The other day I was reminded of the anecdote about Graham Coxon saying that he’d tune his guitar “once and once only” during the recording 13. I don’t know if Graham Coxon did actually say that but it’s certainly something that I’d imagine him saying. He seems to appreciate the loveliness in shambolicness.

That was kind of the ethos at an all-dayer, which I visited this weekend in the downstairs of a little book/comic shop called Here in Bristol this weekend. The only people there were essentially the acts, which always creates a good atmosphere, but it was a little room and always looked full as everyone sat on the floor facing the front like a primary school assembly. Freshly squeezed lemonade was available for 50p and yes it was as twee as it sounds! The poster was stitched fabric I’ll have ye know!

Thinking about it, I can’t think of anyone who was shambolic and lovely without simultaneously being twee, and not deliberately aiming for a professional sound. Maybe shambles only exists alongside twee. Maybe the lightness and simplicity of the arrangements allows for more whoops. Sometimes, you just want musicians to come across as human though – and there is certainly room for error in pop music.

Sadly, getting up late from the Butcher Boy gig and having to go early meant we only *actually* saw three acts. Madrigals were the first band that we saw and after the first song of their set, a string on their properly tuned telecaster decided that this place really wasn’t the place for tunings, and if it couldn’t be an out of tune string then it wasn’t going to be a string at all.

The upshot of this was that everyone used Winston Echo’s pink guitar – and as he explained as he lent the guitar to the guitarless he “didn’t really believe in tuning”.

Winston himself was the most shambolic act of the lot of them, but I mean that as - and feel that it would be taken as - a compliment. Songs slowed down and sped up all over the place as the guitar took a back role to the words and the tune, although this is not to say that the guitar didn’t have flourishes of originality. Certainly one for fans of MJ Hibbett, and if that is you then you get to see both of them at Island Bar on 30^th November.

Ray Rumours and the No-Eyed Deers was the third band that I saw and they were excellent. Sadly the increasingly out of tune guitar got in the way of some of the prettier picking patterns. I kinda like the fact that the No-Eyed Deers was infact one person who acompanied on a variety of instruments. They were sweet and Ray had a lovely voice, she kindly offered a set of spoons for someone to accompany them but nervousness got the better of the crowd.

By now, you may be wondering what could possibly be good about musicians not playing in tune or in time and I feel I have to throw an example at you. To hear what I’m on about by “shambolic”, you could do much worse than to visit the Rough Bunnies website and download Rough Bunnies Go Pirate (yarrr). It’s full of unrehearsed emotion and the little spaces that two people being out of step with each other creates, and it’s in these little spaces that something genuinely personal and touching can exist.

This entry was posted on Monday, October 15th, 2007 at 6:22 pm and is filed under Free Music, Gig, Shambolic. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.