Those of you that are from Portsmouth, or know the cities night life, will no doubt appreciate why Saturday night concerts at our Guildhall are somewhat of an oddity no matter what the occasion due to being situated so close to an area associated with binge drinking and behaviour that even David Attenborough would find hard to describe, but alas this evening wasn’t about stag and hen parties or 18th birthday celebrations but an occasion of musicianship courtesy of the impressive Bellowhead.
First up though was Neil McSweeney, a Sheffield based singer songwriter who had an attachment to the South Coast with his father having been based in Portsmouth – and it was this that helped add a personal touch to an otherwise somewhat inoffensive set, much though McSweeney had a great singing voice his subtle country tones were more suited to an intimate venue rather than the big stage and even with the addition of Bellowhead’s Matt Sweeney on drums and a more rock n roll tune to end with there wasn’t much to get you over excited.
So with a rather subdued start to the evening it was time for the eleven members of Bellowhead to liven things up, and starting off with their rendition of “Jordan” it was soon apparent how talented these guys are and the vocal harmonies perfectly in tune with each other.
With the exception of the fantastic “100,000 Miles Away” from last years’ award winning album “Broadside” this was almost a set of two halves as initially it seemed to focus more on some of their slower numbers which worked well as it gave the band a chance to perform some superb tunes before turning it up a notch with the likes of sea shanty “Haul Away” which is when a Bellowhead gig really comes into fruition.
It’s always a pleasure to see a band enjoy their craft, and that truly does come across with how each member interacts both with the crowd and one another, comedy dance routines and even during moments of faulty violins and fiddles there was a smile upon their faces.
Bellowhead largely focus on re-arranging traditional folk songs, and this continued throughout the set and the multi-instrumentation of their tunes during the likes of sing-a-long “London Town” and the Irish jig for the “Sloe Gin Set” keeping everyone in high spirits.
Then with a brief exit from the stage the band returned with comedy Xmas hats for their upcoming charity single, an interpretation of “Jingle Bells”, which even with the band themselves admitting under their breathe that they had cashed in wasn’t exactly the greatest rendition but again that didn’t matter as Bellowhead are the band you’d quite happily have at any party.
Having then redeemed themselves with “Frogs Legs and Dragons Teeth” from their debut album “Burlesque” it was hard to find anyone not bouncing up and down as one by one the band were introduced during the extended version of the upbeat number, before it was soon time to leave the safety of the Guildhall and head back out into the wild at the end of another great gig.
Thanks for listening
Mr Teeth
