Author: birminghamreview

Words by Ed King / Pics by Jonathan Morgan

“Sorry mate… we’ve been full for ages.” I have rarely seen a bouncer look so tired and apologetic.

I’m late. I’ve missed the support acts. And had I not been able to get professional help (not that kind) would be watching the show from outside; my face pressed against the steaming glass of The Yardbird like an aging Tiny Tim.

(Thankfully Jonathan Morgan is more time aware, and a full selection of shots from all the acts will be up on our Flickr page later this week)

Call Me Unique (or Unique) warned us it would be busy; her one woman promotional powerhouse grabbing attention from this city and beyond, so I have no room to argue. In fact, none of us have much room to do anything. I ask around; apparently The Yardbird started to fill up from 5pm, and by the time the show started, at 7:30pm, it was one in/one out.

The reason we’re all here is simple. Unique made an EP, Urban Gypsy, promoted it through her online channels and organsied a free party to “say thank you for all your support.” But it’s a Monday, Unique is still operating unsigned and without a marketing budget. The Yardbird is rammed. That’s some healthy support.

I’ve seen Unique several times, the last being at The Bull’s Head whilst covering Sam Redmore’s Freestyle event, and in my mind she is always worth watching. But her Urban Gypsy EP surprised me; showing what I’m settling to call a ‘mature’ move in her music. It’s brilliant, understated and honestly exciting. Plus her partnership with the EP’s producer, Professor F (founder of 33 Beats), seems to be working.

So in production, good times ahead – but how that translates on stage is yet to be seen. I look around the room bursting with expectation, familiarity and frightening potential consequences. With no pun intended… drum roll please…

Unique is introduced by stand up comedienne, Annette Fagan. After a bizarrely fervent shout out to all the bus routes in Handsworth (I whoop a little at 11a, 11c and 74) the lady of the hour jumps on stage, looking especially smart in a black & white patterned jacket and red round rimmed hat. She’s clearly excited, and with hands free of guitar begins to own the stage and invite us in a little.

Unique opens with ‘Money, Money, Money’, warming her vocals with a 1,2,3… BAM; and as the band breaks into a calypso rhythm, all our shoulders struggle for space and I remind myself how she can sing. Unique has an established range, one she can manipulate without too much effort; with every pitch delivered by the right amount of energy. Or at least that’s how it feels to us vocal proles in the crowd.

The band strip back and bring us neatly into the tempered beats of ‘Here’, the first showcase from Urban Gypsy. ‘Here’ is a sensual tune, in both lyrics and feel, and a warm inclusion on the EP.

Smash joins Unique on stage, giving her somewhere to direct those Bette Davis eyes, and dutifully stands as she projects the track through him to us. It works. Its works so well I want to applaud, and to heartily join in the proposed audience participation – although the latter would have meant me declaring misplaced intentions to the three blokes I’m sandwich between. I wait until the end of the song and put my hands in the air.

Next is the three word freestyle, a regular format where Unique asks for… you get the idea. Seemingly the audience is quite sexually charged, as ‘sex’, ‘desire’ and ‘control’ get shouted out from the front row. And once ‘food’ is added to the list, the room gets a little bit hotter. I will never look at a cheese sandwich in the same way again.

My favourite from the EP, ‘Stranger’, is up next and delivered with aplomb – well placed percussion giving it the right breathing space. Unique is an artist that sings what she says, which is one of the reasons I’ve been so impressed with her in the past; but as she tells us, really tells us ”I’m the stranger…” I have to reevaluate the credit I give her. This is no child on stage, no one’s pretending, and the rest of us should sit up and listen.

 ‘Bombs & Wars’ is the next proffering from Urban Gypsy, with a guest appearance from Malik MD7 giving Unique a chance to spar against a talented MC. Again, the live performance trounces the EP – with the track’s dark melody owning The Yardbird, and its lyrics coming off stage with fierce control. The band even breaks into a faster tempo, giving more scope to an already solid performance.

The EP’s title track come up next and washes comfortably by, until verse 2 when Unique’s confident growl punches “Urrrrban Gypsy” into the crowd. We’re not likely to forget the reason we’re here.

A well loved Unique staple, ‘The Wife’, closes her main set and gets half the crowd singing it for her. Then after a full band introduction, and a personal plea to support local artists and venues – a message I’ve seen her deliver on stage before, Unique talks us through the pretense of an encore and introduces ‘Sholow’ – another well seasoned portfolio piece.

