Thank You For The Music

Going to gigs was what I missed most during the 2020 lockdown. In the few weeks before the country closed down in March that year, I managed to attend two musical events, neither of which were the type of thing that I normally go to see, so it was a relief to get back to seeing the live music that I enjoy in 2021.

Covid naturally made it all a little weird. At the Eventim Apollo I had to show proof of vaccination or a negative PCR or lateral flow test; the Royal Albert Hall asked me if I could prove my vaccination status if I was asked (which I wasn’t). At the Royal Albert Hall, many people were wearing masks – including those sitting next to me – so I wore one too, as I did at the Apollo.

This isn’t a review of the shows I saw, more a brief impression of the year, and in some small way, to say thank you for the music and the bands that played it.

First up, in September 2021, was Fischer-Z at Nell’s in Kensington, a small venue where the audience was quite sparse; not great for the band, but comfortable for my first indoor live event for over a year.  It was just so good to hear live music again, even if the set list featured a lot of tracks from albums I don’t own, but The Worker formed part of the encore, and it was worth going just for that. The only real fly in the ointment was the journey home – it’s a long way on the District Line, and a mile and a half walk home at the end of it.

Fischer-Z

A week later I was at The Congress Theatre in Eastbourne for Go West, who were supposed to be supported by T’Pau, who didn’t appear due to illness and were replaced by Katrina (of Katrina & The Waves). This gig was my wife’s choice and I know only a few Go West Songs (The King of Wishful Thinking, Faithful, and We Close our Eyes, all of which, fortunately, they played), but they were enjoyable, if a little repetitive. Katrina was better. Playing a varied set of her own material – old and new – and covers, I could have happily sat through a whole evening listening to her and her band.

Katrina (& not The Waves)

Go West

Having gone over a year without live music, it was three gigs in ten days as Steve Hackett brought his Genesis Revisited tour to the London Palladium, playing a selection of his solo material, plus the whole of Seconds Out, the seminal Genesis live album. With his band in fine form and singer Nad Sylvan in best Gabrielesque voice, it was – as expected – a brilliant concert. It’s funny though, how frequent exposure to some songs changes one’s attitude to them. I’d never before been a great fan of Shadow of The Hierophant, but for the first time, I really enjoyed it that night. Oddly, Supper’s Ready, a glorious song that all Genesis enthusiasts love, may just have outstayed its welcome – the novelty of hearing it live has worn off a bit - but it featured at The Palladium and it will feature on Steve’s 2022 tour too, as he’ll be reprising Foxtrot.

Steve Hackett

At the end of October it was off to The Royal Albert Hall for Level 42, supported by Johnny Hates Jazz. 

Johnny Hates Jazz

Level 42 are not a band I know especially well – or so I thought. On the night they basically played their greatest hits, and there was little I didn’t at least recognise. They finished their set (pre encore) with Heaven In My Hands, a song that for very personal reasons, I can’t listen to without having a little weep, as I did on the night. Other songs likely to have the same effect, and for the same reason, are A Groovy Kind of Love by Phil Collins, and Marillion’s No One Can (more of which later).

Level 42

From the cavernous Royal Albert Hall to the somewhat smaller and more intimate Chinnery’s in Southend, for my next gig, Lifesigns, at the end of November. Southend sea front in November is a bit bleak, there’s no getting away from it, but the venue – which I’d not been to before – was really rather nice. 

Lifesigns

These days I much prefer a standing venue to sitting – three of 2021’s seven shows were standing – and  this this was my favourite gig of the year. Then again, Lifesign’s most recent album – Altitude – was one of my top two albums of 2021 (Nad Sylvan’s Spiritus Mundi, an at first sight unpromising musical adaptation of the poems of WB Yeats, runs it a close second). I feel a little proprietorial about Altitude, it has to be said, as I made a pledge towards its production.  On the night, John Young and his band played some old material and then the whole of Altitude – glorious stuff. The economics involved in producing an album (even without Brexit and Covid, both of which have seriously affected many bands) and especially for bands like Lifesigns, who are not signed to a major label, make pledges and crowdfunding important means of raising the capital to finance making records.

My favourite new albums of 2021

The night after Lifesigns it was off to my all-time favourite venue, the Eventim Apollo – or the Hammersmith Odeon as I still prefer to call it – to see Marillion (with support from Antimatter). Included in their set was No One Can (mentioned above), a song that has the power to move me to tears. When June died in 1993, the song somehow became inextricably linked with that event, and the wonderful, emotional power of music means that 28 years on from June's death, it made me cry, and amazingly, I'm grateful for that (I’m tearing up just writing this).

Marillion

To round off the year it was a venue that is new to me, 229 The Venue, at the top of Great Portland Street. Another standing venue, and I have to say, one I look forward to visiting again in the near future. IQ were the band I went to see, and as usual, guitarist Mike Holmes donned the angel wings for part of the set.

IQ

I rarely go to gigs without buying some merchandise – usually a t-shirt – and this year was no exception, with additions to my wardrobe from the shows involving Steve Hackett, Level 42, Marillion, and IQ (I already have most Lifesigns t-shirts, and there were none to be had at the other shows, although it’s doubtful I would have bought a Go West shirt even had there been one to buy).

If all goes according to plan, then 2022 should see me at shows from The Musical Box, John Mitchell, Genesis, Sparks, Frost*, Yes, Transatlantic, Steve Hackett, Level 42, and the eagerly awaited return of Porcupine Tree.

Five of those shows have been rescheduled from 2021 – or even 2020 – and, I think you’ll agree, are a somewhat eclectic mix of bands and musical styles – add a ballet and an opera into the mix, and I’m not sure that even eclectic does it justice. My fingers are firmly crossed that they all go ahead.