As predicted when I wrote about Mary Hampton faring well in Folk Roots’ album of the year a couple of weeks ago, Metronomy’s fantastic The English Riviera LP is showing up all over the place. Drowned in Sound have placed it at number ten, and The Guardian have it at number seven. If you’ve spotted it anywhere else, let us know!
http://drownedinsound.com/news/4144241-dis-favourite-albums-of-2011–20-6
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/musicblog/2011/dec/08/best-albums-2011-metronomy-english-riviera
Phew! 8 bands and 7 hours of music all for a tenner in aid of Martlets Hospice.
Wildwood and Shhh! promotions teamed up to bring us a marathon of local and Brighton affiliated bands to help raise money for Martlets, who are in dire need of funds at present. Westhill Hall was a lovely setting for this gig, giving it a mini-festival feel and thankfully lacking in hipster pretensions.
First up was Tandy Hard, performing as a duo and providing a very warm welcome with rich vocals and storytelling charm with dual finger-picking guitars. Replacing Birdengine, who had to cancel due to losing his voice, was Mary Hampton. She performed just three songs solo, starting with an a capella traditional folk song about a miner playing the field, moving onto ‘Honey In The Rock’, her recently released 7″ on Rough Trade records (who scouted her) and finishing with another a capella song, this time a negro spiritual. The audience were captivated the entire time she was on stage. 2012 looks like it’s going to be a big year for Mary Hampton, as she’s been featured on countless end of year ‘Best Of’ lists.
Mary Hampton
Lianne Hall was next, giving us her abridged version of ‘In The Bleak Midwinter’ and her own country laden breathy ballads. Following her was the outstanding Diamond Family Archive complete with long beard and sharp witticisms bringing to mind the cause behind today’s event, whose sparse songwriting style mixed with intricate finger picking and a simple clear folk voice had this audience member welling up.
Something Beginning With L are based in London but have played with many Brighton bands and provided us with possibly the best indie xmas cover: a folk version of Slade’s xmas classic performed with harmonies on 2 acoustic guitars and a cello. The band have definitely been working hard since they last played Brighton’s Bleeding Hearts night a few months ago, and it showed in their playing.
Something Beginning with L
Next up was 30lbs Of Bone, a familiar face in Brighton since the days of Gilded Palace promotions. After a few false starts we were treated to some delicately written folk songs using a traditional structure evoking imagery of pastoral life. The alternative xmas song concerning the unwritten rule of not breaking up with someone at xmas was a particular gem.
Thirty Pounds of Bones
King James turned out to be the delightful combination of 30lbs of Bone and Diamond Family Archive. Their set featured banjo and acoustic guitar with harmonies using the nearness in tone of their voices, as well as a beautiful audience participation singalong. Unfortunately their album is currently in record label purgatory, but keep your eyes peeled as it will be well worth a listen.
All the bands played for free, as did the DJs, the sound was excellent and the evening ended with a raffle (so appropriate for the venue!) followed by an acoustic set by Electric Soft Parade. Lovely to see Brighton bands and promoters getting together for such a good cause.
Tom White (Electric Soft Parade)
Words by Ingrid Plum
Photographs by Jon Southcoasting
When is a headliner not a headliner?
For the gig I went to this evening, the answer could be that the listed band were on early, at 8.30pm. Or it could be that all three bands on the bill could easily be headliners in their own right. I’m quite sure I’ve probably seen all three of these bands headlining their own gigs over the past couple of years. The gig itself was only a fiver – which would be a bargain to see any of these bands, let alone all three, but it wasn’t until I arrived that I realised that also included a shot of Tuaca in the bargain too. Bonus!
First up were Kovak, on criminally early at 7.30. But what a great way to start – they’ve honed their electro pop over many gigs in Brighton over the past few years, and now know exactly how to get things warmed up. They even threw in their cover of Atomic which they’ve been playing the last few times I’ve seen them.
