Paul McCartney gave his fans a wonderful early Christmas present with a magnificent gig at The O2 on 5 December. This was the fourth time I’d been lucky enough to  see McCartney, and this was easily the best.

Macca doesn’t need support artists. Instead, people who took their positions early were treated to a video montage and remixes of some of his best known hits. Then, at 20:15, the man himself took the stage and set about wowing the audience for nigh on three full hours.

The setlist was fantastic. He started with Hello Goodbye, and finished, appropriately, with The End. In between we were treated with 35 other magnificent numbers.

My personal favourites of the night were The Word – with its segue into the chorus of All You Need is Love (played for the first time in the UK), Blackbird – played to an arena otherwise so quiet in which you’d otherwise hear a pin drop, and Junior’s Farm – a song which I’d hoped to see him do ever since seeing it appear on his earlier setlists of the same tour. However, my absolute favourite was a phenomenal rendition of Live and Let Die with stunning pyrotechnics, the heat of which raised the temperature in the room a fair few notches more!

McCartney was in a humble mood, purposefully soaking in the atmosphere at one point, which given the performance he put on for us, he was perfectly entitled to do. Marriage has clearly made him a happy man, and his performance was markedly better for it.

All in all a top night was had. If you haven’t already seen him live, do take the opportunity. He’s a living legend.

Paul McCartney live at the O2 is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Reading this story on the BBC website, about Other Lives being hand-picked to support Radiohead, I reflected on some of the support acts I’ve enjoyed in the past.

Frightened Rabbit, for example, blew me away at a Gomez concert. And I loved Pure Reason Revolution – whose last gigs I sadly missed this week – opening for Hope of the States.

Being a good support act to a popular main attraction can work wonders for a band’s profile. In fact, the mere fact that they were announced to open for Radiohead caused me to check out Other Lives’ output. And I tell you what – it’s worth checking out.

It’s because you often get introduced to great new discoveries this way that I love getting to a gig early, just in case.

What acts have you grown to love as a result of seeing them support someone else?

The serendipitous support act is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

What makes a good cover version? Is it authenticity to the original work, or taking the canvas of the original and painting over it with something entirely different?

I think there are good examples of both.

Mark Cox, regular commenter on this fine blog, recently introduced me to the mighty fine The Civil Wars. Check out this version of Michael Jackson’s Billie Jean. It’s completely different, an far more enticing than the original version in my humble opinion.

At the other end of the spectrum, I also recently enjoyed Weezer’s take on Radiohead’s Paranoid Android, which is quite authentic when you compare it to the original.

But, like any balanced individual, I reckon something in the middle often makes the best cover. Gomez’s rendition of Bill Withers’ Ain’t No Sunshine is simply wonderful.

What cover versions have you enjoyed of late?

Good cover versions is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Man with flare at Queens of the Stone Age

This year, to get things off a novel start, I was convinced to let the bus take the strain and get a coach from Victoria station. This meant getting up even earlier than I did last year – at 04:45 – in order to get the 05:42 train from Hertford to London.

Sunit and I arrived at Victoria to find large crowds of people queuing to get on the bus. We ended up boarding a bus at 07:45, only 15 minutes after we were supposed to depart.

Much to the disappointment of the excited masses aboard our (non) luxury coach, we stopped merely an hour or so into our journey at Fleet services – for 40 minutes!

Three hours later we made it to the hallowed turf of Worthy Farm. We were kicked off our bus, into the rain and the queue to get through pedestrian gate A. By 14:30 we’d met Vicky and Jess at the Dairy Ground and were pitching our tent.

After the obligatory stop off at the Brothers Bar for some pear cider, we made our way to our first musical interlude of the weekend: The Mighty Peas at the Bandstand. You’ll have to forgive me if I sound mushy about the experience, but due to a curfew, they only played five songs. Most disappointing – but what they did play was great.

Thursday is a bit of a blur now, but one of the highlights was investigating the Common, The Unfairground and other tucked away parts of the south east corner of the site during the day. The Wall of Death, featuring sideways motorcycles and an amazing atmosphere, was also well worth seeing.

