The Biffy boys return with a mighty slab of emotionally driven hard rock. Some of the exquisite riffage evokes the finest of late 80s and early 80s heavier bands. Meanwhile some of the harmonies could comfortably and seamlessly grace a great Queen song. “True Believer” is among their best from one of Scotland’s finest bands. ‘Mon The Biff! Biffy Fucking Clyro are back baby!
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Regular readers will know that I have never been a huge Robbie Williams fan and that in fact I have been quite negative towards him over the years. That changed when I went to the cinema to see the Robbie biopic ‘Better Man‘. I saw him in a very different light after that. As soon as we returned from seeing the film my wife Catwoman (a.k.a. Catherine) suggested that we book tickets to see him in Edinburgh, so we did and here we are! So was Robert Peter Williams any good? You will have to read my thoughts on the support acts before you find that out.
First it was the Lottery Winners and this was the first time that they have ever played a stadium. This Manchester band are riding the crest of a wave after two UK number one albums and playing a number of UK festivals. Off the back of that I think they might be the perfect act to open the show on Robbie’s Britpop tour. Frontman Thom was incredibly excited just to be there and that carried through into a sparkling performance from the band. There were many highlights, “You Again” was great but “letter To Myself blew us all away on a wave of emotion. Next up it was Rory Charles Graham a.k.a Rag’n’Bone Man. I have loved his voice from the first time I heard his soulful baritone on his first album ‘Human’ back in 2017. I have seen him a few times since then, but this was the first time for quite a while. His band is incredibly tight and wonderfully funky. “All I Ever Wanted” was good but even that was topped when he ended the set with a two song knockout punch. First it was a supremely powerful “Human” followed by a stomping run through of the huge hit he had with Calvin Harris in 2019, “Giant”. The recorded version is good, but live it takes on a whole new life.
Finally it was time for Robbie to hit the stage. He opened with the first ever live outing for rocking new single “Rocket”. He took the stage bedecked in an astronaut costume and thanks to some excellent wire work soared above the stage while performing. When he came back down to earth and lost the spaceman gear he exploded into “Let Me Entertain You”, what a performance. It is clear that whatever you think of Robbie you cannot deny that he is a towering performer. Then it was time for an eclectic medley which included “Song 2” (Blur), “Seven Nation Army” (White Stripes), “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” (Proclaimers) and “Minnie the Moocher (The Ho De Ho Song)” to name just a few. If anyone in the stadium was for some strange reason not enjoying the show by the time “Rock DJ” was unveiled they would have had to submit then to towering take on a Robbie classic. An emotional highlight for me personally was “I Love My Life”, those words mean so much and I did shed a little tear.
“The Road To Mandalay” was performed while Robbie took a long walk to his C- Stage in the middle of the crowd. He was joined on the C-Stage by Thom from the Lottery Winners for a walk through some songs that might have made the setlist, well technically they all did, right? Anyway that included snippets of a few songs including “Let Love Be Your Energy” and one of my favourites, “Candy”. But the best part of the C-Stage set was the first solo live outing for Robbie doing “Relight My Fire” the Dan Hartman song that became one of Take That’s biggest hits. For the part that Lulu sang on the original Robbie was joined by the winner of the second and final Pop Idol contest in 2003, Michelle McManus. That woman knows how to belt out a song. An epic performance from the girl from Glasgow. Robbie returned to the Main Stage for “Millennium” and “The Theme From New York New York”. By this time I don’t think there was anyone still sitting down. I loved the emotion in “Come Undone” and in “She’s The One”. The latter was dedicated a a delighted and emotional Debbie from Dundee who was picked from the crowd by Robbie to give a personal serenade to. The encore piled on emotion, pathos and soul with “Feel” followed by “Angels”. There were not many dry eyes in the house at this point. Even I enjoyed “Angels”
Robbie made a point about not being cool which was warmly received by the crowd. He implored us to embrace our cringe and to get in touch with our inner twat! I have done both, and probably have done something similar for years. Mr Williams comes across as a supreme showman who knows exactly who he is and it is hard not to love him for that. Confession time, I am most definitely a Robbie fan now. “Angels” is no longer my least favourite song ever. In fact I loved it as the show closer in Scotland. Would I see Robbie again? Certainly I would. It rained a lot through the show but that dampened no one’s enthusiasm. This was a stunning gig, one of the best stadium shows I have ever seen. Finally a big shout out to the organisers for giving us such an easy bus ride back into the city. Thirty minutes after leaving the stadium we were back in our hotel room in the city centre.
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Here comes day 11 of Mayhem’s 12 Days Of Christmas posts. Santa is oiling his beard and the elves are packing for a long holiday! The theme for this series of posts is the classic cumulative song “The Twelve Days Of Christmas”. What gift was presented on the eleventh day of Christmas? It was of course Eleven Pipers Piping. The link to today’s tune is not very tenuous and features an actual piper, of the bagpipe variety!
