Live At the Academy 24th January 2011
Review by Vanessa Monaghan
It’s the first night on Teddy Thompson’s tour to support his new album ‘Bella’. It’s a slightly unusual scenario, the album’s not out yet so the audience are in for a first listen. With a slightly older audience too, it seems like Thompson, despite being on his fifth album, still has to step out from his father, Richard’s shadow.
Opening proceedings though, is David Ford, a quirky multi-instrumentalist. Being alone on stage didn’t hinder Ford one bit. Instead, throughout his set he moved from guitar to keys using every once of energy and inch of stage available. Highlights for this writer were ‘Train’ and the sublime ‘State of the Union’. Layering instruments and samples live, on top of each other, Ford built up the track, cumulating with a soundscape of beautiful dischord. I can’t wait to hear more of his music.
Teddy Thompson and his band come on to the stage to a mild mannered response. Starting off his set with ‘I Feel’, a track from ‘Bella’ which he tells the audience he will play tracks from throughout the night. His sound is contemporary country folk and he’s good at it. It’s just weird to hear such a great country voice and when Thompson speaks, he’s a proper Englishman.
Musically, Thompson and his band are flawless. The band consists ‘A girl for the first time’, Jessie Nelson on violin, which according to Thompson turns into a fiddle half way through. Nelson also contributes some amazing backing vocals. Drums and Bass are provided by Ethan and Jeff while David Ford finds himself on stage again playing keys.
The audience are well behaved and politely appreciative as Thompson settles into the set. This does take a while but it is the first night after all. At one point it shows as Thompson stops and restarts the song.
Things start settling down when Thompson starts chatting to the crowd, telling them never to wear flannel on stage. His dry humour shows on more than one occasion as he jokes with the band and telling the audience how he’s ‘too English to fight’.
The uptempo ‘The One I Can’t Have’ from ‘Bella’ gets the biggest audience approval so far before moving on to Over and Over’. Vocals, guitar and understated keys seem to be in opposition to Nelson’s violin, creating a tension build up in the song.
Thompson lets Jessie Nelson show off her vocal chords while duetting on ‘Tell me what you Want’, a old school country vibed track with a fifties tinge. Cute.
The band leaves the stage as Thompson tells the audience he will play some of the hits acoustically. Naturally, being more familiar with his older stuff, the audience love this.
‘Everybody Move it’ has the audience singing along. This is what they wanted to hear. During ‘Turning the Gun on Myself’ pockets of people could be heard singing around the venue.
Thompson stops mid ‘What’s This?’and calls three ladies to the stage to do what they were doing ‘out there’ Last one on stage has the audience laughing as she grabs the mic and tells her friends to ‘take loads of photos’. The pink haired of the trio takes her chance and duets with Thompson and provides, well, not bad harmonies at all.
The band arrive back to the stage and the night is kicked into further gear. Huge appreciation is shown for Thompson’s rendition of ‘Tonight Will Be Fine’ from the Leonard Cohen I’m Your Man Soundtrack. Current single the upbeat ‘Looking for a Girl’ has the audience singing along. Thompson finished off his main set with ‘Separate Ways’, ‘You Gotta Have Someone’ and ‘Take Me Back Again’.
What the audience weren’t expecting tonight was an Abba cover. Band members huddled around one microphone, Thompson and his guitar at another turned his encore into something special. A chance to show off a bit of personality and have some fun was taken with both hands.
The night ended with the uptempo ‘In My Arms’ from ‘A Piece of What You Need’. Thompson showed himself to be a competent performer. First night aside, This was a great gig.