Noel Gallagher, Damon Albarn & Graham Coxon - Royal Albert Hall

Coming up on our last week living in London - Kimbo and I were very excited to score tickets to this quintessential Brit-pop line-up, part of the annual benefit concerts to support Teenage Cancer Trust.
We've been to shows at The Royal Albert Hall before and it is a truly spectacular venue. Great sound, incredible views, and just a spectacular building dripping with history.
Tonight kicked off with a very short 25 minute set from ex-Super Furry Animals frontman Gruff Rhys, performing solo on acoustic guitar occasionally accompanied by metronome.
Damon and Graham from Blur opened with a cover in tribute to recently deceased English psych-folkie Kevin Ayres "May I". Next up they were joined by Paul Weller, for some very experimental free-form jamming behind English "Beat laureate" Michael Horovitz. The combo have recently been recording an album together, so used the evening to premiere first single "Ballade of the Norturnal Commune" and a new untitled piece composed specifically for the evening. It's fair to say the crowd response was fairly mixed to the experimental material - not exactly my cup of tea usually - but it was interesting to see seasoned musicians like Weller, Albarn and Coxon letting their hair down and clearly relishing trying something new. Seemingly to appease the audience expectations of Blur / Oasis burying the hatchet on their long running feud - Weller switched to drums, and Noel Gallagher joined on acoustic guitar and backing vocals, as the very impressive supergroup busked their way through Blur's "Tender".

After a short break, Noel Gallagher and his High Flying Birds took the stage for a storming run through his great solo debut plus some Oasis classics, and even a few deep cuts like b-side "Shout it Out Loud".
Full Setlist:

Damon Albarn & Graham Coxon:

1. May I (Kevin Ayers cover)

2. Ballade of the Nocturnal Commune  (with Paul Weller and Michael Horovitz)

3. Untitled (with Paul Weller and Michael Horovitz)

4. Tender (with Noel Gallagher and Paul Weller)

Noel Gallagher's High Flying Birds:

1. (It's Good) To Be Free 

2. Everybody's on the Run 

3. Dream On 

4. If I Had a Gun... 

5. Fade Away 

6. The Death of You and Me 

7. Freaky Teeth 

8. Wonderwall 

9. Supersonic 

10. (I Wanna Live in a Dream in My) Record Machine 

11. AKA... What a Life! 

12. Lord Don't Slow Me Down 

13. Alone on the Rope  (First Time Live)

14. Half the World Away 

15. AKA... Broken Arrow 

16. A Simple Game of Genius 

17. (Stranded On) The Wrong Beach 

Encore:

18. Shout It Out Loud 

19. Digsy's Dinner 

20. Don't Look Back in Anger

Eels - Brixton Academy

Again another completely different setup for The Eels latest tour - after solo, duo, strings, orchestra, this time around we got stripped back guitar based rock and roll that saw erstwhile Eels leader E joined by longtime drummer Knuckles, Honest Al on bass, guitarist The Chet, and P-Boo also on guitar.

As expected with a very heavy three guitar line-up the performances tending towards a more blues rock approach, well suited to material from the latest album 'Wonderful, Glorious', including the opening trio of "Bombs Away", "Kinda Fuzzy" and "Open My Present". The surprise cover of (early) Fleetwood Mac's "Oh Well" perfectly suited the blues rock approach. With such a diverse back catalog the change in style provides opportunities to revisit some different old songs, in this case "The Sound Of Fear" and a reworked "Fresh Feeling".

The band also looked great in matching dark blue Adidas track suits (with road crew designated by light brown track suits) while E has adopted a less curmudgeonly and more charming persona for this tour that saw him reward good performances from band members with hugs. He even took the opportunity to "renew his vows" with guitarist The Chet as this tour marks their tenth anniversary of "rocking the globe".

E continued his trend of defying traditional rock show expectations by playing around with the encores - firstly combining two of their biggest hits "My Beloved Monster" and "Mr Es Beautiful Blues" into a mash-up as they allegedly only had time for one more song (several encores followed). The nights final encore really tested the patience of long term fans, with the band waiting 15 mins after house lights and music had come on, complete with road crew packing up the stage, to return for "Dog Faced Boy" and the bands self penned theme song "Go Eels".

Full setlist:
1. Bombs Away
2. Kinda Fuzzy
3. Open my present
4. Oh Well (Fleetwood Mac cover)
5. Tremendous dynamite
6. In my dreams
7. On the ropes
8. Peach Blossom
9. Prize fighter
10. The Turnaround
11. New Alphabet
12. Fresh Feeling
13. Sound of Fear
14. band intros. E and Chet renewing their "vows" while Knuckles sang Wind Beneath My Wings
15 Go Knuckles
16. Itchykoo Park (Small Faces)
17. Soul jacker Part 1
18. Wonderful Glorious

19. I'm Your Brave Little Soldier
20. My Beloved Monster / Mr Es Beautiful Blues

21. Fresh Blood

22. Dog Faced boy
23. Go Eels

Billy Bragg - Rough Trade Records

Justin and I caught a great short (and free) early Sunday night show from Billy Bragg at Rough Trade East to launch his new CD 'Tooth & Nail'.
Just Braggy solo on acoustic guitar it was great to hear a few old classics like show opener "Sexuality", and slowed down "Greetings To The New Brunette", and a show closing "Waiting for the Great Leap Forwards". In recognition of St Patricks Day, Billy also threw in a good cover of "Raglan Road".
Of course being a launch for his new album the show featured essentially the first four songs from the record: "Nobody Knows Nothing Anymore", "Handyman Blues", the delicate "January Song", and a cover of Woody Guthrie's "I Ain't Got No Home" which features on the new album.
Despite being admittedly jet lag sleep-deprived - Bragg mentioned he went to sleep in Austin Texas, woke up in London, and his next show on Wednesday is in Denver Colorado - Billy was in great voice and the new record sounds like a great return to matters of the heart.