After the obligatory Thursday night fun at the silent disco in The Park, the festival began in earnest on the Friday by seeing Metronomy on the Pyramid Stage. While their chest-mounted lights weren’t effective on the daylight-basked stage, they were able to muster a few decent tunes.

Next up, Two Door Cinema Club, who were excellent. I’ve never bought one of the their albums but their set and infectious upbeat tunes have encouraged me to check them out further.

After a bit of the Wu-Tang Clan – who aren’t my cup of tea – and Cage the Elephant – who were feedback-frenzied in the John Peel tent, Sunit and I found ourselves back at the Pyramid Stage for BB King.

BB King is a musical legend. In my mind, he would have been better placed in the firmly established Sunday afternoon legends slot on the Pyramid Stage, instead of Paul Simon. While I don’t know an awful lot of King’s music, I was suitably impressed by his style and his sheer ability at the tender age of 85. And boy, the man can still play guitar.

It was around this time in proceedings that we heard about Radiohead being ‘officially’ confirmed as playing The Park stage later that evening. Initially undeterred, we headed over to the John Peel stage for some obligatory I Am Kloot action. Their set was largely based on the highly-acclaimed Sky at Night album, but it was great to hear a few old classics like Bigger Wheels and 86 TVs for the die-hard Kloot aficionados.

Now, at this point, an already difficult decision was further complicated. Did I a) go and watch Fleet Foxes then Mumford & Sons as planned, b) stay at the John Peel for The Coral, or c) traipse over to The Park to (probably unsuccessfully) watch Radiohead. The choice, of course, was no question – any opportunity to see Radiohead had to be taken. This is where mayhem ensued.

As we slowly but steadily made our way through the thickening mud, passing the back of the Other Stage – hearing Fleet Foxes in harmonious heaven in the process – it was pretty clear that the vast majority of self-respecting music fans were heading up to The Park on the off chance of seeing Oxford’s finest quintet. Despite heading up there an hour before Radiohead were due to come on, we couldn’t get anywhere near the stage.

We decided to persevere, and sure enough out they came. They kicked off with Lotus Flower, and the set progressed with a number of tracks from their most recent two albums. This gig was always going to be about playing the majority of the King of Limbs. Unfortunately, the sound was completely under-powered and muffled, and we couldn’t really hear a thing. We decided to move on and left after five songs. At this point, we headed back to the tent, grabbed some supplies and made our way over to the Pyramid Stage for U2.

U2 get a lot of unfair criticism in my view. There are a lot of people that are very anti-Bono. While I too don’t particularly like the overly-political preaching he can be guilty of at gigs, I admire the way he’s used his status for good through promotion of the Red charity.

Despite pouring rain, Bono, The Edge et al did their best to lift the beleaguered crowd’s spirits – and they certainly lifted mine. If anything, Bono seemed a little restrained and almost humbled by the massive crowd in front of him. U2 let their music do the talking, and at this stage of the proceedings were undoubtedly my favourite act of the weekend.

U2 closed their set and it was time to find some more late night entertainment. Like the majority of other people on the site we headed for the new South East corner entrance but got put off by the alleged two and half hour queuing times to get into any of the Arcadia, Common or Unfairground fields. Instead, we stumbled across the Sound Sensations stage in the Theatre field, where a village disco was blaring out disco classics like Cotton Eye Joe, and a gathered throng of at least 20 people danced like lunatics in the pouring rain. Classic Glasto fun to bring Friday’s frolics to an end.

Saturday arrived, and got off to a late start with Yuck at the John Peel stage. They put on a good show, very guitar heavy sound that I’ll be looking to check out again.

After Yuck, a Saturday afternoon residency at The Park ensued, starting with Graham Coxon, then The Walkmen and finishing off with Tame Impala. Coxon was in a cheery mood and rattled through most of his big solo hits. There were a few noticable absentees though. The Walkmen were good, but as always, the biggest reaction came where they tore into their breakthrough hit The Rat. Last but not least, Tame Impala really impressed. At the time, without knowing their stuff, I felt they sounded like a young Pink Floyd. Since getting back and checking out their album I wouldn’t quite bestow them with that comparison, but they’ll still a very good, cerebral band in their own right that is well worth checking out.

