Ed Harcourt - Brighton Pavilion - 15/7/01
4/5
By: Toby L
When new artists start with their first and only single released thus far into their career - therefore, possibly the only track known by the majority of the audience in attendance - it's easy to understand why you get slightly hesitant as to how the rest of their set can measure up in comparison. Luckily, when Ed Harcourt is faced with such a predicament as opening his show with 'Something In My Eye', he can certainly overcome the pressure to entertain, despite the fact that little material may be recognisable to the crowd. Also, in this instance, judging Ed's sound merely by hearing the swooning strings and soothing harmonies of his debut release is probably a bad idea...
... For Harcourt's musical ability is beyond that of the average piano-clunking, guitar-strumming solo-singer. There are rowdy trumpets, for example, not to mention the thoughtful inclusion of accordions and - more bizarrely - a radio signal, which is exerted into the overall effect via bringing it forward to a microphone. Thus, it doesn't take you too long to realise that you're indeed within the presence of a very gifted and open-minded individual, who happens to front a vastly able band.
However, for all the musical competence he possesses, Ed Harcourt doesn't come across as the kind of guy that would request every dressing-room he enters to be painted yellow with blue polka dots, nor the kind of man that would headbutt an autograph-hunting fan. No; instead, he's charming, personable and quietly charismatic, with tonight's show - witnessed by his mother we're later told - almost being a homecoming... The word 'almost' used because Harcourt claims to come from the nearby town Lewes, but an audience member soon informs, 'Nah, you're not - you're from Pollgate!' Ed laughs nervously, trounced by the public lie he was found to have made, going on to justify his fib, 'Well, it's hardly glamorous saying you're from Pollgate, is it?!' That's true - but I must have been away the day when Lewes was announced the fashion capital of the world.
The jokes aside, however, and you realise that you've been let in on a truly exciting talent; aside from his warming vocals and crushing melodies, there is a live set to suck you in, wring out your emotions and bring you up again, all in the time it takes most bands to perform a mediocre show. To undermine where Harcourt will venture forth from now would be at your peril - as soon as you can, experience the splendour that oozes from this man's heart.
Artists in this article: Ed Harcourt
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