Next up were the band billed as headliners – Sweet Sweet Lies. After a few technical hitches with the keyboards, they kicked off their classic brand of guitar led pop. They’ve been secretly working hard since the last time I saw them a couple of years ago, and now everything seems even more polished and professional than ever. Like Kovak, if things go their way, they could be headed for big things.
Finally, we had Mean Poppa Lean. It’s impossible not to like Mean Poppa Lean. Even if you don’t like funk, you can’t help but be seduced by their silliness, their outfits, and the fact that they’re just a great band. So it’s best just to join them in their fun. It only took them a couple of songs before pretty much the whole band were just stripped down to their crazy home made pantaloons / boxer shorts. And that’s probably why they were put on last!
About a month ago, in one of our first posts we told you about the Maccabees heading off to tour in January, and I jokingly commented that there was no Brighton date. Well, of course they wouldn’t miss out their home town. More dates have been announced, and they’ll be playing the Dome on the 9th of March. Tickets go on sale this Friday, so make sure you’re queuing up outside Resident or Rounder when they open.
Although technically he’s Australian, I reserve the right to post about Nick Cave, since he’s one of Hove’s most notable residents these days. Anyway, news just out is that Nick Cave has laid his Grinderman project to rest, and that ‘s back working with his old band, The Bad Seeds (although the current band seeds line up is completely different to the original). More news at The Guardian here.
This was going to be a review of what was pretty much unanimously gig of the week in the local press – Meg Baird at The Basement last Tuesday. The focus wasn’t going to be Meg Baird – she’s an American folk singer – but the support, local singer songwriter Jane Bartholomew. I’d been given a heads up about the gig by Jon, who’s written a few posts for the blog, who told me it was going to be a good gig, but I hadn’t heard of Jane before the night.
And it was an amazing gig. I don’t really have the vocabulary to fully describe it – not being that into folk, I can’t make the meaningful comparisons with other artists and sub genres which would tell you that much about it, and my enthusiasm about the gig won’t make things much clearer either.
What I can tell you though is that the gig was exactly why I started the blog. I know quite a few local bands, but what I also know is that there’s some serious talent around town which deserves to be heard but so often goes unrecognised, which I want to find out about and shine a light on. For me, it’s all about the discovery of these artists, the pride that we live somewhere that generates such creativity, and the ongoing support.
So I guess I should write a bit about Jane Bartholomew, and the gig. Jane makes quirky, magical folk music, which was ideally suited to the small intimate environment of The Basement. Most of the time she played alone on the guitar or autoharp, but on some songs she was joined on accordion and violin, and on a couple of songs, the vibraphone. However, whatever the instrumentation, it’s Jane’s voice that really captivates. It’s almost childlike and brings something rather special to her songs. Musically, everything seems so accomplished and rich – far more than I would expect from a support band. It was all so good that at the end of the show, I bought the cd and it hasn’t left my stereo since. And I guess Meg Baird was pretty good too (she was fantastic), but she’s not from Brighton, and I know that there’s been plenty of other reviews written which will say how great the gig was and how ably she coped at the end of the gig when one of her strings broke.
You can buy Jane Bartholomew’s album on her website here.
Brighton band Seadog kicked off their first national tour on Saturday with a gig in a barber shop. The Gloucester Road Barber has Elliot Smith inspired decor and apparently once had a man living upstairs named Elliot Smith (not that one).
It was the perfect venue for Seadog to mark the start of their first tour of the U.K. as the band are much influenced by Elliot Smith, having hosted a tribute night in the same venue in 2010. The new line up includes accordion which gives them a Decemberists-esque edge to their established harmony-laden acoustic jaunty sound.
http://seadogmusic.bandcamp.com/album/transmitter-ep
Seadog will be supporting Kenneth Ishak on tour, a delightful surprise of pop sensibilities with indie undertones from Norway, described as “where Big Star and Real Estate collide.”
