Imelda May at Leeds Academy - Imeldamazing!

I've been waiting for this gig since September as it was rescheduled.... and it was well worth the wait! I donned a floral dress and headed to Leeds Academy with Danny and it was a thoroughly brilliant night. If you ever get the chance to see Imelda and her band, then you simply must go! I love the fusion of rockabilly with a dash of jazz and blues and every song they played was fantastic.

Imelda's band is full of some seriously talented people - Darrel on lead guitar played some amazing solos. Then there was Al Gare on the double bass (visit his blog for back stage info from the road Here, Gare and Everywhere), Steve Rushton on the drums and Dave Priseman on the trumpet, percussion, horn and guitar. Of course there is Imelda herself too!

Imelda's voice was amazing. It can be disappointing to see a band play live where the vocals are a bit flat and don't sound like recorded material.... this was in no way the case for Imelda! Her voice, if anything, sounded better than the recorded songs.

They played all of my favourite songs from Mayhem and Love Tattoo - but I think the highlights, for me, were Big Bad Handsome Man (my ultimate fave!), Johnny Got a Boom Boom, Inside Out (both versions), Tainted Love, Psycho, Let Me Out, and Kentish Town Waltz.

Imelda looked amazing with her trademark two-tone quiff, red lipstick, curve-hugging gingham dress and some serious heels! The whole band just oozed cool.

Imelda May - Style Icon

Imelda May is my new style icon. I bought tickets to see her in Leeds last year, but the gig was rescheduled for February. I cannot wait, I've had her two albums on repeat on my way to and from placement for the past few weeks, I can't get enough of it! I love her retro style with the trademark two-tone quiff, red lipstick and curve-hugging vintage-style dresses. Imelda just oozes "cool" and I've not seen her in an outfit I havn't liked yet!

Even in more casual clothes, Imelda still looks great!

I love this dress... I think you'll only need one guess why! (*whispers* it might just have something to do with the polka dots!)

The Noisettes Christmas Extravaganza Gig

On Tuesday afternoon I jumped on the train to visit my lovely older sister Jenny in Camden we had a little wander round Camden horse market, had a bite to eat, then headed over to the Electric Ballroom for the Christmas Extravaganza Noisettes gig! Shingai looked great, as always, and she has so much energy when performing! If you like the Noisettes' music then I recommend you see them perform live, they really are brilliant! They did a fantastic version of Ever Fallen in Love by Buzzcocks (possibly one of my favourite songs ever!) and in the encore they sang "Chesnuts roasting on an open fire..." I loved every minute of their set!

There were sparkly festive stage decor and minature Christmas trees too!

Shingai's younger brother came on stage a couple of times to sing with her, it was so lovely!

A Chrismas Extravaganza, wouldn't be a Christmas Extravaganza without a little fake snow! :D We were right at the front and got covered in the stuff!

It was certainly different to any gig I've been to, after all, how many times do you have a few rounds of bingo instead of a second support act?!? It was such good fun, I loved it!

The Pipettes Vs Hoxton Square Bar and Kitchen!

The Pipettes are back! They have ditched the 50's inspired sound and polka dots for a more 80's disco feel... but that doesn't make me love them any less (if anything, I love them more now)! They still have the fun, pop songs that make you want to dance. Their new single Stop The Music and Our Love Was Saved By Spacemen are brilliant, catchy and fun... I couldn't help but dance and sing along. When it is released I will be first in line for the long awaited second album: Earth Vs The Pipettes, and if you like disco-pop songs that make you want to dance then I suggest you do the same... Earth look out! Here come The Pipettes!

Ani - I love her dress. Fits in with the space theme nicely.

Gwenno

Pulling Shapes... The ladies didn't disappoint and I was up joining them in no time!

Colin, the mascot for the gig.

