Monday 16/06/08 Joseph Arthur, The Kays Lavelle, Conil @ King Tuts, Glasgow

More of a tour of duty than a album tour, it’ll be Joseph Arthur’s eighth performance here at King Tuts tonight, not that anyone but J.A. has been counting. First up though, there’s two support acts, The Kays Lavelle and Conil, respectively. The Kays Lavelle are some Glaswegian 6/7 piece act with various degrees of beardiness and of no real fixed identity, something that’s reflected in the democracy of shared lead vocal turns. With a Talk Talk-like spirit at work, absorbing songs are delivered with various degrees of autumnal shades and a Caledonian rock-reel is augmented by viola, while power-ballads take on Mogwai-esque slow-building crescendo’s. Conil are serving as Joseph Arthur’s touring band and combine some of The Clash’s grit with Morphine’s instrumentation. There the comparisons end. The vocalist delights in his unforgiving angsty punk growl/holler that reminds of a tight-throated Shaun Ryder or Joey of FYC, while the dapper 4-piece leads with felicitous guitar licks and the warmth of standing bass. Skanking, baggy-era Madchester tunes make for the best moments from the band who hail from Peckham, while the grit remains in the teeth for a hard to palate vocalist.

Dressed in black shades, and a charity shop black jacket with an armband that reads LOVE DISEASE, only the D is blocked out as he didn’t want to have a disease, and to emphasise that for Joseph Arthur, love is ease. Making the techy Alec one of thre hardest working men in town that night, Joseph Arthur milks to the nth degree what for many would be an oversight - “Can I have some more monitors…more mic…can we take some of that top end out…can we lose that glassy sound…” making for a pitstop proper before even the opening number of ‘Electrical Storm’ gets it’s airing. With a prolific artistry that puts most to shame, Joseph is already notching up his fourth EP release this year with an album scheduled for the latter half, that’s not forgetting the double release last year of ‘Nuclear Daydream’ and ‘Let’s Just Be’.

Oftentimes, Arthur entertains and detracts from his musicianship by producing figurative works of art, most often twisted and distorted faces that are embellished throughout the performance. Tonight, there’s nonesuch. And the pedals and tricks of overlaying sound mean that there’s a purist slant to the show. Pure, and highly personal. One of Arthur’s greatest talents is the highly personal manner in which he connects with the audience, with an arresting aura and profundity of song writing that makes for an intensity of moment. Many artists have great songbooks, and Joseph Arthur’s is propped on a stand with all the density of a Biblical tome. As such, there’s any number of ways the performance could go, and tonight there’s the littering of older favourites with newer ballads and harmonica drenched tales of amorous strife - Joseph singing “…I don’t turn you on until it’s time for me to go…” that wears Lennon-esque threads and turn of phrase.