Concerts

Paul Connolly

Robbie: Live at Knebworth, Channel 4, Sat, 9pm

GEORGIE FAME AND THREE LINE WHIP

Gawsworth Hall, Cheshire, Aug 3 (01260 223456)

FAME HAS been recording with his two sons in Three Line Whip since the early Nineties. It is one of the most welcome phases in a career that has lasted for more than 40 years and has seen him rise from a backing musician to become a leading figure in the world of jazz and blues. He has also carved out a pop career and made alliances with stars such as Alan Price, Annie Ross, and, more recently, Van Morrison and Bill Wyman. Is he still one of the most versatile performers around? I think the answer is Yeh Yeh.

John Clarke

THE LATE LATE JUNCTION PROM

Albert Hall, London SW7, Aug 2 (020-7589 8212)

BBC RADIO 3’s Late Junction is a dedicated prom that reflects the same adventurous policy that informs its other activities. Manecas Costa hails from Guinea-Bissau, and recently released his album Paraiso di Gumbe. Kimmo Pohjonen from Finland does for the accordion what Hendrix did for the electric guitar. Ellika & Solo improbably combine traditional Swedish fiddle tunes and West African kora music. Add the Jazz Jamaica All-Stars and the Gypsy brass of the Kocani Orkestar, and you have a diverse evening of global music. Enjoy a good dinner first, though. It’s called the Late Late prom because festivities don’t start until 10pm.

Nigel Williamson

DAN HICKS AND HIS HOT LICKS

The Borderline, London W1, Aug 2 (020-7395 0751)

IN THE mid-Sixties, Dan Hicks played drums with the acid rock pioneers the Charlatans. Then he formed the Hot Licks, a band whose combination of country-jazz-swing was so out of its time that they were booed off a tour with Steppenwolf. Despite a series of fine albums, by 1973 Hicks had grown so disillusioned that he disappeared for more than 20 years. Now he is back with a new album, Beatin’ the Heat, which includes contributions from the likes of Elvis Costello and Rickie Lee Jones. His style remains unchanged. Yet with the rise of bands such as Calexico, today, at 60, he sounds far more in tune with the times than he ever did back then.

NW

RON SEXSMITH

The Borderline, London W1, Aug 4 & 5

(020-7395 0751)

“SONGWRITER’S SONGWRITER” is one of those clumsy clichés that defines someone whose record company is disappointed they haven’t sold more. Yet it fits Ron Sexsmith. From Elvis Costello to Ryan Adams, his fellow troubadours wish that they could write songs like the underrated Canadian. Perhaps it’s not surprising that he isn’t a bigger star. Downbeat narratives full of delicate nuance and subtle introspection are not the stuff of chart sales. But he has enough dedicated followers to ensure that these two nights will be a sell-out.

NW

BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Albert Hall, Aug 8 (020-7589 8212)

THE COMPLICATION of new music is the reason why many people shy away from it. But Ligeti uses complexity to make something invitingly sensuous, and mysterious. In San Francisco Polyphony that intricacy reaches a Baroque extravagance. It will be a brilliant opener for a concert that continues with Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto, in which the soloist is the pianist Stephen Kovacevich. After the interval comes Brahms’s Fourth Symphony. The concert is conducted by Ilan Volkov.

Ivan Hewett

ACADEMY OF ST MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS

Barbican Hall, London EC2, Aug 2 (0845-120 7537)

THIS IS the closing concert of the excellent Mostly Mozart series. By the standards of most classical concerts, it’s a generous evening. Every side of the late composer is here: the pared-down simplicity and exotic colours of the Magic Flute, the dark passion of the G minor Symphony, the resigned, other-worldly beauty of the Requiem. It’s a first-rate line-up that should be able to do justice to all those varied moods. As well as the Academy of St Martin-in-the-Fields and that fine chamber choir the Sixteen, there is an enticing quartet of soloists, including the mezzo Susan Bickley and the tenor Thomas Randle.

IH

ULSTER ORCHESTRA

Ulster Hall, Belfast, Aug 8 (028-9033 8292)

THIS CONCERT in the White Nights — Music of Russia series seems to be as light as the first, with the sparkling overture from Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla, and Prokofiev’s charming Two Pushkin Waltzes. And there is a dose of gorgeous Russian orientalism, with Rimsky- Korsakov’s Tsar Sultan Suite. But the heart of the concert is Shostakovich’s bleak First Cello Concerto. Shostakovich described the first movement as a “jocular march”, but you can’t miss the skull beneath the grin. The last movement kicks off with a savage parody of Stalin’s favourite tune, Suliko. At the opposite extreme is the sad pallor of the cello and celeste duet in the second movement.

IH