As I exited, Radiohead-like levels of crowds spewed into The Park – which had now gained a one-way system to respond to the crushes caused at the entraces and exits for yesterday – to witness Pulp’s return to the fields of Avalon. I was content in the knowledge that Elbow were about to put on the show of their lives at the Pyramid, and content to miss another special guest slot.

Sure enough, Elbow put on a great show. Having purposefully avoided their own tour earlier in the year, I wasn’t too disappointed that the setlist had a heavy bias towards new album Build a Rocket Boys and success-delivering The Seldom Seen Kid. Musically, The Birds, Weather to Fly and of course, One Day Like This were all brilliant highlights. But the real star of the show was Guy Garvey, who had the crowd in the palm of his hand from the word go through voicing what we were feeling perfectly, and even downing half a pint on cue. We even forgave him for mistaking Glastonbury as only being two days of humanity-reaffirming fun. It’s five days of fun, of course.

The stage was set for Coldplay to entertain us. Elbow had warmed the crowd up perfectly, and a baying crowd expected. They weren’t disappointed. Despite being a new song heavy setlist, this was probably the best I’d ever seen them. In Shiver and Everything’s Not Lost, we were treated to a couple of old classics that hadn’t had an airing for a while. Plus, the new songs sounded like instant classics which we’d already heard countless times – always a good sign. In addition to being a great set musically, the light show, featuring lasers, a lit up Pyramid Stage and spotlights a plenty made it a spectacle that can only be experienced in the setting of Worthy Farm.

Two days of music down, one to go.

Sunday was kicked off with Jamie Woon at the Jazzworld (sorry, I mean West Holts) stage. Jamie was quite good, in the mould of James Blake, and perfect musical accompaniment to what proved to be the last Brothers cider of the weekend.

After he finished, we decided to head to the Green Futures field to recreate last year’s brilliant pizza. We heard The Wombles doing Remember.. we forgot to hang around.

Anyone that’s made a pizza in the clay oven of the Green Futures field will appreciate this already, but they really are the best tasting pizzas you’ll ever eat. Yes, you have to do the hard graft yourself, but it’s worth the wait. Seriously tasty nosh, although it does eat some time out of your day.

Full to the brim we headed to the Pyramid Stage for Paul Simon in the legend slot. He drew a huge crowd. In summary, although I don’t know an awful lot of his music, he was a little bit underwhelming.

The end of proceedings were drawing nearer, but not before a heavy-weight combination to finish courtesy of the Other Stage.

Eels, in a happy and jovial mood, but on one of my favourite shows of the weekend. E and his band were incredibly tight, and the setlist was very upbeat. I’d love to see him in this type of mood again.

Kaiser Chiefs, while not the most musically or lyrically high brow of bands, always put on a good live show. As the sunset on Glastonbury 2011, they didn’t disappoint this time either. In keeping with Coldplay, their new stuff sounded good too and might force me to buy some of their music for the first time in a long while.

My last gig of the weekend was Queens of the Stone Age, who’d asked their fans to vote for their setlist – and what a setlist they picked. Josh Homme and co put on a superb show which included all the classics. My highlight was Better Living Through Chemistry, though No One Knows was obviously immense.

After they finished we tried to grab some food. Lots of stalls were selling out – must have been a great weekend for the traders. Disappointing, this included the North African stall in West Holts, though I did manage to bag a free lamb and goats cheese parcel, which was delicious – just wished I’d discovered it earlier in the festival. Hopefully they’ll be back in 2012 and I can sample it properly then.

Sunrise at the Stone Circle

On reflection, I still feel that Coldplay were the surprise standout performers of the weekend, and while I didn’t discover as many new acts as I normally do, I’m quite happy having discovered Tame Impala, Stornoway (who I didn’t see there, but have enjoyed since) and songs I never knew existed in the Queens of the Stone Age back catalogue.

Glastonbury truly is a festival like no other. I’m not sure what I’ll do in its absence next year, but I doubt anything else will come close to beating it.

