Rhoda Dakar - Banquet Records, Kingston - 30th May 2023

Many, many years ago I saw the Bodysnatchers play a gig in Bournemouth.

I'd really gone to see The Selecter, who I must admit I found rather disappointing, but the infectious fun of the all-female Bodysnatchers left a last memory and Rhoda Dakar was their lead singer.

The band didn't stay together long, breaking up before they could even record an album (some went onto form the core of the Belle Stars who had some success), but Rhoda went onto perform with the Specials and has released a number of solo albums throughout the years, including one named 'Rhoda Dakar sings the Bodysnatchers', which is, in effect, the Bodysnatchers album that never was....

I'd started following Rhoda on the book of faces, after discovering the 'sings the Bodysnatchers' album and thought maybe I'd go and see her live.

One day she released a list of venues, but the closest was central London and I left a comment bemoaning the fact that there was nothing south west of there and she replied to it, quite reasonably stating that it was hard to justify going to venues where a small audience might be expected.

However, when she released another new album, Version Girl, containing covers of non-Ska tracks in a Ska style, I noticed she was doing an 'in shop appearance' at Banquet Records in Kingston (I'd seen Wet Leg at the nearby Pryzm through them) and for the price of the CD I could go and see her too, so it seemed a bit churlish to pass up the opportunity as it had arisen.

The shop is tiny (The only other 'in-shop' appearance I'd seen was Joan As Policewoman in Rough Trade Records in East London, which was a far bigger shop), but a good shop full of, mostly 60-ish, people arrived to listen to (and meet) Rhoda.

She sang live to a pre-recorded backing track of each song, no room for a band or even a backing musician, but she sounded pretty good in the venue, not designed for it's brilliant acoustics, over a fairly standard PA system (I'm probably doing it a bit of a disservice, as it was impressively clear).

I was delighted when she started the short set with Easy Life, a Bodysnatchers song, as I'd really expected only tracks from the new album.

She followed that up with "Everyday Is Like Sunday", "As Tears Go By", "What a Wonderful World" (recounting that her father had played with Louis Armstrong in the 1920s in Paris!), "The Man Who Sold The World" and "Peace, Love and Understanding", which all seemed to suit the Ska-versioning brilliantly.

Again, to general delight, she finished on another Bodysnatchers song, "Do Rocksteady", a track originally by the man who wrote "Version Girl" which was the track which inspired the title of the new album (although it turned out, as she told us, that the "Version Girl" on the album is their version as they couldn't get the licence for the sample!).

Rhoda must be my sort of age (early 60s), but she looked good and trim in her Brixton Cycles cycling jersey (my Dad, a Londoner and avid cyclist would have approved!) and her voice sounded impressively good still.

Unlike The Selecter's lead singer, Pauline Black (who always seems joylessly serious to me), Rhoda still exudes the sense of fun that the Bodysnatchers embodied all those years ago (Although not all her material is frivolous, lookup The Boiler for a grim example of that).

Afterwards she stayed to sign people's albums and CDs and chat, but I'm not really one for that and found myself at the very back of the queue anyway, so headed home.

Had I stayed, I would have told her that I thought the new album features some great versions of some familiar songs in the Two-Tone style and deserves to be a huge success.

For the price of the CD, it was a great, if short, event, and I will definitely try and see her perform a full gig at some point.

Setlist:
Easy Life (Bodysnatchers Cover)
Everyday is Like Sunday (Morrissey Cover)
As Tears Go By (Rolling Stones Cover)
What a Wonderful World (Louis Armstrong Cover)
The Man Who Sold The World (David Bowie Cover)
Peace, Love and Understanding (Elvis Costello Cover)
Do Rocksteady (Bodysnatchers Cover)

PVA - The Boiler Room, Guildford - 6th March 2023

This was a random choice, but one I enjoyed, even if I'm still struggling to put a name to the genre!

Feeling a bit bored and in need of a February cheer up, I browsed my local venues' upcoming gigs.

There was no-one I recognised that I fancied seeing, so I searched a couple of the unknown acts on You Tube and as a result booked to see PVA a couple of weeks later.

My initial impressions were they sound a bit like a hard-edged 'Confidence Man' and I figured I couldn't go too wrong for £12.50.

I arrived around 8, just in time to catch the support act, Circe.

