A Musical Variety Night at the Perseverance: Review

Acton Bell had paid for the flyer with Letts, and it had a Victorian look to it. She was there when I got there, as I'd agreed to do backing vocals again, and had asked her to learn Gotta Have a Heart. One of the songs she'd asked me to learn, Sh'boom, is an amazing song with the backing vocal 'Hello Hello again, hoping we will meet again'. It was so complex I hadn't been able to learn it, so I was relieved when she said we'd just do the Runaround Sue/Teenager in Love medley from last time.
It was a very different night from previous Perseverance nights, being largely Liverpudlian and with a corresponding dark feel to a lot of the music. Fist on was Stephen A Wood, who played a series of melancholy instrumentals and a couple of psychedelic-flavoured songs that bore a strong Syd Barrett influence. He was a distinctive fingerpickin' guitarist who used a different tuning: he told me later he'd tried to do DADGAD but accidentally had a 'B' in there and kept it.
Next on was Dominoes, an intense beatnik chap who sang over backing tapes. The problem was that his vocals were on the tapes too and although he sang over the top of them, any expression or dynamics were lost. I actually thought he had good songs, but they were difficult to appreciate the way he did them. They were particularly dark and Acton Bell got up to cheer everyone up afterwards, including at my request There's a Kind of Hush which is even more effective than the Hermit's version when it is sung in her Bolton accent! After that, Council Pop played a superb set of mysterious and emotional songs. She is a tall willowy girl who has just sacked her band of blokeish musicians to go it alone, and she had a tiny children's guitar that she'd bought for a tenner in a jumble sale. She was witty and perceptive, and at times quite nasty in a nice sort of way. Then it was my turn, and I was happy, and dedicated Heaven Avenue to Foolish Girl, who had motorbiked down from Stevenage and sat smiling at the back.
After that it was home time, and the welcome land of nod.