Taylor Swift, Glasgow & Manchester
As enormous as her popularity is, Taylor Swift remains as relatable as ever. Not for her songs about the isolation of celebrity, disaffection in the Skybar and so forth. Instead, Swift mints her music as she ever has, from the immediately recognisable ingredients of romantic disappointment, misunderstanding and frustration; identifiable to both the young teenage fans who make up the bulk of her audience and the parents accompanying them. Still only 25, Swift’s 10 years in the music business and her stylistic move from pop-country to pure pop haven’t altered her core values: her persona is of a kind of ageless, hip high school nerd, her experience measured in her persistent wit and lyrical grace rather than sexuality or attitude. Tough to top the hits from her 2012 album Red, but her current album, 1989, keeps them coming.
SSE Hydro, Glasgow, Tue; Manchester Arena, Wed; touring to 30 Jun
JR
Natalie Prass, On tour
It’s one thing to declare the attic of your house a studio and your friends a house band – quite another to make it a going concern. That, however, is what Matthew E White has managed with his Richmond, Virginia operation Spacebomb records, and something that has given his assertion additional ballast is the emergence of Natalie Prass. A schoolfriend of White’s, Prass similarly seems the product of a good record collection, her own voice having some of the sweetness and laser clarity that characterised the classics of Diana Ross. Indeed, against the rich background of brass and strings that White and his friends supply, on her eponymous debut album the singer seems to channel classic 70s soul, a golden age of compositional heartbreak.
JR
Glastonbury Festival
There’s only one thing that’s predictable about Glastonbury these days, and that’s the outcry when the main stage headliner is revealed to be a hip-hop artist. It’s possible to draw some unhappy conclusions from this. Equally, perhaps it’s a postmodern joke: festivals were once a protest as well as a celebration, and we now rouse ourselves from decadent stupor only to protest the headline act. But, really, it’s missing the point of what Glastonbury can still offer: it’s unlikely that you will ever be able to wander – so peaceably and in such good company – off the path of what you thought that you liked and into the realms of something new. And be warned: that might even be Kanye West.
Worthy Farm, Pilton, Wed to 28 Jun
JR
Lydia Lunch Retrovirus, London
A central cog of the New York no wave scene, Lydia Lunch has stayed true to the form, recording spiky spoken word, writing, and playing with a string of groups across decades of activity, while also finding time to publish a cookbook on feeding friends and lovers, subtitled Recipes For Developing A Healthy Obsession For Deeply Satisfying Foods. Lunch’s Retrovirus takes songs from her back catalogue and covers them with renewed grit, supported by a stellar backing band including Weasel Walter on guitar, bassist Tim Dahl and Sonic Youth drummer Bob Bert (who played on Bad Moon Rising, among other albums), with a shrieking, gloriously seething cover of Suicide’s Frankie Teardrop on the set list, too. Mesa Of The Lost Women support, a heavy trio that count Japanese underground great Junko in their number, plying her signature feral yelp amid a racket of hammered percussion and harsh guitar noise.
JA
Scottish National Jazz Orchestra & Eddi Reader, On tour
With only a small jazz scene to recruit from, and no funding in the early years, Scottish saxophonist Tommy Smith nonetheless turned his country’s national jazz orchestra into a world-class outfit. The adaptable SNJO can operate as a powerful contemporary band, or in repertory guise; they recently performed a Sinatra programme with US vocalist Kurt Elling, and they’ve remade music as different as the jazz-fusion of the Yellowjackets and Duke Ellington tunes. For this tour, they perform with three-time Brit award-winner Eddi Reader. The globetrotting Reader’s eclectic achievements take in punk, work with hitmaking folk band Fairground Attraction, and unique interpretations of Robert Burns’s poetry. These gigs feature her on a wide-ranging repertoire of Scottish songs.
JF
Seven Gates: The Music Of Poland Explored, Manchester
In the 1960s, Krzysztof Penderecki was at the forefront of European contemporary music, part of a new wave of Polish composers whose avant garde techniques flew in the face of socialist realism – until the mid-70s, that is, when his music became far more conservative. Still one of the best known living composers, in Britain at least, his pieces have been heard less and less often. This week, as part of a festival celebrating the music of Poland, he is at the Royal Northern College Of Music, conducting the UK premiere of his Symphony No 7, Seven Gates Of Jerusalem (Fri). As much an oratorio as a symphony, it was composed in 1996 to mark the third millennium of the city of Jerusalem.
Royal Northern College Of Music, Wed to Fri
AC