I would have to say, she was probably one of the support acts I've least enjoyed.

She was in completele darkness throughout, with a projector showing images behind her. I assume there was some relevance to the images to the songs, but I couldn't pick out any of her lyrics, with the exception of an odd expletive.

Between songs, she muttered the odd thanks and more expletives - Generally, bloody awful, I thought and I was grateful for a trip to the bar after a few songs. Each to their own, though, she seemed to have some support in the audience.

Aside from hearing their album, I knew next to nothing about PVA, but obviously they have a following as the venue filled up, if not to capacity, at least to a healthy March Monday night crowd by the time they came on stage.

The band are a man (Josh Baxter) and a woman (Ella Harris) on synthesisers (the latter sometimes on guitar) and an old-school drummer (Louis Satchell), although there is a fair amount of drum machine in their sound too.

The first song was a noisy affair, with plenty of energy, but sounding rather thrash-metal at times. I remember thinking that this wasn't a track you'd hum on the way home!

Luckily, the next track was a more familiar sound, being from the album, Blush, which I'd heard on YouTube and which was typical of the rythmic electronic sound that had tempted me to buying a ticket.

Oddly, they too, chose to (or had to) play in near darkness, with just the odd flashing light to illuminate them - Surely The Boiler Room weren't saving money on their electric bill by failing to light the stage?

The set was short (about 50 minutes) and there was no encore (although Ella did - jokingly I assume - suggest they'd sing acapella versions of the songs they hadn't played at the Merch stand after the gig - I didn't stay to find out if that was true).

However, it was energetic and catchy on the whole. Ella was the centre of attention (Although Josh did take centre stage on vocals and physically for the finale), with a fair amount of stage presence.

As I left, a youngish man asked me if I'd enjoyed it - I wondered if he expected me to say no,given I was at least twice his age, but I replied, "Yes, good wasn't it?" and indeed I'd felt it was.

I'm still not really sure how to define them, but the abiding feeling was that they projected loads of energy, with the electronic beat being the part that I retain.

Acid House? Disco/Punk? Electro/Heavy Metal? I've seen them all used to describe them, but I'm not sure any really fit! Their own PR describes the album as 'made from a formula of acid, disco, blistering synths, the release of the dancefloor and queer-coded sprechgesang post-punk', which I wouldn't say really helps!

I suspect this may have been a one off visit to see PVA, but I felt it was money well spent and I wouldn't be surprised if they go on to be huge.

Setlist: (from a recent gig)
Transit
Untethered
Hero Man
Bunker
Soap
Kim
Exhaust / Surroundings
The Individual

Chris Difford - The Boiler Room, Guildford - 9th February 2023

My first gig of 2023 was an evening in the company of Squeeze founder, Chris Difford

I've seen Squeeze as a whole band (at G-Live) and quite enjoyed them without being wildly enthusiastic.

I'd also seen Chris' partner in Squeeze, Glenn Tillbrook, at the tiny West End Centre venue, in Aldershot, and hugely enjoyed that.

So, I was hopeful Chris' solo gig would be enjoyable in a similar way.

I arrived on a cold Thursday evening, to find the venue about 3/4 full as the support act, The Beelines, were part way through.

They were quite enjoyable in a rather '80s new-wave/ska-ish way. I'm not sure I'd rush to see them as a headline act, but they were enjoyable enough.

Perhaps some of my reticence was down to that old bugbear of mine, poor sound balance. In front of the stage, the music sounded good, but the vocals were muddy and swamped. When I went for a beer partway through, I could hear the vocals more clearly!

About 9PM, Chris appeared with the man who had been setting up the stage for him, who he introduced as Melvyn Duffy.

I was right at the front, but looking around, I could see the venue was packed to near capacity.

Melvyn sat at a lap steel guitar (I had to look it up!), while Chris stood with an acoustic guitar throughout.

Chris Difford bears a resemblance to the lamented comedian, Sean Lock, and sounds quite like him when he speaks.

What I hadn't expected was for him to perform a mixture of stand-up comedy and music, but the combination was a winning one.

Chris recollected stories from his past in a highly amusing way throughout, usually leading us to a song.

So, for example, a story of a trip to a friend's family's caravan in Camber Sands (featuring pickled eggs and beer!) led us to 'Pulling Mussels'.

