Autumn Concerts

I’d booked to see a number of artists between September and November this year, the first one being on the 4th September when I had tickets to see Tommy Arch, the former drummer with Holy Moly and the Crackers.  I’ve seen him once before when he was acting as support, but this was his first ‘headline’ gig.

The venue was Café#9 in Nether Edge which is the most fashionable part of the city.  The people who live here typically read the Guardian, listen to Radio 4, shop locally and feel wistful about John Lewis.  Café#9 is marvellous. It’s rather small for a café, but as a music venue, it feels more like a house gig but without the TV set in the corner.  It has a capacity of just 40 and I got a seat very close to the stage, but then, so did everyone else.  It is unlicenced but the ticket price includes a BYOB fee so people were bringing beer and one chap brought a bottle of Prosecco which he drank alone.  I wasn’t so well-prepared so I just bought a cappuccino and a slice of cake.  Yes, it really is a café!

To get there, I went by bus. I know, cool dudes don’t use public transport, but I’ve just got my old codger’s bus pass and was eager to make use of it.  I had to walk the last 1/4 mile, so no-one at the venue saw me get off the number 98 bus.

Tommy’s support was a chap called Robbie Thompson who sang some gentle folky songs.  He has a lovely voice, but the tunes were forgettable.  There were only 32 people in the audience (yes, I was able to count them all!) and perhaps half a dozen were Robbie’s mates, but it was a great atmosphere.

Tommy Arch is a terrific singer and very good guitarist, but his between-songs patter could be improved.  He appeared so grateful that anyone showed up, that’s all he talked about, repeating the same ‘thanks so much for coming’ litany all evening.  

When the evening ended at about 10pm I walked to the bus stop only to find that the next bus was 45 minutes off, so I decided to walk home.  The bus never passed me along the three mile journey so I felt it was the right decision.

The next concert was on 8th of October when I saw Ruth Lyon also in Sheffield.  Ruth was the lead singer of Holy Moly & the Crackers so now that they’ve stopped touring, it may seem like I’m seeing all the members perform individually. This was the first gig in Ruth’s forthcoming UK tour before she heads off to Europe in November.  

The venue, Sidney & Matilda, was new to me and I speculated on the unusual name.  It made me chuckle to see that it was on the corner of Sidney Street and Matilda Street in the city centre.  Imaginative naming indeed.

I had got tickets for Geraldine & Emily too, so Emily drove us in and we arrived very early to a less-than-salubrious warehouse with assorted rooms available to hire.  It appeared popular with students which was reflected in the drinks which were inexpensive and served in plastic glasses. 

We sat with our drinks and waited for things to happen, and it was just after seven (for a 7.30 concert) that we saw a couple of people walk in.  They asked us whether we were here to see Ruth and seemed relieved when we said yes, “Oh good, we’re in the right place then”. A few minutes later I noticed Robbie Thompson arrive.  He was playing as support once more, and soon after that, Ruth turned up.  The ‘bargain basement’ vibes of the venue continued when we saw Ruth buying her own drinks at the bar and began chatting to others who were drifting in.  No green room here.

There were very few people around when the doors opened to the venue, and so we were the first in and secured seats in what was predominantly a standing venue.  

By the time of the start, there were only about ten people present, but Robbie took to the stage with his mate who played bass.  Robbie’s set was the same that I’d heard last month, and I wasn’t any more enamoured with the songs this time.  He was professional, but the tunes weren’t memorable and his patter left me more confused about what the songs meant.

At about 9pm, Ruth moved onto the stage but took with her three of the audience which by now had risen just just 15.  Two of her band turned out to be the couple who’d asked us about the venue before the start.  Once they were on stage I recognised them as Calum the keyboard player and Fran the drummer: I’d seen them both before at a gig in Manchester.

Despite the tiny numbers, Ruth played a full set of 12 songs plus an encore but the atmosphere was dead.  Of the dozen people or so, Robbie and his mates accounted for perhaps a quarter of the audience.  I can’t understand what went wrong: the last time we saw Ruth in Manchester, the (larger) venue was packed.  We left wondering how the rest of the tour would go.

In November I had two concerts booked back-to-back.  I had tickets to see Gaz Brookfield and although he was playing venues all over the country, I chose to see him at The Greystones in Sheffield so that we could combine the trip with a visit to see Emily.  The following day I had planned to see Baskery who are a Swedish alternative folk rock band but that didn’t happen, as you shall discover.

Gaz was supported by a chap called Dan O’Dell singing under the stage name of Hartwork. It’s no use remembering the names because 1) he isn’t worth seeing and 2) he no longer calls himself Hartwork.  His main contribution to the evening was to emphasise how good Gaz Brookfield was.  Gaz is a solo acoustic folk rock musician who’s been touring on the road for almost 20 years.  I’ve not seen him for ten years in which time he’s added six more albums to his catalogue.  This tour was promoting his latest one, Waiting for Wisdom, but thankfully he played a lot of his old stuff as well as songs from the new album.

My favourite songs from the evening included The Diabetes Blues and I’ve Paid my Money.

Baskery were scheduled to play at Skipton Town Hall the following night but sadly I had an email earlier in the week advising that due to a family issue, the rest of the tour was cancelled.  The band comprises three sisters so I can guess that any family issue in Sweden would affect all of them.  I was offered tickets for a show in November 2026 (!) which I declined, accepting a refund instead.  I may yet still go to that gig, but I considered it too far off to add it in my diary just now. 

