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REVIEW gig Lucy Rose Heath Street Baptist Church, London, 3rd February 2016

Happiness Is An English Rose

Published by John Hayhurst

A night of firsts, buying a beer in a church, how refreshing! Even the Reverend himself was on hand to introduce the artists playing at his Church this evening. It was a religious experience of sorts and probably the first time that many had been to a gig in a holy place. The Church architecture and acoustics work well together to create a stunning atmosphere for those that want to hear quality music in a quiet place with only the occasional click of a can being opened.

Lucy Rose is on her solo acoustic tour of some smaller venues to give a select audience a taste of the songs she couldn’t play on her recent extensive band outing across the UK. Along with her she has Swampmother and Sivu, who also provide the support slots and backing for her performance tonight. I saw her at the Kentish Town Forum prior to Christmas, you can read my review on other pages here, it was a great show but missing my favourite ‘Night Bus’ so I’m hoping we get a chance to rectify that omission at some point this evening.

Rose walks out to a few whoops and applause, the stage is a bit of an amateur construction with a couple of her own bedroom table lamps and one she found in a skip (I’m not joking) providing the main ambient lighting. Without speaking she picks up her guitar and the opening careful picking of strings fills the room, pitch perfect tone with a slight vibrato waver in her voice and ‘Night Bus’ is the first track on tonight’s set-list.

That’s it! We could have stopped there and I would have been happy. But the happiness levels in the room were to go off the Richter scale as Rose not only delivered her songs in such an intimate and personal way tonight, but she added so much more of her personality - by just being herself, telling stories in-between the songs and interacting with her congregation like it was “an audience with...” which I guess it was really.

One guy in the balcony who last saw her in Hong Kong helped her recount a story of the worst festival appearance at ‘Clockenflap’, another told a story of how she mistakenly turned up for her Kentish Town gig a week before the event, Lucy Rose’s reaction – “Well I’m glad you made it tonight, so this next song ‘Be Alright’ is just for you” in other hands that would have sounded kitsch, but it works tonight and feels genuine. I haven’t laughed so much at a gig and unexpectedly so, whilst at the same time witnessing such sublime warm and wonderful music.

Rose alternates between acoustic and electric guitars but it’s when she steps up to play the battered church piano we get more of an idea of the construction of her songs, preferring to play a stripped back keys version of ‘Our Eyes’ because “that’s how the song was written”, and playing her favourite off the last album ‘Nebraska’, these songs really take on a new invigorated life in this setting. Even a cover of Louis Armstrong’s ‘What a Wonderful World’ is captivating and not denigrating in any way, Rose laughs it off by telling the audience that up until recently she thought it was a Christmas song.

The interaction between her and the audience makes this feel like a gathering of friends for a singalong, even if we are probably the worst whispering singers ever heard in this Church. Collectively we recover later, with one audience member supplying the clapping sound for ‘Middle of the Bed’ and we all remember to make some noise for the “everybody scream out loud” bit.

During the encore she brings out Sivu and Swampmother for her take on David Bowie’s ‘Kooks’ another favourite of mine from the Hunky Dory album, (after her story of not playing the One Show because they wanted her to play Starman!) delivered in a kooky way with Sivu sharing some of the lyrics. A subtler dedication to the London audience, and more fitting than some of the recent grief laden showbiz efforts.

Rose is at times almost too emotional for words as she thanks her fans, friends, support and finally saves one of her quieter songs ‘Gamble’ for the last song of the night. It’s faultless, delivered to a ‘pin drop’ silence until the end. Warm and fuzzy doesn’t adequately describe the feeling, and there was more happiness in that room tonight than Pharrell has hats. Here’s another great British female artist deserving of more attention than our beloved music media are dishing out right now.

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