AN IDEAL CHRISTMAS GIFT (1)

You could do a lot worse than spend £12 on a new double CD from Malcolm Middleton.

It consists of two live gigs - one recorded in Zurich on September 2009 and the other in Glasgow a few months later in December 2009. The former is a set with a full band while the latter is a solo effort.

The Zurich set is excellent. Backed by Scott Simpson on drums, Jim Lang on keyboards and The Pictish Trail on guitar, bass and backing vocals, this is a slightly different line-up than that which had toured the Waxing Gibbous LP for most of 2009 - there's no Jenny Reeve on violin - meaning the songs are a bit more sonic than I was expecting. But the tone is set from the very opening track - a thoroughly stunning and radical version of Crappo The Clown which is almost 8 minutes in length that enables the band to hit the stage with a huge bang. And while I know the CD at 63 minutes is a condensed version of the entire show, the running order finally selected and released gives the listener total aural pleasure.

Every one of the five studio LPs recorded between 2002 and 2009 is represented and there's also one as yet unreleased track called One More Song. There's highlight and highlight after highlight....and even when you expect something to not quite work - for instance, the absence of a female backing vocal on Stay Close Sit Tight- the live arrangement takes the song to a different level. Oh and it also shows how brilliantly commercial a songwriter Malcolm has become - it wouldn't sound out of place in the greatest hits package of many an international superstar singer or band.

The main part of the show ends with a real barnstormer.

Anyone who has ever caught Malcolm live over the years will know that Jenny's violin does something special to A Brighter Beat. Well, Malcolm's axe-playing where the violin used to come in really is something to behold - his teenage love of AC/DC is obvious......you will find it impossible not to do that headbanging dance so beloved of the metal fans.

And after that, there's the encore - a tear-jerking and stunning version of Don't Want To Sleep Tonight in which The Pictish Trail provides wonderful harmonies and brings the show to a perfect conclusion.

On its own, the Zurich LP would be well worth the money, but that doesn't take account of the second CD - a live recording of a show at Glasgow Oran Mor.

It was billed thus:-

An intimate evening with Scotland's Second Favourite Arch-Miserabilist

MALCOLM MIDDLETON'S

"LONG DARK NIGHT"

Hopefully uplifting, quietly depressing, a collection of comforting,

wintry acoustic songs about love, hate, death and other stuff.

I had a ticket for the gig in mind. It was Malcolm's last of a very busy 2009 and the climax of a mini-tour which was just him and his acoustic guitar. But I never used the ticket as I ended up going away on a much-needed holiday with Mrs Villain. Listening to the live show, I think I may have made a mistake.....I'd have traded 10 days in the Caribbean for one night in the West End of Glasgow.

Back in 2007, Malcolm released Live At The Bush Hall, a live acoustic CD that had been recorded in London in December 2005. The difference between that and this show almost four years to the day afterwards is quite stark. The Bush Hall show is good. The Oran Mor show is exceptional. It is helped by the fact that a lot of the inter-song chat between Malcolm and the audience is largely intact....but it is also testament to how many great songs he's written and recorded since the Bush Hall show.

Malcolm also seems over the years to have gained more belief in his own ability as a singer while his guitar playing is as good as anyone else currently writing and recording music.

Again, there's loads of highlights across the 17 songs (including one as yet unreleased song called Moments). Not one of them is a let down.....but a personal highlight is a completely transformed version of No Modest Bear, a song I've never been hugely fond of until hearing this live rendition.

And please don't just take my word for all of this....Mike over at the always entertaining and enlightening Manic Pop Thrills has written equally positive reviews of Zurich here and of Glasgow here.

mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - Stay Close Sit Tight (live in Zurich)
mp3 : Malcolm Middleton - Fuck It, I Love You (live in Glasgow)

This double CD is limited to just 1000 copies direct from Malcolm's website. And if you get your order in before 12 December the great man will also send you a signed Xmas Card. You cant ask for much more.

Click here to order. And get one for your best friend.......

And with thanks to Matthew of Song, By Toad, here's Malcom playing live and giving us all a unique cover version:-



Happy Listening.