I wake up on the Sunday morning ready for tonights show and look in the mirror at my stubble of four days and contemplate what I would look like with a beard, I ask my son who says “you can shave it off though can’t you?” which sort of says it all, so instead of growing a beard I have a shave!
Tonight when I watch Roddy on stage and see him resplendent with his long hair and beard you sort of wish you were him, he sings songs about the Scottish islands, looking out to sea, the simple things in life. I listen to his lyrics and think oh if life could be as easy as his wonderfully crafted songs sound. I think about having my shave this morning and wished I hadnt!

Anyway time to stop dreaming of the highlands and growing a beard, back to the review, first up is local boy Chris Helme (he of Seahorses fame) who plays an acoustic set of new and old songs which go down well with the crowd. He has a new album out called SET IN STONE on December 2nd. One particular song that stood out for me and I remember it well from his GALTRES festival set has the line in it “i love my wife and I love my kid”, don’t know its title but its a great song. I think the new cd is something we all should purchase this December. Treat yourselves to an early Christmas present!

He plays no Seahorses songs, which to me is a blessing, especially when you have songs as good as the ones he plays tonight.

After his set Chris sets up shop in the Theatre’s foyer selling his first 2 cd’s of which I purchase his most recent. He happily chats to everyone who pops by and signs them all inside.

We make our way back into the beautiful theatre and take our seats, Roddy and full band stride out onto the stage and play a set of songs from both his solo albums.

He chats to the crowd inbetween each song giving us an insight into what they are about, the Caledonia Ferry company, the 1862 Scottish gold rush, Edinburgh train station steps the list goes on.

The show was excellent especially with a full band, he played only two Idlewild songs by my reckoning anyway. One was the opener the fantastic “Take me back to the islands” off the underrated but excellent Post Electric Blues album the other was for the encore “You held the world in your arms” another great track.

Roddy seems to have found his direction musically now and is obviously content in life and the music he makes, while sat watching him you just drift away as I said before to the Scottish Highlands!

He makes comment about the beautiful venue, which as I have said before truly is and actually makes shows like this even more special.

Writing this short and brief review has been the hardest review I have had to write to date, dont ask me why, maybe because there’s not a lot to say, I don’t know but what I can say is I know what writers block feels like now!

My recommendation to you all if you dont know much about Idlewild and Roddy is firstly go and buy THE REMOTE PART as a starter album, discover that first and then move on. His voice is so easy on the ear every album holds something for everyone.

Anyway thats all for now, special thanks as always to the staff at the venue and keep up the good work and the great gigs coming.

Visit their website now www.harrogatetheatre.co.uk to see what they have coming soon

www.roddywoomble.com

www.myspace.com/chrishelmesolo

Sorry there’s no photos but it was a no photo gig!!!

By Andy on October 28, 2011