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The Cardigans
Shepherd's Bush Empire, London, 21 April 06

"It's been too long!"

A plaintive male voice rings out across the respectively hushed Empire as Nina Persson strides onto a UK stage for a proper gig for the first time in, well, yes, far too long, actually.

"I know," smiles Nina in response. "Last time we released an album the Queen was only turning 76. That was no reason to celebrate as far as we were concerned so it's no coincidence that we're here now."

And, when you think about it, there are similarities between Her Majesty and the Queen of Scandinavian Indie Pop. They both exude old world glamour, they can both come across as quite haughty, their public appearances usually see both of them surrounded by blokes with varying degrees of hair loss and, after recent momentous events in the world of indie-royal relations, they've both met Steve Lamacq.

And, as with our monarch, Nina's mere presence in town will always be an excuse for a certain section of the community to hang out the bunting. And so, while their days of global pop supremacy are clearly behind them, the Empire (ha!) is still packed to the rafters with besotted fans who long to send her victorious.

On paper, such devotion isn't really rewarded by a set that shuns anything released before Gran Turismo and goes heavy on the last two albums. But in fact, given that Long Gone Before Daylight is their stone cold lost classic and Super Extra Gravity probably the most under-rated album of the last 12 months, tonight pays tribute to those fans that have kept the faith, rather than those who swooned to Lovefool and then nicked off when the going got a bit folky.

So, For What It's Worth actually gets a bigger cheer than Your Favourite Game, the crowd revel in the understated likes of You're The Storm and Don't Blame Your Daughter (Diamonds), and Good Morning Joan stands revealed as this album's hit just waiting to happen.

But mostly, it's all about Nina. Her sensational voice is given full rein from Disney-soundtrack-pretty to broken-woman-rasp, she seems to have added a certain cheeky playfulness to her usually frosty stage demeanour and, of course, she has the advantage of being not entirely ugly.

As she hurls roses into the crowd during Losing A Friend, failing to clear the first few rows, she smiles: "Now you see how I sucked at gymnastics at school," and ... oh dear, half the crowd seem to have exploded at the mere thought.

As they return for their final encore, she teases the crowd that "There's one song we forgot to play". This turns out to be Communication rather than one of their planet-conquering proper hits but the Cardies cognoscenti understand fully and the night ends as it began, with a plaintive voice pleading "You're so sweet!" to much chortling from those of us not quite THAT sad and a smile of triumph from la Persson.

Gawd bless yer, Ma'am. Long may you reign ...


Red Hot Chili Peppers
King's Cross Canvas, London , 14 April 06

Whereas it's nice just to see the Cardies at all, seeing the Chili Peppers tonight is plain odd. After all, it's not every day you get to see The World's Biggest Rock Band play a rollerdisco rink to just a few hundred people, including Dizzee Rascal, Rachel Hunter and Tess Daly.

Anyone for Strictly Come Slam Dancing?

I never dug the Chilis until Blood Sugar Sex Magik, so have only previously seen them at hay-uge outdoor events. Seeing them dropping bum notes and goofing off in here seems wrong somehow, like watching Tom Cruise do panto. Still, give it a couple of years ...

Thankfully, the Chilis served their time as a punk rock bar band and adapt effortlessly to their surroundings, going easy on the new Stadium Arcadium material and hitting us with enjoyably unslick versions of Scar Tissue, Otherside and By The Way.

They too show a Cardigans-esque disregard for their early material, although they do hammer through Me And My Friends for old time's funk-rock sake.

It ends with a topless Anthony Kiedis cavorting like a mad thing and hollering Give It Away like a drunken Comanche, while the crowd of competition winners turn Good Friday into Frenzied Friday.

Sorry Tess, but these 'boys' aren't quite ready for the ballroom dancing circuit just yet.