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| Watching Paper Circus. |
Another First Wednesday and another First of the month to mark Nuneaton Folk Club's March session.Our featured guest Kevin Dempsey, is always a welcome visitor and always pulls in a good crowd. As you would expect with an artiste of his calibre the latest NFC evening at The Crown was another high quality occasion. It would be difficult, given the added bonus of a talented squad of support acts to go wrong,really. So we didn't. Kevin delivered a typically high quality performance, admirably supplemented by a strong support cast, all of them returning.
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| Part of Wednesday's audience |
After a tricky changeover at the start of the new year, the Sound arrangements are still in flux, but are stabilising now This is largely due to the way in which half a dozen folks have worked co-operatively together to make sure that all our performers are ably supported on Wednesday nights. This entails several of us putting in a shift on Tuesday night,as work commitments are now limiting the amount of time we can spend on a Wednesday evening, before our 8pm start, setting up.
I make no apologies for putting our sound team first in this account,as without them, the quality of performance (which our audiences continue to praise and enjoy), would not be the same. So it's thanks to Simon Winterman of Impulse Theatre for allowing us early access to their rehearsal room and to Julian Harkins The Crown's Guv'nor for storing the sound gear securely between Folk nights. And thanks also to three of our own: Matt Mallen Allen, Liam Johnson and our latest incumbent Dave Smart,for their work together beforehand and at the desk on Wednesday. It only needed Tom Veasey and the whole team would have been reunited for one night!
Matt 's new career in High Finance has impacted on his degree of input, but he,Dave Smart,Julian,Liam and myself put in time on Tuesday night to ensure that Liam, (who was taking the helm first shift),could conduct the sound checks and get us under way. Dave Smart took over the desk eventually and helped us stow the gear away afterwards. Without all this behind the scenes work, the show literally could not go on.
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| Matt and Liam look on as Dave Smart contemplates the sliders. |
Nunc began with " When I get to The Border" and "Weather With You" and the cheerfully philosophic Kasey Chambers anthem, "We're all gonna die some day." The audience were obviously already in a good singing voice , as they returned each of the choruses right merrily.
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| Nunc are heading to The Border. |
Then we put Matt Mallen Allen (literally) on the spot. Matt arrived in time for us to Pressgang him into giving us a turn on stage. With characteristicl unfazed cool, he have us a couple of songs including a very fast tempo cover of "Down Under"- a hit for Men at Work. The audience enjoyed that too which was a portent of things to come. They sang all the choruses and parts of the verses with enthusiasm. We could have been in a back street bar in Melbourne.
Man at Work: MMA-style Cool.
Paper Circus captivated the audience with their unique style. They blew us away on their first appearance at NFC and repeated that feat again this time. Great musicianship from the boys laying down the perfect canvas for Jennian's gorgeously textured vocals. One of the nicest things about an NFC crowd is that they will sing like a choir of angels when requested to but when someone of Jennian's timre sings "She Moved Through The Fair" you could hear a pin drop. Well done you lovely people-that's so appreciated by performers, getting such respect for what they do.
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| Paper Circus |
Brian Phillips was visibly disappointed to find that his recent William McGonagall Prize for Services to Poetry was a virtual one only. However he was still persuaded to air a brief rhyme about a misunderstanding in a Bedding Department before treating us to three songs and an update on The Worst Ever Lurgy known to mankind. Classic.
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| Bri is just a Rambling man. or is he just Ramblin'? |
The assembled company then enjoyed three songs from Wilson Wright. John Wright, (who took most of these magnificent photographs and many more), was not 100% unlurgied himself. However,he declared himself well enough to perform after a late fitness test. Accompanied by Hilary Wilson, in a magnificent pair of lace up boots, (obviously she wore other stuff as well-but those boots were made for stompin'). Wilson Wright took us through a dreamy sequence of images and melodies.Their version of "Ride On" was once again particularly memorable, with choruses again thundered back enthusiastically by the audience.
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| Wilson Wright. Maybe Wright and Wilson? |
Jan and Campbell Perry had the unenviable task of following Wilson Wright and of softening us up further before Sir Kevin strolled on for his first set. They opened with a lament about long-gone shipping lines and followed it up with one of their own, the delightful "When Billie Sang The Blues." Sensibly, they harnessed that Audience roar again in their final number, and unleashed "Rolling Home" : a drinking song which seemed somehow kind of apt in one of the Town's CAMRA Flagships.
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| Jan and Campbell |
Kevin Dempsey then came on for a brief cameo,giving us a taster of what his second half stint would bring us in more depth. After an Interval and a Raffle Draw, Nunc returned to the stage to perform " Angel from Montgomery." They were then joined by Kevin on a version of " Bring It On Home" which unsurprisingly featured not one, but two instrumental verses. (Rude not to). This was, obviously, a pinnacle in a long and illustrious career. Kevin has always wanted to appear with the three piece version of Nunc and now that ambition can finally be crossed off his bucket list.
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| A dream fulfilled for Kevin Dempsey, as he joins Nunc |
Kevin was then left alone, to melt under the spotlights, as he took the audience through a delightful selection of his repertoire. Culminating in the usual pyrotechnical version of " All for You." As the whoopin' and hollerin' and cries for "More" rang through the building, we knew it wasn't the end really. As an encore, Kevin treated us to memorable versions of "All Shook Up " and " Postman Pat." ( Very canny, as he knew an audience singing like this lot had been, couldn't resist joining him).
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| The Maestro at work |
Kevin's natural modesty belies the fact that he is an immensely talented musician, a vocalist with a style and projection that is instantly identifiable, and just an all-round good egg. He underplays the earlier work he did in Dando Shaft and Whippersnapper, but it should not ever be forgotten or underestimated. His recording background puts the rest of local artistes in the shade. Maybe a few have eclipsed him in record sales, but the sheer depth and range of material he has contributed to, on around 53 different albums speaks for itself,and is virtually unbeatable. When The Specials or The Enemy or King or The Primitives have notched up that many album credits, they can claim to be on a par with him. Until then, regardless of genre, they will walk in his shadow.
