Smiling Through The Tears

Martin Newell’s charming afternoons of music, poetry chaos and cakes seem to be catching on and becoming a fixture of the summer (or is it early autumn?) for those lucky people in the know. It was a lovely sunny day in a year largely bereft of lovely sunny days so you’d be forgiven for thinking people might not want to sit indoors in an old church all afternoon but you’d be wrong. The turn out was possibly the best yet. I took my youngest son, Adam, just 6, with me and he enjoyed himself greatly, even though Martin didn’t play ‘This Flamingo’ his favourite Martin Newell song. 

This year we were treated to two excellent guest acts. We had Golden Afternoon stalwarts Paul Rutterford and Grahame Andrew who have backed Martin both live and on record for a few years now, and we had our first, and hopefully not last, visit from bass guitarist and singer Lee Cave Berry and her partner, electric guitar virtuoso and one time ‘Soft Boy’, Kimberley Rew. Kimberley and Lee played a selection of cover versions of rock n’ roll and swing songs. One track was written by Kimberley himself ‘Going Down To Liverpool’. That was originally by his band Katrina & The Waves and later covered by The Bangles. Kimberley also wrote ‘Walking On Sunshine’ and our last ever Eurovision winner ‘Love Shine A Light’ just so you know. Today though we had a special treat when Lee and Kimberley performed ‘No Static’ a very early Martin Newell song, which they had, previously covered for this website’s ReNewell CD a few years back. Lee told us how she had known Martin since his Gypp years. IE since the 70’s. She used to do the lighting at Gypp’s shows and she said what a problem Martin was to light. He was always where the light wasn’t. He’s slowed down a bit now, she said. 
Martin himself never disappoints and although recent problems were weighing on him he delivered a great series of sets including a great new song ‘Scarecrow Hair and Saucer Eyed’ (or was it saucer hair and scarecrow eyes?) and a great new epic poem about a protracted visit of poetry legend John Cooper Clarke (who was present at the show) to Martin’s Wivenhoe pad.

Next year Martin hopes to put a small band together and I for one am very keen to hear Martin’s jangly masterpieces get the full treatment. Make a date in your diary for September 2009. 

Setlist:

Martin Newell’s 1st set
Stella & Charlie Got Married 
You Made It Rain 
Wow Look At That Old Man 
Mulberry Harbour 
A Woman & Some Whiskey 
Autumn Almanac (Kinks) 
Scarecrow Hair and Saucer -Eyed. (new song) 

Lee Cave Berry and Kimberley Rew’s 1st set 
Choo, Choo, Ch Boogie (Louis Jordan) 
Going Down To Liverpool (Katrina & The Waves and The Bangles but Kim writted it) 
My Baby Just Cares For me (Nina Simone most famously) 
No Static (Martin The Newell) 
Get Out Of Denver (Bob Seger and The Silver Bullet Band) 

Martin’s 2nd set 
Radio 3 Parody 
Miss B Goes Shopping For Shoes (instrumental) 
My Lost Weekend 
The Boys Of September 
Jacqui 
Before The Hurricane 
When We were A Thing 

Paul Rutterford & Grahame Andrew
It's Only Natural (Crowded House) 
Whistle For The Choir (The Fratellis) 
Ferry Cross The Mersey (Gerry and his pacemaker) 

Martin’s 3rd Set 
Poem 'A House In France' 
The Boys Of September (with  The Girls Of September )
Someone To Watch Over Me (The Gershwins) 

Lee & Kimberley’s 2nd set
Roadrunner  (Elias McDaniel)
Misrilou (Dick Dale) 
Straigten Up & Fly Right (Nat 'King' Cole 
It’ll Be Me (Jerry Lee Lewis also covered by Cliff and the Shadows)

Martin’s 4th Set 

Illya Kuryakin Looked At Me (slow version) 
Denmark Street (random word order version) (see video below )
Poem 'The Week That Johnny Clarke Came Round'  (see video below )
The World Strikes One 
Straight To You Boy 
The Rosebay Railway (with guitar from Paul R.)
Miss Van Houten's Coffeee Shoppe (with the Flo & Eddie of Colchester)
Bus Stop (The Hollies) (with the Flo & Ebb of Colchester)
Clarendon Lane 
Buddy Can You Spare A Dime (various) 

Encore (Martin)

Your Baby Has Gone Down The Plug 'Ole ( A mother's Lament ) (Well Cream did it but so did lot of others)