Reviews
Artist:Phil Beer
Venue:Bournemouth Folk Club
Town:Bournemouth
Date:22/02/09
Website:http://www.philbeer.co.uk/
These days, Phil Beer is probably best known as half of top folk duo Show Of Hands. He's also been a member of the Albion Band, is one of the very few folkies to play on a Rolling Stones album, "Steel Wheels" seeing as you asked. He was also part of the team that did the midshow song on the TV Series "Ridge Riders". He runs his own record label, Chudeigh Roots, produces and performs on multiple records for many different artists, including dual BBC Folk Award winner, Jackie Oates and happens to be current Fatea Instrumentalist of the Year.(Pause for breath)
His recent, rare solo tour saw him taking in my local, Bournemouth Folk Club, so naturally we were there early for a front row seat. I say there early, the club was already pretty full and a number of extra tables had been squeezed in to accomodate the biggest audience I've seen at the venue and they've had busy nights on many occasions.
Phil was down to play two slots and support for the evening was provided by Cath & Franziska making their club debut as a duo, I believe. More on them later.
A Phil Beer set is more like 'The Phil Beer Experience'. Phil extends to the racconteur approach to folk music. Good banter that relates to the songs, the people that wrote them and how they were performed or occasionally all three. Phil also seems to have a predeliction for having most of his heroes on the other side of the grave, though to be fair the likes of Davy Graham and John Martyn have only recently passed over and Phil paid tribute to both during the course of the gig.
It also gave him a chance to perform 'Cocaine' in the style of a fourteen year old boy, which is not something you see everyday. It also highlights Phil's passion for music as a whole. Whether he's playing blues, folk, contemporary, guitar, Uke, fiddle you can feel that certain something in his playing, that x that separated the great from the merely good.
Another of Phil's great passion's is sailing and he's going to be taking part on the Tall Ship' Race and is sponsoring two young people to take part, check out Phil's website or www.theislandtrust.org.uk for more details. It also gave Phil the opportunity to mention his grandmother's Cornish recipe book, which he says is mainly cake and largely responsible for his waistline :-)
It's unusal to see Phil playing on his own. You get used to hearing him surrounded by other great folk singers and players that you forget how good a player he is. As one of the greatest ever Devonians, a title which the creators of the award expected to go to Drake, Phil commented on the revival of the tenor guitar by another Devon musician, a certain Seth Lakeman.
Phil seems at hos most passionate when he's singing songs that connect him to his past. The root of the music, the quest to find an old song in a pub in the back of nowhere that Cecil Sharp missed and that can be brought back into the vernacular.
All in all in was quite a night. Phil Beer is a real entertainer, he commands and audience, brings them into to some songs and holds tghem quiet and spellbound in others. He can turn a mood on a sixpence and back again just as fast. As I said at the beginning, not so much a gig as an experience.
Supporting Phil on the night were Cath & Franziska. Cath has played the club regularly, but this was the first time I'd seen her play with Franziska. It was an enjoyable set, with much swapping of the guitar to enable them to bring other instruments into the fray.
The set, partly performed in German, drew in songs from an Americana style and swung through Europe, not so much world music, but a world tour of music that they managed to keep centered via the vocal. It gave the songs a consistency, so it sounded like a set, rather than a colllection of pieces. Given the opportunity it would be good to hear a more extended set from the du0.
All in all a very good night. If you get the chance to catch Phil Beer on his own snatch it, come to think of it any set with Phil Beer.