During their set, Brave Rival singer Lindsey Bonnick says she’s been asked how much say they get with support bands. “Truth is,” she says, “most of the time it’s not a lot, but the Alex Voysey Band was my pick.”
In which case, the girl did well, because the Gloucestershire-based trio are quite something.
Playing songs mostly from his “Blues In Isolation” album, they come onstage with a boogie like Status Quo, but when they get down down to business, as it were (see what we did there?), it’s more pure blues. “Away To Mississippi” might have a hook that suggests “I learned to write it down,” but the playing here you don’t learn in books; instead, it comes only from the heart.
The solo on “Whiskey And Wine” is every inch as good as you’d expect from a man who—amongst many other things—made his Proms debut earlier this year, as is the one from a previous album that they finish with. “Not Over You” has that extra class, and although there’s something so right about the sound of a three-piece blues band, it’s equally rare to come across one as good as this.
Lindsey wasn’t just talking about Alex Voysey, though. She also addresses the future of Brave Rival: “Chloe,” she says, “is going off to do what makes her happy, but I want to reassure you all that the rest of us are carrying on. It’s what we’re made to do. It’s what we are born to do.”
The Chloe in question is Chloe Josephine. Like Bonnick, she’s a singer in Brave Rival, and the five parts of the band make them special. Chloe, though, is leaving to spend more time with her little daughter, and this is her penultimate show.
The other two things you need to know about Brave Rival are these: other bands claim to have a relationship with their fans. Brave Rival mean it. MV happens to be parked outside the venue early, and the band comes outside to get food. There’s a queue formed waiting to get in. The band chats with most people as if they were friends. Perhaps because they are friends.
That’s one thing. The other is Brave Rival are brilliant.
All of these things come together in the very first song. “Bad Choices” is immediately a singalong, but it’s played so well, and then there are the voices.
They’re sensational from start to finish. And they do it in their own way. One minute they’re roaring through “Guilty Love,” and the next it’s the self-love anthem “Stars Upon My Scars.”
If that—as Chloe puts it—makes “three hard ones and a semi-hard one,” then “What’s Your Name Again?” takes that literally, let’s say, but to be serious for a second, the slide guitar from Ed Clarke is stunning.
It’s interesting to see how much heavier they are onstage. “Fairytale,” for example, is just that, but also how personal these songs are to the band. Chloe speaks movingly about “All I Can Think About”—which is perhaps the most country thing they have.
The two singers, in particular, are clearly emotional, but never more so than when they play “Tennessee Whiskey,” which they say is their favorite song to play. It is quite something, too—and moreover, it speaks to what they will be missing in the future.
A supremely well-paced set, full of clever songs. Not least of which is the excellent “Five Years On.” Settling scores on one hand, but all the fun of the cowbell on another, and that’s before drummer Donna Peters beats her kit as if it owes her money to start “Blame the Voices.” But the class of this band is that they can change gear with ease. “Insane” is a wonderfully stoic song, and when they end the set with an incredible jam from Clarke, Peters, and bass player Billy Dedman to finish “Heavy,” you get a real sense that this band is special.
They’re back for an encore, and “Sink or Swim,” the last song—and a key track from this year’s “Fight or Flight” record—deserves to be in that spot, too.
And this band deserves the adulation it gets from this crowd. They really are excellent.
As they leave the stage and head for the merchandise table, the departing vocalist says, “These guys are going to be back here, but in the big room.”
In a world where word of mouth is incredibly and increasingly important, you’d be a fool to bet against them.
