The Lost Trades & Half of One at The Hop, Swindon

One part of Swindon was in perfect harmony last night, and I don’t mean the traffic circumnavigating the Magic Roundabout. Rather The Lost Trades were at the Hop in Old Town, honouring a postponed gig from September…..

SoP Live, who run a regular Thursday night music club at The Castle, plenty of other gigs, and coordinate the Swindon Shuffle and Swinterfest, arranged this evening’s entertainment at The Hop, the largest of pubs on the Devizes Road area of Old Town with the perfect upstairs function room to turn into a temporary folk club.

A slight music appreciation collective gathered, seated and respectfully keen to value live music of this calibre. On previous occasions when the Lost Trades played here, organiser Ed Dyer explained, “were packed out,” and factors of the lesser crowd were discussed; it could’ve been because it was rescheduled. While free pub gigs thrive equally to overpriced pop star concerts, add even the smallest price to less mainstream acts, as this gig did, sadly seems can reduce its attraction. What we all need to be mindful of is the safety net; dedicated and erudite promoters like SoP guarantee tried and tested acts, ergo paying a small ticket stub is worthwhile for a better class of live music than a pub throwing any old band in for peanuts. Ah, you get what you pay for, but to disregard this notion is to lose venues and promoters. The saddest thing is, that is happening….now. Support them, or become a skint Swifty, your choice.

Whilst Jamie R Hawkins and Phil Cooper of The Lost Trades are no strangers to playing a pub gig solo, the key to the Lost Trades works best at folk festivals and clubs, and arts centres. It is fantastic to think this local export is nationwide now, and judging on their performance last night, something I’ve not caught for what seems like an age, it’s thoroughly deserved. There’s a sense of elevation in their delivery of these soothing vocal harmonies, a consistent strive of improvement, which if it isn’t at its peak now, the summit would be on an angelic level.

Such a while it has been, Tamsin Quin left the trio and has been replaced by Jess Vincent, and I was yet to see that working live, despite fondly mentioning their latest single, Float Me On Your River. As well as performing some other new songs, they opened with this, and notwithstanding Tamsin has a distinguishable voice, Jess makes the quintessential substitution, an exemplar to the ethos of The Lost Trades. Her wonderful vocal range and proficient percussion complement Phil and Jamie’s expressions on equal terms as Tamsin’s, and so The Lost Trades are once again at the top of their game.

And a sublime performance it was, but not before a support act new to me played a divine set of fiddle, guitar and occasional loop pedal folk covers. Half of One is a Swindon duo, fiddler Geoff Roberts and guitarist Neil Mercer, and they’ve played together in folk band SGO who recently disbanded, and who I’m well aware of, and dance band Cowshed Ceilidh Collective. We were treated to some gorgeous English folk pieces, others from the likes of Sam Sweeny, Show of Hands’ Steve Knightly, and a wonderfully delivered Great War song for Remembrance I missed the name of and cannot find online! It was a spellbinding support, which could’ve been the headline for any folk club.

As folk, The Lost Trades have always stated it’s “modern folk,” and with electric guitars and some subject matter I see this, but there’s something uniquely captivating about them which makes it timeless and conjures images of The Carter Family. I may not have been lucky enough to have seen The Everley Brothers or Simon & Garfunkel, but The Lost Trades are vocal harmony perfection to me!

Available at Devizes Books, or message Devizine for a copy!

Trending……

Rooks; New Single From M3G

Chippenham folk singer-songwriter, M3G (because she likes a backward “E”) has a new single out tomorrow, Friday 19th December. Put your jingly bell cheesy…

Keep reading

Something went wrong. Please refresh the page and/or try again.

Leave a comment