Hammersmith Apollo, London, England - May 18th, 2001
Saw him supporting Neil Finn. Otherwise, I would probably never have heard of Ed. His blend of jazz, funk, pop and rock made me go out and buy his EP a few days later. Very good fun. Here is my review from the time:
Anyway, support was from some guy called Ed Har(d?)court. He and his band (together, they were a 5-piece) managed to play between them, acoustic guitar, electric guitar, upright bass (picked *and* bowed), banjo, trumpet, keyboard (mainly on the piano voice), drums, maracas, accordion and xylophone. I really don't know how to describe them... My girlfriend said Ed sounded a bit like Damon Albarn (of Blur) and I guess that's a fair assessment. Overall their music was reminiscent of Semisonic but with jazzy overtones. They played about 7 or 8 songs and then finished and there was quite a long wait before Neil came out.
Riverside Studios, Hammersmith, London, England - October 6th, 2001
I don't know why I'm cross-posting this to the Counting Crows list, but Ed's album was produced by Gil Norton, so that makes it sorta on-topic. Anyway, got back from seeing Ed Harcourt at Riverside Studios a couple of hours ago. He played "Apple of my Eye" and "Those Crimson Tears". Everyone seemed to like AoME, but TCT seemed less popular - "Shanghai" would have been a better choice, IMHO. Also on the bill was Embrace (great), The Beautiful South (also great), Gabrielle (less great, although she did a great cover of Burt Bacharach's "Walk On By") and Sophie Ellis Bextor (a bit crap). Pretty much everyone had to repeat a song or two due to technical problems (the whole thing was being filmed to be broadcast throughout November and December) - Ed included. Sophie Ellis Bextor had to repeat both songs - after we heard that she was going to repeat the second song, the whole audience let out an audible groan, which I guess was a bit hard on Sophie, but hey. Anyway, that's about all I have to say about that.
The Empire, Shepherd's Bush, London, England - November 17th, 2001
b... b... b...
Now that I've regained the power of speech... what a great show! After not having had any tickets delivered, I was on the phone to the post office and Way Ahead all morning. In the end I had to leg it to the local sorting office. I got there about 3 minutes before it closed and picked up my envelope.
On returning home, I discovered that I had accidentally ordered only one ticket! So I had to frantically ring round Shepherd's Bush to get hold of another. Anyway, in the end everything was sorted.
Got to the show at about 6:20pm - doors were due to open at 6:30... actually opened about 6:40. The first support band New Buffalo was awful. The lead singer insisted on using a crappy cheap keyboard on "church organ" voice for the first two songs. She then turned to the guitar, almost managing to redeem herself, before launching into a hideous a capella number and then back onto the keyboard.
My mate Tom, who had come to the show with me (hence the second ticket) had heard a song by the next band before and described them as being similar to The Divine Comedy, although I'd say that a cross between Coldplay and INXS would be closer to the mark. They were called Ben and Jason. Good, but not good enough to convince me to buy their album. The lead singer (Ben, I presume) had a great stage presence, and moved about quite a bit, despite managing to keep his head perfectly still.
Ed Harcourt was of course on next. I can't remember exactly what he played, but it included all the usual favourites - She Fell Into My Arms, Apple Of My Eye, Heart of Darkness, Shanghai, Crimson Tears and I've Become Misguided were all in there. He played a lot of new songs - five I think, including Fireflies. I was disappointed that Alligator Boy wasn't on the set list - it's a great rocking song and I'd have loved to see him play it.
Amongst the audience was Ed's parents and brother, so he was on best behaviour - even wearing a suit. He seemed happy and chatted a bit with the audience.
The whole show was being filmed, although the cameras looked a little cheap, so I'm guessing it was for a webcast, rather than the TV.