Ben Howard plays Folk in an expansive booming fashion, ideally suited to the Edwardian Baroque styled Great Hall, the iconic organ bathed in psychedelic purple lighting.
It is packed on the ground floor, and in the two tiers of seating above. This is the tail end of the Australasian tour, it being ten years since Howard was last playing in this country.
Opening song Richmond Avenue sets the tone for most of what followings. There is the haunting sound of Celtic pipes which must be from the keyboards. A pastoral evocation of wide-open land, as the drums echo and resonate up through the wooden floor.
Laser lights strafe the room, birds can be heard chirping. Folk music channelling electronic effects as much as analogue guitar strings.
The song is from Is It? His fifth album, released 12 months ago. He was attempting to break away from the more conventional Folk Pop or Folk Rock which made him successful over the preceding ten years.
Benjamin Howard was born in Richmond, South London in 1987, and moved to Devon when he was eight. He retains a broad Laarndon accent.
Through his parents, he grew up listening to Paul Simon, Van Morrison, Richard and Linda Thompson (together and separately) and Nick Drake. There was a particular fondness for John Martyn and his guitar stylings.
Listening to his recorded oeuvre, there is a distinct vocal phrasing like Simon. This is not so apparent in the big echoing chamber tonight.
He suffered two transient ischaemic attacks (TIA’s), or mini strokes, in 2022. For a young guy this would be a shock. Although he had started work on the new album, much of what followed was coloured by that experience. He had concerns about memory loss.
He stopped smoking cigarettes, the obvious cause, since it does have a direct vascular effect.
Two more songs from the album follow immediately.
Couldn’t Make It Up is good Folk Pop which refers to one of his musical heroes, Van Morrison.
Sitting in the garden/ Listening to the radio. A radio song of which Morrison has written three classic ones. Brown Eyed Girl, Caravan, and Domino.
Days Of Lantana and the intro does bear some resemblance to Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah, as interpreted by Jeff Buckley. There are dreamy washes of keyboards. Some of the lyrical content has been cribbed from Linda Thompson’s first solo album.
What did pique my interest were the lines …Days of Lantana/ Each saint with a cross and a hammer/ Radiation of the Cherenkov kind.
Esoteric quantum physics. Cherenkov discovered electrically charged particles that could travel faster than the speed of light through a fluid medium. Creating extra energy and seen as a blue hue. For your nerdy Folkie trainspotters.
Lantana is a species of flower. That’s for the Hippies.
Many songs carry tribal Celtic drum rhythms, matched to chanted incantatory vocals.
Nica Libres At Dusk gets a cheer of familiarity from the audience. The subject of the song is suffering and dreaming of a better place. Nica Libres is an alcoholic drink.
Diamonds (from debut album Every Kingdom) he plays solo with acoustic guitar. Clearly a melodic Folk tune but his guitar lines echo some of the flamenco jazz that Robbie Krieger of the Doors used to come up with.
Another great track from the Is It? album is Moonraker. Heavier electronic Folk than the recorded version. The Folk Bitch Trio provide heavenly harmony vocals.
Folk Bitch Trio play the opening set. Jeanie Pilkington, Gracie Sinclair and Heide Peverell are from Melbourne.
They lean towards traditional Folk Pop, let’s say in the Sixties tradition of the Kingston Trio, Peter Paul and Mary, and probably the Seekers who were phenomenal and came from Melbourne.
I will just name drop Melburnian Nick Cave here, who must have loved the Seekers too, as he does a version of The Carnival Is Over.
They stand out with their gorgeous three-part harmony.
First song begins with night seems to fall. Done acapella.
They bring out the guitars subsequently. One is electric, or possibly semi-acoustic.
They play Analogue. The only song which has a fraught dissonant instrumental start. But their voices bring it back into soothing melodies, albeit with an Americana framing.
They are generally delighted to be in the Town Hall tonight as they repeatedly say it is the best venue of this tour. The iconic organ behind them is bathed in psychedelic light.
They were at the Auckland Folk Festival of 2023. The one that was hit by flooding of biblical proportions, where Auckland was declared a state of emergency.
They spent five days in their caravan, so their New Zealand debut was thwarted. It is a delight to hear what we missed 18 months ago.
Ben Howard and his band are having fun extending the songs as the concert progresses. A second guitar, bass, keyboards and drums.
Life in the Time emphasise synth Folk. A stripped-back drone rhythm with quirky electronic effects. They keep it going with an extended vamp and it is a highlight.
Coming back for encores and Black Flies stops abruptly. It is all fine though, as with some regrouping they lift off again with Conrad, from I Forgot Where We Were (2014).
Ringing glass tones spiced with a little funk percussion.
Ben Howard brings a big Celtic Folk sound, bending it seductively into new Indie Pop.
Rev. Orange Peel
Photography by Leonie Moreland
Ben Howard
Folk Bitch Trio
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