Preview of Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott in the Shropshire Star on 28 November 2014

Heaton & Abbott reunite for sold out tour

When the former singer of the Housemartins and the Beautiful South bought the lease on the Kings Arms in Salford three years ago, it was something of a vocation for him, having completed two tours of British pubs by bicycle in the last four years aimed at raising the profile of the traditional boozer.

Heaton’s 800-mile Pedals and Beer Pumps trek took in the Horseshoe pub in Ratlinghope, while the 50/50 tour, his 2,500-mile slog to all corners of the British Isles in 2012 to celebrate turning 50, called in at Welshpool. Heaton’s latest tour—employing more conventional transport this time—sees him musically reunited with one-time Beautiful South singer, Jacqui Abbott.

Heaton and Abbott’s album, What Have We Become, released in May, is a collection of catchy numbers, with thought-provoking lyrics infused with not a little humour, and Abbott’s vocals are as good as they ever were on Beautiful South tunes like “Rotterdam (Or Anywhere),” “Don’t Marry Her” or “Perfect Ten,” especially on the single taken from the album, “D.I.Y.”

Abbott’s singing career with Heaton goes back 20 years, when she replaced the Beautiful South’s first female vocalist, Briana Corrigan, for the album Miaow. Abbott’s spell as vocalist coincided with the group’s most successful period. Blue Is The Colour and Quench both hit top spot in the UK album chart, and stadium shows attracted large crowds to Crystal Palace and Huddersfield in 1997.

Following the release of Painting It Red in 2000, Abbott left the band to care for her son, who had been diagnosed with autism, but more than a decade later, the St. Helens native hooked up with Heaton again on his concept album based on the Deadly Sins, The 8th, as she told Nick Hasted in an interview for The Independent newspaper earlier this year.

“The first time I saw him again was outside the King’s Arms, and it had been 10 and a half years. We were both really nervous. The minute we did The 8th, I really lamented how much I’d missed singing and performing and being around everybody. I didn’t realise until I did it again. I felt sad, really, because I thought, ‘Why did I leave it so long?’ But it was the best thing for my son at the time.

“Then Paul said, ‘What do you think about doing another album together?’ I was doing other things—volunteering—and I’d just started as a teaching assistant, but I thought it’d be great,” she said.

Heaton welcomed the reunion with his former singing partner, as he explained on the new album’s website, www.whathavewebecome.net.

"I always wrote songs with Jacqui in mind. When I first heard her sing, I almost laughed because it was so right for the songs," adding that there was a feeling of inevitability about linking up with Abbott.

"Working with Jacqui again was like going into your garage and discovering a beautiful covered up Rolls Royce that hadn't been started in years. Jacqui is one of the best singers I've worked with and is also part of my past. It was only a matter of time before I asked her,” he said.

And if What Have We Become is a sign of things to come, quite a few music fans will be hoping that the sound of any time bells being rung are confined to the public bar of the Kings Arms.

Paul Heaton & Jacqui Abbott at the Civic Hall, Wolverhampton (28 November). See www.wolvescivic.co.uk for details

Preview of John Cooper Clarke at Birmingham Town Hall in the Shropshire Star on Friday 17 October 2014

Punk poetry

With his mop of black hair, dark glasses, spindly legs, ill-fitting suit and caustic wit, John Cooper Clarke has been an unforgettable sight on the music and poetry scene for the past 35 years or so.
Known as the Bard of Salford, Cooper Clarke was a familiar sight on stages during the punk era, where his observations on everyday life demonstrated that spoken word performances could be pithy, moving and, most of all, extremely funny.

His influence on pop culture has been immense, with Alex Turner of the Arctic Monkeys citing him as a huge
inspiration, and film maker Plan B casting him in his film Ill Manors.

On TV, Cooper Clarke’s poem Evidently Chickentown was used in the penultimate closing scene of The Sopranos, while his dulcet tones can be heard voicing a commercial for oven chips.

Cooper Clarke’s recorded output is limited to five albums released between 1978 and 1982, with 1980’s Snap, Crackle and Bop making it into the Top 20 of the album chart.

John Cooper Clarke is at the Town Hall, Birmingham, on Thursday.

By Stephen Taylor

Preview of Martin Stephenson at Henry Tudor House, Shrewsbury, in Shropshire Star on Friday 12 September 2014

Stephenson goes solo

On the day voters north of the border decide in the Scottish Independence Referendum, Martin Stephenson, born in north-east England and resident of Invergordon for almost 20 years, will be on stage in Shrewsbury, but thinking about which way the voting goes.

“I can understand why the Scottish hate Westminster, ‘cause it’s like daddy’s got the car keys, they just want to have a little run on their own. I love the Scottish and I really want the best for the country.”
 
As lead singer of Martin Stephenson and the Daintees in the 1980s and early 90s, the band released four albums that forced their way into the hearts and minds of all who heard them, before Stephenson embarked on a solo career that has spawned dozens of albums over the past 20 years.
 
His show in Shrewsbury, like his date in Birmingham two days earlier, will be a solo gig.

Martin Stephenson will be at the Hare and Hounds, Birmingham (September 16 ) and Henry Tudor House,
Shrewsbury (September 18).

