Autumn 1904 - Wee Red Bar, Edinburgh, 1/11/2024

  by John Clarkson

published: 1 / 1 / 1

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Article

It is forty years since Autumn 1904 last played at the durable Edinburgh indie venue, The Wee Red Bar. Four out of the seven members who were present at that gig in the summer of 1984 – keyboardist Allan Dumbreck, bassist Billy Bowie, drummer Keith Falconer and guitarist Ross Thom – are in the line-up for tonight’s show. Indira Sharma, however, sadly died some years ago, and her co-backing vocalist Lisa Cameron has long since vanished without trace. Lead vocalist Billy Leslie is still loosely involved, but lives and works abroad for most of the year, and has been unable to make any of the rehearsals or to attend either this gig by the reformed post-punks or its predecessor in May at the Poetry Library at SWG3 in Glasgow. Autumn 1904 have got around this potentially massive problem by inducing into the line-up for gigs strident-voiced. early twenty-something, singer Holly Rollins as both a backing and occasional lead vocalist, and also a string of guest performers This is and it also isn’t a homecoming gig. Autumn 1904 formed in Edinburgh in 1982 and broke-up in 1985, releasing in their short, original lifetime one well-received John Peel Session and just one other track, ‘I Heard Catherine Sing’, for a compilation tape that came out with the first issue of a fanzine. Most of the members live by coincidence in Glasgow these days, and a large minibus sits outside in the car park of the Edinburgh College of Art to which The Wee Red Bar is attached. Group leader Allan Dumbreck has hired it for the night to bring through the band, their partners and equipment. Autumn 1904 open up with ‘What’s In Your Eyes’, which is the last track on their new album, Tales of Innocence: The John Peel Session and Collected Recordings 1984-2023’. The LP is doing brisk business along with a couple of attractive T-shirts at the merchandise stand which is run by Dumbreck’s wife Nicole. Comprising as well as the four- song Peel Session of several re-recordings of various demos, it recently much to the band's delight dented the Top 20 of the Scottish Albums Chart. Billy Bowie, who was the original singer in Autumn 1904 before Leslie took over, steps up the microphone for ‘Whar’s in Your Eyes’. “I am just the bass-player,” he quips at the end, but really with his slightly theatrical vocals for this song about finding out that you are being cheated upon, and also Dumbreck’s spiraling keyboards, feisty drumming from Keith Falconer and chanted backing vocals from Holly Rollins and guest vocalist Eve Davidson, he and the band have got the gig off to a very solid start. Bowie stays on vocals for ‘Sister’, before we are treated to a new song, ‘Not My Skin’, a klaxoning, funk-influenced number with a taut guitar riff from Ross Thom and immediately catchy vocals from Davidson and Rollins who shout out the chorus (“You, you’re not my skin”) in unison. ‘Motherland’ is one of the stand-out tracks on ‘Tales of Innocence’ with its gigantic keyboards and a brooding but still topical lyric about misplaced patriotism. It appears in two versions which come next to each other in the set, a ‘repatriated’ instrumental which gives Allan Dumbreck a solo spot, and then a band version, which features gripping tribal drumming from Falconer and percussionist Sean Dumbreck on tom-toms. It becomes increasingly clear as the set moves on that Autumn 1904 are taking these often four-decade old songs, and twisting them and reshaping them into something no less effective but often radical and different. ‘The City’ features rapper Johnny Cypher, who takes Billy Leslie’s original lyrics about paranoia and alienation in the big city, and then with his thick Scottish brogue reworks them into a biting rap about class and the haves and have nots. It shouldn’t really work as it stretches out far from the original, but it is absolutely electrifying and in a gig with a succession of strong moments the highlight of the night. Eve Davidson, who is a 21-year old singer-songwriter from Fife and was the support act, then takes over for ‘Innocence’. With her crystal voice, she again provides a different interpretation on it than Indira Sharma did with her more earthy vocals on the original. Craig Paterson from Edinburgh punk band Twisted Nerve then takes the stage for a flamboyant, pumped up version of recent single. ‘I Heard Catherine Sing’, in which he and Rollins dexterously trade vocals and harmonies with each other. There is then a brief encore with another new song ‘Frisk Me Down’ which appeared earlier in the set. It comes from a similar infectious funk-driven territory to ‘Not My Skin’ and finds Allan Dumbreck joining in on vocals with Rollins and Davidson. Autumn 1904 have defied all expectations with this gig, adding new songs and bravely reinterpreting old material. Far from being simply another retro act, the Autumn 1904 of the 21st century is all about possibility, and their journey after all these years is very much worth following. Photographs by Philip Wark

Also In Pennyblackmusic Bands Night

Also at Wee Red Bar

Band Links:-

https://www.autumn1904.co.uk/
https://www.facebook.com/Autumnninetee
https://www.instagram.com/autumn.1904.

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