BREVIEW: Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16

Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16 / By Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review

For the full Flickr of pics, click here

Words by Olly MacNamee / Pics by Michelle Martin 

If anyone was still wondering how we can break boundaries and encourage people from all walks of life to embrace classical music, then Hans Zimmer’s concert  at The Barclaycard Arena provided the answer. Hoodies and Hooray Henries, and all stratum of society in-between, were in attendance.

Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16 / By Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review All were there to lap up the soundtrack of our lives, the original scores and complex compositions of Zimmer and his impressively large entourage of musicians. Musical numbers that date back through three thrilling decades of orchestral originality evoked some fond memories over an immense two and a half hours.

Starting promptly at 8pm on the dot, Zimmer introduced each track with humorous anecdotes – as we were transported through an autobiographical autobahn of his back catalogue.

The last time he’d played Birmingham, over thirty years ago, Hans Zimmer travelled in a Ford Transit van and played to a crowd of three in a pub. Humble beginnings indeed, but as I watched him command the stage, his love for music, for what he does, became apparent. It struck me that here is a man who, even if he were busking at New Street Station, would be equally as happy.

Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16 / By Michelle Martin - Birmingham ReviewSurrounding yourself with friends and long-term collaborators helps too, especially if you’re on the road as much as he is over the coming months. The energy on stage was palatable and infectious. We were won over almost instantaneously as we witnessed the man behind the majestic, soaring music he has penned.

The first half was dominated by past achievements, the score to Crimson Tide kicking off the set before segueing into the original score for the film Angels and Demons – reminding the audience that sometimes, Zimmer’s music is the most memorable part of a film.

Playing through scores from Gladiator (both haunting and bombastic in equal amounts) there was also room for the much more elegant, subtle sound of The Da Vinci Code. Music from The Lion King was thrown into the mix, and proved to be an instant crowd-pleaser, immediately recognisable from the opening bars alone.

With many tracks lasting epic lengths of time, the first hour was over in the blink of an eye. We had been enthralled and entertained. A man who showed he could be both a musical maestro as well as a humorous raconteur. And, justHans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16 / By Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review like the Man City match on the same night, this was a show of two halves, with a second half that had a superhero and sci-fi theme.

Focusing on his more recent work with Christopher Nolan and the like, Zimmer – swapping instruments as he went along – brought the electricity to the Electro Suite from The Amazing Spider-man 2 and the darkness to The Dark Knight. His heavier, gothic music grabbed you around the throat, hanging you threateningly over the edge of a precipice. Just like Batman himself would.

He informed us that after hearing of Heath Ledger’s tragic death, he was tempted to change the score, but rightly decided that it should stand as a tribute to the chaos and anarchy Ledger brought to his Oscar winning (albeit, posthumously) performance.

Hans Zimmer @ Barclaycard Arena 12.04.16 / By Michelle Martin - Birmingham ReviewFor me, this tight, brutal Dark Knight medley was the highlight of the evening, accompanied as it was by stark lights and visuals, blinking black and white, black and white in ever quicker succession and drowning the stage with appropriate Expressionist aesthetics not too far removed from the director Franz Lang (Metropolis); a fellow German émigré.

With an encore focused firmly on his music for Inception, Zimmer played out the night, as one by one, each musician and the spotlight receded to leave him on stage, bathed in light. Zimmer is a composer and performer who has made a career out of what he loves and it showed, through every minute. Truly an enjoyable, exuberant evening for all in attendance.

Just don’t leave it another 30 years to return, hey Hans.

