I just heard that Bobby Womack died yesterday. So sorry to hear this and so glad that I finally got to see him perform, at Liverpool Philharmonic earlier this year. A wonderful show that had me in tears by the end. On Tuesday night, my oldest friend Mike and I had a late night session after the Elton John gig. At about 2AM, I played ‘I Can Understand It’ and remarked that Liverpool was still my gig of the year. ‘Even better than Prince?” Mike asked, before choosing ‘I’m Through Trying To Prove My Love To You’. Yes, better than Prince. This was the show closer, as filmed a year earlier at the Forum in London, with Damon Albarn (who produced his terrific final album)…
It’s 11 years, almost to the day, since Tindersticks last played Nottingham, their home town. The band formed in 1991. Their second slimmed down line-up, going since 2007, has never performed here. Until tonight. They’ve never had a hit single, nor courted one. Their unique music is hard to describe: a lugubrious, Leonard Cohen meets Bryan Ferry voice sings melancholy lyrics over a band who sound anything but British. A hint of Australia’s The Triffids is blended with a jazzy French lounge band and a few spoonfuls of Philadelphia soul. Tonight’s semi-acoustic, instantly sold-out show at Nottingham Contemporary accompanies ‘A year in small paintings – Singing Skies, September 2010 – September 2011′ a fine, brief exhibition of Turnereque sky paintings by Suzanne Osborne which…