When you are a young woman in the early stages of your career within the music industry and through no fault of your own find you’ve been chewed up and spat out by the major label you were signed to, prior to even hitting your 20th birthday, it leaves you at a pretty major crossroads, not just in your chosen vocation, but in your life, too.
For many, justifiable feelings of dismay and bitterness would be natural and a general mistrust of the industry that has treated you so badly would be perfectly natural reactions. You’d potentially turn your back on your previous hopes and dreams and pursue a different pathway in your life, then.
Cheddar-born Jo Hill isn’t one of those people. Instead, she has sucked up the disappointment and channelled her energy into proving that record label wrong. She has built her fanbase organically, writing and releasing her debut album ‘Girlhood’ on her own terms in November last year and making music a celebratory, joyful and communal part of her world, as it should have been for her all along.
Which brings us to tonight’s show at the Duck and Drake pub at the bottom of Kirkgate, not an uncommon Leeds venue for live music, but it’s usually a tribute, or rock band in the main room, not a guerilla gig in the back-room, played on the comfy sofas, next to a roaring fire, with an audience seated on the pub floor (aside from this old reviewer leaning on the bar).
This gig is wedged in to a European tour, where she is supporting Tors at more familiar venues like Shepherd’s Bush Empire and Manchester Academy. A couple of nights off from that has given Hill the opportunity to put in this secret gig, with details only being released after responding to a social media post, following the link sent and then receiving the name of the venue and time.
For a night that could have a ramshackle, disorganised air to it in these circumstances, it’s purposefully split into sections. Accompanied by her long-term collaborator Kinga Hornik (on guitar and backing vocals) they open proceedings with a trio of songs from her album, including a literally stomping version of Zoom Out that encourages the audience to clap and tap their feet on the floor to provide percussion in this full, unplugged, acapella setting of no mics or amps.
Parts and Spares (a London based folk trio) are invited on to the sofas to play a song of their own, before Jo and Kinga return to join them for a run-through of ‘Man I Need’ by Olivia Dean. It has a charmingly loose feel to it when stripped down to this style.
For the next section it’s three new tracks that Hill has been working on recently, with “a song written for my Mum” called ‘Pea in a Cave’, ‘More To This Body’ and ‘Crazy Bitch’ that she gleefully gets the crowd to join in with and they are equally happy to oblige by providing backing vocals.
That track encapsulates everything about Jo Hill and how she connects with and inspires her audience of newly recruited backing vocalists. A lot of her life and lyrical make up is a balance between the more vulnerable sides of femininity (and other subjects) and the raging, angry side that isn’t going to lie down and take what’s thrown at her and is prepared to fight. It’s a powerful connection and you can see how it’s taking the audience with her in the same way that someone like Self Esteem has so successfully done in recent years.
The final guest of the night to join them on the sofa is Leeds based Lois, who also has a guitarist for company and, like the main act, has also had a lifetime worth of bad dealings with a label to contend with at such a young age. She’s got a soft, honeyed, vocal style as she runs confidently through her own track ‘Phoenix’, and she is joined by the headline duo to duet on a Sam Fender track ‘Rein Me In’ to conclude her short cameo. Anyone wanting to see Lois at a full show, she has her own headline gig at Oporto in Leeds on the 30th January, which should be worth catching.
The final part of the evening is an audience request section, followed by two Christmas tracks. Having been asked to record her dream cover earlier in the year by Amazon Music, it’s no surprise that someone asks for her version of Love At First Sight’ by Kylie, a gorgeous rendition of a classic pop song that again has people singing along, while the second request sees her own song ‘Circle’ get an airing.
When gigs have been this good, so much fun has been had by all and theres been so much warm interaction between everyone in the room (and not just because of the aforementioned fire), it seems a fitting way, while the rain lashes down outside, to bring people even closer together with a carol style version of Silent Night, followed by a rousing and euphoric ‘Last Christmas’ that had even had the barmaid dancing and joining in while pulling pints!
It’s great to see Jo Hill plotting her own course and making such a success of it so far, following a pathway that ultimately leads to spontaneity, fun, collaboration and a joyous exuberance from all the artists involved and concertgoers alike. More of this sort of thing, please!
@joohill
Photography by Kev Trotter.
