Nothing at all represents upside down thinking here. It is all quite moving this right way up 2006 live Manchester recording just issued for download on Bandcamp. The radical sense of the album grounded in the atrocity that was Peterloo (1819) referenced right at the beginning, later intimations of Irish traditional music, modal jazz of the 1950s alluded to in 'Blues Through the Mill', the arrangement of Indojazz fusions via Arun Ghosh - his harmonium touch on 'What Was Spoken Of In The Sun Inn, Long Millgate' - some of the key moments. Pianist John Ellis (The Breath, Cinematic Orchestra, Corinne Bailey Rae, Lily Allen) is with bassist Jon Thorne, drummer Andy Hay, violinist Laura Ibbotson, cellist Sian Jones clarinettist/harmonium player Arun Ghosh, trumpeter-bodhran player-tinwhistler Neil Yates plus singer George Borowski on the affecting 'Still Bought Nothing' a contribution that joins the dots somehow between Ewan MacColl and John Cooper Clarke. All in all a Manchester homage that makes you feel close to the city even when far away and not even from there at all. John Ellis plays Band on the Wall, Manchester - on 30 April. Click for tickets Photo: press
Tags: reviews