Kristy Gallacher is a name to look out for on the current Coventry music scene.
This popular young singer songwriter has developed quite a musical career for herself before and after gaining a degree in Musical Composition at Coventry University. Kristy is not only developing her own career but as a promoter is helping new talent in Coventry.
Fresh from the Troubadour gig in London Kristy performed at Warwick Arts Centre, and Poet, Script writer and music lover Wayne Spencer (pictured here with his back towards us talking to Special - Horace
Panter) has written a review of Kristy's performance alongside Birmingham singer songwriter Ben Calvert
KRISTY GALLACHER AND BEN CALVERT - WARWICK ARTS CENTRE, STUDIO THEATRE - 13 NOV 2009 by Wayne Spencer
Photos of Kristy's gig by kind permission of Jacki Donovan http://www.flickr.com/photos/sadieshatterly/
Well it was Friday the 13th so I should have guessed something would happen on this day. The journey from Leicester to the Warwick Arts Centre is usually a simple one, but on this occasion we were treated to a delightful meal of torrential rain and strong winds blowing us all over the M69 as we made our way to the concert. Just when we thought the end was in sight we were given a side helping of a massive traffic jam. But thankfully we just made it in time.
The Warwick Arts Centre is a very impressive building, boasting the recently redeveloped Butterworth Hall, a cinema, a theatre and the Studio theatre. Seasick Steve was playing in the Butterworth and the Centre was full of life, with everyone glad to reach the dry and warm, and audiences looking forward to their chosen concert.
I've been to events at the Centre before, but never in the Studio theatre. I found it to be very impressive. Intimate and with a great atmosphere. Six tiered rows of padded blue seats, each row about twenty seats across, and a side row of seats along each wall, raised on a platform/balcony. The ticket sales for the show had been very good with only a tiny handful left.
The concert was part of the Under the Radar season, a platform for the best independent and emerging musicians from in and around the Midlands.
Birmingham singer songwriter Ben Calvert began the show with an excellent set of songs that he describes as ‘Lo-Fi Post-Folk musings’. His first song was Rollin' City, from his The State of Travel EP. Ben built up a good rapport with the audience, with short witty comments in-between songs. A few concert goers were still arriving during his set, no doubt delayed by the swirling elements outside on this Winter's night. Ben joked that "latecomers will get detention".
Meet Me 'Mongst The Leaves, the third song of Ben's set, was a real favourite with the audience. Songs from his album The Leafy Underground were very well received, as was the song Flee from his album The Broken Family Daysaver.
A new song that was featured was inspired by the Katie Price-Peter Andre saga, and managed to include the tabloid tales of eating Hob Nobs alone. It had a headline inspired title that Morrissey would be proud of - Pop Star Sits Alone At Home Crying Eating Hob Nobs.
Other new songs included Everybody Loves Lucy and the very appropriate Winter. Ben has just recently recorded both of those in demo form as he works on his next album. Ben was accompanied on some songs by Jamie Parkes with excellent violin playing. Between them they created a very friendly atmosphere that everyone seemed to enjoy.
An interval followed Ben's performance, and CDs of Ben and Kristy were available to buy in the foyer.
As we resumed our seats for the second half of the concert, the lights dimmed and on came Coventry singer songwriter Kristy Gallacher and her band. I had first seen Kristy perform live at the Herbert Museum in Coventry on 2 October as part of the launch night for the More Than Two Tones exhibition.
On that night she performed solo, acoustically, and had impressed many people including myself. I had been blown away by her performance and had wanted to see her in concert again, to see a longer set. The Warwick show was a special one as she doesn't do too many with the band, and they certainly didn't disappoint.
Right from the first song, Don't Look Down, they had the audience enthralled. The band consisted of Clive Layton on bass, Lisa Nowak on violin and Karen Milne on drums. Kristy has worked with Clive for a long time, he produced Kristy's first album Emotional Gun, and they are currently working on the second album.
The set included four songs from the Emotional Gun album - the title track, I'm Gonna, This is War, Don't Look Down -
and two songs that were part of the six track Live @ The Troubadour release - Cold and Empty and Shame Shame.
New songs on the night included Hunting for the Thief, and a very powerful performance of Take which was a real highlight amongst many great moments.
The format of the show was that some songs were with the band (with and without Lisa on violin), and some songs solo. Some electric, some acoustic. At one point Kristy joked that she should have put the guitars closer to her as she tip-toed through the mass of wires scattered across the performance space to change over from one guitar to the other. This was the first time I'd seen Kristy perform with an electric guitar and she was just as impressive as she is acoustically. The mix of acoustic and electric made for a very powerful combination.
Kristy is such a talented and confident artist, and her songs of emotions and life have a deep effect on an audience. She manages to convey great friendliness as a person, with an intense telling of life stories, and that makes for a great performance every time. A brilliant merging of emotional lyrics, wonderful voice and powerful sound.
It's also very good to see musicians genuinely enjoying themselves onstage, and it was obvious to all that Kristy, Clive, Lisa and Karen were having a great time, and so were we.
At the end of the show the audience definitely wanted more. The encore of This Party Is Over was the perfect ending to the night, and Kristy and the band left with smiles on their faces and on ours, and with loud applause ringing around the Studio space.
As the audience wrapped itself up again and braced ourselves for the increasing storms outside, we knew we'd witnessed something special. And as we headed out into the dark and windswept night we did so with great memories from a truly memorable show.
It may have been a Winter's night, but both Ben and Kristy had made the rain and wind from outside disappear for a couple of hours, and replaced it with a night of wonderful music.
Ben's set list was;
Rollin' City
Counting Carriages
Meet Me 'Mongst The Leaves
Hours Fall
Everybody Loves Lucy
Pop Star Sits Alone At Home Crying Eating Hob Nobs
Flee
Winter
Black Boys On Mopeds
Resolution
No Sound
No Lullaby
Kristy's set list was;
Don't Look Down
Cold and Empty
I'm Gonna
Safe and Sound
Jealousy Seeds
Picking up the Pieces
Halo High Street
Take
Shame, Shame
This is War
Hunting for the Thief
Emotional Gun
Too Close to Home
This Party Is Over
Ben's upcoming gigs are listed on his myspace page at
Kristy's releases and upcoming gigs are on her official site at
She is also on myspace at
And Facebook at
and
ALSO ON THIS SITE - Trev Teasdel's Interview with Kristy Gallacher
And a Report on her album Emotional Gun
Before the Writers Cafe closed Jan 2008, we recorded a series of poems and songs by a number of poets and songwriters who were regulars at the Writers Cafe or otherwise guests. It was intended as a CD anthology but as the Cafe closed we thought the best way to share them was via a You Tube anthology which would enable us to include more material and more poets etc. This is a work in progress with more poets / songwriters to be added as we go along but already there is varied programme on the site - take a visit..
Here are a few of them -
Brian has blogged about the picture of him that I painted and where it is now -
Bri'sBlog
Yes, he is holding a crab and a small bear.
I had to blog this photo because when I went to see my neighbour Betty this morning bearing gifts of carrots from the garden, she laughed so much when she saw me that she cried! I didn't think it looked that odd but she thought the hat was a bit iffy.
Anyway, the herbs seem to grow forever even in the winter -
And here are said carrots!!
Anyway, the herbs seem to grow forever even in the winter -
And here are said carrots!!
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Female Singer-Songwriters A Writers Cafe Showcase Updated: Yesterday
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Music Business; keeping you uptodate with the latest about your business Updated: Yesterday
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Cov Vox Updated: Yesterday
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