SUZIE STAPLETON + MICHAEL J SHEEHY – BRIGHTON ELECTRIC, BRIGHTON 25.2.24
Brighton-based Sydney-born artist Suzie Stapleton has certainly fallen on her feet as she has been asked by none other than Depeche Mode to be their support artist for their ‘Memento Mori World Tour’ European tour next month. This will see Suzie playing the following massive venues: Accor Arena, Paris on 3rd and 5th March, Olympiahalle, Munich on 7th, WiZink Center, Madrid on 12th and 14th, Palau Sant Jordi, Barcelona on 16th, Altice Arena, Lisbon on 19th, and Bizkaia Arena, Bilbao on 21st March. Tickets for these European dates are currently available HERE.
In order to get her in the zone, Suzie Stapleton and her band, consisting of Gavin Jay from the Jim Jones Revue on bass along with drummer Dave Collingwood, have organised a couple of intimate up-close-and-personal live performances before heading over to the continent. The first of these was last night at London’s The Grace on 24th February and the second being tonight at Brighton Electric which is located at 43 – 45 Coombe Terrace, Brighton.
Suzie independently released her debut album ‘We Are The Plague’ back in 2020, which obviously she wasn’t able to tour with due to the pandemic. However this album received universal praise, landing on multiple Albums of The Year lists including Louder Than War’s Top 20 Albums of 2020, where they lauded it as “A dazzling debut album of guitar rock, fused with the primal spirit of blues and gospel. Blending the spirit of Patti Smith and PJ Harvey with the soul of Nick Cave and Mark Lanegan”.
At this time busied herself connecting with fans online, shooting film clips in her house, and working on new songs whilst taking long walks around the Sussex countryside. It was around this time that the self-managed artist noticed a certain Dave Gahan from New York had joined her mailing list. This Dave also purchased a vinyl copy of ‘We Are The Plague’ from her website, but Suzie just assumed that it was not the same Dave Gahan that fronted one of the most influential synth-pop bands of the 80s and 90s.
Suzie was also keeping occupied working on The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project, a labour of love which pays tribute to the late frontman of The Gun Club. Suzie had crossed paths with the project’s producer Cypress Grove back in 2013 and he invited her to first record some backing vocals for the project’s third album. The pair hit it off with Grove inviting Suzie to contribute further to the fourth album in the project series that was in the works.
Suzie worked sporadically on the project, including arranging a track performed by Nick Cave and Debbie Harry, and recording her own aching rendition of ‘Secret Fires’ with blues instrumentalist Duke Garwood. As work on the record was coming to a close, Suzie had the thought to check with a mutual friend if it was in fact Dave Gahan of Depeche Mode who had purchased her record. To her surprise, this was confirmed and she approached him to see if he was interested in taking part in the project. He most certainly was and whilst performing backing vocals and piano Suzie also produced the track with Dave recording his vocals and guitar parts in New York and Suzie orchestrating the rest of the band back in London including James Johnston (Gallon Drunk, PJ Harvey) on violin, Ian White (Gallon Drunk) on drums, and also along with her two musicians in her band tonight, these being Gavin Jay of Jim Jones Revue fame who is on bass along with drummer Dave Collingwood. The Jeffrey Lee Pierce Sessions Project ‘The Task Has Overwhelmed Us’ dropped on 29th September last year.
Tonight sees the long overdue live set from Suzie in her adopted city of Brighton. We are given 14 selections across the 70 minutes, from 8:21pm to 9:31pm. The sound and light engineer is Sarah formerly of Gene Pool who I understand have sadly now disbanded. If you wish you can read one of reviews on them from back in 2021 HERE. Prior to the trio of Suzie (guitar, vocals), Gavin Jay (bass) and Dave Collingwood (drums) gracing us with their presence, Sarah takes care of the choice tracks to entertain the mixed aged crowd, the final number of which being the Cocteau Twins classic ‘Pink Orange Red’, the lead tune from the 4AD released ‘Tiny Dynamine’ EP from back in 1985.
Suzie and chums take to the stage and are all clad in black, with Suzie looking after her decent Gibson Les Paul guitar, one which quietly gets tuned to perfection a number of times throughout the set…talk amongst yourselves folks! One might have expected that an artist who has worked with Dave Gahan and is imminently heading out on tour with them, might actually have a synth on stage tonight, but Suzie doesn’t roll that way I’m afraid. Some might infer that arguably she might be more suited as support to the aforementioned Patti Smith or PJ Harvey, but that quite possibly be a little too close for comfort for both headliners, if judging by tonight’s set is anything to go by.
