Tag Archives: Junction

Martin Stephenson, Junction, Cambridge, 10 May 2014

Laurie Levine opened the show and immediately her haunting tales of love lost and found hit the right mood. She is a singer and songwriter from South Africa, with strong but vulnerable, emotive vocals and her own effective acoustic guitar, backed up with subtle keyboards and on the up tempo ‘Not Gonna Cry’ accompanied by excellent harmonica from Jessica Lauren. The short set of five songs were varied country and folk blues, featuring an American traditional roots sound but with something extra special added. Many of her recorded songs feature a full band and that would be very good to see live, but for this show she made a big impact with just the sparse instrumentation, her warm personality and that great expressive voice.

The intimate and thoughtfully designed J2 venue was well suited to the evening, it is a good sized space, excellent acoustics and atmosphere. Next on was Helen McCookerybook, she first found fame in the early eighties as bass player and singer of The Chefs, a fun punk rock band from Brighton. Martin Stephenson and his band arrived on stage as her backing band and together they played an infectious blend of skiffle and indie pop, her pure and attractive voice blending well with the music. It was all a pleasure to listen to and the onstage enjoyment communicated well to the audience.

As is the current trend, the main part of the set for Martin Stephenson was the performance of a whole album, in this case ‘Gladsome, Humour and Blue’ from 1988, the excellent follow up to the highly acclaimed debut album ‘Boat to Bolivia’. Martin is a talented guitarist and singer and he and the band adapted to the wide range of folk, roots, blues and rock of the varied set of songs. He engages constantly with the audience, between and during songs, and also bringing himself and the band out amongst us, still playing.

I have been a fan for many years (the last time I saw MS I stood behind John Peel in the crowd, but didn’t talk to him unfortunately…) and I enjoy the live performances, although it is a different atmosphere from the albums, where some of the recorded versions of the quieter songs are immaculate examples of heartbreaking words and musical crafting. He is a likeable, friendly personality and I think that his deconstruction of some of the lyrics and eccentric random musings make an entertaining evening, but did not leave much time for much more than the album, so I missed hearing some of his other brilliant songs…

http://www.laurielevine.co.za/
http://www.mccookerybook.com/
https://www.facebook.com/martin.stephenson.984

The Fall, Junction, Cambridge, 6 May 2014

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The music lovers of Cambridge were spoilt for choice this evening, a double bill of The Wytches and Pulled Apart By Horses at The Portland Arms, but across town at The Junction we find The Fall….

For the uninitiated, The Fall consist of singer Mark E Smith and a line-up that has changed many times since the formation of the band in 1976. Their distinctive sound is repetitive, loud, hypnotic, with vocals spoken, shouted and occasionally sung. The sound quality was very good tonight, not always the situation at The Junction.

From a few seconds into the opening (new) song Mark E Smith is a compelling and riveting presence, even when he is sorting through lyric sheets, wandering the stage, dropping microphones or adjusting the settings on the carefully prepared amplifiers.
I was not expecting a Greatest Hits set, that is not what happens at a Fall gig, but we were treated early on to minor hit ‘Mr Pharmacist’, a celebration of your local chemist…

The energy of the band was superb, two drummers beating the kits with the power you would like to see most other drummers use. In fact the playing of all members of the band was exemplary, providing a great platform for Mark’s voice. He retreated from the stage after half an hour, one of the roadies then collecting a microphone to take back into the offstage corridor for Mark to continue singing for several more songs. The faithful in the audience go along with it because you are in the presence of a music legend. I have been reading his book of musings and semi-autobiography ‘Renegade’, highly recommended and a good way of understanding a bit more of what The Fall are all about.

He eventually re-emerged, there was some rapid on and off encores then they were gone. Some may have complained about the shortness of the set(about an hour) but we will all be back next time.

http://www.visi.com/fall/

Fiverfest Grand Final, Junction , Cambridge, 22 March 2014