I 'n' Gigs 8: Gruff Rhys (Ashford, 2014)

I was meant to be going to see Nick Cave and his merry bunch of Bad Seeds this week. Since I'm not, and gigs are something which I'm sure a lot of people are missing, I thought I'd write a little about 10 gigs I went to. Not my favourites per se, just memorable ones from down the years.

These are not reviews. I wouldn't do that very well. They're just memories. I have called the segment "I 'n' Gigs"  (a pointless pun on the name Ryan Giggs)... that is a good indicator of the quality writing to come ...

I worked out that I’ve seen over 300 different acts all told. Probably a fair few more that I’ve forgotten. I’ve seen some of them multiple times. I don’t think I’ve seen anyone more than Gruff Rhys, if you combine the Furries and Gruff solo – I think it’s about 10 of SFA and 5 as a solo artist.

I started off writing about the incredible Furries comeback gig in 2015 at Brixton Academy, but then realised I’d written about that at the time! https://101songs.blogspot.com/2015/05/super-furry-animals-at-brixton-academy.html So, I thought I’d write about the first time I saw the Furries, in September 2001, also at Brixton Academy (which I’m pretty certain is the venue I’ve been to most, and my favourite), and the way both gigs gained great potency from the earth-shakingly bad events that had preceded them (9/11 and the Tory 2015 election win, respectively), the way the Furries were a deeply political band who could both capture and fight against the spirit of the times.

Maybe I could have written about seeing them at Brixton in 2003, when the actor Kieron O’Brien stood directly in front of me being filmed during ‘Slow Life’, which I later realised was for the “experimental” Michael Winterbottom film ‘9 Songs’, which, then, wondering if I’d be in it, I went to see on my own at the Ritzy, just down the road, and I wasn’t the only man on his own there. In fact, it was only men on their own (I didn’t see myself in the film, sadly …)

Instead, because I’m writing a lot about gigs in London, I thought I’d write about one in Ashford – at St Mary’s Church, which is a lovely place for a bit of music. This will be about Gruff as a solo artist but also about the Furries, and the difference between the two.

Gruff doesn’t say much when he’s fronting the Furries. Why would he? The songs speak for themselves. But also, I wonder if he recognises his famous speech patterns would disrupt the momentum of the show. The songs run the gig, not the performer. Apart from the occasional “Thankooverymuch. This next one is about … digestive … biscuits” you don’t hear a great deal. Music, costumes, visuals do all the work.

Whereas, particularly when he was touring ‘American Interior’, he talked a great deal. Brilliantly. The point of ‘American Interior’ was that it was, as well as a gig, a lecture, a slideshow, a story, but nevertheless the skill, the flare, the timing, the humour, with which Gruff told the story was a revelation (at Revelation).

I thought of that when watching the brilliant comedian Rosie Jones, who has cerebral palsy, last year. She uses her timing as a great asset, leaving the spaces, holding back the punchlines – the audience bends to the speed at which she talks, and then bursts with laughter at the pay-off. So it is that as one man on stage, telling his story in its entirety, with slides, words and songs, Gruff controls the atmosphere, which is, I think, different from a Furries gig, where the setlist, the noise, is everything.

Of course, being as how it’s a gig in a church in the middle of middle-England, as I was leaving, I heard a woman grousing that “she couldn’t understand a word he was saying” just as there were people who thought ‘The Wire’ should have subtitles.

Anyway, I’m proud to be part of that little sub-category of people who think Gruff Rhys is all the Beatles at once (well, he still describes himself as a drummer, which is where he started, so that’s the Ringo bit) --- he has, I think, a peculiar ideological purity which may have hindered things at various points – it is funny that the solo and group career are completely distinct, that he’s never (as far as I’m aware) played a Furries song at a Gruff Rhys gig. Which is a shame at first, but now I think he’s right.