Perhaps it’s an indictment on my loosening grasp as to the joys lurking within the smaller corners of the local music scene that it took something of a personal vanity project – akin to a Dave Gorman stage show – to lure me to singer-songwriter Elly Hopkins’ highly enjoyable Friday night performance. After an unforgivable bout of self-Googling some ten or fifteen years ago, I learned that there was another Scott Hammond, a drummer, also living in Bristol. When Hopkins got in touch with our website and revealed that her band included my namesake on the skins, it was too irresistible an opportunity to come to the Ill Repute and meet the other me.
Tonight, however, is all about the release party for Hopkins’ first single ‘Cecile’, which will feature on her upcoming debut EP. After a career as a director and producer in the world of drama and a subsequent spell as a jazz singer, Hopkins’ venture into guitar playing and alt-folk/rock performance is something still rather new. However, anchored by adroit bandmates on bass and lead guitar, and by Hammond – whose impressive CV includes his present employment as drummer for veteran prog rock group Jethro Tull – Hopkins’ relative infancy in this domain goes absolutely undetected.
Opener ‘Kintsugi’ breaks forth with some heavy bass and doomy arpeggios as, atop the relaxed shuffle of Hammond’s beat, guitarist Tom Kuras – whose formidably shaggy mane has him resembling a young Jeff Beck – lays down tasteful warbles of tremolo. Kura’s aptitude for colouring Hopkins’ tunes with excellent instrumental touches is further evidenced in his offering a catchy riff and shimmering guitar break during ‘Animal.’
While Big Thief, Julia Jacklin, PJ Harvey and Jeff Buckley have been listed as influences on Hopkins’ current incarnation as a folk/rock performer, there’s also a distinctly country inflection to her voice. ‘Daylight’ has her stepping away from the mic to deliver big country rock vocals, with a subtle Linda Ronstadt twang, and a Janis Joplin type ferocity.
Hopkins’ choices of lyrical theme often appear to be an angsty release, a sort of cathartic salve, to everyday hardship. She describes ‘Headstrong’ as a “song for the menstruators” and ponders in her preamble as to whether PMT provides irrational thought or perhaps a clearer insight into the truth. Before the more deliberate tempo of ‘Blue Whales’, Hopkins declares that “the last song was about being fucked over…and this one is about how she unfucked it.” Later, the back and forth stomp of ‘No Invitation’ is apparently about a “specific, feckless man.”
Hopkins sees that her lyrical messages are absorbed with an accessible grasp of melody and solid, unshowy instrumental arrangements. ‘Shifting Sands’ – about the travails of moving house – is nonetheless buoyed by a melodic, sunny disposition while ‘We Know’ is lavished beneath a bed of glittering surf-rock guitar.
Hopkins has a likeable, laid-back modesty in her between song interactions. At one point, she asked the audience “When was the last time you fell in love?” Despite there not being much of a response, her follow up question “Was it worth it?”, is met with a resounding “Yes!” Later, she executes a textbook spoonerism when her intention to state that she is both “chuffed and moved” by the audience response instead comes out as “muffed and chooved.”
The new single ‘Cecile’ – inspired by Hopkins’ jealous reaction to being overshadowed by a big star while on stage – is a mid-tempo, harmony drenched rocker that contains staccato stabs of guitar that briefly bring to mind Stella Donnelly’s ‘Mean to Me.’ A final song for the encore is ‘One Man Band’ wherein, under Hopkins’ instruction, the crowd sing the refrain “You’re a one man band” in addendum to Hopkins’ catchy chorus.
It’s been an enjoyable night. I end up meeting the other Scott Hammond but, ultimately, Hopkins’ nascent but impressively natural shift into a new genre has left me with the feeling that I need to be a better me, and venture into these joyful corners more often.
(The less talented) Scott Hammond