There's a fortune to be had... (Bill Ryder-Jones, South Street Arts Centre, Reading, Thursday 26th September 2019)
Support act was Lucy Gaffney, ably assisted by her brother, Thom, on guitar and occasional backing vocals. As far as I can tell Lucy has no material released under her own name (she and her brother have recorded together under the band name MMODE) though during the set she mentioned she was working on an EP with James Skelly of The Coral.
(Note: The image above is not mine and comes from Lucy's FB page)
It was a good set and a great warm-up for Bill: there were songs that struck a chord and Lucy's voice has a strength and depth that brought life to the songs. It will be interesting to see what the recorded songs are like and whether she records with a band or just guitar(s) and voice(s) as here.
Lucy and her brother left the stage around 8:30pm leaving an old stand-up piano and Gibson guitar waiting for Bill to arrive.
Bill's tour is in support of his piano and voice remake of last year's 'Yawn', titled 'Yawny Yawn' in homage to the Beach Boys' 'Smiley Smile' (follow-up to 'Smile'), so I was intrigued to see both guitar and piano on stage. South Street Arts Centre is a very intimate venue, most befitting of Bill's songs. One thought I had was how powerfully his songs would be felt so close up - the songs are at times so raw, open and unflinching that with just his voice and piano or guitar, there would be nowhere to hide. If that sounds a bit grim I should add - as was very evident from his between songs banter - he has a sarcastic sense of humour (he is from Liverpool, after all): one of my favourite songs from 'Yawn', the opener, 'There's Something On Your Mind' includes the ironic lines "There's a fortune to be had, from telling people you're sad".
Bill took to the stage to much applause at around 9pm, sitting down at the piano, saying hello and telling us that he'd be taking requests after the first number, so we'd better start thinking!
First up was 'Lemon Trees #3' which he said was written for 'a previous girlfriend'. He was on fine singing form and this received to rapturous applause - it was clear from this song that he was up for the gig, though sometimes he seemed on the edge as he sang. Many of the songs were introduced with an anecdote or back story which lent further intimacy to the proceedings.
True to his word he asked the audience for requests and a young boy (I guess he must have been 14, though he looked younger) asked for 'Two To Birkenhead'. Initially Bill wasn't sure he could do it (it is written for a band with a guitar solo in the middle!), but he decided to give it a go and got up and picked up the Gibson. He fluffed the lines part way through - this happened on a couple of the the requests - but it was handled with humour and self-deprecation and just added to warmth and humanity of the gig.
In all he was on stage for about 90 minutes and played thirteen songs selected from 'Yawn'/'Yawny Yawn', 'West Kirby Primary' and 'A Bad Wind Blows in My Heart'.
It was simply a great, heartwarming, gig. Catch him on tour if you can - you won't be disappointed.
After the set was over he came to the back of the hall to the merch desk, chatting to us, shaking hands and signing albums and T-Shirts. The songs on 'Yawn' are especially close to my heart, so chatting to him and shaking his hand after meant a lot.
If you want to know a bit more about Bill and his songs, then you could do worse than look here at an article / interview written by the late, great, David Cavanaugh.
As is now customary on this blog, playlists of the songs he sang can be found below in YouTube and Spotify formats. I am not certain of the order of songs (the first two are correct), but am pretty certain he played all these songs, though it's possible I forgot one, as it was all done from memory!
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