First of all, can I just apologise for the appalling lack of posts lately / over Christmas / in 2025, and also say "Monkey Tennis!"
Sorry, had to get that out of my system. My last post on TGW-S, cunningly titled "Monkey Tennis?" has so far received over 12,500 page views in the last four (!) months. I like to think this is because people have been overwhelmed by the skill, wit and insight of my writing... and not because the Steve Coogan-coined phrase is eminently searchable on this 'ere t'internet. No, it can't be that.
Anyway... gigs! Four nights with two of my current favourite live bands, plus one new-to-me band and an old familiar one. First up, the supremely sensational Sleeper! The last time we'd seen Louise Wener and chums was at Gloucester's glamorous Guildhall, where they'd performed an acoustic set with an intimate, Q&A kind of vibe. That was fine, but I prefer my Sleeper to be a bit louder, so I jumped at the chance to see them in good ol' Brizzle.
'Twas a balmy late September evening ( Friday the 26th, in fact), and Sarah and I had a hassle-free run down the M5 to Bristol, and to the venue formerly known as SWX - now rechristened Electric. ( It's a chain apparently. ) We grabbed a spot in a handily close-by car park and headed into the venue, where we grabbed another spot, house right, not as close to the stage as I would like, but not too bad. Support band Rialto were half-way through their set and we just about managed to stay awake as their nondescript indie spread beige vibes around the room. To be fair, a lot of people seemed to like them, but I found them very dull and thought posho singer Louis Eliot's voice was weak in the extreme. Other opinions are available.
Then things immediately improved as Sleeper took to the stage and basically banged out their greatest hits. Starting with the Pixies-influenced Bedhead, with it's refrain of "Yes, yes, I think so" echoing what the audience were thinking, the band then launched into indie-disco classic Nice Guy Eddie. One of *the* signature songs of the Britpop era, this gold-digging anthem boasts the line "Pass my bag, I picked up that bra you fancied" - Louise's delivery of which can still turn your knees to water. The
set did slightly lose momentum around this point, even though the band were playing such great songs as Cellophane and Delicious, but they soon got back on track. Delicious was dedicated to all the women in the audience ( "It's your song, and always has been" said Louise ) which was absolutely fine by the two women next to us who didn't stop dancing for the entire gig. Louise said she wrote the next song, The Sun Also Rises, "in 2017, when I thought the world couldn't get any shitter" - an uplifting song for bad times then, and even worse times now. The achingly sad break-up song What Do I Do Now followed and sounded beautiful - and then the far more bitter break-up song More Than I Do gave the band a chance to fully let loose with an impressive sonic assault on our ear drums, Louise adding the post script "Wishing you all happy marriages."
In the home stretch, Sleeper gave us a gorgeous version of Statuesque - described by Loise as "our most Blondie-ish song" - and then an actual Blondie song, their cracking take on Atomic, with a bit of JD's Love Will Tear Us Apart thrown into the mix for good measure. And, after a stripped-back Vegas, they finished with - of course! - indie anthem Inbetweener. So, another fantastic performance from Sleeper and a fun night out in the big city for us Shire folks. I also had time for a quick chat with blogger extraordinaire and gig-going machine
David Rose - always lovely to see him.
On the 3rd October, Sarah and I made our way to Bristol again, this time to the O2 Academy for our second viewing this year of Leeds guitar abusers
The Wedding Present. Unfortunately, we got there too late to see support band Mozart Estate, who apparently feature the semi-legendary Lawrence from indie also-rans Felt. We were, however, well in time to see the also semi-legendary Weddoes - and that's just how main man David Gedge described his band - I'd drop the "semi-" from that description, personally. Still celebrating their 40th year, the band were this time playing a selection of songs from their entire back catalogue... in reverse order, starting with newie Two For The Road and then my fave, I Am Not Going To Fall In Love With You. And that was a pretty groovy start to a very punchy and hard-edged set.
