THE MIDLANDS ESSENTIAL ENTERTAINMENT GUIDE

Music
Bonnie Raitt
Symphony Hall, Birmingham, Tues 11 June
American blues singer-songwriter, slide guitar
player and lifelong political activist Bonnie has
racked up over forty years of musicmaking, her
early-career roots-influenced albums giving way in
the 1980s and ’90s to more commercially accessible
recordings. A ten-time Grammy Award-winner,
she’s perhaps best known for 1990s numbers Nick
Of Time, Something To Talk About, Love Sneakin'
Up On You and I Can't Make You Love Me.
I See Hawks In LA
Henry Tudor House, Shrewsbury, Mon 24 June;
Kitchen Garden Cafe, Birmingham, Sun 7 July
This laidback country rock group hail from sunny
California. Promoting their own brand of Americana
across the globe, from SXSW to not-so-sunny
Shrewsbury, they’ve released six albums since
2001. Influenced by country artists such as Merle
Haggard, George Jones and Buck Owens, and
folkier singer-songwriters such as Bob Dylan,
they’ve been called “a talented, literate bunch of
soulful musicians (that) create honest and wise
roots music for the ages.” They stop off in the Midlands
as part of an eighteen-date UK tour.
Whole Lotta Led
The Place, Oakengates, Telford, Sat 22 June; Ludlow
Assembly Rooms, South Shropshire, Sat 27
July
If Whole Lotta Led don’t reign supreme when it
comes to high-quality tribute acts, they’re certainly
up there vying for top spot with the very best of
’em. Dedicated to recreating the classic studio and
live albums of the legendary Led Zeppelin, they’ve
chalked up a staggering one thousand-plus concerts
since forming in 1993 - irrefutable evidence,
were any to be needed, of just how fantastic a job
they do of paying homage to one of rock music’s
greatest ever bands.
Rihanna
LG Arena, Birmingham, Mon 17 June & Thurs 18 July
Barbadian-born Rihanna has enjoyed a meteoric rise to stardom since bursting onto the
scene with her debut studio album Music Of The Sun in 2005. Two years later things really
took off for her, courtesy of Good Girl Gone Bad and its chart-topping singles Umbrella,
Take A Bow, Disturbia and Don’t Stop The Music. In 2012, American magazine
Time named Rihanna one of the world's most influentual women. Proving her international
popularity, the Rude Boy star has no fewer than five American Music Awards, eighteen
Billboard Music Awards, two BRIT Awards and five Grammy Awards under her belt.
The Who: Quadrophenia
LG Arena, Birmingham, Fri 28 June
This concert sees The Who perform their iconic Quadrophenia double album in its entirety
as part of a twelve-date UK tour. Released in 1973, Quadrophenia was the band’s
second rock opera (after Tommy) and went on to become one of the most influential albums
in the history of rock music. The new concert version has been personally directed
by Roger Daltrey. Focusing on the original album, it replaces the narrative used in previous
stage incarnations with powerful imagery projected on an array of massive screens.
The Who’s founding members Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend will be joined for the
show by Zak Starkey (drums), Pino Palladino (bass), Simon Townshend (guitar/backing
vocals), John Corey (keyboards), Loren Gold (keyboards/backing vocals) and Frank
Simes (musical director, keyboards/backing vocals).
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