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Gilmore and Roberts + Rita Payne

Venue: The Atkinsons
Town: Southport
Date: 17/4/14
Website: http://www.gilmoreroberts.co.uk/

Tonight's show at the magnificent Atkinson in Southport featured a fine double bill of two exciting duos. Top of the bill were [Katriona] Gilmore and [Jamie] Roberts and supporting them was Rita Payne. But, hang on a minute, I hear you say, you said two duos, surely Rita Payne is a solo artist ? Not so, Rita Payne is a duo consisting of Rhiannon Scutt and Pete Sowerby who named themselves after a cocktail waitress from Hong Kong, or so I believe !

Rhiannon and Pete started working together in the pubs of their hometown of Doncaster, in return for beer money. One their songs, "Jeremiah" is named after one such beer, "Jeremiah Weed". They have moved on a long way since those days, supporting the likes of Wilko Johnson and John Otway, and now Gilmore and Roberts. Their second album is being produced by the Arctic Monkeys' producer and they were chosen to write the Official Anthem of Doncaster.They also participated in the BBC Television show "The Voice", performing, as they did tonight, an excellent version of Michael Jackson's "Billie Jean". Quite how they did not progress in that competition is a mystery to me. Maybe they were too good!

Rhiannon provides the accompaniment both instrumental [guitar and suitcase bass drum] and vocal to Pete's lead vocals. One of their great strengths is their harmony singing, which together with some fine songwriting, makes them a most entertaining act, as evidenced by the country-ish "Family Ramble" and the Fleetwood Mac-like "Midnight Crawling". I am sure that they will continue their upward trajectory.

Headlining the evening were Gilmore and Roberts, who should need no introduction to readers of this magazine as they have twice been nominated for BBC Folk Awards and, more importantly, won the 2012 Fatea Award for "Song of the Year" with the superb "Doctor James".

In the unlikely event that readers are not familiar with Kat and Jamie's music, they combine excellent songwriting with "fiery fiddle" [Kat] and stunning lap-tapping guitar [Jamie]. On top of that they are both fine singers, so overall, it is a winning combination. They have made three albums as a duo, 2008's "Shadows And Half Light"; 2010's "Up From The Deep" and 2012's "The Innocent Left".

Naturally, the majority of tonight's set came from the most recent album, from which we had such gems as "Silver Screen"[ about a sat-nav]; "Louis Was A Boxer"[about a character that Jamie met whist working as a Subway sandwich-maker]; "The Stealing Arm" about a limb transplant that goes horribly wrong ]; the aforementioned, Fatea-prize-winning "Doctor James" [about a medical pioneer with a deep secret and which came complete with juggling demonstration]; the moving "Letters" [which is about Kat's Danish great-grandmother who lived and worked in London during the Second World War and her thoughts as she waited for letters giving news of her family back home in Denmark] and, finally, "Scarecrow" [which Jamie wrote after seeing a scarecrow with birds perching on it -"He fails at the only thing he knows, scaring crows"].

Venturing back to the first album, we had "I Don't Want To Say Goodbye" and from the second we were treated to "All I've Known", a powerful song about substance abuse in different social circumstances, and the evocative "The Bookseller's Story", which Jamie based on the epitaph of Yorkshireman Richard Smith. As an instrumental interlude we were transported to "Upper Badger's Bottom", with Kat's "The Badger's Set".

We also had a preview of two new songs. The first was "Selfish Man" which is about an Isle of Man TT motorcycle racer and the effect on his family of his dangerous occupation. The second was "Stumble At The Seam" which tells the unusual tale of a seam of the rare Derbyshire mineral Blue John and how it was lost for 68 years before being rediscovered.

For a much deserved encore, Kat and Jamie sang one of their best-known and best-loved songs, the ghostly "Fleetwood Fair". The song was given a fairly bizarre twist when the audience joined in on the choruses but with German accents [don't ask!].

All in all, it was a most entertaining evening, courtesy of Gilmore and Roberts and Rita Payne.

Peter Cowley