Roll on 2013.

Glastonbury 2011 review: mud, mayhem and Moroccan lamb and goats cheese is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Last Friday, at a Christmas do for a company I used to work for, I was set a monumental challenge: to list my dream lineup for a medium-sized festival (smaller than Glastonbury, but bigger than an arena gig) that was to be watched by millions around the world.

There were only two rules (well, these are the two I can remember, bearing in mind it is Christmas and I may have imbibed a few alcoholic beverages..)

1. there must be 6 bands. Not solo artists. Bands.
2. the bands you pick can be from any era, and may contain members dead or alive.

This obviously sets the mark pretty high. Any band. Any era. Any lineup. It’s taken me some time to come up with my current list. Yes, current list – I’m not going to pretend this won’t change over time. But I think it’s a pretty good lineupfor now.

So, without further ado, here, in no particular order, are my picks.

Radiohead, Glastonbury 1997 era

Yes, it feels like a bit of a cop out to pick a band that’s still fully alive and kicking (and producing fabulous new records). However, Radiohead hold a special place in my heart, and I would have deeply loved to have seen them gracing the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury 1997. All of the OK Computer songs would have been fresh, new and invigorating live, and the instant classics like The Bends and (Nice Dream) would have been a joy to behold.

Jimi Hendrix Experience

I would deeply have loved to have seen the Jimi Hendrix Experience in their pomp. I would especially have liked to have seen them rip through All Along the Watchtower (probably the greatest cover ever recorded) and Voodoo Child. Alas, it’s never to be.

Manic Street Preachers, Holy Bible era

I’m a big fan of the Manics, and would love to have seen them around the release of the Holy Bible – preferably as a four piece, with Richey Edwards in attendance. I think the millions of people watching my festival would be suitably impressed. If not, they could always look forward to…

Electric Light Orchestra

A big influence on the Manics,  ELO would definitely feature on my lineup. While I’ve seen the Part 2 incarnation, I’ve never had the pleasure of seeing them fronted by Jeff Lynne. I’m sure they’d put on a great show in the dark, but I think they’d have to settle for a sunset slot in my lineup. There are too many other contenders for the top slot. Imagine Mr. Blue Sky at the start of the set in the dying embers of a glorious sun-drenched day… (OK, I appreciate it’d be more appropriate at the start of a bright new day, but that doesn’t fit in a festival setting, or allow the legendry ELO lightshow a chance to shine!)

Travelling Wilburys

The original super group, made up of Tom Petty, Jeff Lynne (so good he gets to feature twice in BradFest), Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan and George Harrison. While their time together wasn’t prolific - they only released two albums – their status as musical superstars, and the sheer quality of their output would have made them number one contenders for a second-on-the-bill slot.

The Beatles

There’s only one choice to headline my fictional festival lineup. The Beatles. Musical pioneers, and inspiration to millions, seeing them perform their songs in their pomp would have been legendary. They would command attention from the audience and, frankly, could play a setlist full of Yellow Submarine and Revolution 9 and still have the audience eating out of the palm of their hands!

So, bearing in mind the rules, who would make up your dream festival lineup?

My dream festival lineup is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Oh, happy days. I’ve got an Arcade Fire gig on the horizon.

Hot off the heels of releasing their excellent new album, The Suburbs, Arcade Fire announced some UK gigs in November/ December.

I’ve been lucky enough to snaffle tickets for one of their O2 shows, and I’m thoroughly looking forward to seeing them again already.

This will be their largest dedicated gig in the UK. I’ve seen them at Alexandra Palace before, and Glastonbury, but their massive songs will be a perfect match for the cavernous O2 Arena.

Roll on December! In the meantime, I’ll have to write a review of their album. That’ll be having to listen to it again a few times. Oh the hardship.

Arcade Fire gigs on the horizon is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Tonight, listening to a few songs, I was reminded of the unexpected pleasure that was the Magic Numbers bursting into a glorious cover of Neil Young’s Cowgirl in the Sand when I saw them recently at Tapestry Goes West at Shenley Park.

