Author: Kate Milner
I have this feeling of deja-vu. Maybe it's the all-90s soundtrack. Maybe it's the venue that looks so like one of my teenage hangouts. Or maybe it's that this is the second time I'm watching Bluetones frontman Mark Morriss (aka Fi-lo Beddow) playing an acoustic solo gig in a pub in front of a handful of 20something Britpop survivors. Oh, and he uses some of the same jokes.
It's a cold Thursday in an obscure venue somewhere between Oval and Brixton. And Mark is in fine form. He's charming, self depreciating and scatters his set with remarks like "The other Bluetones wouldn't teach me their songs. They would tell me it was all jazz chords". He shakes his head ruefully. "When I hear those two words, I freak out".
His guitar playing really isn't that bad. But it's very cute that he keeps talking about it. In fact it's hard to get past the fact that Mark is just so darn lovable that the music is the least important thing about the set. But the music is actually pretty good.
He started off with one of the promised "Blue" songs – "Keep the Home Fires Burning". As a song, it translates well into the acoustic in a way that other songs wouldn't (Requests from the audience were met with answers like "I can't play that! It's a piano song." and "Do you have a saxophone?"). It was swiftly followed up by one of his solo songs – "Unwanted Friend" and then one of many covers.
"Do we have any Pixies fans in the audience. (yeahhh!) Oh well, sorry to all of you I'm playing it anyway...Gouge Away" ...which was actually a minor work of genius. It suited his voice remarkably well and he glossed over the incoherent mumbly bits pretty slickly. Next up was "Fountainhead" (another 'Tones number), more solo songs, more covers (Teenage Fanclub and some song called "Red Balloon"...disappointingly not the BDD classic "99 Red Balloons") and then...the request spot!
Now, with solo gigs, you have to be a bit sensitive. Singers aren't guitarists bless 'em and can't handle anything too tricky. Nevertheless, Mark was game to try anything shouted out to him.
"Oooh...'Cut Some Rug?' I'll play you the bit I know of that"
And he did. And a lovely intro it was too. Sadly he stopped before the vocal kicked in (playing and singing at the same time ?...not going to happen!). A particularly amusing rendition of "Autophilia" featured the audience on vocals, as Mark kept forgetting the words and had to be prompted. Round about the time he was trying to lip-read the line "it purrs just like a kitten" from Nathan, he gave up and refused to play the second verse.
Maybe I'm not selling this to you. But you have to understand that the whole thing was so modest and endearing that it was just fun and lovely. Mark doesn't know the words? Nathan'll sing instead! It'll be fine...
I shouted out for "Woman in love" because I knew he could play that and he granted my request over somebody else's because I was "technically louder". Go me!
He stayed on until his repertoire was exhausted, even chucking some Zepplin and a Keith Richards impression in along the way. The last song was "Harry Rag", an ode to the joys of smoking and then he was gone. Well, he stopped to pack up his guitar and have a chat first. And give us his setlist, complete with half-chewed cough sweet (we plan to create an army of Mark Morriss clones from the DNA). Really, no rock star pretensions here. And anyways, he turned up again half an hour later for a rather lovely DJ set. As the lights came up, he shook our hands and wished us a safe journey home.
He may not be the world's greatest guitarist but what does that matter when you have a little charm, and a lot of style?!
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