Welcome back vinyl lovers! It’s February, which means it’s embarrassingly way too late to say ‘happy new year’ and whatnot but I’m gonna say it anyway and push the boat out...I hope you’re having a happy new year thus far, and long may the awesomeness continue! Christmas was upon us very quickly last year, it seemed, and so without further adieu, I shall hop back in time for Kal Lavelle’s marvellous pre-Christmas ‘We Love Shows’ gig, just in time for her next awesome shindig coming up on March 18th.
To give a bit of context, St Giles in the Field is a very beautiful church and I must say, lining up outside it in such a substantially massive queue made me realise exactly how far Kal Lavelle’s shows have come. From the early beginnings of the ‘We Love Sundays’ gigs – incidentally always hosted in Finsbury Park and always requiring singer-songwriter, organiser and compere Kal to tell overly-enthusiastic Arsenal fans to ‘shut the f*ck up’ – this fabulous platform for independent musicians has matured into its current ‘We Love Shows’ incarnation. These are gigs that draw huge crowds, in beautiful spaces, whilst always showcasing artists who are blazing their own unique trails into the industry, without compromising on artistry. A few familiarities remained, however, most notably in the form of huge quantities of sugar. Kal always used to place Haribo packets on each of the tables in The World’s End pub in Finsbury, and if memory serves, lollies and Gummy Bears were supplied as well. Actually, so were roast potatoes, Yorkshires and gravy. Dayum. We really got fed well! So, December 11th brought sugar in the form of chocolate mainly, as this was a Christmas gig, and in addition I noticed lots of familiar faces, plus lots of mulled wine, I have to say the combination of which was particularly lovely. Over the years, Kal Lavelle has forged her own community of people who love her shows and her music. Sitting down in one of the pews, I spied my friend Jon (Jedi Jon) and smiled. Yes! No longer Nobby Nomates! (But you’re never Nobby Nomates at one of these shows, even if you pitch up alone. You’ll always go away with new friends. It’s true, I met Jon at We Love Sundays, back in the day!) (All photographs courtesy of Darren Hodder)
Returning back to the queue, just briefly, I had overheard mutterings of an artist who’d recently been doing ‘something amazing with an electric guitar’. From the line-up, I guessed that this might be Bryde (of Paper Aeroplanes fame), as I know from experience that Fiona Bevan plays the ukulele and Kal plays the acoustic guitar mostly, so I was intrigued to see what this ‘something’ was that Bryde was mysteriously doing with her electric. As it turned out, rocking-the-place-out-to-a-jaw-dropped-awe-struck-instantly-in-love-with-her audience was what she was doing. I had never seen her before, but from the very first lyric of the very first song, I was converted. I was an immediate fan. The silence she garnered was of a revered, pin-drop nature, like the feeling you get when watching your favourite old movie at your favourite old cinema, and you can hear the rustlings of other people’s popcorn packets and the anticipation of everyone’s favourite nostalgic catchphrase looming in the air. ‘Atmospheric’ is a term that naturally sprung to mind. I felt like a gazelle who’d recently spotted a tiger. I sat there motionless, honestly, because I loved the sound of her guitar so much, and when she sang, she sang with such a smoky, gorgeous texture. Very much an old soul in a young woman’s body. She reminded me of Laura Veirs, her voice simultaneously whispery and powerful. In terms of her presence, she reminded me almost of a female Jeff Buckley. I can imagine her taking Glastonbury’s park stage by storm, and she has a slight Seattle vibe about her, too.
Her performance is as live as it gets, and yet somehow, she manages to maintain that precision and clarity of a studio recording. ‘Here’s another sad song’ she would joke in between introductions, but I begged to differ. Lyrics such as “I find myself in pieces of you” and “I won’t be your protector if you can’t handle the impact of your ways” really resonated with me and smacked only of self-awareness, not sadness. It seemed she was dealing with the Universal desire to stand in your own power. I didn’t think that was sad: I thought that was awesome. Bryde is simply enchanting and if you get the chance to catch her songs ‘Wait’ or ‘Nectar’ on the radio (Radio 1 no less), then my advice is to whack them up to 11!
