Saturday, October 19, 2013

The Irrepressibles @ Birmingham Midland Institute, Friday 18th October 2013


St Martin’s Church, Birmingham Town Hall, the back of The Rainbow pub and now the Birmingham and Midland Institute...four gigs, four different venues but the one thing that ties everything together is the fact that The Irrepressibles gigs are M-A-G-I-C-A-L no matter where they’re held (trust me, stick them in a bus shelter and they’d shine). Undoubtedly a huge part of this is Jamie Irrepressibles’ voice. I’ve spent hours mulling over how to best describe it, settling on everything from a heartbroken angel to a cross between Anthony Hegarty and the late, great Billy Mackenzie. But it’s probably best if you just listen to it for yourself and make your own mind up...


Hear that? Magical, right? Tonight’s gig once again has me dashing off to my Boys’ Book Of Adjectives but frankly words don’t do it justice. Tonight was a heart meltingly intimate and stripped back affair featuring reworked tracks from the albums Nude and Mirror Mirror together with new material currently being released across a series of EPs. Joined by a cellist and violinist and dressed casually the now bearded (suits him too) Jamie settled down to the piano and for a large part of the show had his back to the audience, frequently losing himself – and us –  in the intensity of the music. It certainly can be intense stuff too “It’s a bit intense this” he commented early on (see, told you it was intense) but it’s incredibly uplifting too. Reviewers often use the phrase ‘soaring vocals’ when such an epithet ain’t justified. Here’s it’s woefully inadequate. When he’s in full flow you honestly believe there’s something spiritual going on...and I’m as atheist as they come. Picking highlights from The Irrepressibles’ shows is never easy but the skeletal reworkings of New World, Arrow and Two Men in Love (something of a trilogy) were stunningly sublime. All three are songs about love, in this particular case homosexual love which both matters enormously and, at the same time, not at all. Love is love. End of story. Thankfully we’ve come a long way from the dark ages when homosexuality was illegal, but worryingly there seems to be both religious and cultural backlashes at the moment against the freedom to choose who you fall in love with. Step forward that nice Mr Putin for instance (am I the only one who can’t help thinking that he doth protest a little too much, if you get my drift...ahem).  That’s why songs like these – and their particular orientation – matter. Jamie himself was bullied as a child for his sexuality and undoubtedly millions of kids (and adults) around the world are enduring the same hell right now. Listening to the lyrics and emotion within these songs may just help them make a little more sense of their lives and, who knows, give them the strength to carry on. But gay, straight, bi, transgender or any of the other myriad of sexual predilections that make up this great big melting pot that is the human race, love is love...and these are simply some of the most beautiful love sings ever written.  

A couple of covers also made the set list this evening, first up Kate Bush’s Cloudbusting then Always On My Mind (as covered by...well...pretty much everyone from Elvis to the Pet Shop Boys). Both were slowed to almost glacial pace, lighted dusted with weeping strings and haunting piano. Listen to Always On My Mind and if the hairs on the back of your neck don’t rise a little then you’re probably clinically dead. I’ve listened to this track a dozen or so times and it still gets me. Watching it live was even more emotional...


Mindful of the old adage to save the best ‘til last the pairing of Nuclear Skies (tonight played on an acoustic guitar) and a stripped to the bone In This Shirt (always a devastatingly beautiful song but somehow more touching in the ‘nude’ form) rightly earned a standing ovation.

Clearly not one to play things safe Jamie picked an unrehearsed track for the encore, Raise My Soul, leading to a mild look of panic in the cellist’s eyes but, hell, if this was unrehearsed then they don’t need rehearsals. The crowd voted on the last track of the night, a repeat of Nuclear Skies, but to be honest I was hoping they’d play the whole set again...and again...and again...

 PS: The first EP of the Nudes trilogy is out now. Order all three for just £21 here.  

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