Liam Fray - Space, Manchester

 

2008 is set to be the year of The Courteeners. After spending last year garnering a solid reputation as a great live band, the Manchester quartet have been tipped in every major music magazine as the next big thing, and with recent single ‘What Took You So Long’ reaching number 20 in the charts, they look set to fulfil the prophecy.

Musically, comparisons are rife with other great Manchester bands such as Oasis, but mainly because The Courteeners boast a gobby front man named Liam. However, Mr Fray seems determined to prove that there is dexterity behind his arrogance (displayed by such stunts as writing ‘What The World Is Waiting For’ on the wall during a recent photo shoot for a music magazine), and so he is hosting a selection of small acoustic shows to coincide with the release of their debut album, St. Jude.

First show is at Manchester’s Space, a club which the band have an affinity with having hosted every after show party there since they started playing gigs at major venues in the city. Fray banters with the audience and is clearly comfortable without his band mates, and as he launches into opener How Come it obvious his years of doing the Manchester music circuit as a singer/songwriter have paid off. Striped back to just a guitar, his voice is clear and strong and has a strange beauty to it that’s absent when he is jumping about as a Courteener.

Fray is doggedly determined to please his home crowd, leading the audience in chants of ‘Manchester, la la la’, and launching into various speeches about how wonderful the old place is. He’s keen to pay homage to his musical heritage, changing the lyrics of ‘No You Didn’t, No You Don’t’ from ‘I’ll be here, coming up, smelling of roses’ to ‘listening to Roses’. He also incorporates a verse from James’s Tomorrow into his rendition of ‘What Took You So Long’, which has been a staple of the bands live show for months (so much so that this live version is available on iTunes).

You’ve got to figure that, despite his protestations to the contrary, Fray is clearly arrogant enough to place The Courteeners within the cannon of great Manchester bands. It’s a good job, then, that the songs are very, very good.

Liam Fray can write it all – there are gorgeous acoustic ballads such as the wonderfully biting ‘An Ex Is an Ex for a Reason’, stunning in its simplicity. Regular crowd pleasers ‘Bide Your Time’ and new single ‘Not Nineteen Forever’ also benefit greatly from the acoustic treatment.

New b-side Smiths Disco (debuted tonight) takes the melody of Stephen Fretwell’s ‘Scar’ to tell a wry tale of an indie scenester’s trip to the local disco, finishing with the line ‘And we’ll decide what to wear/Four weeks before’. These are the dry, witty observation that Fray excels in, demonstrated elsewhere in his set with songs like ‘Acrylic’ and ‘If It Wasn’t For Me’. Fray has a knack for creating sing-along melodies that invite audience participation, which only heightens the intimacy of the situation. By the end of the set, Fray has the audience in the palm of his hand.

Duffer of the night comes courtesy of a cover of Laura Marling’s ‘New Romantic’. It doesn’t really work and Fray is the first to admit this, apologising to the crowd at the song’s close. Yet the inclusion of a cover is a clue to Fray’s ambition, you can imagine him on Radio One’s Live Lounge, performing his quirky cover version, announcing himself as one of Britain’s current key musical figures. Armed with songs and performances like these, one has to believe this moment isn’t so far away.

Laura Rodwell

Get St. Jude from Play.com

No comment posted

Add your comment

< Prev		Next >