Cranes

EartH Theatre, Dalston - 14th October 2023

We never thought we would get to see Cranes playing live again and, as far as we can gather, the band themselves considered their days of performing to be behind them. Imagine our excitement then when it was not only announced that they would be playing a gig in London to mark the 30th anniversary of the release of the album Forever, but that it would be the original line-up of the band on stage, with Mark Francombe and Matt Cope on guitars. Never mind that we now reside nearly three hundred miles from the capital, tickets were bought and hotels booked in the blink of an eye.

Cranes have held a special place in our hearts from the moment we bought the Fuse cassette back in 1986 until they faded from the live arena in the 1990s, resurfacing only for the odd album every handful of years. Forever, of course, was produced by the band at the peak of their powers. Their early work had always been about revealing fragile beauty in a brutalist world. It wasn't just Alison Shaw's mesmerising voice that highlighted an acute sensibility in an industrial soundscape. Cranes always had an inert understanding of form and texture and construction. They could make poetry out of noise just as Alison's voice could chill you to the bone as well as thrill you with sensual lullabies. In Forever, they gave their music more room to breathe; they understood how not doing something could paint as vivid a picture as throwing everything into the mix. Of course, this had started with 'Adoration', but Forever continued to smooth away the rougher edges of the brilliant Wings Of Joy and the result was just about perfection.

Though there are a few songs that can lift our spirits to the sky, we have to say that no band's music moves us as deeply as that of Cranes. It is soul music in its purest form, finding darkness in the light and lightness in the dark. All of life is there in a beautiful and terrifying way. At their best the band are truly staggering.

To see them again in such a great venue as Hackney's EartH Theatre was a huge result. The 1930s art deco venue has been salvaged from destruction and somehow it fitted the event perfectly, perhaps its ragged beauty echoing fond memories of better days. The show itself was not quite as advertised. Matt Cope was not present, his place on stage being filled by later Crane Paul Smith who was a perfect fit, constantly switching from electric guitar to acoustic, rarely moving from his spot on stage, but clearly losing himself in the glorious sound he was helping to produce. Cranes without Mark Francombe was always a strange thing and it was great to see him on the left flaying his guitar or thoughtfully creating the intricate layers of sound around which Alison's voice weaved. Jim Shaw largely stuck to the shadows, creating the insistent drum patterns that give Cranes' songs their industrial foundations, occasionally wandering over to take on the keyboards.

The show mainy focused on Alison, the other band members largely unlit at the peripheries of the stage while the lights reflected off the singer, who shimmered in their glow as the screen behind surrounded her in words and pictures that worked very well in honing the edges of the music, making the message all the sharper. The singer swapped between bass and guitar and sang as mesmerisingly as ever, taking on all of Forever (bar 'And Ever'), as well as 'Dada 331' from the Inescapable EP and five tracks from Wings of Joy: 'EG Shining', 'Fuse', 'Inescapable', 'Sixth of May' and the staggeringly powerful 'Starblood' which fittingly ended the show on an impossible high.

And it was over. A triumph, but hopefully not an isolated one. Another London show has been arranged for 2024, and hopefully there will be more than just that. This band is too good and this music too powerful to be hidden away in the pages of history. When every band in the world has appeared to reform, why not the best of them? A new Cranes album would be nice, while you are at it.

Set List: Cloudless, Reverie, Dada 331, Sun And Sky, Everywhere, EG Shining, Golden, Rainbows, Clear, Jewel, Far Away, Adrift, Fuse, Inescapable, Sixth of May, Starblood.