Cardiacs Family, Spratleys, The Smith and Drake Ensemble , Brighton Concord, October 2024 – Not so much a review as much as a tale of one more seaside treat. In many ways, it felt like that one London show attended back in the Summer was enough. only went to the one, resited the temptation of returning for the next night, it felt just right, it felt like a good point to get off the long long beautiful ride, it felt like Cardiacs Family had done it at The Garage, that they had done in as just about the best possible way they could. That Garage gig was magical, emotional, something very special, something shared by everyone in the room and indeed beyond that room on that night. Something shared by those seasoned pond dwellers, by veterans of a many gig, by those hearing those wonderfully unique songs performed live for the very first time, by people who had travelled from all over the globe, it felt like as near perfect as it could ever be in terms of celebrating the music and the life of Tim Smith – Singing Cardiacs songs for him, the Sing For Tim celebration at the Garage, London, of course it was wonderful, of course it was… I have no problem with the idea of the whole Cardiacs family thing carrying on and everyone enjoying it all some more, why not? Why not let those songs fly, they surely need to fly? And not that any of it needs approval from anyone around here I should add, it just felt like a good point for me personally to get off the ride with that warm glowing feeling and the memory of that very special Sing To Tim gig at the Garage added to so many other beautiful Cardiacs memories. 

And then they announced four more dates around the country, and no, not going to be tempted, and then came an invite and an offer of a guest list place for Brighton that I polite declined and “oh we’ll put you on anyway just in case…” and no, surely The Garage was enough? The Garage couldn’t possibly be bettered, don’t get tempted, don’t spoil it… a seaside treat though… no, don’t get tempted…. no, don’t, you’ll regret it… Why was I playing Quadraphonia the day before? And album partly about going to Brighton, an album Tim Smith clearly loved (we’ve had some many chats about The Who), I mean, a day trip to Brighton? A Seaside Treat, a visit to the seaside before the weather really turns? Perhaps not on the 5.15, we’d need to leave London a little bit earlier and hey, Well maybe, if the weather is good in the morning? And suddenly we’re listening to Quadraphonia again on Sunday morning and it is good weather and well, it is tempting isn’t it? I mean, one more…

The guy in the parka on his pristine Vespa GS scooter pulling out in front of the 26 bus taking us towards London Bridge Station and the Brighton train was the first good sign, bits of The Who running around heads, off on the train, not out of my brain, art in the bag, ready to drop, see, I’m working, a legitimate reason to be going to the seaside, and well, if there just happens to be a gig going on then well, okay. it won’t be as good as The Garage, how could it possibly be, but hey… a seaside treat… 

Art dropped, leaves left in that alley, on the seafront, that dirty great flower is going past on shirts again and again, knowing nods, we bump into some people who’ve come over from Netherlands, someone from the Czech Republic (or Czechia as it is now known), the pubs are full of Cardiacs t-shirts, old faces, old friends, new ones, there’s a buzz building, locals asking what on earth is going on. We can see more people as we walk along the front, a rat takes a diversion from the dark of wherever he was going and comes up to us and says hello, no, really, a single rat, just comes over, just to say hello, another good sign, the day has been full of them. The day at the seaside has indeed been a treat already, and is that Is This The Life coming out of the bar on the seafront just down the road from the venue? It was never quite like this back in the day, this thing is getting bigger and bigger, growing all the time and we’re in the expanding groups of people walking in the dark, anticipation along the seafront to the Concord now, there’s smiles as wide as alligators rather than crocodile grins, I’m feeling very striking, hey, what was I doing thinking I shouldn’t come, this is taking to my liking, and look at that queue, smiles everywhere, this feel right, as warm as can be down by the sea..

The Smith and Drake Ensemble start before some of us can get in, they sound good with the sea air blowing in, they have those even quieter versions of Sea Nymphs songs as well as those Mr and Mrs Smith and Mr Drake tunes tingling, Richard Larcombe and friends getting things just as beautifully right as they had done in London only this time you can almost hear a pin drop, no one is talking in here, everyone listening intently to every last little bit of it all – they really should do more of this, they have it so right, the should headline some shows of their own, they should make a live album, Eating A Heart Out is particularly special in the perfect quiet, the reverential hush, the tear or two around me for the nine minutes of aching beauty that is Dergo… 

Spratleys if that’s what we’re calling them now, and Tim Smith’s Spratleys? Spratley’s Rats? whatever it is, they’re sounding good, they’re sounding strong. Originally formed by Cardiacs leader Tim Smith and singer Joanne Spratley back at the end of the last century, Tim’s attempt to make pop songs so he said, “but they just come out sounding like the same old shit”, his songs always sounded like pop songs to these ears, I mean is there a better pop song than Day Is Gone… 