For more on Hans Zimmer, visit http://www.hans-zimmer.com/

For more from the Barclaycard Arena, visit http://www.barclaycardarena.co.uk/

Follow-Birmingham-Review-on-300x26Facebook - f square, rounded - with colour - 5cm highTwitter - t, square, rounded, with colour, 5cm high

BREVIEW: British Sea Power @ Town Hall 27.02.16

BPREVIEW: British Sea Power @ Town Hall 27.02.16 / Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review

For-the-full-Flickr-of-pics,-click-here---SfW

Words by Helen Knott / Pics by Michelle Martin

There have been some weird and wonderful musical collaborations over the years. Kylie and Nick Cave, Aerosmith and Run DMC, Tom Jones and… well, take your pick. Sometimes they result in a timeless classic, sometimes we get something unbelievably abysmal.BPREVIEW: British Sea Power @ Town Hall 27.02.16 / Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review

Tonight’s match up between art rockers British Sea Power and brass orchestra Jaguar Land Rover Band lies somewhere between the two. British Sea Power’s most recent album Sea of Brass saw the band collaborate with arranger Peter Wraight to re-work songs from their 12 year career. They performed these new arrangements with a number of different brass ensembles during a 2014 UK tour and this Town Hall gig is a one-off reprisal of the indie/brass pairing.

I’m not sure if it’s the one-off nature of the gig that’s to blame, but the evening starts very awkwardly. The first track is ‘Heavenly Waters’, which in its recorded form is a Mogwai-esque instrumental B-side that provides a dramatic and filmic opening to Sea of Brass. It sounds messy and under-rehearsed on stage. On the record, complex brass motifs weave with melodic guitar lines to create a cohesive whole. Here it just sounds like a song that’s really difficult to play.BPREVIEW: British Sea Power @ Town Hall 27.02.16 / Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review

A traditional brass band like Jaguar Land Rover doesn’t feature any trumpet or saxophone, so this isn’t the sexy jazz sound of a Big Band; it’s more traditional and mellow. Not a problem, but if the brass isn’t being used to create drama, like in Radiohead’s ‘The National Anthem’ say, it needs to sound totally gorgeous. It never quite does – the tone is dull and flat, when it should be rich and resonant.

It’s not like the raw materials aren’t there to work with – British Sea Power have some gorgeous songs. The two tracks that close their debut album The Decline of British Sea Power, ‘A Wooden Horse’ and ‘Lately’, are both performed tonight. Weirdly, considering how many instruments are on stage, both lack the dynamic range of the album versions. ‘Lately’s frantic guitars and screeching vocals are lost, along with much of its emotional impact.

Things do improve as the gig goes along. The two bands seem to relax a little in each other’s company, carried by the enthusiasm of the crowd. By the encore, audience members are wedding reception-style dancing in the aisles, much to the displeasure of a steward. She makes them sit down again. “Dad dancing? Not on my watch.”BPREVIEW: British Sea Power @ Town Hall 27.02.16 / Michelle Martin - Birmingham Review

This is a rather middle aged affair. The bite, mayhem and eccentricity of past British Sea Power gigs is very much missed. Even the famous British Sea Power foliage, which they haphazardly decorated stages with at the start of their career, has been prettied up with twinkly fairy lights. The extra instrumentation should be making the songs soar, but instead the brass, and maybe even the elegant, all-seater venue, actually seems to subdue and restrain the performance.

Perhaps I’m being harsh – the show was warmly received by the audience, reviews of the original 2014 tour were largely positive and the album itself has some wonderful moments.

Maybe the bands were just having a bit of an off night. But, on tonight’s evidence, this is one pop collaboration that I don’t need to hear more of.

For more on British Sea Power visit http://www.britishseapower.co.uk

For more from Town Hall Symphony Hall, visit http://www.thsh.co.uk/Follow-Birmingham-Review-on-300x26Facebook - f square, rounded - with colour - 5cm highTwitter - t, square, rounded, with colour, 5cm high

BREVIEW: Fat White Family @ O2 Institute 20.02.16

Fat White Family @ O2 Institute 20.02.16 / By Ed King @edking2210

Words by Helen Knott / Pics by Ed King

If you believe the band’s PR machine, Fat White Family are the “shot in the arm that independent rock has been ailing after.”Fat White Family @ O2 Institute 20.02.16 / By Ed King @edking2210

They’ve certainly gained plenty of notoriety since emerging from a South London squat back in 2012, but will they live up to their own hype at the O2 Institute, on the first night of an eleven date UK tour?

