The gig they said would never happen.
First a disclaimer/acknowledgement - Everyone had to put a sticker over the lens on their camera, so none of these photographs are my own, but were all shared on the Everything But The Girl facebook group.
Ben and Tracey are famous as Everything But The Girl, as well as having a prodigious solo catalogue each, but for years Tracey hasn't sung in public, citing stage fright in numerous books and articles.
I had seen, and enjoyed, Ben live in Guildford some years before, but noted then that I would love to hear Tracey sing, but it seemed it would never happen.
So, it was with great excitement that I read they were doing two small venue gigs in Hackney and I tried to get a ticket, but failed.
For a few days I thought nothing of it and then an email arrived offering me one from the waitlist and I eagerly purchased it.
As the day drew near, I seriously considered putting my ticket back on the waitlist. There was no way I could get back from Hackney in time to catch a train home, so I had the added expense of a hotel to pay for, but in the end I decided that I'd wanted to hear Tracey Thorn sing for so long, that it was worth a bit of money.
And so it was that I found myself in Hackney on a warm April evening. Hackney, if you don't know it, is not the loveliest part of London and the MOTH club is a pretty horrible place by the standards of Hackney.
Why the duo chose it, besides (I suspect) being local and a small venue as they wanted, is hard for me to fathom.
We all had to sit on hard, uncomfortable chairs, like a school assembly (the chap next to me quipped that it was worse as we'd paid for this!), except for some people stood at the back and, as it filled up, in the aisles between the chairs and some booths reserved for guests along each side, who obscured the view for others. It seemed the venue was too small for the tickets they'd sold - Why couldn't the majority stand in such a tiny venue?
Whatever the reasoning, and I'm sure there was one, we were there for the second of two gigs here.
People had raved about the first one, but I suspect many of those people would have raved about Ben and Tracey sitting there in silence, such is the fervour of EBTG fans, I find.
I'm a fan, undoubtedly, but a more muted one - I don't play one of their albums every day or even every month, my life isn't measured out in EBTG releases, I didn't play one of their tracks at my wedding and I don't imagine I will ask for one at my funeral. I like their music and I think Tracey has a great voice, but would it still be great, live, all these years on?
We didn't have to wait too long, as they started their set at about 8:05 with the first EBTG song, Night and Day. Not a favourite of mine, if I'm honest, I'd have prefered Each and Every One, but a logical place to start, I guess (in the absence of Marine Girls songs in the set), a retrospective of Ben and Tracey's solo and combined output.
Someone commented there hadn't been much chat between the tracks on the first evening, but there was a reasonable amount on the Monday and Tracey explained that they'd wanted to include songs from both their back catalogues as well as their combined work and to include songs that they'd rarely, if ever, performed live. It was certainly (as billed) a personal and intimate performance and why not? It was, to a great extent, an experiment, especially for Tracey, to see if she could overcome those much recorded fears of performing in front of an audience again.
So, here we go. Has her voice lasted? Was it worth the hassle and discomfort of sitting on those hard seats, having red wine spilt on me by people in the aisle (to be fair, the young woman who did it did buy me a drink to apologise and I suspect the overcrowding was as much to blame as her), in a grotty working men's club in a run down part of London?
Short answer. Yes.
Much has been written, by herself included, of Tracey's voice becoming deeper as she's grown older, but I'm not sure the difference is dramatic. Maybe there are some high notes she no longer aims for, but they weren't apparent in the songs they chose (including for that reason perhaps).
Next up was "No Difference", which was a song I like, followed by "Mine", which I didn't recognise and appears to have only been a single release.
Next up was a relatively recent song from Ben's back catalogue, "Hendra", the title track from his last solo album (I seem to recall it's about his sister). I saw Ben perform at The Boiler Room in Guildford back in 2017 and was impressed then by his voice and I was again on the songs he sang here. Tracey's voice is so distinctive and so much a part of the iconic sound of EBTG that Ben's vocal quality tends to be forgotten or, at least, overshadowed, but he's a great singer.
Tracey then told us that the first germ of the idea of trying to perform in public again was sown at a gig to see a singer called Bridget St John, someone she had been compared to in an early review, and performed one of her songs "Song To Keep You Company".
Ben and Tracey were joined on stage by their son, Blake, and Rex Horan (who'd been with Ben in Guildford) and Blake took the lead on a song by someone called Adrienne Lenker next.
"Smoke" (from Tracey's Record album) and "Winter's Eve", another Ben song, about getting through tough times to better ones with the line "There's still so much I want to do" featuring strongly and Ben remarked that he'd been quite ill again recently, but was through it and so grateful and happy to be performing as a duo again. It was obivously a very poignant lyric for him and we felt that.
The first set ended with a classic EBTG song, Single, with the lines "Am I Coming Back?" and "Do you want me back?", which must have struck a chord with Tracey in the lead up to these gigs.
There was a 20 minute or so break and then the quartet were back for another 9 songs.
The first was a Charli XCX song, "I Might Say Something Stupid". Tracey has written that she's a big fan of Charli XCX, but it's not a liking we share, but I was just enjoying hearing her sing live.
I'd expected some songs from last year's album, Fuse, and next up was probably my favourite of what I think is a rather patchy album, if I'm honest (Tracey's solo "Record" strikes me as far stronger) "Run A Red Light" which seems to be about doing something reckless and deal with the consequences afterwards, maybe another lyric relevant to the event.
"Frost and Fire" was, I think, a highlight of the evening, with Tracey's voice seeming especially strong and confident, maybe the song just lends itself to that, but it was a favourite on the night.
Ben sang "North Marine Drive" and Tracey "Small Town Girl" and then Blake performed one of his songs, "Removed", with his mum on backing vocals to their obvious pride.
Ben's song "Irene" was next before they ended the set on two EBTG favourites, "Downhill Racer" and "Mirrorball" - which were enthusiastically applauded as they left the stage.
Of course, we had a slight pause and they returned to give us another song from Fuse, "Nothing Left To Lose" and finally "25th December", an odd choice for an April gig, perhaps, but a great song and when is the 'right' time to perform it unless you play a December gig?
They finally posed for us to take some farewell memory photos, but by the time I had a view unfettered by everyone else's cameras, they were leaving the stage, so here's someone else's shot!
So, was it worth the hassle and the cost of a hotel and a train into London and back? When the tickets were announced people were saying they'd fly from South America to be there, so for some easily.
For me, yes. Tracey's voice is still great, I was reminded of how good Ben is and Rex and Blake provided excellent support.
It did, as some other reviewers have said, feel a bit like we were sitting with them while they jammed in private and that was nice. Even the lack of cameras added an intimacy to the event, no doubt their intent.
It obviously worked for Tracey, too, as they've already said they will be back at the MOTH club again "soon".
I won't (one visit to the MOTH club and Hackney for that matter is enough for me), but if they play a better venue, easier for me to get to, I'd love to see them again.
If not this will be "The night I heard Tracey Thorn Sing"
