Live: Kaiser Chiefs - Leeds Arena

Bruce Springsteen, Elton John and Leonard Cohen have already played there to receptive sell- out audiences and positive reviews but we all know these were just a warm up for local boys The Kaiser Chiefs to properly open the new arena. By happy coincidence the gig fell on the same day as my lads birthday and what better way to celebrate.

Ricky Wilson and Co stood posturing on stage behind a back lit curtain and we were ready for business. The curtain dropped and they kicked off in style launching into Na Na Na Na Naa and continued belting out hit after hit all night. All the anthems were performed such as Ruby and I Predict a Riot as well as few new songs from their forthcoming album. Choice cuts seem to be the anthemic Coming Home and One More Last Song which I suspect will embed into my subcocncious.

Rick Wilson was his usual energetic self running around the stage and interacting with the crowd fantastically. By the second song he was off the stage and in the front of the crowd. Later on he sung one song from the middle of the crowd, infact two rows behind us in the 1st tier of seating.

The stage and arena was sparsely decorated with just a simple backdrop of the band’s name. This was however made up for by the excellent lighting. At one point a glitter ball was dropped from the middle of the arena and had spotlights shone on it throwing out atmospheric dappled light for a slower number. I also loved how the band were backlit projecting huge shadows of themselves onto the side wall.

After an hour and a half on stage and the obligatory encore they finished the night with Oh My God (mixed with a "Yorkshire" chant to rapturous applause. The local lads had shown how it’s done in Yorkshire with Ricky stating as he walked off stage “You can now consider your arena open”!

Madness Movie - Deluxe DVD Treatment

Salvo Music will release the Madness movie Take It Or Leave It on 7 October 2013, pairing the DVD with a 26-track soundtrack CD.


The film follows the origins of the band from the mid-to-late ’70s through various line-up changes, before they eventually find success. It dates from 1981 and was largely self-financed and directed by Stiff Records’ Dave Robinson.

Take It Or Leave It has been digitally restored and contains the commentary by Madness guitarist Chris Foreman and the film’s director found on the previous standalone DVD.

The accompanying CD soundtrack album features 26 songs including singles, B-sides and album tracks. Two non-Madness songs are included (Fats Domino’s I’m Walkin’ and The Four Tops’ Reach Out I’ll Be There), both of which can be heard in the film.

Review: Blondie Live - Dalby Forest

GRATEFUL though I often am for always having wellies in my car, I never thought I’d be wearing muddy green boots to a gig by New York New Wave urbanites Blondie.

The green backdrop maybe affected Deborah Harry too, as she proclaimed: “Here we are in the Dalby Florist… ah, Forest.”




Never mind; Blondie were quickly into their stride, starting off with old but recently revived favourite One Way Or Another, to the delight of a sold out happy crowd.

Debbie, Chris Stein and co were always more than just eye candy or even perky popsters; they have some seriously decent music in their back catalogue.

Ms Harry celebrates her 68th birthday today, and you couldn’t expect her to rampage round the stage like she used to. But she still bopped away a bit, did a lot of waving to the audience and if she didn’t seem to be singing the old numbers quite how she used to, well, maybe she didn’t need to when the audience was happy to holler back the lyrics at her.

The band blasted out the tracks as if to remind us of their rock pretensions.

The crowd’s excitement levels dipped for some when Blondie strayed into newer material, their loss but were only to rocket again for the likes of Atomic, Call Me and Heart Of Glass.

Oddly to my mind initially they did a version of Frankie’s Relax during their encore but it worked, it really did before ending spectacularly with Dreaming.

But if part of me was wishing I’d seen Blondie live even more in their prime, even if I was only 12 nonetheless I left the forest with a smile on my face. To tell the truth, I think I’m still wearing it now.