Pop Glam Folk Explosion: Lavinia BlackwALL and Stilton at The Social

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I headed over to London last night in anticipation of catching up with old acquaintances and intent on making new ones. I was going to see Lavinia Blackwall’s new musical venture since leaving the highly rated Trembling Bells in 2018. The gig was at The Social which has seen its fair share of upheaval recently and currently is still a venue for live sounds – a wonderfully cosy and tight space built for all sorts of hedonism to go off.

Tonight I was to be part of this hedonism with a side of gentle inflection and introspection. And for Monday in this part of town it was heartening to see that the show had sold out. The third to sell out on this short tour of cities and spaces up and down the country.  Now selling out a show is great for the band but as I travelled on a train into Charing Cross the news that I wasn’t going to get in had me pondering what my next move would be.

It’s here that Marco Rea came to my rescue. Marco is simply the best. A Superda extraordinaire and one part of Lavinia’s Stilton – her incredible band of musical brothers bringing light and shade to her lyrical journeys. Marco has been creating wonderful sounds from Scotland for sometime now, a man born full of melody and harmony that comes out in abundance tonight.  I first became enthralled to Marco’s musical world as he and Stuart Kidd sang together as The Wellgreen before a Euros Childs gig way back when.  Marco has remained pretty much constant in my musical life ever since.  And boy was I glad he was in it now – a quick message here and there and Marco had me in and I was very much relieved. 

First up were Solveig and Mike offering surreal folk trips and dreams in violin and acoustic guitar with harmonies cartwheeling and rolling around in lyrical play and smiles. I wasn’t sure what I was going to think – I don’t have the folk antennae – I can’t always here the connections or the drift from the norm. Yet I felt I was being challenged by them – in a good way. It made me curious to check them out further. They also recounted stories of falling in ditches which tickled me, sang tales of sandwiches, misheard a request for a song with Kite in the title and brought to life the cinema of the sea.  Not many groups can do this in one set. Technically they are wonderful and Mike’s acoustic guitar ticklings and jangles are complimented by the supberb violin of Solveig creating a rising folk psychedelia for the growing crowd.   Although I hope Mike doesn’t have to play in such tight spaces for the rest of the tour as his accident prone frame nearly caused the violin to be absent for the rest of the set (possibly tour)  after he knocked it in a moment of punching the air.  A great opening set and they would later return to help out Lavinia and her ever expanding band.

John Martin played next  - a person’s name but a band – do you get me? He’s John but there were other people there on the stage. There were flashes of beatific chord sequences and witticisms in jangles and tremolo. Reminded me of The Divine Comedy.

Then came the psychedelic beast of Green Seagull bedecked in the ramalamma of late sixties freakbeat fashions. They had this

incessant chug which was good. Reminded me a great deal of The Zombies meets early Pink Floyd uptown in a battle of harmonics and minor keys. They are supporting The Seeds in mid April at the Beat Bespoke – it will be night of getting down and shaking your fringe if you’re into that sort of thang. And I am. The keyboardist parents were there too. They should be proud of their daughter as her groove holds the whole thing together whilst guitars riff out and the bass provides staccato throbs to their psychedelic garage chug a lug.I reckon with a little more space they’d be ones to wig out.

So after three quality sets the main act arrived and there was a good crowd and a good feeling about it all.  Now at this point I am yet to be able to name all the songs and like a fool I forgot to swipe a set list to help me piece this all together. So it’s going to get rambling.  Lavania arrives backed by the kaftan bedecked Stilton a sort of pop folk glam group of wayward souls who know how to party and dance the night away.  The set showcases the range of Lavania’s vocal sorcery moving through the scales and tones with ease. It really is quite mesmerizing and in Zepplin’s words, ‘tight but loose’ adding rich textures to the groove and goo of Stilton. Marco has written a few songs with Lavania and all have this richness to them as they start one place and then by way of George Harrison, Neil Young, Arthur Lee and some part of Wings end somewhere else in a perfect blend of chime and harmony. Pop punch in folk structures. It works and the crowd knows it too. Whilst all of this might be new to us and even to Lavinia (after all these are new songs only just getting aired and may not yet be finished) there’s an understanding that they will become classics and we are witnessing the start of a different chapter in Lavinia’s choral quest for something after the bells have stopped.

