The Wedding Present, Concorde 2, Brighton, 23 & 24 August 2014

At Glastonbury Michael Eavis has to worry about whether the cows have been milked.  Down in Brighton at the sixth At The Edge Of The Sea festival David Gedge has to deal with punters' gripes about the lack of food ('there's a cafe literally just across the road') and make sure drummer Charlie Layton's Wedding Present Bingo ('like ordinary bingo but with Wedding Present songs instead of numbers') doesn't eat into valuable sound check time.  The musician turned festival organiser also finds time to raffle off test pressings of George Best and Kennedy, aided by his Dad and by partner Jessica.  And on top of all that he has to perform four times, twice each with Cinerama and The Wedding Present, who open and close each day.

The annual gathering of Wedding Present connected performers (formed from musicians Gedge has worked with or admires) now spreads over two days and this year drew acts from France, Turkey, Germany and - Yorkshire.  With appearances by Art Brut, The Membranes, Black Light Ray and Emma Pollock, who accompanies Gedge on vocals on two songs on Sunday's This Is Cinerama performance, there was a wide variety of acts to choose from.

But the aficionados were here to see the two 60 minute sets by The Wedding Present (most of the crowd had bought a two day ticket) and by the time the headliners were due to come on to close proceedings both evenings the atmosphere was heavy with anticipation.  Saturday night saw a performance of the 'lost' Wedding Present album Watusi plus Nobody's Twisting Your Arm, Brassneck and Flying Saucer while Sunday featured a reprise of the 1996 EP Mini, with a thunderous Go Man Go and a delightful Sports Car, followed by a fiery Kennedy and the rare delight of a new song (Secretary).  Backed by Charlie Layton (threatened with the sack for garnering too much applause), guitarist Samuel Beer-Pearce, bass player Katharine Wallinger and keyboard player Danielle Wadey, this brace of performances left the crowd calling for more.

The Wedding Present will be touring Watusi in the autumn.  At The Edge Of The Sea will be back in 2015, replete with Wedding Present bingo.  So will the faithful.

Difford & Tilbrook, Brewery Arts Centre, Kendal, 15 July 2014

If Difford & Tilbrook were a bowling partnership you'd want them opening the attack for the England cricket team. Song after song that they played at the Brewery Arts Centre in Kendal was a hit they'd written for 80s chart fixtures Squeeze and each was absolutely on target.

Their on-off relationship over the years (when Glenn left mid way through the first half of the set with two of Chris's guitars it wasn't clear whether he - or the guitars - were coming back) adds a piquancy to their sharing a stage. But tonight it's definitely all smiles, with a freshly shaven Glenn (courtesy of the Turkish barber round the corner) and a neatly dressed Chris stripping their vast collection of aural vignettes back to their acoustic bones and giving the audience a reminder of why they were once tagged the new Lennon & McCartney.

Sharing tales of their early days gave the back story to some of the songs, and Difford's explanation of why he bought a toy train set (to transport from one side of the room to the other a joint he was sharing) had the audience laughing out loud.

But it was the songs, mainly backed by their two acoustic guitars but with the odd twist of electric from Glenn, that this crowd had come to hear and that means they will remember this gig for many months to come. New arrangements were brought to old classics, from Take Me I'm Yours to Black Coffee in Bed and Pulling Mussels From A Shell and including their biggest hits Labelled With Love and Up The Junction, reminding us that Difford was the lyricist of his generation par excellence and that Tilbrook could write a melody to bring those words alive in song.  And whilst the charts may be a distant memory, Chris said they had been writing together again for the past two or three years so there's hope for the future, pop pickers.

The England bowling attack isn't what it used to be. And the pop charts are a much duller place these days without this pair of pop maestros.

Elvis Costello, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester, 14 July 2014

Elvis Costello played a two and a half hour concert at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall with a set that ran the entire span of his career, from Poison Moon (the first song of his he ever heard on the radio - he had to turn the lights off in the house while he listened because he was so embarrassed) to three new songs he has yet to record, including one of more than 40 he has recently written with Burt Bacarach.

In between he gave the not quite sold out auditorium (Q. What have the people of Manchester got to do that's more important than seeing Elvis in concert?) a run down of his hits from Alison to Veronica that reminded everyone present just how many times he has graced the top 40 in a career spanning more than 35 years.

