Tom Robinson, Rescue Rooms, Nottingham

Supported by Kitten Pyramid

On a night when we all expect to be home early for our cocoas support act Kitten Pyramid turns up already in his pyjamas. After a slow melodic acoustic start where he does the dedicating a song to his wife sort of thing, he suddenly changes tact. He ties a naked Action Man to his music stand, invites his son upon stage to play drums then picks up a bass guitar himself and turns into the White Stripes. An intriguing transformation indeed but then he is from Burton on Trent.

Follow that Tom Robinson or should I say the ‘as seen at Glasto’ Tom Robinson. Tom is the latest ‘oldie’ to reform, if you can reform yourself that is and he’s now released his first album in 20 years entitled ‘Only the Now’. It’s an album funded by pledgers on Pledge Music and not surprisingly this album makes up around half of tonight’s set or should we say sets as Tom, now age 65, opts to take a siesta half way through.

The majority of the rest of the set comes from an album 37 years old, 1978’s ‘Power In The Darkness’ and he opens with a couple of old favourites from that record ‘Winter of ’79’ and ‘Too Good to Be True’. These go down very well, as is to be expected, with a mainly but not exclusively older crowd tonight. Then he follows those with a track off the new record, the very appropriate ‘Never Get Old’.

Robinson is, as always, totally engaging on stage. Every song has a back story or a joke behind it. ‘Martin’ has, of course, the whole crowd behind it with everyone yelling the key parts back at him or in the case of Mr Irritating next to me singing every single s***ing word back and he is not in TR’s league vocally.

The first set ends with a blatant plug for the merchandising stand and Tom’s big hit 80s ‘War Baby’ one of two tracks tonight from 1984’s ‘Hope And Glory’ album. His other top 40 hit ‘Atmospherics: Listen to the Radio’ follows later.

The second set starts with ‘Home In The Morning’ off the new album and then a solo track performed by Lee Forsyth Griffiths ‘Meet Me Halfway’.

‘Glad to be Gay’ comes dedicated to George Michael and with yet another lyrical makeover. In fact it appears Robinson was brought a lyric sheet before the song. The memory probably isn’t what it used to be.

One thing that hasn’t changed is his determination to tackle issues that he is passionate about. His new material tonight took on the banks (‘Risky Business’), suicide (‘Don’t Jump Don’t Fall’), legal aid (‘The Mighty Sword Of Justice’ and the Iraq war (‘Merciful God’).

Another thing that hasn’t changed is his ability to belt out the powerful oldies as a double-barrelled finale of ‘Up Against the Wall’ and ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ arrives.

There’s time for one more and he returns to play an encore of the title track off his new album. Before the song he harks back to his decades that have passed but was keen to point out that is exactly what they have done. Their time has now passed and now he appreciates more than ever the need to live ‘Only the Now’. Good advice.

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Ride, Rock City, Nottingham

Flashback to February 20th 1990 in the short lived venue that was Bobby Browns Café in Nottingham and its utter bedlam. Security guards who should be guarding the stage are busy holding up the speaker stacks and preventing the fake palm trees (yes really) from toppling over, consequently stage diving is rife. I would say its standing room only but there was no standing room, healthy and safety had yet to be invented. Not bad for a band who had only released their début EP a month beforehand.

The band on stage were Ride, ably shredding the ears of their audience with their monstrous guitar sound. I’d gone through almost exactly the same experience two weeks earlier at Derby’s famous Dial, now sadly demolished, and had come back for more.

Now Ride have returned nineteen years after an acrimonious split with a comeback tour that we never thought we’d see and it has took an age to reach the provinces. A terribly disloyal but probably profitable US jaunt has delayed their arrival. As if to apologise the band are now playing two sets on this tour with no support.

One of these sets is to be celebrating the 25th anniversary of their début album ‘Nowhere’, which is to be played in its entirety and in order. Not that this would have taken particularly long as the original album only had eight tracks, so they’re playing the CD version with its bonus tracks culled from the ‘Fall EP’.

Personally I’d like to have seen a set dedicated to what I would call their defining era, those three EPs all released during 1990 entitled ‘Ride’, ‘Play’ and ‘Fall’.

Actually I'm not a fan of bands doing the whole album thing; it just removes all the unpredictability from set. The 1990 version of themselves wouldn’t have stood for that, Bobby Browns was a sea of unpredictability. Anything could have happened there and probably did but of course time has moved on.

For a start, tonight has a 10pm curfew then presumably its home for cocoa and security are clearing away everyone’s rucksacks (yes really) from the front of the stage rather than holding up the speaker stacks.

