Biggest weekend thread

[lurksalot]

I'm surprised I haven't seen one yet so I'll start 

a great weekend of shows in places that you wouldn't normally associate with such big exposure 

i haven't seen all of it by any means but first impressions 

Florence nailed it , great show 

Taylor swift , excellent , even started a song in the wrong key , I bet that hurt as her set seemed so rehearsed , still brilliant though I couldn't relate some of the sound to the singing , but still, I couldn't do it 

billy ocean brilliant despite the really off putting hair 

the BBC orchestra sounded excellent on the radio 3 stage 

Nigel Kennedy ....not for me, seemed to lose control of his pedal board , with mark king looking uncomfortable and typically busy , and destroying some Hendrix 

paloma faith , meh , I think I'd like to like her stuff , but I can't !

Liam Gallagher , couldn't  watch it , started with Rock and roll star , and really wasn't, maybe he got better ?

Has anyone else seen anything worthy of comment ? 

 

 

Edited May 28, 2018 by lurksalot

[casapete]

Amazing line up, but I didn’t manage to watch all of it so will try and see more on catch up.

Of the stuff I did see - 

Florence and the Machine - just don’t get it at all. Dodgy vocal and dreary songs.

Squeeze - excellent , with Yolanda Charles on bass sounding fab too.

Liam G - okay but the vocal gets in the way for me after a while.

Noel G - enjoyed it, and nice encore of the Beatles ‘All you need is love’

Sam Smith - another artist I don’t get. His voice is just a succession  of vowel sounds...

Billy Ocean - lots of great tunes, bass and drums sounded excellent too. 

Christine and the Queens - wasn’t sure if she was miming in places?

Ed Sheeran - good performance as usual.

Paloma Faith - enjoyed her set, band sounded excellent.

 

[BassBod]

I enjoyed the Nigel Kennedy set, only slightly marred by the patronising R3 intro hosts.  Really nice to see Mark King working outside of his natural environment.  Best thing I saw.

Eddie Reader was great.

Won’t waste time slagging off the oasis lot..horrible noise.

Edited May 29, 2018 by BassBod

[MoonBassAlpha]

I thought Beck was great, the best introducing the band spot I've seen. This bassist Dwayne was right on the money, playing and sound.

Much as I like the Breeders recorded output, the singing and guitar playing was sloppy, and I was left a bit disappointed, same as when I saw them at the town and country club years ago.

[Cato]

I only caught a couple of moments.

Rita Ora miming badly whilst being completely carried by her backing singers then a bit of Taylor Swift's set which was actually rather good.

[Steve Browning]

The Manics with a roadie on bass. Got to be a great thing for him (although he has depped for Nicky Wire before).

I have to say Taylor Swift went up in my estimation with her attack of reality. I'm sure she's delighted! :-)

[mikel]

Mostly boring. Mostly acts well past sell by date, can they not introduce some fresh new talent to us through this sort of event?  Flo was good though. Anyone know why, all of a sudden, half of her original band are gone?

[petebassist]

Taylor Swift was fab (did I just write that?).

I really enjoyed watching Nigel Kennedy on  Monday evening - especially when Mark King joined in on bass and jammed on the Hendrix tunes.

[Barking Spiders]

Apart from Underworld, Orbital and Public Service Broadcasting I had a big fat zero interest in anything else going on

[casapete]

2 hours ago, mikel said:

Mostly boring. Mostly acts well past sell by date, can they not introduce some fresh new talent to us through this sort of event?

I suspect I'm not really the ideal demographic for such an event, but when I looked at the list below there seemed to be plenty of newer type acts appearing alongside the more established bands?

https://www.bbc.co.uk/events/efj3v2/artists/by/a-z

[KiOgon]

Ed Sheeran - great solo performance but same old same old.

Clean Bandit surprisingly good across a whole lot of songs.

Noel and his H F B better than I ever heard him before, can't usually stand him!

Liam - nothing's changed = never did and never will like him or his approach.

Paloma and her band always good to see and hear.

Simple minds great, didn;t see enough of their set.

Taylor Swift - on much too long, 2 minutes would have been OK

Florence - hit and miss, never sure about her.

Sam Smith - winey whingy git, on too long! Nice coat

Sorry to have missed Billy Ocen, Manics and Squeeze.

[Lozz196]

I thought Manics were ok, wish JDB would play more guitar though, and the stand-in on bass did fine, though I do get the impression that Nicky Wires bass is probably not too hard to cover. Noel Gallaghers High Flying Birds were good, enjoyed their set, thought a tad amusing that Gem seemed to have a different guitar for every song.

