DAVEY CURTIS: Elizabeth Fraser, Bath Pavilion

Dear Jon,

Just returned from Bath after the Elizabeth Fraser gig at the Pavilion last night. Alas no pics of Elizabeth on stage as security was tight.

It was a strange gig, The pavilion is a roller skating rink and the stage looked like a something out of working men's club concert room.

I was half expecting bingo and a pint draw to be called out but it wasn't to be.

First up,no support act just a DJ and I must be getting old because he wasn't actually playing any tunes. It sounded like he had just got a new synth and was going through the pre-sets trying the different sounds out. Just whistle and bell noises with the odd string pad thrown in. Bizarre.
The crowd was not what I was expecting either, now I know I should not judge a book by its cover but the people I know who like the Cocteau Twins also like The Cure, Sisters of Mercy, The Mission, Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Cult and dress accordingly. Last night it looked more like a convention of physics professors. I only saw one Damned t-shirt all night, not a Goth in sight!

The place was sold out and I didn't bother taking my seat I just stood at the back with the lighting bloke.

The lights dimmed the DJ turned his whistles off and on came Elizabeth and her band to an enormous round of applause. We had waited a long time for this.

She stood centre stage in a beautiful white dress with two young female backing singers behind her. Drums and bass to the right, keyboards and guitarist to the left. What took me by surprise is how sparse her new sound is, delicate, fragile, you really had to concentrate to hear what was going on as the mix was so quiet. Luckily you could hear a pin drop as everybody was transfixed to this tiny figure in white.

Her reworking of her Cocteau Twins songs got the same treatment, stripped back to the bone without the famous multi-effect guitar and chorused bass wall of sound of her former colleagues.
Not to worry, everything she did was lapped up by the crowd and she got enthusiastic applause all night. She must have been relieved to have got through the show after all these years and still to be so well loved. If her London shows go half as well as Bath she'll have done herself proud.
So it's all down to the voices Elizabeth and her two new protégés. I didn't know quite what to make of this new direction to tell you the truth and it left me a little perplexed.

I'll have to give her album a listen and see if I am missing something. I suppose it's always been about her sweet voice anyway.

Regards Davey C