Bob Geldof once complained how difficult he found it to write songs whilst Costello seemed able to write three before breakfast, a point underlined when Elvis announced that he was going to play a song he hated and which he'd written in ten minutes as a joke, but which had gone on to become a hit ('but not a big one').  Everyday I Write The Book was greeted suitably warmly by the audience.

As well as the hits, there was some gristle for fans to chew on, including album tracks such as B Movie, Beyond Belief and Mouth Almighty and the rarely played Dr Luther's Assistant.  Highlights were New Amsterdam spliced with a chunk of Lennon's You've Got To Hide Your Love Away and Jimmie Standing In The Rain, which Costello finishes unmiked and standing at the lip of the stage, his voice booming out into the auditorium.

With his fedora, waistcoat and smart suit Costello looks every inch the vaudevillian entertainer that his 2013 Spinning Songbook gigs cast him as.  Had he been born a hundred years ago he would have been on the cruise ships like his grandfather before him.  As it is, he's here now - a walking human juke box who can respond to an audience shout out for My Three Sons or The Angels Wanna Wear My Red Shoes without breaking stride - and we are lucky to have him.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse, Liverpool Echo Arena, 13 July 2014

Neil Young and Crazy Horse started their set at the Liverpool Echo Arena with a 15 minute rendition of Love And Only Love and finished it with a 15 minute and  feedback drenched Like A Hurricane, with Young beating out the rhythm on his guitar fretboard, all six strings broken.

In between the band went through its back catalogue, with songs from Zuma (Don't Cry No Tears and Barstool Blues) to 2013's Psychedelic Pill plus a song getting its first ever airing on this tour (Who's Gonna Stand Up And Save The Earth).

Young plays with an energy more befitting a man half his age, subjecting his guitars to a series of violent assaults as he does everything he can to extricate maximum volume from them.

The only times he is not trying to turn the volume up to 11 are when he plays either his semi acoustic (on a beautiful Don't Cry No Tears) or his acoustic (for a haunting Blowin' In The Wind, which he introduces as 'one of the best songs ever written').  An equally exquisite Heart of Gold follows, with the crowd singing along.

Young is one of rock's famous curmudgeons, but Grumpy Neil is left in the dressing room tonight, with Cheery Neil all smiles and willing to talk to the audience ('Liverpool is full of hard working people ... who like to go for a beer'), joking with his band and talking to the American Indian statue that is stood stage left overseeing proceedings.

Young is not averse to rewriting a song, and The Way Things Used To Be is abruptly sliced in two and ends with a refrain of 'don't rock the boat'.  The backing singers employed to fill out the vocals are kept occupied throughout the set.

It's a two hour sonic assault on the senses by a band that had to cancel last year's planned Liverpool gig because Frank 'Poncho' Sampedro broke his hand. The rescheduled concert is minus bassist Billy Talbot, who was recovering from a minor stroke.  Young himself suffered an aneurysm in 2005, which has seen him working harder than ever.  This is a band that is still a musical force of nature, but time is catching up with its members.

Elton John, Leigh Sports Village, 21 June 2014

The term 'rock royalty' is bandied about far too casually.  The brothers Gallagher?  Ha!  Robbie Williams?  I don't think so.

The truth is that if the Queen were to abdicate and go outside the family when looking to anoint a successor, she'd probably start with Sir Elton John and - unlike the appointment of the England football manager or the election of a new Prime Minister - the country would to a man and woman sit back in their armchairs and say 'good choice, Ma'am'.  Elton is an all round good guy who pays his taxes, after all.

It took Elton just eight minutes to leave Leigh in his helicopter after stepping off the stage at the inaugural Sports Village concert. But whilst he might have been in a hurry to depart this corner of Lancashire (to be fair, he did have a gig in Switzerland the following day), for the two and a half hours that he graced the stage he brought more than a touch of showbiz glamour to a town that has a bit of a chip on its shoulder about being the little cousin to its neighbour Wigan and nothing much to boast about apart from the accolade of being the biggest town in England without a railway station.

And Elton was suitably gushing about Leigh (he'd rather play there than Manchester Arena) and suitably blokeish about the World Cup (comments about FIFA being corrupt and 'a bunch of c***s') to endear himself to anyone who came along to this gig doubting whether one of the country's great pop icons was worth shelling out £80 for.

