Roll up, roll up for the Spielmann musical extravaganza! Just like the Rock and Roll Circus before it – albeit on a far more modest scale – this spectacular aims, at least in part, to promote some new music from an artist. For the Rolling Stones, it was their seventh studio album Beggars Banquet. In Spielmann’s case, it is the recent release of a full band live session of tracks taken from his debut EP Fifteen Minutes with Spielmann.
Substitute a hot sweaty, mightily crowded basement in Hyde Park Book Club for a three-ring circus and replace Jethro Tull with Thomas Clements and you suddenly have the makings of this evening. Local poet and stand-up comic Clement has got several blots on the contemporary landscape in his highly politicised crosshairs, including those of Liz Truss, Nigel Farage, cocaine, and dog shit.
After a short break the recently reunited six-piece band Carpet take to the stage. Helmed by Rob Slater – the first of many musicians tonight who have been active in the grassroots music scene in Leeds for a number of years now – they produce a perfectly balanced set that stretches from the lugubrious splendour of new single ‘Chaste’ across several world-weary lo-fi contours before a concluding yet-to-be-released track rings a note of cautious optimism. It’s as if after all these years the presumably ironic title of Sparklehorse’s It’s A Wonderful Life has finally rung true.
To the incredibly loud strains of Carly Simon’s ‘You’re So Vain’, Ben Lewis – the man who is Spielmann – leads The Bannd onto the stage. They comprise Luke Chambers (drums), Alice Scott (bass), Harry Ridgway (guitar), and Simeon Walker (keys). And for the next 45 minutes, the five musicians produce an irresistible set fit-to-bursting with what modern music parlance would probably describe as big and beautiful “pop bangers.”
Whilst the universal mid-30s lyrical themes of “getting old, getting fat, and losing your hair” might suggest otherwise, these huge, toe-tapping dancefloor fillers would not have been remotely out of place accompanying Detectives Crockett and Tubbs as they hurtled towards another drugs bust and the inevitable shootout in downtown Miami.
Ben Lewis temporarily pumps the brakes on the Spielmann mothership and lets everyone bar Simeon Walker have a quick breather as his voice soars majestically over the keyboard melody of ‘It’s A Lifetime’ before once more pressing the sonic accelerator as they all blast their way through first ‘Under The Weather’ and then the former GIITTV Track of the Week, the euphoric ‘Just Like Everyone Else’.
They haven’t finished there, though. There’s still time for the apposite ‘A Better Man’ and – given they had by now run out of tunes to play – an impromptu karaoke-style rendition of this year’s huge breakout star Chappell Roan’s ‘Good Luck, Babe’ the words to which are lustily sung by every single person in the venue.
The Rolling Stones’ Rock and Roll Circus was a well-intentioned though inconsistent and ultimately flawed affair. Tonight’s Spielmann musical extravaganza, on the other hand, is a quite perfect illustration of how best to present your debut headline show whilst promoting some new music and having yourselves a real good time into the bargain.
Photos: Simon Godley
More photos from this concert are HERE
