Wednesday 22 June 2011

The Wild Swans at the Thekla Bristol Thurs 9th June 2011

Perhaps it's best to start with the days immediately following this gig. Wild Swans’ songs flew around my head like flocking starlings and my Google search history was littered with Swans-related search terms. So it was good - really good. Let's make that clear from the start.

Now, back to the moments just before the show. As someone who tends to shy away from reformed bands from the distant past (especially ones I love, like this one) it was fair to say I was sceptical about going to see the Wild Swans, a legendary band that shone brightly (but briefly) in the famous Liverpool scene of the late 70s and 80s. Paul Simpson, the leader of the band, was central in that scene but like the Wild Swans is perhaps less well known than some of his contemporaries (Julian Cope, Ian McCulloch, Pete Wylie, Bill Drummond to name but a few). Maybe that's why Simpson is calling the reconvening of the band "unfinished business" rather than a reunion. He has a point. One brilliant release in 1982 (a single, "The Revolutionary Spirit") was scant evidence of their stature in that bygone Mersey melting pot. But then if you are only going to release one single, making a stone-cold classic and releasing it on one of the coolest labels of the day (Zoo) will do you no harm in achieving almost mythical status in subsequent years. To an extent that is the position the Wild Swans have occupied all these years, as stars that burned brightly and exploded before any reputation could be sullied. A quintessential cult band; this despite reforming once already in the late 80s when they released 2 albums, the excellent and ethereal "Bringing Home the Ashes" (1988) and "Space Flower" (1990). In between the two Swans incarnations, Simpson made some lovely music with Care (another overlooked band) along with Ian Broudie, later of the Lightning Seeds.

Now fast forward to 2011 and Simpson's "unfinished business" has yielded a rather fine new album ("The Coldest Winter for 100 Years") and a fine band to play it (and lots of the older stuff) at the Thekla, Bristol's famous venue-on-a-ship (one of a handful of dates on a UK tour). Thekla Thursday gigs mean an extremely early start (because the venue hosts a club night from 10pm) so support act Stealing Sheep duly convened on stage at precisely 7.30 to a slightly sparse audience. This three-girl act (also from Liverpool) were a really nice surprise with a sound best described as the Andrews Sisters singing Warpaint, or putting it more literally, the sweetest close harmonies hung around minimalist alt-rock atmospherics. Their melodies were never obvious and always engaging. One to keep an eye on.

By the time the Wild Swans took the stage the audience had filled out somewhat but it should be noted that there was fierce competition in town as the hugely in-vogue Pains of Being Pure at Heart and a reformed Erasure were both playing within a stone's throw of this venue on the same night. I was glad to see that it was not made up solely of "men of a certain age"  - often the case at such reformations. Maybe this was a function of that hyper-cult status the band enjoyed; cudos certainly thrives in the thin upper-air where music obsessives of all ages choose and hang on to their heroes.

The first thing I noticed about the group was that Simpson himself was looking very debonair and well suited to front a band who had obviously been instructed to "look sharp". And look sharp they did. But more importantly it was clear from the first song onwards that they sounded sharp too. As a statement of future intent (as opposed to past glories) they opened with "Falling To Bits", a song from the new album, then quickly followed it with a great rendition of "Bible Dreams" from "Bringing Home the Ashes". There was always something swashbuckling and grandiose about the Wild Swans at their best and the fact that that opening song from the new album sat so joyously next to an "old classic" from the first album says a lot for a band that immediately seemed comfortable and confident in their own sound. This set the pattern for the rest of the show, a great mix of old and new songs, which hung together seamlessly. Simpson, slightly nervous at first (at least between songs), grew in stature and poise as the show proceeded and the performance was met with warm enthusiasm from the crowd. The stellar band - Les Pattinson (Echo and the Bunnymen), Mike Mooney (Spiritualised), Ricky Maymi (Brian Jonestown Massacre), Richard Turvey and Stuart Mann (drafted in at the last minute but still superb) - played brilliantly and despite the "names" there was no showboating. The stage was very much Simpson's, just as it should have been, and although Raymi made some amusing interjections once in a while, this seemed only to reinforce the sense of "groupness" about them rather than the opposite.

Of course they closed the set proper with "The Revolutionary Spirit". How could they not! It is one of those inherently climactic songs and, as if it was needed, it reminded everyone of why this band were so fondly remembered and why they deserved that "legend" status all those years. But more importantly, the rest of the set was validation of the Wild Swans as a force in the here and now. A chance for Paul Simpson to begin to realise something he started so long ago. Not so much mission accomplished as "game on".

Set list:
Falling To Bits
Bible Dreams
Archangels
Liquid Mercury
Immaculate
When Time Stood Still
The Bluebell Wood
In Secret
Chloroform
Underwater
Now And Forever
God Forbid
No Bleeding
Bringing Home The Ashes
Revolutionary Spirit

Encore: Tangerine Temple