In truth there were very few doubters even before the Top Ten hits started flowing, and none by the end.  The mainly female crowd (who invaded the gents toilets around the stadium pre gig because of the imbalance in lavatory facilities - note to promoters of this first ever gig at the Sports Village: get this sorted if you're putting on any more concerts here) were dressed up in their finery or in fancy dress - sometimes it was hard to differentiate - and had come to party.

So the bar staff were kept busy, the stewards were unable to stop the aisles from filling with drunken revellers (at one point they spent several minutes trying to get the woman behind me to sit down, without success) and Elton reminded everyone that only Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Jagger & Richards can match him when it comes determining the roll call of England's greatest living pop songwriters (with lyricist Bernie Taupin, that is).

From Candle In The Wind, The Bitch Is Back and Rocket Man through to I Guess That's Why They Call It The Blues, Sorry Seems To Be The Hardest Word and Tiny Dancer, Elton and his five piece band served up a banquet of forty years of chart success that only someone who has lived in a cave since 1970 will not have been familiar with.

He finished with Your Song and Crocodile Rock, the crowd 'la-la-la-la-la'-ing along to the chorus of the latter and giving the man centre stage another reason to indulge in a bout of fist pumping as he fed off the joy and the intoxicated affection the audience was exuding.

Elton finished his main set with Saturday Night's Alright For Fighting. That could be Wigan's theme song, but in Leigh Saturday night was all right for dancing. And as Elton flew off in his helicopter and back to his palatial home in the kingdom they call Down South his subjects waved up to him and then they danced and they danced all the way home.

Nick Lowe, Union Chapel, Islington - 9 May 2014

Nick Lowe played the first of three nights at what is apparently London's favourite music venue, although from the first floor balcony the sound was a bit muddy for the first three or four numbers so I'd be interested to know what the judging criteria were. With no album to plug this was a run through of Nick's faves on acoustic guitar, aided and abetted for the second half of the set by old mucker Geraint Watkins on keyboards and one time Led Zeppelinite John Paul Jones who switched between bass, electric mandolin and rthythm guitar.

The early part of the set drew heavily on the Brentford Trilogy, with the stand out moment being Rome Wasn't Built In A Day.  Unusually for Nick there was little in the way of inter song banter.

The mid part of the show featured a slew of songs from his last but one album (sadly, no Yuletide treats from his 2013 Christmas album Quality Street), of which the strongest was definitely Stoplight Roses.  There was also a nod to the past with a cover of Cliff Richard's Travelling Light.

Lowe had warned his audience that, whether they had come from Diss or Peterborough, he might not play all their favourites. So there was no Beast in Me. The encore consisted of Watkins and Lowe duetting on the former's Only A Rose and then Jones and support act John Doe joining the duo onstage for an eerie recreation of Everybody's Talkin as made famous by Harry Nilsson. They finished with (What's So Funny 'Bout) Peace, Love & Understanding, despite Nick protesting that they hadn't planned to play it.

As always, Lowe's honeyed voice carried the occasion and left the audience wanting more - and this despite the iffy sound.

Alan Carr, Chorley Little Theatre, 2 March 2014

Chorley Little Theatre continued with its' remarkable ability to pull in big name comics for warm up shows with the booking of Alan Carr for a 'work in progress' show.  Any doubt about Carr's popularity can be dismissed with a look at the number of followers he has on Twitter - 3.4m at the last count - and Carr's own reference to the fact that he had downsized to play Chorley on a Sunday night: 'Two years ago it was the O2.'

But although this was a rehearsal rather than the real thing ('there'll be some shit bits,' Carr assured his audience) the only obvious signs of this were Alan having dressed down by wearing jeans and him briefly referring to his notes as to which gags to try out. Otherwise, you would be hard pressed to tell the difference between this and a show where you had paid a lot more than £13 for a ticket.

Carr does a clever mix of Max Miller cheekiness and Kenneth Williams cum Frankie Howerd style 'oo-er missus' interaction with his audience, and in the intimate surroundings of Chorley he elicits comments and contributions from the front and back rows throughout the show. He deals with unwanted heckles - including trying to find a dogowner who walks their dog and isn't allergic to it in order to set up an anecdote about one of his Red Setters - deftly and in fine music hall tradition.

