Happy St.Valentine’s! Fiona Clayton & Ben Mattinson Serve the ‘Food of Love’ at No. 15
Charles Paxton February 17th, 2008
Elfin beauty, vocal dexterity and powerful lyrics from Fiona Clayton at No.15
Classical fawn-like good looks and multi-faceted musical talent from Ben Mattinson
No.15 Cafe on Penrith’s high streetCandles glowed and hearts fluttered and throbbed at Penrith’s No.15 Cafe as two of Cumbria’s hottest live performers gave us a Valentine’s night concert of consequence. With crimson walls and stylish modern art decor, No.15 offers a musical dining experience ideally suited to the nurture or celebration of cupid’s archery. The tasty cusine and well-stocked bar played its part too, I expect, along with the music as Shakespeare suggests. In case you haven’t popped in there yet, No.15 is a fine cafe and live music venue - being at the same time both elegant and convivial, spacious and intimate, with a friendly laid-back atmosphere.Good looks and fine voices were the hallmarks of this nicely balanced show. Rob Heron of the cafe No.15 lavished us with two principal singer-songwriter acts accentuated by superb lighting and sound by Chris Archer of Phasinghz. Opening with a stunning set from Eden’s beautiful and talented Fiona Clayton the evening was completed by the multi-talented Carlisle-based singer-songwriter Ben Mattinson.
Fiona Clayton’s love songs and lilting ballads were ideal for the St.Valentine’s atmosphere Fiona Clayton performs ‘Your Face, My Bones’ at No.15Fiona has feisty, spirited vocals and an elfin charm, something of the sensitive innocence of Marianne Faithful and the fresh and quirky energies of Jewel plus a gunpowder-whiff of Sineid O´Connor in her ambience. She has been entertaining live since she was nine years old; singing first with BlueJam, Penrith’s community-based music group she and her friends then formed the band Soft Target and she later went solo. Not only does she have indisputable talent with the guitar and piano, but this “profound lyricist” has been known to write a song within half an hour of setting pen to paper. Her strongest subjects at school: English, Music and Art, all tie together nicely in her songwriting and singing.
Fiona Clayton’s ‘Soleil Soleil’Fiona has described her live performance as “surprising”, so mind that you don’t spill your drink the first time you hear her. She sees her music as “moments in song form” and the set was representative of this. There is a startling, riske quality about her work that runs throughout the apparent randomness and ecclecticism, there’s a good ration of creative surrealism involved too. Her image is very much reflected in her music. Fiona’s style, very much aimed at her own generation of music-lover is cutting-edge, sweet, passionate, charged with the vulnerable strength of youthful falsetto, breaky and full of acceptable flats, quavers and vibrato. It’s lively, experimental and rebellious with a squirrel-swift passage from octave to octave.
The crowd appreciated her set and it showed her own compositions off to fine advantage alongside a good cover. Beginning with ‘Your face, my bones’, sixteen-year old Fiona stood throughout her set holding her audience enthralled from the start, playing ten more songs including ‘Bring this back’, ‘You are’, ‘Even though’, ‘Soleil Soleil’, ‘Stray dog’, ‘Let Me in’, ‘Alice’, a great cover of Yael Naim’s ‘New Soul’ (sadly too tuneful for us to sing along to), her own ‘Good love’ and finally climaxing with her superb new song ‘Build a rocket’.
Fiona shouldn’t feel at all put out that none of us in the audience joined in with the chorus parts of ‘New Soul’ as invited, we just lacked the talent, not the will. There was only one song that showed some slight guitar stumbles and that was ‘Bring this back’, otherwise it was one striking performance after another. My personal favorites this evening were ‘Soleil Soleil’ - a very sweet romantic ballad and perfect for the Valentine’s mood, ‘Build a Rocket’ - a sweet and edgy love song that shows off her vocal agility really well and ‘Alice’ - a feisty number with a tune that swiftly carries you along with her hypothetical halucinating protagonist, through the looking glass and down the rabbit hole. Though asked for an encore she was concious of the time and yielded the floor to Ben Mattinson, one of northern England’s finest musicians. Fiona’s finale ‘Build a rocket’
Ben is a very likeable and unassuming young singer-songwriter from Carlisle. Ben started out on drums at 13 and moved on to guitar at 15 and then to singing his own songs at 16. Formal musical training and Church involvements have nurtured and polished his talents since then. In addition, his street busking experience has helped develop his ease of interaction. Ben is one of those rare and wonderful musicians who sound as good live as they do in the recording studio. Identifying Duncan Sheik as his main musical influence, Ben stresses the importance of alternative melodies, originality and uniqueness in his own music.
Ben Mattinson entertaining at No.15 on St.Valentine’s NightBen Mattinson showing what can happen when love goes up the ‘Garden Path’Ben Mattinson followed Fiona with a thirteen song set, that was his own bar two covers. He kicked off with a Plain White T’s cover ‘Hey there, Delilah’ and followed up with ‘Untitled’, ‘Under the ceiling’, ‘Over and out’, ‘Memory lane’, ‘Sunrise town’, ‘Thoughts of her’, ‘One thing’, ‘Myspace’, ‘People with guitars’, Quiet (a John Mayer cover), ‘Finish me’, ‘Insecure’. He finished up with two encores, his penultimate song ‘Pete’ is an upbeat and whimsical song written for a Zoologist friend of his, about a pet monkey and the simian condition and he finished with a powerful performance of his more serious song ‘One chance whispers’ which is about the challenge of making a good first impression on someone that you fancy, a fitting end to a very fine St.Valentine’s concert.Very apt for St. Valentine’s day, Ben Mattinson’s ‘Thoughts of her’
Ben’s entire set was punctuated with an amiable banter Sunrise Town On one level Ben provides excellent entertainment value and if you care to look deeper then you’ll find treasure in his lyrics. His mild throat infection in no way detracted from the lengthy performance which seemed casually immaculate with very fine vocals to match his polished guitar work. His entire set was punctuated with an amiable banter that warmed and informed his audience, giving the whole experience a tone of pleasant, easy intimacy.
Ben’s performance was casually immaculate with very fine vocals to match his polished guitar workThoughts about being indoors in ‘Under the Ceiling’It was a very happy St.Valentine’s in No.15. Many thanks to all those who made it happen.For up to date info about gigs and News sign up to the benmattinson.co.uk Mailing List.For more on Fiona Clayton see her Myspace and official website_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/_/For higher definition poster pictures of Ben and Fiona please click on the links below.Poster Ben Mattinson at No.15Poster Fiona Clayton at No.15
