GIG REVIEWS
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GIG REVIEWS |
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John Parkes
@ The Topic Folk Club, Bradford 28.02.08 www.vanguard-online.co.uk
“I’ve never played anywhere with the word ‘folk’ in the title” says John, by way of introducing himself. He’s a thin man in specs, dressed top to bottom in black. It’s a funny little gig, thirty-something people in the front room of the oldest local pub, stained brown with years of gloomy fug, up a hill in Bradford. Having been, as well as a solo performer, a member of electric bands Whole Sky Monitor and Sinister cleaners, John is more used to the indie scene. Here there is, at least, an appreciative silence while he plays. In fact it is frowned upon to get up and get a beer. Likewise, he’s not played without a microphone before and has to work to make his lyrics all heard and, for John, the lyrics are important. These are protest songs and cynical calls to arms. He opens with Second Golden Age Of Protest and, as I’d thought from the album, songs work well when I’m forced to sit and pay attention. Some words are lost in the sound and that’s a shame. John gets used to it and by the end, has it under control – his last song, Let’s Make Love, a sideways look at the regulation of daily life gets laughs and a good reception. Glorification Of Terrorism is his ‘illegal song’ – it now being illegal to praise terrorism. John points out that terrorists founded the United States! He’s a worthy performer, reminding me of eighties cabarets, where comedians were encouraged to voice politics and incite social upheaval. Have times changed so much that overthrowing Maggie Thatcher is so far removed from wanting to see an end to the violent hypocrisy of current incumbents? His Cigarette song is a naff simile, reminiscent of student poetry but has an emotional honesty that bypasses naff via truth. John’s irony and twisted songs work fine here in two fifteen-minute sets. They sent me back to the recent album (reviewed last month by us) and I found it had grown on me, tunes becoming mysteriously stronger with familiarity. He’s supporting Emily Smith, who similarly has two sets, much longer though. A singer-songwriter from Dumfries and Galloway, she sings Scots story songs, some trad, some self written, one is a Robert Burns piece. The originals tend to the soppy, which is a shame when there is a fine tradition of songs through history from that part of the world. Her lyrics, too, are not as clear as they might be. Working as a duo, playing guitar, accordion and piano as appropriate, the later, up tempo, dance pieces are much tighter than the others and had me wishing we’d’ve had more of them. |
