The concert is titled "The Music of Billie Eilish, Bridgerton, and Beyond" - it's all crowd-pleasers covering everything from "Take On Me" to the earworm from KPOP Demon Hunters. Venues now know they can't stop people pulling out their phones, so there was an announcement politely asking people not to record the whole show or use their flash but, other than that, snap away.

It was a delightfully relaxed performance. The audience were encouraged to sing along which filled the hall with pleasing susurrus of half-remembered lyrics. I'll admit to being ignorant of some of Billie Eilish's work but even if you don't recognise the tunes, there's no escaping the brilliance of the performances.

I'm not sure how adapted the setlist was for a UK audience, but it was nice to hear some Radiohead and Coldplay in there. The encore of Bohemian Rhapsody was, of course, outstanding and had everyone leaping to their feet in applause.

If a permutation of the VSQ visits your neighbourhood, I'd highly recommend basking in their talent.

The Venue

We picked up cheap tickets for the show. There's no such thing as a bad seat at the Barbican Hall. We were literally as far back as possible and still had a superb and unobstructed view of the stage. The acoustics were flawless and the seats were comfortable and had leg-room. Basically, every performance space in London should be this good. Of course, the toilets were another matter!

While there are loos scattered about the building, they're clearly inadequate for the number of patrons. The queue out of the ladies minutes before the show started should be an embarrassment to the Barbican.

Pre- and Post-Show

I've written before about The art of the Pre-Show and Post-Show. This concert had… nothing! There was no souvenir programme to buy and only a perfunctory pre-show email explaining how to find the venue.

The warm-up act, Tom Speight was decent. A half-hour acoustic set to get us going. His music was charming as was his crowd-work getting us to sing along.

There was meant to be a post-show merch stall with the opportunity of a meet-and-greet with VSQ. The Barbican is a maze and we couldn't find it on our trek from the balcony to the exit. Perhaps a little signposting would help?

The post-show email was utterly generic. No encouragement to share the experience or find out more about the performance or look for future tickets. Just a soulless Net Promoter Score exercise.

The "…by Candlelight" concerts have a simple premise - come to a cathedral or church to hear top West End talent sing your favourite singer's songs, backed by a live band. This is a cut above your usual tribute act - they aren't trying to do impressions of the act, they're stamping their own energy onto beloved songs.

It works! Mostly. This concert was in a West End theatre so the (electric) candles were only on the stage. It perhaps wasn't as intimate as some of their other concerts. But, still, I was blown away by how powerful their voices were and how loud the band was.

The first half perhaps felt a little too polished - but the second was more raucous. Lots of encouragement to get up and dance, sing along, and snap photos.

All the hits were there - with the deepest cut being "In the Land of the Pig, the Butcher Is King" and the Jim Steinman penned "Total Eclipse of the Heart".

You're never going to be able to see Meat Loaf sing live (unless he returns from the dead as foretold in prophesy) but this is a good substitute. None of the singers could individually match his vocal ferocity - but when they come together it is a thing of joy.

Meat Loaf by Candlelight is touring the UK now.

A few days ago, a different algorithm alerted me to the fact that they were touring the UK - so I snapped up tickets.

It was, of course, an amazing gig. Thanks Algorithms!

I don't know when I've enjoyed myself more at a gig. The LVLS venue in Stratford is charmingly intimate (and their drinks prices aren't too outrageous for London). The Girls filled the space with their sonic perfection. A brilliant mix of their original songs and crowd-pleasing covers. Their act is obviously well-rehearsed with very little time between songs spent faffing with equipment.

The multi-instrumental nature of the show gives it a wonderful variety - not that you can really tire of their singing - and they are generous with their chat between numbers.

The support act, Bart Budwig was delightful. A sweet selection of homespun songs and a magnificent stage presence. His crowd-work was excellent, bringing in the audience to join in with his songs. A particular favourite was Idaho Sober which the London crowd greatly enjoyed.

The Rainbow Girls are currently on tour throughout the UK, Ireland, and Europe. Catch them if you can.

Way back in the 1990s, I bumped into Paul when he was doing a poetry reading at my university. I'd missed out on tickets because I was a lazy student and didn't feel like waiting in a long queue. So I hung around the stage door and got a quick photo of him. Those were back in the analogue days before selfies were a thing. I've no idea where that flimsy piece of cardboard is now.

