Jamie Lidell at The Academy (May 3rd) was a disappointment. He came out on stage and burst into song - without taking a breath he sang two more. His voice does sound great live but I felt uncomfortable - it was obvious that he was going through the hundrum routine of another gig. The best part was when a member of his backing band started messing with a vocoder (it was so ridiculous that I laughed out loud) - and Lidell went back to what he knows best - using effects and samples. At the latter half of the gig he repeated the 3 songs he sang at the start but with a different rhythm. This is something you can have perhaps at a dancehall show but maybe not at this kind of gig - especially when I had actually paid for my ticket. The main thing I'll take from this gig is that there is only one person that can get away with wearing silk-pjama-like trousers on stage, and that's Jamie Lidell.

Ghostface Killah was at the Tivoli, May 15th. The first forty minutes were kind of great, however it abruptly transformed into a pantomime. Girls from the crowd were asked to go on stage to dance around to a track about pussy. It subsequently got worse with a battle between Dub-a-lin wannabe rappers - which was embarrassing. No encore, just the guys that MC with Ghostface selling t-shirts and CDs - shouldn't that happen in the venue - not from the stage?