A Gig of Two Halves and a Tale of Two Singers

A reminder of how things should be...

A matter of days after the experience of high security at Brixton Academy we simply stroll into Union Chapel, although there is an embarrassing moment when we pause, offering ourselves to be searched, and the people on the door just look at us! It somehow feels good to be entering a building on trust; a reminder of how things should be!

It also feels good to be heading into a wonderful venue with an old friend from back up north. We claim a space on a pew with our coats and head to the bar. After picking my mate up off the floor  - he has paid for a couple of drinks what we used to pay in our local for a round of 5 drinks - we find a space and catch up.

Like some modern day Rapunzel...

The last gig we went to together I went to hear the support band (British Sea Power) and he went to hear the headliners (Manic Street Preachers). Tonight is only slightly different. True, this time we are both here for the headline act (Billy Bragg) but although I am looking forward to seeing him again, I still can’t wait to hear the support, Duke Special.

He does not disappoint. Behind his keyboard on a table are old gramophones. As the lights dim a gentleman walks majestically on stage and, with white-gloved hands, places a disc on a turntable, carefully positioning the stylus and lowering it. Towards the end of the track Duke Special appears and standing behind his keyboard leans forward to play, like some modern day Rapunzel, with his dreadlocked-hair falling far below the instrument.

The support set is beautiful and theatrical. Discs and cylinders are changed and played as introductions and backing tracks. Yes, he could programme the same effects into a MacBook (ubiquitous at gigs nowadays) and achieve the same audio effect, but the theatre of the assistant and the live nature of the engagement between artist and recording lifts the performance. A performance, which ends with a fantastic rendition of Salvation Tambourine, and we are glad he has come to London!

Time for another round…

A fresh cup of Bovril - so rock ‘n’ roll...

We return to our seats just as Billy Bragg walks out and launches into ‘A Lover Sings’. For all Duke Special’s theatre, Bragg is the stripped back rebel with a chord. Both approaches suit the individual artists - neither could pull off what the other does. For this reason this is a gig of two halves and a tale of two singers but it works as a whole.

The exceptionally talented CJ Hillman, who adds finesse to the raw nature of Bragg’s songs, joins Bragg for part of the set. But this does not take away from the power of Bragg’s songs and his presence as the voice of the people’s protest. Neither does the sight of his guitar roadie boiling the kettle and brewing up and mixing a fresh cup of Bovril - so rock ‘n’ roll!

Five days ago Brittany Howard, of Alabama Shakes, had thanked the Brixton Academy for coming out and braving a gig. Bragg, by contrast, uses the recent events in Paris, firstly to promote the collection he is taking for the family of the ‘merch guy’ who was first to be killed at the Bataclan, and then to push home the point about what it is like to live in fear for your life and that of your family. ‘Imagine if what happened in Paris happened in London, imagine if it happened regularly, imagine if it was a daily occurrence – its no wonder those who experience such violence and bloodshed in Syria want to seek safety for their family.’ As ever Bragg shows the bigger picture to us.

We’re a bit late to the party...

In between the political commentary Bragg returns to cheap and easy jokes about playing in a Church. I have seen Bragg a few times before and one of the best of his concerts I have been to was at Greenbelt (a Christian Arts Festival) in 2003 - his encore rendition of ‘Jerusalem’ was one of the most moving musical moments I have experienced. So I find his throwaway humour about church and faith annoying. It’s not that I have a problem laughing at faith, but  in front of that audience at Greenbelt he had said: ‘I’ll work with anyone who wants a compassionate society – you guys have been working on that for 2000 years – we’re a bit late to the party’. It would have been good to hear the same sentiment in amongst the jokes at the Churches’ expense. I’m sure I am not the only one in the audience who has faith, both  in God and  in the protest of artists like Bragg, believing together we can change this flawed society.

As he returns for the encore a member of the crowd heckles – calling for

‘Waiting for the Great Leap Forward’ by asking whether is Jeremy Corbyn the Great Leap Forward? Without even a thoughtful pause Bragg explains that no one person is that Great Leap forward but rather all those who joined the Labour Party to be part of the movement, all of us who call for a different, fairer society. Leaders will come and go, he tells us, but if we continue to stand together then we are the Great Leap Forward.

It has been a fabulous evening of music with bits of theatre and comedy thrown in. It has been an evening of friendship and beer. It has been an evening that fires the spirit to believe once again that this world doesn’t have to be like it is.  It has been an evening to be reminded of how things should be!

Gig: 36 of 50

Date of Gig: Mon. 23rd November 2015

Venue

Union Chapel

Artists 

Duke Special

Billy Bragg

Running total of artists seen 75

Sex and a bit of protest thrown in

Like that scene from Spinal Tap...

A few blogs back and I was eulogizing about The Borderline and the joys of heading into a basement to listen to music. Tonight I’m once again heading down into the depths of a building. This time I’m at the Sebright Arms in Bethnal Green although I’m turning too many corners for me to be confident of ever reaching the venue. It’s just like that scene from Spinal Tap, except on this occasion it’s the audience member who is lost and not the band! I chant ‘Rock ‘n’ Roll’ and beat out a drum rhythm on the heating ducts until I finally turn a corner and open a door and am relieved to find myself in a cozy venue with an audience standing around the sides of the room just like we did as teenagers at the school disco in the early 1980’s. 

