Fat Freddy’s Drop & Louis Baker @ The Bristol Beacon last night
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I saw them when they were a club band on the London circuit back in the 90’s, even have a couple of old CDs, They were always great fun.
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Oh, I got my Freddie’s mix up, it was Fast Freddie’s Fingertips that I saw 
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I did wonder 
they are from New Zealand.
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Indeed they are, and played in our town here last summer. I’m a numpty 
Oh! That would have been very good! It was composed FOR Rostropovich. I did not know anything about Johannes Moser so possibly his reading was not good. But the idea of the piece generally too far out for me failed to see the beauty in it. I will give it another try some day.
Have you heard the piece played by anyone else since?
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Sadly no, I just enjoy my recording of it. I must play that when I get home.
It’s Slava’s early recording. I may have bought it at that concert, I’m not sure.
I saw Paul Heaton at the Hammersmith Odeon last night. He’s an unlikely rock star in his trademark anorak, but it was a genuinely great gig. His new co-vocalist Rianne Downey is stunning, he brings out all the meaning of his wry songs, and as ever a top class band. His new album has some really catchy numbers, and his back catalogue including Housemartins and Beautiful South is amazing. Half an hour before the end pretty much the whole audience was up and dancing.
The Zutons were really good as the support act, I might see them in April when they tour.
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Paul McCartney at Coop Live, Manchester, 14/12.
Great show and the pyrotechnics during “Live And Let Die” were spectacular. Never seen anything like it before. You could feel the heat from the flames.
Never been to the Coop Live before, and in truth it would need to be an act of a similar stature to get me back there again. We had to wait in a serpentine queue for an hour and a half to get in, over a distance in excess of 2km according to the wifes Garmin. If the weather had been worse it could have potentially ruined it.
I appreciate it’s not easy to get 25,000 people into a building, but for a recently purpose built arena the organisation and logistics were terrible.
A good job McCartney was fantastic.
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Sigur Rós - Falkonersalen / Copenhagen, Denmark
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Performers
Conductor: Tarmo Peltokosky
Choir: Groot Omroep Vrouwenkoor
Soprano: Suvi Väyrynen
I was curious about this wunderkind so I have scheduled a several of his performances with Rotterdam Phil where he’s a Principal guest conductor there.
He was pretty good! We enjoyed his bubbly rhythmic the Planets all the way except the last Neptune where the ghostly chorus finishes the score. The Women’s Chorus was off site to the left and first I thought it was recorded voices as it sounded too strong and out of kilter. I expected the chorus to be floating in the air and not so much directional. The soprano had a nice tone and love her performance but the chorus was supposed to be fainter and fainter to the silence but somehow they failed to get the mist like effects for me.
I knew nothing of Williams’ ‘Sinfonia Antarctica’. It’s a tone poem based on Scott’s ill-fated expedition. Its structure is somewhat similar to the Planet and the score included wind machine and also ends with a fading female chorus. It’s such a downer subject and I am not much of Willams fan but suprising I very much enjoyed the performance and the score!
I think Tarmo is a very promising young conductor and looking forward to see him more in the future.
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Paul McCartney at the O2 last night. No maybe about it, I’m amazed. Guest appearance by Ronnie Wood on Get Back, and then an incredibly heavy Helter Skelter featuring a certain Mr Starr. Terrible picture, but that’s half the Beatles there.
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Makela makes a debut with Vienna Phil at Koln Philharmonie.
I was curious to see how he handles a difficult piece as so far I have only seen him conduct some showy pieces like Mussorgosky ( RCO ) or Stravinsky(CSO).
We were sitting so far left ( right next to the violins ) and not sure of acoustics in the hall but I can hear the familiar rich sound of Vienna Phil. Performance wise it was proficient and Makela had a tight handle on the band ( as with others ) but maybe I felt that it was missing a bit of organic feel. Every thing seems very mechanical and compartmentalised. Granted this piece does need a tight organisation and pacing otherwise it can be a total disaster ( Jaap van Zweeden/CSO)
I think it was OK but not great. It somehow failed to convince for me.
I must confess that I am still not totally convinced if he’s the right MD for Chicago…But he is uber popular even in Germany. The hall was packed to the gills.
P.S. 
omg Vienna Phil now has a FEMALE concert master! and a lot more female musicians. I recall over 10 years ago I could count 2 females in the band and a few years ago I could only count only 4!
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Saw him in Newcastle (Aus) earlier this year fantastic show. However I only got to see a quarter of the Beatles. 
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Paul McCartney at the O2 London on the 19th of December. A truly exceptional concert. I’m guessing that I’m somewhere in Rigsby 21’s photo!
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Pat Metheny, never seen him before, solo at the BASF-Feierabendhaus, Ludwigshafen, Germany, fantastic venue, sold out. Some of the material was very “out there” but a very impressive, melodic technical player.
Martin
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