so horsemouth went off to watch the 143rd scaledown above a pub (the king and queen off oxford street) - the idea being that acts do a scaled-down version of what they normally do (to suit the more intimate surroundings). he had the map provided by the rantipoles (this is partially why he went to make up for missing their canal cruise).
the acts played, horsemouth chatted to a dude from the isle of lewis in the outer hebrides (ten miles down from the lighthouse if you’re visiting). horsemouth thought he’d seen him at the leigh folk festival (but it must have been a look alike).
intro - two of the usual three hosts apparently
carl chamberlain - poems about (sometimes toxic) masculinity, the weddings of grandparents, delivered fast and unamplified, involving and with the right balance of grit and sentimentality. a break for the set up,
then thom driver and a bassist - good songs sabotaged by the sound and timing problems (noticeably better with a drum machine) but surviving nonetheless.
a break for the set up - two vocal mikes - two positions on stage - and we are back in swansea at an after show party with little and large (and with roshi nasehi of pars radio - horsemouth has seen her before at one of those sun at night things).
there’s a little tale of how roshi ended up in swansea from iran (and a loop stationed iranian song about the hand - about reading palms? - most excellent) and then the story itself working the two positions onstage, the two microphones the two different audio treatments of the voice as interior and exterior state - nice. the setting swansea - far away and long ago (but homely) gives it a necessary distance. on its way to being a theatre piece.
then, the rantipoles, the further adventures of 3/4ths of gertrude in (indeed) a scaled down and more portable form working that hinge and bracket comedy of sillyness, sneaking the songs, the sudden harmonies, the word-play, the dance -routines, all of it, all into 15 minutes, all with a map - upcycled from the canal trip horsemouth was pleased to see (waste not want not). dawn had lost her voice, nick doyne-ditmas was supposed to double for her on kazoo from offstage (he remembered the first time).
living standards (see it took horsemouth a while to get the pun) vocal and guitar duo doing jazz standards - or originals - not entirely horsemouth’s cup of tea - there was a good etoufe passage on one song.
finally joe wilkes - now the vocals were bob dylan (ok horsemouth is a little unfair here) but the guitar playing was very good indeed (horsemouth hates it when people make this sort of thing look effortless) more in the jansch/ renbourn contrapuntal fingerpicking with bluesy bends (how strong must people’s fingers be to achieve this?) mode. as to the songs themselves horsemouth would make his usual appeal for people not to stop at the first thing but to wait until they’re got a part two to the song also - for horsemouth the evening’s discovery.
he played (if horsemouth remembers correctly) a version of frankie learnt from the mississippi john hurt version (but with a different guitar part), she kills her faithless husband, in contradistinction to the way it usually goes down in blues songs (he said) where the men kill the women. but horsemouth doesn’t think this is so - surely it’s the folk songs pretty polly, hey joe, where the wild roses grow where the women get killed?
also met - good to see nick doyne-ditmas (gigging solo a lot - and tonight with charles hayward - is that right? yes - actually with his trio crackle at lewisham art house tonight - ah a fiver bring your own bottle), and ayesha (of gertrude still on a holiday from music e15’ing it).
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