soundCHECK 221 – October 17th 2013

Consider standing on stage, alone, at a foreign music festival. Go on, picture yourself. You are face-to-face with a field-full of expectant German music fans, who have gathered to quaff Pilsener and watch you sing to them. For some humans, such a scenario would stoke genuine dread; the kind of panic attack-inducing fear triggered by finding the wrong kind of over-excited false widow in bed with you. For North Devon-bred Joe Brewer (nom de guerre: One Man Boycott), opening the main stage at Germany’s biggest free outdoor music festival – Wutzrock Festival in Hamburg – was the defining moment of a ferociously busy summer, which started launching a solo career and finished signing a contract with multi-million pound record label Spectra. Not bad for two months work.

“I’m stoked,” state-the-obviouses Brewer while becoming the envy of hobbyist songwriters across North Devon. “So many people said I was crazy heading out alone on such a big scale without having gone solo before, so I’m delighted to get picked up off the back of a tour that nearly didn’t happen at all.”

Brewer’s solo career is in its infancy. Still wiping its snotty nose with its jumper sleeve. Yet this is not the story of a man who has lucked out overnight. Before going solo Brewer spent two years as the bassist in much-loved local outfit Severe:Zero, freighting their hook-laden post-punk with thunderous riffs while accompanying vocalist Luke Bond with harmonies of a pitch that suggested Brewer had his own personal helium hook-up. Before that he performed in North Devon with his brother Ben Brewer in punk-rock trio Halley’s Apparition. Before even that, while still at school, he played in another punk-rock trio called Hollowpoint. Bottom line: the whole signed-after-two-months thing doesn’t quite tell the whole story. Brewer has paid his dues. And he’s not about to get complacent.

“I’m actually still coming to terms with the situation. I took a leap of faith, worked really hard and pulled it off. I guess the only thing that has changed about the way I feel is that all the times I lose confidence or doubt myself, I’ve got that little voice at the back of my mind that says ‘yeah but you got signed after two months, you must be doing something right!’ I know it’s a cliché but there’s no doubt in my mind that the hard work starts here.”

Listen to One Man Boycott’s blistering, bouncy, heartfelt EP at joebrewer.bandcamp.com.

North Devon should be proud.

CONTACT: Got a gig coming up? New band video? Had a rubbish week? jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse

soundCHECK 220 – October 10th 2013

A dreary Friday evening in Nashville, Tennessee. Raindrops bombard the streets, washing away the filmy layer of emotional residue deposited by an air habitually heavy with musical choruses that tell of unrequited love, romantic infidelities and the consequences of heavy heart. This dusty detritus accumulates fast in a city that stakes a persuasive claim to being the spiritual home of country music – country musicians not exactly coy when it comes to communicating their feelings. (They probably don’t even need a local radio station in Nashville. Pop your head out of the window and the united low of tuneful confessions emanating from showers, band rehearsal rooms and music venues probably renders a harmony as sweet as any ever heard.)

I digress. It’s a rainy Friday in Nashville, got it? Alt. country poster-girl Lisa Marie Presley will soon be attempting, no doubt, to ignore the lecherous stares of middle-aged hicks while performing on stage as part of the Americana Festival. But before that particular love-in, an unassuming British songwriter has a show to perform; a flag to fly for good old Mother Blighty. His name? Peter Bruntnell. And his booking at such a well-respected carnival of alt. country as Americana Festival, which unfurled last month, was the product of a long and productive music career, albeit one that has always sat tantalisingly off-screen of popular culture’s radar.

If you read Journal2 with any regularity, Bruntnell’s is a name that should be familiar. The New Zealand born, London-raised singer-songwriter is a regular fixture of the North Devon acoustic scene and something of a favourite with music fans young and old. He has released no less than nine albums. Rolling Stone magazine cited him as “one of England’s best kept musical secrets.” The Independent triumphantly labelled him “one of the finest songwriters in Britain.” Hardly parochial blandishments. Yet Bruntnell remains somewhat underrated in mainstream circles. Perhaps, in part, that’s what spurs a tireless work ethic and nomadic globe-trotting (as you read this Bruntnell is touring Sweden).

Maybe in a parallel universe Bruntnell has found fame and fortune. Perhaps he has a seat on the X Factor judging panel, hopefully in place of imbecilic smarmball Gary Barlow – a man who’s done remarkably well for himself considering the only facial expression he seems physiologically capable of making is not smile, nor frown, but a kind of post-lobotomised self-satisfaction. But no, in the absence of light-speed space travel, we must ponder with tellurian mind why Bruntnell remains a secret and ask post-haste what we have been missing out on.

Immediate answers are available at peterbruntnell.net. But for a more thorough and no doubt enjoyable inquisition, visit Pilton Village Hall on Saturday 2nd November to watch Bruntnell perform. Homegrown alt. folker Small Town Jones (smalltownjones.co.uk) supports in what promises to be an enjoyable and emotionally redolent evening. Think candlelit tables, a clear view of the stage wherever you’re sat and respectful audiences enjoying talented artists. The icing on the cake? The promoters encourage you to take your own ‘refreshments’. Yep, booze. So the only money you need to spend is on your tickets, which are priced at £8 and are available from Solo Music in Barnstaple or The Reform in Pilton. They cost slightly more from threesticks.co.uk.

A small slither of the Nashville spirit in Pilton? Raindrops bombarding the streets? You can be sure of at least one of them.

CONTACT: Add some meaning to my existence by sharing your local music news. jharper[at]northdevonjournal.co.uk | @testforpulse