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Alice Faraday & Matthew Taylor - Anytown

Venue: The Cellars
Town: Eastney (near Portsmouth)
Date: 27/10/13
Website: facebook.com/alicefaradaymatthewtaylor/

Dead Like Harry performances are fairly rare these days, as lead singer Sam Taylor is currently living and working in London, whilst the rest of the band are in Sheffield. Two of the band, Matt and Alice, have been touring as a duo now for a good couple of years, but sadly, I hadn't managed to get to see them until now. Recently, they've been joined by another band member, Robin Baker, on bass, so their name "Alice Faraday & Matthew Taylor" has become less apropriate. They are currently using the name, "Anytown" after one of their songs.

Ardent followers of meteorological phenomena may remember the evening of the 27th October 2013 as the evening that the weather forecasters were predicting "the worst storm since the hurricane of 1987". As it turned out, the peak of the storm didn't really hit until the early hours of the Monday morning, but it was still a very wet and very windy night. Whether it was the downpour, or the predictions of devestation that put people of, but the turn out at the Cellars in Eastney was disappointingly low.

The Cellars is legendary for keeping their beer well, so I was quite disappointed to discover that they had no real ale on tap that night. Their Ringwoods is something worth travelling for, so I'm simply just going to have to travel back there again soon.

Matt, Alice and Robin performed beautifully, with a selection of songs from Dead Like Harry and newer material from their forthcoming album (release planned for Easter 2014). Apparently, they always aim to include one cover in their set, and on Sunday this was fulfilled by Runrig's "This Time Of Year".

Matt sent my video of this to Runrig and received an email back from Rory Debra saying: how much he enjoyed this version of his song. He described Alice Faraday's voice as tender and said that he would be 'delighted' to hear the song on Anytown's new album. So basically, Runrig have written my review for me!

Set List
The River
Anytown
Free As A Bird
Mousehole
This Time Of Year
Delhi Rising
Long Way Home
Dead White Roses
Lost Without You
Nothing Matters Now/ Free Fallin'
Bells

Pete Bradley