I’ve seen O’Hooley & Tidow four times now after they first came to my notice in 2014.  I saw them at a folk club in the Clayton-le-Moors Masonic Hall in 2016 which was a very odd night.   It had the feeling of a working men’s club where everyone knew each other and each had their own special seat.  As outsiders, we were viewed with caution but it didn’t spoil our enjoyment of the evening.  The pair played a lovely set including The Last Polar Bear and Gentleman Jack which was three years before the duo shot to fame when that song was chosen to be played over the closing credits of the BBC TV series of the same name.

This year, we paid a couple of quid more to see them from the best seats in a private box at the Leeds City Varieties Music Hall.  We felt like Statler & Waldorf from the Muppets. This was their ‘So Long for Now’ tour since they are stopping touring for a bit, so we were glad to get tickets at one of their 20 venue run.  For some of their history, have a look here .

In Leeds they played seventeen selected songs in chronological order ending with a standing ovation for Gentleman Jack.  We knew the set list since I’d had a nosey at the sound engineer’s console on the way to our box.

After the concert I was struck by how small is the world of the musicians that we follow.  In Leeds, Belinda O’Hooley welcomed us to the venue and explained how it was very special to her since when she and Heidi Tidow first started out together they supported the Burnley-based band Chumbawumba on tour.  Chumbawumba performed at their final gig in 2012 at Leeds City Varieties Music Hall and O’Hooley & Tidow were there.  During the summer, we saw Michelle Plum and her husband (performing as Plumhall) and I remembered that Michelle was part of Chumbawumba for a few years.  Then finally, Belinda told us that she once worked as part of a collective which included the Sheffield trio Lady Maisery.  Rowan Rheingans comprises one third of this group and I’m planning to see her at Hathersage in November.

While I was in Sheffield cat sitting, I had planned a few bike rides but also a couple of concerts. I went to the Rowan Rheingans gig by train but I had to stand since it was so crowded.  Thankfully, it was only a ten-minute journey and I was by the doors so at least I could get out.

Open House is another hip place popular with the pulsarati (they are like glitterati, but with added chickpeas).  Like Café#9, it is a café by day, and has recently begun to offer yoga classes and the occasional concert in the room upstairs. I arrived early and went to get a brew, but was told that they weren’t serving coffee (??), so I ordered a tea.  “What sort?”.  I admit I wasn’t ready for that question, but knowing the establishment, I should have guessed.  I ordered Yorkshire – it was a safe bet that they sold that.

In the toilet was a framed review of the café which may have been a joke, but it summed up the place pretty well.  I really like the venue, but charging £6.95 for a cup of tea and a chocolate brownie (even if it was vegan) did have a whiff of capitalism as the reviewer suggested.  A place like that should really be a co-operative, or a non-profit organisation.

Rowan Rheingans is from Grindleford, the next village to Hathersage and so she was very local.  Coming from a musical family (her dad manufactures violins and banjos) Rowan is a very talented musician and gave a masterful performance to about 35 people, singing and playing banjo, guitar, violin and viola and for one song playing the latter two instruments simultaneously!  The show finished in just enough time for me to catch the next-to-last train back.  

My last concert for the year was once more at Café#9 when I saw Ray Cooper.  Ray, who now lives in Sweden, is an English singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who plays piano, guitars, cello, bass, harmonica, harmonium, mandolin, percussion and kantele! (A kantele is a Finnish plucked string instrument. And yes, I had to Google it)  Formerly with Oysterband, he went solo in 2013 and Sunday 23rd November was the last night of his UK tour promoting his fifth solo album.

Once more I’d taken a bus to the gig and when I arrived I was quite chilly, so I plonked myself in a seat by a fire. I very quickly regretted this because I was soon too hot. But I took off my coat and jumper and sat in my shirtsleeves enjoying my coffee and cake. There’s something very civilised and decadent about eating cake while watching a concert.

It’s happened before that I actually like the support more than the main artist, and it happened again here.  Ray was fantastic, but I was blown away by the very talented Araya and her band.  Araya is only 20 years old and her band members (playing cello, clarinet, string bass and backing vocals) looked a similar age.  Since she travelled down from Leeds tonight, I am guessing that they are all students at the university there.  

The well-crafted songs were all composed and sung by Araya, but the accompaniment was outstanding.  The interplay between the clarinet and cello was sublime.  She (and they) are most certainly a talent to look out for.

Ray Cooper played some old and some new numbers, and all were beautiful, but I couldn’t say the same for his voice.  Initially, I just thought that he couldn’t sing – he was missing many of the high notes and his voice cracked on a couple of occasions – but as the evening progressed he admitted that he was struggling.  He has just finished a UK tour and also he said that he’s been rehearsing rather too much before touring with his trio (with Al Scott and John Jones).  He apologised for sounding like a Tom Waits tribute act and promised at the end that if we ever saw him again, he would sound completely different.

My favourite song of his was the one he opened with, Falling like Thunder.

That said, his set was very accomplished and I thoroughly enjoyed the evening.  I felt a bit sorry for Ray because Araya was such a hard act to follow.

That’s all my gigs finished for this year but I already have one booked for February when we’re seeing Luke Jackson once more.

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