Skip to main content

Lydia Cole and Hailey Beavis

Leith Depot, Edinburgh
Four stars

When New Zealand-born chanteuse Lydia Cole and Edinburgh singer/song-writer Hailey Beavis shared a bill at a festival in Barcelona, they hit it off so well they ended up writing and recording an EP together on a Catalonian farm. It takes a forgotten lucky horse shoe found on the farm and retrieved by guitarist Timothy Armstrong to jog Cole’s memory on the lyrics to The Fool That I Am, a typically candid song from her second album, The Lay of the Land, which Cole dedicates to Beavis in her second ever UK gig as part of a short low-key tour.

You can see why Cole and Beavis are musical kindred spirits, both from their individual sets and three of the songs from the as yet unreleased EP that are peppered throughout the night. Both serve up a series of fragile confessionals leavened by an inclusive warmth which at one point prompts a discussion among the audience about Edinburgh’s bus service.

Sporting a jumper that suggests Mondrian art directing a 1980s kid’s TV Show, Beavis lets loose a candid tumble of words concerning matters of the heart and a mis-spent youth, accompanied in the main solely by acoustic guitar. Sophie Dodds of fellow travellers Storm the Palace provides backing vocals on two songs, while following an excursion into loops and beats, Cole joins her for one of their joint compositions, a beautifully candid paean to new love.

The tone continues in Cole’s set, with miniature tales of love, loss and the pains of long distance love affairs coloured in by nuanced guitar and keyboard underscores. Two more collaborations with Beavis, Forget It and Talk To Me, follow, ushering in Sober and That Was You, from Cole’s 2012 debut, Me and Moon, before a lovely take on Que Sera Sera encourages the quietest of singalongs. As Cole leaves the stage following a closing Blind Boy, she and Beavis high five, hopefully sealing the deal on future collaborations to come.

The Herald, September 10th 2018

ends




Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Losing Touch With My Mind - Psychedelia in Britain 1986-1990

DISC 1 1. THE STONE ROSES   -  Don’t Stop 2. SPACEMEN 3   -  Losing Touch With My Mind (Demo) 3. THE MODERN ART   -  Mind Train 4. 14 ICED BEARS   -  Mother Sleep 5. RED CHAIR FADEAWAY  -  Myra 6. BIFF BANG POW!   -  Five Minutes In The Life Of Greenwood Goulding 7. THE STAIRS  -  I Remember A Day 8. THE PRISONERS  -  In From The Cold 9. THE TELESCOPES   -  Everso 10. THE SEERS   -  Psych Out 11. MAGIC MUSHROOM BAND  -  You Can Be My L-S-D 12. THE HONEY SMUGGLERS  - Smokey Ice-Cream 13. THE MOONFLOWERS  -  We Dig Your Earth 14. THE SUGAR BATTLE   -  Colliding Minds 15. GOL GAPPAS   -  Albert Parker 16. PAUL ROLAND  -  In The Opium Den 17. THE THANES  -  Days Go Slowly By 18. THEE HYPNOTICS   -  Justice In Freedom (12" Version) ...

Myra Mcfadyen - An Obituary

Myra McFadyen – Actress   Born January 12th 1956; died October 18th 2024   Myra McFadyen, who has died aged 68, was an actress who brought a mercurial mix of lightness and depth to her work on stage and screen. Playwright and artistic director of the Royal Lyceum Theatre, Edinburgh, David Greig, called McFadyen “an utterly transformative, shamanic actor who could change a room and command an audience with a blink”. Citizens’ Theatre artistic director Dominic Hill described McFadyen’s portrayal of Puck in his 2019 production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Regent’s Park Open Air Theatre in London as “funny, mischievous and ultimately heartbreaking.”   For many, McFadyen will be most recognisable from Mamma Mia!, the smash hit musical based around ABBA songs. McFadyen spent two years on the West End in Phyllida Lloyd’s original 1999 stage production, and was in both film offshoots. Other big screen turns included Rob Roy (1995) and Our Ladies (2019), both directed by Mi...

Big Gold Dreams – A Story of Scottish Independent Music 1977-1989

Disc 1 1. THE REZILLOS (My Baby Does) Good Sculptures (12/77)  2. THE EXILE Hooked On You (8/77) 3. DRIVE Jerkin’ (8/77) 4. VALVES Robot Love (9/77) 5. P.V.C. 2 Put You In The Picture (10/77) 6. JOHNNY & THE SELF ABUSERS Dead Vandals (11/77) 7. BEE BEE CEE You Gotta Know Girl (11/77) 8. SUBS Gimme Your Heart (2/78) 9. SKIDS Reasons (No Bad NB 1, 4/78) 10. FINGERPRINTZ Dancing With Myself (1/79)  11. THE ZIPS Take Me Down (4/79) 12. ANOTHER PRETTY FACE All The Boys Love Carrie (5/79)  13. VISITORS Electric Heat (5/79) 14. JOLT See Saw (6/79) 15. SIMPLE MINDS Chelsea Girl (6/79) 16. SHAKE Culture Shock (7/79) 17. HEADBOYS The Shape Of Things To Come (7/79) 18. FIRE EXIT Time Wall (8/79) 19. FREEZE Paranoia (9/79) 20. FAKES Sylvia Clarke (9/79) 21. TPI She’s Too Clever For Me (10/79) 22. FUN 4 Singing In The Showers (11/79) 23. FLOWERS Confessions (12/79) 24. TV21 Playing With Fire (4/80) 25. ALEX FERGUSSON Stay With Me Tonight (1980) ...