Jill Scott draws the VIPs to Somerset House

9th/10th July – Somerset House Summer Series presented by American Express: Jill Scott supported by Daley

For the first year two acts will play two nights each in the Somerset House Summer Series – Jill Scott’s two gigs where in the original schedule – Paloma Faith’s second gig was added shortly after the first one sold out so quickly. Judging by the fact that more than an hour before both nights of Jill’s shows a large proportion of the audience where queuing outside this was a good decision – those there on Monday night got treated to a prolonged sound check that almost sounded like a full rehearsal, rather than a simple check of the levels…

The first night also attracted the VIPs – with Lewis Hamilton tweeting a picture from the gig and Perez Hilton, Joss Stone and Misha B amongst the music glitterati in attendance

From Jill Scott 2012 (Monday) (Somerset House)

Opening for Jill on both nights was Daley – whom I’d last seen supporting Emeli Sande at the Borderline for HMV Next Big Thing – he certainly gets to precede some special acts on stage. On both night the audience warmed to his sound – his British take on soul was a great warm up for the Philly version that was the main act – he even made a cameo appearance on the second night during the commercial intermission for “Ball Fresh”.

From Jill Scott 2012 (Monday) (Somerset House)

Jill Scott brought on stage with here a very talented 10 piece band including amongst them “the pipes” – between them they gave her incredible voice the backing it deserved, At some points the performance became almost operatic - very appropriate for the surroundings.

As promised on the first night – if you wanted to see a costume change then you needed to come to another Jill Scott gig – not that her look didn’t change – including at times a wig and a variety gazelles (glasses) – one pair refused to play ball – steaming up on both nights in the damp conditions under the heat of the stage lights. The performances on both nights brought the courtyard in Somerset House to life – mixing soul, poetry, and a sexy sense of humour.

Sunday mini festival at Somerset House

8th July – Somerset House Summer Series presented by American Express with What Next Live: Katy B supported by Devlin, Ms Dynamite and P Money and What Next Live – including Kimmy Reader, Rhea Dean and Tom Prior

Regularly giving an opportunity on one of the Sunday’s of the series for up and coming acts to take to the stage is a great innovation that Somerset House continues to provide – this year three of the act from What Next Live shone out – Kimmy Reader, Rhea Dean or Tom Prior could easily have been “headline support acts” – maybe it is time for a slight change to the presentation of these acts and simply put them on as support acts for some of the nights of the series. I’ll be looking out for and looking forward to when these acts perform again.

Katy B brought the acts from her 2011 headline tour with her to Somerset House for her only headline show of the year. I’ve never been sure if a DJ based set works in the classical surroundings of Somerset House – and P Money definitely struggled to keep up the atmosphere that the What Next acts had built up – his act had worked in an enclosed space – but in the daylight, in an open space it seamed not to fill the space sufficiently.

From Katy B 2012 (Somerset House)

From Katy B 2012 (Somerset House)

When Ms Dynamite took to the stage the energy levels lifted – it was still rather strange to be experiencing this in the open air before the dark had fallen. The large separation between the audience and the stage also wasn’t helping

Devlin's addition of instruments in the form of a full band to the stage took the show up a further level.

From Katy B 2012 (Somerset House)

From Katy B 2012 (Somerset House)

The sun had set by the time Katy B took to the stage, that allowed the light show on the stage to have a bigger impact, and with the venue now full the atmosphere was approaching a club – or as close as you can get surrounded by the 18th century architecture of Somerset House. A cover of the Eurythmics Sweet Dreams stood out in a set that ranged from Katy’s better known dance tracks to slower ballads showing there is more to her than just dubstep. The 11pm curfew came far too early – and closing with Lights On seamed very appropriate as the house lights shortly followed, but the audience didn’t want to leave.

Tim Minchin – Comedy night opens Somerset House Summer Series

7th July 2012 – Somerset House Summer Series presented by American Express: Tim Minchin supported by Harry Oakwood Millionaire

This will be the third year when I’ve chosen to try and get tickets to the entire series of summer gigs at Somerset House – even with access to pre-sales Tim' Minchin’s gig was already sold out! Having previously seen Tim at the Apple Cart festival in 2011, I choose to resort to GetMeIN to complete my set of tickets – and by waiting until a week or so before the event I didn’t have to pay a significant premium. It would be nice if Somerset House would consider a “season ticket” to their series of gigs – there won’t be may people that would be looking to attend all of the events given they are drawn from a wide range of musical genres – but there would be some and it might assist in filling the audience for the less main stream acts.