I’m not quite sure what happens next. The last thing I remember is feeling hot/cold and singing prompted syllables over and over. Unique delivers the last song of her set, one I’ve seen her perform before, with extraordinary accomplishment. Something somewhere has turned this singer into a performer. Tight, measured, heartfelt; everything you would want to see, hear and believe. I’m edging dangerously close to sycophantic prose, or empurpled at least, so I’ll simply refer to my notebook. I just wrote ‘VOICE’, with several underlines.

Unique’s Urban Gypsy EP is the serious evolution of an already talent artist. And tonight’s live show brought out pieces hidden in production. That’s not to say the production should change, far from it, but it’s exciting to think when her album appears what extras we’ll get when we see it performed.

I know Unique is committed to what she does, and has grafted her way across the circuit garnering well earned support. But this is different, this is proper. This is the start of another ladder that could reach a significant height.

So my advice is three fold: first – get a copy of Urban Gypsy, it’s a free download on Unique’s website. Second – donate some money in exchange for Urban Gypsy, it’s a free download on Unique’s website.

And third – next time Unique plays in Birmingham get there early. Or cross your fingers for an unusually understanding doorman.

For more on Call Me Unique, including digital downloads of her Urban Gypsy EP, visit http://callmeunique.co.uk

Words by Ed King / Pics by Lucy Heath

“Are there any students in tonight..?” I’m honestly not sure if this approach is a parody. After all, the bill is 70% comedy, I don’t know what standard of stand up to expect on Birmingham’s smaller gig circuit, and I’ve paid only £3 to get in. It’s too early to tell; but I guess the continuing puns could be Chris Morris clever.

Nestling into the corner of a confidently busy room we’ve come to check out the first Giggling Girder Club at The Church in Hockley. Pitched as a ‘night of spoken, sung and smugly said words’ we’ve got Blues guitar from Karl Merrick up first, once he circumnavigates the tired jibes about his braces.

Merrick walks us through some rag time standards, or at least I think they’re ‘standards’ (and he told us they were ‘ragtime’) as The Church’s back venue shuffles towards standing room only. All the tables are busy, our burgers are en route, and the fire (well the projection of a fire – oddly warm) burns snugly on the wall; a comfortable chatter mingles with the strains of steel & guitar.

Our compère takes the stage, and after a failed engagement with a table of post grad law students introduces Tom Christian – the first of tonight’s stand ups. Broad, blonde and comfortable, Christian tackles the reticent room with professional good grace.

And he picks up some momentum too, before worrying the borderline audience with some race based material. Not racist, I guess that’s part of the point, but a dangerous dance when we’re not fully on board. I’d like to see him again; if for no other reason than to hear his dead/paedophile routine in front a warmer crowd.

Our compère returns to introduce the second of tonight’s stand ups, Graham Milton, under a growing swell of irritation, groans and people switching off. Milton, a young man with dark intentions, presents himself through short, self deprecating misanthropy. No one here gets out alive I guess.

Excellent material to me; but which, to others, may work better as prose on a page rather than as jokes in the air. Milton, again, wrestles with an unfortunate introduction to win us round, the phrase “vaguely consensual pornography” never sounding so appealing, and by the time he explains “simply nodding as a girl made fun of me cry” I’m fully immersed. But that’s me, and I may have a problem.

The already failed segue returns, and returns, and returns to welcome on Rohit the Poet – an exuberant poet (clue’s in the title) who explores his demons with a rising inflection. It feels like a middle class football chant, and the rhyming couplets compel me to start guessing the… FINISH LINE. Didn’t I do well.

Rohit the Poet is initially a bit weak for me, but his jab at Pseudo Lefty Narcissists is refreshingly appropriate amidst the gentrification of Hockley, and (after a late night Goggle search) more representational of the man’s material. Maybe he’s sticking to safer guns tonight. I wouldn’t blame him.

Another disaster introduces Dave Pitt, a man “who used to do stand up” but is in front of us tonight to deliver spoken word – a term I loathe, finding it patronising and unnecessary.

Working the comedy rule book with precision, Pitt gets us all laughing. Immediately. Honestly. And, for a while, unfortunately at the photographer stage right; who should reconsider his approach to flash photography when in a room of professional comedians.

Pitt reads us a short story about a man and his tragic list of pet fatalities; delivered with a comfortable patience that keeps us quiet and loud in all the right places. I feel the room’s shoulders drop. Ah, together again.

