Miles Kane – Rearranged, Inhaled & Up Closer

Friday September 16th saw a Miles Kane tour-de-force performance at the semi-legendary Kings College London SU, as part of Livemusic’s inaugural Students Union Winter Tour.
Over 300 pairs of free tickets were given away in a Facebook campaign (with a few extra plugs online, on the radio via X.fm and in the NME) to lucky punters across the UK. The evening was an unqualified success (despite some rogue fire alarm activity) and set the bar for the rest of the SU Tour as it tours through 25 Universities throughout the UK.

Bands featured on the tour are up-and-coming indie rock wünderkinds Little Comets, Sheffield psychedelia posters Hey Sholay, Californian psychedelics Little Antlers and legendary electro-anarchist Hexstatic. Baby bands (some of which have come up through the ranks of Live&Loud) are scheduled to fill the support slots as the bands tour around the following Universities during Freshers and beyond: Bristol UWE, Cardiff Uni, Gloucester Uni, Plymouth Uni, Sheffield Hallam, Solent Uni, Sussex Uni, Essex Uni & Reading Uni – the wrap up gig will also be back at Kings College London SU.

Here’s a review of the opening gig featuring Miles Kane and fellow indie rock scousers, Sound of Guns.

The Wirral Riddler kicked off Livemusic’s 2011 Student’s Tour with an absolute belter of a gig at the KCLSU. Kane showed how he has spread his wings from the early days of The Rascals and under the bonhomie of Artic Monkey Alex Turner during his time with the Last Shadow Puppets (not to mention a few other heavy-hitters of the indie scene such as Gruff Rhys) … he has shaped himself into the next iconic indie guitar god to rock our world.
The evening actually got off to a fairly disastrous start as the entire building was evacuated due to a faulty fire alarm … after briefly checking that the building wasn’t actually on fire… Sound of Guns took to the stage to warm up the edgy, slightly over-excited crowd. Luckily these fellow Scousers are old hands at rocking a joint and delivered a blistering set of rock anthems to get the crowd back in the mood for an evening of truly top-drawer live music.

By the time Miles Kane took to the stage the crowd was pretty wild and there was an anticipation of a great gig in the making. With an arsenal of crowd-pleasing rockers such as Rearrange and Come Closer, the crowd weren’t to be disappointed and MK had them in the palm of his hands by the time he’d barely got past the opening numbers. Kane’s versatility as both performer and song-writer were evident in his energy, passion and fire as he strutted the stage weaving sonic vibratos from his retro hollow-body Gibson. By the time the end number “Inhaler” was blasted out of the valves of his classic amp the crowd were at fever pitch. 

All in all it was a tour de force from a young performer who is barely in his mid twenties – and I for one tip this fella to be a future iconic fixture of the Great British music scene. If you don’t believe me watch this awesome video of the gig (also produced by Livemusic) … I think in years to come those that won the exclusive guestlist passes to this gig (through a competition on LIvemusic’s Facebook site) will cherish a truly one-off experience of witnessing a huge future talent in a very intimate gig.

(Main photo Courtesy of Richard Johnson, NME)