The Unity Theatre in Liverpool isn’t just a creative space for the use of local and touring theatre companies. Within its walls is another heartbeat, a twin spirit of occupation, a breathing fortitude of echoing guitar sounds, exotic drum and cello performed always by a commander of the bow, resides and has firmly taken root over the last few years. A gig here and there throughout the year, bookended by the abundance of theatre, but nevertheless important and the acoustic evenings they put on are fully looked forward to.
This year is no different as on Friday 20th and Saturday 21st, The Unity Theatre will showcase of the outstanding talent that the city of Liverpool has to offer. A favourite of the Liverpool music scene, The Saturday will see the tremendous Paul Straws, a huge favourite of the Liverpool music scene, once more play for an audience at the Unity Theatre. Known more for his larger band projects, which includes the likes of Andy Kettle and the excellent Vicky Mutch and Ste Reid from the Mono LPs joining him on stage, Paul Straws is a musician to die for, in a city which regularly offers musical heroes as much as it did trophy winning football teams. Forthright and honest and with a collection of songs that are able to capture a solid single heartbeat and preserve it safely forever, Paul Straws may be softly spoken but his words carry an enormous amount of weight.
Ahead of the evening of music at the Unity Theatre, I was able to catch up with Paul Straws. A Herculean task considering how busy he is, but as with every musician and artist, a window of opportunity arises and I am grab hold of it as if my life depends on it.
Are you looking forward to the evening at the Unity?
PS: “I’m looking forward to it, I’ve played at the Unity Theatre once before, which was a night that I put together with Plastic design and Ragz in about 2007 and it was fantastic, an absolutely great occasion – there are great acoustics in the room and a very attentive audience, it was a great space obviously for people to listen to music in and engage with the artists in. It was such a good experience, I always wanted to go back and do something but I’d never really had the opportunity until now as you have to sell a fair amount of tickets and get all that side of it nailed. I jumped at the chance to go back to the Unity Theatre and play the Acoustic Festival; it sounds like a really good event and it’s been running for a couple of years.”
Yes, it has, would it be just you or do you have other members of your backing band with you on the night?
PS: “It will be me for this one. I was going to get Vicky in for it but I’m down as playing solo and I think the idea is to keep it simple especially with change over times. I’ll be solo and I’ll get the pedals out, I’ve sort of developed the set since you saw me in August. I’ll be playing a bit more of a fusion, some are quite electronic with pre-programmed drum beats and others are organically, with me making the beats live in the room. I think it’s going to be a lot more of a varied set, it’s going to be quite interesting and I’m really excited about playing.”
Obviously your full band effect, say for example with Andy Kettle and the great Vicky Much is rather tremendous to hear, how do you see that changing with an acoustic set because, no disrespect all at all but it is a different animal after all isn’t it?
PS: “It is a completely different animal, yes, and I hope the thing that makes up for the absence of those wonderful elements is the fact that I can really put forward the harmonies that are on my records, which don’t come through when I have the full band because we don’t really have enough time to work on it. It’s always making sure that everyone’s okay musically and then it’s – okay – go – that’s the set, as there’s only ever time to have one or two practises beforehand and that’s it! With the solo acoustic set, I can make up for the absence of great keyboards and beautiful cello with these harmonies that were intended to be in the songs when I recorded them.”
Are there any differences with the songs because obviously you have an abundance of wealth there; are there some that you have to drop from an acoustic set?
PS: “Yes, there’s a few like Notes From A Lifetime Ago, which doesn’t particularly work well at a solo acoustic level, it really benefits from the cello melody and the mandolin over the top. So that’s been kind of banished but I’ve been working on way of getting that back in. There are a lot of songs that I’ve written over the last decade that I’m sort of trying to find a way to fit all the best ones in which is kind of difficult because depending on who you speak to, the best ones change, people’s favourites change! So it’s just about finding a good balance for the set and bringing that forward the best I can.”
You’ve just played Coventry Central Library, haven’t you?
PS: “Yes, it was really fun, I really enjoyed that, it was so completely different to anything I’d ever done and it was a really unexpected audience turn out – there was 30 or 40 people packed into a relatively small room and I didn’t expect that in Coventry, I think I’ve only played there once before as Paul Straws that is and to get that sort of turnout was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed it.”
It can be, no disrespect to Coventry, a difficult place, for an unknown to go out to, it’s not like Liverpool where the audiences will come to see good music regardless.
PS: “I think any city where you’ve not played a great deal you know, you don’t have many contacts in is difficult to expect anyone to come out and hear you but at the same time, it had a great community vibe, that one because older and younger people came, there weren’t your usual 20-40 year olds congregation, it was more of a community feel, it was really nice to play to a different audience so it was quite a lot of fun. Coventry, there’s certainly not as much going on, certainly not at 2 o’clock in the afternoon for music events so it was again it was just a very different vibe to what I normally do. Literally everyone I met along the way there, the librarians, the parking attendants, the people on the street, was absolutely lovely – every single person. That was really nice, you can go to different places and not get the same friendly faces that you get around Liverpool but it was really nice.”
Cool, you’ve done that and that you’ve just done and I was very interested watching it, your television debut on Bay TV, it has captured your essence, it really has!
PS: “That’s great! I loved that experience! Again, I didn’t really know what was going on and what to expect when I showed up because you can turn up to these things and people can have no equipment or not the right sort. They had absolutely everything you needed and again the people were lovely, the sound technicians were really helpful. The song was done in one take, the interview was done in a minute and then they packed up, it was like a F.B.I. operation. It was all done with military timing!”
One last question, is there anyone at the acoustic festival at the Unity Theatre that you’re looking forward to seeing yourself?
PS: “I’ve always enjoyed Natalie McCool’s music since I heard her at the Mathew Street Festival, five or six years ago, so I’m looking forward to seeing her, She Drew The Gun – Jody – she’s very impressive. That’s two particular people I’m looking forward to.”
I do wish you all the best for the gig as your music is so stirring and it does deserve to be heard by a greater, vaster crowd.
PS: “That’s very kind of you to say that!”
Ian D. Hall