Posts Tagged ‘gigs’

13/11/2009

Anyone who says “grunge is dead” is wrong on general principle. Alice In Chains demonstrated exactly why tonight at the O2 Academy in Birmingham.
Taking their first record in fourteen years on the road, tragically devoid of their late frontman Layne Staley, the Seattle survivors made their second stop on the UK leg of the tour.

For a band that’s been going since the late eighties, the audience tonight doesn’t even slightly tread into AC/DC territory: whose pre-historic loyalists would gawk blankly at the mention of La Roux, Spotify or Twitter. Middle-aged Gen-X-ers who’ve dusted off the flannel mingle with coming of age grunge kids who grumble about having two ‘Alice In Chains’ artists on their iPods: Alice in Chains / Alice In Chains. Don’t you just hate when that happens?

However diverse the crowd, tonight’s support act couldn’t have been more out of place if it was Timbaland’s name in the liner notes of a Chris Cornell album. Oh wait. Indie two-piece Little Fish showed plenty of promise. They kept the banter to a minimum but were tireless onstage in an attempt to win over the angry mob. In spite of their best efforts, however, this was a public execution. The guillotine arrived in the form of a torrent of unwarranted heckling. Credit to Little Fish; they soldiered on to the end of their short set, displaying a lot of technical prowess and kept a brave face whilst never choking under the pressure.

Welsh rock trio Stereophonics have announced the first official details of their seventh studio album, confirming the tentative title “Keep Calm and Carry On”, which is set to be released on the 16th November.

The album will be preceded by the lead single, “Innocent”, a subdued poppy number in the vain of recent single “You’re My Star” which Isle Of Wight Festival attendants heard premiered in the band’s exclusive headlining appearance of the summer. The single is due out on the 2nd November.

The band has written, recorded and mastered the album throughout the year, coming off the back of last year’s greatest hits compilation “Decade In The Sun” and accompanying promotional tour, all the while keeping fans updated with MySpace blogs, Twitter posts and pictures illustrating the making of the album.

An update from bassist Richard Jones explains that the band have been “busy of late filming a video, on photo shoots and putting the finishing touches to the artwork” whilst they’ve also announced a “special one-off afternoon show” at Cardiff Castle on the 3rd October.

Fans will be previewed songs from the upcoming album along with the “classic hits” and to commemorate eleven years since the band performed there to a 10,000 strong audience, tickets are being sold at a recession-crunching £12.50, the same admission price of the band’s original gig at the venue.
Tickets are due to go on sale at 09.00 on Wednesday 9th September (09/09/09).

Meanwhile, the new albums tracklisting has also been unveiled, shown below, along with an audience-filmed video of the new single ‘Innocent’.