This benefit at BM’s local arts cafe (and a very good one indeed) involved a number of folk singers (too many to mention, sorry guys, but the compere and his banjo-playing wife, both (BM thinks) retired teachers, were hilarious – “her words – yeah one more song is more than enough… his words – 40 years with this bitch…”.
You can read about Shafiq’s story and current plight on t’internet and make your own mind up but let’s just say that this fundraiser was a broad alliance of like-minded people of all ages – supported by the Glad, well done guys. Hastily arranged but certainly standing room only and space could not have taken many more bodies…a Sunday night sellout, excellent!
Kathryn Joseph did 5-6 songs and transcended this small South Glasgow venue with her feral tales of desire, obsession, loss and possibly cats (she denied that ‘Bones’ was about a cat but BM knows it is about @shawlandscat, it has to be…). All BM can say is that KJ, you bind my spell – in a good way, the piano playing is amazing (even with a couple of bum notes tonight!) and the voice is just so out there, the soundmix tonight perfect, making these tones a stealth missile of controlled beauty, words do just fail here, does not happen often…
It has been said, but KJ is Scotland’s answer to Joanna Newsome, Kate Bush and Joni Mitchell and then some (apologies for the spelling mistakes here Stuart!).
That second half (with KJ between Robin Adams and Ally Roberts) started with some heartfelt acoustic numbers by Mr Robin Adams (he has compiled a forthcoming collection of songs to support the MOAB refugee charity including some impressively big names, more of that soon BM hopes…) and ended with Ally Roberts, who sounded v good but BM had to exit at that point to track down errant offspring (not the band). One Joseph fan lingering outside was Stuart B, we discussed Minor Victories (well done again SB!), the Manics (review forthcoming) and Scotland’s shame (yesterday’s southside zombie apocalypse aka the Scottish Cup Final, wha is like us?).
This was a cause event and the cause is still extant so BM would encourage readers to check out www.supportshafiq.scot