Patti Smith at St Giles In The Fields

Patti Smith

St Giles In The Fields, 27 January 2011

Wow. This show will be the one to beat. And how appropriate it was staged in the rather sacred setting of a centuries old church because this really was music as a religious experience.

St Giles In The Fields stands in the heart of the city, just off Charing Cross Road. You can see it looking small but majestic while walking down Denmark Street, the stretch of shops otherwise known as London's Tin Pan Alley, the home to a wide assortment of stores selling sheet music, guitars and other instruments. Its tall but simple steeple is a small beacon of a little peace and respite from the bustling streets surrounding Oxford Street. It's no wonder then that Patti Smith, on a trip to London, discovered it one day while visiting Denmark Street and found some poetic solace in its tranquil atmosphere and impressive history.

Laura Cantrell at Monto Water Rats

Laura Cantrell
James Walbourne

Monto Water Rats, 26 January 2011

I wish I could say I discovered Laura Cantrell on John Peel's uber-cool recommendation or first heard her voice drifting from the radio on his hugely influential radio show, he was afterall the man who introduced her to these shores and called her debut, Not The Tremblin' Kind, his favourite album "of the past 10 years and possibly my life". But in reality I came to the Laura Cantrell party rather late and through the recommendation of a Flaming Lips-loving friend. It was just after her third album came out, Humming By The Flowered Vine, around the time Laura had her first child which has meant that she hasn't toured in five and a half years and I missed the boat in order to see her live.

Richard Thompson at the Royal Festival Hall

The Richard Thompson Band

Royal Festival Hall, 18 January 2011

"I like kittens and little babies. Can't you see that's the kind of guy I am?" Richard Thompson sings at the start of the show. It's the opening line of The Money Shuffle, the first song on his excellent new album Dream Attic (which he amusingly dedicates to the bankers of the world) but somehow it seems the truth, because all through this three hour show Thompson comes across as a truly nice guy: funny, sweet and self-deprecating, not one of the greatest guitarists in the world today and a true British music legend, which he most definitely is.