The Sheffield Scenester

On a rather nippy Sunday evening we found ourselves queuing up outside The Library Theatre along with quite a respectable crowd…all eager to get indoors and sit down to an evening of music with three of Sheffield’s finest female vocalists, namely Alice Faraday, Kat Eaton and Emily Ireland….not forgetting that tonight was Emily’s official EP launch as well as her full band’s debut, so it was definitely a show worth waiting for! Since the doors seemed to be opening slightly later than planned, a few wandered off to a nearby bar, while a couple of gentlemen took it upon themselves to regale us all with a rendition of ‘Oh Come All Ye Faithful’, pretty good it was too! Still once inside we grabbed a drink and headed into the auditorium, deciding to sit near the front the first thing we noticed sat square in the middle of the stage was that old beat up piano that had been gathering dust in Brezzas all this time. Remembering that Emily did say she was going to play it one day, it turns out it took several people to get it on stage….and then a tuner had to come in and “make it sound decent”, in the meantime the first band of the night, Alice and Matt from Dead Like Harry, were ready to take to the stage.

Alongside Alice and Matt was Sam Taylor who nipped from London especially! Apparently this was a side project for Alice and Matt, and so without the usual full band contingent they began an acoustic set, mixing some of Dead Like Harry’s material with a few new tracks. Surprisingly Sam didn’t actually sing once during the whole set, the bulk of the vocals were down to Alice with Matt by her side providing backing vocals, and in all honesty it worked really well. It s probably the first time we’ve seen Alice come into her own as sometimes her voice does get a bit lost in the multi layered country folk of a Dead Like Harry show, now it came through clear as a bell and was a true delight. The songs were all intricate tales of people and places, some catchy, some soothing….but all making their presence felt on several levels. For example ‘Winter Star’, a beautifully crafted song with soft vocals, evoked the sense of a soft breeze brushing cheeks in the chill winter air, whereas a later song named after a place in Cornwall was simply foot tappingly good as well as being very descriptive throughout putting you right in the story. A thoroughly entertaining opener for the evening, though it did seem they were cursed with some ‘distracting’ stage lighting as one minute they’d be drenched in yellow light and the next it was nearly pitch black depending on the level at which they played at, that distraction aside, we loved it!

After a quick change-over it was time for Kat Eaton and Nick Atkinson (AKA Feelix) to play, now it has been quite a while since we last saw them….but we distinctly remember her velvet smooth vocals like it was yesterday. Since then her vocal range has expanded to encompass their new style of playing and songwriting, and she complimented Nick’s highly talented guitar perfectly with her more soulful and remarkably playful tones. The pair of them came across totally relaxed, and Kat was more than happy to inject the odd little humourous quip into their banter as they seemed to almost play an improv set. This simply added to the charm of everything for us; however when it came to the second track, Open Doors’, Nick changed to using a loop pedal coupled with an eight string baritone guitar leaving the crowd gazing in awe! It really was a fascinating display watching Nick’s technical wizardry…although Kat also had a few tricks up her sleeve as watching her, you could see her fade notes out by pulling back from the mic during various songs giving more of an echoed finish to some of the lyrics. Musically it was an impressive duet, with one of the most impressive songs for us being ‘Live And Forget’ about her grandfather having Alzheimer’s. It may not sound fun….but when you listened to the lyrics you realised it was the story of how he wouldn’t let it get the better of him, powerful and insightful, justly deserving the huge round of applause it received. They couldn’t resist throwing in an acoustic challenge track, something they’ve had fun doing with fans suggesting various titles, tonight’s was Cher Lloyd’s ‘With Your Love’ played with typical good humoured gusto. It was good to see them back and great to see them better than ever!

After a traditional theatre break it was time for See Emily Play and what better way to start than have Pink Floyd’s classic track of the same name play out over the PA (she did after all get her stage name from this!). The sole figure of Emily strolled out, sat down at the piano and shyly asked “Ladies and Gentlemen, are you sitting comfortably?” before gently opening with the song ‘A Loner Like Me’. As the delicate piano drifted out into every corner, it never really occurred to us that there was no band, we were all wrapped up in this beautiful song, but halfway through bassist Nick, drummer Breezy and guitarist Tom crept on stage and joined in. ‘Joined in’ may not be quite the right turn of phrase as they totally turned the song upside down, suddenly this delicate, almost angelic tune exploded with attitude, the structure was there…but with the force of Breezy’s drums threatening to drown everything before him and Tom’s guitar ready to slice through what remained of the living, we, the audience, were left shell shocked! This was only the first song…but it did pave the way for the entire set, until now Emily had relied on pure passion to raise her above the norm, now it would appear all along that she was the proverbial sleeping giant. Having become familiar with the title track from her EP, ‘Four Feet From The Door’, hearing it begin with all guns a-blazing military tattoo as opposed to the more subtle approach was a revelation. But it was the familiar sound of ‘The First Time Someone Has Ever Broken my Heart’, being sang against the thunderous crush of a Rawhide styled western theme that really stuck in our minds, jawdroppingly awesome just isn’t a strong enough word to describe how good this version was! Of course we did get a breather now and then, at one point Emily sat behind a keyboard while the band retired off stage so she could play ‘The Train’, always a longtime favourite of ours, full of emotion and heartbreak, there was no way this could work with that level of thunder behind it.

To her immense credit, Emily delivered a mixed set on every level, it was entertaining, it was powerful and perfectly balanced; she opened the show brilliantly with the shy little girl next door routine, then throughout she played hard, she played subtle and finished with an encore which included a cover of The Dixie Chicks ‘Travelling Soldier’. A standing ovation hardly came as a surprise, from our point of view it was an honour to see such a masterful performance, a performance we would be more than happy to see again.

Words and photos by Gail & Geoff Buckthorpe