It’s always nice when someone gets in touch and offers you an unsolicited review of a gig or album. Graham Jackson works in artist services, looking after artists touring the UK among other things. He’s also a very interesting guy to chat with – he has a few stories. This is his take on Isabella Coulstock supporting The Jools Holland Rhythm and Blues Orchestra at Warwick Arts Centre.

21st May 2023 – Warwick Arts Centre – Jools Holland with support by Isabella Coulstock

A reflection on a first visit to the impressive 1,450 capacity Warwick Arts Centre that is modern, spacious, scrupulously clean with facilities including a bar/restaurant to match.

The auditorium itself is wonderful. Despite its sizeable capacity, there is a feel of intimacy as the balconies wrap themselves around itself even going behind the stage area.

The time for the opening artist, Isabella Coulstock, is approaching and so refreshing to see the auditorium is near full in anticipation of the show, the Jools Holland audience showing a respect and interest in the support artist, perhaps with some naivety and curiosity.

The scene is set. The lights dim except for the one white spotlight, the announcement made, “Ladies and Gentleman, please welcome Isabella Coulstock” and as she walks on with her guitar, the audience breaks into spontaneous applause. Then silence as Isabella prepares herself.

With confidence and a big smile, Isabella starts her set with ‘Nice Just Ain’t A Good Colour’ which serves to give an immediate impact and connection with the audience. They are listening and listening with genuine interest, impressed from what they are seeing and hearing. It works – rapturous applause.

A set of six self-penned songs, from the very first written ‘Crazy Cowboy’ to the brand new ‘Riverside’, each appealing to the audience whatever the tempo, ultimately finishing with some audience participation which they duly join in singing and clapping to ‘Honky Tonk Beer’.

Isabella’s wonderful pitch-perfect vocals and accurate guitar play were ‘talking’ to and enchanting the audience, interspersed with short song introductions and thanks to Jools Holland and his team. It was the audience that was thankful, mutterings heard through the show such as “wow, what a voice” and “she is something else”, even comments after saying “the new KT Tunstall”.

Isabella Coulstock is like one of those rare beautiful orchids that takes time to develop and when the time and conditions are right, it blooms into a wonderful show of colour and panache – the show proved that the time and conditions are right for Isabella.

Full Set List:

• Nice Just Ain’t A Good Colour
• Borderline
• Broken
• Riverside
• Crazy Cowboy
• Honky Tonk Beer

Ok, I’m taking control of the editorial introduction for this one to give the gaffer a rest and because it’s more personal than most of my pieces. You probably know I like to keep things moving, visit new venues, see new artists and just generally keep things moving along – I have a low boredom threshold. So here’s a few firsts for this year; the title probably has a lot to do with the fact that I’m reading Jarvis Cocker’s latest book ‘Good Pop, Bad Pop’ at the moment and there’s a fairly obvious link there. Neil Sheasby picked the book as one of his High Five selections and I definitely agree with him. If you’re looking for a present for the music geek in your life, then you won’t go far wrong with this one. Time for the firsts.

Three Gigs in One Evening

Why would I want to do that? Well, why wouldn’t I? “Why did you climb the mountain” – “Because it was there.” By a complete coincidence, they were all Talentbanq gigs and not too far apart geographically. The mini-marathon started with Zoe Wren doing the last session in The Courtyard of St Martin-in-the-Fields. She was stunning as always and even introduced some loopstation things to complement her guitar/vocal material. After Zoe, it was a quick walk up to Leicester Square tune station, three stops down to Hyde Park Corner and a five-minute walk up to The Back Door Bar to catch a set and a half from Brooke Law. Brooke’s another one that I’ve photographed a few times. I’m not sure that I know where she’ll finally position herself musically because she’s had a country hit but I like her as a rock singer in the Pat Benatar mould when she’s with the full band; time will tell.

A quick walk up to Green Park, on to the Victoria Line up to Highbury & Islington, then two stops on the Overground to Camden Road. Ten minutes later I’m in The Camden Chapel shooting  a support set from Roisin O’Hagan before the headline set from Tamara Stewart. If I’d been a bit more ambitious, I could have probably picked up a fourth gig in Camden at The Camden Club or Spiritual Bar. Maybe next time, but while we’re talking about Spiritual.

First gig at Spiritual

Sometimes I wonder how I manage to avoid venues. I didn’t shoot in Hope and Anchor until 2021 and I managed to miss out on Spiritual until 2022. I don’t know how I managed that because so many artists I know have been regulars there and the buzz about the place has been going on for years. What makes the place special is that the owner, Rafael, is passionate about music and he looks after the musicians that play there. He’s one of the good guys; he holds the whole thing together and the musicians love him.

The reason I finally shoot a gig there is that Amy Taylor is playing and I can’t resist that. I love Amy’s songs and her live delivery and she’s another one of those artists that photograph really well in a live setting. So, a great night all round – I got to meet the Spiritual team for the first time and got some nice shots of Amy in an intimate setting.

Pete Gow ‘Leo’ album launch

I’ve seen Pete Gow play live a few times, usually alongside his former Case Hardin bandmate Jim Maving; I’ve never seen him play with a full band including a horn section. I love Pete’s songs so when he announced a couple of full band gigs to launch his album ‘Leo’ this year, I got my name at the top of the list. The album’s a collection of songs about human frailties and even criminal behaviour that’s not even borderline and it features one of my favourite songs of this year ‘Side III of London Calling’. You have to listen to that.

