Merry Hell – The Met, Bury Met: Live Review

By Howard King on 22nd February 2024 • ( Leave a comment )

Merry Hell – The Met , Bury – 15th February 2024

Seems like we’re never more than a stone’s throw from Merry Hell at the minute. Whether it be at tiny local village hall, folk club, town centre theatre or huge festival field, Merry Hell never fail to satisfy faithful fans or win over new ones. The proof was in the pudding tonight at the exceptional Bury Met venue.

Under normal circumstances arriving at a gig to find members of the band stood outside the venue would be a rare and unexpected opportunity to enjoy a private moment with your musical heroes. On this occasion, a couple of members plus their manager were stood on the pavement anxiously awaiting rescue. Locked out of their van with instruments and gear inside a couple of hours before the gig must have been causing severe consternation. As I spent a few moments discussing their plight a van arrived which must have solved said situation as an hour later after a delicious meal at a local pizzeria the van and some of the MH family had gone.

After only a few moments delay the band bounced cheerily on stage and gave their usual exuberant performance without a word of mention of the early evening dilemma. An hour and a half of many favourites and a handful of new material flashed by in an instant and although standing my aging bones were able to move along to the jaunty Merry Hell (I can’t call what I was doing dancing compared to the many who were able to jig, bop, twirl and prance to their infectious music).

Nevertheless, the atmosphere they created was lapped up by the good people of Bury from the beginning with We Are Different We Are One to the encore Let The Music Speak For Itself, which it clearly does! The usual sing along, sway along , wave arms along songs followed keeping the evening lively and joyful.

A poignant and unique moment came when we were invited to sing birthday wishes in the traditional way to the Kettle family’s Mum, who was celebrating her 85th birthday and thankfully recovering in hospital. Lean On Me was dedicated to ex-NHS nurse, Margaret, who was still supporting a fellow patient despite needing medical support. The ATB team join in with all wishing her a full recovery.

With an hour and a half without an interval (except for the timely alleged prostrate break, again filled with Virginia’s wandering rendition of Violet) there was the opportunity to introduce new additions to the setlist. Like most of Merry Hell’s gigs, audience participation is compulsory so Pick Yourself Up And Dance fits the bill perfectly especially when music and dancing are the best remedy for any gloomy situation. Summer Is Coming also promoted the feeling of hope for better things as we all wish for an end to this horrible spate of cold, wet and windy weather. Storm Merry Hell helped to overcome this throughout the evening!

Bob’s new song Army Of Vagabonds is inspired by the age-old practice of government policy causing human distress and misery (nothing much changed there then!!) Ever the group to support peace and tolerance Louder Than War is another lively yet thought-provoking song from Virginia. Only Love, written by keyboard player Lee Goulding, reflects how much Merry Hell is much more than the Kettle quartet with the rhythm section. Colin Foster on bass and Andy Jones on percussion plus Simon Swarbrick’s both hypnotic and jigging electric violin also add much to the Merry Hell’s brand of expanding Folk Rock sound.

Avid Merry Hell followers could probably have anticipated much of the setlist and will have realized that the new material blended perfectly with established favourites. Newbies would surely have left The Met venue totally entranced by the Merry Hell experience.

Although Leave It In The Ground has Andrew bemoaning the declining nature of grim northern towns, Bury seems the exception to the rule. Its vibrant town centre is reflected by the welcoming and widely acknowledged first-class reception given to visitors and artists to the TheMet putting towns within a few miles radius (no names mentioned) to shame.