This Is The Kit

It’s been about 4 years since I last featured the brilliant Kate Stables and her band This Is The Kit in this journal, but they were finally back in Liverpool tonight, and in superb form, at Jacaranda Records/Phase One.

The music that Kate (vocals/guitar/banjo/foot-operated-reverb-heavy-tambourine) and her bandmates Rozi Plain (bass/vocals), Neil Smith (guitar) and Jamie Whitby-Coles (drums/vocals) make is just gorgeous. It’s often described as folk but it really draws on very wide influences and is utterly idiosyncratic. And Kate’s voice is a thing of rare beauty. As are her feet!

The band has put out 4 superb albums (the most recent of which is ‘Moonshine Freeze’) and have worked with musicians and producers of the calibre of John Parish, Sharon Van Etten and Aaron Dessner of The National (indeed, Kate contributed to The National’s current album, ‘I Am Easy To Find’).

They were clearly having a ball on stage and the audience was, quite rightly, enchanted by songs old and new. I recommend this band highly! I’ve added some Extra photos too.

Support came from the excellent multi-instrumentalist Rachael Dadd, who performed with drummer Rob Pemberton. I hope they’ll be back in Liverpool soon – they’ll be as welcome as This Is The Kit always are!

Here are This Is The Kit (in big band form) with the title track from ‘Moonshine Freeze’ https://youtu.be/435SDzZYz0E