I agree Geoff;it was almost "too good" but lacked soul and any real depth. I remember back in the eighties there used to always be an outcry when an artist used backing tracks etc. While there is a place for these invisible musicians, they just seemed to have become part of the norm now. I saw Richard Hawley a few months back and even he used extra backing tracks for some extra guitar and strings parts which was quite surprising. I suppose it would be too costly for him to tour with extra string and guitar players, but the gig would still have sounded good without these extra backing tracks. The end result was of course that his songs sounded just like they do on record.

Wow. I saw Richard Hawley a couple of months ago too and you're right, I remember the keyboard player having a laptop. I suppose more and more now the keyboard player is lit by the glow of the laptop screen feeding a click track to the drummer. That needs to happen if they want to bring those big lush strings in at the right time.

I thought the Richard Hawley show was fantastic and this would be an example where the added use of a click didn't seem blatantly obvious to me.

While I'm definitely a fan of technology in music; I have a small project studio based around a Mac, I suppose it's just a harking back to the days when a performance was just that. The drummer would count everyone in and then there would be some invisible thing that you couldn't quite put your finger on that made that particular version the best for you.

One last example, before I witter on into oblivion - I remember back in the early to mid (I think) nineties, when I went to see Elvis Costello and the Attractions at the Virgin Megastore in Argyle Street, Glasgow. They were doing an in-store and they played 'Good Year for the Roses', which I recorded onto a minidisc (as you do) from a crappy mic I had fed down my sleeve. The quality of the recording was terrible, it peaked and then was compressed down by the mic. The performance however, was nothing short of incredible. I had that for years until for some reason the minidisc lost the table of contents and ceased to play.

So in summary, great performance, flying by the seat of your pants = good. Everyone playing along with a silent metronome = bad. Sometimes... :)

by the Kingsmen is shambolic, out of time and wonderful. I can't think of anything post 1980 that isn't airbrushed or quantised. When I worked in studios, originally the click came from a thing called the Claptrap, which emitted a horrible sound on every beat. It was horrible to play to, so most bands avoided it, mainly because it was the last thing hungover drummers wanted - the sound of something like Nazi stormtroopers marching blasting through their headphones.

The Linn drum and Drumulator came in and everything got really boring to record. We all turned into robots - slaves to the rhythm., and not in a good way.

One of the greatest live shows I have ever seen was Kraftwerk at the Royal Festival Hall.

Saw him at Larry's Hideaway in Toronto, mid-eighties, with the ledgendary Dennis Bovell Dub Band complete with three piece horn section. They were magnificent, concluding each song with a three or four minute "version". Saw him 9 months later, new band with synths, electronic drums and they sounded absolutely horrible, no feel, plasticky arrangements Ugh!!

Electronic instruments and sequencers can sound lovely, but they are also susceptible to misuse by lazy musicians over using sequencers rather than be arsed to play properly. Which gives a horrible robotic sound. Also, electronic gear comed loaded with preset sounds which are programmed to sound immediately impressive in the shop but which are generally over bright and unsubtle sounding and quite fatiguing - these can be edited into something more personal and subtle, but again, lazy musicians can't be arsed and just plug in the old Mac, boot up Logic and off we go.