Reviews
Artist:The Douglas FirsBR>
Venue:Bournemouth Folk Club
Town:Bournemouth
Date:19/10/08
Website:http://www.bournemouthfolkclub.com/
The Douglas Firs have played Bournemouth Folk Club on a number of occasions, but this was their first as headliners. The occasion was to celebrate the launch of their second cd/ep.
At the start of their set, the quaint woodland folk, Suzy and Jimmy Douglas promised us some top quality guests during their set and time would show that they weren't exaggerating in that department.
In standard formation, the Douglas Firs keep it simple, Suzy provides the at times ethereal vocals, writes the songs and provides the between song banter. Jimmy sits down and plays the guitar incredibly well.
That's exactly how it panned for the first number before the first surprise of the night, Jimmy spoke. Onstage the band had the typewriter that features on the front cover of their new ep, "Walk Tall Past Talking Walls". For our younger readers, a typewriter is what came before computers, think of it as a keyboard that applies the ink directly to paper and runs without electricity or in musical terms an acoustic keyboard.
I digress, the idea was that at the end they would leave the typewriter by the door and members of the audience could leave comments, a backwoods messageboard if you like. I thought it was a nice touch once I'd got over the shock of Jimmy talking. It was an idea that seemed to work quite well. The queue to use the typewriter, being almost as long as that to buy the EP.
Following a track of the band's debut ep, "Happy Being Lost", it was time to bring on the first guest of the evening, Four Hand Reel's guitarist, Andy Stone, who is also the soundman at the folk club and the man behind the desk for the EP. In yet another of his many hats, he also guested on it, playing guitar on the 1st track, "I Don't Want To Go To Bed".
It's one of my favourite Douglas Firs songs, and judging by the reaction, both as it was announced and the applause at the end I'm not the only one that feels that way. The addition of the second guitar gave the song that something special and as June Tabor used to say, you could have heard a mouse fart during the playing of it, something special indeed.
Andy stayed for one more number before the band went back to duo formation. The Douglas Firs seemed to be well lifted for the set. No sign of the pre-match nerves that were noticeable in my chat with Suzy earlier in the evening.
Bournemouth Folk Club has an intimate feel and it's well suited to the thought provoking and evocative songs that The Douglas Firs specialise in. "Woman Of Wood", for example is an interesting view of feminism and the need to aspire to be more than a footballer's wife. Local lass Louise Redknapp wasn't in the audience.
It was time for another guest. Like the Ramones, the Douglas family is large and widely spread. Audrey is a distant cousin of the band and happens to be a fiddle player, whist she was probably the least well known of the guests that evening, her contribution, once again, brought a new dimension to the set. The Douglas Firs had chosen their contributors well.
They made the step up from being a session band to headliners with remarkable ease, a lot of thought had gone into the composition of this gig and they were reaping the dividends.
The highlight of the night came with the third and final guest, Sandy Bertai. Sandy is best known for being the cellist with the Poole based Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. A friend of a friend had lead to Sandy playing cello on "Inside The Doll's House" a track partly based on the Ibsen play and of sublime beauty. This may be the only time it's played live with all those that played it on the EP. If that is the case those that were there on this night really were very blessed indeed.
The "Walk Tall Past Talking Walls" night was the best I've ever seen The Douglas Firs play. They are a band that continue to go from strength to strength, both live and in the recorded medium…..and Jimmy spoke.