Rosenhof, Osnabrück, Germany
10th May 2013
The Levellers & Gaz Brookfield
Since THE LEVELLES released their latest album ‘Static On The Airwaves’, they are more or less constantly on tour. Last October, the band visited Germany as well and turning the concert halls into boiling pots. THE LEVELLERS are a band showing – after their more than 20 years in business and after their ground-breaking ‘Levelling The Land’ – how a good live show is put onto stage. They surely are one of the strongest bands in the genre of Punk-Folk. Now, the band from Brighton came back to Germany for four more dates and we took the chance to see the band in Osnabrück.
Gaz Brookfield
Bristol based solo musician, singer and songwriter GAZ BROOKFIELD writes songs that are instantly accessible talking about everyday life, love and everything else in between. Since Gaz started his solo career, he was already touring with great artists, like FRANK TURNER, I AM KLOOT or also THE LEVELLERS, to name a few. In 2010, he had won Acoustic Magazine's Singer Songwriter of the year competition followed consequently by lots of festival appearances for that summer and lots of bookings in the time after. In December 2011, he became the first and only unsigned solo act to sell out The Fleece, Bristol. He has done this twice more since then. Up to day, he played more than 700 gigs. In 2011, he released his debut album ‘Trial and Error’, followed by a live album in the same year. The second and latest album ‘Tell It To The Beer’ was out on 2012. http://www.gazbrookfield.com / https://www.facebook.com/gazbrookfieldmusic
Music & Performance
GAZ BROOKFIELD was a really good choice as opener for this evening. He entered the stage about 15 min before scheduled time, excused that his voice is raspy today since he is sick, and started with ‘SN1’ from the ‘Trial and Error’ album. From the first moment, he had the audience on his side who really enjoyed his show. His set was a well balanced mix of both released studio albums, it was energetic and passionate as well, showing him as a very friendly and lovely guy. Gaz is surely a charismatic man knowing how to get a crowd going. Even without a band behind him, he warmed up the audience very well for the LEVELLERS gig to follow. 30 minutes he was given passed fast and leaving with ‘Diet of Banality’ he received well-deserved applause.
Setlist
01. SN1 (Trial & Error)
02. Frank and Sam (Tell It To The Beer)
03. It Doesn't matter who you vote for, the Bastards always win (Trial & Error)
04. Man of Means (Trial & Error)
05. Death Bed (Tell It To The Beer)
06. Under the Table (Tell It To The Beer)
07. Be The Bigger Man (Tell It To The Beer)
08. Thin (Trial & Error)
09. Diet of Banality (Trial & Error)
Rating
Music: 8
Performance: 8
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8 / 10
Levellers
England based band THE LEVELLERS combine elements from Rock and Punk with traditional Folk and Celtic sounds in their music. In their lyrics, the band often critically discusses social circumstances in Great Britain and common social developments. THE LEVELLERS were founded in 1988 in Brighton by Jeremy Cunningham, Charlie Heather, Jon Sevink and Mark Chadwick. With the band name, they hint to the democratic movement of the Levellers in mid-17th century. The album ‘Levelling the Land’ was a bestseller in the early nineties, reached position 14 of the British chart even though the band was signed to Indie label China Records. In 2012, after four years break, THE LEVELLERS released a new album, ‘Static on the Airwaves’, followed by a big European tour. THE LEVELLERS are Mark Chadwick (vocals, guitar, harmonica), Simon Friend (guitar, banjo, vocals, mandolin, harmonica), Jeremy Cunningham (bass guitar, vocals), Charlie Heather (drums), Jonathan Sevink (fiddle), Matt Savage (keyboards, backing vocals) and sometimes the band is supported by Stephen Boakes (didgeridoo), like during the show in Osnabrück. http://www.levellers.co.uk/ / https://www.facebook.com/levellersofficial / http://www.myspace.com/levellers
Music & Performance
It took about thirty minutes until the stage was finally ready for THE LEVELLERS, making people ecstatically dance from the very first sounds of ‘England My Home’. The crowd at the Rosenhof was not too bad, I guess about 300 people, but the audience was up to celebrate with their favourite band a big party. ‘What a Beautiful Day‘, a song that often was played as an encore, was up already as second song. In the course of the following set, the band mixed songs from the newest album with a lot of beloved fan favourites. From the beginning to the end, the English Folk Rockers delivered an energetic set seeing the crowd loudly singing along to their favourite songs. Most impressive thing for me was seeing men far past their 40s moshing and jumping through the hall. Seemed the show was making them feel young again. And also the band, even though they are in business for 25 years now, seemed to have not lost any of their power. ‘The Game’ was rocking. Fiddle based ‘Thruth is’ was full of power and showed how much fun the band had on stage.
Singer Mark delivered a great vocal performance and from time to time, he shared vocal duties with Simon on guitar and banjo. Beloved tradition is also a guest appearance of Stephen Boakes with his didgeridoo. And also the Osnabrück show saw him joining the stage. First time on the evening for the song ‘This Garden’, he joined the band on stage with his white painted face and colourful outfit, whirling over stage with his didgeridoo that I often thought he might hit a band member’s or fan’s head with it. But he proved that he had full control over his instrument, no matter how wild he was acting on stage. Besides him, also bass player Jeremy was an impressive person on stage with his long dreadlocks, animating the audience to sing and dance along. And people happily followed his commands, loudly singing and clapping along to the hymn ‘One Way’ from the album ‘Levelling the Land’, or to other hits like ‘The Road’ or ‘Riverflow’. ‘The Cholera Well’ finally ended the main set, but what would be such an energetic show without any encore?
And so, the band came back for some more songs, leaving a happy audience at the end. Even though today other Folk bands are ruling the scene, THE LEVELLERS proved that they are still a band to be counted on.
Setlist
01. Intro
02. England My Home
03. What a Beautiful Day
04. The Game
05. World Freak Show
06. Second Life
07. Fifteen Years
08. Truth Is
09. Mutiny
10. Sell Out
11. Men An Tol
12. Death Loves Youth
13. Our Forgotten Towns
14. This Garden
15. One Way
16. The Road
17. Carry Me
18. Dirty Davey
19. Riverflow
20. The Cholera Well
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21. The Recruiting Sergeant
22. Liberty
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23. Devil Went Down to Georgia
Rating
Music: 9
Performance: 9
Sound: 8
Light: 8
Total: 8.5 / 10
All pictures by Daniela Vorndran (http://www.vorndranphotography.com / http://www.black-cat-net.de/ / http://www.myspace.com/vorndranphotography / http://www.facebook.com/blackcatnet)
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