Live and Local - Zora and The Tatsmiths

What better way to spend a Sunday afternoon if that is not a short walk from home, at one of the best pubs anywhere, one that brews its own beer too, listening to one of the best new live acts that I have heard in some time?   No "rapture" for me as I clearly don't know what heaven really is.  If this is just life however then it is certainly good enough for me.

This was the last date on their first ever tour - a four-day jaunt around Wessex - and I think it fair to say that it went down very well indeed with the audience at The Griffin. The Brighton-based five-piece played a long set that was as well paced as it was varied. The only tinge of sadness came with the announcement that for Belinda, playing electric violin, it was her last show with the band as she is relocating to California.
  
For a band that only recently evolved from being an all-acoustic three-piece as heard on the 2010 Places Like This EP, which I highly recommend, to perform so much material so well, and interspersed with banter with the audience that was often of true Ealing-inspired comic genius, was something to remember.

The songs are all strong and distinctive. 'Secret', which I have mentioned before, is a highlight for me as is 'Mary Jane'. They played this twice - the second time being as a request for an encore at the end.

This one is just a warm up...

Zora McDonald playing some of 'Secret' solo.

  

This being Somerset it is worthy of note that a poster has crept into all of these photos...  one announcing a performance by the long reigning kings of 'Scrumpy and Western', The Wurzels!