ELLES BAILEY (TRIO) ROCKS TEMPERANCE
Review
This was a hot sultry evening in Leamington Spa as Elles Bailey stepped onto the stage of the iconic basement venue at Temperance for the first of two sets supporting her brand new album ‘Beneath the Neon Glow'.
These sets were in collaboration with Leamington's ‘Head Records' where to gain entrance you had to preorder the album from them, the first one sold out so quickly that she managed to fit in another show later in the evening, and they both included meet & greets and signings.
The band were busy sound checking and then after hard at work on the merchandise sorting when I went down and I introduced myself to Elles and the rest of her trio who were as charming and friendly as I imagined.
Her sets where made up of tracks from her stunning new album, which adds a little country/americana to her usual blues style and is such a solid piece of work .
Full of anecdotes about the tracks and the recording of the album, the good humour between the band created such an informal friendly vibe.
Starting the set with ‘1972' such a nostalgic look at better days played with such an infectious groove, elsewhere we had a cracking version of Elle's favourite new album track "Leave the Light On' introduced by the charming personal story behind the words.
‘Ballad of a Broken Dream' rolled along with Elle's remembering when she performed with just the barman in the audience, excellent lyrics (as always) about talent not always relating to success (so true)
We had lovely ballads including ‘Silhouette in a Sunset' along with the story of a gentlemen taking the part of a bar of galaxy to her after a gig relating to the line in the song ‘at the end of the galaxy' (wish I would have thought of that!)
Closing with the so optimistic, upbeat ‘Enjoy the Ride", then after a final question from the audience asking if she could do one more song she came back with one of her golden oldies.
The music was spot on all through, superb guitar work including some exquisite lead, strong backing vocals and Elles in such good voice.
What a night and after meeting, signing and selfie ops she did it all over again.
Elles Bailey Trio, venue, sound and atmosphere 10/10
Andrew Lock
