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Matt Deighton

by 17 Comments

Venue:

The Place, Bedford

Date: 24/11/2022

I approached this gig with slight reluctance after a superb evening watching Jeffrey Foucault at the Water Rats the previous night and Jason Isbell the previous week. It was cold and miserable and I had a distinct “why did I book this” vibe, especially after Mrs. T lit the fire. Nonetheless I sallied out to Bedford, surely the town Google Maps was invented for – does anyone know how to get around the concentric one way systems?

The Place is clearly an old industrial unit with pitted carpark and depthless puddles into which to plunge your desert boot. However things picked up immediately on entry, with the entirely volunteer staffed team providing a warm welcome and the bright, well stocked bar a restorative glass. The room is clearly a generic live space which can accommodate the local Cubs, a Christmas panto or, it turns out, a sterling evening of acoustic music.

Support is provided by Samantha Whates singing lovely songs from her “Waiting Rooms” CD which was recorded in a series of venues where people are in transit to somewhere else – station, prisons…and they are lovely. Old pal @feedback_file says she sounds like Feist, and I thought there was more than a bit of Joni in there…whatever, she sets a good mood for Matt Deighton. I bought her CD on the merch stall and it’s excellent.

Our man perches on a tall stood (with a tasty looking Martin D28 for guitar nerds), and suddenly I’m so glad I came. Wearing nostalgia inducing Oxblood monkey boots, double denim and the chunky chain from the “Doubtless Dauntless” album cover, Matt pulls songs from his extensive repertoire covering acid jazz (whatever that is, I am sure it’s not MD) band Mother Earth, The Bench Collective nu-folk gathering, Britpop supergroup The Family Silver or his more recent solo albums. They all add up to a coherent set and are quite beautiful. As Feedback put it, “bloke with acoustic guitar” can pall quite quickly but that was not the case here. I was also intrigued by his guitar playing where he detunes the bottom E string and plays bass guitar parts with his thumb as he nips up and down the neck, finger picking and playing little lead fills as he goes. A really unique style approaching Richard Thompson levels of “how the flip is he doing that”.

With the lights down the venue is a delight, comfortable with a superb sound. All in all a fab night out and I write this a week later as there are dates left on the schedule and I wouldn’t want anyone to miss out. Get down there!

The audience:

Smaller than it should have been, but enthusiastic and enthralled I’d say.

It made me think..

Critics refer to Matt as the new Nick Drake or similar lazy comparison usually given to a quiet, slightly delicate voice and finger picked guitar. I can comfortably state this is rubbish, he sounds nothing like Nick Drake but a whole lot like Matt Deighton and that is more than enough.

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Comments

  2. PS – in the photo which was taken just above our party the silhouette below the monitor is my bonce, pal David in the middle and the noble profile on the left is FF himself.

  3. I was a massive Mother Earth fan but have only seen Matt solo once or twice. I didn’t know this was on. His solo LP remaster set is on my Christmas list. I’ve been a very good boy this year, Santa.

  5. He’s great isn’t he? Mother Earth were one of the unsung bands of the 90s and his solo stuff is all worthy of investigation. I still find it weird that he was very briefly in Oasis…what a waste of his talent! I need to get along and see him again.

  6. Excellent review! Nice work, Twang. Samantha Whates and Matt Deighton! Two new artists for me to give a listen to, who sound they are right up my street. I so enjoy small, more intimate gigs like this.

    Thanks to you too, Feedback, for the playlist. Just the ticket!

  7. Yes great review @Twang I almost felt like I was there … oh hang on.
    Matt is a very unassuming guy but great songs and beautifully played. The very first number had only one chord – but one of those lovely alternate tuning open chords. The last tune was a nimble instrumental which reminded me of Michael Chapman’s excellent Trainsong compilation. The support was surprisingly excellent – a totally new name for me but really worth checking out.
    There was a really good documentary called ‘Overshadowed’ about MD on the box a few months ago which outlined his career – one of those ‘nearly’ artists but he seemed not to want to grasp the nettle of fame and seems content to just do his own low key thing.

  8. For the unitiated, Mother Earth were on Acid Jazz Records, but they were not Acid Jazz in the way Corduroy or – spit – Jamiroquai were. I saw them numerous times live, they were superb every time.

    The first album wasn’t great, more of a demo, but 1993’s follow-up, The People Tree, was magnificent. You can pick it up at chazza prices. BGP did a 2CD version in 2007, which was fantastic but now like rocking horse poo.

    Here’s a fave from 1993’s Grow Your Own EP, a cover of a Small Faces b-side with Paul Weller on harmonica, which might explain how they ended up on Acid Jazz Records. Almost Grown:

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