GREEN DAY Live @Wembley Stadium, 19/06/2010

As I stand outside, queuing to go into the stadium, I see people with blankets, quilts, bucket loads of food. These are hardcore Green Day fans, and they’re in for the show of their lives. The cloud in the sky threatens everyone who’s waited overnight but when the first act, Frank Turner comes out the clouds finally start to break and the sun shines through. I have wanted to see Frank Turner for a while ever since Kerrang! started putting him in article after article and now i see why… He is an absolutely phenomenal artist. His song writing is brilliant and is the perfect opener for the night ahead. As he said “This is for everyone who’s ever played a guitar in their bedroom, HELLO WEMBLEY”!
As i go off for something to eat Joan Jett & The Blackhearts take to the stage, beginning with Bad Reputation, all the way through to I Love Rock’n'Roll. Their anthemic rock gets everyone in the ‘Rock’n'Roll’ mood. Everyone knows the lyrics, everyone is having fun. The skies have cleared too which raises the good mood even further.
Before Green Day take to the stage, someone in a bunny suit runs onto the stage, beer in both hands and downs them both consecutively. I have my suspicions that it is actually Tre Cool, Green Day’s drummer as he gets onto the elevated drum kit and starts messing about.
The stage is set and the fans are ready. A (I think live only) song which i would entitle “Radio Rock’n'Roll” starts randomly and is immediately followed by 21st Century Breakdown opener Song Of The Century. The lights are turned off andthe band take their places. Everything lights up as 21st Century Breakdown plays. Billie Joe puts every last inch of effort into this song and as the chorus comes in the fans create what is possibly the loudest mass-singalong I’ve heard at any concert ever. “ENGLAND”!! Billie screams. Everyone is in a frantically excited mood and as Green Day blast through the next ten songs, all from there past two albums, everyone knows that they are in for an absolutely brilliant night. All of a sudden Billie shouts “F**k the new songs, the old ones are better anyway”! And It seems there were many veteran Green Day fans as just about everybody knew the lyrics to songs, which if i’m honest, I only knew a few of.  The next 8 songs are all from there older library, songs such as Nice Guys Finish Last & Geek Stink Breath.
Brilliantly, Green Day play 3 cut covers, Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, Guns ‘n’ Roses’ Sweet Child o’ Mine and AC/DC’s Highway To Hell. Another 7 older songs are played and, by this time, the crowd is moshing, running, jumping and loads of people are being escorted out by staff… it’s absolute bedlam! A cover of The Isley Brothers Shout is done superbly and another 4 cut covers, Monty Python’s Always Look On The Bright Side of Life, The Undertones Teenage Kicks, The Rolling Stones (I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction & The Beatles Hey Jude.
The crowd must be soaked by now, 3 times now Billie Joe has sprayed the gold ticket holders with a power hose. They have had two people up, a late-teen who started making out with Billie, a young boy who was ‘sacrificed’. But it was when Longview was played and a 15 year old named Rufus from Northamptom sang the song instead of Billie that it felt like Green Day are the most interactive band with the crowd. An absolutely stunning moment for Rufus.
After the 2nd round of covers, 21 Guns and then Minority, a comparison of thier newer songs to thier older ones. This ends a non-stop set which has taken roughly 2 hours and45 minutes consisting of 30 songs. Before the set finishes though, The whole band are dressed up in silly outfits, but Tre Cool’s might be the most memorable as he walks out onto the extended part of the stage dressed in a wedding hat, red bra and the sort of 3D glasses in the cinema’s. During the ‘Shout’ cover Tre starts lifting legs in time with the chorus. This part of the show is really funny and just goes to show how entertaining Green Day’s live show is. Not only that, Billie Joe grabs a gas powered gun and starts shooting England flags out of a tube, which go absolutely flying!!!
There are two encores, during the first American Idiot & Jesus Of Suburbia are played, the second consists of When Its Time then Wake Me Up When September Ends & Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) intertwine with eachother. The perfect end to a perfect night.
Green Day, you are welcome back to Wembley Stadium anytime!

THE DAWN CHORUS – The Carnival Leaves Town

The Dawn Chorus are an act we’ve had our eye on for some time, ever since we got our grubby little paws on their debut album (reviewed here) we’ve been excited by their ability to weave the mundane and everyday into something rather lovely.
With this, their second album the band – aided and abetted by guitar toting cult punk-troubadour Frank Turner – have expanded their sound and also taken it to some intriguing, dark places. If the first disc introduced The Dawn Chorus, then this is their Empire Strikes Back, a much more complex and interesting piece.
The carnival theme runs throughout, as do topics and characters touched up on in earlier songs, and the album flows much better as a whole than as a set of songs. The exception to this rule would be first single Carnivalesque. I won’t go into too much detail on this track as I’ve already reviewed it here, but suffice it to say that it’s a great introduction to the themes of this set of songs. Other tracks well worth a look include Heartbeats in 5/4 and Green, Unpleasant Land but, as previously stated, it is as a cohesive whole that this album is strongest.
Once again The Dawn Chorus prove to be exciting and interesting in equal measure and I, for one, can’t wait for the third instalment!

Check out The Dawn Chorus here: www.myspace.com/thedawnchorusuk

SINGLES CORNER! 13/01/2010

Apoloies for the delys folks, this edition of singles corner should have gone up on Monday, but with the tracks we’ve got for you we think you’ll agree that it was worth the wait. So, without any further stalling, let’s check out this weeks singles.

WHITE RABBITS – Percussion Gun
TBD Records

Starting with, as the title might suggest, machine gun drumming this track kicks off straight away with a momentum that isn’t slowed by the addition of vocals, guitars and handclaps. This isn’t by any stretch an amazing track but it’s a good introduction to the band and gives a flavour of what to expect from their new album.

ASH – Space Shot
Atomic Heart Records

Filing into the cosmic canon of Ash singles alongside Girl From Mars, this initially sounds like Muse-lite, but once that familiar vocal kicks in, you could almost turn the clock back to the late nineties. This songs kicks up regularly on the radio and it fits there beautifully, but grab a copy of the single for some cracking remixes too!

SUB FOCUS – Could This Be Real
Ram Records

A change of direction now and we head away from guitar central into turntable territory. This is an anthemic track, I can almost imagine it as the anthem for the first wave of dance music in 2010, it certainly has a staying factor about it.

THE DAWN CHORUS – Carnivalesque
Jelly Maid Music

We loved the Dawn Chorus’ debut album and this track, opening with trumpet and swiftly establishing the jaunty rhythms and melancholic vocals that have become somewhat of a trademark. The addition of more aggressive vocals courtesy of Frank Turner adds a new element that takes the band up a notch. We were already looking forward to the new album, now we’re downright excited!

GIL CANG – Gotta Be A Way
myspace.com/soundsofgil

Drizabone production team member Gil has worked with the likes of Michael Jackson and Amy Winehouse and here, he seems to have found his muse in Swedish/Trinidadian Bluey Robinson, a recent signee to Sony Records. This soulful R&B track has a mellow vibe that’s accentuated by Bluey’s melted chocolate vocals and the simple production. This is a winner!