The night has a fun feel to it. It’s not earnest  - nor serious – but it is honest. There’s in song chatter and discussion including some recollections about lost phones in ditches (the theme of the tour) and projectile vomiting in Oxford Circus. We also get to hear the tales of the tunes  - one song ‘Watson’ is apparently about a werewolf who is committing murders and the detective investigating is actually the suspect. To be fair it works better in melody and performance than me trying to explain it here.  Another was called ‘Keep Warm’ – you can probably work that one out yourself.. It isn’t all one tempo of souped up folk glam rock shenanigans some songs aired tonight have a creeping melancholic undertow to remind us that sometimes things can be lost and not clear in this day and age. There are waltzes and ballads mixed within the up-tempo adding to the dynamics and all round brilliance of what will surely be a storming debut album which we’ll hopefully get to hear this year.

For the final numbers – there could have been three or possibly two – Lavinia and Stilton are joined by Solveig and Mike. It’s getting rather cramped up there and I’m not sure The Social can contend with that many musicians on ‘stage’ at any one time. To be fair you can’t really say Seb was on stage – he’s pushed up in the passage to the toilet – but he still played like a trooper adding flourish and power throughout the evening to Lavania’s delicate sounds.  However Solveig and Mike are a good addition further complimenting the charm of it all. As violin merges with acoustic guitars, melody filled guitar licks and shapes, pianos , expert bass, tight rhythms and soaring vocals it only adds a further magical quality to it all.  Finishing with an incredible version of current single “Waiting for Tomorrow ’ the night is over. There are shouts of ‘play it again’ and ‘more’ but it’s not to be – it’s 11 o’clock on a Monday and time to get home and rest for the day ahead.  

I told Lavinia and Marco that I was going to pursue a Kate Bush fronting The Lost White Album take to it all – but the more I return to the evening and listen closer to the sounds on the single – I’m hearing Joni Mitchell – this is Joni’s ‘Esher’ sessions  - a White Album conceived through another dimension of feeling. Live there’s a Beatles sense of playfulness throughout whilst the vocals send you somewhere else. There’s a nod to the past and a rush to the future with this folk rock feeling. This band and their music comforts in its reminder of previous times yet feels modern and alive as it delivers smile after smile in abundance.  

I’m glad I know Marco because it led me to this. 

Lavinia BlackALL and Stilton have already sold out three dates this tour. They will go on to sell out even more. 

I had a wonderful time and you will too  - go and see them  - they are still out on the road this week.

You can find music by them here: https://laviniablackwall.bandcamp.com/releases 

Here’s the video for “Waiting for Tomorrow’

Take a 'chance' on this Kidd

Music is all about time. The right time more often than not.

At the moment I have 'time'. It’s hasn't always been like that but circumstances sometimes throw you the freedom to think and do something different.

Time is on my side - If I could turn back time - Hit me baby one more time - This time (more than any other time)

And when time connects with ideas then things become magical. You see (well hear) there’s so much sound out there. And when our ears align with the sounds of the underground, from the garages, the box room rebels and the cupboard pioneers then  their melodies and words can lift our days and hit us right in the heart. All these genres emerging over time and rolling over one another – boundaries collapsing and sound taking over in fits and starts and change. This great body of sound pushing and moving on across centuries and cultures it's bound to have an impact.

And when you have time you make things.

And when you have time  then things can happen.

At some point last year Stuart Kidd had ‘time’ on his hands – as he puts it a ‘chance weekend’ to himself. So why not take a chance on the time that you’ve got. Which is exactly what he did. Setting himself the challenge to record an album in a weekend. Well let’s say put down the basis of a long player in a 48 hours (I can’t be exact – I wasn’t there)  The result of this is ‘Chance Weekend’ an incredibly beautiful set of songs structured through chance and risk, experimentation and play.

