GEMMA HAYES | LIVE REVIEW
The Globe, Cardiff, Thurs 14 May
A quiet Thursday night in Cardiff. Sky Atlantic schedules the penultimate episodes of The Jinx and Mad Men.
Support act Mary Spender is sparky, jazzy and creative, like Peggy Olson. Soon after, Gemma Hayes and her four-piece backing band stride quickly onto the stage, catching us fans on the hop. Hayes is Mad Men’s Joan: she has the beauty and the talent, and has forged a career on her own terms, though a corporate glass ceiling has diverted her away to more interesting avenues. Hayes’ fifth studio album, Bones + Longing, is part-funded by fans through Pledge Music and forms the bulk of her set, representing a return to her more indie roots of Night On My Side. She’s always straddled the pop and indie worlds masterfully, but has never been predictable enough for the mainstream, and not quite hipster enough for 6 Music territory.
She opens with a trio of tunes from Bones + Longing, with Dreamt You Were Fine and Joy showcasing her new direction, taking her uptempo songs into the more new wave/shoegaze territory explored on Keep Running, played from predecessor album Let It Break. Making My Way Back is unexpectedly gnarly as her acoustic electric battery is gone. During frequent retuning, she regales the fans with anecdotes. One is about her first LA pool party and a partygoer in a dry-clean only, rhinestone-encrusted bikini which should never be wet. The superficiality inspired relocation back to Dublin and Keep Running where she sings she “might as well be lost anywhere than lost in your world”. To Be Your Honey and the line “your love is like a tourniquet” grasps your hand tightly and you want to hold it back. Oliver, she tells us in her Irish lilt, is about beating Willy – a bully she turned the tables on in her primary years before he broke her teenage heart. A xylophone prettifies the pain.
This is Gemma Hayes – she’s forgiving and bold, foolhardy and full of love, and she’s never sour about the bittersweet. Masterful tonight, even when a punter’s smartphone Siri won’t pipe down, and I’m home in time for Mad Men on catch up, with night on my side.
words CHRIS SEAL
