Category Archives: concert review

217. The Guitar Hero and the Gypsy – Fleetwood Mac live in London

night at the wembley arena london england by roadsofstoneLightning strikes — maybe once, maybe twice
And it lights up the night

Fleetwood Mac – May 1982

The lights dim, the cymbals beat, and the guitar begins.

Right from the word go, there’s an energy about this — a foot-stamping, driving rhythm from front left of the stage. It defines Monday Morning, the opening song, and it runs all through the show.

lindsey buckingham fleetwood mac live 2009 by bengarland flickrAnd the truth is that I’ve listened to Fleetwood Mac for two decades and more, but it never struck me until now.

Lindsey Buckingham is a rock star. There’s just no doubt about it.

My kids know Fleetwood Mac mainly from Guitar Hero, which features the iconic solo from Go Your Own Way. And suddenly that seems appropriate, for Guitar Hero is exactly what he is.
Continue reading

205. Take back the city – Snow Patrol live at London’s O2 Arena

snow-patrol-live-at-the-o2-london-march-2009-c-gigwise-comI love this city tonight
I love this city always

It bears its teeth like a light
And spits me out after days

Snow Patrol — October 2008

A Northern Irish band playing London — on the night before St Patrick’s Day. It really has been been quite a week.

In Snow Patrol’s home town of Belfast, as in Omagh all those years ago, an outbreak of mindless violence has lent passion to the public desire for peace. Shootings carried out by dissident republicans of the ‘Real IRA’ and designed to break the peace process have proved to have the opposite effect.
Continue reading