Sophie Morgan is support tonight and announces her presence on stage with a geography lesson. ‘I’m from Widnes. It’s a town between Liverpool and Manchester,’ and then a thank you for turning out to see her, ‘I thought it would just be me and my Dad’. I look around and decide the age demographic is such that 89% of the males in the room could be her dad! To be certain of who he is I will have to try and discern the look of pride from among the looks of guilty pleasure!

Her set consists of all but one self-penned song performed from behind her keyboard. She is young. She needs more maturity. The Piano arrangement is adding nothing to the song, as each runs into the next in my mind. It is a real lesson, not in geography, but in how significant a part of the art of songwriting the arrangement is. Even changing the voices on the keyboard for different songs would help tonight!

Also, please stop saying ‘thank you’ as the last chord of each song is struck! We can usually tell when the song is finished. And please don't introduce every song. It is OK to make the audience work out what the song is about, even better let us decide what it says to each one of us. As Martyn Joseph was pointed out: Songs are like children. You give birth to them, bring them up and then let them go and find their own way in the world. One day people will talk to you about them and you will wonder if it is your offspring they are talking about because they have interacted with others in a way you do not recognize.

Mutton and Lamb I think they are called... 
As her set finishes, Sophie’s dad reveals himself to help pack up the keyboard and the crowd begins to swell for the headline act. There is no room left on the edge of the room so the dance floor fills. This gig is part of ‘The London Folk and Roots Festival’ and the audience is exactly what I would expect at such a festival - beards, sweaters, man-bags and ill-fitting jeans! Then a couple enter, looking quite out of place, Mutton and Lamb I think they are called as I hear my neighbours mention their names! They behave in a very un-folk like way as they head straight for the empty stage and take a selfie, complete with the peace sign that I am sure will be adorning Facebook before I reach home!

However, perhaps False Lights only have themselves to blame, as this is the band whose blurb states they owe as much to Radiohead as to Fairport Convention! With that sort of self-penned bio perhaps I shouldn’t be surprised that this couple are here and that they spend the whole of the gig watching through their iPad screens as they video each song!

As the band sets up, the guitar-father of folk rock Richard Thompson is the chosen music of the sound engineer. Radiohead, Fairport Convention and Richard Thompson - False Lights have a lot to live up to! I have to say, in their sound, they are more Fairport than Radiohead but that is not a criticism; it is very much a compliment as the gig is fantastic. This is exactly what electric folk played by a six-piece band should sound like. Driving drum and bass, understated guitar riffs, piercing fiddle, droning melodeon, close harmonies and catchy tunes telling stories of love, death, betrayal, sex and a bit of protest thrown in for good measure!

There is a sense that this is a folk supergroup, the brainchild of Jim Moray and Sam Carter, both bright young stars of the British folk scene. Unlike certain other supergroups however, this one really works, taking traditional songs and making them sound like they were written this morning. Sam Carter looks more like a 50’s rockabilly than 21^st century folkster, in his tight white tee-shirt, slight quiff, blue jeans and Gibson semi-acoustic, but he sounds like a great folk singer. 

Loud and proud in the folk tradition...

Too soon the set is over and of course we demand more. The band gather in the midst of the audience and sing the gospel inspired ‘How Can I keep from Singing’ and we can’t. Steve Knightley of Show of Hands often jokes as he encourages people to join in with a chorus, ‘this is your worst folk nightmare – audience participation!’ Yet without embarrassment the crowd joins in. Suddenly this isn’t a rock gig with peace sign selfies but the best open mike night. No amplification, pure acoustics, voices and a sensitive audience joining in. 

It is becoming commonplace for such an acoustic encore, and in danger of being overdone. Show of Hands, Jon Gomm, and Duke Special to name but a handful of those acts which I have seen do such a thing at the end of their gig. Yet tonight it really works and does not feel contrived or a gimmick. The band climb back on stage and finish with ‘The Charlesworth Hornpipe’ and the lively dance even has the feet tapping of those still enjoying the safety of the sides of the room. The rest of the audience are dancing and we all leave with smiles on our faces and a Charlesworth spring in our step. 

Their debut album is called ‘Salvor’ meaning “one who salvages from ships or their cargo”. They say it seems appropriate for the process of writing the album. It also seems appropriate, because what is salvaged in False Lights is the fine tradition of British Folk Rock, the tradition that sticks a finger in the ear not to tune the voice but to stop them bleeding! False Lights play loud and proud in the folk tradition but they have produced songs for the 21^st century and in that sense their blub is right - they owe as much to Radiohead as they do to Fairport.

Gig: 33 of 50
Date of Gig: Fri. 30th October 2015

Venue
Selbright Arms, Bethnal Green

 

Artists 
False Lights

Sophie Morgan

Running total of artists seen 69