Certainly, if every sunday service were conducted in the same manner, every church in the country would be fitting an extention just to fit the congregation in. Stick the blood of christ on tap at the bar and serve it up with hot pies and icecreams delivered by an altar boy on a tray during communion, have a beautiful woman with the voice of an angel on stage, surround her with candles and some low lit spotlights beneath a marvellous stained glass window and hey presto, you have something really rather special.
Opening with 'This Is What You Do', Hayes vocals melt into sweeping harmonies, pushed on by the gentle rhythm of the guitar before bashing out the long winding outro of 'Home' or 'Out Of Our Heads' followed by an absolutely brilliant cover of Kevin Drew's (Broken Social Scene) TBTF. As the band saunter of stage leaving Gemma and her guitar to go it alone we are left witness to something truly special. A more than beautiful acoustic rendition of 'Something In My Way' sends shivers through the crowd, the gentle love song 'Easy On the Eye' takes on a whole new dimension in this setting and the new 'Oliver' (which followed a pretty horrific story about Hayes cousin trying to hammer a nail into her head as a child) truly proves the rare ability with which she is capable of selling a tune, both emotionally and musically. More of that please. Much more. In fact, a whole show of that would be splendid. Gemma Hayes and her guitar, some good acoustics and a few candles. Don’t get me wrong, the full band stuff was brilliant, but when you can sing like that and you can play like that, all you need... is that.
I do however recommend you take a comfortable cushion and a big jumper, Union Chapel gets chilly this time of year and, if you’re planning on spending anytime teetering on the edge of your seat, then something comfy is advised, a prayer cushion perhaps, but other than that you’ll be hard pushed to find a better venue and, equally, hard pushed to find someone better to fill it.
If anything this gig really brings home one very important message: this is an artist that was dropped by her record label, essentually for not managing to score that allusive hit single. Well, quite frankly, record labels are dumb and this is an incredible artist.
Posted In Live Reviews, Sep 15 2008.
Words - Rebecca