My Motley Meanderings

Madness are doing a Manchester gig this December!

I really wish I could go to this gig Madness are doing to promote their new album, The Liberty of Norton Folgate. Unfortunately it wouldn't be very practical because it's in London mid-week - I would have to take a couple of days off work to get to it.

I love the style of the advert, although it could have done with a bit more proof-reading and they have scaled it down too much for the web. "[The Liberty of Norton Folgate] Danced skanked and boggled for the cause of man and woman's need to be." Check out the video too. How many movies do you recognise?

I've decided not to buy a ticket for the O2 Arena gig Madness is doing at the end of the year, as I don't particularly want the hassle and expense of going to London for it. I just hope it won't be their only UK gig this year - the language announcing it seems deliberately ambiguous: "The only planned gig in December." The past couple of years they have done a UK tour in December.

Here is a video from the Jonathan Coulton gig I went to recently, showing him performing Code Monkey with a Tenori-on as well as his trademark guitar.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hCZeb83i2DE

The brilliant geek singer/songwriter Jonathan Coulton is playing a gig at Dingwalls in London on Thursday the 20th of March. That's the day before Orbital 2008 opens, so I'll already be in London for the con setup!

I've just booked my ticket. If there are several of us at the con hotel on Thursday who want to go to the gig and can tear themselves away for the evening we could travel as a group. Tickets are £15 + a £1.80 booking fee. Better book your ticket soon if you want to come because I expect it will sell out when the word gets around.

I went to see Fairport Convention play at the Burnley Mechanics on Wednesday night. I've long been aware of them by reputation but I'd only heard an occasional song on the radio so I wasn't sure if I was going to enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised - they're really very good. I think if they're lacking anything at all, it's a female singer. Apparently the late Sandy Denny was in the band for a year or so when they first took off. They played a really lovely song of hers at one point; unfortunately I can't remember the title.

The audience was a very friendly crowd but there didn't look to be many who were under fifty. Apparently Fairport has played at the Mechanics every year for the past twenty years so I suspect there were more than a few 'regulars.'

The support act was a great northern-Irish singer/songwriter who I hadn't encountered before called Anthony John Clarke. He came across as an amiable chap and entertained the audience between songs with numerous anecdotes. I'd be happy to go and see him do a full gig.

I've booked to see Fairport Convention perform live at the Burnley Mechanics next Wednesday.

So, my second Madness gig. I drove down to Liverpool Aintree Pavilion last night to catch them on their Transport From London tour. It was another brilliant show; Madness are still playing on top form. They performed a few brand new songs from their forthcoming album, including the catchy Forever Young.

( Read more... )

Madness is touring again in December! They're not doing Manchester this time so it looks like I'll be taking a trip down to Liverpool.

Going to a Madness gig has been a long-time ambition of mine and I'd built it up in my mind to an event of mythic proportions, so tonight's gig could easily have been a let-down, but luckily it met and if anything exceeded my expectations.
( Executive summary: it was brilliant! )

I've just learned that Madness are going on tour again in December. The last time they went on tour, the way I learned about it was by reading a glowing review of the last gig in the series, which had taken place less than 20 miles from where I was staying at the time, bored out of my mind in a cheap hotel room. So I don't plan on missing this one. I know it's a long shot, but is anyone else here planning on going to the 13th December gig at the MEN arena in Manchester?

On an unrelated note, I asked somebody on my friends list a question yesterday and the answer made me happy. And that's as much as I'm prepared to say on the subject for the moment :)