The concert was
advertised as starting at 7:30 but on arrival there was the sound of
live music coming from the floor just below the stage. On closer
inspection we discovered that it was none other than Settle resident
Mike Harding leading a band. There was no amplification, just a group
of, I'm guessing, locals who were providing some music before the
support came on. But that's the sort of relaxed atmosphere you'll
find at the Victoria Hall, especially on these music nights which
Mike is organising on the first Sunday of every month.
After they'd finished
playing, Mike appeared on stage to tell us of a change to the
evening's programme. For reasons which weren't entirely clear,
Canadian band The Once hadn't turned up. Mike explained that emails
had been going back and forth confirming their appearance that night
but something had gone wrong somewhere and they weren't here. So
support was instead provided at the last minute by two friends of
Mike who had come up from Manchester. Both were called Matt, one on
guitar and vocals and the other on harmonica, flute, small pipes and
vocals. If you had arrived late and hadn't heard about the late
substitution you wouldn't have guessed anything was amiss. Their
playing was superb, especially Matt on harmonica and their material
ranged from traditional Irish fare to a wonderful murder ballad about
a woman who took a knife to her husband before throwing him down a
well.
After the interval
Martin and Jim took to the stage along with percussionist Finn
McArdle. Martin had a rather unusual-looking amp for his guitar at
the front of the stage which, as he joked, had been mistakenly used
once for a pole dance. Playing quite a variety of venues, Martin told
us that it's useful to have their own PA. The previous night they had
played in a church with a large PA which made it sound like “a
submarine coming from the back”.
Starting with 'The
Lilac Tree' we were treated to selections from Martin's extensive
back catalogue with one song, 'Joe McCue', having been written when
he was a teenager but it was then left unused for 20 odd years. The
reason for this was the subject matter. Joe was an older youth who
Martin described as being somewhat frightened of when he was growing
up. Joe was struggling with depression and finally could take no
more. Tragically he took his own life by pouring petrol over himself
and setting himself alight. This was one of a number of
heart-wrenching stories we heard during the course of the evening and
shows how Martin, like so many other songwriters over the years, use
music as a way of trying to make sense of the world especially when
there seems to be so much negative stuff affecting you at every turn.
But this was not a
sombre occasion. Martin has a wonderful sense of humour which came
through during the set. He is also a very spiritual person and there
were references to a higher power, reincarnation and how we need to
try and keep our egos under control. He described the constant
chatter in our heads as the ego being like Google forever looking
looking things up and not giving us any peace. Martin is obviously
keen to share his thoughts on such matters with his audience but when
it seems to be getting a bit deep he lightens things up with a
humourous comment and he spent much of the evening with a smile on
his face.
Jim Hornsby provided
some fine electric guitar playing but very much in a supporting role,
almost waiting at times for Martin's say-so to let rip with some
country and bluegrass licks. Martin joked about how Jim doesn't
really like his material so they have to play other stuff every four
songs. So along with original compositions such as 'Home', 'Spirit
Child', 'Long Forgotten' and 'Running Water' we had some wonderful
guitar playing from them both on numbers like 'The Cannonball Rag'
and the night ended with a lovely finger-picking guitar introduction
to 'Will the Circle Be Unbroken'.
It was not far off
being a full house and the audience certainly enjoyed the music. Near
the end of Martin's set we had the added bonus of Mike Harding being
invited up on stage to play harmonica. On the way out we discovered
that the cd stall had cunningly been moved from the bar to the foyer
and so I treated myself to a copy of Martin and Jim's latest cd
“Clear Run Over The Bridge”. Back in the hall Mike Harding and
the house band had struck up again providing Martin and co with some
music as they packed away their gear.
Colin Bertram
07/04/2014
