David Jennings

My kind of band

In the aftermath of an early-evening thunderstorm on a baked Easter weekend, Trembling Bells took the stage in a Lewisham pub. They seemed like visitors from another time. It wasn’t quite clear which, but the most evident contender is the early Seventies, and it’s no surprise that Joe Boyd, the celebrated producer of Nick Drake and Fairport Convention, referred to them as ‘my kind of band’.

• From magazine issue: 07 May 2011

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The four steal their way through several traditions as they serve up songs from the three albums they’ve released over a very fertile 24 months. ‘Adieu, England’ nods to folk revivalist Shirley Collins, while ‘Love Made an Outlaw of my Heart’ adapts a Kris Kristofferson lyric. The muscular keyboard-guitar-drum jam in ‘Otley Rock Oracle’ brings to mind The Doors or the second Genesis album.

The set is punctuated by two a cappella songs performed by bandleader Alex Neilson and singer/arranger Lavinia Blackwall, and for me the band are at their most successful when they balance the feral energy of Neilson and Blackwall’s previous collaboration, Directing Hand, with the discipline of the traditions they draw on.

For this isn’t simply the Seventies revisited. Trembling Bells are refracting the music of an era before they were born. They may have embraced its organic sound, but let’s remember that ‘organic’ is itself an artifice which, back then, was just a Richard Briers joke about Surbiton.

Trembling Bells play London’s Queen Elizabeth Hall on 30 May with guest Mike Heron.