There’s been a few times recently, including this one, where I’ve been impressed by unexpected covers – Muse doing Where the Streets Have No Name with The Edge at Glastonbury the most memorable other example. The Magic Numbers’ in particular though was brilliant. It was faithful to the original, but still drenched in a whole heap of Magic Numbers greatness.

It made a top set all the more fantastic.

There are loads of famous covers by established artists –  Thom Yorke often offers excellent Neil Young song renditions - and I’ve just found this excellent version of Tell Me Why, tagged on to the end of Radiohead’s own Faust Arp.

I do love getting to see covers at gig. They’re regularly top moments in music.

The unexpected cover – Magic Numbers doing Cowgirl in the Sand is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Each Glastonbury I go to, I try and see at least one band that I’ve not heard of before. This year, that honour fell to the Avett Brothers.

Avett Brothers on the Avalon stage at Glastonbury 2010

I’d already eyed them up in the programme after they were described as a “folk rolk band from North Carolina who combine bluegrass, punk and pop, and have become hugely popular and critically acclaimed in the US.” How hadn’t I heard of them? This wasn’t the only recommendation I’d get to go and see them as Greg, a friend of Sunit who I went to Glastonbury with, also gave them a glowing recommendation. It had to be done.

I made by way to the Avalon field after catching half of Ellen and Escapades’ underwhelming set in the Acoustic field. I managed the catch the end of the Wurzels – the MC announced I’d missed a “proper Glastonbury moment”. The Avett Brothers had a tough act to follow.

They didn’t disappoint.

In the hour-ish set that followed, the decent sized crowd were treated to a cracking set of up tempo folksy numbers. The band were very polished. I thought the cellist – who I gather is only part of the ranks when they take to touring – was particularly good.

Two stand out tracks for me were ‘I and Love and You‘, from their recent album of which this is the title track, and ‘Murder in the City’, from Second Gleam, which nearly had me in tears.

I wish I was more familiar with the rest of the material so I could remember what some of the other outstanding tunes were – but at least I’ve got a great excuse (as if I needed one!) to check out the back catalogue and enjoy the songs all over again.

Glastonbury 2010: Avett Brothers – my undiscovered gem is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Long time no speak, loyal reader! I’ve been a tad busy at work since my return to the real world after another fantastic Glastonbury – definitely my second favourite so far – so they’ll be a deluge of Glastonbury-related posts to come in coming weeks.

Muse on the Pyramid Stage

Now, I’m going to be honest: I think they were better first time around. But that doesn’t mean this was a rubbish performance. Far from it in fact – they had the crowd in the palm of their hands for most of their set. However, I think they played two too many album tracks off their recent albums, sacrificing popular hits on albums gone by such as Bliss and Butterflies and Hurricanes in favour of unspectacular tracks like Guiding Light.

Despite one or two filler songs, Muse’s set will stay with me for two main reasons. Firstly, for their cover of Where the Streets Have No Name, during which The Edge of U2 fame played on in his signature style. And secondly, for the memory of one of the chaps near me – an Aussie, named Stuart, making two or three kids lives by hoisting them up on his shoulders so they could see the gig. They were all massive Muse fans, and that moment will no doubt live with them forever.

That’s one of the joyous powers of music. It can soundtrack memories for lifetimes.

Update: a larger version of my photo of Muse on the Pyramid Stage can be found on my Flickr stream

Glastonbury 2010: Muse magnificent on Pyramid Stage is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog

Ah, it’s nice having something to look forward to.

The Glastonbury lineup has been announced – and while there’s not that many acts that take my fancy that I’ve not seen before, it’s still a stellar lineup.

U2, Muse, Stevie Wonder, Flaming Lips, Gomez, I Am Kloot, Frightened Rabbit, Grizzly Bear, The Bees, Magic Numbers and  Mumford and Sons are all there, to name but a few. As always, it looks like there’s going to be quite a few clashes, but there’s never a dull moment in the hallowed fields of Avalon.

Are you off to Glastonbury this year? If so, who are you looking forward to?

Now for the checklist. Item #1: I need a new tent.

Roll on Glastonbury 2010 is a post from: Moments in Music - a music blog