Recent gigs

[mickf]

Lindisfarne in Cardiff last night. The last time I was in this venue (The Tramshed) it was all standing, for Turin Brakes. This time seats were in abundance to cater for the majority of the audience. It was a fine concert, full of crowd pleasers from the back catalogue, along with one or two album tracks that may not have been known by the casual fan.

Dave Hull-Denholm sang his heart out, taking lead vocals on most of the songs, including a spellbinding 'Winter Song'. A finale of 'Meet Me on the Corner', 'Run for Home' and 'Clear White Light' sent everybody home with smiles on their faces.

[David V B]

Martyn Joseph at the Laundry Theatre, Bowness. First time there for us but won’t be the last - a lovely space, virtually in the round and very good acoustics. MJ on great form with a mixture of old favourites and songs from the new album, Troubled Horses. Looking forward to playing it later.

Evening made by meeting old friends whom we hadn’t seen for25 years. It was if we had been with them last week.

[Dan O.]

An expedition to the 1865 in Southampton to see a prog-tastic double bill (or so we thought) of Colosseum and Soft Machine, both in their 2025 incarnations.

The venue filled up with, to quote a review of a previous night on this tour, "97% old white men who go and watch 70's bands."

Soft Machine kicked off proceedings : the mighty quartet of guitarist John Etheridge, saxophone and keys player Theo Travis, bassist Fred Thelonious Baker and drummer Asaf Sirkis gave the audience a complete and utter masterclass in progressive jazz-rock. Such a powerful display we were left wondering how Colosseum could follow it.

Unfortunately, they couldn't. Their bassist Mark Clarke came onstage and took the mic to announce that guitarist Dave "Clem" Clempson had been taken seriously unwell, and thus Colosseum couldn't perform without him.

After exchanging a few conspiratorial whispers with the rest of Soft Machine, John Etheridge called a 15 minute intermission and informed us they'd be playing another set for us imminently.

Our disappointment at not getting to see Colosseum was ameliorated by another 45 spontaneous minutes of Soft Machine's musical excellence, and they did not disappoint.

Overall, this was the sort of live gig that inspires and feeds the musical soul, especially when events took an unexpected turn. Hope Clem makes a speedy recovery and is back in action asap...

[Lubiloo (Lorna)]

The Wandering Hearts, an Americana band, singing their own compositions as well as songs from ‘Deja Vu’ by Crosby, Stills and Nash and Young, which they recently re-recorded.

The show was called ‘It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas’ and was peppered with classics and more recent songs such as Joni Mitchell’s ‘River’, plus staples by Chris Rea, East 17 etc…all sung in their own individual style, with brilliant harmonies and acoustic instruments. They finished off with ‘Fairytale of New York’. Enjoyable whether or not you are a Christmas fan.