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Steve Spithray has a lovely time with one of Teesside’s most underated solo artists
Image by Steve Spithray
An example of the depth of talent on Teesside at the moment is when someone like Tom Joshua can rock up at the beautiful Town Hall Courtroom in Middlesbrough after hardly playing live at all for a couple of years, promising new songs rather than the old favourites AND at the same time as an England World Cup match, and still have the place bristling with a nervous excitement usually reserved for the footie.
But first up, Leeds’s Sam Airey wows with a rare live performance of his own. Griefhawks and Floodgates briefly fill the ornate courtroom with his deft electrified American-style finger picking, before Sam closes his set out with the gentle alt. rock of Evensong.
It seems a little trite to lazily label Tom Joshua as indie-folk, especially for tonight’s stripped back acoustic affair, because his is a big sound and perfectly suited to the courtroom’s high stain-glassed ceiling. Opting for a slew of new tracks, earmarked for release later in the year, means Undergrowth is dispensed with early on and there is no Meteor Showers in the set tonight. However, a lush medley of Killer Bee and Suckers – with guest vocalist Hannah – will be an abiding memory for many to take home from the intimate gathering.
So, elsewhere in Tom’s set another newie Awake, is a bass heavy take on his usual sound, perhaps hinting at a more diverse direction (while a debut live outing on the piano for 2020 single, This Still Life, perhaps also hinting at an extended musical versatility). Harry And Lola is the quiet/loud acoustic melodrama we have come to love from Tom; while an archly lyrical Twilight Zone Turbine Fields is an unlikely nu-folk romantic comedy.
A quick check of the watch (the canny promoter has scheduled curfew just before kick-off) and there is just time to round off a lovely evening with a brand new Heaven Knows, blending a trademark introspectiveness with a playful awareness of death and, finally another newie, Melancholy Flowers, to send everyone away smiling, arf.