The sound in Brighton Electric is ,as you would expect, absolutely crisp clear in our performance room. In fact there are two or possibly three other bands rehearsing here in other rooms this evening! The clarity of sound certainly does suit Suzie’s Americana-esque style vocal delivery which is given to us with passion and it feels that each tune tells a story. They open with ‘Blood On The Windscreen’, which is the first of no less than eight cuts from the 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album. This is swiftly followed by the oldest number of the set, ‘What Was’ which can be found on ‘45 Revelations Per Minute’ mini-album from 2008. This number rocked on out more than the opener and already highlighted what accomplished musicians they clearly all are.
A trio of tunes from the latest album followed in the form of ‘Thylacine’, ‘You Were There’ and ‘In The Darkness’. These showed off Suzie’s powerful voice which in the main are delivered in a deep silky manner. There’s also a fair in depth sound considering that they are only a trio. The songs aren’t all hard and fast, but the cymbal and drums alternate sounds glide along, punctuated by the confident vocal delivery atop the echoey bass and reverb guitar work all shine through and as a result. Suzie’s vocals are best noted on the acapella 90 second ditty, which I think was ‘The River Song’, which was only punctured with the occasional thud of the drum. There are hardly any song introductions and idle banter kept to a minimum.
After 2012’s ‘Song Of The Artesian Water’ from her ‘Obladi Diablo’ album, both Gavin and Dave leave the room for a couple of new numbers, these being ‘Doppelgangers & Ghosts’ and ‘Phantom Kiss’, but they return for the closing handful of tunes, beginning with ‘Don’t Look Up’ and then (judging by the audience applause at the end) being eclipsed by the more energetic ‘Silence In My Bones’. It seems the energy levels had been raised as they rocked on out with the 2017 ‘Yesterday’s Town’ single. However, ‘September’ which was the penultimate number was more in yer face than anything that had gone before and I would certainly recommend Suzie playing this to the Depeche Mode fans as well as the final number, ‘We Are The Plague’, which began with the best bass riff of the night and as a result I kept hearing Joy Division in there. For me Suzie had saved the best cuts until the end of the performance.
Suzie Stapleton:
Suzie Stapleton – guitar, vocals
Gavin Jay – bass
Dave Collingwood – drums
Suzie Stapleton setlist:
‘Blood On The Windscreen’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘What Was’ (from 2008 ‘45 Revelations Per Minute’ mini-album)
‘Thylacine’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘You Were There’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘In The Darkness’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘The River Song’ (Acapella)
‘Song Of The Artesian Water’ (from 2012 ‘Obladi Diablo’ album)
‘Doppelgangers & Ghosts’ (solo) (unreleased)
‘Phantom Kiss’ (solo) (unreleased)
‘Don’t Look Up’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘Silence In My Bones’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘Yesterday’s Town’ (a 2017 single)
‘September’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
‘We Are The Plague’ (from 2020 ‘We Are The Plague’ album)
Support this evening came in the form of a 40 minute solo guitar and vocal set by Michael J Sheehy who by his own account, “has pissed away two or three careers”. Despite a few bumps along the road, he has continued making music as a solo artist and as part of the rock band Miraculous Mule and as one half of psychedelic electronic duo United Sounds of Joy. His latest album is his first in a decade. He took to the stage at 7:15pm, spied the room, and uttered “another gig audience smaller than the number of people I’ve slept with!”. Adding “yes I’m a whore”, or words to that effect.
From the off, I picked up on there being a distinct Richard Hawley vibe going down, and will add Ralph McTell and John Denver to that. The damp audience, who were undoubtedly pleased to be in from the torrential rain, stood motionless and listened to Michael’s set, you could have heard a pin drop. This was a sedate start to the evening. As with the headlining set, the sound was perfect and Michael’s decent voice radiated out across the room. He has obviously been at it a number of years and maybe his work is autobiographical. The songs are all slow and reflective and of a similar vein. He performed a new song about having his identity stolen by someone he knows very well. He signed off with a Tim Buckley cover, which I worked out as being from the 1970 ‘Starsailor’ album, this therefore obviously being ‘Song To The Siren’, with its haunting “Here I am; Here I am; Waiting to hold you” lyrics. The track was delivered with more oomph and all of the previous numbers and was the set highlight. At 7:55pm he was done.
michaeljsheehy.bandcamp.com
www.instagram.com/michaelj.sheehy
Not really sure why Depeche Mode are not the support for her, instead of the other way around.