A quick stroll back down the hill, a wary pick up of the tickets and a walk down the stairs into the Vic’s subterranean venue and we were ready to go, the place an unexpectedly small stage before a half-empty audience of a Saturday night. We’d paid three quid each to get in to a smiling shaven-headed feller – it felt like a reasonable fee at the time, but we had no idea we were robbing him.
Sam Bates was up first, a solo acoustic guitar act. Running a melancholy vibe, Sam’s playing and singing were top draw, featuring mostly his own work with a Radiohead cover thrown in, which might actually have been a better way to perform it than Radiohead did. Not the most uplifting of sets, there was nothing wrong with the performance – beautiful fingerpicking and a strong, pure voice. Sam had a great, downbeat but enjoyable rapport with the crowd, a natural interaction that saw us genuinely sad to see him leave, guitar in softcase slung casually over his shoulder, much as you might have imagined him arriving.
Good Things Happen In Small Towns were up next, performing tonight as a trio – David Corrigan, the shaven-headed feller who took our cash on the way in, played an accomplished lead/vocal on guitar, alongside the vocal harmonies of Emily, and the dashingly zany violin of Rachael. A more upbeat performance than Sam’s, the balance wasn’t perfect as the threesome were ruled slightly by Corrigan’s guitar and vocal, with Emily sadly overwhelmed – Rachael was a visual treat, however, crystal-clear violin playing somewhat too quiet, but the enthusiasm of her performance shining through and an absolute joy to behold. An act it was impossible to not enjoy.
Headliners Stornoway had a lot to live up to, but they had no problems reaching and breaching the required level. A far bigger ensemble than the previous two acts, the Oxford-based group just picked up the ball and ran, the multi-layered and multi-talented musos performing a simply broader and more technically-adept sound than had previously been apparent. With front man Rob showing a mildly uncomfortable deference to the adulation being shown, the quality both of the musicianship and the songs just blew everyone away. The cheerful poptastic approachability of “Zorbing” might make it an instantly accessible hit, but the brave wonder of “We Are The Battery Human”, performed a cappella and amongst the audience, was just brilliant, a wonderful indictment of modern life. A stand-up ovation and encore performance is unusual at a gig this size, but Stornoway earned every single handclap and were worth every note.
Three quid for the headline act alone would have been a steal – in light of the quality of the support acts, we were the luckiest punters alive, and the venue was straight out of a novel – decent price, quick service, premium lager. The perfect night out is a philosophical impossibility, but these three performances at an excellent venue came very close on this night.
Tags: good things happen in bad towns, sam bates, stornoway, swindon
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