Why Bristol-based Lancashire émigrés Witness never quite broke through always baffled me, but then I clearly wasn’t the only writer to reach that conclusion. A press kit stuffed to bursting with rave reviews compiled following the release of their two Island Records albums ‘Before the Calm’ (1999) and ‘Under A Sun’ (2001) more than attests to it.
Amazingly enough, the only time I ever saw them live, at London’s sizeable Shepherd’s Bush Empire in late 1999, they were billed above a nervous and naive Coldplay, but then the terminally under-rated Shack were headlining that night and in my book, one of Michael Head’s little beauties is worth a hundred of Chris Martin’s, so what do I know? I recall Witness were good that night, but also unassuming to the point of near-invisibility. Sadly, that can be enough to sink a band, however much they’d like their music to speak for them.
Eventually, Witness ran out of road with Island and split up in 2004. Singer GERARD STARKIE quietly embarked on a low-key solo career, testing the water with a download-only debut ‘Drawbridge’ (2006) and a series of solo gigs. With ‘Drawbridge’ having done a highly respectable 30,000 downloads, he’s back with a physical second release, the highly-arresting ‘Potions’ on the Lupine label.
On paper, it’s almost a new Witness album. Ray Chan’s not involved, although Dylan Keeton (guitars/ banjo), Julian Poole (guitar) and drummer John Langley are all present and correct, but sod the semantics: ‘Potions’ is a fine, overdue return however it’s branded.
Stylistically, it springs few surprises. ‘Go Along With Me On This One’ is driven on by bicep-baring Big Rock riffing, while the wary and brooding ‘Drinking Alone Down The Evil’ (“till you start thinking in doubles and pass out on the floor”) is stirred with nomadic, gypsy folk-rock blood, but in the main it’s what Starkie does best: lyrical introspection tempered with well-placed effervescent choruses.
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While the keening quality that has often broached comparisons with Michael Stipe is still very much in evidence (not least on the more vulnerable numbers like ‘Foolsong #1’ or the regret-fuelled title track), there’s a new-found confidence in Starkie’s delivery these days and it really lifts tracks like ‘Play on Empty Singer’ and the yearning ‘Previous Notes.’
Elsewhere, while I’ve no idea what Starkie’s relationship with the bottle is like, songs like ‘All The Licks’ and the gloriously frank ‘Drying Times’ (“I drowned my brain again, then dried it out”) suggest they may have been written from the bottom of a glass darkly. The violin-flecked lament ‘Flying Dreams’, however, suggests a positive change of heart (“accepting death/ turning left at the last breath”) which is not only heartening but recalls Gene Clark at his melancholic best into the bargain.
In a world where talented folk are all too easily jettisoned on the whims of commerce, it’s always good to welcome back the survivors. Gerard Starkie may have been in the wilderness, but with ‘Potions’ he’s returned clutching a highly personal medicinal compound which can only be good for the soul.
Gerard Starkie online
Lupine Records online
Gerard Starkie Facebok page
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