We all experience moments of time on our hands. Good times. Bad times. It’s what we choose to do with this time that shapes tomorrow and all that. There’s something in looking back to those moments when boredom bred creativity and the 'in between' happened. Stuart Kidd makes the music of the 'in between' from a cupboard (well not just a cupboard – but let’s stick with it as an image for his creative genius) in Scotland.  Stuart Kidd has been in my life for some ‘time’ now. I first came into contact with his incredible melodies and harmonies as part of The Wellgreen in a club in North London. Playing good time rock and roll with his partner in chime Marco Rea. And then through his bandcamp site I discovered all manner of beauty. 'Chance Weekend' is another find from this cupboard full of dreaming.  

Starting with an idea – well it has to start somewhere – to create songs using ‘chance’ materials Kidd set about creating a wonderful new long layer.  Inspired by Eno and Coryat and Dobson’s ‘The 12 Song Game’ he set about using random cards and exercises to revisit sounds, create new ones, merge ideas and sing with abandon in new ways. It’s still Kidd though – it’s still songwriting of the highest order – it’s just put together differently.

Sometimes with time on your hands you find new things to do with it.

Now this might be an odd place to bring this up but I’ve been reading a book by John Higgs again ‘The KLF Chaos and Magic and the band who burned a million pound’. It’s a wonderful book and you should read it. But within its pages is an explanation of magical thinking. ‘Chance Weekend’ has been touched by magical thinking. It really is a beautiful piece of work. I should write this review by using the techniques that Kidd used – roll a dice and add parts about harmony or write in italics and bold. But I’m going to chance it and just write whilst listening. Hopefully it will make some sense.   

Opening with ‘A picture I don’t want to paint’ with it’s nod to the laid back 'mid-eighties late night feel' production, kind of like a nightime drive tune that appears from the radio - not Chris Rea  - it’s never ever Chris Rea – but it has a sort of minor melancholic tinge coupled with odd squiggles and squeaks and straight away this is a departure from what we might be used to. The song is still full of rich harmonies blending and coming together but there’s a touch of wailing guitar in there to, it’s quite a sad opener but it works.

This is followed by ‘Little One’ a heartfelt tune to being a family. I guess once someone else comes along you shift your perspective in life and this shift in perspective has produced a wonderful song. It starts with a buzz and  simple beat mixed with a drone  my kind of pure pop – I can’t put my finger on the what it reminds of – it has this big ‘red rocks’ moment near the end – you know epic pop.  All hands aloft with lights and people on shoulders. It’s a song with a punch in the air and swaying with your  lover. Families come from this. There’s a lyric that Kidd sings so beautifully - keep us in your plans – because you know your children grow up and we all have to escape sometime but as a parent you want your children to 'keep us in mind'. It resonates with love for the unknown whilst calling past - a nod to being back somewhere in time. It's a beauty. This cupboard pop pioneer is producing some of the most wonderful sounds around at the moment and you really should give it a listen.  

Opening with a Sgt Pepper like fanfare ‘Forget Me Not’  drifts into that beatific 60s simplicity and here come The Zombies to help him create a perfect pop storm with a banjo and a kazoo somehow making melodies conjuring the 1930s. This has a lot of Macca about it and that’s no bad thing.  There’s never an afterthought with Kidd – he puts it all into the tunes and it works. Like ‘Tomorrow Sky’, that comes next all seas and open horizons with a space filled guitar part to match. This is my favourite so far ( but I haven’t got to the end yet) There’s a swirling organ like the mighty sea rumbling beneath it and that chord progression sends you far out to watch the sun. I don’t want to say it’s country folk – but you need a jump in point so I’m saying it has echoes of country folk but inflected with the city (to keep it real maaaaan) The harmonies are thick and wonderful - the whole long player is both reflective and forward thinking. In using random procedures to create songs the process has made Kidd stray from what he knows into a tomorrow that never knows.

Next comes 'Crazy George' – which is just brilliant  it seems to be made up of found sounds and repetition. I get the feeling of early children’s television music as Kidd makes sounds from rainbows.  It’s got a touch of Van Dyke Parks, it's pastoral and evocative of other pleasant worlds. Actually this might be my favourite. And once again time is referenced so well as KiDD sings 'You can’t look back without tomorrow close at hand.' You really can't. 

