Billy Bragg, Rock City December 2, 2010

I bought a ticket for Billy Bragg last night, the umpteenth time I’ve seen him. Then the Nottingham Post’s reviewer was snowbound, so I agreed to step in at the last minute. Would I have enjoyed the show more had I not agreed to review it? I doubt it. This was by far the worst Bragg show I’ve been to, indeed, the only under par Bragg show I’ve been to. Anyway, here’s the extended web version of the review, and a download of the song that was the highlight of the show. Billy Bragg, Rock City, December 2, 2010 Billy Bragg first visited Nottingham with an unforgettable, seven encore show at the Garage, 26 years ago. His greatest triumph at Rock City was on the…

Ain’t That Pretty At All

This week’s song is a couple of days late, as I was in Venice on Sunday. I did work out what song to put up while I was walking across the duck boards in a flooded St Mark’s square. I was trying to remember whether Warren Zevon’s ‘Ain’t That Pretty At All’ mentions Venice. Perhaps it was something to do with the advertising hoardings that currently surround the Bridge of Sighs and dominate the approach to St Mark’s Square, both pictured above. Anyway, I was annoyed to find that the song wasn’t on my iPod. But now it is, and I won’t spoil the song for you by revealing the answer. Venice remained magical, despite the hoardings, despite the rain. I devoured Dyer’s Jeff in…

Depresso

One in four people in the UK suffer seriously from depression at some point in their lives. I had a serious bout when I was twenty, suicide note written, sufficient sleeping pills blagged off a friend. Never thought of going to a doctor, couldn’t really talk about it to friends, factors which were, of course, symptoms of the problem. But I kept putting it off, f0r fear of the effect it would have on my family and whoever found me. Then I went home from uni for Christmas and started to feel a bit more positive. Two weeks after I came back I met someone and fell in love. Nothing anywhere near as bad since. Lucky boy. Not many of my closest friends have, to…

Six songs from Rumer

Rumer has an amazingly pure voice which doesn’t just channel Karen Carpenter but seemingly reincarnates her. Debut album Seasons Of My Soul went straight into the top 3 last week, thanks partly to the support of Smooth FM (hosting tonight’s competition winners show), Radio 2 and hip music journals like Uncut. Her classy TV performance of Leon Russell’s ‘Masquerade’ at Elton John’s Electric Proms brought her to an even wider audience. I suspect the album’s Bacharachesque ballads will stay in the top ten for some time. Tonight, the question is whether she can sing as well live as she does on record. She does, in spades, with a relaxed stage manner and a crack band. Rumer’s more soulful than The Carpenters ever were, occasionally nearer…

Clock Of The Heart

As part of the British Art Show in Nottingham, Christian Marclay’s masterpiece The Clock is showing at the New Art Exchange. This Hyson Green Gallery is right by the Forest Park And Ride, so it’s easy to pop in for a few minutes while going somewhere else, pick up my partner on the way back from work or, as we increasingly do, just go for an extended visit whenever we feel like it. Yesterday was our anniversary. We’ve been together for 27 years. So what better way to spend it than at a movie that celebrates both cinema and time itself? We first dropped in to take a look the day after it opened. When we sat down, we knew nothing about the film. After…