The most amazing thing was probably the set list.  It is 18 tracks long, as it was in London, but only half of them were the same tracks.  I remember seeing Pink Floyd towards the beginning of a world tour in Australia and then again about six months later at the end of the same tour at Wembley and I think the set list was identical, or very nearly.  Changing the set list around so much within a tour is admirable really, and prevents the band getting bored. It must also be a testament to their catalogue that they have so much choice, and it means having a much larger repertoire rehearsed – not just by the band but by the lighting, sound and effects crews – but from my selfish perspective it is a bit of a shame that only half of it can act as a semi-memento of my own experience of the tour.

Having said that, the DVD does include the song Cyanide from the Death Magnetic album: possibly my favourite off the album.  I can remember being a bit miffed that when I saw them there were about six tracks from the new album but not that one.  The obligatory cover version was not Motorhead’s Overkill that they did at the O2 but Queen’s Stone Cold Crazy, and an unlisted extra track was a short blast of the Marseillaise in deference to their French hosts.

In further deference to the French, the whole concert was apparently filmed by a totally French crew and the DVD box is all in French.  This nod to the French is only slightly undermined by James Hetfield repeatedly pronouncing the S in Nimes…

There is one major problem with the whole thing, and that is the camerawork.  I am not talking about the choice of shots or the editing – they could have been better but were not terrible.  Not as bad as, say, Mike Mansfield’s Jean-Michel Jarre concert films. I am talking about the actual shots from one of the cameras.  There was a remote-controlled camera on a dolly on tracks going across the front of the stage and all the pictures from this were wrong.  They were going in and out of focus, which is very annoying.  Unfortunately that camera was often giving the best shots so they had to use a lot of footage from it.

I don’t know whether it was just a malfunctioning camera, or some instability in the trolley, or vibrations from all the noise not getting cancelled out properly, but it was truly awful, and I am genuinely surprised they let it go out like that.

It was still an enjoyable concert film though.  There is a lot to be admired about Metallica.  They may be huge in terms of popularity, the venues they play and the stage they play on, but they are still a very basic band – just the drums, bass and two guitars: no extra musicians playing in the wings, choirs, dancers, horn section or anything like that.  You could imagine them being able to play in the local pub or community centre if they had to.

Mind you, they would have to overcome their addiction to showing off their guitar collection by changing instruments for just about every song if they played the local pub.  Normally it is just lead guitarists who suffer from this compulsion, but even Rob Trujillo used at least three of four different bass guitars.  It must be a real frustration for Lars to be stuck with the same drum kit all evening.

The dodgy pictures from the main camera almost make this one to avoid, but I doubt there will be another film from that tour coming out, and it is the first full-length concert film to feature Rob Trujillo so a must-watch DVD for anybody even marginally interested in thrash metal.

I over heard something in the first pub that made me ponder a bit though.

When I got there I was up at the bar and found that service was slow because there was only one person behind the bar.  Maybe we should have told them that we had a lot of people leaving today.  Anyway, a couple of middle-aged ladies came in and one said to the other “which side do you think the queue is?  Where is the end of the queue?”

Obviously they are not seasoned pub-goers because it struck me that there never is a queue in a pub: it is just a free-for-all.  How did that come about?   As a nation we have a well-deserved reputation for being inveterate queuers with an unwritten queue etiquette at least as complicated as the rules of cricket and yet inside pubs the concept of a queue does not exist outside of the toilets.

It is not so much a matter of who was there first as who shouts the loudest, has the sharpest elbows, catches the barman’s eye, waves their tenner the best or is most attractive/scary.  Behaviour that would cause a riot of tutting in the post office is standard behaviour at the bar.  Anywhere else in the country you would never stand waiting to be served while one newcomer after another gets their order in before you.  I wonder how that became the norm in pubs?

I was chuffed because it is from the Tombola tour and so effectively the same show that Jayne and I saw in Kentish Town.  I have ripped the audio to the PC so I can listen to it on the Zen, and had a quick look at the DVD – only on the PC, so no 5.1 surround or anything.

The show is in an outdoors arena so the atmosphere is quite different to Kentish Town anyway, but while flicking through it somthing seemed strange, then I realised that it was because the majority of the crowd were dressed the same, with white shirts and red neck scarves.  Manu Chao and Gambeat also had red scarves on.

I don’t like not understanding something so I did a bit of Googling and found that the concert was in Bayonne, which is in the Basque region of France, right near the border with Spain which makes it a perfect venue for a Manu Chao concert, being as much Spanish as French.   The red and white combo is a sort of national dress for the place and at the main festivals everybody wears it.