Up next is ‘Sagro’ - now this actually has the Bagpuss melody as it's intro  ( or I might have locked on to a children’s television theme in my mind through my own magical thinking) it’s all Oliver Postgate and wonder. Still mining that Van Dyke Parks vibe and then shifting to drum machines and swirls. Melodies unwinding over chugging beats.  When it breaks after two minutes it’s sublime. I could listen to an album of that sound. There’s lots going on in all these songs – but it doesn’t feel that it’s thrown in – more developed even though his working method held more power over the production of this album than the more traditional process of writing a set of songs. But sometimes you have to just do something different

'Like a Bullet' is a ‘cut up’ lyrical blast an ‘Alphabet boogie woogie’ to borrow Kidd’s own technique. I have just written ‘The Beach Boys meet The Style Council uptown’. And that’s no bad thing. So I'll stick with that description for now. 

The fuzzed opening of ‘Unknown Hometown’ with its echoes of MBV guitars breaking and falling apart whilst Teenage Fanclub provide the structure is absolutely pure pop. Random and sublime. It feels like it’s in a key that’s pushed his voice somewhere else and I really like that. It’s quite a big one this one.  

We are nearing the end and there’s time for two more tunes from this wunderKidd. ‘I see crocodiles’ a drone spiritual with a touch of Bowie era ‘Low’ about it – you’ll get the reference when you listen. But then suddenly punctuated with huge harmonies as at comes to an end – we're back to hands in the air – as night falls and we fall in love. And there’s a lovely drone repetition at the end that I could listen to for hours.  

Finally wonk pop at its best is addressed in ‘Where have they gone’ With spring reverb making it seem ‘Free’ ( see what I did there?) and alive. It’s like Kidd goes glam with a touch of  Tricky thrown in the blender. A riotous manner with which to close the cupboard door on at this time. As experiments go this works for Kidd. It’s another long player of incredible tunes and words from a genuine genius of sound. He’s contributed to so much wonderful music over the years but clearly saves some of the magic for himself. With time and chance he’s woven together a truly special record.

With ‘time’ comes creativity. Kidd’s time over that weekend was well spent. Why don’t you take a chance on Kidd and listen yourself this weekend. You won’t be disappointed.

You can find the album to download or buy a limited copy here: 

https://kidd.bandcamp.com/

You can find even more wonderful things here: 
https://kiddtunes.com/
https://open.spotify.com/artist/7jTgnIN8MDiKqHVGfvgz0k


Here is the video for ‘A picture I don’t want to paint’

Oh and check out The Barne Society they released Grin and Bear it by The Wellgreen - and that's ace too. 

Here's a couple of Likely Lads - Grin and hear it (see what I did there?)

Grin and bear it. A smile to fend off the ills of the world.  You get those feelings sometimes as you work through the final days of a long old haul at work – roll on the break. Chin up old man – we’ll see it through.

So here come The Wellgreen to spread their ever changing scene to the masses. It’s a new album see – another long player from the best players. Song number one – Grin and Bear It – sets the tone - like an updated Bay City Rollers with swagger (and there’s nothing wrong with that)  – you can feel yourself transported back to housing estates and blurred photographs of the family – with that boogie woogie backing – a sudden transmission from 1974 – similar to The Beach Boys rocking rocking chugging chugging roll of LA (Light Album) messed with a Wild Honey moment.  I think one the Rollers came from Prestonpans  - the other side of the Scottish tracks from these lads – and I get that sense of concrete and glam(our) melded in this stomping sure fire starter.

Like the opening to a sit-com scheduled just after The Likely Lads – there’s a flutter and smile in it all – I guess the album mines some of those Macca moments that run through With the Beatles right up to his last album – but as always - I can hear those Beach Boys chords and changes playing with my expectations – with fluid bass lines and familiar patterns - this long player feels like I already owned it – and that’s a good thing. The familiar (feel) flows through the nine songs on this lovingly crafted second album. I know my references will be obvious and not the ones that are clearly playing a part in the development of this set of super songs. (But tolerate them if you can) What I love about this album is that I can’t put my finger on the sound. As I said before – it’s the familiar. And that’s comforting.

