D'Angelo performing @ Brixton Academy, London, Friday 3rd February 2012.

[Edited 2/3/12 22:24pm]

"Feel Like Makin' Love" (Roberta Flack cover).

Due to finance reason only i was not at this show..... Welcome Back D'Angelo .... now lets see you back in the UK in the summer at some gig's please !!

Thanks for these, Identity.

Was at the concert last night, pretty amazing stuff. The new songs also sound very promising.

For those who are going tonight, you are in for a treat!

Stranger

^

Did you pickup any tour merch?

'Ain't That Easy' from London. Cool clothes!

D'Angelo @ O2 Academy Brixton on 03 Feb 12.

Credit: Photographer unknown

Identity said:

^

Did you pickup any tour merch?

No, I didn't but they had some cool t-shirts and a tour-programme. Darn it, now I regret not getting a t-shirt. Shoot.

RNB Jesus for real!!!

[Edited 2/5/12 19:34pm]

Identity said:

[Edited 2/5/12 19:34pm]

Nice shot!

"Untitled" in HD.

He seems so very genuinely appreciative of the crowd.

scriptgirl said:

He seems so very genuinely appreciative of the crowd.

Yea he does.... he is such a natural at what he does... which is so rare... So happy for him...

I LOVE the footages...

Yeah, his talent is the tru def of heaven sent and the way he blesses those piano keys-MUCH better pianist than guitarist. He doesn't suck as a guitarist, but I don't think that is his gift.

Concert Review

D'Angelo @ Brixton Academy

By T. Armstrong

Spoonfed.com

When D'Angelo's debut album Brown Sugar dropped in 1995, it changed the face of soul music. No longer was it an empty, over-produced shadow of its former self; it was real again.

The critics went equally as mad for the follow up, Voodoo, sending D'Angelo well on his way to the top of Mount Soulympus to sit among the greats. And then – nothing. Off the radar. Rumours of drug addiction, stints in rehab and arrests circulated, but musically, someone switched the light off.

That was until the beginning of this year, when the man whose short career had become another example of lost young talent announced two surprise dates at Brixton Academy in association with PhatNights events. I, and the rest of the sold out venue, stand with baited breath.

The lights go on and there he is, with longer hair but unmistakable in stature, his charisma undented. Roberta Flack's 'Feel Like Makin' Love' sets the tone, sending the crowd into a mass sing-along. It's OK – he's still got it.

Switching comfortably between an electric guitar and a keyboard with veteran bassist and Voodoo collaborator Pino Palladino providing a dark funk groove, the band work through new arrangements, extended jams, with purposeful omissions of some of his best known hits, at least in any form with which we're familiar.

It's naïve to expect anything less from a man who's sophomore album was a masterpiece in studio jams and unstructured beauty, but still a bold move by any standards from an artist with almost zero stage practise in over a decade.

Then begins 25 minutes of the most raw sexual music London has been witness to for a long, long time. Parliament's 'I've Been Watching You' segues into 'Sh*t, Damn, Motherf*cker' in a haze of red light and moaning guitar solos.

D'Angelo has often been compared to Prince and Marvin Gaye, and while a ten year sabbatical means he can now never match that great pair's prolificacy, when it comes to cool, natural charisma, and ability to make female legs turn to jelly, there's no question he matches up.

Musically the band is as tight as any, which is all the more reason they could be used to greater effect during the solo keyboard medley, with 'Spanish Joint' and 'Africa' lacking the soft encouragement of Amir Thomson's expert drumming on the studio cut. We're even treated to a few new songs from the supposedly forthcoming James River album, 'Sugar Daddy' being the most popular.

A near ten minute JB's style encore structured loosely around ''Brown Sugar'' rounds off the night. To perform so confidently in light of such weighty expectation is amazing. A lesser artist would have certainly buckled under the pressure, but here is somebody who knows as well as we do that he lives up to the hype.

[Edited 2/6/12 12:57pm]

"Sugar Daddy" London, Brixton 02 Academy Feb/3rd/2012.

Can someone please, please, PLEASE promise me this album will be released really, really, REALLY soon? Including a live bonus DVD, please.

I'm going crazy here.

Any boots of the Brixton gigs circulating yet?

This guy is how we WISH Prince would be.

