Venue:
The Convent, Stroud
Date: 27/11/2015
It had been a long day in London working, travelling on the tube back n forth from offices and depots: a bloody glorified courier for the day. Getting the train out west before the Friday night escape hordes I had two choices – feet up, chips, Gogglebox or make a trip out into the Cotswolds for an evening of live music in a new (to me) venue. Well I could do the latter and get some chips a some point, couldn’t I?
I’d missed (due to work) the last two Kathryn Williams shows that I had tickets too and spookily enough in between that had seen co-headliner Michele Stodart with brother Romeo as The Magic Numbers supporting McAlmont & Butler as well as being part of David & Bernard’s band. Must say I was so impressed by her opening set of the night – songs about guilt, loss, bitterness as she freely admitted herself before adding that she was alright really. The show came at the end of a writing week that Kathryn had organised and so both had freshly laundered material, often still nameless. One with the refrain “Are there any of the other sides of me that you couldn’t love” which was particularly heartfelt and moving with Romeo accompanying Michele on piano. Kathryn joined Michele throughout her set and played a co-composition “We Are The Lucky Ones” which shows that great things could come from collaboration.
It was really interesting to see Kathryn play songs from ‘Hypoxia’ (her album inspired by Sylvia Plath’s ‘The Bell Jar’) for the first time at JW3 in North London back at the start of the year and now hear how they have changed after she has lived with them on tour for several months. ‘Beating Heart’ with its ‘I am, I am, I can, I can’ echo has taken on a hopeful and mysterious air, really playing with the silence and tension in the atmosphere, ‘Tango With Marco’ even edgier and taut than before, rea menace and disgust in the vocals. The despair and unspoken anger in ‘Cuckoo’ in each line and note played, perfectly encapsulating the feelings of a disappointed parent scared and afraid for/of her child. The set ended with a cover of Neil Young’s ‘I Believe In You’ which I didn’t see the significance of before but the opening lines “Now that you found yourself losing your mind \ Are you here again? \ Finding that what you once thought was real
Is gone and changing?” fit perfectly with what has gone before. This show, in a wonderful venue with awesome acoustics was the perfect balm to soothe those workday aches and pains in your head.
The audience:
Having made their way through a wild, rainy night to a venue in the middle of nowhere they wre as lovely and welcoming as the log fire in the bar downstairs. And keen to take the free pizza offered post gig
It made me think..
That sometimes it’s worth not just settling for what comfortable – go out, support you (not so) local venue and watch TV on catch-up at your leisure. That can be paused, rewound & replayed but great nights of live music exist in the heart and mind.
Although having said that you can watch the gig here
https://theconvent.netgig.co.uk/event/hypoxia-uk-tour/
They are a fabulous pairing, clearly in joy with the shared musics.
Great review DFB. Really made wish I’d been there.
Excellent point about how a song changing when it goes out on the road.
I saw Michele on the first half of the tour, when she do headlined with a bunch of young longhairs called the Goat Roper Rodeo Band. We were among a dozen or so people in the audience, half of whom seemed to be personal friends of Michele’s.
I heart Kathryn Williams, so it’s rather a pity the tour wasn’t the other way around. The Light thought the Goatboys were the hit of the night though, so all was not lost. I liked Michele’s countryish songs just fine (seeing the Magic Numbers the other year confirmed that she’s the star of the band, as I had always suspected from the records) but gave top points to the opening act, a local guy called David J Williams. Shame there weren’t more people there to see it – a pretty good night out.
Great review DFB – made me want to be there. I really believe now is the golden age for music fans where we can benefit from the turmoil of the corporate music industry that has encouraged artists to reach out to their audience in a way that would have been unimaginable even 10 years ago. Small intimate gigs with an appreciative audience must be as rewarding for the artists as the fans themselves. Okay,not in financial terms of course but in a more satisfying way. As long as they can make a decent living it has to be the way to go. I have not yet seen Kathryn live despite owning most of her recorded output. Your review has certainly made be see the need to rectify that.
Flippin’ ‘eck, DFB – I live near Stroud and, even knowing where the venue is, still get lost sometimes – labyrinthine lanes in the wilds of Woodchester – so am mightily impressed that you got there in all that vile weather FROM LONDON. A taxi to Woodchester must have been involved. A+ for effort.
This venue has featured on these boards before – here:
which is some achievement for an out-in-the-sticks tiny niche venue.
Nice review 🙂