British Sea Power – Sea Of Brass @ Town Hall, 27th February 2015
British Sea Power have been consistently one of the best live bands that anyone could have the pleasure of seeing. A lot of this is down to the fact that they are not afraid to get out of the comfort zone and try stuff. For me tonight would be a true test of their mettle. How would they combine their organic, collaborative, approach to their music with the discipline required to perform on a large scale, as a few people in amongst several dozen, and with someone else calling the shots?
The answer is that the whole thing, for a member of the audience at least, was a bit of journey of discovery. This journey started with uncertainty and awkwardness, took us through relief and happiness, and finally to sharing in the eventual triumph that was Sea of Brass
I have seen British Sea Power perform in a whole variety of venues over the years, even in Rugby Library among the periodicals and dusty tomes; but the Town Hall has to be the grandest of them all. It was also big enough to meet the physical requirements of a seven-member band and the whole of The Jaguar Land Rover Band. But this brought its own challenges.
So let’s deal with the uncertainty and awkwardness. It may be a matter of stating the flamin’ obvious but normally British Sea Power play their music together; as a band, in direct eye contact and building the electricity between each of the band members. In normal circumstances it takes a very short time for this electricity to conduct itself to the audience. Tonight it seemed that we were in for less of a gig, but more of a formal concert; at least at the beginning.
The way the players were laid out with British Sea Power stage left and the Brass stage right seemed to be the cause of some unease. The first couple of tunes were tense affairs with lots of looking around and cross-checking. British Sea Power seemed hypnotised by the conductor rather than being part of a larger ensemble.
The result was a low key start, but one that was musically quite satisfying for all that. The songs seemed to be delivered at a slower tempo than normal, particularly songs like No Need To Cry and Atom. I expected the brass to provide a lot more power and volume but that wasn’t really the case. Maybe it was a problem born of reworking well-loved songs for the Sea of Brass project.
So let’s have some relief and happiness. About half way through the set they sang The Smallest Church In Sussex, with almost no brass accompaniment. It was as if someone had hit the reset button. All of a sudden any uncertainty and reserve was banished. People in the audience who had seemed unsure started singing along and shouting out, giving Martin Noble a bit of light-hearted abuse from the circle. British Sea Power took control. They and the Jaguar Land Rover Band together became tremendous. Particularly on Machineries of Joy and A Light Above Descending.
So let’s have a bit of triumph (no car-based puns intended). Although slower than usual the songs suddenly had additional power; another dimension to them. The brass element had been transformed from something that was merely accompanying the songs to be an integral part of the tunes, bringing something different, filling the space and in a way raising the emotional temperature. A few people in the audience were obviously there to see the JLR Band but even they were up on their feet for Lights Out For Darker Skies.
Even before British Sea Power reappeared for the encore people were shouting out for Waving Flags. This was the one tune where the collaboration really, really came into its own. Everyone sang along to the ending of The Great Skua, and after bring us down a bit with When a Warm Wind Blows Through the Grass, British Sea Power received a standing ovation, manhandling JLR conductor Peter Wraight so they all, triumphant in the end, take a bow.
Review: Ian Gelling
Photographs: Stephanie Colledge