The combination of Steel and acoustic guitar gave the familiar Squeeze songs a different arrangement, but an extremely enjoyable one.

A running joke throughout was how getting a big star to cover one of his songs would make him 'minted', while another was his advice to other bands who supported them (Freddie, that Bohemian Rhapsody is far too long, it'll never be a hit! U2? You should call yourself U4, you'd be huge! and Cut out the Reggae stuff, guys, play some simple songs! The latter to The Police).

We laughed, we joined in (on most of the Squeeze tracks, Chris stopped singing for the choruses and, amazingly, the audience sounded great!) and we cheered.

The set wasn't particularly long, there was a lot of talking and there was no encore (It's too far to go up to the dressing room! we were told), but it was a brilliant gig that left everyone smiling!

Melvyn deserves another mention for his contribution on the slide guitar, as well.

Set list:
Take Me I'm Yours
What Happened?
Playing With Electric Trains
Pulling Mussels (From the Shell)
I Lived for Each Moment
Tempted
Fat as a Fiddle
Battersea Boys
Up the Junction
Cowboys Are My Weakness
Labelled With Love
Goodbye Girl
Cool for Cats

Skinny Lister - The Old Fire Station, Bournemouth - 23rd November 2022

I'd seen Skinny Lister once before, in the tiny West End Centre in Aldershot, and been mightily impressed with their energy as a live band.

I'd often felt I'd like to go and see them again, something I rarely do, and after hearing their new album and seeing they were out on tour again (they're a hard working band, seemingly always touring and/or recording - They announced another new album is on the way at this gig!) I decided to go and see them at a venue I'd wanted to visit; The Old Fire Station, in Bournemouth.

Bournemouth is about 60 miles away from my home, but I grew up in the area and went to college there, so I remembered the 'Old Fire Station' when it was just 'THE Fire Station', complete with fire engines and firemen, so one Wednesday in November I set off for my last gig of 2022.

The outside of the venue still looks as I remember, although little else did around this part of Bournemouth that I'd not been to in decades, there are now many modern multi-storey buildings around the area, a lot associated with Bournemouth University (back in my youth it was just a Polytechnic!).

Inside was disappointingly bland, just a large open dark space, with a long bar (serving only rubbish lagers, Budweiser and Carling figuring large - I believe this is a Student Union venue when not hosting gigs, but surely some students like a decent lager, at least?) - If I'm honest it looked like a student night club, the sort of place I'd probably have loved when I was 19, although I'd have wanted Stella, at least!.

I arrived as the first of two support acts was part way through his set. Tom Jenkins was a rather moody Welsh singer with a guitar. His songs were rather gloomy, but he'd do himself a few favours to sing more and talk less between songs, in my opinion. He wasn't terrible and one or two songs were quite good, in a gloomy, oh woe is me and South Wales way, but he wasn't (as you may have guessed) exactly my cuppa, especially as I was there for the fun and excitement I'd experienced at my last encounter with Skinny Lister.

After he left the stage a couple of black clad women appeared, one with a guitar and the other on Drums. They were Deux Furieuses and what a noise they made! It was slightly hard to credit that two people could be so visceral and loud. Impressively, though, you could hear most of the vocals (at least until part way through, but I think that was the band's fault as the guitarist/singer indicated a change of some sort to the sound people between a couple of tracks).

They're obviously a political/feminist band (one song was in honour of Sara Everard, another called Bring Down the Government), but I think anyone who likes powerful 'Post Punk' rock would find something to like here - Worth a listen; the drumming seemed especially noteworthy to me.

They were certainly a good warm up act and, after grabbing a pint of the least worst Lager there (Praha), I headed back to the front of the gig.

Maybe it was the layout of the venue, maybe it was just a November Wednesday, but there didn't seem to be that many people here. The Aldershot gig (capacity 200) was packed solid, but here I was standing right at the front, and there were spaces around and behind me.

If the Skinny's were disappointed by the turnout, they didn't let it show.

One of the things that had really struck me the first time I saw them was that they arrived on stage to the first note of the first song. Tonight, like most bands, they shuffled on with the lights down; change this, guys.

If that was a mild disappointment, there was little else to be disappointed about.

Skinny Lister are a 'Folk-Punk' (Their T-Shirts are now branded as 'Shanty Punk' - which does sum them up quite well) band who mix folk, sea-shanties, ballads and rock in a pretty unique blend.

