So this was a night of firsts: first gig of 2015, first time at the new (fabulous) venue of Unity Works in Wakefield, and the first time seeing Kenny Anderson aka King Creosote.
The night of Scottish folk was kicked off with a guy called Sorren Maclean on acoustic guitar, joined by a fiddle and cello player. Five or six gorgeous songs followed, aided by the fabulous acoustics of this beautiful historic building. They took their enthusiastic applause from the all seated audience, before exiting stage right.
A short break followed, enough to buy Sorren’s new ep off the fiddle player and get a pint, and almost unnoticed, on shuffled Kenny with acoustic guitar on stage and started strumming. Polite applause for this solo start then subsided and the rest of the band entered the stage, swelling the numbers to 8.
Following introductions of the band members, the set started with a couple of tracks from 2014 album 'From Scotland With Love' : Something To Believe In, and Cargill, both sounding fantastic with the full scale band. After this, the first anecdote of the night was told, describing the meaning of the next track and describing how this followed his breaking of an ankle last year. The track is called A Great Believer in 3’s, which then goes straight into 6 Music playlist regular For One Night Only which finally gets this Monday night, seated audience warmed up (though sadly still not on their feet).
Mid set, the acoustic guitar gets swapped for the accordion and the band plays a couple of new songs. Apparently, the second track, called Kirby Grips, is messed up in the middle section, so they play it again, much to the bands amusement - they are clearly all having a great time.
Bats in the Attic from Diamond Mine with Jon Hopkins is up next (“one of our hits”) before the rest of the set is more songs from 'From Scotland With Love', including my favourite Largs.
Then comes the surprise of the night in the form of the first encore. Kenny announces that one of his heroes had sadly passed away today (Demis Roussos) and they were attempting to honour his memory by playing one of his most famous hits, Forever & Ever. And boy, do they do it justice. A beautiful folk style version of the song is followed by the first standing ovation of the night.
A fabulous song called Homeboy closes the night, and after the audience has swayed with arms around each other, another standing ovation is given.
In summary, this gig was many things; engaging (it seems all folk acts are always happy to talk away to the audience), high quality musicianship, great fun and very memorable. The rest of 2015 has a lot to live up to.
Keith @kjsmith4082
