Camille - Barbican, London - 27.4.12

It was to be the fourth time we've had the unique pleasure of seeing Ms Camille Dalmais live, this time at London's Barbican centre. The only UK (and therefore not surprisingly sold out) date on this (extended) part of the European 'Ilo Veyou' tour she did absolutely nothing to disappoint. In fact, I'd go so far to as to say that this was the best of the four outings! Having front row seats helped as did the the rather good support in the form of the diminutive Mina Tindall (one to watch out for there). Robin came within a hair's breadth - one person - of being dragged onto the stage for the waltz part of 'La France' and stage performance was as eclectic (bonkers) as always - the pic above is a good example as she always has a bit of a lie down for 'Wet Boy'. I even managed to get a copy of 'Le Sac des Filles' (her first album) on the Merc. stand. Roll on the next UK gig Ms Dalmais. We'll be there!

UFO - Concorde II, Brighton - 3.4.12

It'd been a while since I'd been to something 'lard' with proper guitar solos and ringing ears. So an evening at Brighton's Concorde II with the likes of Dirty Shoes, Heavy Metal Kids and UFO led by the ubiquitous Phil Mogg was never going to disappoint. And it didn't!

We got there slightly too late for Dirty Shoes - a pint or three of Dark Star seemed somehow more inviting. But the Heavy Metal Kids (for 'kids' read 'old people') set provided an excellent prelude to the two hours to follow (replete with Justin McConville proving that he can still give himself a good ass-kicking).

What a blistering set. Combining old and new tunes from their 40+ year back catalogue, Phil Mogg proved that being a pensioner doesn't mean that you can't still belt out the gubbins for whatever time it takes. Backed by the solidily of Paul Raymond and Andy Parker, newcomer Vinnie Moore proved admirably that he definately has what it takes with a 12-minute barnstormer version of 'Rock Bottom'. The familiarity of 'Doctor Doctor' filled the packed house for the second encore as midnight came and went. Curfew didn't seem to mean much for Mr Mogg on his home turf but sadly we had to miss out on the final applauds as our lift home awaited. If you want just a flavour of UFO live you could do no better than 2005's 'Showtime'.'Seven Deadly' - their latest studio album - was released in February.