Few other current bands feature a double bass and accordian, but if it all sounds a bit The Furies/Roger Whittaker and real ale and beards, it's nothing like that.

I honestly struggle to think of any act I've seen who engage an audience so entirely and quickly. Even the chilly and sparsely populated venue was soon up to speed, singing along and jumping up and down.

It was clear that many (if not most) people there knew the band and their material, some having travelled some distance (Southampton, Winchester and, of course, me from East Hampshire were all mentioned).

As the band rattled through familiar songs, a couple of new ones, destined for the next album, a guest appearance from 'Party George' (who is Lorna's father and writes some of the songs) and the hits (the main set finished on Trouble On Oxford Street) they never let up the energy or the rapport with the audience. The sound balance (a pet peeve of mine) was good, too, you could hear the singers (Dan mostly takes lead vocals, but Lorna does some) and the instruments.

If it had seemed at risk of being a bit of a damp squib of a gig with the poor beer, chilly air and thin crowd, it all faded away in the excitement of their performance and the fully involved audience around me at the front - We were having a a whale of a time!

Songs like 'Damn The Amsterdam', 'This is War', 'Dresden' (a song about arm wrestling!), 'What Can I Say', 'Rollin Over' and 'Cathy' were rattled off energetically and received enthusiastically.

A video of Skinny Lister in action in London

If there was one more mild disappointment for me it was the lack of 'Bavaria Area' on the set list, a song about being hassled by Bavarian Police, a song I could relate to and liked for it's Ska-influenced beat.

They were back quickly for a two-song encore ('Hamburg Drunk' and 'Six Whiskies') and then off to sign merchandise and have photos taken with fans. That isn't really something I do, but when Lorna briefly became free between photographs as I passed, I couldn't resist telling her how much I'd enjoyed the gig and that I'd seen her heavily pregnant at the last gig in Aldershot. One of the songs she sang tonight was 'Bonny Away' a song she described as 'her song' (her being her now 2 year old daughter), although they recorded it years before she was born. She seemed lovely, with plenty of time for the fans.

I'm not sure I'd rush back to The Old Fire Station. For Bournemouth gigs, the O2 Academy in Boscombe has far more character, but the sound was good and the issues of the layout (with half the audience behind the DJ booths) wasn't a problem on this occasion (I can see it might be for a fuller house).

COVID, no doubt, has done for the communal flagon that was passed around at Skinny Lister gigs of old, but the communal fun spirit in the crowd remains. We're all part of a big family, with a secret - One that needs to be shared with a bigger audience, because if you've not been to a Skinny Lister gig, you really have missed out on a great time!

My gigging for 2022 is done, but Skinny Lister, once again, proved the perfect way to end the year!

Setlist: This is from a European gig and not 100% right, but most of the songs here were played.
38 Minutes
My Distraction
Tragedy in A Minor
Rattle & Roar
Company at the Bar
If the Gaff Don't Let Us Down
Colours
Forty Pound Wedding
Geordie Lad
Damn the Amsterdam
Wanted
Bold as Brass
Bonny Away
John Kanaka
Rollin' Over
Cathy
What Can I Say
This Is War
Trouble on Oxford Street

Encore:
Hamburg Drunk
Six Whiskies

Echobelly - The West End Centre, Aldershot - 11th November 2022

I'd seen Echobelly before at the West End Centre, but this time was different

The first time was a very stripped back affair, with just Glenn and Sonya and a tape machine (at one of the first gigs I think they did after starting to reuse the Echobelly, rather than Calm of Zero, name).

This time they were back, but with a drummer, bass guitarist and (tucked away at the back) another guitarist.

The West End Centre in Aldershot is a tiny venue, so I was expecting it to be packed as it was shown as 'sold out' on the email I received the day before.

Aldershot is about a 10 minute drive from my home and I arrived about 15 minutes before the support act, Annabel Allum, was due to go on.

I'd looked her up on YouTube and saw a melancholy, quirky young woman singer, but she sounded interesting enough and a fair number of others joined me in having a listen.

I would say 'interesting' is a good description for Annabel. Although she dresses like a '50s dock worker in her pyjamas and her songs are, indeed, quite melancholy, she seemed quite a friendly, cheerful person between songs.

