Out Of The Bedroom 87
11th September 2003
This Thursday saw the upstairs bar at the Waverley play host to
a slightly reduced crowd – approximately 10 or so people by
my count at 9pm, though the numbers steadily increased throughout
the evening. Despite this, there were some excellent performances
from OOTB regulars and debutants alike.
First to take the stage were Flowers For Algernon,
organisers Jim and Nelson’s band. The pair began with a brand
new song, “Weekend Woman”. This showed FFA at their
best, setting the pace nicely for the evening with Nelson’s
guitar providing a strong backing to Jim’s vocals. Also featuring
Jim on harmonica in an excellent break towards the end, this song
was a worthy addition to the band’s repertoire of catchy tunes.
Flowers then went into an OOTB favourite, featured on the Waverley
Nights CD – “Optimism”. Apparently “originally
written as a pisstake of Perry Como and others”, “Optimism”
was a fairly mellow rendition with Jim again on vocals and both
on guitar. The last song was a personal favourite of mine, “Braveheart
Beggar” – the title track of their excellent CD. This
song is up-tempo with a quieter verse building to the expressive
chorus “I could’ve been like William Wallace/I could’ve
loved a mademoiselle”. Resounding around the Waverley bar,
this song always gets feet a’tappin’ throughout the
audience. An impressive and welcome three-song set from Flowers,
since they usually only have time for a one song slot.
Next up was the one and only Jill Hepburn. Despite
not having played for a couple of months, Jill was on great form
tonight as she began with another favourite, “Gold Through
Fire”. This song is a country-style ballad with memorable
lines “I’ll always think of you finding new ways/to
get lost and found on the angel trail” delivered by Jill’s
beautiful and spellbinding siren voice. A song I’d never heard
before, “Girl on a Swing”, closely followed this. This
featured a haunting picking melody with clear, expressive lyrics
in a quiet, almost lullaby-like song. Following a shout for encore
from the audience, Jill was persuaded to stay for a third song,
“Moon on my Mind”, with extra guitar provided by Nelson.
This followed on in the same vein, strong vocals accompanied by
a melodic guitar, evoking a mood of dreaminess and wonder. Jill’s
performances always command rapt attention from the audience, and
tonight was no exception.
The G was next, announcing his ascent to the stage
with a quick blast on the harmonica. His first song was “Power
of Something”, an energetic foot-tapper, with some impressive
guitar work and rapid vocals combining with harmonica breaks to
get the bar jumping. The song builds up to an excellent finish,
using the harmonica well alongside unashamed “yeah yeah yeahs”.
The next song, “Be Satisfied”, had never been played
in public before, and featured reverberating chords, more of the
trademark harmonica and some more frenetic guitar activity, brilliantly
setting off lines like “It’s so hard to be satisfied”.
His final song, “Everything Falls” was an autumnal song,
also never before played in public. A quiet picking on the guitar
was joined by melodic vocals creating a definite end-of-summer mood
in the room. I thought this was reminiscent of a Greg Lake acoustic
song, maybe due to the powerful vocals offset by quieter guitar.
Wonderful stuff indeed from the ever-impressive G.
Next to the stage came Iain Roberts with a complete change
of mood. His first song had a curious, jumpy rhythm to it and vocals
that climbed from low notes up to high and then slid back down again.
The song changed to a faster strumming section and back to its earlier
rhythm with ease, giving a real contrast with the final, bluesy
closing bars. Apparently the song contained “millions of mistakes”
but either I was too busy scribbling to hear them or they were craftily
blended into the rhythm. This start was followed up by a quieter-sounding
song, beginning with quiet guitar but building up to a heartfelt
sound. This song reminded me of a lower-voiced Thom Yorke belting
into a solo acoustic number, such was the power of Ian’s voice
when he hit the chorus. To complete his set, Iain finished with
a song he’d written late one night while drunk in Bath. This
began with a dangerous feel to it, verses punctuated with punchy
chords while the chorus told us “I want to go places you want
to come back again”. This was more up-tempo and a great end
to a musically different set.
