John Bramwell made a nostalgic return to one of his old haunts The Night And Day Cafe in Manchester on Sunday night. The set though was far from a trip down memory, taking heavily from his two solo albums since leaving I Am Kloot with a few old favourites thrown in at the end as the crowd joined in to sing along and almost drown out one of the nation's finest songwriters and his exceptionally talented band.
The Night And Day holds a lot of memories for John Bramwell. It was here he had the booker's job after a drunken night with its founder Jan Oldenburg and his best mate Bryan Glancy, both of whom are sadly no longer with us. Many of I Am Kloot's formative gigs were in this bar, to the point they gave out the bar's phone number to potential labels and booking agents to contact them in the days before everyone had a mobile phone.
These days John spends a lot of time on the road playing solo shows with a mix of I Am Kloot classics along his more recent work. You sense though he gets most joy from that new work and when he's accompanied by the Full Harmonic Convergence - aka Harriet Bradshaw on cello and backing vocals, Dave Fidler on bass, guitar and backing vocals, Andy Fidler on cajon and backing vocals and Alan Lowles on keys, guitar and accordion. The five-piece have toured for several years now and performed on his last record The Light Fantastic, which makes up a significant part of this afternoon's set with eleven of its twelve tracks making up about half the set. It's accompanied by tracks from his solo debut Leave Alone The Empty Spaces and a brand new track When The Lights Go Out, which he recalls was written after a particularly vivid dream about Bryan Glancy, making it fitting to be played in this room that holds so many memories.
The new songs are met with reverence by the Night And Day crowd, a venue that, despite its magical aura, can have difficulties with chattering at the bar seeping forward when a quieter act is on stage. The songs, as with everything Bramwell has written before, are beautifully constructed, their magic in their simplicity and delicacy when dealing with some dark subject matter. Looking round the room there's familiar faces who've been on this journey with him a long time, as Kloot's star rose and then faded as they disbanded almost a decade ago. What The Full Harmonic Convergence bring to the party is the colour, the light and shade to the darkness and bring the more poetic side of Bramwell's lyrics into open view.
The cello creates a tension that's soothed by the beautiful harmonies that the Fidler brothers and Bradshaw bring to these songs, whilst Bramwell's voice of experience imparts the story. World Full Of Flowers is the stand-out, a battered bruised romanticism creating an imagery in the listener's mind whilst I Am The Sky and To The Shore have a wide-screen ambitious vision that the new set-up allows Bramwell to explore.
There's bones for the old school Kloot fans of course. John spends almost ten minutes telling us the story behind Black And Blue, a teenage job managing a Tesco wine and spirits department and a late night trip to London to accost John Peel after midnight with a copy of the seven-inch single which he subsequently played the night after. John recalls answering his Mum's question of what he would do with his life with "I've done it" after completing the song. Over forty-plus years later it still hits hard.
The end of the afternoon becomes a singalong. The patience of those who wanted to hear their favourites and who gave the new songs the time and space they deserved is rewarded with a magnificent The Same Deep Water As Me where the cello is the star, giving the song even more gravitas. To The Brink, Northern Skies, Proof and To You are sung back with gusto, causing John to quip that it was so good and even better that he was still getting paid for letting us do the singing for him. It's typical of the humour between songs, his ongoing struggles with guitar leads and chairs, new stories mingling with others many can recite word for word.
Often when singers leave bands, they lose their magic and spend years with diminishing returns with a guitar on the road. Bramwell has found the middle ground of doing that to an audience that's showing no signs of tiring of it, whilst creating new music that's at least the equal of what's gone before. To some, ourselves included, it's the best work he's done and it's a joy to see him clearly having the time playing it with friends.
John Bramwell And The Full Harmonic Convergence played Who Is Anybody Anyway, World Full Of Flowers, It's Just You, I Feel Me, Element Of Truth, I Am The Sky, Nobody Left But You, Time's Arrow, From The Shore, The Light Fantastic, Black And Blue, When The Lights Go Out, Over My Shoulder, Sky Full Of Thunder And Lightning, Days Go By, Here It Comes, Leave No Traces, The Same Deep Water As Me, To The Brink, 86 TVs, Northern Skies, Proof and To You.
John Bramwell's website can be found here. He is also on Twitter and Facebook.
Both John's solo albums can be ordered here.
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