Katie Spencer at the edge of the land

Venue:

Patchwork Studios & Garrison Gallery, Maker, Torpoint, Cornwall PL10 1LA

Date: 11/07/2024

This review is, unavoidably, rather late in arriving on these pages. Preceded by being clobbered by Covid, and succeeded by a monstrous bout of post-Covid issues, it’s been brewing since the gig took place almost a month ago now.

Enough about your correspondent’s excuses. I wanted to report to you that a Katie Spencer gig is something you really do need to attend; she’s a fine talent and a lovely person. If you can find a gig of hers that’s close enough for you to reach, for goodness’ sake GO.

Nonetheless, happily Katie is still touring (when is she NOT touring!?) so a reminder here of her outstanding music is well worth writing up.

This was a gig that replaced her original south Devon booking at the Barbican Theatre in Plymouth. I’d bought tickets to that as soon as they went on sale. About a fortnight ahead of the gig I looked things up on the theatre website for a last minute check of performance times. Good job I did, as the gig was no longer listed! A phone call revealed that they’d cancelled her gig due to being asked to devote the entire week to a theatre production instead, and had then ‘forgotten’ to let ticket-holders for Katies gig know about the cancellation. Given that the trip involved over eighty quid’s worth of train travel for me, I was mightily unimpressed and told them so. They refunded my tickets immediately.

Luckily, a quick check on Katie’s website tour listing: https://www.katiespencer.net/tour revealed that there was another forthcoming gig in an even more picturesque venue in a nearby locality; tickets were bought and trains booked, my brother was alerted and invited to join me and the game was on.

I don’t think I’ve ever been to a better venue for an intimate, exquisitely close performance like this one. Better than an upstairs room in a noisy pub, better than a dingy old school folk-club, high up on a remote Cornish clifftop, charming and candle-lit, this was a perfect location to hear singing and playing of the highest quality in charming, cosy surroundings.

Here’s a couple of photos of the journey we made to reach the venue; first the ferry crossing that takes you from Devon into Cornwall over the Tamar:

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Then the view from the ferry as the river rolls beneath you, half way across the river:

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And here’s a photo of the venue itself as you approach it along the track from the long B road that winds across the peninsula for miles and miles while your sat-nav scratches its head and constantly re-calculates:

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We were keen to get there, right at the edge of the land, keen to get into the first of a few Guinness Zeros, and keen to make sure to get a seat – after two and a half hours in a train seat, that last was my main aim in arriving ridiculously early.

A side benefit of turning up so early was to stroll into the performance space and find Katie mid-soundcheck, giving us an early treat as she tried out a couple of songs from her current album. Here she is, soundchecking to an empty auditorium; as you can see this is an auditorium built for a small audience, and it’s also a studio performance space, happily, so the acoustics have been managed accordingly and the sound was really spot-on:

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In support that night were Jon Fazal and Cat Rose, a duo that have only relatively recently teamed up, and they were superb; terrific original songs, inventive acoustic guitar from Jon and lovely, brilliantly judged vocals from both of them. I was so taken that I specifically asked if they had any material I could buy to bring home with me – they told me that they had recorded a CD EP that would soon be out, and Jon also had a few copies of his solo debut vinyl LP with him – I bought a copy and will report back as soon as I’ve subjected them both to the requisite term of listening and inward digestion.

What did we hear from Katie? We were treated to most of her superb 2022 album, ‘the edge of the land’ along with a few well chosen earlier songs. Her unhurried, acoustically delightful playing is a marvel, and her voice is perfectly accompanied by constantly interesting arrangements. Echoes of John Martyn and Bert Jansch occasionally surface, and they don’t come any better delivered than by Katie. That’s very high praise from me, but it’s merely an aside; her own songs and playing style stand on their own considerable merits and deliver mightily on repeated listenings.

https://www.katiespencer.net/the-edge-of-the-land

My only slight disappointment was that she didn’t sing Colin H’s fabulous ‘Better Weather’ song, which she sings beautifully on the Days Full Of Rain album. It’s a band song, to be fair, and maybe a solo acoustic version wouldn’t carry the same belt that it does on that brilliant record.

https://colinharper.bandcamp.com/album/days-full-of-rain-12-track-digital-edition)

After her performance we had a quick chat and I told her how much I loved her vocal performance on ‘Better Weather’ and her face lit up when I mentioned Colin – she shared my enthusiasm – ‘He’s such a lovely chap!” and “That’s an amazing song!”.

To sum up, we had a perfect night out, and the ferry ride home was a perfect end to a perfect day. If you can’t go to see Katie on this tour, remember her name and make a mental note to do so the first chance you get. She’s a mesmerising performer.

The audience:

Small, enthusiastic, quiet, local, knowledgeable and respectful. Couldn’t find a nicer bunch to share the performance with.

It made me think..

All folk gigs should be like this one. All venues should be like this one. Thanks are due to Alex Hart who organises these ‘Candlelit Session’ – she’s a trouper, they are a fantastic treat and I only wish I could attend more of them!

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