It's off to this excellent evocative old church venue in Bristol to see Idlewild vocalist Roddy Woomble and "friends" tour Rod's sweet, folksy new CD "My Secret Is My Silence". We trundled down the M4, parking in a rainy Great George Street just uphill from the venue, under some huge oak trees. Very evocative! Had to hurry to the venue in the increasing rain, only to find the 8.00 on the ticket was the performance start time. So we missed 5 minutes of Foxface, an unorthodox folksy Scottish 3-piece featuring a banjo player-drummer actually wearing a cardboard fox-face mask! They were occasionally raucous and quite fun to watch but I couldn't eat a whole one...
Had a drink in the downstairs bar before getting the useful "five minute call" and taking our superb first row centre balcony seats for Roddy's entrance on time at 9. And a real treat for starters - a splendid acoustic version of Idlewild's "You Held The World In Your Arms"! Roddy, accompanied by Idlewild guitarist Rob, plus a violin duo, poured his heart into a lovely rendition. A great start!
Thereafter, the new CD was showcased, Roddy being variously joined by his wife on bass, a drummer, and some Foxface members on musical embellishment. The new CD veers towards the slow-burn folk sound, but overall them apples don't fall too far from the tree, and the performance had a real Idlewild flavour. Rod himself was relaxed in this environment, and gave his talent full rein. A couple more Idlewild numbers ("American English" and "Goodnight") at the end, also preceded a jig (!) and a Woody Guthrie number to cap a fine 1 1/4 hours entertainment. Well done Rod, and home by 11.20 too despite the rain!
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