The sound (as opposed to the sound balance) was different too, just her vocal and her electric guitar, which leant the songs I'd heard on YT a very different sound. Very stripped back and edgy.

She got a good reception and I'd say she'll either be a huge success or disappear without trace, it could go either way!

There was a 15 minute or so interval before everyone returned to the hall for Echobelly.

The background music changed and the (already dark) lights dimmed a little more, while the stage lighting changed and then 3 musicians I didn't recognise appeared, followed by the two I did.

I'm not an old-school Echobelly fan (unlike most there, I'd never knowingly heard a song before looking them up before the previous gig), so I didn't recognise the first couple of songs and I received later songs, like Faces in the Mirror, with more enthusiasm than most.

What had struck me at the previous gig was that Sonya Madan has (still) a lovely voice. Sadly, while the band exuded energy, her vocals were rather lost in the mix.

Someone behind me was grumbling about this as well, but no-one said anything, so I called out that the vocals needed raising.

She replied that she wasn't feeling too well, but would try singing louder - Whether it was that or the engineer changed the mix, but the vocal was clearer on later songs.

Once that improved, it was possible to really enjoy the gig.

It was totally different to the previous one, as I'd hoped and expected, with the 5 piece lineup given the songs more punch than the mainly acoustic set of the duo had.

The crowd responded most enthusiastically to the hits, like 'King Of The Kerb', 'Father, Ruler, King, Computer','Great Things' and the encore finale, 'Dark Therapy', but all the songs got a good reaction, a few of us obviously enjoying some of their later material more than the majority ('Faces in the Mirror' was the first song of theirs I was aware of and stil a big favourite of mine).

The set wasn't very long; even with an encore I was back outside in an hour and a quarter of them coming on stage, but it was highly enjoyable.

I'd be hard pressed to say which gig by Echobelly I'd enjoyed the most - The first was more intimate and allowed us to enjoy Sonya's voice and lyrics more, but this was more energetic.

Either way, I'd say they're a band well worth seeing and judging from the reaction of the packed venue, I was far from alone in that view on that Friday evening.

Apologies for the terrible photos, I had to use my phone this time and it's useless in low light

Setlist:
Bulldog Baby
We Know Better
Car Fiction
Anarchy and Alchemy
Iris Art
King of the Kerb
Hey Hey Hey
If the Dogs Don't Get You, My Sisters Will
Down to Earth
Faces in the Mirror
Father, Ruler, King, Computer
Great Things
Scream
Encore:
Giving It All (Calm of Zero cover)
Dark Therapy

10CC - The Anvil, Basingstoke - 29th October 2022

In my early teens, I was very enthusiastic about the music of 10CC.

They managed to mix quirky with rocky with some great ballads and they, without being the 'Prog Rock'/'Public school rock' set, managed to bring something different and imaginative on albums like The Original Soundtrack and How Dare You.

As with many bands of their type, though, they were rather swept away (including in my mind) by the rise of punk and new wave, but in recent years I returned to those albums and found plenty to still like.

I had seen that '10CC' still toured, but as the only original member was Graham Gouldman, I felt maybe they'd be a rather pale shadow of themselves, not that I'd ever seen the original lineup perform live!

More recently though, I'd read that 2 other members of the touring band (Rick Fenn and Paul Burgess) had been in the lineup since the 1970s and had played on some of the albums (Bloody Tourists and Deceptive Bends) that I enjoyed, so spotting them playing at a venue close by, I bought a ticket.

As the event drew closer, I became increasingly skeptical. Gouldman is now in his mid-70s and Fenn and Burgess are no spring chickens and, with an all seater venue, I thought I might be in for a rather gentle evening of nostalgia.

So, it was with some pleasure on my part that, after support act Paul Canning, who was very amusing, although I didn't really warm to his one-man and a guitar set, and an interval, the lights went down and a video started to play Son of Man (A Gouldman and Godley co-operation), giving an audio-visual potted history of 10CC.

This was something a bit different (and hinted at a Godley involvement in the concert, more to come on that).

As the video ended, the band appeared taking their places amongst an array of guitars, keyboards and percussion instruments.

The, mostly over 70 (there were a few younger people), audience warmly received them and they started with The Second Sitting for the Last Supper and then Art For Art's Sake.

Three things immediately struck me during these songs.