‘Nowhere’ is to be the second set, which immediately make the first set more interesting.

They come on to the sound of a This Mortal Coil track that precedes even their own existence and start work on the overblown ‘Leave Them All Behind’, the opening track of their second album ‘Going Blank Again’ but it’s the brash indie-rock of ‘Like A Daydream’ from the ‘Play EP’ that really kicks things off. It doesn't quite erupt into a sea of arms and legs in front of the stage like it used to but some folk in there are having a go.

It is perhaps not surprising that ‘Going Blank Again’ contributes a large chunk of this first set. Whisper it quietly, arguably a better more complete album than ‘Nowhere’. Tonight the likes of 'Twisterella', 'Chrome Waves', 'Time of Her Time' and 'Mouse Trap' all jingle nicely, sounding as sharp and alive as ever.

The only other EP track to appear is ‘Unfamiliar’ from ‘Today Forever’ and there’s a run out for ‘Black Nite Crash’ from the reclusive ‘Tarantula’ album.

The band seem to have all aged well apart from perhaps Andy Bell who at times looks like he's done 15 years hard labour. Oh he has hasn’t he, 15 years with Oasis and Beady Eye. Mark Gardener meanwhile reels around the stage, thrashing his guitar, and wearing a trilby under which he may have folded up his former trademark floppy fringe but one suspects the hair doesn’t groweth as well as it once did.

After eight songs the band take a break before returning twenty minutes later to the squall of ‘Seagull’ as they kick off ‘Nowhere’. The decision to tackle the album in full highlights to me what the album appeared to be at the time, a ragtag selection of all the unreleased material they had to hand rather than a record conceived in its own right. Fair play though that they didn’t just plunder the earlier EPs as many artists would have done.

Some of the album plods a touch but tonight ‘In a Different Place’ sparkles nicely and ‘Polar Bear’ is, as always was the case, immense. Then of course there’s ‘Vapour Trail’, one of the finest closing tracks to an album ever, complete with accompaniment from the crowd.

Next up the ‘Fall’ EP and the wonderful ‘Taste’ which gets a bit of a mosh going but the momentum is lost with the slightly monotonous harmonica driven ‘Here and Now’ but ‘Nowhere’ itself is an appropriate set closer.

A quick exit and then they’re were back for the encore of ‘Ride EP’ tracks ‘Drive Blind’ with its sludgy wall of noise and then finally the awesome ‘Chelsea Girl’. If there’s going to be a mosh going to this, I’m in there. There is and I am.

It’s good to have them back and with what was such an assured performance that belied the decades. Yet I can’t help feeling that one shorter punchy set would have hit the spot a bit better. 

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Splendour 2015

Today is Splendour number eight and again it has pulled a large 20,000 crowd to Wollaton Park despite, what I would describe as, a weak line-up. We have long stopped worrying about the line-up and now automatically go to our local festival every year.

The Specials headline above James and Bananarama who headline the second stage, which is usually where the better acts are to be found. The fact that a clearly main stage artist such as Bananarama are on there hints at a lack of better options but we’ll see how they do later. Let’s start at the beginning.

Well not quite the beginning because we don’t arrive until about 2.45pm and it’s a decent start with Lenton’s Amber Run up on the Main Stage. We thread our way through the multitude of deck chairs, blankets and cool boxes to the front where a small enthusiastic crowd are the only ones paying attention but they are heavily into it. We join them. 

As they finish another Nottingham artist Keto or Leah as she is known to her friends is starting up on the Second Stage. As perhaps you can already tell the focus of the festival is promoting Nottingham and both are repeat visitors. As well as Nottingham bands, the majority of the food and drink on offer is local. So although we touch base briefly with Leah, we feel the real ale tent is a bigger pull particularly as beer stocks rarely make it past tea time. Castle Rock seem to have almost exclusive rights this year with a couple of beers from new Shipstones the only other option. We buy six vouchers which may be a mistake as it assumes a fair longevity for supplies.

London rapper Roots Manuva is next on the Main Stage, although running fifteen minutes late due to technical issues. He plays a rather tired sounding set, although he is definitely not my thing.

We go for a wander to check out the other stages. Aside from the main two stages there are three smaller stages. There is a ‘Fringe’ stage somewhere in the main field but we don’t even stumble across that. The other two, an acoustic stage and a comedy stage, are both located in the courtyard area.

