http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2009/01/27/helme-claws-back-his-history/

Micky P. Kerr and Chris Helme at The Faversham, Leeds

There is a charm about Micky P Kerr as he takes to the sizable Faversham stage shunning his guitar and sitting on a high chair starting with poetry but he doesn't get anywhere with people talking and laughing at the back he shuns the serious forgetting the second verse of his Credit Crunch Christmas poem and running through the song I'm in awe of you eager to get onto what he calls his silly songs.

The charming humour of the shambling poet is lost and Kerr - who admits…

This article is from www.dalliance.co.uk

http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/05/16/tonight-mr-jens-lekman-tomorrow-mr-jens-lekman/

"If you have videoed tonight - which is fine with me," says Jens Lekman after an enthralling night at The Cluny in Newcastle "then do not put it on the Internet or on YouTube because I want this night to be between you and me."

Jens Lekman is an honest man in what is a dishonest industry.

Every night on stages across the world artists pour souls into the same unique displays that they give the night before and will give tomorrow. This suits some performers and but not others and Lekman - following…

Fri 11 Apr – Granadaland

Read this in full at:
http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/04/12/now-hear-me-now-hear-me-roar/

The Ending Of, Dinosaur Pile Up, Getoutofcities, Bedroom Gymnastics Granadaland at The Love Apple, Bradford

They are young - these Bedroom Gymnastics kids - and in a while the keyboard Katie will be told that she has to go home by her Dad when on stage she is apart from the rest of the band of pale faced yoofs who are warming up the Bradford scene.

In a quieter moment they cover that Lisa Loeb song that everyone can hum but no one knows the name…

Sun 24 Feb – The Magnetic Fields, The Interstellar Radio Company

http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/03/navigated-priceless.html

Strung along the stage at New York's Town Hall are The Magnetic Fields. "We are here to promote our new record, erm, Distortion" says Claudia Gonson sitting behind a piano looking nervously across to the mercurial yet miserable Stephin Merritt and in the next hour and a half they will craft music worth crossing the Earth for.

For the uninitiated The Magnetic Fields are a strange combination of New York curio quirks. The lead performer Merritt pushes a finger in is ear to deaden the sound of applause…

Sat 16 Feb – Art Brut, Popular Workshop

This review:
http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/02/outsider.html
More reviews:
http://www.dalliance.co.uk/

Art Brut are powering through a storming set at Bradford's St George's Hall and I get the same feeling I did returning to school aged nine after a couple of weeks off with chicken pox.

Led by the wonderfully haphazard Eddie Argos who charges onto the stage like the Disney friendly version of Jarvis Cocker Art Brut are twice the band live than they are from any of the two albums and umpteen singles that have totally passed me by leading to this sense of schoolyard…

Fri 8 Feb – Elle S'appelle, Heads We Dance, Fourteen Corners, Pierpoint

http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/02/lack-of-originality.html

Elle S'appelle are a well beaten track and that is not to say that they are not travelling that path well but rather that for all the new band buzz around them one gets the feeling that you could add their catalogue to your record collection and nod along with it for the rest of your days without ever catching the whiff oforiginality.

More later for this is Granadaland and there is an order to things and as Mark Husak expands his night to…

Fri 1 Feb – Morrissey

"I'm sorry for being unoriginal." Steven says looking playfully at the aging but rapt audience in the music hall classic surroundings of the Sunderland Empire.

Not to his second song - the ebullient First Of The Gang To Die - does he refer but to opener Stop Me If You Think You've Heard This One Before.

A song now imitated but not by the man, not by Morrissey, who does not dwell on self referential imitation or parody. The twistiest verbalist in music plays this straight…

More…
http://www.dalliance.co.uk/2008/02/magnetism-of-morrissey.html

Fri 11 Jan – Wild Beasts, Laura Groves, The Debuts, Spondi Pradlo

The Wild Beasts, Laura Groves, The Debuts, Spondi Pradlo - Live Review Granadaland Night at The Love Apple, Bradford

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This review - and more like it - can be read at http://www.dalliance.co.uk
Dalliance: About music in West Yorkshire but not all music and not all West Yorkshire

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No matter how huge Spondi Pradlo could get - and hearing them one suspects they will not be the next U2 - they will always be known as the band with one of the more ludicious names to have…

…is all well and good but the prediction for who will be big next year lists have started to become self fulfilling prophecies. A band like Vampire Weekend are catapulted to something like global fame because they turn up on a good few “Look out for in 2008” lists and go from playing tiny venues to being MTV stars in the space of months.

One recalls The Bravery and how they got the same catapulting (“Duran Duran playing The Smiths fronted by The Glam Robert Smith”) but lacked the graft and grounding to maintain the levels.

A band as esoteric…

Michael Wood's albums of the year as seen on http://www.dalliance.co.uk - About music in West Yorkshire but not all music and not all West Yorkshire.

1 Night Falls Over Kortedala - Jens Lekman
The sound of a heart beating in a thousand different ways Night Falls Over Kortedala - while bordering on twee - is an emotionally honest record revealing in the quirky and glorious, enjoying sweeping highs and distressing over bitter lows. And I Remember Every Kiss is stripped down power, Sipping On Sweet Nectar is joy unrestrained. Postcard To Nina is funny and big while Into Eternity is…