Hannah Peel and 'Fir Wave'

A couple of years ago, Hannah Peel released an album called 'Fir Wave', which was built on sounds that were created by Delia Derbyshire. Around the same time she was involved in writing and recording 'The Unfolding' with Paraorchestra, which they performed at Bluedot.

I think it's because of that, that 'Fir Wave' didn't really get a live airing, at least not until now, with Hannah Peel performing two shows at King's Place in London, this evening, to kick off her 'artist in residency' there.

I'm long past complaining about the fact that smaller artists and those visiting from abroad will often only play in London. It's where an eighth of the UK's population is. Indeed, I remember when Shriekback were doing a short live tour, they had to cancel the Glasgow and Manchester shows because they couldn't sell enough tickets. The London gig, at Shepherd's Bush Empire was sold out, though.

One outcome of this state of affairs, though, is that even living in Salford, which is relatively close to London in travelling time, if we want to go and see a gig like this one, we need to take the afternoon off work, and shell out for train tickets and a hotel. It's not a casual undertaking.

Anyway... we arrived at our hotel late afternoon, met Dan for a drink at The Scottish Stores, and then walked up to meet my erstwhile bandmate, John Watton, at The Lighterman, before walking over to King's Place for the gig (although Dan didn't join us for that).

The venue was nice, although more of a classical venue than a rock one, which suited the material well, and the album was performed by Hannah Peel herself alongside Hazel Mills, who plays with bands such as Florence and the Machine and Goldfrapp.

As with a lot of live electronic music, there was a mix of sequenced material, as well as the parts played live. That's not always an easy thing to get right but it worked well, this evening, with Hannah Peel also playing some piano and violin, as well as playing to two tracks on her music box contraption. It was a good concert.

I saw J Willgoose Esq from Public Service Broadcasting in the foyer area afterwards, so I popped over and said hi to him, which, thankfully, he didn't seem too alarmed by, and then, as it was still earlyish, the Minx, John, and I went for a bite to eat.