Shoebox size venue no good for claustrophobics but the aeons of folk gatherings in this olde worlde pub in a Babylon back street seeped out of the walls and furniture and an intimate gathering was soon underway. Last time I was here was in '89 at a storytelling night.. CDs and instruments took up a lot of the table space and as I squeezed into a seat I remembered I'd not remembered my main camera battery so unable to move I dug out my phone and arranged the missis to put it in a taxi. Lied Music are a couple of guys with nome made metal string instruments, Indian stringed and two very large old tape decks. The music was sweetly meditative and backward manipulated sounds were at once alien and soothing. Neilson's solo folk singing affirmed the venue's heritage until he was joined by Phil Todd (Ashtray Navigations) on a blinding pschedelic wall of guitar to Neilson's free drumming. During a gap in the solo pieces the taxi driver arrived with a little bag, after passing along his fare, whole room, Neilson included, waited while I revealed the insane contents of sweets, biscuits, toys and a flower (which I handed out in hope of forgiveness!). Blowing off the crumbs from my battery and imagining the missis haveing a giggle I pumped up the camera and settled back to enjoy the gig. Ben Reynolds gave some old toys and pedals some abuse and then Neilson and Todd were back on their respective instruments to supply us with over half hour of good old fashioned loud and crashing folk music..

The vids:

Directing Hand (Alex Nielson & Phil Todd)

Directing Hand (Neilson, Todd & Ben Reynolds)