back for one more song before the Shambles come on. 

So, chaos so far but the chaos that once accompanied Doherty’s bands is now long gone. Tonight Peter Doherty describes his own band as dependable and he’d be right. We are thoroughly entertained by the grown-up version of the Babyshambles we last saw over ten years ago. They even look, whisper it, rehearsed. 

They kick things off in an energetic manner with ‘Killamangiro’ and ‘Delivery’ for what is the liveliest crowd I’ve seen at Rock City for a long, long time. It’s totally brutal down the front. 

Doherty himself is in fine form and, much as he was with the Libertines here last year, having the time of his life. Looking better and slimmer than for a long time. He’s even drinking orange juice. Between songs he keeps referring to the massive folder of Rock City gigs that he’s pinched from the dressing room where they have it on display. He shows it the crowd as he namechecks many of the great artists to have played here. 

The set includes everything you’d expect from the band, working through the albums 'Down in Albion' and 'Shotter's Nation' alongside 'The Blinding' EP but totally forgets the totally forgettable 'Sequel to the Prequel', their third ‘might have been more of a solo’ album from 2013. 

They close the main set with the new single ‘Dandy Hooligan’ with his wife Katia on a blow keyboard thingy (is that called a melodica?) and the whole thing with a raucous ‘Fuck Forever’, which Doherty dedicates to someone who should have been here tonight, founding member Patrick Walden who tragically died earlier this year.