For a deeper understanding of our
And please humour us as we also take some time out to discuss in parallel, in a rather forced pretence that it is some sort of a contest between Daintees and Tigers, the recent fortunes of TTID's other love - Hull City. I think it is fair to say that the week will feature some "mixed" results.
So...we headed off up to the North East - specifically Gateshead as The Daintees readied themselves to play the 2nd gig of the tour (after a reported stormer at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow the previous night) at the very nicely appointed Sage.
After an afternoon spent nervously mooching around the Metro Centre with furtive glances to phone to check the Tigers' starting line-up away at Millwall, and progress throughout the 90 mins (more of which later); pre-gig drinks and meet ups with old friends were the order of the evening. A final glance at the merchandise stall and we were in our seats to listen to support act Helen McCookerybook (yes, she of The Chefs and Helen And The Horns fame).
Helen played a lovely 30 minute set of songs from her solo albums and a new one, Mr & Mrs Songsmith, from her recent collaboration with Martin, Cafe Of Tiny Kindnesses.
And then Martin and The Daintees hit the stage, in a riot of denim, cowboy shirts and Geordie jocularity, diving straight into a luscious version of Crocodile Cryer. You see the tour is in theory meant to involve them playing classic 1986 debut album Boat To Bolivia in its entirety for the first half, and then songs from later albums including the latest California Star etc. However TTID has a theory that it is impossible for Martin to play the same set twice, no matter what, as his need to go with his creative flow always overrides such petty pre-planned directives. TTID was right.
But, before we get into the gig in detail let's take a step back and look at this 2012 Daintees line-up. Firstly, John Steel on guitar, pedal steel and harmonica, and in many ways the star of the Boat To Bolivia album back in the day. John left The Daintees in 1986 and "went missing" for around two decades before re-connecting with Martin again after some amazing chance encounters. John is a great musician and is the driving force behind California Star. And he wore the best shirt ever. On drums, is John's partner Kate Stephenson (no relation, err to Martin). And on bass Lou Short, a collaborator with Martin since the late 90's. As anyone knows, the greatness of a Daintees line-up can be measured by how much they smile at each other during the gig. Daintees 2012 are like Cheshire cats.
So on they went as Coleen followed Crocodile Cryer, with Martin on top story telling form. A quite ridiculously storming Little Red Bottle led into the first off-stage action of the evening as the band followed Martin through an audience walkabout to the picking of Tribute To The Late Rev. Gary Davis, which was reprised on the instructions of a young boy in the audience who shouted "again!". Indie-pop classic A Piece Of The Cake was next, then Candle In The Middle with John on a pedal steel specially brought in for this song, through Slow Lovin', Caroline, Rain (played solo with every light in the room switched off) and the title track; the latter featuring a rap exulting the brilliance of fellow Kitchenware band Hurrah!
There was no break as Martin led the band away from the planned list (no Running Water or Look Down) and into Me & Mathew, Nancy, Slaughterman, Wholly Humble Heart, the very early instrumental Tremelo Men, a solo Charlie Poole song Hungry Hash House and Cab Attack (for Andy Semple). The audience loved every bit of it, the stories were being told in an increasingly strong North East accent (that's what being on home turf does to you I guess), and we finished up with Martin's old friend Shippy on stage playing along to Salutation Road and then he and Helen joining in with...another audience walkabout that eventually saw them disappear out of the venue and...despite several minutes worth of loud applause and calls for more...the house lights came up and the gig was, rather suddenly, over. One can only assume the venue jobsworths either weren't keen on this off stage malarkey and/or time was, pretty much, up.
In conclusion, a fantastic, joyous gig, to a sell out audience, many of whom seemed not to have caught up with Martin for many years. One of the benefits of this tour being a high profile promotion, for once.
The band and crew moved on to Leeds (last night) and then it's Liverpool on Tuesday. TTID will be catching up with them again at the Salford Lowry on Wednesday. We expect some of Boat To Bolivia will feature, but who knows in what order and what else? We wouldn't want it any other way.
Oh and Hull City? Got beat 0-2, in an insipid performance at the New Den. They are at home to Middlebrough later today, bidding to stop an end of season decline that has seen them lose the last five games on the trot.
As we type, Daintees 1, Tigers 0.
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