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MICHAEL CHAPMAN

0	LEEDS: Brudenell Social Club
P	Thursday 9th February, 2012
N	7:30pm

Event information

"Michael Chapman was never just a singer-songwriter - his gritty brand of guitar based songs span folk, ragtime, jazz and blues... it's on the tracks which feature Chapman's magnificently bleary vocals that this album really scores. Hell To Pay and Only Pretend are outstanding tracks, that world-weary voice singing words of bitter experience. This man is so laid back that he makes JJ Cale sound like he's on helium." Q Magazine , Review of Dreaming Out Loud. 1997

"I had an art college education and on a rainy night in 1966 I went into a pub in Cornwall, but I couldn't afford to pay to go in. So I said, I'll tell you what, I don't want to stay outside in the rain, I'll play guitar for half an hour for you. They offered me a job for the rest of the summer and I've been at it ever since." With more than 40 years of touring under his belt, Michael is now something of an acoustic guitar legend, particularly with younger players who are amazed by his unique blend of folk, roots and Americana styling. His is an intricate and fascinating guitar style, which is appreciated by all acoustic guitarists be they folk, blues, ragtime, or wanna-be singer songwriters.
Championed recently by Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth) with whom he has recorded, and the late Jack Rose who toured with Michael and Jim O'Rourke. He is a contemporary of John Martyn, Roy Harper & Wizz Jones with whom he shares a musical lineage dating back to the late 1960's, yet his sound is totally his own and in the opinion of many, gets better and better. Richard Thompson, another contemporary and friend, is on record (Mojo Magazine) as listing Michael Chapman as one of his favourite guitarists. Musically, Michael has always straddled styles and has much in common with more experimental musicians like John Fahey - another friend who Michael toured and played with- and Bill Frisell.

Michael has toured extensively in Europe, including Germany, The Netherlands, Italy, France, as well as Australia, USA & The Far East. He is an enduring regular on the UK acoustic circuit; he was there at the start on the Cornish scene. He regularly plays London venues such as The Troubadour & other well known venues across the UK.

His songs are both renowned and legendary. “Postcards of Scarborough” is a favourite of Sheila Ravenscroft, wife of the late John Peel, a track from “Fully Qualified Survivor”, Chapman’s 1969 EMI album also John Peel's favourite album of the year. Michael is a fine lyricist with material that is carefully observed and universal enough to appeal to the melancholic in all of us. Nodding as much to Big Bill Broonzy's blues as Bob Dylan’s singer songwriter ballads, Michaels’ evocative and emotive material has been covered by Show Of Hands (No Song To Sing), Peter Ratzenbeck (In The Valley), John McCormick (Kodak Ghosts) and more recently Bristol's Blue Aeroplanes (It Didn’t Work Out). With a discography stretching back over 40 years and over 30 ( it could be nearer 40 ) albums his recordings have featured Mick Ronson, Rick Kemp, Nigel Pegrum and Maddy Prior of Steeleye Span, BJ Cole, Keef Hartley, Bridget St John, Prelude and Rod Clements, to name but a small selection.
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The guitar and voice of Michael Chapman first became known on the Cornish Folk Circuit in 1967. Playing a blend of atmospheric and autobiographical material he established a reputation for intensity and innovation. Signed to EMI's Harvest label he recorded a quartet of classic albums. LPs like 'Rainmaker' and 'Wrecked Again' defined the melancholic observer role Michael was to make his own, mixing intricate guitar instrumentals with a full band sound. The influential album 'Fully Qualified Survivor', featuring the guitar of Mick Ronson and Rick (Steeleye Span) Kemp's bass, was John Peel's favourite album of 1970. 'Survivor' featured the Chapman 'hit', "Postcards of Scarborough", a characteristically tenderly sour song recounting the feelings of nostalgia and regret.

A label change to Decca brought a change in sound. Electric guitar, still with that distinctive Chapman fluidity, featured more prominently. Tracks like "New York Ladies" and "Firewater Dreams" on 'Millstone Grit' showed a guitar master pursuing sounds and textures. Michael continued to build his live reputation, touring solo and with a variety of groups, recording the live album 'Pleasures of the Streets' a strong mix of solo and band performances. He was a regular session contributor to Radio One, and BBC TV broadcast two Chapman Band performances as part of their Sight and Sound series.

A lively and accomplished improviser, Michael gained a reputation for re-working material, both before an audience and on record. Songs were seen as standards, themes to be explored, extended and varied on stage and in the studio. The Don Nix produced 'Savage Amusement' featured versions of the Chapman songs "Shuffleboat River Farewell" and "It Didn't Work Out". Different musicians and a different sound breathed new life into earlier material, showing Michael to be a jazz musician in spirit if not in sound. 'The Man Who Hated Mornings' showed the respect Michael commanded among musicians with supporting performances from Andy Latimer of Camel, Keith Hartley and violinist Johnny Van Derek.

1978 brought another label change and the release of 'Playing Guitar The Easy Way', a guitar tutorial record that explained in simple terms, methods of playing the guitar using 12 different instrumental pieces each with a different open tuning. The critically well received albums, 'Life On The Ceiling' and 'Looking For Eleven', showed that Michael had fully absorbed elements of rock as he had done folk during the '60's, to produce a hybrid that mixed folk, jazz phrasing, rock and elements of what became known as New Age Music.

In response to public demand Michael recorded a solo album 'Almost Alone' presenting the relaxed eclectic mix that was a Chapman club gig. The '80's saw Michael back with Rick Kemp. Touring as a duo they released the live album 'Original Owners', whose version of "Shuffleboat River Farewell", stripped back to guitar and bass, showed that old dogs could teach new tricks. Anyone hearing the anger of the newer material, coupled with the volume and energy of the Chapman Kemp band Savage Amusement, formed in the mid '80's, was left in no doubt that here was an elder statesman growing more acid, rather than mellower with age. After a period of reflection and lower profile releases, Michael captured the mood of the time with his '87 album Heartbeat, a groundbreaking thematic album featuring a continuous 38-minute piece of music. This was an ambition made possible by the advent of CDs.

Experiments with sequencers and sampling on the 90's track "Geordies Down The Road", an anthem to the death of employment in the North East, assaulted the listener with foundry atmospherics and industrial guitars, showing that Michael wasn't standing still. The albums 'Still Making Rain' and '95's 'Navigation' presented a man whose world-weary voice, given a patina by life and hard living, delivered sensitive, emotional songs. While aware of his past, reinterpreting his hit "Postcards of Scarborough", Michael looked to the future. The playing was more considered than ever before. Fewer notes and space for music to breathe, gave songs like "The Mallard" and "It Ain't So" an almost hymn like intensity. 1995 also saw the publishing of Michael's first novel 'Firewater Dreams', a thinly veiled autobiography, which fleshed out some of his highly personal songs and explored his themes of regret, travel and loneliness. Reviews of his album 'Navigation' show the high regard for Michael Chapman, Mojo 11/95 'Twenty one albums and he is still amazing', Q 12/95 '**** (four stars out of a possible five) and this best album in years.

This self-styled old white blues guy from Yorkshire is one of the most under-rated heroes of our time. With his uniquely English melancholic perspective and emotive guitar style he deserves wider recognition.'

Venue information

LEEDS: Brudenell Social Club

0	33 Queens Road Leeds West Yorkshire LS6 1NY
>	www.brudenellsocialclub.co.uk
!	01132752411
`	Live music will generally begin around 30 minutes after doors open.