I will say that in my 41+ years on this earth, D'angleo is probably one of the Top 10 live concert acts I've seen in my life (and coming from a jazz father and an r&b loving mama I've seen quite a few). Didn't get a chance to see him on this mini-tour of Europe, but he mos def falls in the pool of acts I think a person should see once in their life if they love funk and soul, the kid puts on a damned good show and I hope to see him again live one day.

Heaven Sent: The Wonderful Live Return Of D'Angelo

by Melissa Bradshaw

02/07/2012

D'Angelo has made a return to the live fray this year. Melissa Bradshaw headed to his Brixton Academy show, brimming with anticipation, and was met with a visceral performance, all sex, swagger and soul.

Could it have been more brilliant if, when the lights finally came up, D'Angelo had turned out to be fat? It was brilliant. To open such a hotly, anxiously awaited live show like that. Playing with your audience and knowing exactly what you are doing.

All the lights of Brixton Academy are down, the stage is dark, and for a first few, disparate notes, worried glances pass among of the audience. There is understandable trepidation - earlier this week, in Amsterdam, D'Angelo had fallen off the stage and had to postpone a show.

Slowly, a few bass licks, drum kicks and rhythm guitars begin to synchronise into the cool, low swing of 'Playa Playa', those gospel vocals melting in and out. In the dark, we hear again the things that madeVoodoo such a uniquely beautiful album – visceral, spiritual. Pino Palladino's legendary bass lines and hip hop drums played by Chris 'Daddy' Dave. A trip switches in my head, bringing back the feelings I'd had when as a twenty-year-old I first, obsessively, played D'Angelo's second album (I had it on a minidisc!), and – zoom!

The lights come up and there is D'Angelo with a nine-piece band. Singing 'Feel Like Makin' Love'. Not only buff – enormous. Swaggering, cutting a stunning, muscles, vests and leather silhouette. It is so fucking cool.

Fears that D'Angelo had lost it were fuelled by arrests, rumours of drug addiction and alcoholism, and pictures in which he appeared bloated and fat. We never want our stars to lose their shine, but in D'Angelo's case, the significance of his being fat or not was particularly acute. When, eleven years ago, the video for 'Untilted', the hit single from Voodoo, showed D'Angelo apparently naked, ripped and glistening, pleading a lover whom any woman watching the video could feel was herself, his body became invested with an overwhelming amount of meaning.

Here was a ridiculously fine man who, in a world casually throwing around images of semi-naked women as it constantly bullies and polices them about their bodies, put his body on display and said, 'I want you'. It was a video that catered for the way straight women see. "No-one", my friend tells me as we leave Brixton academy, "can tell me that female sexuality isn't visual!"

It has been suggested by Voodoo's drummer and producer Ahmir Thompson (aka Questlove) that the impact of 'Untitled' made D'Angelo want to be fat. Male viewers were said not to like the video. (I played 'Untitled' to a gay male friend recently, who scoffed and said something about narcissism). And if D'Angelo wanted to be fat because of all the women screaming 'get your kit off!' at his shows, doesn't that have something to do with the rarity of those kinds of images of men in R&B?

It's unlikely those reactions have been the only reason for D'Angelo's absence, but what a sad testimony to the cultural censoring of feminine desire, if the ensuing war of words had destroyed the artist. And what a sad indictment too, of the stupid b*h behind me, who tries to make me apologise for knocking my drink over herself, nearly makes me fight her, keeps harassing both of my mates, and is clearly embarrassing her male companion. Yes, she is one of those women shouting "get your kit off!"

It's such a failure, of self-awareness as much as anything, not to recognise that it's far from just D'Angelo's body that makes him one of the hottest men on earth. He is often referred to (more by men, I notice) as the Jesus of R&B: already there are headlines about his resurrection. I find this both worrying and understandable. One stage, more clearly than on record, he appears to carry within and around him all the great gods of R&B and rock & roll. I keep detecting Sly Stone (still alive somewhere, in a caravan) in the tumbles of his voice, and Al Green in the top notes.

Everything sounds more funky than I thought, and though the band are styled in the hallmarks of proper neo-soul era streetwear (denim jackets, leather, black flat caps, nice jewellery), their presence as an ensemble makes me think of Parliament. Indeed, a cover of 'I've Been Watching You' is one of the memorable moments of their set, while 'Shit, Damn, Motherfucker' gets a drawn-out funky treatment. The only woman on stage, vocalist Kendra Foster, wears PVC and face paint, but in general the band they look much more minimal than Soultronics, with whom D'Angelo toured Voodoo.

