Will Varley – Gorilla, Manchester.
By November 9th, it was safe to assume that the news regarding a certain orange-complexioned, angry old guy had reached Britain’s attention. The USA Election Day – A day that will not be remembered fondly by Will Varley or the dominant part of his fanbase. A day that The Lion and the Wolf’s frontman, Thomas George labelled
“The darkest we may have ever seen”.
Though on this day, he was glad to be supporting Will Varley’s set, performing for Gorilla bar in the unconditionally optimistic city of Manchester.
Fittingly, an assortment of miserable melodies followed. Three-piece harmonies graced each folk-inspired chorus and for each song came anecdotes of death, loss and distance. Thomas George told his stories with a heart-warming and occasionally sarcastic humour that kept his audience enticed. However, at some stages the songs seemingly lacked the ability to speak for themselves, even when ignoring the technical difficulties that became apparent throughout the performance.
The melodies that were explored, unfortunately, fall into a rather cliché formula of songwriting. They played well, and clues from their style of playing make the singer-songwriter foundation of the tracks apparent, and that the library was later adapted for a three-piece. However, the adaptation to include the band should have allowed space for further creativity and individuality, rather than what is essentially a drum and bass guitar backing track to George’s vocals and rhythm guitar.
That night, the simplicity was entirely appropriate – a transition from electric-indie folk to back-to-basics acoustic guitar was refreshing. Respect should also be granted for Thomas George’s DIY attitude that was demonstrated even after the performance, where he marched from the stage and straight onto the stall to assist selling merchandise and greet fans.
Will Varley’s turn. The audience sang “Come let’s light a fire, drink a beer and sing a song” –
“Or perhaps, something a little stronger tonight?”
Will inserted, and the room ignited. From that moment, Varley had the voices, eyes and devoted respect of the audience.
Varley’s creativity and wit are perhaps the best ingredients to his persona and his lyricism. On the night, however, stories of “David Cameron’s mum” and “Nick Clegg on his Nintendo DS” needed renewing due to the post-Brexit newcomer MPs. So when Varley made it to number 10 during the story telling of ‘I got this Email’, some improvised lyrics had to be conjured involving Teresa May and the “Horrible, ridiculous, spineless excuse for a politician”, Boris Johnson. And of course, Donald Trump made an appearance on several occasions throughout the night, including the Johnny Cash-worthy ‘Talking Cat Blues’, where Donald stars as the hero who is out to stop war and inequality, and even refrains from ‘grabbing women by the pussy’.
TMB’s recent interview with Varley told of the sadness that parallels his touring lifestyle. After playing a long-winded ‘The Man Who Fell to Earth’, Varley provided some closure to this topic. He stated -
“Sometimes when I perform, I find that my thoughts will drift and I leave my own mind for a while”,
but then he acknowledged the company of his audience and admitted that it “still blows my fucking mind!”. Will Varley made countless interjections during his performance. He was hilarious. Valid. Never disturbing. He reminded the audience that
“No matter what your stance is, we can’t let Brexit divide us, we can’t let them and their walls divide us”.
Will Varley is a tantalising live-act, his ability to spark laughter and intellectual insight creates a mutual sense of unification at a time when we need it most.