Thu 20 Mar – Sugababes, Gabriella Cilmi

This evening I became a teenager again as I paid homage to those three princesses of pop, the Sugababes! I saw the 'Babes last year at the IndigO on a free ticket and they were such a breath of fresh air that, when I heard about the Albert Hall gig, I just had to get tickets. And I'm so pleased I did!

The 'Babes were on for 1.20 hours of non-stop music, movement, colour, dancing, smiles and great songs. The 'Babes were in great voice, synchronised movement sharing the front of the stage,…

Sun 9 Mar – Linton Kwesi Johnson

I spent a thoroughly enjoyable evening with Mr Linton Kwesi Johnson and his friends, the Dennis Bovell Dub Band, Winston Francis, Jean 'Binta' Breeze and Zena Edwards and a couple of thousand people at The Barbican.

The first half of the evening was for Zena and then for Jean and Winston who were both backed by Dennis's excellent Dub Band. I was particularly taken by Jean's dub poems with exciting backing tracks.

The second half opened with Dennis's Dub Band doing four tracks and showing their worth - a really good band and…

The tension rose every time something happened on or around the stage, loud music pumping from the onstage DJ, the stage sparse and simple, Paul's drums covered and off to one side. The lights went down and cheers erupted. I was looking to both wings to see where they would emerge from but they didn't. Instead, the back of the stage opened and light streamed out as they walked down the centre of the stage. They were here. Roadies wheeled Paul's drums centre-stage as they picked up guitars and John prowled the stage responding caustically to shouts of 'you fat…

Suzanne is promoting her latest album, ‘Beauty & Crime,’ and turned up at the reserved surroundings of Cadogan Hall off Sloane Square for a gig with her band. Firstly we had to sit through the support act, Gary Daly (formerly of China Crisis). Unfortunately, if this is the launch of his new solo career then he needs to do some more work and there was little there to keep my attention. I preferred his last three songs to the first lot. Ho hum. Anyway, on to Suzanne…

I last saw Miss Vega in July at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on…

Maximo Park were seriously good on both nights they played at Brixton, a tight, class act playing off each other as only a well rehearsed band can. They played mostly the same set with the only difference that springs to mind was playing 'Wasteland' on 11 Oct and 'Nosebleed' 12 Oct.

Paul was all over the shop, not standing still for a minute, running from one side of the stage to the other, jumping, pumping the air with his arms, whipping up the crowd and jumping on the two podiums and leaping off them. He even did his trademark jumping-leg-split…

Siouxsie came on stage to rapturous applause and launched into 'Israel' followed by 'Arabian Knights'and that established the tone for the rest of the set, mixing Banshee classics with songs from the new album and that approach worked exceptionally well, new and old songs seemlessly meshing. The only thing missing was anything from The Creatures but that might be down to the absence of Budgie.

Siouxsie strutted across the stage, arms weaving in dramatic gestures, legs kicking high, hands slapping her thighs in time to the drums, throwing back her head one moment and leaning in to tease the front…