The Live Show, 02/05/2004
What a night! Rhythm And Soul Live at the Laganside in Belfast was a very special night in many ways. Stocki doesn’t usually have almost 600 people (official BBC figures 597!) in his Sunday night studio or the stage the size of his bungalow. He does not usually have a line up of bands and singers or a crew that can turn the acts round in a couple of minutes and project the performances onto a big screen for the live audience!
“It was a bit weird,” he told us, “I usually do not have all those distractions! I am an amateur radio presenter so to be at the mercy of techies, artists playing to time and a producer in my ear monitor all made things a little hectic. I guess hosting Mainstage at Greenbelt for the last few years has sharpened me up for the unexpected.”
There was simply no way last night that Stocki could have been mistaken for an amateur but neither could the technicians or the artists. The sound was superb, out front and on the radio and everybody played their hearts out.
Even Stocki was in awe. “I know all these guys and picked a line up that I hoped would not let me down. We have a reputation for quality on Rhythm and Soul. Numinous were the risk as I had only heard a demo but they were a rocking start! These guys have a great future if they develop the right way musically and vocationally. Then Susan, Richard, Cathy and Brian played out of their skin. Sometimes you take for granted how good your mates are but in that setting as I stood out in the crowd and watched the big screen I realised that there is no stage or radio show in the world that any of these guys would have been out of place. The songs, the players, the performances were truly outstanding.”
Of course the opportunity for such an event was because Belfast was hosting BBC’s Music Live weekend. The stage and the gear and the expertise was all set up for the Beautiful Night the evening before. “I was in Cardiff on Saturday night and walked into the lounge in the hotel to see my city on a big screen with great music coming out. I have to say I was very emotional seeing it in that context. I love Belfast and here we were all across the UK! When they showed Ash from the stage I was going to be on the next night I was so excited!”
So how did the BBC crew react to the show? “I think they were impressed,” Stocki says with a satisfied smirk and then he clenches and shakes his fists with a celebratory smile as if his favourite football team have just stayed in the premiership!
THE LIVE ACTS WERE…
NUMINOUS (www.numinous.cd)
Only together for 8 months these boys have an intellectual name, a spiritual soul and a kick ass heart!
SUSAN ENAN (www.susanenan.com)
Here is an article Stocki wrote for Paste magazine last year…
I knew Susan Enan was not your common or garden musical ego looking for fifteen minutes of fame when after she gave me an early demo so that I might book her for an Arts Festival in England. Unlike so many such tapes shoved in my hand in those days I was impressed and invited her to play the festival. She quickly turned me down and suggested that she would be ready for the following year! Fifteen months ahead of the game was Ms Enan and that says enormous amounts about her slow steady strategy to perfect her art.
Some five year later and the word is getting out not only across Ireland but the rest of the UK and indeed the USA that this English girl who chose to relocate to Belfast has perfected her art to a very high degree indeed. Her Moonlight/Skin, Bone and Silicone EP is as beautiful as anything on Norah’s multi-Grammy debut and no doubt will be likened to it with its piano led Moonlight which Ms Jones could do worse than adding to her difficult second album. I would be slow to confine Susan Enan in that pigeon hole. She is more earthy, less jazzy, more street poet, less big stage grand piano.
So is she strategic? She tells me it is a family thing, “It seems that women in my family don't rush anything, including living. My Grandmother is 100 this year, it bodes well.” Then there is the artistic wisdom behind her work, “I just never saw the point of releasing a record just because the songs were written. There's more to it than that. You need the right musicians, and then there's the process of gigging and getting it out there. Everything should be in the parcel before the ribbon comes off.”
As the ribbon comes off we look forward to an album. Has the strategy reached its sound? “I'm not really sure you can plan the 'final sound' so precisely. Music will never be that calculated because human beings aren't.” Yet the album seems nearing its completion, “All the songs are written and demoing has begun.” In the meantime she will be doing three short Irish tours and spending September to November in the States – “returning home for Grannies 100th!” Of course! Susan concludes, “I don't think fans mind waiting, it's the industry that puts on that kind of pressure.” By its release I imagine there will be a whole lot more fans who won’t mind waiting. Not too long though!
RICHARD GILPIN (www.richardgilpin.com)
Here is a review Stocki wrote earlier this year of Richard’s 33 album…
At the age of and on the album 33 Richard Gilpin is pondering his roots both politically and socially (Man On The Moon & Me) and very personally (A Stranger To Me). He is pondering the bigger questions of faith and recognising that Jesus was his age when he was killed (Man Of 33). Musically it is Steve Earle alternative country rock sound territory but since his relocation from Belfast to County Donegal he has added the spirit of Irish folk without any fiddle-di-dee. Eddie Lynch’s piano lifts the mix , Remco Rodrigues guitar is sweet and tasty throughout and Maire Breatnach’s fiddle and vocal adds a velvety luxury. All Gilpin needs to be a major player is the courage to trespass outside the genre.
CATHY BURTON (www.cathyburton.co.uk)
Cathy is from Littlehampton on the south coast of England and her new album Speed Your Love is released by Fierce! On May 17th. No doubt a review to come. Safe to say it is seamless songwriting with a pop feel and Cathy’s great voice out front with songs for the head about the heart and the soul.
BRIAN HOUSTON (brianhouston.com)
There is lots about Brian on Stocki’s web page but here is his review of the Valley that appeared in Paste magazine…
Apartheid, The Cultural Revolution, and the fact that Brian Houston is not a huge star have all something in common; they are crimes of humanity! We who live in Belfast don’t care as we have been enjoying his albums for near a decade but the rest of the world is missing out and so is Houston’s bank balance. The Valley sees Houston more stripped back and rootsier than before. With subtle instrumentation behind the strong foundation Lowden acoustic his voice is as passionate as ever but has never been more incisive. I’ll Fly Away is as good as anything written in Nashville this century, The Valley would be perfect for the next Oh Brother Where Art Thou movie, if Elvis was alive he’d be dying to cover Something In your Eyes and Kisses At The Door is cut from the same cloth as early sixties Dylan and just as provocative.
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