In Pieces, Set Two

After a short break, Lloyd Cole returned to the stage at Komedia in Bath for his second acoustic set.

 

It began as the previous set had ended, with a song from the Rattlesnakes album. Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? was then followed by Brand New Friend, from Easy Pieces, which set the bar high for the rest of the performance.

 

Lloyd then introduced "a new(ish) song", explaining that

"it has two melodies in the chorus, I can only sing one of them, 

so what I’m going to do know is show you the other one 

so you know how it goes and, 

if you’re in the mood to sing it, 

that would be great, 

it’s kind of a fun line.” 

 

The song was The Idiot and the chorus goes like this

 

We’ll move to Berlin
Stop being drug addicts
We’ll cycle and swim
Stop being drug addicts

 

so you can guess which lines Lloyd wanted the audience to sing. And we did, with gusto.

 

Lloyd thanked us all at the end, noting "there’s a lot of Welsh people here, aren’t there?" and impishly suggesting that he had a policy of not playing gigs there so that the Welsh would be forced to travel elsewhere and lend their wonderful voices to the songs.

Lloyd's self-titled debut album gets another couple of songs in this set, with No Blue Skies and Undressed. The second Commotions album, Easy Pieces, was absent from the first half but gets four showings here, including the sublime Why I Love Country Music, which dovetails into a couple of 1990s songs, Butterfly and Traffic. 

Leading out of the latter, Lloyd admits that 

 

“There’s only so many chords and 

there’s only so many chord progressions out there."

 

Lloyd points out that Traffic has the same chord progressions as songs by George Harrison and Lou Reed, playing a few lines from the latter's Sad Song. “And if you can believe it, just one year before” before going into Satellite Of Love, "so I don’t feel so bad about repeating myself when I figured that out”

Needless to say, Lloyd's performance is anything but repetitious. Songs from The Commotions' final album Mainstream, 21st Century offerings Antidepressant and Standards, before a return to Easy Pieces and Rattlesnakes. 

Cut Me Down was an unexpected inclusion as I always felt that it was an underappreciated song (and single), though it really shines here. And what else to close the set but Perfect Skin? It's been a wonderful set and a great way to end the evening.

But there's more. I wouldn't reasonably have expected an encore yet, after a brief pause, Lloyd is back on stage, strapping on a guitar.

“So, I’ve got a couple of obscure album tracks from the mid-2000s for you here” he teases, before launching into Lost Weekend. 

“I hate that fucking piano solo," 

Lloyd opines as the song approaches the bridge. 

"I was in the studio every single day, 

except one, making that record, 

and that’s what they did.”

Of course, this version is wonderful but the best has been saved to last. The final song of the evening is Forest Fire which, even stripped down to the bare essentials, remains one the finest songs ever written, in my opinion. Lloyd does it justice here, and it's one of those performances that sends a shiver down the spine.

Coming back on stage for the encore, Lloyd admitted 

 

“That was…not easy. 

But we made it, 

and mainly thanks to your goodwill 

because, if it was a rotten audience I

 would not have made it through that night.

My hands hurt so much!”

The audience response was rapturous but it was a sobering moment that the two hours that Lloyd gave to us came at such great personal cost. There will be a time - and sadly, that may be soon - when Lloyd is no longer able to play the guitar. He does so so beautifully and whilst I would happily pay to see perform accapella or 'simply' as frontperson for a band, I'm guessing that he may decide to call time on performing live, full stop.

All the more reason then, to see him live in concert whilst you can. It was an incredible experience.

But don't just take my word for it. Whilst I was sitting in the stalls, guest contributor and roving gig reporter Mike was also in the audience, upstairs. Here are three takeaways from the gig:

 

"I'm hoping that off the back of these gigs punters go back and re-evaluate his post Commotions work - I thought songs such as Butterfly were particularly strong"

 

"[A] genius at work here. I feel for those of us who had our teenage years in the 80's he is our Lenny Cohen or Bobby Dylan.. I'm sure he wouldn't even compare himself to those two but he's our British cut price version of those two."

 

"[I] don't know how many more times he can tour like this or that we will see him in that type of setting so people should go out and see him whilst [they] still can..."

 

I couldn't agree more! Well, maybe not the British cut price Cohen/Dylan bit, though I know what Mike’s getting at. But you can judge for yourself.  

If you have been wondering about my perfect recall of Lloyd's anecdotes and between song banter, it's because fellow audience member Adstarra (seemingly standing by the wall right of the stage) filmed both sets and posted them on YouTube. If the comments above and yesterday aren't encouragement to go and check them out, then I don't know what is!

Again, I've recreated Lloyd's second set - and encores - into a seamless Dubhed selection for your further listening pleasure. As Mike said, go back and check out Lloyd's back catalogue too but don't overlook last year's On Pain, it's really, really good.

 

1) Are You Ready To Be Heartbroken? (Demo) (1983)

2) Brand New Friend (Long Version) (1985)

3) The Idiot (2023)

4) No Blue Skies (Album Version) (1990)

5) Why I Love Country Music (Album Version) (1985)

6) Butterfly (Album Version) (1991)

7) Traffic (1995)

8) Jennifer She Said (Album Version) (1988)

9) Woman In A Bar (Album Version) (2006)

10) Myrtle And Rose (2013)

11) Undressed (Album Version) (1990)

12) Cut Me Down (Album Version) (1985)

13) Perfect Skin (Album Version) (1984)

14) Lost Weekend (Album Version) (1985)

15) Forest Fire (Extended Version) (1984)

In Pieces (Set 2) (55:44) (KF) (Mega)

 

 

 

Photo credits (both used to accompany gig reviews in Brighton):

1) Sara-Louise Bowrey for Brighton & Hove News

2) Siobhan (16 Beasley St Photography) for Breaking Glass.