A few years later, my cousin Mick was in Paul's band when they played The Cavern. The gig was one of the first to be streamed live over the Internet. From my contemporary posts on Usenet's rec.music.beatles the streaming wasn't a success, with lots of frustrated fans. We spent our time imagining what the gig was like.

And so, 25 years later, I used half-a-dozen laptops to grab a pair of tickets to the first night of the London portion of his tour. Honestly, I think I would have paid anything (yay dynamic pricing) but was mildly relieved to be in the "cheap" seats. Unlike when we saw "The Who", we were right by the stage - albeit quite high up.

What can I say? It was magical.

Obviously it is a crowd-pleasing set. About the deepest cut is something like Junior's Farm. No one is here for the obscure B-Side to a disc that was only ever a top 75 hit in Japan. Does it turn into sing-a-long-a-Macca? Absolutely! And why not? This isn't the time to sit in silent contemplation; it is a time for exuberant joy.

When he played Now and Then, I don't think there was a dry eye in the house. I know I wept freely.

The Xmas banger "Simply Having a Wonderful Christmastime" was accompanied with a huge flurry of paper snow which covered the stage. It was, somewhat disturbingly followed by "Live and Let Die" with its obligatory fire cannons. Health and Safety be damned!

There's nothing to compare it to. You can watch all the Beatles cover-bands you like, but you'll never hear several thousand women screaming like they do for Paul. Every song seems deeply ingrained in our collective psyche. Holding the hand of my wife while Paul played "Maybe I'm Amazed" - seemingly just for us - was sublime.

A few days later and I'm still reeling from how joyous it was. Well worth the wait.

It is exhausting to watch him prance around the stage, screaming at invisible interlocutors, and miming the painfully slow death of a slug being dehydrated by the tears dripping down the face of a crying man. At times he berates us for laughing at a man who is clearly losing his marbles - we're losing them alongside him.

If you can keep up with the tangents (I recommend bringing a small notebook and industrial quantities of Red Bull) then you are in for a complex, silly, and rewarding time. The callbacks are perfectly executed and, despite all the madness, there's a beauty in seeing how far he can take an irreverent thought.

Who would have guessed that we'd end the night with the audience singing Kumbaya or seeing Bill Bailey advertising essential oils? It was delightful to watch Ross Noble deftly avoid being Cancelled through the judicious use of screaming "IT'S SATIRE" after slandering royalty and several other protected species.

I've no idea how much of the show was improvised. There are clear strands of thought and well-rehearsed anecdotes peppered through the ramblings of a raving madman. Perhaps it would be nice to go to a different night of the tour and see what remains. But perhaps that might spoil the magic?

It is a classic, if unsurprising gig. There's an odd segue into Pachelbel's Canon - material which has been mined to extinction by a dozen other musical comedians - but Bill manages to find something new in it. Just about. The rest of the jokes and skits are up to his usual daft standards.

The nice thing about a Bill Bailey gig is that it is exactly what you expect. Some comedians have a very different stage presence compared to their 15 minutes on a panel show. But Bill has been Bill for long enough that he knows how to give the audience an excellent mix of what he does best.

The O2 is, perhaps, too cavernous a venue for stand-up comedy. Even up in the (very) cheap seats, we had an excellent view - albeit of the projection screens. The sound engineering is excellent - words and music were loud and clear. But you do lose something when you can't really see the person on stage. Similarly, the audience interaction is limited to the front row - and anyone who can shout loudly enough to cross the chasm.

Highly recommended for fans of lasers, opera, intricate jokes, a little bit of politics (ladies and gentlemen), and musical pastiches.

You can get tickets for the tour as it travels through the UK and Europe.

For the first time in its illustrious 114 year history, the historic London Palladium will host a monthly orchestral residency beginning in February 2024, which will see iconic artists’ music celebrated.

This was an entertaining, but curious, gig. It isn't a tribute act - no sequinned sound-alikes strutting the stage here - it's a a full rock-n-roll orchestra fronted by three dazzlingly talented female vocalists. They blasted out hit after hit - knowing that the audience is probably unlikely to remember an obscure B-Side from a 1968 single.

The songs are played with joy and panache. The singers are outstanding - filling the Palladium with their roar. There are really only two problems.

First, is the audience. I know it's fun to rag on Boomers - but the event staff were constantly dashing around telling the oldies that they weren't allowed to record the gig on their phones. The youth of today, eh?