Following Ian was Chris Plews, with “just
a song” to kick off. This is an expressive and slightly bitter
accusatory song, with lines like “you’re so devious”
delivered with a powerful intent. Continuing with a more wistful,
quieter song, Chris sang lines like “gonna let her slip through
my fingers” in an almost-whisper at times, hinting at anguish
lurking just under the surface of this song about letting a girl
go. Chris uses the contrast between his vocals and the guitar to
great effect in this song, putting real emotion into his voice which
mirrors the emotion present in the song, alongside quiet chords.
His last song, about “keeping together when the world’s
on top of you” was a slower but equally powerful song, again
showing Chris’s mastery of the emotional and heartfelt. “Life
might hurt you but you won’t be alone” is the touching
line that comes through particularly well here. An excellent set
from Chris tonight.
Last up before the break was the Electric White Boy,
beginning with “What’s a Boy Gotta Do?” which
apparently at least two people in the audience like (just as well,
too). This song is played in EWB’s trademark blues style,
although tonight a bit mellower and thoughtful sounding than usual.
The finale contrasted with this, though, as the EWB threw himself
into the improvisational “skee bop diddly do” (or something
to that effect) with gusto. The next song, “Candlelight”
was a million miles away in its mood – breathy vocals and
quiet entreaties to “give me love/or give me peace”
echoing around the bar. Conveying inner turmoil in his unique manner
is his forte and so he continued with “Borderline”,
a faster song about separation. This featured a great solo guitar
break mid-song and a half-whispered build up to the finish, rounding
off with some of the fancy guitar trickery so beloved of EWB. A
good round off for the first half of the evening.
After the break, debutant Frank Burkitt began
with a song called “Magic in the Midnight Air”. This
had a slight blues/jazz feel to it and a catchy rhythm which got
the set off with a bang. This song is about being intoxicated by
a girl and was very confidently played and sung. The second song
was similar in feel and was called “Marianna”, featuring
expressive vocals reminiscent of Van Morrison’s “Moondance”
in style. Last was “Travelling Requiem”, a song for
a friend returning from travels. This was also an upbeat and well-played
song that kept the high standard set by his previous material. Frank’s
guitar keeps up a good, steady backing to his voice, which gives
his music a particularly evocative quality quite remarkable for
a debutant. One to watch. (Look out for Frank soon at the Arcade
in Cockburn Street).
Due to a lack of more performers, The G returned
to the stage for a second set. Beginning with the legendary “Glide
More”, also featuring on the Waverley Nights CD, the G was
accompanied by Nelson on bongos and Jim on tambourine in what can
only be described as a cracking rendition. This was followed by
the song “Commemoration”, aptly played on the anniversary
of September 11. This song expresses confusion and sadness at events
in the world but finished with the upbeat line “dry my tears
on my sleeve”. Last was “The Pool”, a hypnotic
song with haunting guitar and vocals that washed over the audience
like waves. A gentle and calming song, and a second fantastic set
by the G.
David O’Hara took a one-song slot to play
an instrumental – beautifully played with a Celtic air to
it, this piece brought rapt, attent silence to the room. David’s
playing brought to mind a lone guitarist playing by moonlight –
it’s not often one song can create an atmosphere but this
one certainly managed it. Since this was David’s first time
playing without a classic guitar, to hear this piece played on that
instrument must be breathtaking.
Iain Roberts returned to the stage next, buoyed by the news
that he had won tonight’s Mystery Prize. Sadly, the pair of
finger cymbals he received were not incorporated into the performance
but hey, there’s always next week. He began with an instrumental
intro to a song that combined upbeat guitar with deep vocals which
built up to another, very well played instrumental outtro. This
was followed by another upbeat song, played with energy and an interesting
rhythm showing off Iain’s unique style mix of vocal and guitar
manoeuvres.
The last song of the evening was played by Frank Burkitt,
with no name but aptly introduced as “a song to play as the
evening is petering out”. This had a quieter feel to it than
Frank’s earlier set, definitely incurring a feeling of evening’s
end in a calm but heavyhearted vocal about not having got the girl.
As with his earlier songs though, Frank kept up the expressiveness
and emotion to really convey the disappointment and defeat of the
subject matter.
And with that, Out of the Bedroom was completed for another week.
Thanks to all the performers that appeared and played, and hope
to see all of you and more at next week’s session at the Waverley
Bar. Over and out…
Phil NW
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