This particular gig was a bit of a shot in the dark for me. I didn’t know that it was on until I read an interview in the Harrogate Advertiser and wondered whether I should check it out. A combination of favourable circumstances (not doing anything that night or the next day, best friend interested, show not sold out) meant that I found myself picking my way through the ice towards the entrance to the Royal Hall. Far from being a sell out (at least when I bought the tickets, the hall did seem full) I’d actually got pretty good seats. Aside – I used to have endure school speech days at the Royal Hall and the prize winners used to sit towards the front. Fifteen years later I sort of made it.
Getting back to the point; Seth Lakeman – I knew the name but very little else. I knew he was in the folk rock tradition with a top ten album to his name a few years back. I listened to his latest single, The Courier, which sounded promising. I should add here that I went through a bit of a folk rock phase about five years ago when I enjoyed Stornaways’ debut album and – even more so – Johnny Flynn’s excellent record Been Listening. So I was looking forward to this and it certainly proved an educational evening.
The opening act were Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin, new names to me but winners of best duo at the 2014 BBC Folk Awards. During their set I couldn’t help admire both their knowledge of England’s folk heritage and the craft with which they made it something of their own. What a middle aged audience in a conservative sound made of eulogies to early trade unionists and the Tolpuddle martyrs unfortunately has to pass unreported here.
At the risk of stating the obvious recorded music is a relatively new fad and for centuries songs have endured due to the oral tradition. It occurred to me during the evening that the Beatles and the Stones took their lead from the blues of the deep south and the vast majority of the best known `country rock` singers (Bob Dylan being a not entirely perfect example) are American. There is an English folk rock tradition of course (Fairport Convention among others) but it always has been a very much a niche genre. British rock sits distinct from American rock mainly due to British bands (often not overtly) drawing on the music hall tradition. So what I heard from Phillip Henry and Hannah Martin lingered in my mind perhaps more than the headline act did, even if it was as an acquired taste.
Seth Lakeman opened with the afore mentioned The Courier, the only song of his I knew. This is a fine song, sleek, unsettling but (critically for me) nudging more towards rock than much of his stuff. The set that followed veered (perhaps a little too wildly on occasion) between foot stomping stormers and bleaker, more romantic moments. Unfortunately I can’t note individual highlights as I don’t have the song titles to hand. The most interesting point may have been when Lakeman performed a song written recently by a D Day veteran (his only song) which, while haunting on more than one level, curiously offset the spirit of the support set.
By the end of the night the audience were rightly on their feet (two particularly energetic ladies had a little dance in the aisles) and the applause was well deserved. I’ve been to enough gigs to recognise true artistry when I see it. To be honest this was a hard review to write (if not for my pledge to review every single gig I go to this year I might not have tried). If it comes over as slightly lukewarm let the record show that I downloaded two Lakeman albums the next day.
I’ve struggled over my last sentence, trying to describe how I felt when I exited the Royal Hall into the treacherous January ice. My night ended with a post concert pint in the familiar surroundings of Monteys Rock Cafe musing over the folk tradition and how it informs the music I love but also with the sense of having escaped something oddly and wrongly conservative.
amz1981 