Arcade Fire - 2010-07-07 - Hackney Empire, London, UK

Deemed as a "secret show", this was The Arcade Fire's first UK appearance since the back end of 2007 and boy were the audience ready for it! The tickets were primarily sold via a pre-sale on the Universal website that was done in conjunction with Ticketmaster. This pre-sale would have been better organised by school kids, I kid you not. Eventually a small number of tickets went on open sale and typically disappeared within seconds. So, other than a handful of seats reserved for the press and the odd guest-lister, the show was generally attended by fans who would have sold their soul to be there (and several of them virtually did, looking at the eBay listings).

The Hackney Empire is your typical old-style, grandiose theatre, more used to pantomimes and variety shows than out-and-out rock concerts. Thankfully the ground floor seats were removed to allow a large proportion of the audience to stand, with the multi-tiered seating providing a great view for everyone else. I was situated in the 1st tier of seats, 5 rows back, slightly to the right of stage-centre. This not only provided a great view, but the sound was better than I was expecting too.

The volume of noise that greeted the band arriving on stage was deafening. In fact, it caused the auto gain control on my iRiver to adjust the levels down by 4 settings before the music had even started! This didn't affect the recording though and everything progressed smoothly from then on.

As to the show itself, what can I say other than it was everything I expected of it and more! The setlist contained 8 songs from the band's forthcoming new album, The Suburbs, along with 7 from Funeral and 3 from Neon Bible. Watching from above, it was obvious (and to be expected) that a fair number of the audience were not familiar with the new songs and it was the Funeral tracks which typically brought the house down. In particular, I would describe the encore as the best I've ever seen from this great band, which isn't bad considering this was my 10th time seeing them live!

The recording turned out very well indeed, given my distance from the speaker stacks, and audience chatter during the songs is minimal. It could maybe do with a touch of boost in the bass department, but that is down to personal preference and I would never perform equalisation on a source recording. What you get here is as it was recorded, with just a volume boost being performed by myself.

This recording is dedicated to all the people from arcadefire.net (Us Kids Know) who were at this show. You guys make following this great band all the more special. Thank you for a fantastic day.

Anyway, after too long away, The Arcade Fire are back and I strongly suggest you try and catch at least one of their shows. You will not be disappointed!

Enjoy!  :-)

Arcade Fire - 2010-07-07 - Hackney Empire, London, UK - FLAC
563MB RAR archive, FLAC format

Arcade Fire - 2010-07-07 - Hackney Empire, London, UK - MP3
175MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps) 

Setlist:

01. Ready To Start
02. Modern Man
03. Neighborhood #2 (Laika)
04. No Cars Go
05. Haiti
06. Empty Room
07. Rococo
08. The Suburbs
09. Suburban War
10. Intervention
11. We Used To Wait
12. Neighborhood #3 (Power Out)
13. Rebellion
14. Month of May
15. -encore break-
16. Crown of Love
17. Neighborhood #1 (Tunnels)
18. Keep The Car Running
19. Wake Up

(Photos courtesy of John Gleeson - see many more by clicking on his name)

(Download links updated on 27th January, 2013)

Green Day - 2010-06-16 - Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester, UK

What a superb way to spend a beautiful summer's evening! The band were on stage for a whopping 2 hours & 45 minutes, and that was 2 hours & 45 minutes of spectacular quality.

An excellent setlist was supplemented by Billy Joe's usual crowd interaction and he once again had the near 30,000-strong crowd eating out of the palm of his hand. The songs that were played covered all but the earliest part of their career and all were delivered as if the band's lives depended on it. A truly awesome experience!

As you can imagine, with me only being 20m from the stage, the crowd were quite boisterous and vociferous throughout the show. This obviously comes across on the recording, but gets noticeably better as the show goes on, particularly after I managed to move away from one tone deaf youth! Once Green Day got into the "old school" section, the extra vocals were then provided by my mate Sam, but thankfully he disappeared into a mosh pit after a few of the songs!  :-)

Now for the bad news: I started recording when the drunken rabbit came on stage, but somehow it paused before the band came on. I can only think that I didn't lock the remote and the pause button was pressed at some stage. All this meant that I didn't actually start recording until I checked the levels just before the 4th song of the set, East Jesus Nowhere. Sorry!

