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Morgan O'Kane

Venue: Upstairs At The Garage
Town: London
Date: 28th June
Website: http://www.morganokanemusic.com

Briefly, when I heard that Morgan O'Kane was playing Upstairs at the Garage, my heart lifted. It was later, after checking the listings that I realized that this was not an extra date but his Borderline show had been moved. Put bluntly - he had been downsized.

The problem with the venue is not just its capacity (about 50, maybe 60 percent of the Borderlines) but that it is a vampire venue (it's soulless and sucks the life out of you, and the pounds out of your wallet). At the Slim Cessna gig last month the support act was probably the most unsuited that I had seen, Ellie Rose supporting Morgan O'Kane comes a close second. I know that I am not her target audience as a song about "teenagers being teenagers" ceased being relevant to me decades ago but a support act should always compliment the headliner and pop songs are the antithesis of O'kanes music. Given the right environment Rose would be more than decent, but this was far from that environment.

I am a big fan of 'Pendulum' O'Kanes latest album; it runs too nearly an hour but I was all banjo'd out after about half of that here. Some of it was undoubtedly down to the venue, if this had have been at the 12 Bar then the fatigue would not have set in so early, if they had played until half past ten it may not have set in at all, but an hour and three quarters was, unfortunately, too long.

As sure as day follows night each song followed the same pattern. O'Kane would tune his banjo then start strumming, Liam Crill would tap his spoons, Ferd Moyse would saw on his fiddle and Zeke Healy would slide on his dobro and jump up and down. This is how things went for 'Hello Soul' at the beginning of the set, it how things went in the middle of the set and it is how things went for 'Rain, Rain' towards the end of the set. There was not much talking between songs and most of what there was, was hard to hear die to the sound being poor. What was possible to make out was that the English plum wine they sampled earlier in the day agreeable (the 2000, 2005 and 2010 vintages) and that the feather in Ferd's hat is pretty but comes from an, as yet, unidentifiable bird.

Given the thinness of numbers and the quality of sound I was hoping that the band would dispense with the PA, step off the stage and play, unplugged, amongst the crowd. Now that would have been something a little special.

John 'The Jacket' Hawes