As I've only recently become a proper Weddoes fan, I'm not too familiar with the far reaches of their vast
oeuvre ( first time I've used that word, I believe ) but what I've heard I definitely appreciate. The set continued with the gorgeous Rachel ( the song, that is, not the equally gorgeous Rach
ael who plays a mean guitar at the right hand side of The Boy Gedge ) which has quickly become a real favourite for me. This one was a brief foray into the softer side of the band's sound, before the full sonic attack continued with the likes of Deer Caught In The Headlights ( "Maybe you're just too pretty for me" ) and Kansas, with Flying Saucer bringing some exuberant power-pop vibes. Brassneck and Kennedy caused outbreaks of middle-aged moshing but I was being sensible / boring, so stuck in my same spot and maybe just tapped my foot a bit more vigorously. Rock 'n' roll or what?
At one point, Gedge waxed lyrical over Rachael's prowess ( ooh, er! ) by attempting to adapt the old "Ringo wasn't even the best drummer in The Beatles" joke to his own guitar-playing. The joke didn't actually work and, anyway, he is a bloody good guitarist. So there. Into the home stretch and the Weddoes pulverised their guitars through a run of possibly some of the best indie-pop love songs you'll ever hear: Everyone Thinks He Looks Daft / A Million Miles / My Favourite Dress and then a final screech through their first single Go Out And Get 'Em Boy. Yet another fine set by the reinvigorated, refuelled, refreshed Wedding Present - long may they unwrap their sonic gifts for us!
Moving on to some time perilously close to the present day ( hard to believe for this blog, right? ), in fact Saturday the 29th of November, Sarah and I travelled with our good friend Tom ( blog mastermind of
The Sensitive Bore fame ) to the fair city of Wolverhampton to see
The Last Dinner Party. Tom and I had bought tickets to see them last year, but the gig was cancelled, so it was finally our chance to catch this much-praised and stratospherically successful band.
The venue was The Civic Hall, or rather University Of Wolverhampton at The Halls, to give the place its full, unwieldy title. This is the slightly posher cousin to the Wulfrun Hall, literally next door, and the venue where I'd previously seen
The Dandy Warhols in 2008 and
Courtney Barnett in 2015 ( again, with Tom - can't believe that was 10 years ago ). An impressive, 1930s-built venue with balconies, sloping floors and a big ol' stage, with a capacity of 3400 I believe. ( Thanks the internet. ) We'd got there quite early, so managed to check our coats ( horrible weather ), grab some drinks and make our way into the hall just as support band
Imogen & The Knife ( above )
were starting their set.
Theirs was a slightly-too-lowkey-for-me indie sound, with hints of jazz and soul, courtesy of the sax & trumpet players. Imogen herself had a fine, if not too distinctive voice, while the songs themselves were a bit lacking in hooks. I may sound negative here but the second half of the set was a definite improvement, with some livelier songs and more oomph! from the band ( technical term ), and the Wolverhampton crowd certainly gave them a lot of love. I'd be interested to see if they can run with the more upbeat stuff in the future. My enjoyment of the performance was also hampered by a couple of Brummie blokes behind me who talked all through the bloody set and were really pissing me off. Go to the bar if you want to do that...
There followed probably a little too much art-pop intermission music ( Brian Eno, Scott Walker, you know the kind of thing ) and then it was time for some baroque 'n' roll with
The Last Dinner Party! The never-knowingly-overdressed band came onto the stage in their frocks, capes and smashing blouses and kicked off with the first track from their second album, Agnus Dei ( or "Lamb of God" to you ) and the crowd went nuts. In a polite kind of way.
"Oh, here comes the apocalypse / And I can't get enough of it."
From the very beginning, TLDP impressively set out their stall - hugely confident, maximalistic, '70s-tinged indie rock with beautiful vocal harmonies and theatrical stage moves. In these days of bands who look ( and often sound ) like estate agents, these ladies ( and non-binary people ) are a refreshingly individual group, who go their own way. ( A little nod there to one of their obvious inspirations, the mighty Fleetwood Mac. ) And they're posh girls with guitars which always works for me.
