Music / Review
Review: Ben Gregory, Rough Trade – ‘The gig is a celebration’
Ben Gregory opens his set at Rough Trade with a cry of ‘I’m a f***ing success’.
It’s less that he wants us to know, and more that he wants to believe it himself.
The gig is a celebration of his new album Episode, his first offering since the split of Blaenavon, his spooky outfit that soundtracked the far-away indie Darkfruits-drinking-and bucket-hat-wearing years.
is needed now More than ever
Since then, Gregory has spent time rebuilding his mental health, recovering privately in a psychiatric hospital.
It’s extraordinarily moving to see someone return to what gives them so much joy and makes them shine. And it’s equally as moving to see someone just so good at performing.
Episode is painfully introspective, music clearly a huge crutch in aiding Gregory’s recovery. It’s hard to reveal so much of yourself to an audience, but he’s overjoyed to be back on stage.
He seems in genuine disbelief to be back, and he won’t stop thanking us. We heckle back that we should be thanking him, and he hides behind his long hair and equally long chequered sleeves.
The scene is just him and his guitar – his fingers strum with instinctive ease, and he adlibs between songs with just the right amount of jokes, as if he’s been doing this every night for the past decade.
He heckles the crowd more than we heckle him, pointing to someone in the front row and laughing ‘you’re the guy with the German grandma!’.
It turns out most people in the front row are German to varying degrees, and we serendipitously yell various German adjectives after each song (‘supergeil!’ ‘yaaaa!’ ‘wunderbar!’).
He laughs sincerely, and it means even more after knowing that laughing was so hard for so long.
Gregory’s relationship with his fans is tear jerking too – he remembers those from past shows, from Instagram messages, and he takes care to chat to almost everyone after the show.
He gushes that he’s never heard so many people singing his lyrics back to him, and seems almost to wonder why anyone bothered to turn up. But he shouldn’t be so surprised – Ben Gregory really is a f***ing success.
Main photo: Mia Smith
Read next:
- Review: Noble Jacks, Lost Horizon – ‘Huge heaps of collective joy’
- Review; Unthank : Smith, Trinity – ‘A master class in song’
- Review: Hack Poets Guild, The Folk House – ‘Invention, innovation and intimate storytelling’
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