Gig Review: Anna Calvi and the Heritage Orchestra and Choir @ St John’s Church, Hackney 13/12/2014
Review by Mark Kelly
Photos by James McGalliard
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Tonight’s gig is a somewhat fascinating prospect: being part experiment, part Christmas treat for the fans. Promised are collaborators old and new, cover versions and new songs. Can’t wait! |
However, wait we must. The doors open at 7pm, there is no support act, and Anna is not due onstage until 8.45pm (she appears at about 9). No matter, for a church the venue is quite cosy, and it is that most rare of animals, a consecrated church with a (albeit temporary) licensed bar. Hot mulled cider with rum whiles away the time quite agreeably.
Presently the first guest, David Okumu from The Invisible, is ushered onstage to provide additional guitar on a cover of Connan Mockasin’s I’m The Man, That Will Find You. This is from Anna’s Strange Weather EP, which seems largely to have been the inspiration for this show.
At worst this was an interesting gig. It was certainly an ambitious one, and I think that Anna was very aware of that. She neither played nor sang with her usual abandon, although that is in no way to say that her performances were bad – they just didn’t reach her normal heights of excellence. That it was being filmed possibly didn’t help. This was a good gig, but not a great one. However, one must praise Anna for having the guts to try something different, which overall worked.
Mark Kelly
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