I’ve been paying more attention to what I’ve been paying attention to

 The second of two gigs this week - and this venue is a bit of a step up!

Thea Gilmore came to my attention with her 2001 album Rules For Jokers, which is a fine example of the female singer-songwriter thing that I very much go for - I've tried to keep up with her in the intervening years but I have to admit I can't say I've listened to all of the 21 albums she's released over her career. I saw her live back in '12 in the exotic environs of St Albans and liked some of her last album, so thought I'd investigate where she was touring this time around and saw she was playing a venue I've been meaning to visit for some time - Union Chapel in Islington, so I was very much up for that.


This is the second gig in a church I've written up (and the third I remember going to) and Union Chapel is in much better nick than St John in Bethnal Green - it's an absolutely gorgeous venue with dark wood everywhere and loads of candles flickering. I also like the fact that it's unreserved seating, but I wasn't quite so keen on it when I was queuing in the heavy rain for 15 minutes - but fortunately it wasn't nearly as cold inside as you might expect, with it being pretty full also helping.


But, before we get to Thea, we have the support act - Philippe Nash, who I'd obviously never heard of. He had a nice voice and good guitar skills (and he had a couple of mates with a cello and a violin) and he reminded me of Tim or Jeff Buckley, but I can't be bothered investigating which one. He made some interesting enough noises but it didn't quite click for me - admirable rather than lovable. He started his show in a very peculiar style using an electric guitar, feedback and loops to create an interestingly odd sound, which seemed perfectly impossible to sing along to so I wondered what he was going to do with it - what I totally wasn't expecting was for him to just switch it off!



The audience response to Philippe was nice enough, but it was clear who they'd come to see and there was some definite whooping and hollering as Thea walked on stage. She started with some loops as well, but hers were much more melodically constructed with some neat harmonies created which she then used a backing track for "This Girl Is Taking Bets", which was one of two tracks I recognised all evening. It was somewhat unfortunate that the drum machine totally failed to work for two minutes in the middle of it, but tech support arrived on stage to turn it off and turn it on again and all was well!


The only other track I knew was a cover of Cyndi Lauper's "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" which she introduced as "a song I really don't like - so much so that I think I quite like it". She also explained that she's got an album of covers coming out next year "but I'm so good at marketing, that this isn't actually on it" - whatever her motivation, it was a beautiful stripped-back version featuring a nice bit of audience singing.


Even though I didn't know any of the other songs, I still very much enjoyed them - she's still got an absolutely gorgeous voice and was backed up by an unflashily competent band. Particular tracks that jumped out at me were "She Speaks In Colours", "Rise" and "Midwinter Toast" which is a lovely Christmas song, complete with a charming introduction about Janice Long. Thea was good with her audience interaction, giving us background info on most tracks or amusing quips - "this is a song about a woman with rage issues - so it's dedicated to the adorable Gregg Wallace".


Apart from a couple of well selected (ie simple) singalongs and decent applause after each song, the audience interaction with Thea was surprisingly muted - it's almost as though they were in awe and didn't want to miss anything. Where this showed up most starkly was the lack of videoing on phones going on - I probably only noticed four or five people video anything throughout the gig, which is unheard of these days. The age range was also surprisingly diverse - she's certainly most popular with women of advancing years, but there were also quite a few young couples there as well.


If I had to quibble, the sounds levels weren't always great but I can imagine that Thea's voice is a tricky one to get right - she's got quite a low mumble as her speaking voice which she also sometimes sings in, but then she flies up the octaves and increases the power. I'd also say that the seats aren't the most comfortable, but that's probably not an entirely unexpected state of affairs and they look so fantastic that I can forgive them that. The whole venue is just absolutely lovely and I was pleased I got to experience a lovely intimate gig in such surroundings - I will attempt to head back there at some point (and the Kate Rusby gig next May feels like it might be a good time to do so). All in all, a beautiful evening.













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