Next is a candid explanation of how Pitt fought depression, his black dog called Burt, and the roles comedy played in both the attached anxieties and continuing cure. Its personal but not dramatized, as talking about mental health experiences should be, and leads us into a reading from his book, ‘Starting out in Stand Up’ – a chronological march through Pitt’s career Gig #1 to #100.

Tonight “you’re getting my erection”, Dave Pitt admits as he reads Gig #98 – performing on a strong Manilla Road bill at The Victoria in Birmingham. The crux is fear. Then the reality of facing fear. With the concluding prose bringing elbows onto the table tops and some salt in our eyes. You can buy Pitt’s book, ‘Starting Out in Stand Up’, from the man himself or though other more modern means of distribution; but if you get a chance to hear him read some of it first, I’d start from there. Dave Pitt and “fuck you Burt”; two things to remember.

The Giggling Girder Club concludes its debut with more stand up from Rob Kemp, more Blues from Karl Merrick, and more puns Vs shallow commentary from the compère; the latter, by now, becoming professionally offensive to the acts either side. By the end of the evening all sympathy, and half the room, is outside waving down taxis.

But I am full (The King Burger) a little merry (Woodford Reserve) and relatively still in pocket (£3 on the door, £10 with a main meal). Plus clearer on a couple of the questions I started the night with.

Birmingham, it seems, does indeed have a healthy stream of stand up comedy; flowing from suburb to city centre and washing round the obvious. I am compelled to wade further, and to stop using metaphors in confirmation of strong material, confident deliveries and professional comedians ‘doing the circuit’.

Excellent entertainment for the price of a bus ticket. Just avoid the puns; they’re not big and they’re certainly not clever.

For more on Dave Pitt, visit http://davethepitt.tumblr.com

For more on Rohit the Poet, visit https://myspace.com/rohitballal

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For more on The Giggling Girder Club, including info and links to tickets, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/696371687054525/?ref=notif&notif_t=plan_user_invited

For more on The Church, visit http://www.churchjq.co.uk

dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip come to The Institute (Birmingham) on Saturday 25th Jan – supported by Itch & Sarah Williams White

Not actually a fight, but the creative endeavour of musician/producer (le sac) and poet (Scroobius Pip) the duo formed in 2006. Growing up in the same Essex village, it was after the latter (poet) performed at the former’s (musician/producer) gig in Reading that collaboration began – resulting in the moniker dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip and a solid portfolio of performed verse over Hip Hop influenced beats and dark edged Electronica.

Definitely with something to say, dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip were first plucked into the national arena by John Kennedy on XFM; giving their early days demo some exposure on his, erm, Xposure show.

Two years and a few self releases later, dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip signed to Rob De Bank’s Sunday Best label – releasing their debut album, Angels, in May 2008. Opening with a minute of live recorded verse, where Scoobius Pip delivers a message against fabrication of popular fashions and his disdain for “soulless music, artless lyrics”, the stage was clearly set for “something new”. Angels’ first single, ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ is a succinct challenge to banality; clearly dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip were “…not going to take it no more”. And arguably neither should we.

Licensing Angels to Sage Francis’ New England based Strange Famous Records saw further distribution for the debut, around the US – a territory dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip would continue to release in. ‘Thou Shalt Always Kill’ was also reissued in 2009 with additional vocals from De La Soul’s Postdnous.

March 2010 saw the release of The Logic of Chance, the duo’s second album – featuring guest vocals from Kid A on its third single, ‘Cauliflower’. Then in October 2013, after a few years and a some solo projects, dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip’s third album was released – the 9 track (or 10 if you live in North America) Repent, Replenish, Repeat.

Now touring over 40 dates across Europe with their 3^rd album, dan le sac Vs Scroobius Pip are joined by Sarah Williams White & Itch across their UK dates.

(Birmingham Review first spoke to London’s original scary kid, Itch. in Feb ’13. For more on Sarah Williams White, visit http://www.iamsww.com)

dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip play The Institute on Saturday 25^th January – brought to you by Birmingham Promoters. For further info & tickets, visit http://birminghampromoters.com/Events/dan-le-sac-vs-scroobius-pip

For more on dan le sac Vs Scoobius Pip, visit http://www.lesacvspip.co.uk

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For further listings at The Institute, visit http://mamacolive.com/theinstitute

For more gigs from Birmingham Promoters, visit http://birminghampromoters.com