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Soiree + Grand Union + Gerry Evans

Venue: Twickfolk
Town: Twickenham
Date: 17/11/13
Websites: http://www.soireemusic.co.uk
http://www.facebook.com/grandunionuk
http://www.twickfolk.co.uk

Twickfolk, (formerly Twickenham Folk Club) meet every Sunday. Would love to go there more often, but having to get up on a Monday morning means that visits have to be limited to special occassions. Special occassions such as an appearance of Soiree.

Like most folk clubs, Twickfolk operates by having a couple of guest artistes supporting the main act. I've been to folk clubs where I've been quite grateful that the floor spots only performed one or two songs, but Twickfolk have never let me down. Both support acts were brilliant

The evening opened with Gerry Evans, Twickfolk's compere, performing a couple of songs. He doesn't normally play much these days, running the folk club is task enough, which is a shame, as he has a very nice voice. He had decided to cycle to the gig that night and had therefore travelled light, and had brought his four stringed tenor guitar with him - the weight of those two extra strings on a normal guitar being unmanageable on a bike.

Gerry played two songs, both covers: Darrell Scott's "You'll Never Leave Harlan Alive" and Sandy Wright's "My Shining Star".

I have known of the existance of Grand Union for ages and have long wanted to see them perform, but when Gerry announced them I didn't make the association that this Grand Union was the "Grand Union" I had been looking for. I'd first heard of them when surfing a thread on the internet starting with Rufus Sewell, the actor, as Grand Union's bassist is Caspar Sewell, the brother of Rufus. And when I say bassist, I mean bassist - he plays a full double bass, rather than a guitar. Two reasons I didn't make the association: Grand Union are a five piece band with drums, and Gerry introduced them as Kate, Simon and Dominic, not Kate, Simon and Caspar.

It wasn't until I got home that I realised who they were. When playing a small stage like a folk club, there just isn't room for the full band to fit, so they'd left their dobro player, Mark Langmead, and their drummer, Gerry Wood, behind.

Kate Vahl (vocals), Simon O'Grady (Guitar and vocals - also plays flute) and Caspar Sewell (double bass and vocals) were absolutely brilliant and I'm really annoyed with myself for not having seen them earlier. They were so good that my wife had ordered and downloaded their album "Through the Green Fuse" (the odd title is part of a quote from Dylan Thomas) before we'd reached home.

Their style, I believe, is described as acid folk. To me, it sounded like very beautiful, soft jazz. Sadly, they only played three songs, the traditional "John Riley" and two of their own: "Dark Night" and "Morning Brings The Light". Could not recommend this band highly enough, and will definitely look out for them again.

Soiree have had a forced leave of absence from the music scene, as Hector Gilchrist has been seriously ill, but happily he has recovered, and so they are back up and running.

Despite being very talented musicians, Hector, Sue Graves and Steeve Poole don't take themselves seriously, as demonstrated by the fact that one of the songs that they played was "Bare Necessities", accompanied by a Kazoo. They set up an instant rapport with the audience when Steve said "It's really good to be playing live again", and Sue responded "Definitely - Compared to the alternative."

But it is for their musicianship that you go to see Soiree. All three play instruments and all three sing, though they vary who leads and who harmonises, and they vary where the draw their material from, so their songs all sound different and you'll never get bored.

They've added several songs to their repertoire, which means a few old favorites had to be dropped from their set list. One song they had tried to drop was Johnny Mercer's and Hoagy Carmichael's "Skylark", but audience pressure necessitated a few hurried set list changes. They, seriously, had not planned to do an encore, but ended up having to do two, so any planned songs that had to be dropped were happily reinstated.

Set List
London
Carrick a Rede
Other Side Of The Ocean
Such A Long Way From Home
Peaceful Easy Feeling
Joy
You Make Me Feel So Young
I Find Your Love
New Bridge Street
Save The Last Dance

Winter Song
Mudslide Slim
Hello In There
Skylark
Postcard From Mongrovia
Bare Necessities
Until We Meet Again
Diamonds and Rust
Forever Young

Sweet Pea
Chip Shop