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THEA GILMORE
The Radcliffe
Centre, Buckingham May 31st 2008
Photo: © 2008
David Humphries
Half way
through her first date of summer 2008's UK tour promoting new release
Liejacker, Thea Gilmore asks whether we can take the darkest song in what
she admits to being a pretty dark set.
"But, of course!" is the import of the responding chuckle from an array of
twenty somethings and middle-aged mums and dads, parked on folding chairs
in the sepulchral Radcliffe Centre, a faintly neglected former chapel in
the shadows of Georgian Buckingham's hilltop church.
The gathering of fan clan Gilmore drawn miles from this quiet former
county town know that the excellent Liejacker measures a period of
personal schism for Gilmore: a record label and a manager gone, a first
child arrived, some bouts of depression to battle through.
Photo: © 2008
David Humphries
This, her
most personal and - even for an artist as straight as this - 'honest'
work, plays well in an ancient vaulted space, the summer light slipping as
Thea (guitars and one of the finest voices on the scene), partner Nigel
Stonier (guitars, piano) and beret-bearing Fluff ("she plays anything with
strings," Thea tells us) build a big sound for an acoustic showcase of the
album's gritty, sad yet ultimately affirming songs.
New single 'Old Soul' makes a mid-paced start, off-set by slow burns in
'Dancing in New York', the wistful 'Icarus Wind' and a possessive take on
'The Sisters of Mercy' (remarking that she doesn't cover a song that she
can't somehow make her own, Gilmore promptly controls Cohen's
masterpiece).
Any mordancy is offset by cheerful banter and pacier numbers in a ceilidh
no less, the album's 'When I Get Back To The Shore', and toe-tapper 'You
Spin Me Right Round' (which does just that and leaves you rejoining its
chorus hours after).
Photo: © 2008
David Humphries
Some old
faves pop by ('Avalanche' scores an airing) while a generous dollop of
encore includes the pin-drop 'I'm Gonna Haunt You' that so startled Jools
Holland and his audience all those years back on TV's 'Later...'
This Thea Gilmore is older, wiser now; feisty is still inherent in her
work but gawky has gone and she's writing actuality rather than
conjecture.
Bruce Springsteen is a fan. Zuton Dave McCabe is on the album. So is Joan
Baez.
Thea Gilmore is back - get to a gathering of the clan at a venue near you.
Review by Peter Muir
Album review
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