We take a seat on the rather uncomfortable gravel strewn courtyard floor (some matting would be nice guys) to watch Essex girl comedienne Ellie Taylor. Taylor, a former model for Greek yoghurt (apparently) seems obsessed by two things. Firstly her weight (aren’t all women!), she is delighted at her sister’s pregnancy because she is pleased to see any rival female gain weight. Secondly with genitalia (are all women?), pointing out that men have few inhibitions about using theirs for comedic affect and urges the women in the audience to use theirs for ventriloquism. Something to try later perhaps, oh to be a fly on the wall. It was quite an amusing half hour.

We head back to the main field to find that the final barrel of real ale has been drunk dry at 5.05pm, which may be a record but perhaps only just. We move on to some ‘craft’ version, which is at least better than nothing, as we sit in the outside ‘bar’ area and listen to Lawson up on Main.

Next stop, The Twang. These Brummies were once going to be really big but somehow it never happened. Tonight though, their, dare I say baggy/Madchester, sound goes down a storm. They are also the first band today who look they are having a really good time and that means the audience have a good time too. They may now be totally unfashionable but their lively music and sneering vocals help make this possibly the set of the day.

By contrast James are incredibly business like even though, with an irritating time clash between stages, we only stay for four songs. Two of which are new material and one of which is the popular 90s hit ‘Sit Down’. Although I love the way that this is tossed aside so early on and would really like to have stayed to see what Tim Booth and co played later on but we must move on. There’s karaoke up on the other stage.

Which is perhaps a little unkind but Keren and Sara are basically two fifty-something young girls dancing round their handbags and singing into their hair brushes. Perhaps that’s always been the case but you know what, the large crowd love it. Cruel Summer, Robert De Niro's Waiting, Nathan Jones, Venus... they’re all here. Well not all as they’ve had 28 hit singles in all and like the Twang they grin and smile infectiously all the way through it.

The only thing that would have made it better was if Terry Hall had popped up on stage to join them for the songs they did with the Fun Boy Three. The girls hint at this themselves but I don’t think Terry is listening.

Hall is up next on Main with tonight’s headliners The Specials. As is tradition we ignore the headliners and head off for a curry. Na na na na, na na na na, hey hey, goodbye.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Rock City, Nottingham

Supported by Carl Barât and The Jackals

Carl Barat, again. Small world. From a crowd of fifty odd thousand plus at Glastonbury on Friday via Russia on Saturday to a sparse early Rock City crowd in Nottingham tonight and probably similar in Manchester last night. Barat is being a busy chappie at the moment, that's for sure. Whether it’s with the Libertines as special guests on the Pyramid or tonight in a more standard supporting role to BRMC with the Jackals, he's putting the hours in. I wonder which is the day job?

Will tonight be as shambling as the Libertines Glasto set? Not a bit of it. Tonight Barat’s Jackals are more structured and more organised. He even has his bandanna tied around his own waist this evening.

The songs are perhaps not as clever and inspired as his Pete Doherty shared compositions but tonight’s material was certainly delivered with far more flair and definitely far more enthusiasm. They’re also far heavier. This is British garage rock at its finest.

Don't give up the day job Carl, it this one is it.

Black Rebel Motorcycle Club are back in the UK promoting a new live album before playing a few festivals and seeing them at Rock City is always a treat. The trio, mainstays Robert Levon Been and Peter Hayes, together with drummer Leah Shapiro, have (as usual) pulled a big and loyal following tonight into what must now be a close to capacity crowd.

They take to the stage, like Barat and his Jackals, in all-black attire on what is the hottest evening of the year so far. There must be a dress code tonight.

They open with the title track from the 2010 album ‘Beat the Devil's Tattoo’ which is followed by a couple from their latest studio album ‘Specter at the Feast’ including ‘Let The Day Begin’, a track first recorded by Been's father’s band The Call, and now re-recorded in posthumous tribute to him.

This is the start of a two hour tour through their expansive back catalogue with Been and Hayes swapping between electric, bass and acoustic guitars throughout. As ever there is a mix of the epic, such as ‘American X’ and ‘Heart + Soul’, slower numbers like the country swagger of ‘Ain't No Easy Way’ and the thundering rock and roll of the likes of ‘Weapon of Choice’. They may even have chattered to the crowd a bit in between but most of what they said was inaudible.

Sadly too is a mid-set acoustic interlude, when the harmonica mic which worked so well on ‘Ain't No Easy Way’ appears to fail for ‘Complicated Situation’ and no one can hear the song. Disappointingly it makes an acoustic ‘Love Burns’ fall well below par as well. These are the only down points though of a generally storming set which ends with ‘Spread Your Love’ stirring up a predictable sweaty mosh in front of the stage.

