Feature, Reviews

The Lion and The Wolf / Jimmy Broomfield / Swampeye Live at Heroes Worcester- Review | Ed Ling

January 28, 2015

The Lion and The Wolf / Jimmy Broomfield / Swampeye

Heroes, Worcester, Wednesday 10th December 2014

It was argued by some that the mainstream success of Frank Turner and all that would inevitably take the energy out of the alternative singer-songwriter genre, and signal its doom as a vehicle for edgy and original storytelling. As soon as a style gets big, it becomes uncool. So the argument went. As with all simplistic readings of the ways and tides of the artistic underground, this is of course utter bollocks. This intimate little show in the cellar-like back bar at Heroes being a case in point. And here’s some words about who played.

Swampeye (real name Sandy MacPherson). A loose-stringed, moody set of US country and folk covers and original material. The Neil Young number in particular was sweetly done, but it was this lad’s own stuff, obviously coming right from the heart, that projected clear above the bar noise and sucked in the audience to silence. Opening this bill in this venue was a big ask. And a quiet room is the hard-won mark of success in the acoustic game.

Jimmy Broomfield. A clubbable fellow from way away down there in the New Forest. Told his artfully self-deprecating stories of being really crap with girls and generally being really fucking sad with a genuine charisma and a smile. This juxtaposition of positive and easily-projected humanity with deep, deep melancholy was a potent combination.
The Lion and the Wolf. Now. This chap – Thomas George – is a grafter. Almost permanently on tour for the last year. And one of the brightest exponents of the modern-day troubadour…thing. This was a stripped down recital of his intricately arranged and multi-instrumental long player (Symptoms) – so stripped down in fact that he didn’t even bother to use the microphone for a couple of tracks, singing his intensely human, sometimes warm, sometimes tragedian stories of everyday poetry and joy completely raw. Watch for this fellow on the crest of the second wave of the alternative singer-songwriter. He deserves to be there.