A glorious night of singing, dancing, smiling, laughing and the pricking of people’s social conscience. Beans On Toast, aka Jay McAllister, has released an album every year for the last 16 years. Latest long player ‘Wild Goose Chasers’ is pared back – no guitar, just vocals and piano courtesy of Matt Millership (punky pianist Tensheds) – and takes a deep look into the meaning of life and our purpose here. Despite an album to promote the gig doesn’t focus on it and we’re treated to a glorious set spanning most of Beans On Toast’s career.
The place is rammed. This is an artist who has a slightly obsessive following with an audience spanning a significant age range as well as styles, all brought together for the unity created by the songs delivered. Tonight there’s just McAllister and Millership. Millership’s piano playing is sublime, McAllister with just a guitar and his voice or simply just his voice. And whether the songs being performed are over ten years old or just a few months from the opening notes of Faith In The Moon the crowd lap it up.
Beans On Toast deliver a superb set that covers everything from druggy festival stories, factory farming, the fact that only the super rich benefit from war, his love of Lizzy’s (his wife) home cooking , the negatives of too much Tequilla. There’s songs about love and family but also pointed digs at social inequalities. There’s humour as well as some seriously well deserved anger at those calling the shots across the pond. Frustration at every big venue nowadays being little more than a money making machine that batters our heads with advertising for yet more expensive brands. There’s a song dedicated to the wonderful Golden Lion pub/venue in Todmorden and there’s even a song bigging up Taylor Swift and why she should be the USA president.
What comes across immediately is the sheer joy that being at a Beans On toast gig brings. Because even when the crap things are mentioned you know that you’re surrounded by people who believe in positivity in front of a performer who believes that with kindness and a humane attitude we can make things better. Consequently there is absolutely no let up in the dancing, the smiling, the singing along. It’s rare you go to a gig where nearly every person knows the lyrics to nearly every song played. But that’s exactly what happened here tonight.
And it’s clear that McAllister enjoys every moment on stage. He beams, he bounces around, he’s up on his small table looking out over the crowd. He’s in the crowd. The new songs – Faith In The Moon, Why?, the old favourites – MDMAmazing, The Chicken Song, Lizzy’s Cooking or the as yet unreleased – Taylor Swift II, together with the other 15 or 16 played – all combine to make this a night of quality entertainment and I leave with a genuine feeling that there is actually still plenty of good in this world.
Credit too to support William Crighton, Australian singer/songwriter/poet and good mate of McAllister who played a fantastic set of songs heavily influenced by his homeland. Powerful voice, powerful presence who clearly packs a huge amount of feeling and emotion into his output.
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