With the band now running out of time before the 11pm curfew they return for just two more, ‘Shuffle Your Feet’ and ‘Whatever Happened to My Rock 'n' Roll’ which sees Been jumping into the crowd at its riotous finale. Good to have you back again guys.

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Glastonbury 2015 - Sunday

It rains overnight and up to about noon, so we stay under canvas. There’s not really much happening down at the festival until the Palma Violets at 2:15 anyway.

We head down eventually and visit Silver Hayes which we’ve neglected so far. Princess Slayer is up on BBC Introducing and we pop into see Ruth Royall in the lovely named La Pussy Parlure. As we wend our way back to Other, Adam Cohen is just finishing. He is then followed by an excellent set from the Palma Violets.

Could it now be time for Lionel Ritchie? It does look very packed in the Pyramid field with a plethora of Lionel masks, flags and t-shirts asking what it is you’re looking for (various variations). However we desperately wanted to see the Biggles Wartime Band in Croissant Neuf. Some Irish lads we’d met had implied this could be Mr Biggles’ (aka Jolly Jock) farewell gig. They provide an entertaining set including an awesome reworking of Robert Palmer's ‘Addicted to Love’ among others and a guest appearance by Sammy the fish.

There are more cover versions over at the Acoustic next with the Bootleg Beatles who are running late and cut short by the same harassed stage manager who seems almost about to combust in frustration.

Life is much more tranquil up on Other to Belle and Sebastian but we don’t stay. We swerve around Paul Weller (no offence) and opt for a patch of grass up on the Park hill, an Otter Ale having belatedly discovered Trickett’s real ale bar and The Fall.

Then it’s back to Other for a burst of Jamie T but then do we do the The Who or head for Leftfield and the Buzzcocks. Good choice, what a way to close the festival. I mean the Buzzcocks not the Who.

Although that’s not the end, just yet. There’s still time to make our first trip to the John Peel stage (sorry John) and FFS. The collaboration of Franz Ferdinand and Sparks, who are excellent.

Glastonbury 2015 - Saturday

First up today on Other is the perfect festival fare of Frank Turner, who confesses he’s already played an intimate set around the campfire in Strummerville. If only we’d known, it’s just at the bottom of our hill. I wonder if he saw Ride there. His set, as ever, is brilliant even if he does make up sit down and the get up again for ‘Photosynthesis’. There are no concessions for the old folks’ knees.

We get to Pyramid early today, in time to stretch out on the grass in the sun and listen to the Waterboys. You could almost stay there all day. Then George Ezra comes on and brings half the festival with him. Folk who also seem intent on staying all day. 2,000 is company, 70,000 is a crowd. We decamp, which is a shame as we’d quite like to have seen Burt Bacharach who is up next, just for the novelty.

Next stop is the Acoustic for Tom Robinson. Who now looks quite an old man but still rocks like a youngster. When he finally gets on stage that is, as they seem to have problems setting up his equipment and the harassed stage manager gets more and more harassed as the precise punctuality of Glastonbury gradually goes t*** up, in the Acoustic tent at least. Then when Tom finally gets on and after a brilliant ‘Up Against The Wall’ he breaks a bass guitar string (no mean feat) and has to improvise. After taking requests from the crowd he plays a real favourite in ‘Grey Cortina’, which has probably never been done acoustic before and probably never will be again. A real treat.

We had intended staying in the Acoustic tent for a while because Texas were on next but they have cancelled and their replacement Rainy Boy Sleep is currently pulling the biggest crowd of his life with those who haven’t heard the news.

We slip around the corner to that impossibly small tent on William's Green and Courtney Barnett, who we wave at from a distance as we can’t get inside (again).

We then return to the Acoustic tent for the triumvirate of Nick Lowe, Paul Carrack and Andy Fairweather Low. They are a brilliant collaboration playing a collection of each other’s songs but also a few too many covers of other artist’s songs when really their own back catalogues are rich enough to be plundered.

Next in the still impossibly small William's Green tent are the Palma Violets and again, we wave from a distance. No matter, they are up on Other tomorrow.

On the way back to camp is the Park stage, although we pass Leftfield on the way where Enter Shikari (again) have the place rocking. Up on the Park are Spiritualized, as impenetrable as ever. We debate the long, possibly mile long, hike to the John Peel to see Suede but opt for the camp site bar instead. There was always Kanye I suppose. Nah.

Glastonbury 2015 - Friday

So happy birthday to the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts which is 45 this year and here we are.