The concert was recorded right at the start of the big festival when the town would have been gearing up for a week of celebrations, drinking and (unfortunately) bull fighting.  Must have been one hell of an atmosphere around the place.

I feel my mind has been broadened just a little bit today.  This morning I had never heard of Bayonne/Baiona and now its on my mental list of interesting places that would be nice to visit but I know I never will.

If I’m honest, the concert itself is pretty bloody relentless.  Non-fans would be advised to take it in small doses rather than one session.  I was just glad to see than band back with percussion and a trumpet: the second time I saw them they were down to a five-piece and lacked a bit of depth I thought.

I much preferred the 10-man version I first saw, with the trombone and accordion as well as the second vocalist, but the current line-up will do, and having the old Mano Negra percussionist returning is a distinct bonus as it means the band can add Sidi ‘h’ Bibi to the set list.

Does it show that I am chuffed with how much entertainment, education and nostalgia can be wrung out of a mere nine quid these days?   Now waiting for Jayne to be out one night so I can put the DVD on loud, fire up the bass guitar and try to emulate Gambeat’s basslines.

Damian 'giving it some' at the Queens Head

Jayne and I hit the town in Horsham tonight: an Italian meal, followed by a walk down to the Queens Head to see Covered playing.  We did that because Damian (AKA Pootergeek) sings with the band.  He keeps inviting me to come along to shows, but previously they have all been down on the coast.It was a good show they put on.  I think its a bit of a hobby band where they are doing it for the pleasure of playing rather than with any expectation of getting rich.  Usually I drag Jayne to concerts or shows and she doesn’t really like it (the only exceptions being Santana and Erasure) but she liked this one, and I was impressed.

As their name suggests, the band do covers of songs, mostly classics like Knock on Wood or Soul Man but with some more recent stuff like Amy Winehouse or Scissor Sisters.  There was even a decent version of Peter Gabriel’s Sledgehammer.  I was a bit worried when they said they were going to do some Motown (I am more of a Stax fan myself) but it turned out to be a Stevie Wonder song, and not just any Stevei Wonder song but Living for the City – one of my favourites.

I liked the bass player.  Totally unashamed to be wearing shades at night in November, he reminded me of Donald Dunn a bit, which is high praise indeed.

No complaints about the set or the playing, but a couple of suggestions:

• I’d love to hear them do Green Onions. It would give the keyboards and guitar a chance to show off a bit.
• Would also love to hear them do Alexander O’Neal’s Criticise.  If I was in a band I would fight to get that on the set list, even if it was a thrash metal band.
• Damian should pack a harmonica.  There were a couple of moments just crying out for a bit of gob-iron.

The funny thing is that Damian assumed it would not be my sort of music, because I tend to bang on about world music and prog rock a lot here.  I think he is forgetting my Essex roots…

No Captain Kirk or Soldier Soldier online from that show yet but I am keeping my eyes peeled.

Spizz on stage at the 100 Club 3/9/9

Went to see Spizzenergi (again) tonight.  I’m not keen on going ‘up west’ when I have to work the next day, but it was to mark 30 years since the first Spizzenergi incarnation, and having seen them on tour back then in 1979 I thought it would be good to make the effort.

As always it was a cracking show.  The current band have been with Spizz for a long time now so they know the material intimately.  It helps that they are all very good musicians individually.  I’m always surprised that none of them has been ‘tapped up’ by a bigger band.

Bigger defined as one that plays often enough to make it a feasible full-time job.Spizzenergi played for over an hour, starting off with 6000 Crazy, finishing off with their cover of The Model and inbetween doing Soldier Soldier, Kirk, No Room, Central Park, Spock’s Missing, Energy Crisis, Amnesia, Mega City 3, Virginia Plain, and a few more.  They did the whole of Clocks Are Big Machines Are Heavy as well.

One interesting song was Summer in the Greenhouse, which is basically their football song We Are The England with environmental lyrics. I was still hearing the football lyrics in my head.

Another little highlight for me was hearing the song Islands.  I think the band don’t really like it much, but I do.   It has never been released before but I heard it on some old Spizzoil demo tapes ages ago and kept asking Spizz why he never released it or played it live.  Whether it was my nagging that eventually got it on the playlist I don’t know, but good to hear it live at last.