Firstly, the sound was good, I could hear the lyrics and the instruments. Secondly, the level of musicianship was high, but with none of the self-indulgence you sometimes associate with 70s music (something that I liked about 10CC way back then - They were talented and clever, but rarely show-offy and always with a sense of humour).

Thirdly, live, the tracks had a harder edge to them than the rather smoothed out recordings have. I guess some wouldn't see this as a positive, but for me it made the live performance far more exciting than I was expecting. They definitely did not sound like a group of old (With the notable exception of youngster, Ian Hornal, taking the Eric Stewart slot on vocals) men going through the motions.

This tour was billed as the 10CC Greatest Hits tour 2022 and there was no shortage of hits, reminding people, if they needed it, that 10CC had been a big group in their time.

After the first two 'heavyweight' tracks, the lighter weight Life is a Minestrone (always a favourite of mine), Good Morning Judge and The Dean and I bounced merrily and energetically along before Old Wild Men (a song about ageing rockstars!) and the quirky Godly and Creme penned track Clockwork Creep reminded us of their more experimental tracks.

A full length version (and a bit, timing it a little over 10 minutes) of Feel The Benefit (parts 1,2 and 3) followed and received a well deserved raptuous applause (although to be fair, the audience seemed happy, and justifiably so, with every song). This was followed by another powerful track in the form of the Wall Street Shuffle.

At this point, Graham Gouldman diverted into playing a new track of his, Floating In Heaven, which was enjoyable enough.

They were back on familiar 10CC tracks with The Things We Do For Love next and then did a cover of one of Hornal's solo songs, a '10CC like song' written with Gouldman. It didn't sound overly out of place, although I detected 'Boom-Bang-Bang-a-Boom' Eurovision elements at times, which I don't think would have made it into a true 10CC track.

After early track 'Silly Love' there was a highlight for me. While the band played the instruments, Kevin Godley appeared on a video screen to sing the vocals for Somewhere in Hollywood, it was a rather inspired moment again, I thought, and impressed me greatly - It was also nice to see, albeit virtually, another original member performing.

My wife would have cringed at the next track, I'm Mandy Fly Me, as she was teased mercilessly with the title at school, but the slightly unsettling supernatural tone of the song has always made it another favourite of mine and the performance (as throughout) was great.

Someone videoed this track - Not great, but they have rules on no cameras! Sound is pretty good, though.

Crowd favourite (and possibly the only track some of the audience remembered!) I'm Not In Love, followed. It is undeniably a great song, but not an absolute favourite of mine, although I was clearly in the minority in that respect.

The set finished with Dreadlock Holiday (and the words "I don't like Basingstoke, I love it", although I'm sure they do that in every venue!), but were back quickly for a two song encore.

The first was an acapella version of Donna, the band's first single, which was enjoyable and quite amusing as Hornal joked around pretending to struggle to reach the falsetto notes (which are very high!).

The final song, which had nearly everyone on their feet and singing along was Rubber Bullets, the perfect feel good set ender.

The Rubber Bullets performance from the Hexagon in Reading.

I had come half-expecting to be underwhelmed, but having listened to the thrashing guitars of a group of youngsters early in October, the tuneful musicianship and powerful, energetic performance of 4 men into their 60s and beyond and one younger one, was eye (and ear) opening.

If I was really looking to find fault, I'd say that Hornal's voice doesn't work perfectly on all the tracks he takes the lead, but equally on some it was ideal.

Far from being disappointed, this was one of the best gigs I've been to and a definite contender for the best post-COVID.

I'm sure many of the bands still touring after 30 years (let alone 50!) really should stay at home and drink their cocoa, but the current manifestation of 10CC are definitely not one of those.

Long may they continue to defy people like me's expectations!

Setlist:
Son of Man(GG/06 song)
The Second Sitting for the Last Supper
Art for Art's Sake
Life Is a Minestrone
Good Morning Judge
The Dean and I
Old Wild Men
Clockwork Creep
Feel the Benefit
The Wall Street Shuffle
Floating In Heaven (Graham Gouldman song)
The Things We Do for Love
Say the Word (Hornal cover)
Silly Love
Somewhere in Hollywood(with Kevin Godley lead vocals on video screen)
I'm Mandy Fly Me
I'm Not in Love
Dreadlock Holiday
Encore:
Donna(Acapella)
Rubber Bullets

Nerina Pallot - Boiler Room, Guildford - 12th October 2022

Great singer, great songs and good sound! A highly enjoyable Wednesday evening.