By Stephen Taylor

Preview of Burt Bacharach at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham, in Shropshire Star on Friday 25 July 2014

Bacharach is back for a nostalgic show

Musicians don’t often apologise in mid-concert when they make mistakes, especially when they’ve just played a new tune. But that is exactly what Burt Bacharach does when he gets it wrong.

After more than 50 years in the music business, Bacharach’s need for perfection was summed up in this one gesture, which I witnessed during a relatively recent gig.He absolved the orchestra of any blame, while admitting a mistake that none of the audience probably even noticed.

Yet it is this perfectionist streak that has made a large contribution to Bacharach’s creative process and, without it, the nation’s record collections would be missing some classic tunes.

Bacharach had his first chart successes in 1958 with lyricist Hal David, resulting in hits for Perry Como’s ‘Magic Moments’ and ‘The Story Of My Life’ by Marty Robbins. The next five years would see a string of hits emanating from the Bacharach and David partnership, including standards such as Gene Pitney’s ‘Twenty Four Hours From Tulsa’ and Cilla Black’s ‘Anyone Who Had A Heart.’

This was only the start of the duo’s stellar repertoire, with Dionne Warwick securing a couple of Top 10 hits with ‘Walk On By’ and ‘Do You Know The Way To San Jose,’ while Cilla Black repeated the feat with the theme from the film ‘Alfie’ in 1966.

Bacharach’s involvement in the movies goes back to 1958 when, with lyricist Mack (brother of Hal) David, he wrote the theme for the Steve McQueen film, The Blob, before composing the soundtrack for What’s New Pussycat in 1965, after the original choices, Dudley Moore, followed by John Williams (later to compose the theme for Star Wars, amongst many other tunes) each, in turn, dropped out of the running for the job.

With the title track of What’s New Pussycat a hit for Tom Jones, Bacharach followed up with the soundtrack for the James Bond movie, Casino Royale, in 1967, featuring the ‘The Look Of Love,’ a Billboard Hot 100 hit for Dusty Springfield in the US but, for some reason, released as the B-side of ‘Give Me Time’ in the UK.

Bacharach ended the decade by writing the soundtrack for the film, Butch Cassidy and The Sundance Kid, including arguably his most popular song, and one of the few numbers that he has been known to croon on stage, ‘Raindrops Keep Falling On My Head, ’though ‘Say A Little Prayer’ would certainly run it pretty close. More recently, cameo appearances in all three Austin Powers movies in the late 1990s and early 2000s introduced Bacharach to a younger audience.

The Bacharach and David song writing partnership effectively ended in 1973, but since then, the 86-year-old Bacharach has not been short of offers from lyricists, none more so than his third wife, Carole Bayer Sager, with whom he wrote the Oscar-winning ‘Arthur’s Theme (Best That You Can Do)’ for the film Arthur, in 1981, and, four years later, Dionne Warwick’s last UK hit, ‘That’s What Friends Are For.’
 
In the 1990s, Bacharach hooked up with Elvis Costello to record the 1998 album Painted From Memory, while his 2005 solo album, At This Time, proved that Bacharach was more than capable of penning his own lyrics while, at the same time, notching up another Grammy Award for good measure.

The word ‘legend’ gets bandied around rather too easily in these celebrity-dominated times but, after more than half a century of composing some of the catchiest tunes you’re ever likely to hear, Burt Bacharach is possibly the closest living embodiment of the word.

Burt Bacharach at the Symphony Hall, Birmingham on Monday.
See www.thsh.co.uk for booking details




By Stephen Taylor

Review of Graham Parker and the Rumour at the Academy 3, Birmingham, on 31 May 2014, for Native Monster website.

REVIEW OF GRAHAM PARKER AND THE RUMOUR AT O2 ACADEMY 2, BIRMINGHAM, ON 31 MAY 2014, FOR THE SHROPSHIRE STAR/EXPRESS & STAR

The last time Graham Parker and the Rumour played a concert in Birmingham, Margaret Thatcher was still the Leader of the Opposition and Trevor Francis had just become the first

£1 million footballer.

On Saturday night, a packed crowd at the O2 Academy 2 welcomed the six-piece back to Birmingham and were not disappointed, as Parker and his band reminded the audience of what they’d been missing for more than thirty-five years.

Half the band might be bald these days and the other half greying, but the chemistry between the members is still there, resulting in a tight unit that must rank up there with the E Street Band and the Blockheads as one of the most cohesive backing bands you’re ever likely to see.

With half the set drawn from the group’s debut album, Howlin’ Wind, and Squeezing Out Sparks-- widely regarded as the band’s best release -- this was a glorious trip down memory lane for the mainly middle-aged audience, so it was something of a surprise to hear a new song, “Wall of Grace,” that promises much for the new album that GP and the Rumour recently finished recording in London.

Parker cuts a charismatic figure on stage, and the Rumour provide a perfect complement to his soulful vocals. For this reviewer, guitarist Brinsley Schwarz was on fine form, particularly on “Love Gets You Twisted” and “Nobody Hurts You,” during which he made amazing excursions up and down the fret board.

After almost two hours on stage, the band were called back for two encores, with the final number, a blistering version of “Soul Shoes,” sending the audience away with the hope that a follow-up to the group’s reunion album, Three Chords Good, will see Graham Parker and the Rumour return to Birmingham in the very near future.

Stephen Taylor