2005-10-09 - The Cockpit, Leeds

On Stage :

Solo concert


Setlist :

echo park
can't exist
a smile that explodes
mercedes
she paints me gold
eyes on my back
toxic angel
birthday card
honey and the moon
i am
crying like a man
in the sun
i am the witness
vacancy
leave us alone
all of our hands
even tho
there is a light that never goes out (the smiths cover)


Recording :

The concert was officially recorded, and available for download on JA's website

painting from this show, by Michelle

Review :

Arthur chance? by site user Chris Ford 

Singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur hasn't reaped the rewards afforded to others in his particular musical sphere. Is that about to change - read Chris' review to find out...

On an intimate night at The Cockpit, an eager crowd is packed in to witness the American singer-songwriter Joseph Arthur’s latest offerings.

Although Arthur’s current album 'Our Shadows Will Remain' is his fourth, this side of the Atlantic, he is a relative unknown. So due to all the recent rave press reviews the crowd tonight is a mixture of both devoted fans and the extremely curious.

Standing alone on a tiny but decoratively lit stage, the singer begins with the album's more recognisable tracks "Echo Park" and "Can’t Exist". These are tracks filled with great depth and substance and it’s this intensity, both joyous and pain stricken that creates the body of the show.

Not content just to show a musical prowess of looping various parts of his songs live through a sampler, he then disrobes his guitar, grabs his microphone and paintbrush and proceeds to sing over the loops whilst painting over a large canvas at the rear of the stage. Two sides of an artistic coin in one show.

The set is bereft of anthems though - Arthur is not that sort of performer and this is not that sort of gig. This is a musician almost withdrawn into his art but emotive to the extreme. An artist that doesn’t so much as court the crowd but invite them into his world.

After around ninety minutes the singer announces he has "been playing for a long time" and the set begins to wind down but not before a persuasive crowd bays for one more encore. Arthur politely obliges with his own personal rendition of The Smiths' "There Is A Light That Never Goes Out", to which the crowd react with triumph and are sent contentedly on their way.

The devoted fulfilled and the curious duly converted.

Chris Ford saw Joseph Arthur @ The Cockpit on Sunday 9 October 2005

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