Matthew's Gig Blog: Wendy James

Showing posts with label Wendy James. Show all posts

Saturday, October 02, 2021

Wendy James - Friday 1st October - Islington Academy 2

Brief review: Whilst it's great to see Wendy still performing well, I have to say I find her solo material a bit "hit and miss". Some songs are good, but others drag a bit - for me at least. But then I am of the age where the reason I am here is for the Transvision Vamp songs, and those were performed well, even if it was difficult not to be mildly irritated by the posturing of the guitarist trying so hard to look cool. Maybe the Osmonds outfit didn't help!

Venue and View: Pretty busy - and not a great venue compared to the larger downstairs room. We went for the right hand side, but towards the back and away from the hideously expensive bar!

Setlist

You’re So Great
Speedball
You're a Good Man, Sister
Can You Please Crawl Out Your Window?
You're a Dirtbomb, Lester
If Looks Could Kill
I Want Your Love
Perilous Beauty
Little Melvin
The Impression of Normalcy
Tell That Girl to Shut Up
Down on You
Bad Valentine
Baby I Don't Care

Tuesday, February 16, 2016

Wendy James (2) - Monday 15th February - Old Blue Last, Shoreditch

So if the earlier post had a potential 25 year gap between seeing Wendy, here she is again a mere 3 hours later with a free show at the Old Blue Last - a new venue for me. More of a straight through gig, with little in between chat, she did mention that this was "much less stressful" than the earlier show. 3 Transvision Vamp songs in amongst the solo material kept the crowd happy. Despite my back hurting (a lot) from the standing this was good fun. And for free - that rarity in London - a bargain night out.

Setlist

I Want Your Love

Bad Intentions And A Bit Of Cruelty

King Rat

I'm Freaking Out

You're a Good Man, Sister

Speedball

Indigent Blues

The Moondead In The River

Tell That Girl To Shut Up

If Looks Could Kill

Bitter Funny

You're A Dirtbomb, Lester

Farewell To Love

You Tell Me

Baby I Don't Care

Wendy James - Monday 15th February - Rough Trade East

The longest gap I have had between seeing an artist is 'Alan Lancaster' (Quo 1984 to the 2013 Quo FF line-up reunions). Having seen Transvision Vamp in October 1989 at Hammersmith, Wendy James goes into a probable 2nd on that list (although there is a chance I saw TV again later on their Velveteen tour). She is playing a set at the Rough Trade East record store to support her new album "The Price of The Ticket". Aptly, a purchase of that very CD got us in to see the show.

An intimate crowd then got a run through of many of the new tracks with some old favourites thrown in for good measure. In between songs Wendy told a few stories about the creation of the songs and her younger band helped out with which albums the other songs came from. She seemed a little nervous and detached, but overall it was a good fun 50 minutes or so.

Wendy was kind enough to sign the new CD afterwards where with a glass of red at hand she was a bit more relaxed.

Set list included (in no particular order):-