A Heavenly weekend............................

Greetings! Been a couple of weeks so I suppose I should post again huh?????????
Thanks to anyone who has taken the time to have a look at this here site, seems a few people do check in regularly which is nice, please feel free to say hi some time, or to call me a cunt or whatever you like really-it would be good to get a bit of interaction going on.

Last weekend I spent two nights at the South Bank Centre on London's South Bank (funnily enough!) for a couple of gigs which were part of Heavenly Records 18th birthday. Over three days a host of the label's artists, past and present, came together to celebrate the coming of age of one of our most esteemed "indie" imprints. On Friday in the massive Royal Festival Hall saw a return gig by the Doves with support from Manic Street Preachers doing only the six songs released by Heavenly at the start of their career and Kickabout faves Cherry Ghost. I did not have a ticket for this! Tickets were thirty sheets and sold out in nanoseconds, so I had to make do with a free offering in the Clore Ballroom downsatairs of the big show. Four bands for free in London on a Friday night, can't be bad?


First up were The Dulwich Ukelele Clubwho as their names suggests were a South London collective which featured lots of Ukeleles! I got in half way through their set and they were a lot of fun. They were supposed to be playing a few covers of Heavenly related songs and I heard them announce on song as being by Nada Surf although I didn't recognise it. It was heard not to watch them with a smile on your face and the few hundred gathered cedrtainly seemed to enjoy it. I think they would be a great festival band and it seems they have played a few this summer(Bestival, Glastonbury etc)which would be perfect for a Sunday afternoon, beer in hand, I would imagine. Next up were Reading's Beggars a group I must admit I knew nothing about despite being aware of the name. First impression was that they looked rather young(I guess they all do now, sob)and a little Kooksy. The first tune they played was their cover of Leonard Cohen's The Future which some may know from the awesome soundtrack to Natural Born Killers, I didn't recogniz
e it at first but me mate Dave did. I thought it sounded a bit like Starsailor but that may have just been the vocals. They seemed very tight and had some pretty good tunes but to these ears nothing that would put them up there with the likes of The (fucking) Kooks et al, at least not yet. Their myspace has a list of influences that would make me very interested in them and you can certainly hear that they are into the "good stuff" but to me it did smack a little of that Brit School, pre-made band sort of thing. Maybe I'm just an old cynic but I will listen out for them in future.

Third on were the reformed 22-20s who I thought were just playing for this event but who did play one new song. What to say about them???? I had no strong opinions of them when they were around, kind of liked what I heard but wasn't too upset when they amicably split up a couple of years back. I thought they were quite passionless on the night which was strange because I had this oimpression they were quite some live band in their day. The few songs I did know were pretty good, the singles Such A Fool and Devil In Me were hailed back in the day as evidence of some British White Stripes/BRMC thing but I feel if they are to reform there won't be a Verve-like surge in popularity, I think they may have had their time as a a pretty decent band and settle for that quite honestly.

After an hour and a half gap, the headliner of the gratis gig was Sir Edward Harcourt. I've always been a big fan since those early tags of a British Tom Waits at the turn of the century(and not just because I've been told I have a passing resemblance to the great man!)I've seen Ed a few times, most recently supporting The Gutter Twins at short notice in Februray when his one man act received great plaudits and earned him a position in the band for their US tour. I'd also seen him next door at The Queen Elizabet Hall a few years ago with full band, strings, brass and all which to me was very emotional, maybe because I was with a girl I was trying to impress, to on avail.......In recent times Harcourt the solo artist it seemed was being put to bed. His contract with EMI ran out and a career spanning best of was put out with suggestions tht he was to concentrate on writing and producing others but it seems there is a lot more to see of Ed and I'm sure someone will put out a new record as the guy is so connected within the industry. Maybe after he has completed the soundtrack to the wrongheaded Donnie Darko sequel which is currently in the pipeline. On the night, Ed was joined by a medium sized band of guitar, double bass, trumpet and his quite beautiful and very pregnant wife Gita on Violin and we were treated to a 45 minute set of classics including Watching The Sun Go Up, Apple Of My Eye, Born In The 70s and the quite excellent Until Tomorrow Then which is the title of said best of and you should buy it. NOW!>
So that was Friday, worth every penny and then some. I returned on Saturday, this time for a paid for gig next door at the QEH. Twenty quid got you an evening with The Magic Numbers, Beth Orton and Pete Greenwood. This show also sold out extremely quickly but I managed to find a return online a couple of days before. I've always been a fan of TMN ever since I saw them on an xfm xposure night in February 2005, fuck, THAT long ago!!!!!!! I've seen them quite a few times since, less in the last couple of years though so I was extremely happy to make this one and the prospect of seeing Ms Orton as well made this a bargain night. I arrived, after queueing for ages for a pint, a few minutes into opener Pete Greenwood's set and quite lovely it was too. Lovely picky folky stuff, not very exciting but quite lovely. He did seem to be a bit bemiused to be playing this 900 seater venue, maybe he was nervous but he mumbled his way inbetween songs which I think didn't endear him to the crowd as maybe he could have. Oh well, it was
quite quite lovely. Quite.

