The Magick Circle, Bill Wells & Aidan Moffat - Paisley Arts Centre

Posted in SHOFT on Friday 7th October 2011 at 11:10pm

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Once again, I found myself in Paisley. A year ago I explained how I'd hoped for a pleasant, golden October evening on which to explore the town. In the event, I got a dark, miserable rain-soaked night instead. However, today was different - and dodging the groups of feral kids and fire engines which seemed to howling around the Town Centre with alarming regularity, I made my way along the High Street, taking a longer route to the Arts Centre. I was struck again by the grand civic architecture of the town and the sense that there was a fierce pride somewhere here, but like so many towns across the UK there were more than a fair share of closed up shops and cafes. Given this, its especially pleasing that somewhere like the Arts Centre exists, and remarkably enough, remains in public hands still. Tonight's show was preceded, like last year's 'Paisley Underground' events by an industry panel which was well attended, and as the panel finished and the audience spilled out, Vic Galloway was besieged by folks wanting to discuss things with him in more detail. Picked my way through the crowd which he'd generated and found my seat in the auditorium as the audience filed in.

A lot of people seemed to stay in the bar for opening act The Magick Circle - which is no surprise given the typical local arts centre type crowd who had once again turned out for this event. However, they missed a treat as Laura Carswell, familiar from earlier in the week, rather nervously led this band of local young Paisley musicians through a set of accomplished folk material, which they'd made their own by way of some interesting arrangements. One of the strengths of the Paisley Underground setup is how establised, crowd-pulling acts are paired with bands emerging from Reid Kerr College. Laura's voice was certainly the highlight - on this material striking a high, purely traditional register but lacking some of the depth and range of approaches she'd shown in her solo show perhaps. Added to this was a touch of carefully understated electric lead guitar to enhance and add a little edge to the melodies, and some delicate drumming which underpinned things perfectly. This allowed the band to deliver these traditional ballads and covers with a strangely jazzy edge, veering sometimes into a sort of underplayed folk-rock which looked enormous fun to be playing, and their enthusiasm shone through the nerves into a spirited performance. The opening track was dedicated to Bert Jansch, the very recent loss of which seemed to be affecting a surprising number of younger Scottish musicians too, with many having regarded him as a presence in their earliest musical memories it seems. His style and spirit live on in The Magick Circle particularly, and their sensitive but individual take on traditional songs seems to continue the tradition admirably.

With the audience swelled by latecomers, a surprising number of which managed to miss the start of the set entirely, Bill Wells and Aidan Moffat took to the stage. With Wells ensconced behind his piano, the remainder of the band consisted of a trumpet player, a violinist and a double-bass player. With Moffat stationed behind a small collection of percussion instruments, the band swung into a surprisingly full-sounding groove, led by the remarkable piano playing from Wells. Despite Aidan recovering from a cold and having dosed himself up on remedies prior to the show, he was in fine voice - his unconventional Falkirk drawl having softened over the years since I last saw him sing live, becoming a warm and sometimes rather sentimental delivery. Much of the recent "Everthing's Getting Older" album was played and received a very warm response too, not least for "The Copper Top" which became an even more affecting rumination on age and change in this setting. Also played, and I understand from a forthcoming EP, was Bananarama's "Cruel Summer". Given a regretful and rather downbeat treatment, the bones of the song were revealed with a darker edge than perhaps expected given the tone of the original. Afterwards Moffat speculated on whether much of the audience would remember Bananarama? Looking around, I'm not sure many of them would remember Arab Strap to be honest!

Having experienced a rather staid, typically 'arts centre' type crowd here before, it was heartening to see a little banter developing between the stage and the audience tonight. As the band began a new song with a Halloween costume party theme, there was an outbreak of laughter which put Aidan completely off his stroke, exclaiming that Paisley was "easily pleased". I won't explain it here, because I don't want to ruin the moment when this song finally gets a release, but suffice to say it's a classic Aidan Moffat moment where bad life choices, illicit sex, religion and deceit collide. The new material is just as affecting and keenly observed as that on the recent album, with new stories on the old themes aplenty. By the end of the set, the audience just didn't want the band to leave - and I noted that Moffat had turned this not always comfortable auditorium's shortcomings to his advantage by narrowing the gap between audience and performer. No mean feat with these audiences, and testament to both his skills as a storyteller and Wells's remarkable talent as a composer and arranger of backdrops which give Moffat the space to develop his tiny, sometimes harrowing dramas.

It's difficult to describe just how moving and heartening tonight's performance was, and how well this music works in a live setting despite it's quiet, reflective nature. The simple instrumentation suited the setting and the material perfectly, and the intimacy of it's tone worked incredibly well here. My journey back to Glasgow was full of all the usual spectacle which a late evening here produces, and it was hard not to see some of this through the storyteller's eyes. Maybe I'm just getting older, and as the song says after all, everything is...