Vitality vs. Nostalgia

 I've written before about nostalgia in music. some might call it 'heritage'. In shorthand, for me, it signifies an inability or a desire not to move on. It sits with views such as 'things were so much better before' and in the case of music 'there is no music worth listening to now'. I don't subscribe to these views.

Sure I listen to music that was made decades ago and enjoy it. I also like to re-evaluate music from my past. While it can give you a warm glow and rekindle memories it is best in my view not to get caught up in a web that devalues what is going on now. There is plenty happening now that is fresh and new and worth listening to.

It is not all about the absolute new. There are bands who have been around for a while and have kept putting out new material, never relying on greatest hits to get people to come and see them.

On Friday I went to see the Nightingales play live, a band that has its roots in the post punk world that shaped my musical choices. Mysteriously I never really listened to them at the time and only discovered them a few years ago - live on the recommendation of a friend. With only lead singer Robert Lloyd remaining from the original line-up this is a band that has astutely avoided the mainstream but managed to keep evolving and making relevant new music. I've seen them three times and the sets are always fresh and full of new material played with with a considerable intensity and brio that would put many bands to shame both old and new. There is something vital about their shows. The current line-up has been stable for a number of years now and produce a powerful live show that is a must see. There is no hint of nostalgia, the songs on Friday night bleed into each other creating a wonderful cascade of sounds and words.

Supporting them were the Blue Orchids. Again a band that has a track record date back to the same post punk roots and led again the one surviving member of the original line-up in Martin Bramah an original member of the Fall (another band that had no time for nostalgia). I'd seen the Blue Orchids a few years back supporting the Nightingales and remembered them more clearly. Like the Nightingales they have kept going producing music and touring. This was a new line-up to me and a combination of the new energy in the band, which includes Tansy McNally on lead electric ukulele (yes really), and the power of Bramah's new songs (they are touring new album 'Speed the Day') delivered a set brimming with vitality that left the crowd cheering.

From these two bands that could rest on their heritage and nostalgia there is a clear lesson - vitality beats nostalgia. Keep it contemporary.

Shout out too to the strange and wonderful Kamura Obscura who opened the night with a series of electronic soundscapes that were at times psychedelically chilling, other times dancy. A kaleidoscope. 

https://uknightingales.bandcamp.com/

https://blueorchids.bandcamp.com/

https://www.kamuraobscura.com/

The weekend gigs - enjoying music during the time of Covid

In this time of Covid-19 music is what i miss and what gets me through the restrictions and disruptions to the life that we once knew. The fact that musicians and venues are hit by the virus is something that to me makes keeping connected to music important.

Music is a shared, mutual experience where a musician shares their work with an audience through some means of communication - live, product, radio, streaming. There is something about live music that is special. Sharing that room whatever its size with an audience, pleasing fans, winning new converts building a rapport, a feeling a shared experience. Bringing recorded music to life and the reaction of the crowd large or small. That reaction can be enthusiastic, ecstatic, polite, joyous by degrees and creates a mood in the room which can't be found through other channels.

The abrupt stopping of live music last year left me with tickets that would never be used. Most have been refunded or held against rescheduled gigs that I expect will be rescheduled again. such is gig life (or life itself) during the time of Covid.

I've made my peace to some extent with the closedown and have sought to use what's left to connect with music. Livestreaming of gigs has to some extent filled the gap. At first, I tried to join as much as I could and to be honest found it too much. I realised after a bit that there was always choice in the old gig world - will I go to that gig? How much are the tickets? What else have I got on that night? I simply had to apply that measure and be aware that trying to join livestreams in other time-zones was unsustainable - I did have a life after all. I’ll write again about specific livestreams I've joined over the past year in a future post but to close off this one I want to use my musical journey of this particular weekend as an example of this new world.

On Friday night I had a paid for gig - a livestream from Lafayette in London by the Staves to launch their new album 'Good Woman'. I long been a fan of them and their harmonies, but it had been a long time since I'd seen them live - almost 5 years to the day since they played Edinburgh's Queen's Hall. They played with a full band and it was wonderful to see them 'live' again. Due to the lack of audience in the venue they used the whole space by leaving the stage and performing in the snug and bar for some quieter acoustic numbers. Unlike some of the other livestreams I've 'attended' for new albums this was not a run through of the album. The Staves played key tracks from the new album interspersed with songs from across their back catalogue. They even indulged in a bit of chat between the songs. It was a great start to weekend. I put the lights down as the stage lights came on popped open a beer and enjoyed people making music.

I’d been aware that there was a clash with the Staves gig – Edinburgh based Pianodrome had a session with rising singer songwriter Magpie Blue on the same night. It was a free gig so I was able to catch up with her music the next morning via Pianodrome on YouTube. The music worked well in the quietness of Saturday morning creating a reflective mood for the start of the day.

In the evening I had marked on my calendar the tv premiere of King Rocker a film about Robert Lloyd and the Nightingales by Michael Cumming and Stewart Lee. Not a live gig or a livestream gig I’ll give you but the live tie in is as follows! I have a journalist friend Neil Cooper who a few years back was posting about them on social media and the name vaguely rang a bell. The Nightingales are a band I continually feel I should have been more aware of back in the day. They were championed by John Peel and were contemporaries of bands I love like the Fall and Vic Godard & the Subway Sect but somehow, I had missed them. Neil’s enthusiasm was infectious however and got a ticket was purchased to see them at local venue Leith Depot. What a gig! Packed, loud, incedible band, crazy dancing. I was hooked – why had I not discovered them before? Never mind though I had found them at last. The film followed the path of Robert Lloyd’s creative trajectory from its origins in the band the Prefects through to the present day which has seen regular albums and a committed band. There was a lot of humour and I found even more evidence that I should have been a fan a long time ago. I’ll give you no spoilers just urge you to see it and discover the route though music of a singular creative talent. The parallel story of the King Kong statue by British Pop Artist Nicholas Monro which was originally sited in the Birmingham hometown of Lloyd and Lee and at one point bizarrely found a home for a time at the Ingilston Market in Edinburgh before stories of its demise were confounded and it now stands proud near Penrith. A metaphor.

After I’d finished watching King Rocker I discovered that I’d missed a live stream from Bryde broadcast by the Queens Hall Narberth. A big fan of Sarah Howells since she was in Paper Aeroplanes, I’d seen Bryde three times before actually live in Sneaky Pete’s and Henry’s Cellar Bar. Again, I caught up via YouTube in the morning. It was good to watch her play solo with electric guitar and hear those taut dynamic songs yearning for a live audience. I was there belatedly but thanks to the Queens Hall Narberth and YouTube I was able to connect virtually and hope for the real live experience...soon.

How long will this go on? Vaccine and Covid suppression will answer that but despite the ability to drop in on these gigs and this music I yearn for the excitement of the live gig. The feeling I remember when after a few years of no live gigs I found myself at a Martha Wainwright gig in a small venue and thought I like this; I really like this.

#staysafe #livemusic #keeponrocking