This Is The Kit, Ramsgate Music Hall

Ramsgate Music Hall
30th November, 2015

This was my first visit to RMH, about which I'd heard nothing but good things. Best of all is their "listening policy". There's an upstairs bar with a big screen and speakers so that anyone who wants to talk can go up there and still feel like they're at the gig. Anyone talking in the main hall gets asked to go upstairs. If only every venue could be this way. A day or two before, they'd won the NME "Best Small UK Venue" award for 2015

Support was from the Rozi Plein band, which was the same band as This Is The Kit, just permuted so that Rozi was playing electric guitar and singing, with Kate playing bass. Rozi caused extensive mirth by innocently saying "It's great to be here in Margate..." and then realising what she'd just said! It was a very supportive and forgiving audience, but she was clearly mortified (in an amusing sort of way) for the rest of her set. Jamie was on drums and Neil on lead guitar (which got quite shoegazey at times, to great effect.) This was the last date of their UK tour, and they were clearly enjoying themselves (getting to emerge on stage via a trapdoor proved especially popular!) I suspect they've been touring with a hagiography, as during the TITK set, Kate casually announced that it was St. Andrews' day (the patron saint of both barren and pregnant women, as well as a protection against sore throats). Lots of relaxed banter with the audience in between her jewel-like songs, each one perfectly formed. If you haven't heard Kate Stables/This Is the Kit yet, then there's no point in me trying to describe them. Just watch this (the same lineup, filmed in the South of France this spring):
 

They ended with "Spinney", possibly my favourite (it was surprising how many favourites didn't get played, and yet the whole set was perfect from beginning to end — just shows what a wealth of wonderful material they now have), with Kate re-emerging via the trapdoor to play a spellbinding new song as an encore.