At other moments, D'Angelo seems to be reuniting the guitar with R&B, channelling the spirit of Jimi Hendrix - both in the mystical combination of his guitar and voice, and somehow through his lead guitarist, Jeff Lee Johnson. Johnson is clad entirely in leather; leather trousers, leather jacket, wears a black (also leather?) trilby half over his face and plays two guitar solos that are both virtuoso and mad, chainsaw-like. I keep saying "Jimi" and my friend keeps saying "Sonny Sharrock".

Our other friend says he's not so sure about that bit, "but did you notice those cymbal things, and is one of the vocalists playing the handclaps off that drum-pad thing?" We all do a lot of wide-eyed nodding, and grinning.

New song 'Sugar Daddy' has me hearing James Brown, in rhythmical intricacies marking the distance between D'Angelo's forthcoming album and the balladry of his debut, Brown Sugar.

That D'Angelo is able to summon such a great, awesome musical history makes me wish that UK music was more proud of itself. (PhatNights, the young music events company who organised two shows, deserve commendation for doing London proud http://www.phatnights.com/ ). It also makes me realise fully, how much talent, how many years of intense musical study must have gone into being able to put on a show like this.

As D'Angelo rocks around the stage, bandana round his head, hair and clothes unruly, his low cut vest showing off his famous body, I am awed not because he is Jesus-like, but because he's a real man of enormous talent. I take my hat off. More than that, I bow, heart a-flutter.

And for all the gods he can summon, I think my favourite part of the show is D'Angelo, alone at the keyboard. Very much himself, virtuously tinkering and crooning. And the moment where, on playing the first few bars of 'Untitled', the audience begins to scream, and he bounces away from the keyboard, teasingly, then runs back and did it again. Looking confident, cheeky, and happy.

What if the lights had come up and D'Angelo had been fat? It could have been kinda cool, proving that his size was inconsequential to his music.

But this is way better than that would have been: D'Angelo looking and sounding so deservedly comfortable with his fine self, as musician and performer. That is a real comeback.

http://thequietus.com/art...ive-review

[Edited 2/7/12 15:01pm]

UK Concert Review

February 8, 2012

Michael “D’Angelo” Archer has had an eventful last 12 years.

A long battle with alcohol, substance and Popeye’s abuse, as well as numerous court cases, left many with a sinking feeling of uncertainty for the former heartthrob’s foreseeable future. Not to mention the mug shot from the Virginia native’s 2010 arrest for attempting to pay an undercover cop for oral sex was released was just . . . no instead of yes.

Thankfully, the roots box Angie Stone shipped to his home residence more a decade ago had an expiration date.

Now, with a new album, James River, in the pipeline (albeit a seemingly endless pipeline), like some deposed but rehabilitated monarch, he’s re-saddled his horse and rode in to re-claim his crown.

Before a Brixton audience giddy with excitement, D’Angelo looked the part but only in part. His flab has evaporated, but his comedy hair, vest and romper suit trousers suggested Rab C. Nesbitt auditioning for Mad Max. But D’Angelo is more than a former tour de force who’s been forced to tour and with a nine-piece band honed to perfection, this was no Whitney Houston-style car-crash comeback.

Instead, while 22 minutes of “Shit, Damn, Motherfucker” was 17 minutes too many, waves of sex-fuelled, groove-laden transcendence summoned the ghosts of his troubled but torch-carrying forefathers: James Brown, Sly Stone, Prince and Marvin Gaye. Oh, and Lenny Kravitz.

His priapic version of ''Feel Like Making Love'' and his own ''Chicken Grease'' whipped themselves up into all-guns-blazing frenzy; a souped-up ''Brown Sugar'' stopped and started like an old soul revue, while spry new songs ''The Charade'' and ''Sugar Daddy'' were supertight aperitifs for James River.

And when he dismissed the band and embarked upon a lengthy but mesmerizing, piano-propelled medley of favorites, including a spine-tingle ''Untitled (How Does It Feel)'', the crowd sang along as if he’d never been away. (SOURCE)

Truly happy for D. He deserves all the rave reviews he's getting. By the time he hits the States (if he hits the States), his buzz should be pretty big.

I just hope D can stay on the comeback road stay away from the detours.