Review:
'LOST CAVALRY, THE/ JAMESON, SOPHIE'
'London, St Pancras Old Church, 18th Sept 2013'
- Genre: 'Folk'
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Our Rating:
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I was the last minute substitute reviewer for this sold out Album launch show by THE LAST CAVALRY as the band's preferred choice of writer obviously heard the album and needed to stay in and wash his hair or something like that.
Anyway I turned up having been warned my name might not be on the list and I might have to be someone else for the night. Instead, the nice girl with the list calls over the Lost Calvary's main man Mark while handing me an Order of Service sheet and we sort it out and then have a slightly awkward chat as I admit I haven't heard a note the band has played before tonight and hope they have a good gig. He is excited but also very polite and nice to chat too and is excited about support act Sophie Jamieson.
I found myself a pew just in front of the apse by the ledge with all the tea lights on it. And soon enough on came SOPHIE JAMESON and her two accompanists. She is a very shy singer/songwriter on the same label as The Lost Cavalry (Folkroom Records) who played a wonderful set of slow, dreamily mordant folk songs like the most wistful bits of All About Eve. From the opener, Gus, she had the church rapt and totally silent listening to her sing her sometimes barely-there songs, baring her soul and filling the church with foreboding.
The sense of yearning was palpable on a song she mumbled the title of as (I think) Clara. It had a wonderful pained, soaring vocal over a bittersweet lament. The fact she couldn't believe she was performing in front of an attentive audience who showed her the respect of silence her music deserves says a lot about how good she was, as well as being perfect for the setting of this fabulous old church.
She played the three songs from her EP that sounded like they could have been performed here centuries ago as she revealed her inner secrets through song. The closing song, Diner, was a wonderful, slow, far away dreamy song that made me feel like I was floating away with her and the band. Find out more at Sophie Jameson online.
After the break it was time for THE LOST CAVALRY to play all of their new album "Three Cheers For The Undertaker" - out now on Folkroom Records online. They are a sextet featuring Cello, Guitar, Drums, bass, Ukelele, Glockenspiel, Euphonium and all sorts of other things during the gig. Now, having seen the band's name and the album title I had an image in my head of what they should sound like and I was very wrong indeed, sadly. From the opener, Secret Steps, it turned out they were a very fey indeed, not to mention overly polite, rather restrained folk act who have none of the darkness and mordant humour I'd have hoped to hear while cheering the Undertaker.
Snow City Radio was a bit more upbeat than the opener and included some nice squeezebox. It was followed by Stars Are Ripe that according to the Order of Service is about an American systems ecology Scientist. It featured the drummer playing a march for most of the song ad it had me imagining this rather wimpy bunch marching off to nowhere like their moniker's lost, in search of the Calvary Cross even though they are playing under a depiction of it.
Next was Stare Out to Sea: a rather winsome and wistfully fey song that had a floaty flute solo in it and is apparently about the Moai statues on Easter Island. But then this band are pretty cerebral. They then paid tribute to The Elephant of Castlebar Hill and the possibly apocryphal tale of a circus elephant dying walking up the hill in Ealing many moons ago and being buried where he dropped. Mmm. Sadly the song was a touch too fey to really bring this potentially remarkable old tale to life.
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Sophie Jamieson came back on to sing a duet with Mark on Fara Fara which is the Swedish word either for Danger or Go, apparently. Well, Sophie lifted the song and band and this for me was the high point in the set even if she really showed how much emotion was lacking in Mark's singing.
As Sophie departed, Mark welcomed the band's backing choir, Many Men, for the song Only Forward about moving on to pastures new. It was sung mainly a capella with a total of 12 singers and was pretty effective and rather moving, so when the Flute and two guitars finally came in they just added a splash of colour.
Desert Tracks - about the lost cavalry horses of Namibia apparently - was, well, a rather bland piece that had me starting to drift off as I was struggling to remain interested and Telescope didn't help much as they rode on wave after wave of feyness. Now when Mark introduced King Of Kings I immediately went Lord of Lords to myself and expected it to follow in the lyrics, but sadly it didn't and there was no hint of a reggae beat either. Instead he was singing about Ozymandias and I was trying to stay awake.
The last two songs, Last Stand and Mono, really seem to blend into one as I noticed a few people leaving early and understood why as they beige music was not holding my attention at all. Still, the sold out crowd liked it enough to get them back for an encore which featured a brass section on This Fine Afternoon which seemed to be a lazy day when you would try look as wan as you possibly could.
They closed with (I think) Out To Sea, along with the horn section and part way through the song Mark wandered down the main aisle and climbed up into the organ to cose the show playing the church's rather magnificent organ. Nice touch.
As well played as this gig was, the music was far too fey and uninteresting for my liking. If, however, you fancy a fey old time you can find out more about The Lost Cavalry here: The Lost Cavalry online.
Which just leaves time for the obligatory mention of the campaign to save and restore St Pancras Old Church and to keep the 2000 year plus history of this sacred site going. Once again, you can find out more at SOS St. Pancras appeal online.
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author: simonovitch
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The Lost Cavalry with Many Men
Sophie Jameson
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