Graham Coxon, Electric Ballroom

It’s the hottest day of the summer so far and whilst our work colleagues are supping lager in the sun we’ve chosen to forgo what may the the only sunshine London may see all year to see Graham Coxon, he of Blur fame, rattle through his rather good post-Blur record.

But first, as always, a quick report on the support bands. First on is a Cathy Davey and a group of earnest looking musicians. She has some pretty good tunes and a voice that sits somewhere between Bjork and Louise Weener – this means that the good songs, such as the set closer which comes complete with chemical beats, sound like The Sugarcubes; whilst the more, erherm, MOR, songs sound like Sleeper. Yep kids, things go full circle – the Britpop era had Sleeper and now we have Cathy. Whatever next – a garage version of Menswear? Lets hope not. Anyway I’ve probably done Cathy a disservice, she really isn’t that bad.

Next on are The Futureheads who, in my ignorance, I had assumed were some kind of dance act (Something about that name). How wrong can you be? I’m at the bar when they start their first song and part of me wants to stay at the bar and avoid what sounds like a bad Jam tribute band. They don’t look much better either – something of the Grange Hill School band circa 1984 complete with black trousers and white shirts that appear to be two sizes too small. The lyrics appear to be something about homework and fancying the girl in their French class. Actually, we made that up to make them sound more interesting. In their heads they sound like The Clash. To us the sound, well, dull.

For Graham Coxon this is as close to a gig at home as you can get. He only lives just up the road from the venue and has probably just seen his daughter off to bed before arriving at the venue. Maybe this is why Graham looks so relaxed and dare we say happy when he arrives on stage. Or maybe it’s the fact that he knows he has an album cram packed with top pop songs that he’d like to share with us. We always thought that Damon was the one from Blur with all pop songs and Graham was the one with all the “difficult” influences. But now Graham has the tunes and those influences have all been absorbed into the genetics of the new songs – the cover of Magazine’s That’s when I Reach for My Revolver, from Grahams sophomore LP The Golden D (he’s onto his 4th now, the first three were recorded whilst still with Blur) sounds so fresh and has the front few rows pogoing around.

It’s not just the songs that remind us of Damon – its Grahams whole stage presence. Gone are the days of standing at the side of the stage looking scared – he now commands the centre of the stage, star jumping at the end of songs and bending over his guitar for the solos.

There’s something for everyone here. The old blur fans get to see their guitar hero up close; The new fans get to hear Bittersweet Bundle of Misery and those of us who have followed the evolution of Graham as a solo artist get to hear the excellent I Wish and some rare B-Sides. Everyone has a great time and the mosh pit engulfs the room for Freakin Out.

- posted by Nigella @ 7:36 PM