Mar 29 2017

The Fair Rain 24th March 2017

We had had The Fair Rain (or The Old Dance School, as they were called when we first heard them) in our sights for over two years, and they didn’t disappoint on their TLR debut on Friday 24th March.

Photos by Keith Belcher

Short one member, owing to a family illness, they nevertheless demonstrated exactly why their music has been described as ‘cinematic’ by several commentators. With their instrumental line-up of acoustic guitar, double bass, drums, violin, viola, accordion, and trumpet augmented by electronics, they produce a truly unique sound.

Their songs too, on the night drawn mainly from their 2016 album ‘Behind The Glass’, are highly original. Main writer and lead vocalist, Robin Beattie’s contributions genuinely create a cinematic listening experience. Perhaps the best example of this is the eerily beautiful, ‘Mannequin’, the tragic story of Franz Reichelt, the Austrian-born tailor, who in 1912 decided to eschew his hitherto use of tailor’s dummies, to personally test his prototype parachute from the Eiffel Tower; a test that was filmed and sadly, proved to be his last. The band has a cult following, but really do deserve much wider recognition for their work.

Photos by Graham Smout

The final show of our 2017 Winter Season also saw the debut of ‘the new stage’! Not before time, as we have spent almost five years cramming bands into the inadequate space using a variety of rickety concoctions that wouldn’t pass a rudimentary health and safety inspection.