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Nick Morgan and crew
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Concert
Review by Nick Morgan |
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MARTIN SIMPSON
Union Chapel, Islington, London, November 13th 2007 |
| This
is my first visit to the Union
Chapel, which sits in distinguished company
in this little Highbury Corner of North London:
the Hope
and Anchor (home of Pub Rock and a leading Punk
venue in the seventies) is just across the road,
and a bit further down is the Garage, a Mean Fiddler
venue currently being refurbished. And right by
the Highbury and Islington tube is the very busy
‘indie’ Buffalo
Bar underneath the Famous Cock Tavern. The chapel
was built in 1877 and sits in an elegant terrace
of houses set back from Islington’s Upper
Street. Designed by leading Nonconformist architect
James Cubitt (author of the famous Church Designs
for Congregations (London, 1870)) it is widely regarded
as “a magnificent example of Victorian Gothic
architecture and displays many features which were
at the cutting edge of technological advance in
their day”. |
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| The
building fell into dereliction in the 1960s and
1970s but since the late 80s, successful campaigns
have been mounted to restore the building (an on-going
process) and bring it back to full use as a place
of worship, as a centre for the homeless, and as
a performance venue. Which is why we’re here
tonight enjoying excellent acoustics and perfect
sight-lines to the imposing pulpit, in front of
which stands singer and guitarist Martin
Simpson. |
| It’s
not exactly a full house, but fortunately the audience
are joined by a film crew of about fifteen souls
which makes the place seem pretty busy. They’re
all over the place, and characteristically disruptive
for the audience, but I guess that’s the price
we pay for getting a gig in such sensational surroundings.
Simpson, if you don’t know, is the British
folk musician of the moment, which is not bad going
seeing that he recorded his first solo album over
thirty years ago. His most recent album, Prodigal
Son, has received an enthusiastic reception in all
quarters, flew into the Indie top twenty charts
and has resulted in five nominations for Simpson
in the annual BBC Folk Music Awards. And he’s
scheduled for an appearance on the last Jools Holland
‘Later with Jools’ show of the year
on the TV, which, believe me, means that in UK terms,
he’s hot property. And quite rightly too.
The album is exceptional; largely due to Simpson’s
performance, but also to his arrangements of a variety
of British and American traditional tunes and some
striking original compositions. |
| Needless
to say, we get the majority of these songs in the
course of the evening, which is neatly divided into
a solo set, and then (after drinks in the bar –
yes a church with a bar, Serge!) a group performance
with Andy Seward on bass, Andy Cutting on a wonderful
old accordion, and Kellie While on vocals. Behind
us there are a gang of boys down from Yorkshire
who are in a state of other-worldly spiritual ecstasy,
provoked by Mr Simpson’s guitar playing. Now
– I guess if someone’s lashed out lots
of quids on a big film production unit then you’ve
got to be careful not to make too many mistakes
– but honestly Simpson’s playing goes
way beyond this. He favours a number of open tunings
which allow him to focus on a quite unique finger
style. It’s a sort of step on from Martin
Carthy, with a lot of Bert Jansch’s bent notes
– some quite exaggerated – and occasional
touches of Richard Thompson – well really
only when he plays Thompson’s ‘Strange
Affair’. Actually, thinking of all these influences,
and his tendency to play blues songs and sing with
a strong American accent (he didn’t get that
in Lincolnshire, but might have picked it up from
living in the United States for many years) I have
to admit that I have sometimes thought of Mr Simpson
as a sort of superior folk-club singer (not, I hasten
to say, that I have anything against folk clubs,
or folk club singers), slipping through genres with
a imitative ease. But really when you listen to
him play, or look at the material on Prodigal Son,
you have to confess that he has a very complete
voice and style of his own. |
| Anyway
– back to the ecstatic boys. Do you remember
the famous Ravi Shankar moment during George Harrison’s
Concert for Bangladesh? Shankar picked up his sitar
and started playing, only to receive a (frankly
patronising) ovation from his audience. 'If you
appreciate the tuning so much, I hope you will like
the playing more' he chided them. It’s a bit
like that with Simpson – every time he checks
his tunings he does so with bewildering fret board
intensive routines which simply leave everyone gasping.
|
George Harrison and Ravi Shankar |
| His
singing isn’t bad either, particularly on
tunes like Musgrave (“One day I remembered
Nic Jones’
recorded version on his first album Ballads and
Songs. I didn’t go back and listen, I just
started to play”), Bachelor’s Hall,
and the wonderful Andrew Lammie, a ballad collected
in the nineteenth century that recounts a particularly
brutal honour killing. He turns in a very acceptable
version of Randy Newman’s ‘Louisiana’
and sings his own song about his father, ‘Never
any good’, quite beautifully. It might be
just a tad Radio 2, but it certainly hits the spot. |
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Yes,
apart from the wretchedly intrusive film crew (let’s
hope we don’t see them on the DVD too!) and
the cold (chilly places churches) there’s
really nothing to fault the performance - au contraire,
as one might say. And if you buy Mr Simpson’s
CD, or go and see him play, and are as enamoured
of his guitar playing as we were, then you may like
to know that his website is not only full of generous
tips on how he does it, but you can also spend a
week with him in a guitar workshop – in France!
Are you going Serge? - Nick Morgan |
(photographs by Kate, Rex Features) |
Check
the index of all reviews:
Nick's Concert Reviews
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There's nothing more down there... |
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