There were two support bands, Angry Vs The Bear was one of them (or Angry Vs The Hair from the sheer volume of the do's they were sporting!). Described as "frantic, noisy, fizzy electro pop punk", they were very good, but a lot of their songs sounded very similar to the next one and the one before it. But overall, definitely worth a listen.

The first support band were Safari, and I have been desperately trying to locate their Myspace, Twitter, website... anything, but to no avail! which is such a shame, because I thought they were absolutely brilliant! I will definitely be keeping an eye out for them when they start releasing material, and if anyone can find a link for me that would be fantastic. Every song had a slightly different sound to it, quirky lyrics, and were something that I would consider buying to add to my music collection.

Ticket Touting - why do us fans have to foot the bill?

Hello Bloggers, I thought I would interupt my usual cake, shopping, and crafts based blogs to blog about something that is a problem to all of my fellow gig-goers. If like me, you love attending gigs and music events, then the chances are you have come across the infuriating situation where tickets have sold out in 4 minutes only to see those tickets on ebay or other auction sites for ten times the original price.

Me and my younger sister - who is a huge Paramore fan - found out about an intimate, one off gig in London. Tickets went on sale at 9am this morning and we were both on the phone and internet trying to get tickets. To our dismay the tickets sold out in under 4 minutes. Don't get me wrong, I was expecting there to be a lot of competition for tickets, and that they would sell out very quickly, but what I did not want to see was those same tickets that I was in an online queue to buy, up for sale on ebay mere minutes later. The tickets were originally priced at £5, and within an hour the tickets on ebay were up for sale with multiple bidders at £430... and the price just keeps going up. When I started writing this blog the touted tickets were being bidded on and were at £370, and in about 15 minutes the price has jumped up by £60 - over ten times the amount of the original ticket. It would not suprise me that the tickets will be sold for a hundred times the original ticket price. Now tell me this, how is that allowed? and what can we do to stop this from happening? It has been a hotly debated topic and problem as long as there have been gigs and sporting events, and the way that things are going, it will continue to plague us genuine ticket buyers for a while yet.

So what can be done?

Well to begin with, I would encourage you to sign this petition to urge the government to act in regards to ticket touting. http://petitions.number10.gov.uk/stoptouts/

Part of the trouble is that people do actually end up paying silly money on auction websites in order to attend gigs and events. I suppose, putting things very simplistically, if people just stopped buying the tickets from unofficial sources, the professional touters would not have a business. But of course, as long as there is a demand for tickets the touters will exploit that and use it as a means of making money. Plus, things are never as easy as that.

Glastonbury Festival has taken new measures to stop the ticket touting that had routinely robbed hundreds of people of their hard earned cash just because they want to attend a music event. All Glastonbury tickets have the buyer's name and photograph on, thus virtually eliminating the professionally touted tickets. The tickets are checked to ensure that the tickets have not been re-sold. Also, the buyers are limited to two tickets per person to prevent people from buying lots of tickets to sell on for a profit.

One of the issues that would arise if ticket touting for music events was made illegal would be what would happen with those people who genuinely need to sell their tickets on because they are no longer to attend the gig or their circumstances have changed? To help those people, ethical websites have been set up to allow fans to sell their tickets on without profit to other fans who still need tickets. But doesn't that just perpetuate the cycle? What is stopping professional ticket touters from cruising the "ethical websites", buying the tickets, and simply selling them on again at a profit? The internet has made the ticket touter's life very easy indeed and it is up to the music industry and government to find a way of avoiding this from happening.

It is currently illegal to resell tickets for football matches. This measure was brought about to help control football violence, but it has also lead to the end of football ticket touting. So is making it illegal to sell on gig tickets the way forward? What I can say is that it is a very difficult problem to tackle. But if something isn't done about it soon, it will certainly put me off attending mainstream gigs and gigs where, potentially, the demand is going to outstrip the supply. Until the government and music industry can come up with an answer that actually has an impact, fans, promoters and performers will always have to foot the bill and face the consequences of touted tickets.