NORTHUMBRIAN MUSIC
NIGHTS
What we said
about Nebula
NEBULA
Sometimes called the music that dare not say its name, last Friday evening saw a frankly folk night with Nebula at The King's Head in Allendale. Comfortably accommodated, the audience was a credit to the diligent souls who sought out NMN's regular ad which had unaccountably been buried out of convenient sight.
Nebula, a pair of guitarists who also sing and share a unique sound, is composed of Dave Hutchinson, a Paul Simon look-alike, and Roly (rhymes with Ollie) Hindmarch.
Both performers combine virtuosity on various guitar-like instruments (electric bass, acoustic six-string, cittern) and a very pleasing capacity for melody, harmony and thought-provoking lyrics, so the twain is much more than the sum of the halves.
With 'The Drums thye go a rat-a-tat', 'The Right Side of the Footplate' and 'Never Mind the Rain', the lads laid out their musical territory, and Hutch's deep bass harmonies contributed to the friendly feel of the room. You might call Nebula's sound a sort of inverted Simon & Garfunkel, with rather more intelligence and certainly more regional allusions.
'They'll all be growing greener in the north country' provided an atmospheric introduction to a more socio-political set, with the ironic 'Close it Down' reference to the steelworks at Ravenscraig', and Frank Hennessey's 'Factory seems a million miles away' as 'All the valley lights come twinkling down, when night descends on this old town.'
Classic folky humour, with the all purpose cleaner, 'Best Universal Grime, Grit and Effluent Remover', or the song that won the twenty-minute wager, 'Aye, what would I dae if I had the power mesel' gave way to an enchanting love song about Bonnie Bessie Lagen, and then a witty apostrophe to the ship 'The Diamond' which lost out to the whales.
After the break, Dave Hardy provided a very evocative and atmospheric solo interlude with Ralph McTell's 'Just a few reminders of the little ties that bind us' , 'The lesson too late for the learning', and the sad ballad 'How will I ever be simple again?'
Then Nebula were back with more sing-along songs, after an Orkney tune, and 'Sailing on the Sea, like 'Farewell Geordie Miner' and Johnny Handle's 'Collier Lad'. Love songs, humour, politics, time, bewilderment, betrayal, all formed component themes of the successive songs, and after Vin Garbutt's prayer for Irelend, 'The Troubles of Erin', the lads took their statutory encore with 'Back of the North Wind.'
It was about time the band appeared in Allendale, and Dave and Roly cheerfully set the stage for another anticipated Music Night on the second Friday of the month, May 14th. and reminded us just what it is about folk music that we love.