Hey, look I don’t want to write another review, sometimes you just need to not have to think about it too much, Jo Spratley and her band were on top form, she’s great, she handles the situation perfectly, someone mentioned Lena Lovich, Jo has that on-stage personality, that presence, and that sound is rather unique, the new songs emerging, everything sounding easy, do like the way this band are expanding, growing, being, do love their here and now, this forward looking line up, this taking and running with it all, this celebration, the glorious sway of their songs, the drums, the ribbons, the ritual…

And then Cardiacs Family, this time we kind of knew what to expect, in London we didn’t, in London we kind of hoped for guests walking on at the end of the Spratleys set, like there might be one or two guests, that Jim would appear, that we’d get to sing a song or two, we didn’t expect a full band, a full Cardiacs set, Jim, Jon, Christian, Bob along with Craig Fortnam on percussion, Chloe Herington on saxophone, and Adrien Rodes on keyboards, we do know what to expect this time. This time we were prepared, we were expectant, we were ready to go off and things. Jon Poole summed it up with his words about him being here, he is here, he’s in all of us, “we are all Tim Smith”. John’s doing a difficult job really really well, and here we are, Cardiacs family and affectionate friends celebrating the life and work of Tim Smith.

Oh I’m glad we came, and yes we did know what to expect, only we didn’t because here we can really listen, in London back in the Summer at the Garage is was mostly adrenaline, emotion, bliss, here we can really listen to those songs, those tunes, those compositions, to the details that in so many ways have been lost for too long. The life in that live percussion, the details in that inspired opening choice of All His Geese Are Swans, have they added more? No, all those details were always there, just lost in the tapes and the mix, brilliant detail! Oh this is wonderful, people are smiling, dancing, jumping, crying, we can really hear it all and hey, I don’t want to write a review, and of course we miss him and it can’t be the same without Tim and all he would say up there, but they are doing it well and yes maybe Jon has almost lost his voice and Jim yes takes a break mid set after his health scare the night before, and there’s Jesse Cutts from Spratleys stepping in on bass impressively for two or three numbers in the middle of it all. It was wonderful, why on earth would I have thought I wouldn’t want to be here in the middle of all this celebration, all this happiness and joy. But I don’t want to have to write another review, I don’t want to have to think too hard about it, I just want to enjoy it all. Brighton felt good, it felt right, it felt like this should go on and on, that there should be orchestral versions and more ensembles and more Seaside Treats, that these songs have to be performed, heard and the many people here tonight who never saw Tim, who hadn’t heard of the band until recently, who deserve to hear it all some more, it was wonderful, a “cavalcade of bonafide Cardiacs past, present and future colliding in kind to re-present the full splendour of it all anew” and look at the smiles, look at the smile of that girl’s face as she dances at the end, look at her joy, lost in it all, brilliant! That’s how it was, I don’t want to have to review it, it was brilliant seaside treats and then we had to run for the last train without saying goodbye, so there does need to be a next time doesn’t there? (sw)

And we do need to say a special thanks to Christian Hayes and Jo Spratley who organised all this.

The set
All His GEESE are SWANS!
The Duck and Roger the Horse
There’s Too Many Irons in the Fire
Everything Is Easy
As Cold as Can Be in an English Sea
Day Is Gone
Arnald
Anything I Can’t Eat
To Go Off and Things
The Leader of the Starry Skies (with Sharron Fortnam)
Joining the Plankton (with Andrew “Tiny” Wood)
Ideal (with Jo Spratley)
Tarred and Feathered
Is This the Life (with Mark Cawthra)

Encore:
Big Ship (with Mark Cawthra)
Stoneage Dinosaurs

Previously…

ORGAN THING: “Cardiacs: A Big Book and a Band and the Whole World Window” is launched today, it is a big book, it is a rather splendid thing indeed…

ORGAN THING: Singing Cardiacs songs for him, the Sing For Tim celebration at the Garage, London, of course it was wonderful, of course it was…

ORGAN THING: In celebration of Tim Smith, the leader of the starry skies as well as Cardiacs, an Other Rock Show special replayed tonight on Resonance FM. Hear it here…

oh there’s loads more

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And here’s someone else’s footage… I hope they don’t mind. Oh and if you don’t really know, then further down there, a rather splendid Cardiacs playlist I made for me but you are more than welcome to explore it…