It is a bit of an interesting evening really, starting with an hilarious smokey-kitchen incident in my Latest Curry Adventure. Fully Charcoal'd and appetite-sated we arrive at the Fleece only to find that some woman has collapsed in the doorway and we can't get in. We head next door, with a promise that the woman will come and get us when Gemma Hayes starts. Don't make promises you have no intention of keeping mofo, I think when we go back one pint later and find that she's already started.
So, evening off to a good start then. I hope that Gemma will make it worth our while but only two songs out of the eight we listen to are any good and there is only so much middle of the road pop country a man can stand.
We run away.
It's not that hard to find what is so off-putting, although Gemma Hayes is quite nice to look at. It is more the blandness of it all. The drummer plays drums and keyboards at the same time and the drums are passed through some awful gate/filter that makes them sound flat and synthesised. The songs have no dynamic range and this combined with Ms Hayes' small melodic range quickly becomes boring.
I had hoped for something more folky, more akin to her very first EP 3a.m. But it seems that those days are over, for Gemma Hayes wants to sell some records. And Fast.
So like I said, we run away. It's a shame that some artists' musical misdirections do this and it's hard to tell whether they're doing it for the love or the money. Lucky them, if they coincide. Fool them, if they don't.
