“What a great space this is”, says Dave Harbottle, “it’s like the perfect combination of the old and the new”. He’s right too, Christchurch is looking at its very best tonight. The sunset streams through the open doors, blue lights gently uplight the mullioned windows, the woodwork painted subtle shades. It’s an old place castContinue reading “Harbottle & Jonas – Downend Folk & Roots – April 2023”
Author Archives: tallfolk
Goat – SWX – April 2023
In Cookie Mueller’s brilliant book of essays about hanging out with John Waters and various nutcases in Baltimore, she constantly mentions a set of places. These are places that will survive the collapse of civilisation as we know it. They are the convergence of ley lines, special places. Special places if you are oddly unhingedContinue reading “Goat – SWX – April 2023”
Morganway – The Louisiana – April 2023
Do you think that there’s some sort of a rule when a band chooses their support band for a tour? A complicated equation? One that balances the band being good but them not blowing you away? No one wants the audience leaving their gig solely enthusing about the support act, do they? Whatever that equationContinue reading “Morganway – The Louisiana – April 2023”
Noble Jacks – Lost Horizon – April 2023
Should you be able to have this much fun on Good Friday? Is there some sort of moral or philosophical law against smiling and manically jumping up and down two days before Easter Sunday? If there is a big chap sitting on a cloud up there, did he look down as Noble Jacks whirled LostContinue reading “Noble Jacks – Lost Horizon – April 2023”
Hack Poets Guild – Folk House – March 2023
During the short film that, sort of, supports Hack Poets Guild, Lisa Knapp says that she loves Broadside Ballads because you can “hear the humanity coming through”. Broadsides were single sheets of news, sometimes in the form of songs (the ballads in question), sold cheaply on the streets between the 15th and 19th century. ByContinue reading “Hack Poets Guild – Folk House – March 2023”
The Haar – Downend Folk & Roots – March 2023
There’s a story that, on March 8th 1890, Bram Stoker, Dublin-born author of Dracula, contracted food poisoning from a dressed crab in a fashionable London restaurant. The ensuing vivid nightmare about blood-sucking creatures was direct inspiration for his Goth Count. If that dream had had a soundtrack, then it could have been provided by TheContinue reading “The Haar – Downend Folk & Roots – March 2023”
Three Cane Whale – St George’s – March
St George’s was made for nights like this one. Where the acoustics allow the instruments to soar and the musicians are of such rare quality that nothing else matters but the sounds being made. And what sounds they are. Two bands, six musicians and some of the most transportive music that you’ll ever hear. FirelightContinue reading “Three Cane Whale – St George’s – March”
Butler, Blake, Grant – The Redgrave Theatre – March 2023
How’s this for a party game? One that you could play for the rest of time? Which three singer-songwriters would you like, guitars in hand, to play together? Each taking turns to play their best loved songs? Each harmonising and adding new bits? The possibilities are endless. Early on a member of the audience shoutsContinue reading “Butler, Blake, Grant – The Redgrave Theatre – March 2023”
The Dream Syndicate – The Fleece – March 2023
1980s Los Angeles seemed like a very long way from 1980s England. Sunshine. Glamour. Colours. All sorts of things that we seemed to lack really. 1980s Los Angeles also had this really cool bunch of bands. The Three O’Clock, The Bangles, Rain Parade and The Dream Syndicate. They plugged themselves into punk rock, garage rock,Continue reading “The Dream Syndicate – The Fleece – March 2023”
Courtney Marie Andrews – The Trinity – March 2023
It seems like only yesterday that Courtney Marie Andrews was hiding behind a fringe and a guitar case full of loneliness and heartbreak. She was always alone on her stage, a one-woman, one-stop shop for the broken and busted. Tonight the singer-songwriter from Arizona is a different proposition. She’s now eight albums old and, farContinue reading “Courtney Marie Andrews – The Trinity – March 2023”
TallFolk 