A year after forming in 2004 in their hometown of Sunderland in the Northeast of England, Field Music released their self-titled debut album. Now, two decades further on down the line, the band have reconvened the original line-up of Peter and David Brewis on guitars and drums and Andrew Moore on keyboards to celebrate the 20th anniversary of that rather wonderful record.
Leeds is the first of three special concerts to mark this great occasion, a fitting testament to the creative integrity, personal resilience, and longevity of the band in what have often been parlous financial circumstances – Field Music have never had a hit record – as much as it is to the innovation and impressive cohesion of that first album.
The trio open with the first five tracks from Field Music, the album, with the brothers Brewis already alternating seamlessly between guitars and drums. They play these songs in chronological order and, in doing so, remind us of the fact that their music is delightfully refracted through a magical Mackem prism that has already been shot through with elements of 10cc, Steely Dan, Something/Anything?-period Todd Rundgren, The Beach Boys, and a myriad of other revered reference points. Throw in a measure of progressive rock and you have a recipe for some delightfully off-kilter avant-pop.
But if we thought that ‘It’s Not the Only Way to Feel Happy’ was going to be next up and Field Music were about to run through their first album in its entirety, that notion was quickly dispelled with the imminent arrival of ‘You’re Not Supposed To.’ Mind you, that song does appear in the recently released, super-expanded 20th anniversary edition of the record.
Their second album, 2007’s Tones of Town doesn’t miss out either when ‘A Gap Has Appeared’ enters the fray before the band break loose with a brilliantly extended reading of ‘Got To Get The Nerve’ with Andrew Moore providing some suitably spectral Ray Manzarek keys and Peter Brewis lets fly with a flurry of guitar of which Robby Krieger would have been suitably impressed. Who would have thought way back in 2005 that one day Field Music could sound like The Doors?
Andrew Moore is once more back in the spotlight, this time taking lead vocals on ‘Sleeping on the Floor,’ a song which does date from those early recording sessions but didn’t see the full light of day until a couple of years back on the Songs from the Shelf EP. Returning to the first album, Field Music perform ‘17’ in public for what may only be the second time.
‘Got to Write a Letter’ is quintessential Field Music, bursting at the seams with a gloriously quirky, angular groove and boundless imagination before ‘You’re So Pretty’ – arguably the debut album’s best track – brings this inspired set to a close.
Twenty years ago, Field Music were appearing in front of a handful of people at the Cockpit in Leeds city centre. That live music venue has long since gone, but Field Music are still very much here, now playing to a packed, hugely appreciative Brudenell – “a home from home” as David Brewis fondly describes it. And they aren’t finished yet, returning for an encore courtesy of first ‘Give It, Lose It, Take It’ and then the last remaining track from Field Music to be played tonight, a suitably emotional ‘It’s Not the Only Way to Feel Happy.’
Photos: Simon Godley
A few more photos of Field Music at Brudenell Social Club in Leeds
