A real mix of stuff this week with the mighty Tom Jones and a return for Snow Patrol. Also the brilliant Eliza Carthy and new indie stars Friendly Fires. No big surprises on Tuesday this week with everyone professional and focused.Tuesday
Tom Jones - If He Should Ever Leave You
Snow Patrol - Take Back The City
Eliza Carthy - Like I Care (Wings)
Tom Jones (Chat with JH)
Friendly Fires - Paris
Camille O'Sullivan - In These Shoes
Tom Jones - Give A Little Love
Friday
Snow Patrol - Take Back The City
Tom Jones - If He Should Ever Leave You
Friendly Fires - Paris
Stephen Stills (Chat with JH and short piano version of For What It's Worth)
Eliza Carthy - Like I Care (Wings)
Snow Patrol - If There's A Rocket Tie Me On It
Stephen Stills - Helplessly Hoping
Tom Jones - 24 Hours
Friendly Fires - Jump In The Pool
Tom Jones (chat with JH and duet)
Eliza Carthy - Two Tears
Camille O'Sullivan - God Is In The House
Tom Jones - Give A Little Love
Snow Patrol - What If The Storm Ends?
Top billing this week was between Tom Jones, back with a new album and a new old-yet-new sound, and Snow Patrol, a band which showed great promise and made a huge impact but failed to keep the momentum going - at least commercially. Jones opened and closed the Tuesday live show and was impeccable but Snow Patrol got the same honour on Friday. New single Take Back The City is still not working for me but the epic If There's A Rocket Tie Me On It and big sound of closer What If The Storm Ends? were great. The latter was one gigantic orchestral infused vocal build up into a choral crescendo. The band has been around for over 12 years and the album Final Straw put them up there with the likes of Razorlight and Coldplay as one of those big new bands everyone was getting excited about. But Gary Lightbody still looks very awkward as a front man. The new material is engaging but does nothing new and different...
Which brings me to Tom Jones - again new single If He Should Ever Leave You is a bit too retro compared to the more upbeat Give A Little Love. But, one of the best performances I have ever seen on Later was 24 Hours - utterly compelling with Jones as the condemned man, standing at the end in angelic spotlight. Magnificent. He talked to Jools about his days on Decca records and being discovered by Jimmy Saville - who advised him to make a proper demo disc for the record label - as well as his new songs. Bono has written a 'tribute' track called Sugar Daddy. The 'impromptu' duet at the piano gave JH a chance to show off while giving all the limelight to his star guest. He advised people starting out - now a running theme of the questions - to have humility and a sense of humour and to be influenced without copying. Wise words.
Of the rest, Eliza Carthy (and band) performed two songs, both suffering from a very loose arrangement: the fiesty Like I Care (Wings) and the great Two Tears - much more controlled and with effortless addition of violin. Friendly Fires only had two songs - the messy Paris and then Jump In The Pool - easily their most accessable single. The band has two drummers and a keyboard which plays itself. New, exciting, vibrant? Yes. Great? Not quite.
The addition of Stephen Stills to the line-up for Friday was great to see but largely pointless. Obviously not a well man, he struggled with his voice on both the interview, short piano version of his own song but Buffalo Springfield's most successful song For What It's Worth (should have been longer which was shame), and his solo performance of the poignant Helplessly Hoping. I wish him well but it looked very much like a sympathy vote.
The final performances went to Irish burlesque singer Camille O'Sullivan. On Tuesday was a very sexy version of the Kirsty McColl song In These Shows - theatrical, over-the-top and complete with flashes of red knickers. It was like something from Cabaret. Her second cover (on Friday) was the brilliant God Is In The House by Nick Cave And The Bad Seeds. A great song and a good rendition but with one major flaw. When Cave sings it, he plays it straight and lets the song do all the talking. O'Sullivan gives it way too much characterisation - which I guess is the point but her voice and face transform the song, like too much canned laughter in a bad sitcom. There are certain things you just don't mess with and this is one of those things.
Great show. Entertaining and interesting in equal measure. A third song for Friendly Fires and Eliza Carthy would have been the icing on the musical cake.
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