Harbottle & Jonas
Venue: West Stafford Village HallTown: Dorset
Date: 3rd March 2024
Website: https://www.harbottleandjonas.com/
Rural mid-Dorset is not normally a place I would go for a gig, but that's pretty much the whole point of rural touring, if you live in a bit of a cultural backwater, albeit a very pretty one with plenty of thatch and centuries old church and pub, with poor communication links to the nearest towns, instead of going top a gig, let the gig come to you.
Rural touring can be found up and down the country, delivered by a multiple number of organisations, many of which are charities, the organisation that supports this in Dorset is Artsreach, that as the name implies, doesn't just do music.
The band I'm here to see and (Dave) Harbottle & (Freya) Jonas who were previous winners of the Fatea Band/Duo Award. One of the great things about rural touring is sustainability. Instead of clocking up huge distances between gigs the band have a three night residency strung across three out of the way Dorset locations, so relatively short journeys to and from the gigs. West Stafford is the middle of the three with Woodlands kicking the whole thing off with a bogged down van and Ibberton rounding up the following night.
Arriving close to the start time for the gig, it was pleasing to see the whole evening to be a complete sellout including some walk ups on the night. A small stage and pa set up and an audience attentive in anticipation, there was a real sense of warmth in the room.
What become very obvious across the two sets was that this was a knowledgeable audience that really knew their music. Harbottle & Jonas have a really relaxed stage persona, Dave provides the strings, mainly guitar, with Freya adding accompaniment via both a concertina and harmonium, the latter of which primarily providing drone notes and being pumped with her leg.
The variation in the set, slow and dark, up beat and jaunty and a number of points in between. A cover of a Peggy Seeger "It's A Free World" which includes a number of references to passing wind, seemed to go down particularly well with the children being introduced to gigs behind me.
Living in Devon with connections to both Liverpool and Newcastle, Harbottle & Jonas have lots of cultural references on which to draw and West Stafford, Rural, but within striking distance of the sea seemed to be at home with pretty much all of them. I've been lucky enough to see Harbottle & Jonas on a number of occasions and it was really pleasing that they trusted the audience with a proper set, rather than a folk greatest hits package and were well rewarded for it.
The audience and the band all had a great night and that's before you got into the sausage rolls, scones and local beers that were all served in the interval. A packed hall speaks for it's self and before you ask, yes you have to pay for your tickets, it's about the bands coming to you and it's definitely an occasion.
Keep an eye/ear out for a new release from Harbottle & Jonas soon.
For more information about Artsreach, check out their website. www.artsreach.co.uk
Neil King, Words & Pictures
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