You can catch Seadog and Kenneth Ishak at:
Also supporting were Brighton band G-Minor, launching their first EP ‘Under No Illusion’. The band have come a long way in the last few months, combining melodic harmonies and engaging lyricism – definitely a band to watch.
Congratulations to Brighton’s Mary Hampton, whose album Folly was voted 7th best of the year in the Folk Roots end of year critics poll! A special mention too to The Oysterband – who aren’t normally associated with Brighton but whose drummer Dil Davies lives in Hanover – their album with June Tabor, Ragged Kingdom, was voted top. You can read the full results of their critic’s poll here. We’ll be casting our eyes over other year end polls looking for other Brighton acts who have done well this year. I wouldn’t be surprised to see the Metronomy album cropping up here or there.
In the meantime, back to Mary Hampton. Here’s a video of one of the tracks from Folly; this is Honey in the Rock:
It’s December now, so we can officially talk about Christmas. So to kick off, a couple of festive bits and pieces from The Beautiful Word. Firstly, they’re hosting a night tomorrow at The Blind Tiger Club. Their Winter Woodland Wonderland kicks off early at 6.30pm (well, it is a sunday night). As with some of their previous gigs, they’re encouraging fancy dress, and the theme is animals and trees. I asked them about this on Twitter (@BeautifulWord, if you’re interested), and they say that they need more trees. If you are thinking about fancy dress, and want to be judged for it (there’s prizes, you know!), then you’ll have to get there between 6.30 and 7. Set times are:
Zoe Konez 6.45pm
Common Tongues 7.30pm
The Beautiful Word 8.15pm
Nimmo and The Gauntletts 9.15pm
As if that wasn’t enough, they’ve also put out a Christmas single – Mirrorball. The video for it is here:
Finally, here’s a few links with more information about sunday night’s gig:
http://playgroupbrighton.org/events/2011/12/04/winter-woodland-wonderland-party/
Sorry – no pithy title for this blog post. I tried to try and eke some kind of pun out of the headliners Black Black Hills, but it just wasn’t happening.
The December Source new music night played host to Two Jackals, Abi Wade, For Marla and Black Black Hills. Trying to avoid the rain meant that I missed the first band, Two Jackals, and arrived to catch Abi Wade’s first set. Hopefully you’ll all be familiar with Abi after I posted about her new EP the other week. The Source and the Pavilion theatre have had a great idea to not only provide us lucky people with more music, but also to acknowledge that an acoustic act probably won’t work at the same time as a loud amplified act, so inbetween acts upstairs in the Theatre, acoustic acts perform down in the bar area. Seeing Abi Wade play live was great, because you get a much better impression of how she makes her music. It’s all down to her, not just with her cello, but with two bass drum pedals, one attached to a tambourine, and the other to a cajón. And as I mentioned in my EP review, she doesn’t just use her bow on her cello – she also used a variety of drum sticks, and most interestingly, a hair brush, to create additional percussive noises.
Next up were For Marla, who looked and sounded great – a bit like a rockier Smiths, or perhaps a tougher Frankie & the Heartstrings. While they’ve got the look and got the sound, unfortunately they were blighted with some technical issues which took up most of their set. Rather than work around them, they stopped while they resolved them, which meant that everything was a bit too disjointed. Hopefully next time I catch them, they’ll play a full set rather than just the fifteen minutes that they managed to play for today.
Headlining were Black Black Hills. It seems almost obligatory to mention that they used to be Pope Joan – everything else I’ve read about them seems to mention it – but I’m sure they’re trying to move on with their new name, and presumably new set of songs. While that may be the case, the years they’ve been playing together in their old guise have helped them become the band they are today – tight, with a fantastic sound, good songwriting skills, and great stage presence. If you missed them tonight (and quite frankly, their was a very poor turnout for such a great band, which I’m putting down to the weather) then they’ll be playing again at the start of next year as part of the Sea Monsters 2 event at the Prince Albert. Be there.
Brighton Music Blog 