Review: Butler, Blake and Grant, Redgrave Theatre – ‘Three musicians strumming and harmonising beautifully’

How’s this for a party game? One that you could play for the rest of time? Which three singer-songwriters would you like, guitars in hand, to play together? Each taking turns to play their best loved songs? Each harmonising and adding new bits? The possibilities are endless.

Early on a member of the audience shouts “supergroup” at the three musicians on stage. All three look a bit embarrassed by the suggestion.

But what else are you supposed to call Butler, Blake and Grant?

Bernard Butler is the ex- Suede guitar star and has countless collaborations and solo outings, Norman Blake is one of the key songwriters in Indie superheroes Teenage Fanclub and James Grant was the former front man of 80s Scots Soul Poppers, Love and Money.

If not an actual supergroup, then they are, at the very least, a fantastic answer to that party game.

Brought together for a Celtic Connections/FRETS gig last year this wonderful night of brilliant songs, brilliantly sung is on a short UK tour – “just three blokes in a car” – with the set list split equally across three incredible catalogues.

The Redgrave Theatre is such a great space for it, hushed enough to hear every word (it’s yet another fantastic show in the Bristol Beacon Presents series).

Teenage Fanclub are, for some of us, the greatest pop band of their generation. You can keep boy bands and their synchronized dancing, you can keep quasi-operatic emoting, Norman Blake knows how to write a three-minute pop song that speaks to everyone.

Planets is his first of the evening and is dizzy in its exuberance, unashamedly romantic. It might not have been a hit single but, oh my, it’s just lovely. Did I Say? follows suit.

Everything Flows was the first Fanclub single and, over the intervening 33 years, it hasn’t changed a bit, or, at least, we haven’t noticed it changing. That must make it a classic. Right?

All three are perfect, genius-level pop songs and all three see the three musicians strumming and harmonising beautifully. Then there’s The Concept, from 1991s era-defining Bandwagonesque.

The whole of the Redgrave mouths along with every word, hugged by a deliciously warming sense that everything’s going to be alright.

The revelation of the evening is James Grant. His voice is rich and redolent of dark nights, it is world weary and delightfully poetic. State of Art from his first band, Friends Again, has a fabulously jangly quality whereas Winter, a Love and Money favourite, feels like a long-lost friend.

Does it All Add Up to Nothing? is billed as the most miserable song of the night. It’s not miserable though, it’s glorious, a church-like piece of wonder. Grant’s voice is all red wine and velvet, draping itself languorously across Blake’s country-ish harmonies and Butler’s echo-y, sympathetic guitar playing.

Butler’s guitar elevates this evening, moving it away from a simple acoustic strum-a-thon. He’s effortlessly cool, the one of the three that looks comfortable on their high stools.

He slouches in a perfect show of rock star insouciance, unfurling echoes and tremulous twangs, finally shredding a muted solo on Blake’s Everything Flows.

He proves to have a strong voice, too, that’s best shown on two tracks, both of which are from his McAlmont & Butler phase.

Yes is slower than the original version but no less awesome.

It would be, anyway, were it not for the fact that there’s still time for a version of Neil Young’s Cinnamon Girl. It’s full of harmonies, lovely guitar playing and a cracking tune. Much like the preceding 90 minutes really.

Main photo: Gavin McNamara

Read next:

• Review: cktrl, Rough Trade – ‘Dreamy soundscapes filled the venue’
• Review: The Dream Syndicate, The Fleece – ‘Every song a stone cold classic’
• Review: Courtney Marie Andrews, Trinity – ‘The epitome of country classic’

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