The next set was a real special thing, Beth Orton playing her Heavenly debut Trailer Park in full. Great album it is, you should buy it. When she first arrived on the scene she was seen as some sort of pioneer in the folktronica scene(if there is, or ever was one)and this record was quite possibly thousands of peoples comedown record, her links to William Orbit and The Chemical Brothers gave her that kudos with the danceheads but over her next few records she strayed further to the folk side of things and the arrangements of the songs tonight reflected this fact. Augmented by a chap on Violin and Piano and other stuff it was great to hear these songs after all this time even if Beth admitted to being very nervous. It did show a little bit, especially on second track Tangent where she was defeated by the over-wordy chorus, resulting in a nice little couplet of expletives(Fuck,Cunt,Shit I believe)before starting again and eventually winning huge applause. Orton explained that breastfeeding must have made her a bit scatty, but there was no need to make excuses, this was a hugely likeable set by a real crowd favourite that sounds completely on its own compared to the other female folkstresses who have followed in her wake. Hopefully she'll treat us to a new record soon, lactation dependent!!
I managed to get another pint in during the interval and step outside to take in the sights, I've been to quite a few gigs at the South Bank this year(Mogwai,Eels,Elbow, now theses two)and Ican honestly say it is a great place to watch bands. Sure a bit pricy, but the sound is awesome and each show has felt like a bit of an event, you can't help feel that so I guess for the artists its just the same hence good performances. I personally love to gaze out across the Thames towards Waterloo Bridge with the internal jukebox pl;aying that classic Kinks song and I nearly always well up, I fucking love London and that view and song kind of encapsulates it all for me, but I digress.....

I took my seat for the main event and noticed quite a few empty seats, a whole row alongside me in fact which I can only imagine were holds for Heavenly record company dudes and the like who were probably next door watching Edwyn Collins. The Numbers opened with This Is A Song, the first track on their second record Those The Brokes which was followed by Take A Chance off the same record but it wasn't til Forever Lost was played before people really reacted. For me, the follow up to their massive self titled debut album was very good but not as instant as the debut and this was evident given the reaction to other songs such as The Mule and I See You, You See Me in the early part of the set. In the excellent free programme for the Forever Heavenly festivities Bob Stanley described how at the early shows there were lots of people singing along to these songs when there were very few mp3s doing the rounds, certainly no records and their instant appeal still shows. The Magic Numbers were a breath of fresh air to me when I first encountered them, just great tunes, great harmonies played wonderfully live and the following album is apparently the biggest selling in Heavenly's 18 years, which given the apparent non image of this weird looking bunch is a massive acheivement testament to Romeo Stodart's songwriting and the girls way round a harmony. The couple of new songs played tonight still don't show the immediacy of those original songs but to these ears were well crafted bites that show these brothers and sisters will be around for some time yet. When the set started lagging we were treated to snatches of The Impressions People Get Ready and Kate Bush's Running Up The Hill which is something else I love about this band, their way of covering songs and putting that little Magic Numbers touch on it. Another show-stopper was bassist Michele's turn on lead vocals for Take Me Or Leave Me, a real moment. In the encore Beth Orton duetted with Romeo on Fred Neil's classic Dolphins to rapturous applause and soon after it was Morning's Eleven and show over. It didn't change the world but I and many people went home with a big smile on our faces and that is as much as you can ask for. Actually, I didn't go home, I ended up in a bar in Islington til 3am but thats another story..........

So, Heavenly, many happy returns-heres to another 18 years(at least.
Check out their website for more info about a great British label, I believe you can order the previously mentioned Forever Heavenly programme for the price of postage alone and it really is a cracking read telling the story of the label with quotes from all the major players and with a full discography at the back to remind you of all the great records they have put out over the years.

There is also a free download sampler if you sign up to the mailing list HERE

I've put together an alternative Heavenly sampler with a few tracks by the likes of Doves, Ed Harcourt, Cherry Ghost, Beth Orton and more which you can download in
a zip file at the link below, hope you like it. Go buy some of these artists wares too!!

THE KICKABOUT HEAVENLY SAMPLER

Well that was another long one wasn't it?????????????????

Love you, bye!