 | | Jenny McCormick |
"It’s like playing in a church," she smiled into the darkness. That’s her darkness, not ours. Just to add to the strangeness, McCormick’s set, through no choice of her own, saw the audience, rather than the stage, lit. Still, her shimmering voice and down-to-earth explanations make up for the fact that she could barely be seen. Think Kate Rusby born on this side of the Pennines, rather than t’other, complete with songs are based on "going out with Captain Jack Sparrow" and "the curry house next to Fuel in Withington". It’s her take on the traditional Blackwater Side that really showed her talent though. Sparklingly gentle as it is, it would have been nothing without her explanation that it’s "about a stupid woman, who meets a man in the morning, sleeps with him in the afternoon and then wonders why he doesn’t stick around."
 | | Elaine Palmer |
Elaine Palmer wasn’t quite as engaging. By the time, this seasoned performer took the stage, the lights have been sorted out, yet there was something in her performance that made you wonder if she’d have preferred it to be otherwise. For all her impressive finger-picking and Martha Wainwright-cum-Beth Orton twist to her sound, she seemed to just want to get her set over with. Indeed, when she announced her final tune after a mere 20 minutes, it was with a palpable sense of relief. The main event, Alasdair Roberts, didn’t have such a wish. With a stage time of one and a half hours, he raised a few eyebrows in the bar beforehand, but by the time he exited stage right, the general consensus was that he’d been worth it.
 | | Alasdair Roberts |
Swapping between full band and solo acoustic selections, he showed why his new album The Amber Gatherers, is such an interesting collection. Be it in the soft shuffle of opener Riddle Me This, the rolling Old Men Of The Shells or the more rambunctious I Had a Kiss Of The King′s Hand, there was something for everyone, though the staid atmosphere of being seated in the vast Urbis made for a few uncomfortable moments that could have been avoided had this all been in a pub round the corner. The reality was plain to see. As Roberts retuned his guitar between songs, he was so aware of the lack of atmosphere that he actually asked for heckles and, on receiving one, smiled back in desperation with a simple "surely, you’ve got more offensive ones than that." It was the whole safe, strange venue summed up in one comment. | 