From Tim Minchin 2012 (Somerset House)

Finding a support act to complement Tim Minchin irreverent act was always going to be challenging – Tim selected Harry Oakwood Millionaire to fill the role having heard them himself. They did just justice to his selection – their guitar based sound reminded me of early Beatles.

By the time Tim took to the stage the miserable British summer had started to let the enthusiastic crowd down – causing umbrellas to be produced – there property of being mainly opaque generating an off the cuff line of comedy from Tim – that quickly encouraged their owners to take them down and brave the light rain without their protection. After the distraction of the easy target of the weather Tim was soon back in good form with his comedy based around a series of very clever songs – it quickly became clear Tim may have “calmed down” his set for the “family friendly” Apple Cart festival – it was certainly brave for Jonathan Ross to have invited him on to his show – a pity ITV hadn’t had the courage to go ahead with his inclusion in the show that actually went out – all the targets of Tim’s comedy are valid and his clever use of word play and innuendo highlights many serious issues.

This was a great start to the series of gigs – opening with the “comedy night”, missing from the series last year but represented the previous year by Neil Hannon in his solo performance as Divine Comedy was a brave move – I hope a comedy themed night becomes a regular in the series going forward.

Return from Round the World adventure

I’ve been rather remiss in updating my blogs over the last 10 weeks or so… The reason has been my round the world adventure that has been the source of 20,000+ pictures that need proofing, and copious notes that will form the basis for many back dated entries in the coming weeks – and hopefully not months…. If you are reading this in June 2012 then hopefully there will be lots of posts that you’ve read illustrated by images of some of the sights I’ve enjoyed….

To give you a taster images from the start and end of my journey…..

Warming the freezing nights with great vocals

2nd February 2012 - HMV Next Big Thing 2012: Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny supported by Kyla La Grange and Olfar

Having been spoilt for choose, my first HMV NBT gig was Upstairs at The Garage – once initial confusion about the correct queue for the upstairs gig, rather than large downstairs gig in the same series - Reckless Love supported by Jettblack and The Treatment, we where allowed in, out of the freezing cold, as winter finally arrived – the perfect excuse for spending nights listening to live music…

From HMV NBT - Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny, Kyla La Grange, and Olfar

Olfar opened the night – playing without their backing band The Feral Pets – as a duet they gently warmed up the venue with a set that was more folky than their current album – available for the recession busting price of £1 from www.olfar.co.uk – great value – especially as you can listen before you commit to the download… It was a true duet – each member contributed to a great vocals to the opening of the NBT series…

The pace was then picked up by Kyla La Grange, cramming her backing band on to the ridiculously small stage. They then filled the small venue with a large sound – yet another slight British female vocalist with a surprisingly large voice. The highlight of the set, for me, was when Kyla forwent her guitar and let her vocals drive Vampire’s Smile. The set could do with the addition of a couple of more upbeat tracks as the theme is generally down beat – possibly a cover or two I’m sure Kyla’s voice would do the authors proud.

The set change before Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny could make the small stage their own had me trying to think of a “how many people does it take to” joke that was appropriate! I always look forward to bands that diverge from the standard – two or three guitars, keys and a drummer – the Hooves brought to the musical sound stage a violin and trumpet – always good additions to the standard formula. Taking the vocals up a couple of registers from Kyla, Beth has visual hints of Gwen Stefani and isn’t vocally dissimilar – less pop more rock. Taking technical problems in her stride – her music held its own – the jokes used as fillers while she fixed her guitar didn’t! The bands debut album launched on 6th February – one look out for…

HMV may be struggling to make a success of selling recorded music – but they can clearly select good live acts and promote them well – the venue appeared to be sold out – not something that happens easily on a freezing Thursday – especially since they themselves where providing alternatives at so many venues…

Set Lists

Beth Jeans Houghton & The Hooves of Destiny	Kyla La Grange
Atlas Dodecahedron Your Holes Night Swimmer Lilliput Humble Digs (Super Cunt) Telephone Return STB (Medley)	Been Better Courage To Be Torn Sympathy Vampire Smile Lambs Catalyst