LONELADY + COBY SEY – ATTENBOROUGH CENTRE FOR THE CREATIVE ARTS (ACCA), FALMER, BRIGHTON 23.10.22
After an absence of four years, I’m finally back inside the state of the art Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts, ACCA for short, which is located on the University of Sussex campus up at Falmer across the A27 from the AMEX.
This iconic building originally opened its door back in 1969 and was designed by the architect Sir Basil Spence. In the past it saw better times, but was given a new lease of life when after a nine-year period of renovation and refurbishment, it was reopened to the general public in May 2016 during the 50th anniversary edition of Brighton Festival. It is a Grade II listed building and hosts a state-of-the-art flexible auditorium with up to 350 removable seats (480 standing), studio areas, rehearsal spaces, meeting rooms and a characterful café bar. Its name refers to the University’s former Chancellor Lord (Richard) Attenborough and his family. It is a clean, warm, relaxing place and in my opinion is criminally under utilised on the Brighton gig scene! There’s parking nearby and the trains stop just over the road, so I don’t understand why it’s left off the gigs map! I suspect that it is all to do with its location on the boundary of the city, but back in the day there were many gigs up at the University’s Mandela Hall, and down the road at the University of Brighton there used to be many gigs at their Cockcroft Hall when it was Brighton Polytechnic. Concert promoters take note!!!!
Anyway on to tonight’s proceedings, which is billed as a double header that feature two totally contrasting acts, LoneLady and Coby Sey. Tonight for us was to be a game of two halves as the footy pundits say.
The half first 45 minutes overran to 57 minutes (from 6:23pm to 9:20pm) and featured London based multi-instrumentalist Coby Sey and his two chums. I had heard that Clash Magazine was bigging up his work, stating that “Coby Sey is one of the most distinctive, original artists at work in London today” and that they made his ‘Onus’ single their track of the day. ‘Onus’ being from Coby’s brand new eight song long player ‘Conduit’ which dropped on 9th September, of which Coby has said that “”Conduit’ is a statement of intent, reaffirming my dedication to transcend the tangible through music – it’s my way to continue and contribute to the musical lineage laid by those before me, locally and worldwide.” ‘Conduit’ is very much a one man Herculean effort as Coby wrote the tunes, performed them on varying instruments, produced them, arranged them, mixed them and engineered them.
Coby and his two mates took to the ACCA stage and from the very first few notes we felt the floor under our feet reverberating, so we were going to be feeling the music as well as seeing it inside this circular room. The sound was amazingly crisp, clearly a result of the refurbishment. The instruments on offer were drums with Roland drum pads, Fender guitar, a keyboard at the rear of the stage, and a saxophone. Throughout the performance the guys would often swap instruments. It started with Coby to the rear on drums and vocals, one of his mates wearing a hoodie and a hat under that on the Fender out front but with his back to us, and the other guy to the rear on sax and keys, but sideways on to us and sometimes also with his back to us. Then the guitarist went on the drums and Coby was out front.
Coby’s vocal delivery sounds very British without any of these false American twangs which is pleasing to hear, and it is mainly of a spoken word style, when the tunes aren’t instrumental ones. It’s almost a freestyle experimental laid back disjointed electronic jazz vibe going down here. The lighting was moody throughout this set and amplified the vibe. Clearly these guys are versatile musicians and know what they are all about, but it had the feel of three guys having a jam session in a studio or rehearsal room as opposed to playing a gig. The backs to us weren’t coming across very well and in the main the audience reaction was for the majority nil. Some would argue that this music would be ideal for an ‘out there’ experimental art exhibition, but to be honest myself and my friend found it a dirge and it was far from what I would call entertainment. For myself, the longer the set went on, the more stressful it became for me. I really didn’t like anything about this and would cite it as one of the least enjoyable concert going experiences that I have ever endured in my 44 years of continual gigging.
After a half-time break of just 10 minutes, we were back out for the second half, which too would be longer than the 45 minutes of footie over at the AMEX. The second half would run to 64 minutes from 9:30pm to 10:34pm and would feature a dozen tune solo set from LoneLady who is performing gig five of a ten date nationwide UK tour, that has already taken in York, Coventry, Ipswich, and Tunbridge Wells. After tonight she will be thrilling crowds in Exeter, St Albans, Ramsgate, Reading, and Huddersfield. LoneLady has also been touring the UK/ EU for the past year including supporting Primal Scream.
Julie Campbell is LoneLady, a solo singer, songwriter and producer from Manchester, whose influences include post-punk, electronic and pop. She first started making recordings in the early-mid 2000s on a 4-track cassette recorder in her tower block flat in Manchester while completing a Fine Art Degree. As her name indicates LoneLady writes, performs and records all the components of her music, building up her own soundworlds in a solitary creative process.
Julie’s starkly urgent debut album ‘Nerve Up’ was released on Warp in 2010 to critical acclaim. Her second album ‘Hinterland’ was released to widespread critical acclaim in 2015 and all four singles released from ‘Hinterland’ reached the ‘A’ Playlist on BBC6 Music and in the same year Julie also received a Sky Arts Nomination for Best Breakthrough Artist. Last year saw the third instalment of LoneLady long players with the arrival of the eight tune ‘Former Things’ album.
