Hamell on Trial
The Arches, Glasgow
05/12/03
There was a moment in tonight's show that, weirdly, reminded me of a scene in The Exorcist. At the end of the film, just briefly, Father Karras sees the demon, backlit, on the possessed girl's bed. You can't see its features - just an outline, as it strives upwards, pained, but looking for all the world like it's still coming to get you. I looked around for a girl in a nightdress at The Arches, but they must have all been off watching Evanescence or something.
You see, Hamell's a demon on stage, and I'm not convinced he isn't one offstage too. Don't let the not-very-good columns he writes in Uncut magazine, or the Brooklyn-dwelling, self-proclaimed "self-righteous prick with a great big mouth” guise fool you. It's just a front - further evidence for devilry is that Hamell also has all the best tunes, and he was certainly being worshipped tonight by a lot of people dressed in black. And just wait till you've seen his "face solo". Then you'll know true rock'n'roll evil.
My biggest fear about tonight was that he'd bring a band with him - something I'd never want to see, having witnessed him about 18 months ago, solo, at King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. Having being blown away by him then, I wanted to repeat the experience, as people my age are wont to do these days. A band would just...dissipate his energy. He's one man on stage with a guitar, but unlike any one man on a stage with a guitar you or I have ever heard or seen before. At one point, he asked why there was a barrier, as though we'd rush the stage or something, when I'm convinced the true reason was that it was for our protection, not his. He whirls round the stage, a sweaty gargoyle, sweat peeing off him, blasting out wise and brilliant songs on his 1937 Gibson, and you just stand, enraptured, trying to catch every word he says, not wanting to miss a thing. He seems to have a song for everything - the time he bought his guitar, his first date with his now wife (which is also on the new one, Tough Love), his experience, aged 13, of meeting John Lennon in 1971 - "John Lennon looked down at me and barked, "FUCK OFF!"... The man documents his life in song as though his very life depends on it. It's a stupidly overused word, but there's a rare passion and wit to Ed Hamell that is inspirational. Just as I left with Morna and Rosie, my companions for the evening, all three of us grinning enormously, Morna and I because he’d exceeded our expectations of what we knew would be a great evening, and Rosie, who had never seen him before but was utterly, utterly won over, it occurred to me that pretty much that all of his songs are just full of love - for us, for life, for his wife, his guitar, for whatever, but love that’s never mawkish, simplistic or easy. Tough Love, I suppose.
Dermot Fitzsimons
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