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Splendour’s final Nottingham outing in July. EMF, Cast, Neville Staples (The Specials) and The Flaming Lips all had superb sets. Wayne Coyne is just a legend
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Great venue too!
The Van Morrison Alumni Band, Electric Palace, Bridport, earlier tonight. A joyful celebration of The Man’s music.
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Went to the Proms at the Royal Albert Hall in London last night. A beautiful rendition of Elgar’s Cello Concerto with the rising Spanish star, Pablo Ferrández - deeply impressive. The evening finished with the RPO performing Walton’s 2nd Symphony - not something I know very well but really enjoyed it
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I was at the Cropredy Restival last week, in the little village of Cropredy Oxfordshire. They scaled back last year to a max capacity of 6,500 to avoid the financial issues that have plagued so many mid-size festivals. Musically I loved it, my highlights included:
Richard Thompson- 30 minutes of Thompson on acoustic before he strapped on his electric and was joined by his old rhythm section mates Nicol, Pegg and Mattacks for an hour of brilliant renditions of his late ‘70s and 1980s oeuvre.
Danny Bradley - He has a fine voice, writes good songs and interprets folk classics well, and his guitar playing reminded me of a Bert Jansch master class I saw at Cambridge FF decades ago, he’s a master.
Spooky Men’s Chorale - The quirkiest and funniest male voice choir I’ve ever seen.
Marshall Gilmour Webbs - 4 excellent singers, two harps, guitar and keys. They met when they were the female vocalists on David Gilmour’s tour, and enjoyed each other’s company so much they now hang out in Louise Marshall’s living room writing songs and playing music together. Their set had that vibe, 4 friends who were having fun making music together, they just happen to all have fantastic voices and be fine players who write good songs (and can do a pretty impressive Great Gig in the Sky).
Breabach - Superb Scottish folk band, dual bagpipes have never sounded so good.
Hayseed Dixie - The masters of rockgrass, hard driving covers of outlaw country and hard rock classics on bluegrass instruments.
And perhaps best of all, the local primary school’s kids doing half an hour of folk songs they’ve practiced in music class. The kids are awesome and the teacher seems so inspirational that I hope that a lot of the kids have a joy in music instilled in them.
I feel bad missing out many others, especially as apart from MGW and DB I’d seen all of those before. So honourable mentions to Soft Machine, Le Vent du Nord, Celtic Social Club, Rob Jones & the Restless Dream who could easily have made the list, and apologies to all the other musical acts who were all excellent.
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I was wondering if you happened to make Cropredy this year Eoin, sounds like a fab mix of artists and pleased you enjoyed it, even , as you say, you have seen many.
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Thanks Alan. No wine tasting notes as day 1 was 35 degrees in an open field and I stuck to water, days 2&3 I had a village Burgundy one day and an ABC Russian River Pinot the next, but despite my best efforts they were too warm to taste properly, tho’ very drinkable.
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Jah Wobble… wow. that’s a name from my past! 
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True but he’s never actually been away - collaborations with the likes of members of Can, his longstanding evolving band the Invaders of the Heart and now his family band with his Chinese wife who is a maestro of the guzheng (Chinese zither) and their two sons. But yup he’s a grizzled old geezer like the rest of us, still 2 years younger than me tho!
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Yesterday evening at Tavastia, Geordie Greep, the modern days Frank Zappa. It was two and a half hours jam session (or band practice). I had mixed feelings about the gig. On the other hand it was interesting to follow when very skilful musicians improvise but it would still have been nice to hear a bit more pieces of recognisable music. I think I got only three or four of the below set list. However, I read about this beforehand so it did not come as a surprise.
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I’ve seen Geordie Greep a couple of times and this sounds spot on. Occasional moments of brilliance but mostly muso noodling. He hasn’t produced anything of the quality that he showed in black midi
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Alice Cooper, Johnny Depp and the Hollywood Vampires rock Glasgow, 17th August. A good but not great gig for me. A few covers I didn’t know and which were a bit meh! Plus the limits of Depp’s spoken/sung drawl becomes apparent after a while. Joe Perry doesn’t fare any better but Alice is great as always. What was good was very good, so 7/10 overall for me 
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John Scofield’s Long Days Quartet at Union Chapel in Islington last night. Absolutely brilliant, John Scofield is such an amazing player, wonderful musicians with him but a special mention to the drummer, Ted Poor who had amazing energy and dexterity.
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A cracking evening at Docks Beers Grimsby watching Hugh Cornwall, came away very happy and surprised at how good Hugh is and his band.
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Public Service Broadcasting at the Piece Hall, Halifax. Apparently the biggest headline appearance outside London they’ve ever done.
This is such a great venue, seen a few acts here in recent years and this event was near the end of a full summer of concerts.
PSB always put on a good show and this was no exception with material from throughout their career.
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