 Sunday night, the rain lashing
towards the ground, the wind howling and blowing a gale just the sort
of night you want to drive x amount of miles to go to a gig. Most
sensible people would have stayed at home, in a large comfy armchair,
feet up in front of a warm coal fire with a mug of hot chocolate
(marshmallows floating on the surface optional!) by their side. But no,
Odgers and Simmonds are playing somewhere in Southampton. So off we
set, winds blowing at approximately 90 miles an hour, tree branches
littering the roads – sensible people would have turned round
and headed back to that fire side. But no, Odgers and Simmonds are
playing in ‘The Brook’.
The weather turns the hour journey into nearly two, but we arrive on
the edge of Southampton at ‘The Brook’.
Unsurprisingly, the car park which hold about 20 cars has spaces. We
find the venue door! Hurray. Then our plans are slightly thwarted as
the man on the door tells us ‘Odgers and Simmonds
aren’t playing.’ But ‘Paul and Swill
are’. Hurray. We walk into the smallish bar, with a decent
sized stage, it has a balcony running around the top and is likened to
a small ‘Mean Fiddler.’ I’d estimate a
crowd of about 80, most sat or stood around the edges of the room. A
friendly looking crowd. We decide the floor is clean enough to sit on.
After a few minutes Swill and Paul take the stage, and Dave Kent is
guided towards the microphone.
Regrettably, I didn’t take my camera but if anyone wants a
fashion run down I can email them privately, suffice to say I liked the
purple shirt. So what can I remember of the set list.
In no particular order, songs from O+S included The Trigger, The Light,
Rising Road, May Day Morning and Swill’s rendition of
Barratt’s Privateers (wow). I can’t swear they did
sing all these some might have been wishful thinking on my part! :o)
TMTCH ones, Walkin’ Talkin’ Green back dollar,
Pieces of Paradise, Going back to Coventry, Iron Masters, Scarlett
Ribbons (?).
Dave Kent took lead vocals in Liberty Cages’
‘Refugee’ and Gregory’s Girl, he also
sang a Christie Moore song and did sound quite like him. Nervous but a
good sound. He whistled along to songs ( not an easy thing to do
properly), played the harmonica and penny whistle and sang backing
vocals on the others.
The only new song, I think, was Swill’s which he sang whilst
referring to the lyrics written in his notebook and this was about
Colwyn Bay.
The crowd were fairly appreciative, they came back for an encore, Swill
said the audience could suggest songs to sing, preferably songs from
them, otherwise they’d be forced to leave the stage. Second
encore crowd began to shout suggestions and Swill added that we could
only shout out suggestions that they had already agreed to play amongst
themselves.
Was it worth the drive? YES, of course it was. TMTCH have energy and I
will always dance around at their gigs, but O+S and Dave Kent are
mellow, ‘warming’, ‘toe
tapping’, and proves that much of their material works in an
acoustic atmosphere.
The best bit of the gig was seeing well written lyrics sung live. The
happy smiles from the stage – proved that the performers
enjoyed what they were doing and this is always infectious. I really
hope that in whatever guise they perform O+S will not loose that.
I got a bit carried away! Thanks O+S and Dave Kent you did a great job
- roll on the next gig - may it be sooner rather than later!
Sarah Eames
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