matt elliott among others gig review

Matt Elliott, Manyfingers, Pinkie Maclure anmd Yann,


Star n Garter - 31st May 2005

I generally thought that this concert was going to be one of those sorts of nights.

I only found out as I was setting off that the concert had moved venues again. When the gig was originally announced it was listed as at the Unicorn, Manchester which originally caught me out as the only Unicorn I knew wasn't exactly the best of places for a gig, shall we say then a few days before the gig itself, I discovered that the gig had changed venues to the Mitire Hotel, a place I knew as a reasonable Hotel and Bar / Pub but never a as a concert venue.

Before I could confirm with anybody through any of the acts / the website if this was the venue, it all gets flashed all over the local newspaper that it had moved again this time to the Star and Garter. Now at least with the Star and Garter, I knew it hosted gigs and I must admit I had seen a Number of gigs there over the years (most recently the Superqueens gig as reviewed fairly recently on my blogspot - http://www.blogspot.com/swampheartland).

We arrived just in the nick of time to catch the first act; (after I had some fun on the train on the way down scaring some kids with a track off Matt’s new CD” Drinking Songs” somebody Matt told me later was called Yann (who if my memory is correct Matt has remixed himself in the past). Yann managed to set the scene for the rest of the night with a all too short set which featured him playing some kind of almost African looking Harp (Am prepared to be told here otherwise) to perform a few songs which made both me and my friend think he was almost a cross between Rufus Wainwright and Tom Waits, expect his songs seemed to carry a almost sea sort of feel to them.

The third song I think was particular worth a mention as he managed with this to play his guitar, this African looking Harp and sing at the same time which was amazing to watch. An excellent, but way too short set.

Following on from that was a sort of folk duo which featured a girl with a soaring voice which reminded both of us of Sandy Denny (of Fairport Convention) called Pinkie Maclure, which is obvious I know but she carried such a incredibly deep voice which soared in the air it doesn't beautifully backed by some neat, almost warped almost slightly feedback laced guitar work (one track actually looked like he played with a electric razor) from a gent called John Wills.

Although the set I felt had some problems certainly with the sound in particular during the first few songs, as the set progressed, the duo seemed to get better and better with John's guitar work certainly over the last few songs getting fiercer and fiercer (and it left me wondering how he hadn't wrecked his fingers by the end of the set). Truth be told, if it hadn't been for who was to follow, I could have quite happily sat there listening there all night to you.

Third on the bill, was Chris who performed under the name of manyfingers. For those familiar with "Setting Sun" (http://www.geocities.com/aen1mpo) - You may well have checked out my interview with him. Manyfingers is Chris's solo project (aside from working with Matt Elliott, Movietone and a few other bands / projects) which allows him often to play electronical music in a natural organic way which him often leading in the song with one instrument before he starts sampling himself.

I first saw Chris play as Manyfingers back on Matt's last tour in 2003 and was bowled over by the almost folksy, classical tones that he used to build sometimes to almost very surreal tones often by playing a little guitar, sampling it, clapping his hands and carrying on to magical effect.

The tone for the full of this set was very different possibly in part because of the increased use of live drumming in-between the Piano / Keyboards / Guitar etc which certainly added a element of increased darkness and almost paranoid tension in the songs.

Sound problems again (which would also back to haunt Chris when he played with Matt Elliott later on) certainly caused some major problems with his set, certainly distorting some of the beauty of his new songs and which to some degree added to the almost paranoid tension that was probably increased by Chris’s own battles with the sound.

The set however was mostly a success, in particular with the finale song which I think was called “An Remark” where we heard Chris shout “Rain” (although both me and my m8 actually thought at the time he was shouting "Rave") made me think of the way I wish Moby would sound.

Chris then hung around to back up Matt who then carried on playing a selection of songs from his last two albums “The Mess We Made” and “Drinking Songs”.

Again like with Chris, I had personally being aware of Matt for quite a while now through his early work with Flying Saucer Attack, Movietone, Amp and countless other projects to Third Eye Foundation and then solo.

Live, Matt’s work is more guitar based in particular nowadays and on this set, he used the guitar to interesting effect, backed again with Chris mostly on Drums and a flickering of constant live mixing which often changed the tone of songs as it went along.

However, like with the manyfingers set, the set was hampered by the sometimes bad sound and the ineffectiveness of the soundman that proved next to no help particularly during Matt’s epic finale “The Maid We Messed”.

On “Drinking Songs” – “The Maid We Messed” is a spiraling track which expands as the song develops into a track complete with long almost jazz elements with drum and bass and white noise for over 19 minutes.

Live, because of the continuing sound problems, Matt was forced to perform the piece for a good few minutes as a solo piano concerto (which to his credit he pulled off with style) before Chris managed to join him with the drums and the rest of the developing sound and they bought the concert to a fitting conclusion expanding “The Maid We Messed” to a almost 35 minute epic where to compensate for the lack of the jazz element, they blitzed the audience’s ear-drums with white noise.

Like I said at the beginning of this review, I generally thought that this concert was going to be one of those sorts of nights and it was really was, but I am glad I went.