I only discovered Nerina Pallot while browsing through upcoming gigs at a local venue, The Boiler Room in Guildford.

I've a liking for female singer-songwriters, so I browsed YouTube for some of her videos and liked what I heard and bought a ticket.

I managed to book myself for two gigs, two nights running, so thought I might feel a bit jaded after trekking to Southampton for The Amazons (read about that elsewhere), but I booked this one first and it's a short journey to Guildford.

I arrived just after 7:30 and found I'd already missed one support artist, Lily Gvero, so I can't give you an opinion on her (check out Google, I found one video easily enough, if you're interested).

For a Wednesday night, the venue was already fairly full by 8, when T.I.G.Y came on. This is a husband and wife duo, she with a pleasant voice, but I found them and their songs a bit saccharin for my taste. Certainly not a chore to listen to, but after three songs I did wander off to buy myself a beer (the bar is just one end of the single room, so I was still able to listen).

I managed to shuffle nearer to the front as the venue filled, if not to capacity, certainly getting close to it.

Having expected the venue to be pretty quiet (as it was for the equally good, imo, Ren Harvieu) I was surprised at the size of the audience. Clearly Nerina has a strong following.

One irritation was the wall of bulky middle-aged (no, let's be honest, ageing) men who stood right at the front, blocking the view for most of the people behind them.

I've stood there myself once or twice, but most people bend down a little to provide more of a view for those behind. These blokes didn't and the way they stared, unmoving at Nerina throughout the show did make me wonder if she might need a restraining order or 4!

Anyway, none of that is her, her band or the venue's fault, so what was the gig like?

The band appeared at 9 sharp, Nerina in dungarees and a drummer, guitarist and bassist joining her.

Having seen some videos, I knew that she was likely to play both keyboards and guitar during the set and sure enough there was a keyboard setup near the front of the stage (It once had a cage in front of it - when did that go? Nice that it has, though!) and a taller microphone waiting for her to stand by later on.

They started with 'Cold Places' and then quickly into new song 'Alice at the Beach', which I think is a great song.

Part of Alice at the Beach

An earlier song, 'Idaho' followed and then 'Bring Him Fire' and the upbeat 'Put You Hands Up', which saw Nerina switch to a guitar.

Part of Put Your Hands Up

Nerina chatted easily (possibly a little too, as she got a reminder about the 10:30 curfew handed to her part way through, so possibly skipped a song?) and involved the band (especially her guitarist, the others were at the back, but introduced - Yes, Bastille, it's not hard to do!).

She skipped between old and new tracks (from a just released album), quipping that 'Most of you are only here for the 2nd album' at one point - Not really knowing of her before, I didn't even know which album this was!

Performance wise (aside from forgetting the lyrics to one song and having to look them up on Google, which was quite funny) she was excellent. I really like her voice, a good range, but no vocal acrobatics and able to switch between melancholy ballards, jazzy numbers and upbeat pop with ease.

Part of The Heart Is A Lonely Hunter

The set ended with 'Master Builder' (a song 'ripping off Stevie Wonder' we were told) and then after about 15 seconds they were back for an encore ("I'm glad you clapped because I finished the set too soon after the warning about the curfew and have some more songs to play!" we were told).

It finished, as she often seems to looking through setlist.fm, with Sophia.

After the disappointment of The Amazons (there, saved you reading the review if you can't be bothered), this was a great gig.

Nerina has a great voice, a good back-catalogue of varied material, an easy-going manner and the sound was excellent, with a perfect balance of vocals and instruments.

Perhaps it's easier to achieve a good sound balance in a tiny venue like the Boiler Room (or it may be far harder, I've no idea!), but I know the Guildhall can be good too, so this reminded me that there's no excuse for the sound at the Amazons gig. Still, move on.

Nerina Pallot and her band lifted my mood and I'll 100% go and see her again if she's playing locally.

If you like a female singer-songwriter, I'd advise you to do so, too!

Setlist
Cold Places
Alice at the Beach
Idaho
Bring Him Fire
Put Your Hands Up
Mr King
I Don’t Know What I’m Doing
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter
Better
Mama
Geek Love
Master Builder
Encore:
Only the Old Songs
Sophia