Scritti Politti

<img src="http://www.qromag.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/scrittipolittiaug3.jpg" alt="Scritti Politti : Live" />It was a packed house at the Brudenell and the crowd was buzzing long before show time for 'locals' Scritti Politti. ...
Scritti Politti : Live

It was a packed house at the Brudenell and the crowd was buzzing long before show time on Friday, August 3rd in Leeds.  It felt like a homecoming concert.  Several people reminded that Scritti were originally formed in Leeds – one guy claimed to remember the band from his time at the Leeds Poly.  It was a pretty mixed crowd – lots of people who could have been fans the first time around, but plenty more who presumably learned the words to "Word Girl" at their mother’s or even their grandmother’s knee.

It was not clear whether Green Gartside and the band feel like it was a homecoming – Gartside himself is from Cardiff, and the remaining members of this incarnation of Scritti Politti (Dicky Moore on guitar, Rhodri Marsden keyboards and Nick Roberts drums) are all from London, the Leeds element of the band having dropped from the roster early on in the band’s progress, but when Gartside reminisced about his first gig, at a now demolished pub across the road from the Poly, the roar from the crowd was deafening – this was a roomful of people who felt themselves to be a part of the Scritti Politti story.

Green GartsideGartside is a man almost as famous for being shy and reclusive as he is for his music, but he seemed at ease and happy to be here.  He has an album in the pipeline that has been in progress for more than six years, which he has promised to deliver this year, so maybe tonight is the musical equivalent of playing truant.  He clearly still has the wry humour which made his lyrics stand out from the eighties crowd.  "How are you Leeds?" he asked at the start of the show, and when a voice in the crowd replied, "We’re okay – how about you?", he paused for a moment as if thinking it over.  His reply – "Fucking terrified!" brought the house down, the band launched themselves into "The Sweetest Girl", and the dancing started.

The band was on great form, tight and funky and clearly enjoying themselves.  Marsden had two Macbooks attached to the keyboards, which helped him to bring a considerable part of the distinctive ‘80s studio sound to their stage performance and on many songs the muscular presence of two guitars actually represented an improvement on the original arrangements, allowing Gartside to lean into the vocal, to sing as slyly as he writes.

It was, of course, Gartside’s voice that stole the show – he is as good a white soul singer as the U.K. has ever produced, and it does not seem to have diminished with the passing of the years.  On "Word Girl" and "Boom Boom Bap" he was particularly good, eyes tightly closed, concentrating very hard and singing very sweetly indeed.

Green GartsideThe evening proceeded with greatest hits spread throughout the show, newer material mixed in and the whole interspersed with anecdotes from the Scritti Politti story – writing "Brushed With Oil, Dusted With Powder" on a guitar borrowed from Joni Mitchell, working with hip hop artists such as Jimahl and Mos Def.  Gartside apologized to the audience before "Die Alone" for the unedifying spectacle of a 50-year-old white man rapping, but he nailed the song and the rap, and the crowd loved it.

Although the ‘80s hits got the biggest cheers, it was clear that much of the band’s fan base has stayed loyal and songs from their 2006 return to form White Bread Black Beer were welcomed almost as loudly as the better known numbers – and the band dropped in a new song to show that they are still writing, and if this night is anything to go by then the new album, when it arrives, may well be something special.

Scritti Politti

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Concert Reviews
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