Having been a fan of Maximo Park since their debut album, A Certain Trigger, and also being admittedly relatively unfamiliar with Smith’s solo work, I was unsure what to expect heading into this afternoons ‘Paul Smith & Friends’ show at The Sage.
The sounds of the ocean and what I believe are whale noises fill the air as opening act Me Lost Me (aka Jayne Dent) takes to the stage, with opening duo of songs, ‘The Circle Dance’ & ‘The Acrobat on the Roof’ having been written during her stint as Artist in Residence at The Sage.
Her set is an ambient and ethereal delight, haunting yet powerful vocals meet a variety effects and samples to transfix the audience and transport them to another world.
Third song ‘I Had a Horse’ sees the first of many of this afternoon’s song introductions, as Dent tells the crowd ‘It’s about getting really bad advice…from animals…in your dreams…obviously”.
Songs ‘Walking’ & ‘The End of the World’ from second album ‘The Good Noise’ follow, before final song “Time to Thaw” closes out what was a wonderful start to the evening.
Former Wild Beasts frontman Hayden Thorpe is up next and delivers a beautifully gentle set of melancholic guitar and piano led offerings from albums ‘Diviner’ and ‘Moondust for my Diamond’ as well as the live debut of newest number “The Wilderness Years”.
“If England had finished second in their group they’d be playing right now… and you wouldn’t be here” he jokes as he moves to the piano for a trio of songs, before telling the audience, “If I’d known the piano was facing that way (so his back was turned on the crowd) I wouldn’t have done a man bun this morning… I can only hope the songs make up for that”.
They most certainly do.
Paul Smith opens the performance with a “Good afternoon” before going on to say that he doesn’t “get to say that much… at big concert halls… I do say good afternoon… outside…” which sets the tone perfectly for what is to follow, an intimate experience of music, storytelling, and comedy, or as Smith puts it “an afternoon of bad jokes interspersed with harrowing songs”.
“If you expected me to come out and do a big jump, you’ll be sadly disappointed by this point” he jokes, referring to his trademark energetic entrance with Maximo Park.
Smith brings the “preamble” to an end by telling the story of how opening number ‘While You’re in the Bath’ was written in the middle of the night while suffering jetlag in Australia, a song which was, he adds, “first played in (local venue) Head of Steam”.
Next up is ‘Head for Figures’ taken from latest album ‘Diagrams’ which is met with a little ‘Woo!’ from the crowd as Smith quips this was ‘just like the press reaction at the time’.
Audience participation is a regular occurrence throughout the afternoon, such as when Smith is tuning his guitar and comments about his “dodgy E” as someone yells out “I’ve had one of those before!” before Smith retorts “Wait till you hear about my dodgy G-string later”.
The storytelling continues with ‘Fill in the Blanks’, from 2015’s ‘Contradictions’ album which is about “walking through Jesmond Vale, a love story, getting to know someone…not knowing what’s inside their head…”.
The first of several guests, opening act Me Lost Me, joins Smith for a rendition of ‘The Beauty Contest’, as Smith tells us it stemmed from “being in London, coming home from a party, worse for wear, on the tube in a carriage full of young children all made up for a children’s beauty pageant”. Guest number two is Peter Brewis of Field Music, as they perform ‘A Town Called Letter’ from ‘Frozen By Sight’, an album released by the pair back in 2014.
Hayden Thorpe returns to the stage on piano for ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’ as Smith jokes once more, of the time Thorpe was “playing with my other band… Simply Red”.
Kathryn Williams is the evenings fourth guest, who joins Smith for a trio of songs, ‘Around and Around’, from ‘Diagrams’, ‘Midnight Chorus’, written by Williams and poet Carol Ann Duffy, as well as Maximo Park number ‘Kiss You Better’.
The final guest, Rachel Unthank, joins Smith at the front of the stage for an a cappella rendition of ‘The King’ as well as the announcement that Smith and Rachel have written an album as ‘Unthank Smith’ which will be released on February 17th 2023. The evening draws to a close with Smith being joined once again by Peter Brewis and Kathryn Williams for a cover of The Pretenders’ festive number, ‘2000 Miles’, before a solo rendition of Maximo Park’s ‘By the Monument’.
All in all it was a wonderfully refreshing and entertaining way to spend a cold and wet Saturday by the River Tyne, Paul Smith was an engaging, humble and humorous host, with the audience hanging onto every single word throughout.
All words and photographs by Andi Talbot – Instagram: andichrist19