Today’s tune comes from Ally The Piper a.k.a. Piper Ally a.k.a. Ally Crowley-Duncan. She is from New York and she plays the bagpipes like she was born to it. Despite my Scottish background (I am half Scots) I have never liked the bagpipes much. But the way Ally plays and what she plays is something special. She began as a YouTuber. Her mission in music seems to be the modernisation of the Great Highland bagpipe. She blends classic rock and heavy metal with Celtic influences, captivating audiences worldwide. She covers metal and contemporary songs alongside traditional tunes and really is a joy to listen to. She has received support from the likes of Metallica and Iron Maiden, to name just a couple. Ally is a bit of a multi instrumentalist too, when it comes to traditional musical instruments in particular. This post features her take on the classic “Crazy Train”
There will be a playlist of all twelve songs when we get to the final one. In fact that playlist is under the streaming Christmas tree already and ready for unwrapping tomorrow. What do you think the final song will be tomorrow?
Today is December 16th and Christmas is getting closer. You certainly don’t need to walk 500 miles to get to the festivities now do you? Have you sent your letter to Santa? Have you sent a letter to America? Last posting dates must be here soon. Anyway it is now day 16 in this years ABC of British bands advent blog posts. We are noon on the letter ‘P’. If you sussed out the clues that I left earlier in this paragraph (and frankly they weren’t difficult) you’ll know that todays band is the Proclaimers. Obviously you may have just looked at the picture too 🙂
The band is Scottish twins Charlie and Craig Reid who were born on 5th March 1962 in Leith. They later went on to live in Edinburgh, Cornwall and Auchtermuchty. The latter place is where they went to the Bell Baxter High School. The boys were a part of a number of punk bands before eventually forming the Proclaimers in 1983. Their big break came along in 1986 after a fan sent a demo tape to the Housemartins. The boys were then invited to support Hull’s finest on the 1986 UK tour. This exposure led to a slot on Channel 4’s the Tube in early 1987.
Later that year their second single, “Letter From America” went to number three in the UK singles chart and number two in Ireland. This was the first of their six UK top 40 hits. Their biggest chart success came with a re-recording of 1988’s “I’m Gonna Be (500 Miles)” in 2007. It was in aid of Comic Relief and the video involved many celebrities including Peter Kay and Matt Lucas. The song helped raise millions for Comic Relief that year. The original version of that song is their only US hit to date and it reached number 8 in the US Rock chart in 1988. The band have released 9 studio albums so far since 1987. Six of those made it to the UK top 50. 1988’s “Sunshine On Leith” reached number 6 in the UK chart and almost made it to the top in Australia, sadly stalling at number two. ‘The Best Of The Proclaimers‘, a 2002 compilation is their highest charting UK album making it to number 5 that year.
Charlie and Craig are fans of Hibernian Football Club and their song “Sunshine On Leith” has become something of an anthem at the club’s home games. They are also keen supporters of Scottish independence. For me the Proclaimers are something of a Marmite act in that you either love them or hate them. Personally I love them, perhaps that is because I am half Scots. Either way you can now take some time to love or hate a selection of the Proclaimers best tunes.
I am half Scottish so I feel I am at least partly qualified to make a comment about bagpipes. That comment being that I really can’t stand the bloody things. In a traditional music and dance sense there is only one thing that I dislike more and that is Morris Dancing. I think I would generally find nailing my head to the floor a more pleasurable pursuit than watching Morris Dancing.
So based on my view of the Bagpipes just how shocked and horrified do you think I was when I realised that you are able to purchase the game ‘Bagpipe Star’ on DVD. What the hell is that all about then? I was hoping it was a spoof but it doesn’t look like it. Click here to check the site yourself.
I got me thinking about are there any rock songs that actually use the bagpipes in a reasonably good way. Thankfully I think there are and here is my bagpipes in rock choice just for you! Remember it is really a musical instrument and not an instrument of torture!
As many of you know I have a real issue with the fact us English do not have our own passport nor our own national anthem. The other home nations; Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland may also have to have a British passport like us in England, but at least they have their own national anthem. What do we use? The bloody British national anthem, “God Save The Queen”. It’s like a damned funeral march and holds no inspiration whatsoever for me.
Regular readers will know that I have posted about this subject before, click here to read it. Anyway another blogger has gone somewhat further than me and has set up a UK government e-petition entitled ‘Make Kate Bush‘s “Oh England My Lionheart” the new English National Anthem’. That song was one of the choices on my original post. So I would like you to go to the petition site and sign it. Click here to do so. Unless of course you like the British national anthem? Surely you don’t do you? Anyway only 100, 000 signatures are needed before the government have to consider it, so what are you waiting for? You know what you need to do; England expects and all that.
If you’d like to check out Steve’s original post on the subject click here. The rest of his blog is pretty damned good too, frankly anyone who is a Kate Bush fan and a comic fan is someone I couldn’t fail to like. Here is Kate with said song. Listen and sign people, you know it makes sense!
With Just A Hint Of Mayhem 