On the night, Pete was supported by some old friends of mine, Belle Roscoe (Matty and Julia Gurry) and then appeared on stage resplendent in a white suit and looking incredibly like George Harrison at the ‘Concert for Bangla Desh’. Do I need to say that everyone involved nailed it and it was a great night? Thought not. And The Playground was a new venue for me as well.

Harley Kimbro Lewis at Landmark Arts Centre Teddington

I’ve seen Martin Harley, Daniel Kimbro and Sam Lewis solo and in various combinations over the years, but never in this one. There are a couple of other firsts; I’ve never been to the Landmark Arts Centre before and I’ve actually never been to Teddington, so that’s a triple first. Better than my 2(ii) degree. I knew that Harley Kimbro Lewis would be superb but I was surprised by the quality of the Landmark experience. There are no compromises; this is all about a beautiful sound in a venue with great acoustics and a stage that’s lit perfectly for ambience and photography. Congratulations to all the volunteers who create a perfect live music environment in this deconsecrated church.

Isabella Coulstock T-shirt

I’ve shot a book cover, my photos have been used in print media and on publicity material, but I had a bit of a bonus a few weeks ago when Isabella Coulstock, who I’ve shot many times, gave me my first T-shirt print. It’s one thing to see your work on social media and on posters in the toilets at Green Note, but it’s very different to see people wearing it at gigs. Apparently sales are pretty good, so it’s looking like a bit of a success. The shot was taken at the slightly unlikely venue, The Ned, and my original version was a colour shot, but the monochrome image works really well with Isabella’s signature underneath. Thanks to Graham Jackson for making the image work.

This time it’s the turn of  Graham Jackson to tell us about the gig of his life. Graham’s one of those people with a huge amount of experience of the music business and artist management, but he also has something that’s much more important; he’s one of the good guys. He’s one of the people that you always want to bump into at a gig because he’s a  great person to have a beer with and catch up on what’s going on. Like all of the contributors to this piece he’s passionate and knowledgeable about music and able to articulate this passion and knowledge  with the written and spoken word. He takes a pretty good photo as well; the title shot here is one of his. Let’s hear about Graham’s memorable gig:

Saturday 26^th August 2017, ‘The Women’s Circle’ gig at Tønder Festival in Denmark – a moment that has stuck in my mind since, a moment even now on reflection gets my heartbeat racing. I was there as Tour Manager for the wonderful UK singer/songwriter Danni Nicholls.

Tønder is a beautiful town in the Region of Southern Denmark with a population of around just 7,500 situated on the southern border with Germany – to get to the festival, the transfer is actually quicker from Hamburg in Germany than from Copenhagen in Denmark, still a good few hours but a chance to see the countries.

Tønder Festival is an incredibly friendly annual festival held on the edge of and around the town of Tønder, the music based on Folk, Roots, Traditional and Americana genres. Smaller stages offer intimate gigs in places like the Old Mill and the Pump House, along with artists such as Lucinda Williams, Jason Isbell, John Prine, Emmylou Harris, Steve Earle, Sturgill Simpson, Pete Seeger, Arlo Guthrie, Runrig, Mary Black and The Mavericks, to name a few, featured at some point in history on the main stages in Tent 1 and Tent 2.

So the scene was set for The Women’s Circle that was to be staged in Tent 2, always a popular feature with wonderful female singer/songwriters in the round. But this year, there was a real buzz about the gig that was to happen, so much so that a last minute decision was made to remove the seating to increase the capacity. Nearly an hour before it was to go live, Tent 2 was heaving with some 2,500 people crammed inside, ten rows deep outside as more tried to get in. The air was high with expectancy, this transmitting itself back stage.

The five female artists invited to perform were Dorthe Gelach (Denmark), Laura Mo (Denmark), Kaia Kater (Canada), Tami Neilson (New Zealand) and Danni Nicholls (UK) – none had met each other before but I could feel a bonding happening between them. Though the tension was building, a relaxed vibe was going on, helped by the Festival organisers arranging a birthday cake for Danni!

I took my place in the photographer’s pit, sitting next to me was Maria Theessink, the Artistic Director for the Festival.

Not knowing what each was going to sing and play, the artists listened to each other, taking it in turn as their selection of songs complemented and flowed together, drawing the audience in – incredible that so many people can listen intently and respectfully to the stories being told and to the music, clapping in time at the right time (the unique ‘Danish Clap’?), then bursting into applause and cheers that could be heard across the town. Each of the ‘Women’ was creating a stunning show, seemingly effortlessly and so natural, an absolute credit to themselves and their art, a total joy for the audience.

Then the ultimate moment came for me, Danni singing ‘Ancient Embers’, a favourite song of mine from her latest album ‘The Melted Morning’. She did not disappoint. Introducing the song about ‘self-love’ that she said she “wrote for myself”, the humour and sentiment producing a huge cheer and applause from the attentive audience. Then the performance, goodness, the whole place was electrified, I have never known a feeling like it – goose bumps, the spine tingling …it was  incredible. At the end, the noise of appreciation was stunning, it brought tears to my eyes. I turned to Maria, she was the same, we just smiled and nodded to each other as if to say, “yep, that was a moment”.

I have been to special shows such as Pink Floyd at Earls Court, totally magical for the music, the lighting and the atmosphere, I never thought anything would surpass that, but there in Tent 2 at  the wonderful Tønder Festival, something special happened, a ‘never again moment’.

It is so difficult to put in words, I guess you just know it and feel it when it happens, it is personal, I am sure each of us has had such a moment.

Graham Jackson – GJ Artist Services (www.gjartistservices.co.uk)