They do a pretty good job, for the first half an hour at least. An onslaught of songs in quick succession at the start of the set builds an early sense of momentum. Lead singer, Lias Saoudi, prowls around, topless, predatory, his hand occasionally creeping down his trousers. He’s a great front man, obnoxious to the point of almost being disgusting; commanding total attention from the excitable audience.

A particular crowd favourite is ‘Satisfied’, the second track of the band’s most recent album, Songs for Our Mothers. Typical of the album as a whole, ‘Satisfied’ has somewhat crass lyrics, at one point comparing a blowjob to life in a concentration camp. The words are lost live though, and you’re left with a sleazy foot stomper with a killer chorus. It’s probably for the best.

Mid-set the pace slows a little and the momentum peters out; the best thing about lumbering, dull ‘Goodbye Goebbels’ is its name, whilst ‘Wild American Prairie’ is a straightforward, sluggish blues dirge.

Fat White Family @ O2 Institute 20.02.16 / By Ed King @edking2210This points my main problem with Fat White Family – their lyrics are interesting, their politics are interesting, their wild antics are interesting, but the music itself isn’t really all that interesting. They write some good riffs and some catchy songs but it can often descend into arguable Fall and Clash rip offs.

There are exceptions. Songs like ‘Whitest Boy on the Beach’, the opening track from their latest album, suggest that Fat White Family could develop into a more musically interesting proposition. The guitar line grooves along, with the breathy vocals gradually submerged by melodic synths before re-emerging with greater force; it’s almost like disco music.

So, Fat White Family – a shot in the arm for independent music? Yes, probably, they really are a spectacle of a live band. But are they independent music’s new lifeblood? That remains to be seen.

For more on Fat White Family, visit https://fatwhitefamily.bandcamp.com

___________


For more from the O2 Institute, visit http://o2institutebirmingham.co.uk/

For more events from SJM Concerts, visit http://www.gigsandtours.com/

THE GALLERY: Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16

Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills - Birmingham Review

Words by Ed King / Pics by Harry Mills

For-the-full-Flickr-of-pics,-click-here---SfW

 

 

 

On Sunday 14th February, Gabrielle Aplin brought her Light Up the Dark UK Tour to the O2 Institute, with support from Hannah Grace + Lewis Watson – as presented by Birmingham Promoters.Print

Harry Mills was there to shoot a Birmingham Review for THE GALLERY. To check out the Full Flickr of Pics, click here or on the relevant links.

Gabrielle Aplin rose to the surface off the back of her YouTube audience. But having learnt her way around a label whilst studying at Bath College, contributing to their in- house BA1 Records, Aplin swiftly set up her own imprint – Never Fade Records, releasing her five track debut Acoustic EP in 2010.

Since then Gabrielle Aplin has released all her material through Never Fade, alongside a (still current) deal with Parlophone from 2013 onwards. Never Fade now also represents a wider roster of artists, including Bite the Buffalo, Saint Raymond (who further signed to Asylum) and Hannah Grace.

Light up the dark - album coverSo the girl’s got talent, tenacity and her own label; Gabrielle Aplin is an arguably healthier benchmark for the X Factor generation. She’s also now two albums into her career, having crossed the musical River Styx with Light Up the Dark in September 2015. And her sound seems to be confidently evolving – with the ballad based six string laments of her debut LP, English Rain, being given a comfortable back seat to her sophomore’s punchier, full band approach.

And it is that album/approach which Ms Aplin brought to a Birmingham stage, namely the O2 Institute, on 14th February. And whilst it was only Ed King, tip toes, warm Red Stripe and a rollerball pen giving Gabrielle Aplin’s last gig in the city a Birmingham Review, this time around we’ve gone all-out-images.

Check out Harry Mill’s Birmingham Review of Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 – as featured in THE GALLERY. There are some sample shots from the gig below, but for the Full Flickr of Pics click here or on the relevant links.

