It was almost exactly ten years ago when I interviewed Charles Hazlewood for the BTG podcast about his music for Kneehigh's Dead Dog in a Suitcase, and he mentioned the Paraorchestra, an ensemble of disabled and non-disabled professional musicians, of which he was Artistic Director. A decade on, he is still with them and they were visiting my home city, with '90s music icon Brett Anderson of Suede, no less, fronting them, for one night only. It had to be worth braving a Friday night in Manchester.
First on, however, was Manchester folk duo The Breath, featuring Ríoghnach Connolly's (pronounced "Ree-uh-na" according to their web site) haunting but powerful vocals accompanied by Stuart McCallum on acoustic guitar, with Connolly also playing multiple instruments. While there was a bit of entertaining talk between songs, she said usually there is more of what she variously referred to as "telling stories" and "talking shite", but there wasn't time in their limited support set, which was a shame. But, while I didn't catch many of the lyrics on first listen, they are certainly a band worth checking out for anyone interested in Irish-influenced, atmospheric folk music.
The main act, however was Death Songbook, billed as songs about death, but Anderson admitted that the theme was stretched a bit in some cases. His vocals were perfectly suited to the opening Echo and the Bunnymen hit "The Killing Moon", also used as an encore as they'd exhausted their repertoire, however the Suede song that followed it, "She Still Leads Me On" from the newest album, was about his mother. A slow number by Japan, "Nightporter", was followed by one of Anderson's solo releases, "Unsung", and "The Next Life" from Suede's 1993 eponymous album.
Welsh singer Gwenno joined Anderson on stage for the 1962 hit for Skeeter Davis, "The End of the World" and "Holes" by Mercury Rev from 1999, before Anderson went solo again for Depeche Mode's "Enjoy the Silence, and then a song called called "Brutal Lover" written specially for this project by Anderson and Hazlewood. Then it was "He's Dead", originally the B-side to Suede's hit "Metal Mickey", followed by "My Death", deceptively referred to in the publicity as "David Bowie / Jacques Brel" but it's a Brel song that Bowie did cover (maybe "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" would have fitted the theme?).
The evening ended, before the encore, with the darkly celebratory "Wonderful Life" by Black.
While the theme could have been better served with different songs, the selection in itself was interesting and Anderson proved himself a versatile vocalist, his voice suiting all of these songs well, with great support from Gwenno.
The ten musicians, including Hazlewood on keyboards, were impressive, but there were problems with the sound balance, with the bass—particularly the bass drum—often drowning most other instruments out and some instruments, such as the handbells and xylophone, barely audible, but the vocals cut through clearly. The lighting was sometimes a bit slow to react to people moving, and the brilliant signer, who danced her way through her translations, was in darkness for the first half a song. The screen at the back had a nice blend of images related to the songs and live feeds from cameras around the stage.
But what a great project to support, and the results were definitely worth seeing. Sadly this was the last date on what Anderson referred to ironically as a "gruelling" two-date tour, but the whole selection of tracks is available to buy on CD or vinyl.