I recently moved to London. What's the difference between the capital and my hometown? Grace Banks. Well, not Grace Banks specifically, but intimate gigs performed by talented songwriters like the show by Grace Banks I recently attended.
Back home the music scene doesn’t quite have the variety or the depth of talent that it does here in the capital. The choice between standing amid 1,000 screaming 14-year-old girls at an emotionless Cowell-induced JLS gig or listening to three middle-aged divorcees, bungalowed on one bottle of bubbly, singing a monotonic version of Gloria Gaynor’s 'I Will Survive', is one I'd rather not have to make.
TV Nights, a folk evening that started off in a basement in West London, 'endeavours to showcase the best current collaborations of musicians' and, having risen in popularity, it's now hosted by four established venues across London. I was fortunate enough to attend one such night upstairs at Ronnie Scott’s, the famous Soho jazz club, where the folk-night visits on the first Tuesday of every month. I had high expectations and was not disappointed.
Five acts played on the January 5; Grace Banks and her band were on first and set a standard which was not surpassed. On stage Grace has a delightful humbleness about her, seeming almost apologetic about her own presence but, when she starts to play, she becomes completely absorbed in her art and instantly takes the audience with her.
Ronnie Scott’s looks exactly how a jazz club should look. From scarlet walls peppered with black and white photos of famous saxophone players staring through the camera lens to half empty glasses of red wine atop private horseshoe shaped booth tables, all that was missing from the idyllic jazz club image in my mind’s eye was a thick layer of smoke hovering off of the ceiling.
Grace opened her set with 'I Hope it Rains', a misleadingly simple title for a song with some intricate guitar work, an instrument Grace is clearly very familiar with. For me, highlights of her set included 'Cough Cry', a song that has a wit and honesty that is not dissimilar to Emmy The Great.
"My nails and I/ We have never got on/ Today I am biting them off/ When you left me all you left me was a taste for cigarettes/ And all those cigarettes gave me was a cough/ Cough, cough/ Cry, cry/ Cough, cough."
David Trevillion on drums, John Rixon on double bass and Lucy Coates playing trumpet and back-up vocals do her proud. Coates' trumpet section that loops the melody on 'Old Fashioned Morphine', then 'Ready as I’ll Ever Be' worked well and watching Rixon play double bass just made me envious as it is most probably the world’s coolest instrument.
Grace, who played for many years as a solo artist, stands at the front of three excellent musicians who add a new dimension to her work. The songs already had an amazing level of depth and maturity but her band help bring their performance to another level.
A self-proclaimed strummer and hummer, Grace played only one cover in her set: the aforementuined 'Old Fashioned Morphine' by Jolie Holland. The cover was exceptionally well done but the fact that it didn't stand out as a song more superior to the others only plays testament to the former's writing ability.
For me the pick of the bunch was 'Ready as I’ll Ever Be', a song with a lyric full of imagery and sensitivity and a melody I found myself humming on the tube home. The simple but haunting chorus line, "I have painted my face/I have hardened my heart/I have sunk a stiff drink/ And I'm ready as I'll ever be" has a feel of Joni Mitchell’s classic 'The Last Time I Saw Richard' – the closing song to one of the best albums of all time (Blue). Both songs paint the picture of someone broken but still optimistic, sat in a café alone. Like Mitchell, Grace has the ability to sing through a range of octaves – not an exceptional ability on its own but what is impressive is the fact that she tailors her songs accordingly, singing in a range much greater than many of her contemporaries. Her vocal adds depth to her repertoire, making her songs more complex and more impressive after every listen.
Donning an electric guitar, she closed her set with 'Attached', a foot-tap-inducing number that was more upbeat than the rest of her songs and a perfect choice to bridge the gap between herself and the band to follow.
The night was ideal. What more could one ask for from a Tuesday evening? Go to TV Nights, I recommend it. Go and see Grace Banks, I recommend her. Londoners: you owe it to those who would have to travel 100 miles to have the pleasure.
Upcoming gigs
Sunday 24th January, 9pm @ The Half-moon, Putney
Sunday 30th January @ The Macbeth, Shoreditch
Thursday 25th February @ Beatroot Rendezvous, The Old Queen’s Head, Angel
Posted In Live Reviews, Jan 14 2010.
Words - Lewis Dalgliesh