Syd Arthur "Ode To The Summer" single launch

The Farmhouse, Canterbury, Friday 28th October, 2011


This was meant to be Lapis Lazuli supporting Syd Arthur to celebrate the release of Syd's new single "Ode To The Summer" (pressed up on 7" vinyl!). Things didn't quite work out that way, unfortunately. Fred the drummer has been suffering on and off from tinnitus and eardrum complications, and this had become so acute that he had to pull out from the gig. So everyone's thoughts are with Fred, as drumming/music/Syd is his life — I really hope some kind of treatment will be able to reverse the situation, primarily for his sake, but also for the sake of the music.

So we instead got Liam and Raven (half of SA) supporting Lapis. They played something in the same style as the acoustic sets they've been doing over the last couple of years, but with Liam on electric guitar (very little amelioration with effects, loops, etc. — more like an acoustic set played on an electric guitar). Raven was on violin throughout, except on the second encore (the set went down VERY well with the audience, very encouraging considering its delicacy and subtlety, and the fact it was a beery Friday night crowd) — a few people had been shouting out for "Ode", which they clearly hadn't planned to play without the full band, but they gave in and played it in the end (Raven on mandolin for that one). Another exceptional set — I think I only recognised two or three songs... Liam's SO prolific these days, he can hardly keep track of all the new songs, and each one's an intriguing treasure, a small world unto itself. But Joel assures me that they've finally started recording his solo material up at the studio in Welling. Good news!

I'd almost not gone out to the gig, having woken up with what I thought was 'flu (picked up en route home from West Cornwall)... I've since discovered that I've had pneumonia (!), but not a serious case (on its way out now). That night was the worst of it though, and I'm glad that my body gave me about an hour of relative ease to enjoy the Liam/Raven set...after that, though, things deteriorated and I slumped at a table throughout Lapis Lazuli's set. I'm sure it was as good, if not better, than the last few I'd seen, but my brain was just processing it as a relentless pounding (filtered through an increasingly dense and noisy mass of people). A shame...