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Wednesday 18^th November 2004 – Porter Cellar Bar

Well, the rumours started last night, a friend told a friend who told a friend and so on. The Coral were apparently going to do an impromptu gig in The Porter Cellar Bar. Now this rumour was about as believable as Nirvana reforming with Kurt back on vocals but I for one wasn’t going to risk not seeing for myself. So off I trotted to the Porter for a butchers.

Well, I’m glad I got there early, as it seemed like I wasn’t the only person to have friends in the know. The place was rammed to the rafters and there was nowhere to park ones arse. No worries I thought, there are microphones set up on the stage and there was a small poster upstairs stating “Instead of the advertised band James and Nick (The Coral) will play a rare acoustic set” so it did seem that something was going to happen.

After a couple of drinks (around 9ish) a young lad took to the stage, Rob Sparling (it said on the posters, well it said Nick Sparling but the Nick was crossed out and replaced with Rob). Rob looked young a little uncomfortable, it was a very large crowd. As soon as he started playing he seemed to relax into the set very quickly. A mature and controlled voice accompanied some impressive finger picking on the guitar as he drifted through a set that consisted of a couple of well-picked covers by the likes of John Martyn and Leonard Cohen as well as some very well crafted songs of his own including Topsy Turvy that reminded me a lot of Donovan. After playing for about 40 minutes this young folk singer left the stage to raucous applause. Then, nothing. Literally nothing for 20 minutes, the crowd started getting a little restless but the mood was mostly jovial. After another 10 minutes (around 10.10pm) there was an announcement that the band would be down in ten minutes. The crowd cheered in a well-oiled fashion and the waiting continued.

Ten minutes later there was a shuffling behind the curtain at the back of the stage. Then a face (Nick Power I believe) peaked out. The crowd started cheering, the excitement had built up to fever pitch. I doubt whether the small Porter Cellar Bar has ever seen anything like this before, and every body felt they were part of something special. After what felt like an aeon Nick Power (The Coral) and Adrian Utley (Portishead) took to the small stage, guitars in hand and began to strum into the mics. The crowd were still cheering which must have made the soundman’s job twice as hard as it already was (he had no clear view of the stage due to the crowd and I later found out there had been no soundcheck). Then came James Skelly, he walked on with a typical scouse swagger and picking up the mic just muttered “Alright?” to someone in the front row. Then they were off into “Dreaming of You” and everyone in the room started singing along, it was a very odd and exciting moment. Next up was Pass It On, Don’t Think You’re The First and Bill McCai. This all made for a short but exciting set of hits. The crowd called for more as the band left from the back of the stage. Nick muttered something into a mic about not having rehearsed any more songs and then left the stage waving and smiling. Someone ran backstage and came back out a little later to announce that that really was it. There was a slight air of disappointment from the crowd that had waited so long to see the band, but this quickly dissipated when everyone realised what they had just witnessed and everyone started cheering again.

And what had they seen? They (and myself) had seen the lead singer of The Coral accompanied by his bands keyboard player and the guitarist from Portishead playing songs neither of them have ever (in public at least) played on the guitar in public. I personally can’t think of a band of The Corals stature that would be willing to play a venue the size of the Porter just for a laugh. It shows an enthusiasm for music and sharing music with people that a lot of bands seem to have lost. It really was a very unique and personal experience to see, and to top it all of I heard from a reasonable source that the band really enjoyed it to.

Don Swede

http://www.thecoral.co.uk

 photo courtesy of Joanna Fallon