A one-line review of every gig I’ve been to in September

This monthly series is probably more for my benefit than yours, but maybe your interest will be piqued by one of the reviews. Maybe you’ll scroll straight past. Maybe you’ll unsubscribe thinking what did I see in this blog in the first place? You can find all of my one-line gig reviews here.

Charley Stone with the Actual Band, Piney Gir and Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot, The Lexington, Islington, 1 Sep – All three acts have been regulars on these pages. Charley Stone made me laugh by gently castigating Panic Pocket for not turning up to see them cover one of the band’s songs, Piney Gir brings gentle good vibes cosmic psychedelia to the house, and Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot combine witty lyrics with absolute bops and a seemingly exponentially expanding line-up, not all of whom quite fitted into my picture.

(From L-R) Charley Stone, Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot and Piney Gir at the Lexington

Blur: Live at Wembley Stadium, but on the screen at Hackney Picturehouse instead, 6 Sep – I saw this gig at the time, or one of the nights of it at least, describing it as “a blast” and them as “always my favourite band Britpop band of the Britpop years”. It took a while to warm to it on the big screen. I may have had something in my eye by the time This Is A Low and Tender came on, but as a concert movie it is certainly no Eras tour or Stop Making Sense.

This was my actual view of Blur at Wembley Stadium at the time

ABBA Voyage, The ABBA Voyage Arena, Stratford, 9 Sep – I cannot recommend this strongly enough. I got two-and-a-half songs into it and had already decided I would be going again.

The New Eves, Paper Dress Vintage, Hackney, 12 Sep – I also cannot recommend the New Eves strongly enough, either. They sound as if 1970s folk horror movies have come to life and formed a band. Incredibly intense performances. And the bassist was for a while wearing what looked like a velvet smoking jacket and cravatte ensemble that Jon Pertwee’s Doctor Who would have been proud of.

The New Eves at Paper Dress Vintage

And then it all went a bit wrong. First up I went to see Ride, at the Roundhouse, London, on Friday 20 September, but I’d had an incredibly long day at work covering the Reform UK conference and wasn’t really in the mood, so I saw three songs, including my favourite Dreams Burn Down, and then sacked it off. They sounded great but I was just didn’t have the energy to enjoy it …

A somewhat side-on view of Ride at the Roundhouse.

… which meant bizarrely I saw more of Mystery Classical Guitar Lady at Manchester Cathedral, Saturday 21 Sep when I was visiting as a part of a bit of sight-seeing before going to see Leyton Orient demolish Stockport County 4–1 on what turned out to be a very good awayday.

A woman playing guitar at Manchester Cathedral.

“How shit must you be … we’re winning away!”

I had optimistically purchased a ticket to the one-off Ciccone reunion at the Night Owl in Finsbury Park with the intention of going there straight from Euston when I got back to London, but my train was delayed on the way home and I was shattered.

The face of a man who knows he has already had too much to drink at Stockport County to make it to Ciccone.

I then missed out on seeing childhood Womble-hero Mike Batt in the intimate setting of Gerry’s Club, Soho on Wednesday 25 September to celebrate the launch of his book, because one of my kids wasn’t well. I understand from the photos I’ve seen that Great Uncle Bulgaria was there.

This is the actual old cassette that I used to have of the Wombles to play in the car in the 1970s.

So ultimately, once you include missing support junodream at Ride and the headliners at The New Eves, I managed to miss more bands I had tickets for than I saw this month. It’s age.

The The, Alexandra Palace, London, 28 Sep – And then the month redeemed itself with this. Almost 35 years to the day when I first saw the The at Hackney Empire on my birthday in 1989, here we all were again. His politics may have gone a bit more paranoid conspiracy post-Covid, but Matt’s voice hasn’t aged a day, and given my day job it was somewhat sobering to hear some of those older lyrics being as relevant as ever …

“But God didn’t build himself that throne
God doesn’t live in Israel or Rome
God doesn’t belong to the yankee dollar
God doesn’t plant the bombs for Hezbollah
God doesn’t even go to church
And God won’t send us down to Allah to burn
No, God will remind us what we already know
That the human race is about to reap what it’s sown”

Matt asked for people not to take photos or video so here is a tiny sneaked photo that hopefully he won’t notice …

Find all of my one-line gig reviews here.