Reviews
Artist:Spiers & Boden/Almathea
Venue:Bournemouth Folk Club
Town:Bournemouth
Date:11/05/08
It's Sunday, which these days pretty much means you'll find me at Bournemouth Folk Club at their excellent venue Centre Stage.
Mostly these days I'm there for pleasure and to get an idea of what's up and coming and which bands on the blossoming Bournemouth acoustic scene have got an album due. (Keep an ear out the new Tinderbox album end of May) Tonight is an exception, I'm here for my pleasure, but with both Almathea(named after a Goddess) and Spiers & Boden on the bill, as you can see it's a night for a review.
More on Almathea's opening later, but following their set and a short interval to replenish the beer and it's time for the multi-award winning Spiers & Boden to take the stage. Boden's already considerable height boasted by his standing on a stomping box to provide some percussion to the fiddle/acordion instrumentation.
The band start with "Tom Paget" from their new album, "Vagabonds", an album they plug at the first opportunity. This is quickly followed by a couple of dance tunes, but this being Bournemouth no one takes the band up on their invitation to fill the dance floor. In fairness it has to be said there was an awful lot of foot tapping and thigh slapping and even some swaying.
Guitar replaced fiddle, concertina, accordion, whilst explaining the concept behind the new album and why it's an album of characters with an, ahem!, alternative relationship with the law and morals in general. "The Birth Of Robin Hood" being an example of an illicate sex song.
Next came a tune from Lincolnshire, Ironically called the "Cheshire Waltz". Spiers makes a joke about there only being five good English waltzes and thousands more created by dodgy melodion players, this wasn't one of them :-)
The blacksmith features strongly in folk music, Brown Adam being the one to feature in the next song. Most of Spiers & Boden's set are drawn from the traditional canon and this was no exception, the execution perfect. It's probably not coincidence that smith songs have a lusty element to them.
Between song banter is a key element to a folk set and Boden & Spiers have that element of their set off pat as they threaten the audience with a song with a chorus.
The boys fess up to a couple of really heinous crimes. They find some of their traditional songs through internet searches, rather than painstaking and time consuming searches in the archives of Cecil Sharp House. If it brings you songs as good as "Beggar's Boy" then I'm sure the heracy is worth it :-) More worrying was Jon Boden's confession that he was in a band that played a song called "Death By Custard" just because they liked the title.
It's time for the interval. A lot of folk clubs survive on the additional income they make during the interval. The raffle is not a piece of nostalgic frippery, it's a vital lifeline to the clubs survival. So if you're in a club and it's raffle time please buy a ticket.
I'm pretty sure Spiers & Boden and set a new record for cd sales during the interval, the queue was long but moved swiftly, sales of the new album seemed to be booming as well as an odd back catalogue and Bellowhead sale. CDs were being signed, with Mr. Boden placing a different mark on each cd.
The second half of the set started off in much the same way as the first, with a track from "Vagabonds". The second half of the set seemed more free, more audience banter, more opportunities for the audience to join in on a chorus or two.
We found that John Spiers had very recently become a dad to a boy called Robin. Mr. Boden pointed out there were two songs on the album about people called Robin and they both caused their parents problems. The most subtle plug for the album so far.
There seemed more of a mix of songs and tunes after the interval. Songs about pirates, ships and people. Spiers performed a variation on a Morris tune, "The Princess Royal", but the version from his home town of Abingdon, rather than the version on the album.
The second half also saw more of Boden's mastery of the fiddle, not just with the conventional approach of playing it with a bow, but also turning it through ninty degrees and using it like a mandolin.
Spiers & Boden are real masters of their craft and passionate about it's traditions and origins. A good example being about a song taken from William Shakespear, "It's not traditional, but it is old!"
In Bournemouth Folk Club they were playing to an audience that shared their enthusiasm. It was one of the best shows I've seen at the venue. There's a reason why Spiers & Boden are described as multi-award winning. Tonight we saw them in their glory.
On the night, Spiers & Boden were supported by the excellent Almathea.
Helen and Deborah have been joined once again by Chris Gatland, who played with Almatea when they headlined a few months back. Since then he's played a few more times with the duo, adding bass and mandolin to fill out the sound. He's also got engaged to Deborah so at least one of the goddesses has potentially found her Summer King, Almathea start in duo form, guitar and fiddle, with the dramatic "White Horse Hill" a dramatic piece designed to catch the audience's attention, which it does with some panche.
Some between song banter identifies that Deborah has had a throat problem, fortunately Helen does most of the singing. The next song "The Highway Man" is introduced by one of their own tunes. The fiddle provides a sense of tension as Helen's vocals reveal the tale of the highway man and the landlords daughter.
Chris joins them on stage for the next number, the romantic "Coming Home To You" from the band's album "Blame It On The Stars" but not before it's revealed he doesn't cut it in the washing up department.
The folk standard "Black Is The Colour" follows. The appreciative and knowledgable audience listen with rapt attention and greet the conclusion with good applause.
It's a switch to country for the final track as "Jolene" reverberates around the room. With that an all too short slot was over. If Almathea are playing near you anytime soon they come highly recommended.
Come to that if you're ever in the Bournemouth and Poole area on a Sunday night and searching for entertainment, you could do a lot worse than seeking out Centre Stage and having a really good night at Bournemouth Folk Club.
All Photos Paul Savine