Last night's free gig at The Labour Club in Northampton was simply extraordinary. Andy Skank who MCs there is getting a BIG reputation on the scene locally and emerging nationally as one of the most innovative promoters on the circuit.
When a contact in Coventry called him up, unable to provide a venue for outstanding singer-songwriter Baby Dee, about to embark on a world tour to promote her new album "Drag City" Andy was brave, committed and insightful enough to recognise a unique opportunity and immediately put together an night of experimental performers at his local venue to accommodate a unique, and emerging international artist.
To say the the Labour Club is small would be to exaggerate its size by abour 200%. It's a pub, in a back street, in a nowhere town. The stage is about 12ft square.
We arrived at 8.30 and there were about six people there, two old men in flat caps, a hhee-owge dog and half a dozen long-haired children in wellies. The bar sold Pepsi in bottles for a quid, and two different sorts of crisps. And Andy, battling with a plethora in the instruments and worrying about how to mic up a harp.
Also present, freestyle drummer and experimental percussionist Alex Nielson , most famously known for his recent work with Bonnie "Prince" Billy, and performing first tonight as The Directing Hand.
Nielson looks like a young Scott Walker, so the fact that his three ten minute orchestral pieces sounded like nothing else on Earth should have been no surprise. The collective multitude of instruments he and his partner used, and their wailing vocals trying to speak in some kind of prehuman language is combined with over-sustained dronings, bells dragged over cymbals, bird-whistles and a whole orchestral armoury. The result was totally watsed on the audience of thrity who just didn't get it.
Not the right place at all for innovative genius, and people clearly hadn't come to be scared out of their wits.
As Mrs Pilgrimm found, clearly uncomfortable with the terrible sound system and the ingorant background talking. Alone on stage she relies on the expert use of a series of delay pedals to fill the space, capturing live loops which she then accompanies to create dissonant but full bodied harmonies. Occasionally she used a bow, but seemed much happier pluckng and stroking the strings. her second album is more experimental than the first, but she had some fans present who warmed the room up nicely for the main act.
Baby Dee defies description and is like no-one you have seen or heard before. Probably about 9ft tall, a transgender performer with Wild red hair, a fur coat, and the biggest hands and boots you've ever seen. And such a tiny, tiny voice. She was obviously pissed off with the venue and the inadequate sound, and again the people who chose to talk over the first song, the delicious hymn "Calvary". This is the first time Dee has performed these songs with a band, tonight made up of a bass player and held together, reinterpreted and generally carried off by the incredible Nielson again. This guy is seriously good, one of the best interpretive drummers in the UK right now.
After three numbers though, Dee began to cry and called the show to a halt until "those naughty people" who kept talking were removed.
Why was this show here? Why was it free? Questions as unfathomable as the music.
Then the fairy dust was sprinkled, the harp was re-miced and her fingers worked their magic. A dozen or so songs from her back catalogue (Morning Star, Look What the Wind Blew In) performed to a hushed, dedicated and totally bemused audience of less than fifty. It was a real shame that her voice is so weak and delicate that we couldn't hear the lyrics or the vocal at all too much. Skank may have felt embarassed at the inadequacies of his venue, but those who understood were mesmermerised and he deserves a medal for his achievements there.
Baby Dee was last night, is and can only become more unbelievable. Totally mesmerising against impossible odds. Extraordinary isn't a word I use lightly, but she is one of the most original performers I have ever seen and it is wonderful to see her Black Ship on the horizon at last. David Tibet, Anthony, Marc Almond, Pantaleimon and Bonnie Prince Billy have already made a berth in their harbours. Let us all do likewise, for with Alex Nielson on board this is a creative force with vision, energy and passion that deserve to be heard.
The Robins Tiny Throat is out now on Durtro Records, and Drag City will be released in January.