Count The Ways, with its excellent blend of hard riffing and sweet '70s pop, carried on the momentum of the set, running into two of my TLDP faves: feminist anthem The Feminine Urge ( "I am a dark red liver stretched out on the rocks" ) and the world-conquering Caesar on a TV Screen. The pace slowed for the beautiful ballad By Your Side, with Abigail Morris' vocals enveloping the audience in a warm hug. This hug may have been too much for some of the crowd, as the band had to stop playing on no less than three separate occasions, due to "medical emergencies" in the audience. I can understand that the band were looking out for their fans, some of whom were said to be dehydrated ( in November? ), but the third person to cause this halt to the proceedings was just pissed and had to be led out of the hall by a mate. How these people would cope at a Punk gig, Christ knows...
These interruptions did affect the flow of the set, especially when the band literally had to restart songs, but they soon got their teeth back into it and carried on regardless. I mentioned their vocal harmonies before, and it's really a bonus to see a band with three fantastic singers ( keyboard player Aurora & guitarist Lizzie also sing ) who can not only harmonise beautifully, but also take the lead and be just as good as the nominal lead singer. The psych-folk of Woman Is A Tree was a stunning showcase for their vocal gymnastics and the Albanian-language Gjuha brought Aurora's gorgeous voice to the fore, while the stately ballad Sail Away hushed the audience as Abigail weaved her spell over us.
But it wasn't all breathless loveliness, as the band came together to rock out on new song Big Dog, a huge squall of AC/DC riffing and high kicking, reminding us that this music isn't just owned by macho blokes, but is open for all to grab hold of and kick ass.
After finishing the set with a thrilling four song suite of Sinner / My Lady of Mercy / Inferno / Nothing Matters, the band encored with ( relatively ) new song This Is The Killer Speaking, a massive singalong anthem that's quickly achieved its final song status, and had everyone singing, shouting, clapping, dancing, doing whatever the hell they wanted. A cracking finish to an energising, enervating performance that had overcome any hiccups and showed just what an accomplished, engaging and powerful band TLDP have become in a very short space of time. I'm so glad Tom and I finally got to see them, and I think they converted Sarah too. Definitely one of my favourite gigs of the year!
And so, on to my last gig of the year - 20th December at my spiritual home, the Gloucester Guildhall ( where else? ) and
The Beat feat. Ranking Jnr.
It's always a treat to see Mathew Murphy ( aka Ranking Jnr ) and the band he's inherited from his late dad, the legendary Ranking Roger. We hadn't seen them since another Guildhall gig in 2024, so we were excited to catch up with their soulful, skankin' sound. Sarah and I were both suffering with colds but we didn't let that stop us...
Unfortunately, the gig was delayed due to problems with the bass guitar. We waited and we waited, the audience getting more annoyed ( and vocal ) as the time dragged on. In the end, the band resorted to sending someone out to borrow a guitar from a local musician and then, after an hour's delay, the gig finally began. Many of the audience members had left by this point, but we stuck it out, and we were glad we did.
Even with a truncated, hour-long set, The Beat still shone their light of positivity and good vibes over the depleted audience. Some classic songs were necessarily omitted from the set, but the band still gave us fantastic versions of Twist & Crawl, Stand Down Margaret, Hands Off... She's Mine, Carry The Flag ( dedicated, as ever to Ranking Roger senior ) and - of course - Mirror In The Bathroom. Ranking Jnr was his usual, ebullient, upbeat self, and the band were smoking hot, even given the technical difficulties.
So, after the initial problems, it was a great gig, The Beat's summery ska dispelling for a brief time the cold of a December evening in the Shire. A lovely final gig of the year, sending us out into the crisp air with smiles on our faces.