[Sibob]

Have seen a few of the performances, so here's my arseho......I mean opinion:

Florence: Just awful, shouty and not in a good way.

Taylor swift: Limp, loads of vocals on track despite 4 BV's, one dance move, disingenuous crowd banter.

Billy Ocean: Three songs that I love, good band, but he had a habit of singing one song awfully, then one excellently, then one awfully, then one excellently....you get the idea.

Christine & The Queens: Genuinely excellent, fantastic singer, really interesting to watch, a few really nice simple tunes with great melodies.

Paloma Faith: Another meh from me......she's kinda interesting, but doesn't quite get over the line for me. Decent band though.

30 Seconds To Mars - WTF? Rock band, turns up with drum kit, another guy on keys and sometimes bass, then EVERYTHING else on track (all guitars, BVs etc). Total poop (despite some big songs).

First Aid Kit - Decent country rock, strong vocals, great band. Thumbs up.

Beck - Despite only knowing one song (I know right....my bad), and not having Mr Meldal-Johnsen anymore, really enjoyed it, slightly odd 'covers' section to introduce the band, but whatever. Great set, great band.

 

Si

[No lust in Jazz]

As an event - big tick

Also makes me think that I need to get over to Northern Ireland at some point again. 

[bassace]

1 hour ago, KiOgon said:

Ed Sheeran - great solo performance but same old same old.

Clean Bandit surprisingly good across a whole lot of songs.

Noel and his H F B better than I ever heard him before, can't usually stand him!

Liam - nothing's changed = never did and never will like him or his approach.

Paloma and her band always good to see and hear.

Simple minds great, didn;t see enough of their set.

Taylor Swift - on much too long, 2 minutes would have been OK

Florence - hit and miss, never sure about her.

Sam Smith - winey whingy git, on too long! Nice coat

Sorry to have missed Billy Ocen, Manics and Squeeze.

Yup, I’d go along with all of that. Plus only one tune from Jamie Cullum left us a bit short changed. First Aid Kit not quite my thing but enjoyed them nevertheless.

i wonder what the guy who liked only Underwotld, Orbital and PSB is doing on a bass players forum but that’s me being a bit controversial, innit.

[Graham]

Just watched GoGo Penguin's set, that was great.

Currently watching Taylor Swift, I like het, but her modern stuff leaves me cold, looking forward to when she goes back to being a country singer.

Eldest daughter wants to see the Ed Sheeran set, so will probably watching that next.

[Barking Spiders]

34 minutes ago, bassace said:

Yup, I’d go along with all of that. Plus only one tune from Jamie Cullum left us a bit short changed. First Aid Kit not quite my thing but enjoyed them nevertheless.

i wonder what the guy who liked only Underwotld, Orbital and PSB is doing on a bass players forum but that’s me being a bit controversial, innit.

Ha that's me.  I'm on BC because I play bass. Tres simple

[taunton-hobbit]

I thought Selecter were fun,

Caught a smidge of UB40 - nice

Billy Ocean - what on earth was the suit & hair about?????????? Dreads & jeans please........

And that was that..........

[bassace]

47 minutes ago, Barking Spiders said:

Ha that's me.  I'm on BC because I play bass. Tres simple

Surprised me

[Barking Spiders]

18 hours ago, bassace said:

Surprised me

for me funk, reggae, disco and jazz funk is where  the bass guitar is at  but no one was playing any of those at Biggest Weekend. The  friday and saturday Belfast line-ups definitely looked the stronger IMO. I forgot to mention David Holmes though he only played a DJ set.

[JellyKnees]

Beck was fab, excellent band and nice solo spot tribute to Prince with the Raspberry Beret cover. I must admit this has renewed my interest in him, after being disappointed with the Information album about 10 years ago. Manics were pretty good too, in spite of the absent Nicky Wire. Simple Minds were musically OK but Jim Kerr was struggling in my opinion. Other than that, there was nothing of any great interest for me.

[BassBod]

Pleasantly surprised that there hasn’t been a wave of Mark King slagging....

[steantval]

4 hours ago, Barking Spiders said:

for me funk, reggae, disco and jazz funk is where  the bass guitar is at  but no one was playing any of those at Biggest Weekend. The  friday and saturday Belfast line-ups definitely looked the stronger IMO. I forgot to mention David Holmes though he only played a DJ set.

Reggae - UB40

Funk/Disco - Billy Ocean with a fabulous backing band.

[mrtcat]

Really enjoyed Beck's set. Great band and they look like they're having fun.

[mep]

On 29/05/2018 at 13:52, Sibob said:

First Aid Kit - Decent country rock, strong vocals, great band. Thumbs up.

Definitely. They always deliver a great set.