Liam Magill and Jouis at the Ballroom

Thursday 16 August, 2012 — The Ballroom, Canterbury

Before heading over to this, Andy R and I got a couple of games of Go in at his shared house in Wincheap while listening to first couple of Led Zepellin albums (Wow! Despite knowing all the songs, I don't think I've sat and listened to either record in sequence...it's hard not to see what all the fuss is about).

The gig was especially enjoyable for us in in the audience, but unfortunately that comprised less than twenty people. That was actually quite a good thing while Liam played his very mellow set on an acoustic guitar (no effects), as you could hear every word and every note. We're all looking forward to his solo album on Dawn Chorus, but they're perfectionists, so it might still be a while.

I felt bad for Jouis, having come all the way from Brighton to play to so few of us. They had a good crowd last time they were in the City (at The Farmhouse in June), the problem seems to have been a complete lack of publicity. The Ballroom seems far more concerned with selling alcohol to people than bringing them together to hear music. But also, as Andy pointed out, a certain swathe of people in Canterbury may be getting "desensitised" by the surfeit of excellent music that's going at the moment.

But they enjoyed the experience of playing that evening (I spoke to a couple of them a couple of weeks later at Smugglers Festival, where they were extremely well received), so the trip from Brighton wasn't wasted.

One day, this will all blur into that blob of memories from the early 2010's when you could just go out in Canterbury and catch some legendary stuff for a few quid, everyone taking it for granted...