Faces, Hurtwood Polo Park, Surrey, 5 September 2015

Was this a Faces reunion?  Can you even have a Faces reunion without Ronnie Lane and Ian McLagan?  Well, Mac thought so and spent a good bit of time in recent years trying to get Rod Stewart to rejoin his old muckers on stage.  Sadly, Mac died before this could come to pass and maybe Rod finally agreed to Kenney Jones' suggestion that they and Ronnie Wood perform live together out of a sense of guilt that he hadn't made the effort before.

Whatever the motivation, the three surviving Faces appeared at a chilly Hurtwood Park polo club in Surrey to perform a 45 minute set in front of an eager audience of 5,000.  They were augmented on stage by two keyboard players, backing vocalists, a horn second and a bass guitarist and second guitar.

But the stars of the show were Rod and Ronnie.  They stumbled on stage, the wrinkles deeper but the hairstyles still firmly rooted in the early 1970s, like a couple of overgrown schoolboys bunking off class early to go and hang around the bus stop in order to meet some girls and cadge a cigarette or two.  They joked about the lack of rehearsal time before launching into Big Bill Broonzy's I Feel So Good, a song which sounds like it could have been written for the Faces.

They followed this with You Can Make Me Dance, Sing Or Anything, introduced by Ron as one of his favourite songs and with Rod looking to the heavens to thank Lane and McLagan.  There might only have been three Faces physically on stage but the spirit of all five were present.  The opening bars of You Can Make Me Dance was a real hairs on the back of the neck moment for me - I never thought I'd get to hear this song live.

Ooh La La followed and then I'd Rather Go Blind, the Etta James song that appeared on a Rod solo album as recorded by the Faces.

Then it was (I Know) I'm Losing You, the Temptations song which tonight featured an unduly long Kenney Jones drum solo.  But in Kenney's defence he pulled the event together and so could perhaps be permitted his three or four minutes in the spotlight.

They finished with a glorious Stay With Me, the audience singing along, and Sweet Little Rock'n'Roller including a false start and then they were gone.  Only seven songs but forty five minutes of rock'n'roll magic.

Was it a Faces reunion?  I don't know, but a good time was had by all.  Will they do it again?  Well, Rod seemed keen to get off that stage as soon as it was over so I wouldn't put money on it.  Were they worth the price of admission?  Absolutely.  Ronnie Wood looked like he was having far more fun that he ever does playing with the Rolling Stones.

Sing it again, Rod'n'Ron.  Sing it again.

Ron Sexsmith, Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester, 27 June 2015

When a performer draws heavily on material from his or her new album, that's often a signal for a mass exodus to the bar.  But Ron Sexsmith's latest CD, Carousel One, adds a fine selection of songs to a twenty year recording history and no one was rushing to leave their seats as Canada's finest singer songwriter under the age of 60 (I have to be careful not to upset Neil Young fans here) trotted out Getaway Car, Lucky Penny, Sun's Coming Out and Nothing Feels The Same Any More.

Saint Bernard also gets an airing and Ron has a giant cardboard cut out of a Saint Bernard on stage with him whilst his drummer sports the face of another such dog on his bass drum.

The band is tight and muscular and handles Ron fluffing the lyrics to one song and wanting to restart it mid intro without any fuss.

But the show takes a particularly poignant turn when Ron performs unaccompanied firstly on the acoustic guitar and then at the piano.  He doesn't look like a rock star and at times his delivery of songs he has himself written, such as Tomorrow In Her Eyes, Gold In Them Hills and Brandy Alexander, makes him sound as though everything's about to fall apart.  This vulnerability is part of his charm and the reason why the audience brings him back for two encores when Ron and the band want to get away for their Glastonbury appearance the next day.

Other highlights are Strawberry Blonde and Sneak Out The Back Door.  Ron finishes with a stunning Can't Get My Act Together from Carousel

One and Lebanon, Tennessee from his debut album, bookends to his career.  The audience is loud in its appreciation.  Ron is amongst friends and the crowd knows it is in the company of a rare and self effacing talent.

Support was provided by singer songwriter Sam Palladio, who hails from Cornwall by way of Nashville.  He's in the TV show Nashville, which he managed to reference three times.  He could have done with giving the audience fewer mentions of the TV career and allowed his songs to do more of the talking.  There were a couple of beauties in his set which will hopefully feature on his soon to be recorded first album.  Think Peter Case with additional twang.

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.