Review: Fractured Toast at the Quadrant

On a cold evening, there’s nothing like some warm Toast to beat the winter chills. As ever with an Overhead Wires‘ Fractured Toast event, those who had braved the icy winds were treated to some heartwarming songs and the stories behind them in the snug upstairs room of the Quadrant. Fractured Toast, for the uninitiated, is a unique songwriters’ circle where you get to hear the stories behind the songs of some of Brighton’s hottest songwriting talent. February’s event was also a first for Fractured Toast with three band frontmen taking to the chair – Graham Jones from The Lanes, Joshua Renton from Clockworks and Ric Blow from Pocket Drummers.

Launching the night was a superb support act, Verity Sessions. Unfazed by a minor alcoholic miss-function that saw her covering herself and her guitar in red wine just before getting on stage, Verity provided a sterling set of covers and originals. This is a lady with an exceptionally powerful voice and a good vocal range, both shown off in her opening song, Reignite. Her own songs are often deeply soulful and packed with raw sentiment, while her covers are always unique and very enjoyable, putting her own slant on a range of popular songs. Her cover of Touch Me was a raw, earthy and very original version. After a short break it was time for the main acts to take to the stage, Ric and Graham sharing a guitar due to problems with one of their instruments.

In what sometimes feels like a surreal version of Blind Date, where we’ll be asked to take our favourite musician home at the end of the evening, host Rich Ward puts a series of questions to the singers so that we learn something about them as well as their songs. Ric Blow, we learned, came from Lincoln and has been a Brightonian for 10 years. His cure for a hangover is the tried and tested fry-up and coffee method. Ric began with a recent song called Let’s Get This Party Ended, which featured clever lyrics and rhymes and like Verity a wide vocal range. In places he reminded me of my favourite 90s band, Gene.

I was interested in seeing Graham Jones playing acoustically, as I have seen his band The Lanes several times rocking out on a Friday night at the Live Music Zooberon. How would this passion translate, exactly, into a solo acoustic set? The answer is, just as you would expect – the most passionate, and loudest performance I’ve seen at Fractured Toast. Graham told us a bit about The Lanes, who started out as a covers band and have been going for 10 years, and performed We Own The Night, a song named after the film of the same name.

Third up was Joshua Renton from Clockworks, one of my favourite bands. Joshua, who was clearly in the chilly chair as he kept wrapping himself up during the night, has been a Brightonian most of his life, and he performed the keynote song from Clockworks’ recent record.

The second question for our musical trio was when and why they first started playing guitar, and as it turned out, the three boys were quite late starters. Ric was surrounded by music from a young age as his father used to sing and play to him as a child. But he began writing songs at the keyboard, and was 16 when he wrote his first song (after learning three chords and before teaching himself any covers). The singers are also asked to perform one of their early songs, and Ric went for Eyeball Pinball, a piece about a friend who loved a girl but never told her – fairly typical early songwriting fodder.

Graham was 18 when he first picked up a guitar, although he was a prolific rhymer beforehand. He was inspired by the likes of Oasis to learn guitar, and in his early song, Back To School, you can detect the Gallagher influence.

Joshua was also 16 when he started to play, apparently acquiring his guitar from Selfridges. He was inspired by watching Travis performing at Glastonbury, so he got his guitar and a chord book and taught himself Driftwood. At Fractured Toast he performed one of the first songs written for his band’s first record.

The next subject was songwriting, and whether it’s a hard or easy process. Ric, who has a wonderful way with words, described songs as being “like skeletons” with the bare bone chords that you then have to flesh out. The singers were asked to sing something written about a bizarre subject or inspired by bizarre circumstances, and keeping up the horror theme Ric chose Hammer Horror movies, and how overtly sexual they were for their time. His song, Transylvanian Girlfriend, about a man with a vampire fetish, name-checked Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee and was simultaneously creepy and funny.

Graham says he writes in short bursts as he gets easily distracted. His song, The Maze, came about during The Lanes’ most surreal gig, playing in Crawley when the premises was stormed by police on a drugs bust. Ever the professionals, the band played on, watching a strange form of cops ‘n’ robbers as the police chased their prey through the crowd.

Joshua has given up spending hours labouring over songs because he found that the ones that worked best were those that came to him quickly. Most of his songs, he says, are born out of banality. His third song, Lost My Way, was inspired by a trip to a monastery and the themes of the last station of the cross and the road to Calvary.

Next up was the influences and covers round. Ric’s top three influences (at least for the night) were John Martyn, Richard Thompson and Luke Doucet , and it was a modern country song from Doucet that he chose to cover. Graham’s top three were guitary heroes Johnny Marr, Jimmy Page and John Squire. However, he chose not to cover any of their songs and (because he struggles remembering others’ lyrics) asked the audience to name that tune with one note. They voted for Hard Day’s Night, and Graham was joined by Joshua, Ric and most of the audience.

Joshua also decided not to sing something from his top three influences – Chris Martin, Ryan Addams and John Mayer. He also added that he genuinely loves country and pop, Britney Spears, Rihanna and Lady Gaga, and that he listened to hip-hop while growing up. Perhaps that’s why his chosen cover was of Kanye West’s Heartless. Now, I’d included Joshua Renton in a rare breed of musicians: with many, while you see them playing their heart out, there are a select few for whom their instruments, and more than that their music, seems not something separate but an actual part of them, and Joshua is one of these musicians. You can hear this even in cover songs and this was a very original version, soft and lovely to start with and growing in strength and passion throughout.

Nothing goes better with toast than cheese, and so it was on to the subject of love, or at least a song inspired by it. Ric made the very good point that, if you do write a love song, you don’t necessarily want to play it to the world, so instead he creates a character and puts himself in a situation and writes about that. His song, Dear Bracken, was about a prisoner of war in 1945 being forced to walk in the opposite direction from Allied troops, and his excellent lyrics built a very clear image in your mind.
Graham also doesn’t write about love, because, he says, his band will laugh at him. If he does broach the subject it’s with a bitter and twisted slant, borne out by the title – It’s Over. Again, you could hear a strong Oasis influence in this piece.
Joshua admitted he is introverted, and sings what he can’t say. A brilliantly honest musician, he performed a song written for someone he loves. Up On The Ledge was emotional, raw and mind-blowing.

They finished with their final song for a gig, and again Ric chose a quirky subject, a man who at the age of 68 built a raft and sailed across the Pacific on his own. Graham went for Killer Within, a dark and furious song, while Joshua opted for Gone By Morning, country and upbeat and apparently a true story. You can see the video for Gone By Morning on YouTube.

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