Next on the impressive line-up was the outstanding Fiona Bevan. Two things struck me about her: her wonderfully approachable sense of humanity (she introduced her album ‘Talk to Strangers’ with the very true adage “we were all outsiders before we walked in here”) and secondly, the gorgeous way she held her tiny guitar so high up on her frame. The combination of soft nylon strings and exquisite vocals were once again quintessentially her, along with her tangible warmth, wit and beautiful smile. I had seen Fiona perform before, at one of Kal’s ‘We Love Sundays’ gigs a few years prior, and I knew I was going to be inevitably gobsmacked once again. This time however, Fiona surprised the audience with a version of a particular crowd favourite that she partially sang in French (having recently toured Canada). She informed us that this French edition had fallen foul of the Canadian censors, having been given a Parental Advisory stamp, “so I might have done the translation a bit wrong”. Even when being humorous, she still managed to single-handedly encapsulate the raw emotion of what felt like an entire choir. ‘Slo Mo Tiger Glo’ was one example, along with her ‘Song for Nicky’, which both faded out into almost whispers; a brave move I thought, from someone who understood completely the importance of special, lingering moments within songs. Fiona Bevan’s melodies are peppered with such touching beautiful observations (“winter is not so cold with someone to hold”). I was utterly soothed from start to finish and could happily have stayed in that church all night, listening to these songs, each of which carried the smile that she sang with.
My ears pricked up when Ms Bevan played ‘Rebel without a cause’, as this is a personal favourite of mine! Such rebellion without causation, she explained, was a love song born out of the 2011 riots in London (“making trouble just because”) and I loved so much how this tied in with her underlying theme of discovery. That is, discovering that we’re all in this together. If you have ever felt like an outsider, so has absolutely everybody else in the entire world, at some point or other. Such unifying energies continued throughout her set, which blessed us even further with a new song about escaping, called ‘Explorers’ (“feel the fear and do it anyway”). Wonderful, beautiful, charming and enlightening, this song reminded me of a certain Bon Iver. To finish her gig, she played the ‘Peace song’, and then ‘Silent Night’ which was audience participatory! My favourite thing ever! Poignant and touching, we all sang, to commemorate the fallen from World War I, which coincidentally had its centenary on that very day. It reminded me, on a personal level now, of the futility of war. Fiona said that the Germans and the Allies had stopped fighting at that time, and had chosen instead to play football and sing together. It brought a tear to my eye to think of all the young souls who had just wanted to play, and who should never have been sent out there in the first place. A very powerful performance from a very brilliant woman. Fiona Bevan is the business! Check her album out if you haven’t already, it’s on vinyl!
So, after some drinks, choccies, chats, boogies and toilet visits (get in the queue early at St Giles’ people, there is only the one facility...just putting it out there) we were treated to the glorious vocals of Kal Lavelle herself! To kick off the set, Kal played one of her very first songs, something she wrote at the tender age of sixteen, named ‘Blue Lagoon’. I loved this song, particularly the lyric “Everyone has their own private lagoon, yours is blue, mine is you”. Another theme was emerging here, that of falling in love with your friend and of wanting for that special someone to stay and not leave (ever). Hence the song ‘I fell in love with my friend’, a Kal classic that got the crowd singing along once more. In fact, this particular We Love Show(s) turned out to be a proper sing-along-athon!
Next up was the beautiful ‘Berlin’, another singalong tune and another massive festival crowd pleaser, I thought. Such bright futures these three impresarios have! My personal favourite was the song ‘Shivers’, partly because it wasn’t mic-ed and Kal walked down the aisle in amongst the audience to perform it, and partly because it’s about sex. Yep, sex. Need I say more! I felt that this whole night celebrated humanity in all its glory and humans in all our loveliness/complexity/wobbliness. Ms Lavelle went on to sing the very moving ‘Closer’, in contrast, a song about unnecessary human loss and the pain of losing someone close. I liked that for ‘Saddest Song’, she brought Fiona and Bryde back up onto the stage. Three-part harmonies are always gorgeous in my opinion, and this song, another new one no less, really pulled on the heart strings. Of course, to close out an EPIC night of beautiful, female empowered, independent and remarkable music, Kal played ‘Get out of my head!’, her anthem for the broken-hearted-who-are-over-it-now-and-can’t-be-arsed-to-be-broken-hearted-anymore (which on this night was absolutely everyone), and which received the loudest singalong of the night. Yes! Imagine Suzanne Vega on a protest march and you’ll get an emotional slice of this song.
I left St Giles in the Field with a warm and glowing heart. Once again, I had made new friends and hugged old ones tight. Get along to one of Kal Lavelle’s shows! She always gets epic people, who are always doing their own independent epic thing, and she’ll feed you up, which is also epic! Thank you Kal, thank you Bryde, thank you Fiona (and special thanks also to Darren Hodder for the amazing photos). This night was very powerful and I felt blessed to have been there to witness its wonder. The next ‘We Love Shows’ gig is scheduled for March 18th at the stunning St Giles’ and here is the link: https://billetto.co.uk/welovespring2016 (see also @WeLoveShows).
Love, more love and then some vinyl-loving-love, Katie
