beth orton comfort of strangers tour

at leeds met yesterday.




god that woman's amazing. talented, witty, sweary, unafraid of fucking up, smart, ballsy, and the nicest smile in showbiz.

support came from the fantastic clayhill , whose bio describes them as "something of Talk Talk and Penguin Café Orchestra in there, not to mention small but satisfying splashes of Nick Drake and Tim Hardin." Ali Friend (Red Snapper & Beth Orton's Trailer Park contributer) on bass and keyboards, Ted Barnes (fellow Beth contributor) doing guitar and keyboards, and lead singer Gavin Clark (Sunhouse), alongside Nick Hemming ( guitar, backing vocals, piano and harmonium ) and Tom Skinner ( drums and glockenspiel ) for the tour.

despite skintness, i persuaded my fellow attendee, my lovely ex-housemate adam, to buy this: (cuban green on vinyl - check their website for info) and got it signed. yay.

beth orton's merchandise was a bit strange - beth goes rrock! style hoodies and tees with her name in pseudogoth lettering... but enough shopping.

here's the setlist. photos between encores.

rectify
heartland truckstop
conceived
heart of soul
safe in your arms
someone's daughter
stolen car
worms ("worms can't dance, they haven't got the balls...")
shopping trolley ("i think i might cry - gonna laugh about it - it's gonna be fine")
shadow of a doubt
comfort of strangers
feral children
sweetest decline
she cries your name
god song
countenance ("for those who preach forgiveness, when they're practicing revenge")
pieces of sky ("i best get busy living, been a long time gone")

*
pass in time
absinthe
a place aside ("pull me close and we lay still, wrap my toes around your heel")

*
feel to believe
i wish i never saw the sunshine
concrete sky
spotlight

lovely lovely stuff. lots of audience banter - she told us the 'whats ET short for?' joke, confessed to being incredibly nervous about the gig (worried that she'd have a 'spaz attack' on stage), dealt with hecklers fantastically and giggled at her bum notes...

was going to play paris train but apparently hadn't worked on it, so she did sweetest decline instead.. on absinthe she donned a mouth organ, and god song turned into a storming, throbbing ache of a melody, with the whole band kicking in towards the end.

when she played 'i wish i never saw the sunshine', some people were talking near the front, so she just hissed 'shut it' at them... did requests (but not the huge enthusiastic lesbainian contingents cries for 'central reservation')... and dedicated the final song, spotlight, 'to the man at the front who wanted it'.

to quote the lady herself,

"i'm on fire tonight. watch me go".