St. Thomas Church, Salford — Smith/Blaney, Friday, 6th February 2009

It was very nice, Mark the vicar was very impressed.

How many people were there Chris?

Including the vicar.

Did he have a large organ for you to play with?

The church was full, it was a great night very bizarre, a real one off experience.

?

Did they pass the plate round?

Riddler!

What about Ed, the verger?

As review threads go, I'd have to say this isn't the most enlightening or thought provoking I've ever encountered.

Oh, alright then ...

We waited patiently in our pews for MES and Blaney to glide in, apparently from the pub over the road.

Instead of roadies with ponytails and those little maglite torches, we had (presumably) the organist clambering round the stage to put some sheet music back in the cabinet. A nice change.

Blaney came on first, picked up the acoustic guitar and started up 'Mettle Claw'. He asked for the house lights to go down - they didn't; he asked for the volume to go up, it did - however Blaney had occasion to harangue the sound man on several further occasions during the set, demanding (mostly) extra volume.

MES then comes on and joins in, and we get the 'Good evening' salutation. I'm not going to comment on what he looked like, because it really doesn't matter - we have to get away from all that, I think. Stick to the sound. I think MES sounds great on these softer, plaintive songs, and on occasions tonight I thought his singing was a treat - there was a bit in "When We Were Young" (I think) when he came back on to join Blaney after a short spell offstage, picked up the mic and immediately produced a noise like some meat sizzling in a frying pan, then some lovely singing.

MES is, on occasion, also playing some additional fragments of sound from his hand-held tape recorder. During one song he also played an inaudible stylophone whilst sat at the side of the stage.

They then do '"The Train" - I think - a pleasant bumbling feel to it, with Blaney apparently dissing Dave Simpson with his ad-libs - "wrote for the Guardian, fucking wanker, he wanted to be a rock star", etc.

I'm not sure on the order of these, but they did "Real Good Time Together", and "Durasti"; around this time MES messed with Blaney's amp and created a pleasing soft white feedback whine, which grew - with just a hint of screech - to overwhelm everything and fill the venue, so that watching was, for a short while, like seeing a silent film when suffering from severe tinnitus.

Then they put the beacking beats on and did "No Retreat", and a lengthy "Ludite" - not much vox on that as I think they were struccling to get the mics to work at a volume that would match the instruments. At the end of one of these, Blaney left the stage and MES remained stood at the back, facing away form us, addlibbing or reading some spoken word stuff over a sort of burbling sound. What he read wasn't very good, to my ears anyway - "Ed Blaney, he had a grudge against all of them ... Terry Christian ... the History Channel, they gave us nothing", or some such - but of course everyone seemed to turn to their mates and snigger as if he was in the process of dispensing some kind of hilarious genius. I do get bored with it, as I do with people who simply see gigs as an occasion fo them to fill their phones/cameras with photos. For a while towards the end, it was like a fucking wedding, with people striding up the aisle to snap away. As if gigs were appearances by personalities for us to 'collect', rather than something to share, and for various senses to experience.

Anyway, when Blaney came back (I think) we got "When We Were Young" - a really good song, I believe - and they closed with the thumping version of "Transfusion", in which the PA got pumped up beyond its capabilities and was heaving under the strain, creating a great drunken headache pulsating sound - just how I like it.

And that was that. All in all: pleasingly energetic, loose and slapdash, refusing to please, abrasive, kind of busk-quality, occasional glimpses of a sort of soulful dolefulness, like 'Service' meets country, or 'Pine Leaves' meets a half-broken guitar.

cool review, thanks Ray.

I hoped they marked the level on the communion wine beforehand.

I'm not going to comment on what he looked like, because it really doesn't matter



did he look bad or f***** up

I thought it was next week!

Surprised Greamelovespinklady did not get in touch to remind me, he was ment to be stopping over at my place.

Oh well, eh? Cannot pretend that I'm too bothered I missed it. Broke anyways.

Sorry Gaz - I've got a lot on my plate at the moment and I completely forgot. Sorry for messing you about.

What, nothing about 'slovenly appearance', 'liking country and western' or 'playing Sonic Youth riffs in a jazz style'?

Hear bloody hear. They are CRETINS.

BUT! I want to know.
he's a style icon, you know, but his precog puts him light years ahead.

anyone made a recording of this? sounds like a must have.

good review, thanks!

Hi, I have uploaded some images of the MES/Ed Blaney show at the West Hill Community Centre in Brighton 14/02/09 to my site.

View at www.slave-unit.co.uk/gallery

Click the words "Photographic Projects" choose album "Gig"

Regards, slave-unit

I just came across this... I'm assuming it's from the Salford show:

It's only brief...