Spizzenergi onstage at the 100 Club 3/9/9

It was a lively show though, with a varied audience.  There were some traditional punks (i.e. younger people in old school outfits and hairstyles) and some real old punks – some who have become more respectable than others.

The mosh pit was a chaotic beer-storm of people who should know better – i.e. people my age and older – which was good to see.  At one point Spizz did descend into the crowd to physically threaten somebody who had lobbed a pint glass on the stage – and then the stage was invaded by a drunken dwarf.

I don’t think I have ever seen that before…  look closely in the photo here and you can see him shortly before he started causing trouble.  Quite a sight seeing a three-foot high bloke being manhandled off the stage by two bouncers of typical bouncer build!

There were also some lukewarm attempts at stage-diving, which is ambitious when the stage is only a foot off the ground.

All together it was a good night, spoiled slightly by having to dash off to get a train back out to Sussex.  A shame there was no Airships, Hot Deserts, Risk! or Dangers of Living on the set list – but you can’t have everything can you?  I wonder if the band can be tempted out of London to do a LMHR benefit in Crawley or Horsham?  I’d love to see some of the local young bands getting a chance to share a stage with one of independent music’s true originals.

Spizz at the Tate Modern in August 2008

I went online tonight and bought my ticket for the Spizzenergi 30th anniversary gig at the 100 Club.  I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk of just turning up because with all the publicity there is a real chance of it selling out.Just recently Spizz has been getting very active on Facebook so a lot more people who would want to go now actually know about it.  On top of that he got some mentions and quotes in the Guardian on Friday in an article about the indie charts – because he was No. 1 in the first indie chart.  At the end of the article there was a plug for Sept 3rd.   That was what made me think I needed to get a ticket booked quickly.

Should be a good night.

The description says:

The longest and most popular song wanted / requested to be included in the modern SPIZZENERGI set.
Always a challenge to play as it has to be played at maximium volume.

And then goes on to promote the 30th anniversary Spizzenergi concert in September.  (Sept 3rd at the 100 Club, Oxford Street  Tickets available online).  It doesn’t actually say that they are going to play Airships in September but sort of hints that they will.  I have lost count of the number of times I have seen Spizz live, but I don’t think I have ever seen that song done live – unless they did it when they were supporting Siouxsie & The Banshees which was before I had really heard of them – but also a year before the Do A Runner album came out – so I’m unfeasibly excited by the idea of seeing it played by the current band.

Thursday night is not my favourite night to make a trip up to London, but I’ll make an exception for this.  Anyone fancy joining me?

Kirk Hammet giving it some during the encore. O2 Arena, March 28th 2009

Just back from seeing Metallica at the O2 Arena.  A late return, courtesy of London Transport who closed the Jubilee line due to “essential engineering works”.  I think the only way they could have annoyed us more would be if they had announced it was closed due to unessential engineering works.

The return home was not helped by the clocks going forward an hour shortly after I got in.The transport woes may have made the journeys to and from the Greenwich peninsula a bit grim, but the concert in-between was every bit as good as you would expect. Awesome in fact.   I was slightly disapointed that, despite playing 6 tracks from the new album,they missed out my favourite – Cyanide – but that is a minor quibble.

Long shot of the stage.

We decided to get something to eat around London Bridge before heading to the O2.   Had we known that the Jubilee Line was out of order we probably wouldn’t have done that, because it meant that we missed most of the support acts, just catching the last couple of songs from Machine Head.  Or as they prefer to call themselves Machine Fucking Head.  I am not too heartbroken about that though: I have streamed some of their tracks and they sound OK on record, but they didn’t do anything for me as a live act.

I was very impressed with the O2 itself though.  A fantastic venue for music.  It was by no means a quiet concert but the sound was clear and left me with none of the ringing of the ears that Paul Weller at the K2 did. The place is enormous.  I don’t think I have seen any venue so tall.  Our seats were in the distinctly un-metal corporate boxes, with carpeting and soft furnishings, looking down on the heaving mosh pit below. At my age probably the best place for me… brilliant view though.

Metallica’s light show was great too.  They started by playing the first song in the dark except for the best laser show I have seen, before moving onto the bright lights and the inevitable explosions and flames.

For the encore the lights came up and dozens of Metallica balloons came down

The set list was a good mix of old and new songs.  Nothing from Ride the Lightning and, less surprising, nothing from Re-Load or St. Anger but all the other albums were represented. The full setlist is here.

My only regret is that I could only sneak in the compact camera and not the DSLR and telephoto lense.