__________

Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills – Birmingham Review

Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills - Birmingham Review

_____

Lewis Watson – supporting Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills – Birmingham Review

Lewis Watson - supporting Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills - Birmingham Review

_____

Hannah Grace – supporting Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills – Birmingham Review

Hannah Grace - supporting Gabrielle Aplin @ O2 Institute 14.02.16 / By Harry Mills - Birmingham Review

For-the-full-Flickr-of-pics,-click-here---SfW

 

 

 

For more on Gabrielle Aplin, visit http://gabrielleaplin.co.uk/

For more on Never Fade Records, visit http://neverfaderecords.com/

__________

For more from the O2 Institute, visit http://o2institutebirmingham.co.uk/

For more form Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/

Follow-Birmingham-Review-on-300x26Facebook - f square, rounded - with colour - 5cm highTwitter - t, square, rounded, with colour, 5cm high

BREVIEW: Victories at Sea @ Hare & Hounds 21.01.16

Victories at Sea / By Joëlle O’Toole - Birmingham Review

For the full Flickr of pics, click here

 

 

 

Words by Helen Knott / Pics by Joëlle O’Toole

Victories at Sea / By Joëlle O’Toole - Birmingham ReviewVictories at Sea have an eye for detail. They are fastidious about everything, from the sound of their snare drum to their matching black clothes.

It’s the main reason it took them almost six years to release their debut album, Everything Forever, as apparently they only manage to write four new songs a year. But this obsessiveness is arguably both their biggest strength and biggest downfall.

I’m at the Hare & Hounds, the place where Victories at Sea launched Everything Forever back in October 2015. And the first thing you notice about Victories at Sea live is that for a band with only three members, they take up a lot of space. Massive analogue synths jostle for position with guitar pedals and a laptop, alongside the traditional guitar, bass, drums set up.

Perhaps surprisingly given their name (which, for some reason, led me to expect an evening of expansive Post-Rock) the sound all this equipment generates is that 80’s revival stuff made so popular by bands like Interpol. Imagine a dancier Editors and you won’t be far off the mark.

Indeed, Victories at Sea have supported Editors on a number of occasions and in some large venues. I can imagine this working very well – the band have a commercial sound, and are both confident and professional live performers.  Songs like ‘Up’ and ‘Florentine’ (which could both easily be found on a Foals album) are certainly catchy and no doubt thoughtfully structured.

Victories at Sea / By Joëlle O’Toole - Birmingham ReviewThe trouble is the sound is so slick and controlled it starts to feel overproduced; nuances between songs get washed away in thick waves of reverb. As my friend said to me afterwards, “I enjoyed it quite a lot considering they only have one song”. Even adding computer samples doesn’t really help matters; in fact, as it makes it more difficult for the songs to change tempo or time signature, it actually only serves to exacerbate the problem.

And there isn’t enough bite or soul present tonight to elevate the songs above anything more than Indie dance floor fillers, for this member of the audience. Of course there’s nothing wrong with that per se, and certainly the people dancing at the front of the packed crowd are having a great time. But there are bands around at the moment, Savages for example, who are approaching this type of music in a more interesting way to me.

It would be good to see Victories at Sea be a little freer, more organic – to give their songs the space they need to breathe.  And they write good songs. But perhaps they could be a little less obsessive in their search for perfection.Victories at Sea / By Joëlle O’Toole - Birmingham Review

And as for album number two? Well, getting it out before 2021 will be a huge step in the right direction.

For more on Victories at Sea, visit https://soundcloud.com/victoriesatsea

For more from Static Caravan, visit http://www.staticcaravan.org

____________

For more from This is Tmrw, visit http://thisistmrw.co.uk/

For more from the Hare & Hounds, including full event listings & online tickets sales, visit http://hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk/

Follow-Birmingham-Review-on-300x26Facebook - f square, rounded - with colour - 5cm highTwitter - t, square, rounded, with colour, 5cm high