Actually trying to review Glastonbury would be futile. Glastonbury offers so much than any other festival that I’ve been to. We aren’t just talking a hand full of stages here because Glastonbury is like a small town. You could come for the music or you could spend five days immersed in other things and not see a band at all. Yes, five days. I didn’t realise that the festival opens its gates on Wednesday morning and builds rapidly until Thursday evening by which time most of its 170,000 attendees are here.

First up, it’s always a tough decision on what t-shirts to take to events like this. My choice of a 1990 vintage Ride t-shirt goes down well. Everyone asks me if I know if the recently reformed band will be playing a secret set and if so where will it be. Well there are three lots of ‘special guests’ on the line-up on Friday and the rumours seem to have intensified since we arrived on Wednesday. Though I can’t help feeling I inadvertently started them.

Still, if Ride are going to be playing a sneaky set here obviously we’re going to have to find it.

So day one of live bands at Glastonbury sees us heading down into the festival to catch the ‘special guests’ who are opening the Other Stage at 11am. This is unlikely to be the much talked about secret set by Ride unless Tim Burgess has simply been winding everyone up by Tweeting pictures of his wellies implying that it could be the Charlatans opening up the festival.

Well, it is the Charlatans, surprise surprise. The classic festival band but sadly not a terribly exciting one. Never mind, we in an open mind mood and anyway we want to see the Cribs who are up next. From the opening ‘Mirror Kisses’ to the closing ‘Pink Snow’ The Cribs are excellent but then I’m biased.

After which we head off to the next lot of ‘special guests’ in the far too small tent on William's Green. It becomes my life’s ambition to actually get inside this tent at some point and this is obviously where Ride are going to play their secret set or not. There’s no chance of seeing inside the place now though, as another much leaked guest appearance is playing. This time it’s Bastille. So no, not Ride.

Having heard weird things about the Michael Clark Company who opened things up today on the main Pyramid stage with a dance route to numerous Bowie tunes, we head off to catch them in the Astrolade Theatre. Dancing in Usain Bolt skinsuits to well know fare like ‘Heroes’ and ‘Jean Genie’ but also to lesser known ‘Aladdin Sane’, ‘Chant Of The Ever Circling Skeletal Family’ and ‘After All’ it’s a set for the Bowie fanatic, the dance fanatic and the Lycra skinsuit fanatic.

Having discovered the excellent Cockmill Bar with its range of local ales we’re been hanging around there a fair bit. It’s a handy place to be when we get the first rain of the festival as well, as we pile into the nearby Acoustic tent. Entertainment is supplied by Stornoway, who are no doubt pleased to pull such a big crowd by accident.

Once the rain has stopped we do another site tour and find the Rabbit Hole stage, where we take a look at Jake Isaac before we visit Wolf Alice on the Park Stage.

Now it’s dilemma time. Does one see Motorhead up on the Pyramid, Lulu in Avalon or the Vaccines up on Other. Despite the fact it is now raining again the Vaccines win and a good choice that is too as they put in one of the performances of the festival including a perfect ‘Wetsuit’ performance.

There’s still time to catch a bit of Lulu who is really giving it some in Avalon, we settle into the wooden shack next door, the Avalon Inn, for a few beers and a listen. The Avalon tent itself is rammed.

Then it’s off for our first visit to the Pyramid stage for more ‘special guests’. Ride? I doubt they’d be up on Pyramid and recent rumours seem to be about to be confirmed that the Libertines have been flown in by helicopter.

Tonight the Libertines simply prove they are not a main stage festival band. They are a small venue band where their shambling songs come over as charming and endearing. Up on Pyramid they just look and sound sloppy. I've seen enough of Doherty live to know it’s a well engrained trait. Carl Barat though knows better but probably needs the money. To be fair to the band, the crowd are pretty sloppy too and everyone near us talks through their set. Don't you just hate that?

For some time now, several years in fact, I’ve had this image in my head of Pete Doherty at 50 playing a gig of his finest moments of which, let’s be clear, there have been many. Only he plays them all in tune and error free using the experience that comes with age. It would be awesome. Let's hope he's around to do it and I'm around to see it.

Still, I’m glad I've seen them at long last and the middle section of ‘Music When The Lights Go Out’ and ‘What Katie Did’ was more charming than shambling.

By now we’re missed the Courteeners (who I like but have seen loads of times), TOY and the Proclaimers (which may have been quite jolly). Shall we also skip Florence, yes I think so.

So it’s Enter Shikari or Lamb then? Or back into the pub. I think the latter wins, tomorrows another day.