Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 8.5/10
The old mill towns of England, forgotten in part by the majority of people who have no idea of the part they played in the life of Victorian Britain, the generations of people who suffered the back breaking work that kept a certain class of person in well heeled clothing and semi stature and who were among the first to pay the price of two World Wars in the country, these old mill towns still have their part to play in the fabric of 21st Century Britain but like the past, found their role sometimes airbrushed by spite, jealousy and plain ignorance. It is an ignorance put to shame by the likes of the fantastic Ook and the Elephant.
From Bolton, a town that has known and understood deprivation, Ook and the Elephant came riding into Liverpool’s Threshold as near unknowns, only tantalisingly glimpsed at during last year’s festival, and yet as they played their set to a vocal audience, to the onlookers and already hooked, they will have etched their name in Bolton pride and it is with a dignified sense of honour that they did so.
A sense of dark brooding, of humility, of grace under pressure lit up the room like a million candles held aloft in answer to a call to arms as the band performed inside the Baltic Social, a sense of deep satisfaction and longing hanging over the air, the need to not just be in the company of the threesome on stage for half an hour, but to wake in their company, to offer them support and to listen with serious intent the order of the day.
With a set comprising of songs such as Playground, Boxes, I’m O.K. With That and the stirring House In Munich all making their mark, the town of Bolton, one reeling in many a cultural deficit of late with the closure of the important Moses Gate venue, would surely feel immense fulfilment and approval at the way Ook and the Elephant conducted themselves and the dramatic sense of significance the music played at the Baltic Social.
A heart-rending and poignant display of ability, deeply moving and cool, Ook and the Elephant captured many hearts; it will be difficult, almost impossible, to remove them from the northern fingers.
Ian D. Hall