"We were never really sure what genre to call ourselves," Michael Baker admitted as he perched on the low wall, watching the rollie in his hand burn down. The sun was setting on a fine-ass day in west London, and the majority of Felix Fables - for whom Michael Baker serves as frontman and progenitor - are sat around on the roof terrace of The Metropolitan bar, Westbourne Park, smoking, chatting and just generally having a nice day. "The best we could come up with," he continued, taking a drag of his cigarette, "was 'folk 'n' roll'." It would have been nice if a train had gone past at that point - it would have added a bit of emphasis, a touch of the noir, perhaps - but one didn't. Damn you, Transport for London.
But that was tomorrow.
Today - as it were - is the Premiere, the beginning, the virgin, the first ever The Platform, and breaking the bottle over the bows are Felix Fables, supported by Nicki Wells - a tantalising arrangement if ever there was one.
The Platform is a spin-off show of the Portobello Acoustic Sessions, designed to take the cream of the crop from PAS and plant them solidly in a night to call their own. Felix Fables played at PAS a while ago, and they, frankly, blew everyone away with their happy clapping folk 'n' roll blend.
But this time - Wednesday, the 1st of April, 2009 - they blew everyone away
so hard that conspiracy theorists are still snooping around and trying to work out what happened to the bodies. Not only that, but Michael Baker et al apparently have some sort of time/space teleportation device - or else, doppelgangers - because they went and
supported themselves.
It's actually not as the paranoiacs would have you believe (or is it...?), because M.B., his sultry sidekick Georgia Mason and the... er... percussive Nick Roberts just went up and performed a brief - and extremely well-received - warm-up set before Nicki Wells went on.
Nicki's performance simply demanded attention, with her incredible voice scintillating in the darkened room, leaving a trail of dropped jaws in her wake. Usually, Nicki plays her guitar while singing, but for one song - Kasturi Tilakam - she reverts to her something-or-other box, a small white metal device which emits a synthesised Tanpura drone. She sings over this in Sanskrit, so it would be an understatement, really, to say that Nicki Wells is "not exactly your run-of-the-mill singer/songwriter". Certainly, such a high level of originality and talent is unusual.
And then, it was back to Felix Fables to finish off the night. M.B., Georgia and Nick came back, this time flanked by the artist/bassist Gary Roberts and guitar virtuoso Chris Horsfall. Felix Fables, for those who haven't heard them, make incredibly fun, catchy, well-written and brilliantly performed music, and the crowd showed their appreciation by getting up and dancing long into the night. Oceans, Acorn and the superb cover of Ray Charles' "Hit The Road Jack", to name but three of the many, whipped the baying audience into a frenzy and left them asking for more - but it wasn't to be. The trains were required, this time in order to take Felix Fables away from us. Damn you, Transport for London.
The Platform is part of the
Portobello Acoustic Sessions, and is held every Wednesday night from 7:30 at The Metropolitan bar, Westbourne Park.
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The PAS Diaries: The Platform Presents Felix Fables
Deena Kastor, Felix Limo Win London Marathon
(AP)