The latest LoneLady offering is ‘Former Things >> Re-Formed’ which dropped on 21st October. It is a 4-track EP of remixes from her 2021 album ‘Former Things’. It features remixes by The Other Two (Stephen Morris and Gillian Gilbert of New Order), DJ STINGRAY, DMX Krew and LoneLady herself.
Speaking about his remix, DMX Krew said: “I wanted to keep the new wave vibe but also push it towards a Minneapolis / Prince / Jam & Lewis feeling so that’s what I tried to do. Julie said I made her sound like Sheila E, and I think we are both happy with that.”
LoneLady adds: “DMX Krew’s remix of Fear Colours has got the playfulness ramped right up with some cheeky but soulful nods…It has shades of a late night at the studio with Wendy & Lisa, the champagne corks and Linn Drums-a-popping, and I love it!”
‘Former Things’ saw praise across the board from titles including Uncut, NME, Uncut, Future Music, Snack, The Quietus, FT, Huck, Electronic Sound and the Quietus. In addition, two singles were added to 6Music’s A-List rotation, alongside 6Music album of the day support. LoneLady also performed two mesmerising sessions for ‘Later With… Jools Holland’ and Marc Riley.
With all this praise, we thought that we had better check out LoneLady on this tour, especially as we missed her last year, when she opened up her town in town at The Hope & Ruin on Monday 13th September 2021. Unfortunately, I was already down to review IDLES at the Concorde 2 that night, so hopefully this evening would make up for my loss.
The equipment used during tonight’s Lonelady set was guitar (which may have been a Telecaster), keyboard, Alesis drum pads keys and laptop which contained the backing track. Once again the lighting was moody and a mare to shoot, especially as our photographer was at the last minute not able to attend and so I had to try my best, but I’m certainly not a photographer as you can tell.
The performance had the added benefit of videos being projected across the large screen to the rear of the stage, whilst LoneLady was out front. I felt that tonight’s set was very much divided up into three sections of differing sounds. It was only when I studied the setlist afterwards that this became all clear. In the main, the first section was material culled from her 2010 ‘Nerve Up’ album, the middle section being from the 2021 ‘Former Things’ album, and the final third from her 2015 ‘Hinterland’ album. It’s when you analyse these as three separate parts, you can see exactly how LoneLady has developed her sound over the past decade or so. For me she is certainly heading in the right direction as all of my favourite songs from the night were from her latest platter, as well as an awesome cover version of New Order’s ‘Cries And Whispers’, which undoubtedly was the highlight of my whole night. I would really love LoneLady to release this as a single. I know it’s difficult, and clearly her other tunes are self-penned, but the fast chugging backbeat on this tune was amazing!
The ‘Nerve Up’ material calls on the use of the guitar with its twangy sound, along with the drum backing. Talking of twangs, I noticed just a hint of country music twang in the LoneLady vocals on the first numbers, which was combined over the post punk guitar beat. After a few numbers the keyboard was brought in and immediately it was Christine and the Queen’s meets Cabaret Voltaire ‘Sensoria’ era sound. It had become a great uplifting vibe moving across to this and temporarily ditching the guitar. The set had become funky, with even hints of Michael Jackson style vocals on the sound.
I absolutely loved ‘Terminal Ground’, ‘Threats’ and ‘(There Is) No Logic’ all from 2021 ‘Former Things’ album, which were followed by the aforementioned ‘Cries And Whispers’. The final third saw the reintroduction of the guitar for the ‘Hinterland’ material. I found it rather unusual for me to enjoy the mid part of a set, as that’s when many acts throw in a few filler tunes in between the hits, but tonight this certainly wasn’t the case. There wasn’t too much banter from LoneLady, but I did find it interesting to learn that she had talked her record label ‘Warp’ into agreeing to build her a studio out of breeze blocks in a disused mill in Manchester, where she is based. Taking the Fac51 idea to extremes.
So in conclusion, we were thrill nil down at half time, but eventually won the game five three with a rout of mid second half goals!
LoneLady setlist:
‘If Not Now’ (from 2010 ‘Nerve Up’ album)
‘(I Can See) Landscapes’ (from 2015 ‘Hinterland’ album)
‘Cattletears’ (from 2010 ‘Nerve Up’ album)
‘Have No Past’ (from 2010 ‘Nerve Up’ album)
‘Intuition’ (from 2010 ‘Nerve Up’ album)
‘Terminal Ground’ (from 2021 ‘Former Things’ album)
‘Threats’ (from 2021 ‘Former Things’ album)
‘(There Is) No Logic’ (from 2021 ‘Former Things’ album)
‘Cries And Whispers’ (New Order song)
‘Red Scrap’ (from 2015 ‘Hinterland’ album)
‘Hinterland’ (from 2015 ‘Hinterland’ album)
‘Mortar Remembers You’ (from 2015 ‘Hinterland’ album)
