Well this was an eventful gig. It’s hard to know where to begin.
Let’s try with some background to give the whole story context. For the last few years Colin and John have been performing as Hunter & McMustard. They released an EP, performed at Tartan Day in the USA, made a musical theatre piece, gained three new members and formed a new band. Mellow Party.
This gig was to be the album launch of the debut album of that band called ‘The Love You Have Inside of You Is All The You Truly Own’. They’ve made a modern indie folk album with a lot of heart and soul. And I mean that last word in more ways than one.
The highlight of the album and the highlight of the gig is the collaboration with the Dumfries Community Choir and their song ‘Go On Yourself’. It’s genuinely lovely.
The choir were the support band. With their musical director Gary Cameron on guitar leading them they sang ‘Sweet Child of Mine’ and The Killers’ ‘All These Things I’ve Done’ along with what I think is a version of Dry Riser’s ‘Lion’s Den’ before finishing with a Britpop medley.
The song choices for that was interesting. ‘Bittersweet Symphony’, ‘Paranoid Android’, ‘Animal Nitrate’, ‘Pumping On Your Stereo’ and ‘Don’t Look Back In Anger’. Seventy voices (give or take) in that beautiful hall sounded amazing with rearranged versions of those songs designed to make perfect use of so the old church acoustics.
After a quick reset the sound system played Wet Wet Wet’s ‘Love Is All Around’ which marked the arrival of Mellow Party to the stage. It also got the crowd joining in. Clearly they’ve recovered from the trauma better than I ever did.
Initially just Colin on guitar, John on vocals, Gordy Duncan on cajon, Stevie Black on bass and Garry McFadden on banjo/mandolin, they played the first couple of songs from the album. Then in the banter between songs Colin remarked about how beautiful the room was and that he liked to think about Alasdair Gray working on his artwork on the ceiling. Then after his shift going downstairs to the bar for a pint and to chat up the barmaids. Something that Michelangelo probably never did painting the Sistine Chapel.
From this thought he imagined a conversation between the artist and novelist Greay and the humorist Ivor Cutler happening over a cup of tea. ”I’ve written a mini play about this, would you like to hear it?” Of course.
Two small folded-up pieces of paper were produced from a pocket and one handed to McMustard, who unfolded it and unfolded and then unfolded it some more. They then read out and acted out this imaginary meeting while doing some pretty good impersonations of their voices. John as Cutler and Colin as Gray.
“I know this guy from Ayrshire, he’s the real polymath of our days. A song writer and an athlete. His name’s Colin Hunter” Imagined Cutler said to Imagined Gray. The back and forth went on for a while and the praise for Mr Hunter grew larger each time.
This little sketch was hilarious. By the looks and reactions of the rest of the band it looked like this was a total surprise to them as much as to us which made the whole sketch a whole lot funnier. They then followed that with guests joining. Firstly Alistair Edwards on cello and then Becci Wallace and the Laurettes, who provided backing vocals, extra guitar and a violin. The full band played an almost bluegrass version of ‘Follow Me, I’ll Be Right Behind You’.
The Laurettes played their song ‘Homebird’ with the backing of the band and later on when the choir rejoined, Becci and John performed the song ‘Desire Trails’ that they wrote together. We were treated to a couple of songs from the ‘Born to Rewild’ theatre piece and the song on S’ports Mixture’ about our national sport, Kerby.
Gordy Duncan took over the lead to sing and play guitar on ‘Where I Belong’, then the choir rejoined along with Craig Weir on bagpipes to do the last few songs together, ‘Jacobite’ and ‘Billy Connolly’ from their last EP before ending as I mentioned at the top with ‘Go On Yourself’.
The songs with the choir sounded absolutely wonderful. It made everything sound really rich and warm. At the very end of the gig John summed it all up perfectly and I’ll steal his words as they’re absolutely true. ”This was a beautiful, emotional, absurd and surreal night”. What more would you ever want?
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