Brief summary of 2013…

Bobby Long and Joe Summers at Camden Barfly – Went to see my buddy Joe who I shared a house with during the first year of Uni. Hadn’t seen him for a couple of years and it was great to see him and to see the improvement in his playing and performance. Hadn’t heard of Bobby Long before but he was a pleasant surprise also. See it.

Richard Hawley at Troxy – Probably one of my top gigs of 2013 (how many times will I say that in this post?). Absolutely amazing and atmospheric. His voice just soothes me. Support by The Crookes who I like the sound of but haven’t looked up yet. Although we have a couple of their songs on the soundtrack at work.

Geraint Watkins w/Andy Fairweather Low at Dingwalls – Remembered this guy from seeing Bill Wyman a few years ago back at home in Plymouth.  See it.

James Hunter Six at Islington Assembly Hall – Love these guys. Cant get enough. Not a massive fan of the venue though.

New Street Adventure at the Boderline – Smooth, Curtis Mayfield/Bobby Womack influenced. See it.

Paul Weller at Rough Trade – Said it all here really.

Willie Nile at the 100 Club – Slightly disappointed with this one. Heard good things in the past but didn’t think he was anything that special. Glen Matlock guested on a couple of songs which was cool.

John Cooper Clarke at the Palladium – Only really knew JCC from the GCSE English anthology at school. Was an interesting evening of poetry, comedy and music.

Elvis Costello x2 at the Royal Albert Hall – Saw him for the first time last year and he was back again with the spectacular spinning songbook. Always forget how large his back catalogue is and how much I have yet to listen to. Loved the slow starting Oliver’s Army and realising how strong his voice in particularly on Shipbuilding and She.

James Hunter Six at the 100 Club – Love these guys. Cant get enough. Now this kinda venue is more like it. Hot and sweaty at the 100 Club. Managed to sweat out the cold I was suffering with at the time though.

Bruce Springsteen at Wembley – First Bruce of the year. Embarrassingly I’d forgotten how good they are. Darkness on The Edge of Town from start to finish.

The Strypes at Islington O2 – Very talented and very young. Not that that’s a bad thing. Didn’t blow me away as the hype had suggested but I’d give them another go.

Paul Weller at Brighton Pavillion – It’s Weller innit. Restricted view seats had a speaker stack in the way of the keyboard player. One more seat over and we wouldn’t have seen a thing so we got lucky. Also sat right above where the band came on stage. He does a funny little skip thing as he runs on stage. Fun to watch all the mods and mod fashion in Brighton too.

Bruce at Hard Rock Calling – Incredibly hot day eventually worth it in the end. And we got Born in The U.S.A all the way through. Very cool even if it was kind of expected.

Love Supreme Festival – Bryan Ferry, Chic, Michael Kiwanuka, Charles Bradley, Jools Holland, Brand New Heavies, Eric Bibb and others I’m sure. Volunteered through Festaff to work at the festival in exchange for free entry. It was some of the easiest work I’ve ever done in glorious weather in the Sussex countryside. Jools Holland was entertaining (saw my new friend Chris Difford watching from the side of the stage), Charles Bradley was exciting, Brand New Heavies were boring, Chic were fun and Bryan Ferry was cool (and still incredibly handsome). I’d definitely recommend working with Festaff, they were very nice and relaxed and provided us with food during our shifts as well. This was quite a small, very middle class festival so I’m not sure what it’d be like doing something like V or Reading or Glastonbury.

Ray Davies, Elvis Costello, Nick Lowe at Hyde Park – Got a ticket for a tenner after Elton John pulled out of the gig. Only wanted to see those three anyway.

Bruce at Cardiff Millennium Stadium – Last Bruce of the year. Eric Burdon came out to do We Gotta Get Out Of This Place. Pretty cool to see Bruce play with one of his heroes. There’s always the slight concern that each gig I see could be the last with the E Street Band but in Cardiff he was like a man possessed. There is no way he’s going anywhere anytime soon. Bring on a tour in 2014. See it.

Wilko Johnson at Koko – Missed out on his first round of “Farewell” gigs so managed to get tickets to this one at Koko at the last-minute. Phenomenal. Very glad I went. Felt a little bittersweet on the way home having just discovered this incredible live experience that wont be around for much longer.

Paul Weller at Hammersmith Apollo – Went for the mothers birthday. Seats much further back than last time. A different atmosphere as well, a bit more celebratory or something. I’m not really sure.  Still great.

Dennis Greaves and Mark Feltham at the 12 Bar Club – An evening of acoustic blues. Two incredibly talented musicians that were fantastic to watch. It was nice to see such obvious affection between the two of them and that they clearly still appreciate each other as musicians and friends. See it. Got roped into playing some sort of percussion instrument at the end of the first set when I wasn’t clapping along at one point.

James Hunter Six at Bluesfest 2013 – Love these guys. Cant get enough. Interesting event at the Royal Albert Hall, I believe for the last few years the Bluesfest was held across different venues but this year it was all held in various rooms around the building. Seemed to be some technical issues while they were setting up that they didn’t seem to be getting much help with so I got the impression that Mr Hunter wasn’t a very happy bunny. But once they started playing they were fantastic as usual.

Bryan Ferry x2 at Plymouth Pavillions and Shepherds Bush Empire – Was intrigued after seeing him at the Love Supreme festival in the summer so my mum and I went to see him when I was at home in Plymouth for a weekend. A great entertainer and performer. And he still looks great doing it. What a stylish fella, eh? Enjoyed it enough to catch him again in Shepherds Bush a couple of weeks later.

Glen Matlock at Surya – Little venue and little crowd. Wasn’t sure about going as I wasn’t too familiar with his music after the Sex Pistols and I’m not that familiar with the Pistols either. Pleasantly surprised though.

Glenn Tilbrook at Blackheath Concert Hall – Fantastic. Wonderful. Lovely. It was just him which was a pleasant surprise. I was expecting him to have a keyboard player and drummer. I think I preferred him on his own. Played mostly acoustic guitar then did a few songs on the electric as well. I wish GT would teach me guitar.

Suggs: My Life Story in Words and Music at The Garrick Theatre – An interesting, personable, charming and entertaining chap. Had terrible seats though so might try and see it again this year if I can.

Nick Lowe at Rough Trade – Last gig of the year. Lovely way to end the year seeing NL doing an in store appearance at Rough Trade promoting his new christmas album.