Photo taken by Chris Wilson
Back in June, at Merrym’n’s album launch for ‘Greetings From The Post-Industrial Apocalypse’, one Gary Wilcox asked if Rose&Cloud would be interested in doing a support set for Don’t Call Me Ishmael’s Christmas gig at Artisan Tap. There was a very loud YES and it went straight in our diaries.
In about October/November, the date of a bloody general election got slapped on the same day, so the gig became as much of a comfort blanket/coping mechanism as much as a festive chortle. That gig happened on Thursday just gone, as did the election. We don’t need to tell you how the latter went, this is all about the former...
Two bands’ worth of gear. One of those bands is a duo (as in, us). Photo by John.
John was the first to arrive, setting his guitars up by the stage, ready. Then came Jack Tasker, Tom Downes & SBT, unloading their gear to the front of the stage, and immediately making the place look like the music shop that had once upon a time lived next door. The general consensus was that Ishmael has this peculiar habit of losing members while somehow gaining gear.
Emily arrived next, shortly followed by Gary Wilcox, then lastly by Laura Ellement.
Setups and soundchecks got done, setlists got written & deposited on the stage, leaving time for a mill-about and last-minute guitar-tuning. There hadn’t been a Rose&Cloud gig since Nottingham, which felt sort of odd considering how much of Spring/Summer was consolidated R&C activity. We were nervous & excited in equal measure.
During our set, taken by Lee Ball.
Our set was fun, and we enjoyed it hugely. It’s always nice to have a bit more time to breathe during our sets, so having a little over half an hour to play with was great. We debuted some material that we’ve had on the backlog for a while, in the form of a piece entitled ‘Prima Assoluta’,* and we also gave another run of ‘8’ - a poem written on the morning of our September gig in Leek, musically arranged in the afternoon and performed in the evening (we are quick workers). The set took an irregular turn with some clothing removal and a brief burst of song, and then we floated through the rest of the set in a giddy haze.
That giddiness continued through the evening as Don’t Call Me Ishmael took their places on stage in varying forms of festivewear. The central theme was Gary discovering that the “lounge pant” was a most impractical item of stage clothing, as they pounded through a veritable buffet of Ishmael songs, punctuated by a sterling appearance by Merrym’n for a jaunt through his song ‘I Want Oatcakes For My Christmas Dinner’. It was a brilliantly chaotic interlude, as halfway through, Bob shouted ‘GUITAR SOLO!’ to Jack and giggled at the audience like some kind of mischievous trickster god infused with Eric Morecambe. At this point we were in hysterics.
As Ishmael pushed through the last song of their set and the lights came up (and the inevitable packing away began), we could only reflect on what a magical night we’d had, and how much we love doing this. After a moderately quiet Autumn/Winter, it’s nice to get back on the horse and fall in love with this project all over again. We headed to our homes with our feet hardly touching the floor, trying very hard not to look at the news until the next morning.
R&C xx
PS: As you may have noticed, there are photos of the night, taken by Lee Ball and Chris Wilson. You can check them out in the gallery page here.
* Stay tuned regarding new sounds! We’ve a mind to treat you with something special in the not-too-distant future…