Secondly, as delightful as it was to have Cerys Matthews as a host, it seemed a bit of a waste to have her merely recite Wikipedia trivia for each song. She did her best to get the audience motivated - but I think it was a bit too late on a Sunday for the Boomers.

The residency continues with music from Bowie, The Bee Gees, and Phil Collins.

I'd decided to go see the Internet-famous Scary Pockets on tour in London. A few months after buying the tickets, they announced they were moving to a bigger venue due to overwhelming demand. The Troxy was heaving! It's an excellent venue with a large standing floor and plenty of booths and seats for those of us who don't want to be on our feet for a couple of hours.

The support act was David Ryan Harris who is obviously a talented singer and guitarist. Because he's not terribly well known over here, I think his first few solo performances were a little underwhelming. But once he brought on a band, he absolutely soared. A funny and charming singer with a gorgeous set of songs.

As for Scary Pockets themselves - as a band they have hundreds of collaborators, so I guess you're never sure exactly who you are going to see. This wasn't quite the same extravagance as the Post Modern Jukebox gigs I've been to - but Ryan Lerman is a superb band-leader, even getting his dad up on stage to play the tambourine. Because they're a covers band, literally every song is guaranteed to be a banger. I don't know if their set-list was adapted for the UK audience, but it was lovely to hear The Beatles, Radiohead, and Oasis in a funk style.

Mario Jose and Brooke Simpson were both stellar. Such incredible voices blasting out passionate tunes.

The band are touring round Europe until early 2024 and are well worth seeing.

The "Hits Back" tour pairs The Who with... The Heart of England Orchestra. Now, obviously, The Who are your classic 4-piece rock 'n'roll group. Do they need a full backing orchestra on their songs?

I don't know about "need" - but it works beautifully. A smashing start with a collection of songs from Tommy proves the power behind a dozen violins and assorted brasses. It absolutely elevates the music. The songs don't become sappy symphonies, they lose none of their punchiness or power. They become lush and full bodied. Less an aural assault, more like witnessing an explosion in a cello factory.

The middle set is just the band. They cheerfully admit that they're playing the oldies that everyone remembers. There's no deep-cuts here, or a Jazz Odyssey, or anything other than the exact songs you came to hear. Belted out as though the band members were a third their real ages. Imagine the roar of several thousand middle-aged men screaming like Swifties. Now imagine the queue for the gents...

The third and final act brings the orchestra back for a good ramble through the Quadrophenia. Once again, playing the hits with style. They've lost none of their energy. Cheerfully shouting at the audience and raising the roof.

A special shout out to lead violinist Katie Jacoby who absolutely steals the show by shredding her fiddle. Every single musician on stage plays their heart out. It was absolute sonic perfection.

And thus I am introduced to Kula Shaker. It was the first CD I ever illicitly ripped to MP3. It was my reference album for any audio equipment purchase. Potential girlfriends were unfairly judged on their appreciation of its mystic tosh. 

I'm 36. My mate Vicky posts that she has spare tickets to Kula Shaker's 20th anniversary tour. I sprint to the web and discover that the opening night is tomorrow, a short bus ride away from where I live.

I am standing in a sweaty venue. It is packed with blokes my age who are balder than they used to be, rounder than they used to be, up quite late for a school night, and all - to a man - screaming like they're teenagers again.

It was 20 years ago today…

There's a moment in every gig where the band's singer says "…and here's something from our new album!" to groans from the audience.

No such nonsense here. The plan is simple. Kula Shaker are going to play all the songs from K, in order. And they do, with terrifying enthusiasm. I had thought that they might regard it as a bit of a millstone around their neck. But no, every drop of sweat is a bead of pure joy for an album that people adore.

The crowd know the lyrics and the track order intimately. There's no need for introductions. There's a bit of banter, but we're all here to get lost on the music, to relish the lyrics. To be young again.

It's the end. Naturally we're cheering for an encore. If we're lucky we'll get a couple more songs, right? The hits keep coming. All those singles! A few barely remembered B-Sides, sure, but they just indulge the crowd in an explosion of nostalgia.

I'm 36. My knees hurt and my throat is hoarse. This never happened when I was 16, surely? But my mind feels the same. My head spins with joy.

For you shall be tomorrow, Like you have been today, If this was never ending, What more can you say?

Kula Shaker are touring the UK throughout December.

ॐ