There’s a whole heap of style – delivered with wit and honesty across this second album. Less sprawling than the final parts of their first. The songs sit well together – it’s a player – you know those days when you’d put a record on – play side one – turn it over and play side two. It has that feel – even down to the CD print (it looks like a record – you see’ll that when you buy it – and you will buy it – come on its Christmas for fuck’s sake – treat a friend – they’ll be your friend for life)

And the second song’s a smasher too – still with the feeling of flares and scuffed  shoes comes Sunday – not quite Monday – but I don’t like Mondays – shall I tell you why – it’s because I like Sunday – here’s the simple soundtrack written in glam high notes and pauses. Saying that, it has a feel of The Who’s  A Quick One – observational and sing-a-long . Quickly followed by gig staple Ants – hemmed into a Merseybeat sound – with sudden stops and descends – Ants scurries around the mind and sticks there – like the wee bastards in the houses. I don’t mean the The Wellgreen are wee bastards - just in case you mis-read me – I also picture them as red ants in the song ( another throwback to my seventies youth) And so to further the journey comes Train Song like a Simon and Garfunkel (with a hint of Freddie of the Dreamers – it’s the simplicity of that Casio beat) coupled with arpeggios courtesy of the MT100. With Marco and Stu lamenting that they just weren’t  born at the right time. Well they were. Because it means we have this music now and not in the past as nostalgia – it sits right here in 2013 as a testament to the fact that they can just write songs that aren’t affected and processed in a bombastic manner to knock the feeling right out of them.

I’ve said it before  - the fragility of The Wellgreen is there in the space and harmony. Which leads aptly into Counting  all these moments - one for the road – in the middle of the album - this isn’t looking back - this is the result of writing beautiful songs in homes late at night and into early mornings – it’s dancing with your partner through the days. It’s looking into eyes and falling in love – its casual glances and shared looks - it’s heartfelt and honest.

Then up pops Remember opening with a Zombies flourish and Hal Blaine snare rolls – coupled with those simple – yet always effective harmonies from Stu and Marco. Oh and how we wish for a harmony in the modern world. I was talking with a friend sometime ago and we were discussing how every boy band of the modern age ( you can define that) has failed to recognise that harmonies are what made the Beatles great – and now they just belt their parts in the same key and inflect everything in the same old fucking  manner (Ladies and gentlemen I give you Take That – I mean come on Gary – have a listen to The Wellgreen) Now with The Wellgreen there’s a measure to the mix  - sound complimenting sound – this is music made to be  played on the radio – you know -  the big radio – all over the country – harmonies like this sound wonderful through small speakers.

As you can see – I’m going track by track – I don’t usually but I wanted to put something down about each one. Because I said before without the writing how would we know – so next up is Impossible Love – mining those country roots all Gene Clark going solo  with The Fanclub for his backing band. It’s melting harmonies time and somewhere in there is a touch of Mike Nesmith going it alone.  I guess the whole album has this emerging seventies sound – a nod to what the sixties produced but taking it somewhere else and of course updating for the now.  Saying that, Summer Rain with its Bacharach moments and the return of the Everly Brothers should be sound tracking an eighties teen coming of age flick. Sublime. There’s music for every decade.

Leading to the finale of On Our Own, this heartfelt tribute to just being in love – you know the feeling – we’ll take the world on – together – just you and me. It has a Wings feel to it – now I’m no Wings fan – I couldn’t name another song other than the hits – but it’s the structure and the tone – lovely. Soaring stuff. 

So The Barne Society have done it again – this ever growing collection of beautiful tunes, wordsmithery and risk all packaged in their unique way. I’m glad The Wellgreen have a new album out. And it is an album. All killer – no filler. So to put it in a most simple way – it’s good that Stu and Marco find time to sing – to write – to record - to release it -  because it pleases other people.

It makes me grin. It will you too. 

This is Summer Rain 'off the new album' in Glasgow - with added guitar

There's also a stream of the whole Barne Society Christmas shindig - but I can't find the link again - so google The Wellgreen, The Barne Society or go to soundcloud and find The Wellgreen, or Marco Rea or Stuart Kidd - basically click stuff and listen - you know it's worth it. (I'll sort the links soon)