Celtic Connections, as with all such festivals, provides a wonderful arena for odd combinations of music to be corralled together into one night. Tonight is a perfect example and, with the peculiar sight of chairs covering the dance floor, an assortment of devoted fans and interested neutrals come together under one roof.
We begin with Villagers, of whom tonight there is only one. Conor O’Brien shuffles below a single spotlight to one side of the stage and dons a guitar over his woolly jumper. Awkward greetings are made and a quite beautiful voice, lilting at times towards Celtic melodies, is a welcome arrival. The songs are nice enough but tend to run together and some clear talent gets a little wandered in the tedium. He finishes with an ill-advised version of Roy Orbison’s Crying and gets unintended guffaws by recreating a rather famous scene from Only Fools and Horses. You can catch Conor again solo at Stereo on the 1st of February.
And then there are Stornoway , who are not from Stornoway. The Oxford lads are a cheerier affair, brisk and poppy in their sensibilities, and raise smiles for more welcome reasons. The set is well received and an entirely different proposition to what preceded them or what was to come.
Fyfe Dangerfield, of Guillemots fame, headlines the night in support of his debut solo effort Fly Yellow Moon. His wiry frame has a lot of stage to fill without his band-mates but he lets the music make his presence felt. Opener ‘Livewire’ is quite at odds with the layered arrangements of his band and, with only an acoustic guitar for company, the strength of his voice shines through. The album is a pick and mix of styles and influences and lots of guitar changes and loop pedals are required to recreate this live, yet somehow it all comes together for a charming display.
Two violinists soon join proceedings and accompany Dangerfield’s vocals particularly well. Quieter songs like ‘High on the Tide’ benefit from the melancholic backing whilst upbeat tracks like Firebird find an anthemic edge to give them the necessary lift. Even a cover of Girls Aloud goes down well. The album might not be quite up there with his earlier work, and it’s true that the loudest cheer of the night is for an encore version of ‘Made Up Love Song’, but this was a confident performance and one that demonstrated wider talents. New Guillemots stuff is on the way, but for tonight we have an impressive end to a refreshingly varied show.
Pic: Euan Anderson
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