McQueen @ Camden Barfly - 31/10/2007

Wednesday night, so it must be heavy metal. Having been reasonably impressed with McQueen's debut album, I thought it was worth parting with £6.50 to catch them live. I must admit I wasn't expecting much, but I was presently surprised to find that McQueen manage to be quite entertaining live (although a bit less of the rock cliche speak by lead vocalist Leah wouldn't go a miss).

Anyway, The Line went Dead, Running out of Things to Say, Love for Sale, Neurotic etc all sounded really rather good. The next record should tell us whether or not the band will ever headline bigger venues.

Due to standing in a bar drinking Pete and I missed the first of the support acts but arrived in time to catch Fresh Fabrik, a hungarian hard rock band. They seemed like a nice enough bunch, but can't say I left wanting to rush out and buy any of their music.

New Hold Steady tune live

Ray Davies @ Camden Roundhouse

I have almost gone to see Ray Davies play on a number of occasions, but never quite made it, so when this opportunity came along I jumped at the chance - and I am glad I did. For just about 100 minutes, in a set comprise mainly of Kinks songs - with a few of his better solo numbers thrown in - it was a complete joy. Davies is, without a doubt, one of the best songwriters the UK has produced and in one truly golden period wrote or co-wrote a batch of timeless classics, all of which made the set tonight: Tired Of Waiting, All Day And All Of The Night, Good Times Gone, Sunny Afternoon, Dedicated Follower Of Fashion, Days, Waterloo Sunset, You Really Got Me, Lola ... every one of them, songs that most songwriters would have killed to have written.

Things were made even better by the fact that Ray really seemed to be having a good time, and looked like - even at 64 - he still fancied himself a rockstar.

For me it all kicked off brilliantly with I'm Not Like Everybody Else from the Kinkdom album - not a song I ever thought I would hear live, and hardly let up for the 100 mins. Other personal highlights were Tired of Waiting, All Day and All of the Night, Waterloo Sunset, and the title track of the new album, Working Man's Café.

Of course there was also Lola, and on the online BBC version of the gig (it was taped for BBC's 'Electric Proms' series - I appear singing my heart out for a few fleeting seconds ... for those who can view it (Uk only I'd guess) its about 1 hour 30 and approx 43 seconds in ...

The addition of The Crouch End Festival Chorus for a number of the later classics added some additional voices to the mix, and we also go Razorlight's Johnny Borrell - a man who mistakenly thinks he's a genius - actually getting to share the stage with a real one. A cracking night.


SET LIST

# I'm Not Like Everybody Else
# Good Times Gone
# Til The End Of The Day
# A Well Respected Man
# The Tourist
# Sunny Afternoon (with Johnny Borrell)
# Working Man's Café
# Morphine Song
# One More Time
# Come Dancing
# 20th Century Man
# Celluloid Heroes
# Tired Of Waiting
# All Day And All Of The Night
# Dedicated Follower Of Fashion (with The Crouch End Festival Chorus)
# Days (with The Crouch End Festival Chorus)
# Shangri-La (with The Crouch End Festival Chorus)
# Waterloo Sunset (with The Crouch End Festival Chorus)
# Lola
# Imaginary Man
# You Really Got Me