Carr's gossipy delivery is a clever mix of self deprecating gags and observational humour, such as being disciplined by his mother when a child and exacting his revenge on his father when Dad was driving the family down the M1. There are stories about settling down to domesticity with a new partner, going on holiday in a country where homosexuality is illegal and how comfortable a pair of Crocs are, the last of which items promoted a fiercely hostile reaction from his audience.

He finished an hour long set with a short Q & A, where he was able to knock on the head the suggestion that he was teetotal. Referring to his hit Channel 4 show Chatty Man he said: 'I have a drink with all my guests.'

Unsurprisingly, tickets for this gig sold out within minutes of going on sale and whether or not he ever comes back to the Little Theatre those who were there will be able to boast about it to their friends. The audience were laughing and shrieking from the first moment to the last as a master of his art gave Chorley a taste of a show that will fill venues much bigger than the Little Theatre.

Morrissey, Autobiography, Penguin Classics (book review)

I have read Morrissey's autobiography.  I state this as a proud achievement, because lots of people will pick up this book and put it down and say 'I started something I couldn't finish'.  I myself became becalmed at Page 4 but then soldiered on, like a London Marathon runner who finishes the course several days after the rest of the competitors.

Unless you are a rabid fan (and I have had Morrissey arbitrarily cancel too many concerts for which I have bought tickets to count myself in that category) this is indeed a marathon, clocking in at over 450 pages.

It takes a particularly determined soul to plough through Morrissey's repetitive whinge about the High Court action brought against him by Mike Joyce and which Morrissey lost.  I would advise skipping pages 307 to 342 - all you need to know is that the Smiths will never reform if that entails Moz sharing a stage with Mike Joyce.  Oh, and Morrissey doesn't particularly like Judge Weeks either.

Actually, Morrissey doesn't particularly like lots of people, and if this book had been published with an index it would have included entries such as: 'Marr, Johnny, dislike of; Sioux, Souxsie, dislike of; Travis, Geoff, dislike of;' and so on.

There are some unnecessarily vicious barbs handed out - Apple Records' Neil Aspinall refuses Moz permission to use a song and, when he later dies, Moz's response is 'that's what you get for being so nasty.'

Record companies and their failure to promote Smiths and Morrissey product is also a common theme, as is the notion that Moz's singles and albums have the number 1 chart position in the middle of the week but due to the singular or combined conspiracy or incompetence of the record companies, radio stations and chart compilers are languishing mid table by Sunday evening.  Think David Moyes blaming the referee against Sunderland last week for Man United's poor performance.

Morrissey sprinkles Smiths' and his own lyrics and song titles throughout the text, a clever device to keep afficiandos interested when they have ploughed their way through a particularly heavy few pages.  ('I have no idea what he was on about there, but he's just name checked an album I've got so let's carry on.')

For someone who has battled with record companies (Rough Trade, Sire, Sanctuary) over cover art and the lack of care shown towards the finished product, Morrissey doesn't seem to have proof read his own autobiography.  Apart from the annoying use throughout of American spellings rather than English, there appear to be a couple of pages missing.  At the bottom of p391 we are at the end of a paragraph in Paris but by the top of the next we are mid paragraph in Yorkshire.  I feel a law suit coming on.

There are bright spots - the cameo appearances by David Bowie, popping up like Arthur Tolcher attempting to play a few bars of harmonica on the Morecambe and Wise Show to be told 'not now, Arthur'; Morrissey adopting or rescuing cats and pelicans; Morrissey's obvious love of the Smiths as a performing outfit when they started out and of his adoring fans in Scandinavia and Mexico in particular - but there is also a lot of Morrissey reflecting on how many of the people around him seem to die young.

The encounter with a ghost on Saddleworth Moor is an amusing tale (heightened for me by a cat outside giving a deathly late night shriek as I read the passage), and the attempted kidnap of our hero on the way back from a gig in Mexico is well told, but often this lightness of touch is missing.

There is a good book in here, and if Mozzer had not eschewed chapter headings and attempted to be James Joyce but instead had submitted to a decent sub editor and allowed 150 pages to be cut from this tome, we might have got it.  In truth, there is nothing in Autobiography that isn't said more eloquently and elegantly on Vauxhall and I.

(PS.  If a revised version of this book is ever issued, can the commissioning editor get Moz to explain why he walked off the stage two songs into his gig at the Liverpool Echo Arena when a bottle of water bounced off his head and he clearly wasn't injured?  It's time the tale was told....)