The Winter That Was

Thursday 12 December 2013 - Due to the timing of some errands I found myself with a spare couple of hours to kill in York, so popped along to The Duchess. I knew that The Hazey Janes were playing and that Andy might be turning up. It was very quiet when I arrived. There were six people standing at the barrier and me, so I secreted myself towards the back. The sound and lighting engineers turned up and another chap who stood next to a pillar, then three of the six at the front clambered up onto the stage to play, they were support band The Article.

I really, really liked their first track, Lost In Circulation, almost a prog track, going off in all kinds of directions, and a fantastic start. The rest of the set seemed to be a mix of their own stuff and some covers, most of which I didn't recognise except for The Buzzcocks' Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn't've). Their vocals reminded me of early Cheap Trick but they were very muddy and indistinct, hence I never caught the name of any but the first track. The Article are very young but there is clearly nascent talent there, they just need to ditch the covers and get the vocals right.

Andy and Dan arrived a just after The Article started, swelling the number of us punters to seven. They too seemed to share the view that the band held promise. During the interval we adjourned to a nearby hostelry so that we could talk without shouting at each other, and we came back as The Hazey Janes (THJ) were mid-way through their first track. Meanwhile, the audience had increased by six, making a grand total of 13.

THJ are billed as a country-turned-indie-pop outfit from Dundee, although that description probably doesn't do them justice as their music actually spans everything from shoegazing to rock, quirky pop to balladry. Whilst they have supported acts such as Snow Patrol, Elbow, Idlewild, Brakes, Aberfeldy and Gorky's Zygotic Mynci, I've never heard of them or any of their music. What was apparent, right from the start, was that this was a musically mature band, very tight, and confident of their performance. They were obviously disappointed by the low turnout but determined to put on great show and the handful of us attending were enthusiastically grateful for that.

Many of the tracks were taken from their latest album, The Winter That Was. The ballad-style tracks had an air of Del Amitri about them, but they also produced rip-roaring rock, foot-tapping country, and a frankly awesome track Everything Starts Again. And, kudos to them, even though we were a pitiful crowd, they came back and gave us two songs for an encore, one of which was a cover of a Gram Parsons & Emmylou Harris track (I think it was Return Of The Grievous Angel).

After the performance we stayed behind while Andrew Mitchell (lead vocals and guitar) produced a box of CDs and both Andy and I bought a copy of The Winter That Was each which Andrew kindly signed for us. I shall definitely be checking out their back-catalogue.

I'm probably not best placed to cast stones, and it might have been due to late-night Christmas shopping, but for bands of this calibre such a poor turnout must be depressing. The outlook for live music looks bleak.