Annie Lennox - 20th October 2010 at the Roundhouse

I saw Annie Lennox last month, so this is a teeny bit old but I thought you might still like to read about her performance because... well, it’s Annie!

Annie was the headliner for this concert raising money and awareness for the HIV charity Body & Soul. It was also in memoriam to Dame Anita Roddick, one of the founding patrons of the charity. Fittingly as a friend of Anita’s, Annie was introduced by Sam Roddick who claimed each time she heard Annie sing she felt like she was having an orgasm... well that's an introduction! 

Annie entered wearing a t-shirt bearing the logo "HIV Positive" (though she isn't she said, but has been tested) and began a stripped down performance, just her and a grand piano. That was all it needed, it was a warm and affecting set, but sadly a mere 30 mins long as she was but one in a lineup of 5 performers that eve. Her voice sounded just as I had hoped, strong and soaring and she performed five hits, two covers and a new song from her upcoming album, A Christmas Cornucopia. This is a slow ballad penned by Annie herself and is currently being promoted to raise money for her own HIV/AIDS charity SING which works to educate and support women and children with the disease in Africa. 

I think the most enjoyable part of the evening was just how much Annie wanted the crowd to get involved with her, she encouraged us to sing and clap along with her and talked to us like old friends. 

All in all, a great set of songs, performed beautifully and and a top feel good evening for a worthy cause. 

4.5/5

Setlist:
1. Many Rivers To Cross
2. No More I Love You’s
3. Pavement Cracks
4. Universal Child
5. Little Bird
6. There Must Be An Angel
7. Stand By Me
8. Sweet Dreams (encore)

Linkin Park - O2 Arena - 10th November 2010

Linkin Park are touring their new album A Thousand Suns and I saw 

them perform from well... where you are supposed to, just in front of the mosh-pit of jumping, swirling, sweaty bodies... just in front, being a lady and all!

Linkin Park came to success in the year 2000 with their debut album Hybrid Theory and back then their sound was a combination of nu-metal rap, Chester Bennington and Mike Shinoda interspersing screaming and heartfelt vocals and rap respectively. The lyics then were centred mostly on personal relationships and the angst associated with them. Over the following three albums the lyrics have become more socially and politically aware, they've grown up!

Fittingly the members of Linkin Park entered with the chilling introduction from the new album The Requiem reverberating around the arena. A robotic (female) voice pleads "God save us everyone, will we burn inside the fires of a thousand suns?" An environmental or nuclear power message perhaps? This is followed with Wretches and Kings (also from the new album) a heavy and industrial sounding track that asks us to consider a social machine where "the people up top push the people down low, fists start pumping and we're away!


With the tone set, the band moved backwards and forwards through the highlights of 10 years of their music, interweaving the angry more hardcore-sounding tracks with the beautiful ballads that showed off Chester's amazing vocal ability. There wasn't a lot of banter from the two frontmen, a few hello's and thank you's but as their songs were delivered with passion and energy I didn't find myself looking for that extra bit of personality, which I often find myself wanting at a live gig.

This was the second time I have seen Linkin Park and I am pleased to say this performance lived up to my expectations. Linkin Park respect their fans by performing a variety of songs from all of their albums, which seems like a no-brainer - but sadly I have been to more than one gig where the 'talent' seem to forget they are performing for their paying fans and not for themselves.

4.5/5
 
  Set list:

1. The Requiem 
2. Wretches and Kings
3. Papercut 
4. Given Up 
5. New Divide 
6. Faint 
7. Empty Spaces 
8. When They Come for Me 
9. No More Sorrow
10. Jornada del Muerto 
11. Waiting For The End
12. Wisdom, Justice, and Love 
13. Iridescent
14. Numb 
15. The Radiance 
16. Breaking The Habit 
17. Shadow Of The Day 
18. Crawling 
19. One Step Closer
    
    Encore:
     
20. Fallout 
21. The Catalyst
22. The Messenger 
23. In The End 
24. What I've Done 
25. Bleed It Out 

Russell Howard: Right Here, Right Now - Work In Progress

Russell Howard... booked to tour many of the UK's larger entertainment arenas next year has begun testing out material for the show Right Here, Right Now on smaller audiences. Why anyone pays good money to see stand-up comedians in such big arenas like the O2 is beyond me. Surely the appeal is being able to see the nuances of a comedian's delivery with the naked eye! So I opted instead to see Russell at the intimate Riverside Studios in Hammersmith.

Russell Howard's Good News programme is BBC Three's most successful studio show and he is also a regular panelist on the BBC's Mock the Week. I wanted to know if Russell would come across as well on stage as he does on television, without a team of researchers, producers and the luxury of a final edit.

Russell limped onto stage, and told us it was football injury from that day. I would have liked him to share a little more about this, worked it into his introduction, particularly as his style tends to come from stories from his life. Perhaps that's just me being nosey but I think it's nice to feel like you've been privvy to something slightly different, as a member of an audience on a particular night.

Without giving too much away, a little of his routine shared with us the putting off of a household task his girlfriend had repeatedly asked of him because he was supporting the plight of another, about his struggle to find a suitable holiday companion and also introduced us to the concept of a danger wank! Sorry it'd be wrong to give the answer to that away... wouldn't it?!

Russell interacted well with the audience, his dirty and risque material (also favoured on his TV show) is difficult to find offensive when it is delivered with such an air of goofiness. He is the kind of bloke you could see yourself being mates with, having a beer with down the pub, but one that always likes to take the joke just that little bit further... but *just* gets away with it. 

To finish off the show, Russell asked if anyone in the audience had any questions. One plucky girl asked for a hug. Like a true media pro Russell skirted around this one by telling us how it feels flattering but a little odd when random people, even in his local supermarket, ask him for a hug. No hug for the girl then!

Then a 16-year-old boy piped up 'can you give me a thumb wrestle?' Russell on his unsteady, injured leg, took on the boy in a best of three and after the amusing tussle took the victory, celebrating with a hobbled victory lap.

3/5

You can see the work in progress for Right Here, Right Now in December at Kings Place Gallery (Kings Cross) before it goes national next year.
http://www.russell-howard.co.uk/tour-dates