The Beat Surrender

The Brudenell Social Club on the outskirts of Leeds City Centre, is quickly establishing itself as one of the best venues in Leeds. It has character, decent sound, is run on good principles and more importantly is getting some great gigs on.

So a chance to visit the venue and see one of my favourite artists to have emerged this year was really too good to turn down. It was sold out, which isn’t a great surprise for a Mercury Music Prize nominee, but it did mean that the venue was absolutely sweltering, something the band and Laura Marling commented on throughout the night.

First up though was a friend of hers who as well as being an entertaining support act also doubled up as her merchandise seller, the credit crunch clearly kicking in within the music industry as well it would seem!

Jay Jay Pistolet comes over initially as a nervous character, who lacks confidence socially, something that seems to be a recurring theme with solo singer-songwriters despite their job entailing opening up their heart and inner feelings to a room full of strangers each night.

Once he gets playing his first song (Always On My Way Back Home) though the room are transfixed by him, his voice and guitar. The effect on the microphone with his vocal gives him a classic Americana feel that you would maybe have got from Woody Guthrie if he was around today.

As tracks like St Michel, Pushing Up Daisies and Hooked Up On Us (the closing track that is utterly lovely) seep over and into us, it quickly becomes clear that he’s a talented songwriter that is bringing a unique edge to a cluttered genre.

In between songs he’s funny and slightly off the wall, as a support act goes you can’t really ask much more from him in what is all too short a set for a crowd that have genuinely enjoyed his performance.

They are of course all here though to see Laura Marling, a young, talented girl who has swept into 2008 and not been overshadowed by big hitters like Duffy, Adele and Gabriella Cilmi and rightly so as she has more than enough in her locker to go toe to toe with any of them.

Tonight Laura and her four-piece band are on splendid form, confident and engaging they work through the majority of Alas, I Cannot Swim with highlights that include opening track Ghosts, My Manic And I, Night Terror and the superb Crawled Out Of The Sea which is a real song of two halves.

She isn’t resting on her laurels though, tonight shows that she might still be basking in the glory of her debut album, but she has clearly started thinking about album number two as well.

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