Darren Hayman @ The Luminaire, London
Mat Beal checks out the irrepressible "indiest man who ever lived!" the great Darren Hayman...
“Can I have the kind of lighting where you can see the dots on the fretboard?” Darren Hayman politely requests, a couple of songs into his set. “I know the guys in Kings of Leon can look out into the crowd while they’re playing, but I need the dots.”
It’s a characteristic remark from the ex-Hefner frontman, who Artrocker (well, I) once memorably called 'the indiest man who ever lived'. This observation strangely failed to get quoted on any publicity material, but I felt it was so brilliant it merited recycling here.
Hayman is at the Luminaire to promote the rather ace new album Essex Arms, along with backing band the Secondary Modern: tonight a stripped-down line-up comprising bass, drums and violin. They play a set of songs from the new record with a scattering of older solo and Hefner smash hits to a clearly delighted audience.
The band deliver a rather touching encore of ‘The Wu Tang Clan’ and ‘The Greedy Ugly People’, the latter of which sees the Luminaire break out into a mass singalong. We do not join in, because we hate that kind of thing. On the way home, we scowl at a kitten.
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