It’s a busy Saturday night in Birmingham, already a hint of Christmas revelry in the air and Wolf Alice also playing just down the road at the Utilita Arena. So busy in fact that my 5-mile journey takes nearly 2 hours and includes parking across the city and a heroic, unplanned dash through Chinatown in order to make it in time to see Ciara Mary-Alice Thompson, AKA CMAT and her band take to the stage. This unfortunately means that I completely miss special guest Fancy Hagood, which is the first time I have failed to see a support act in a very long time.
The Academy is absolutely heaving with a real palpable excitement as the lights go down and the ‘other’ six of the CMAT band take the stage to begin with the final track of the third and most recent CMAT album, EURO-COUNTRY. But as they begin the track, ‘Janis Joplining’ there’s something, or rather, someone, missing…CMAT! At this point, I wasn’t sure if this was due to my vantage point at the side of the stage (I would later get my first glimpse of the excellent drummer, Hannah Morgan, as she takes a bow with the rest of the band at the end of the show!), but no, it turns out that she delivered the first song off-stage. This was a masterstroke in building anticipation, as when she then arrived on-stage to sing the brilliant (and brilliantly-named) ‘The Jamie Oliver Petrol Station’, something akin to Beatlemania was in the air. Pink, sparkly cowboy hats were waved in delight and the crowd sang along with every word of the song’s unusual lyrics (if I had read the title in isolation, I would have assumed it to be a track from the new Half Man Half Biscuit album!). CMAT starts the song prowling the stage and ends it grabbing an acoustic guitar to add another layer to the sound.
‘I Don’t Really Care For You’ from the debut album If My Wife New I’d Be Dead is vigorously received as it becomes clear that there are two main factors making this such an engaging show, firstly CMAT is an absolute expert at keeping the crowd hanging on her every word and move, and secondly, virtually every song that she has sounds like a massive hit. The songs are just so huge-sounding, instantly memorable, and the seven-piece band (including CMAT herself) really does them justice.
There’s a dance routine at the front of the stage with all of the band members (except drummer Morgan, that would have been difficult) and plenty of audience interaction throughout – including an admission that the Birmingham accent is the only one that CMAT can’t do. She enlists a crowd member to help her out with it. Last year’s ‘Aw, Shoot’ single gets yet another rousing backing from the crowd – each song takes the fervour in the crowd higher, the recent single ‘Take A Sexy Picture Of Me’ is superb, and the opener of middle album Crazymad, For Me, the more subtle ‘California’, builds and builds, the backing vocals so key to the recorded version approximated carefully by the band.
One of the key songs on that same record is the duet with John Grant, ‘Where Are Your Kids Tonight?’ – tonight, keyboardist Colm Conlan steps into the Grant role and does it with style – not easy shoes to fill! ‘Running/Planning’ is perhaps the biggest CMAT radio hit so far (nobody really has actual Top 40 hits now, do they?) and ends the main set with yet another mass singalong, but it’s not long until the seven arrive back to deliver the new album’s epic title track. An impromptu Marilyn Monroe-style ‘Happy Birthday’ for someone in the crowd who had the forethought to prepare and bring an ‘It’s my birthday’ sign with them is followed by CMAT persuading the entire crowd, balcony and all, to perform some dance moves to crowd favourite ‘I Wanna Be A Cowboy, Baby!’ before ‘Stay For Something’ (which she introduces as her best song) ends the night on a high.
CMAT seems destined for the arenas next time around; her skills as a raconteur really add to the atmosphere and feel-good element of the show. Anyone sad about missing Wolf Alice will surely comfort themselves with the fact that they have caught CMAT on the absolute top of her game tonight.