Anyway - enjoy! :-)

Green Day - 2010-06-16 - Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester, UK - FLAC
779MB RAR archive, FLAC format

Green Day - 2010-06-16 - Lancashire County Cricket Club, Manchester, UK - MP3
254MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps)

Setlist:

Unfortunately, the first 3 songs of the set are missing from the recording-:

- Song of the Century
- 21st Century Breakdown
- Know Your Enemy

01. East Jesus Nowhere
02. Holiday
03. The Static Age
04. Give Me Novacaine
05. Are We The Waiting
06. St. Jimmy
07. Boulevard of Broken Dreams
08. 2000 Light Years Away
09. Nice Guys Finish Last
10. Burnout
11. Coming Clean
12. Geek Stink Breath
13. Hitchin a Ride
14. Welcome to Paradise
15. When I Come Around

Rock Medley:-
16. Iron Man
17. Sweet Child of Mine
18. Highway to Hell

19. Brainstew
20. Jaded
21. Longview
22. Basketcase
23. She
24. King For a Day
25. Shout Medley:-
- Shout
- Teenage Kicks
- (I Can't Get No) Satisfaction
- Champagne Supernova
- Hey Jude
- Shout (reprise)
26. 21 Guns
27. Minority
28. --encore break #1--
29. American Idiot
30. Jesus of Suburbia
31. --encore break #2--
32. When It's Time
33. Wake Me Up When September Ends
34. Good Riddance (Time of Your Life)

(Photo courtesy of the wonderful Shirlaine Forrest Photography)

(Download links updated on 27th January, 2013)

Wolf Parade - 2010-05-21 - Club Academy, Manchester, UK

Gearing up for the June 29th release of their latest album, Expo 86, Montreal's Wolf Parade hit Manchester's Club Academy on the warmest night of the year so far.

And just like the Ruby Lounge gig in 2008, this was a great show from a very talented, yet somewhat understated band. The new songs (which didn't actually seem that new to many!) blended in well with the older stuff, and the usual crowd favourites got the place well and truly bouncing, leaving everyone ready for a change of clothes once the night was over. Aircon would certainly not go amiss in the Club Academy!

Enjoy!

Wolf Parade - 2010-05-21 - Club Academy, Manchester, UK - FLAC
526MB RAR archive, FLAC format

Wolf Parade - 2010-05-21 - Club Academy, Manchester, UK - MP3
149MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps)

Setlist:

01. Intro
02. You Are a Runner And I Am My Father's Son
03. Language City
04. What Did My Lover Say? (It Always Had To Go This Way)
05. Ghost Pressure
06. This Heart's On Fire
07. I'll Believe in Anything
08. Oh You, Old Thing
09. Fine Young Cannibals
10. Cave-O-Sapien
11. Dear Sons And Daughters Of Hungry Ghosts
12. Palm Road
13. California Dreamer
14. --encore break--
15. Two Men in New Tuxedos
16. Shine a Light
17. Kissing The Beehive

A review of this show can be found on God Is In The TV and also on the excellent A Heart Can Stop A Bullet (along with the London Borderline show).

(Photo courtesy of John Gleeson)

(Download links updated on 27th January, 2013)

Madness - 2009-12-15 - Manchester Apollo, UK (Revisited)

Madness - don't ya just love 'em! I've had a rethink about posting my recording of this show, so here it is! Anyone who wanted to purchase the official recording would probably have done so by now, but the link's included below, just in case.

This was the best performance I've seen from Madness since the early 90s. The Apollo was a far more suitable venue than the larger arenas they've played around Manchester over the years. They were on top form and delivered a great setlist with genuine enthusiasm that was thoroughly appreciated by the crowd, both young and old alike.

Please be aware that this show was also officially recorded by Concert Online and is available to buy here (in superior quality too!).

Madness - 2009-12-15 - Manchester Apollo, UK - MP3
156MB RAR archive, variable bit rate MP3s (min. 245 kbps)

Setlist:

01. One Step Beyond
02. Embarrassment
03. The Prince
04. NW5
05. My Girl
06. Dust Devil
07. The Sun And The Rain
08. Johnny The Horse
09. Shut Up
10. In The Rain
11. Clerkenwell Polka
12. Chase The devil aka Iron Shirt
13. MK II
14. Bed And Breakfast Man
15. That Close
16. E.R.N.I.E.
17. Forever Young
18. House Of Fun
19. Wings Of A Dove
20. Baggy Trousers
21. Our House
22. It Must Be Love
23. encore break
24. Tarzan's Nuts
25. Madness
26. Night Boat To Cairo

(Download link updated on 27th January, 2013)