Beth Gibbons – Usher Hall

Some artists release an album and you think, “That’s quite good.”

Others release an album and you immediately start looking for tour dates.

Beth Gibbons falls firmly into the second category.

I’d already been fortunate enough to see her perform solo at the Barrowland many years ago, and I’d also witnessed Portishead in the same legendary venue. Both concerts left a lasting impression. Beth possesses one of those voices that can stop a room in its tracks, combining fragility, power and emotion in a way that very few singers can match.

So when her new album arrived, there was never any question about whether I would try to see her live again.

The only problem was everyone else seemed to have the same idea.

Tickets for the Usher Hall disappeared remarkably quickly and by the time Emma and I secured ours, we found ourselves perched high up in the gods of the venue. While the view wasn’t exactly intimate, it was still infinitely preferable to sitting at home reading reviews from people who had managed to get tickets before me.

One advantage of being that far back is that nobody gets annoyed if you quietly hold a camera on your knee.

The disadvantage is that the resulting footage resembles evidence from a distant wildlife documentary. Technically, Beth Gibbons is present in the frame, but proving it might require expert analysis and a powerful telescope. The audio survived far better than the visuals, however, so if you’re primarily interested in hearing the performance, the recordings still do the job.

Fortunately, Emma demonstrated considerably greater competence than I did.

Armed with her mobile phone, she managed to capture footage that was actually recognisable as a concert. She also recorded some of the support act, Bill Ryder-Jones, who was excellent in his own right. Formerly of The Coral, Bill has built a highly respected solo career and proved to be the perfect choice to open the evening.

His set created exactly the right atmosphere for what was to follow.

When Beth finally took to the stage, the audience seemed completely captivated. Her new material sat comfortably alongside older songs, and the emotional depth of her voice remains every bit as powerful as it was when I first heard it decades ago. There are singers who perform songs and singers who inhabit them. Beth has always belonged firmly in the latter category.

The Usher Hall proved to be a fitting setting for such a performance. Even from our lofty position near the roof, the atmosphere was remarkable. The audience listened attentively, the acoustics were superb and every song seemed to resonate throughout the hall.

Unfortunately, my footage remained terrible.

Faced with this reality, I decided to employ a slightly unconventional solution. Since my recording looked as though it had been filmed from a passing aircraft, I supplemented it with footage I found online, apparently recorded at a concert in France. Strictly speaking, this may not represent the purest form of documentary filmmaking, and if the original uploader ever asks me to remove it, I happily will.

Until then, however, it provides a far better visual representation of the performance than anything I managed to capture from the gods of the Usher Hall.

Looking back, none of that really matters. What I remember is hearing Beth Gibbons perform those songs live, sharing the experience with Emma and being reminded once again why she remains one of the most distinctive voices in modern music.

The videos below include my audio-heavy recordings, Emma’s much more successful efforts and, for those who would actually like to see what the concert looked like, a little assistance from a helpful French audience member.

Emma done a bit better than me with her mobile and captured some of the support act too, Billy Ryder Jones, who was also excellent.

Because my footage was so bad I took someone else’s footage of youtube, which I think was recorded in France so you can see and hear it better than the video above.  A bit naughty I know and if they want me to remove it I will, but in the meantime you can check it out below.

Cheers!